THE FOUNDATION
"On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 1823EDITOR'S NOTE
Another Shooting at Fort Hood
One day after the FBI called off a search for suspect thought to be planning a Fort Hood-like attack, another man actually did commit murder at Fort Hood. Again. Late Wednesday afternoon, Spc. Ivan Lopez opened fire killing three people and wounding several more before killing himself when confronted by law enforcement. The cause is not yet clear, though Lopez was being treated for "behavioral and mental health issues" and undergoing evaluation for PTSD after serving in Iraq. He was from Puerto Rico, and there does not appear to be a terrorism element, though it hasn't been ruled out.In November 2009, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 14 people, including an unborn child, at Fort Hood. His attack was clearly motivated by his Islamic beliefs.
Fort Hood is still a "gun-free zone."
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TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Minimum Wedge
Raising the minimum wage is a key Democrat election issue this year, and they're waging class warfare around the nation. They seek to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 -- a 40% hike that could kill 500,000 jobs. Democrats are subtly signaling, however, that they'd be willing to settle for a smaller increase just to pass one. They need all the help they can get this election year, after all. So naturally, Barack Obama stepped in to add his conciliatory message. "You would think this would be a no-brainer," the president said of raising it. But "Republicans in Congress don't want to vote to raise it all. In fact, some just want to scrap the minimum wage." That's right, because it destroys jobs. "Next think you know," he jabbed, "they'll say, 'Get off my lawn.'" And next thing we know, he'll be quoting taunts from Monty Python.Comment | Share
Numbers Games
An unpublished RAND Corporation study on ObamaCare enrollment has been kept under wraps and it's not hard to see why. While the White House trumpeted meeting its goal of 7.1 million enrollees this week, RAND says the number actually enrolled -- having paid their premium -- could be as few as 858,000. Just 23% of enrollees were previously uninsured. Even if the true number is somewhere in the middle, Democrats running for election in November will rue the day 7.1 million was mentioned. And how did the administration get its numbers so fast anyway? A couple of months ago Jay Carney stonewalled, saying, "I'm not going to cherry-pick numbers," meaning, tell you any. Now he says they know to the decimal point because "our system has gotten a lot better." Color us skeptical.Comment | Share
Axelrod Heralds O'Care 'Success'
David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama, joined the Democrat chorus championing ObamaCare's seven million enrollment figure -- a highly dubious number, to say the least. (Ironically, and fittingly, that announcement was made on April Fool's Day. Need we say more?) "I think that what's clear is that the people who hoisted the 'mission, demolished' banners were a little bit premature in their doomsday forecast," said Axelrod. "I think it will help change the attitude that government can't do anything, that the system can't work, and that will be positive." Nothing could be further from the truth -- Healthcare.gov's disastrous rollout demonstrates why government is incapable of managing anything effectively, especially when nationalizing one-sixth of the economy. Vulnerable Democrats up for re-election are running scared for a reason. This train wreck's just getting started.Comment | Share
Mississippi Religious Liberty
Mississippi legislators passed a bill Tuesday that is very similar to the one that caused the uproar in Arizona. As Family Research Council president Tony Perkins explained, "This commonsense measure was a no-brainer for freedom, and like the federal [Religious Freedom Restoration Act], it simply bars government discrimination against religious exercise. The legislature gave strong approval to a bill that declares that individuals do not have to trade their religious freedom for entrance into public commerce." The ACLU and other homosexual rights groups are still fighting the effort, but Mississippi hasn't gotten nearly the attention that Arizona did.Comment | Share
Save the World! Go Vegan!
"It May Take a Global Vegetarian Movement to Combat Climate Change." That's the title of a National Journal article this week, but here's the real kicker, penned in the very first paragraph: "If we really want to cut down on global greenhouse emissions, we're going to have to do something about cow farts." Yes, cow farts. "That's the conclusion of a study published [Monday] in the journal Climatic Change," reports Brian Resnick, who added that the researchers are proposing less meaty diets and fewer livestock because it's the only "shot of reaching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's global-warming mitigation goals." According to the analysis, meat consumption will need to be reduced between 25% and 75% depending on the level of other fossil fuel-cutting measures. That's ironic -- the solution for saving mankind is now the regulation of ... nature? In other news: "Study: Vegetarians Less Healthy, Lower Quality Of Life Than Meat-Eaters."Comment | Share
Don't Miss Alexander's Column
Read You Might Be a Liberal If..., on the odd and sometimes humorous attributes.If you'd like to receive Alexander's Column by email, update your subscription here.
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Spotlight Again on Benghazi as Morell Testifies
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| Four dead Americans need a reckoning |
However, the Times is only a year behind Mark Alexander's analysis of "Obama's Benghazi Talking Points." Last May, Alexander wrote:
Clearly, it is the Obama administration that politicized the talking points last September. Blame-shifting from terrorism to the video narrative achieved two political goals. It framed the attack in one of the Left's favorite themes, "intolerance," and removed it from the specter of the Obama administration appearing incompetent and having overstated the demise of al-Qa'ida. But the blame-shifting charade needs to be exposed.Morell admitted in his testimony Wednesday that "the CIA's performance and my own performance could have been better," but he then added the "but": "none of our actions were the result of political influence in the intelligence process. None." Yet the politics were plain to see for those willing to look. The administration willfully deceived the public by blaming a YouTube video for inciting a riot that never actually happened because of a political narrative that was essential to Obama's campaign. As House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) put it, "The White House wants to ignore reality and perpetuate the fallacy that al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists are on the verge of defeat." To insist that there was no political influence in all of that defies belief.
The primary architect of the politically motivated alterations of the Benghazi narrative was likely then-CIA Deputy Director, Michael J. Morell, who has deep ties to former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and is vying for a key post in her administration is she is victorious in her 2016 presidential bid. Morell claims that the talking points were sent to the White House for informational purposes only, and nothing was "produced with any political agenda in mind." But a cable from the CIA Station Chief in Libya on 15 September, days after the attack, said there was no escalation spontaneous attack over a YouTube video, and clearly indicated the attack was a well organized terrorist assault. That cable arrived before Susan Rice was sent out with the altered talking points designed to protect Obama's presidential campaign. Moreover, the nine key U.S. personnel on the ground during the attack, in their congressional testimony, said the attack was a terrorist assault, and not one had heard about a YouTube video protest.
Morell retired from CIA in 2013, and now works for Beacon Global Strategies, founded by Philippe Reines, who The New York Times describes as Hillary Clinton's "principal gatekeeper."
Sources on the ground in Benghazi during the attack aren't taking Morell's testimony well, either. "He doesn't have any idea what happened that night," said one operator. "Why is he speculating? He wouldn't have to speculate if he talked to the people in Libya that night, or others who were watching." Indeed, the CIA's final word on circumstances on the ground anywhere in the world is their station chief, who is the pinnacle of knowledge on all relevant affairs in a region. For a pencil neck at headquarters to ignore the station chief, who told Morell the attack was not an "escalation of protests," is pure politics.
What happened at Benghazi and the subsequent political cover-up of the blood of four Americans to protect Obama's re-election is sickening, and is arguably the worst of his major scandals. And given that it competes with Fast & Furious and IRS targeting, that's saying something.
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GM's Deadly Defect and the Politics of Government Ownership
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Read the rest of the story here.
Releasing Pollard Is Clutching at Straws
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Read the rest of the story here.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Tony Perkins: Founding Fodder: Would the Framers Love ObamaCare?
- Victor Davis Hanson: One California for Me, Another for Thee
- Jonah Goldberg: Climate Activists Uncaged
- Larry Elder: The 77% Lie, and Why Obama Keeps Telling It
- Rebecca Hagelin: The Difference Between a House and a Home
OPINION IN BRIEF
Family Research Council's Tony Perkins: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seems intent on being the butt of health care jokes with ridiculous statements. Adding to her growing list of immortalized quotes, the former Speaker told reporters that ObamaCare was the Founding Fathers' dream. '[The law's critics] have not been an obstacle to the American people having healthier lives that our Founders wanted for them -- like a healthier life, liberty, the freedom to pursue their happiness.' I can hear them now -- 'Give me ObamaCare or give me death!' In all honesty, ObamaCare represents everything the Founders opposed. An encroachment on liberty, livelihood, and lawfulness, the President's signature policy is the antithesis of the good governance this nation was founded upon. 'My reading of history,' wrote Thomas Jefferson, 'convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.'"Comment | Share
Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (56-117 AD): "Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws."
Historian Victor Davis Hanson: "[California] suffers from the highest combined taxes in the nation and nearly the worst roads and schools. It is home to more American billionaires than any other state, but also more impoverished residents. California is more naturally endowed with a combination of gas, oil, timber and minerals than any other state -- with the highest electricity prices and gas taxes in the nation. To understand these paradoxes, keep in mind one common principle. To the degree a Californian is politically influential, wealthy or well-connected -- and loudly progressive -- the more he is immune from the downside of his own ideology. Big money is supposed to be bad for politics. But no money plays a bigger role in influencing policy than California's progressive cash, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley."
Humorist Frank Fleming: "Why are people against the Koch brothers? Can't the Koch brothers just spend more money and change those opinions? ... Never got why people are so mad at the people donating lots of money rather than the idiots who are influenced by 30 second ads."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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