THE FOUNDATION
"[T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer ... [taking] away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence of somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health for support in age and sickness." --Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn, and Management of the PoorTOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
'Love of Liberty'
Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have sunk to a new low of late, shamefully singling out and attacking two private citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights. Reid and his ilk have been firing away at the Koch brothers, calling the two philanthropists "un-American" for their staunch support of libertarian and conservative causes. Well, Charles Koch finally fired back in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that is quintessentially American. "Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness," he explained. "This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal." This didn't sit well with Reid, who crowed, "I think I must be getting under their skin." Clearly, liberty gets under his.Comment | Share
March to Jobs
The March jobs report brought some decent news, with 192,000 jobs created, while January and February were revised upward by a combined 37,000 jobs. Still, March saw slightly fewer jobs created than February, and the headline unemployment rate remained stuck at 6.7%, as did the fuller U-6 measure of 12.7%. In other words, while adding jobs to the economy is "good news," we remain mired in the stagnation known as the Obama "recovery."Comment | Share
Mozilla CEO Ousted by Thought Police
Mozilla co-founder and new CEO Brendan Eich resigned Thursday following an uproar over practicing his First Amendment right by supporting California's Proposition 8 in 2008, defining marriage traditionally as between a man and a woman. "I don't want to talk about my personal beliefs because I kept them out of Mozilla all these 15 years we've been going," Eich said Wednesday. Others weren't so benevolent. Eich's $1,000 donation was made public in 2012 thanks to the LA Times, and proponents of same-sex marriage, including company employees, colluded to demand Eich's ousting lest he "make an unequivocal statement of support for marriage equality," a petition reads. Note that, just like the Chick-fil-A controversy, he's being cast as a bigot for simply believing in the traditional view of marriage; nobody's accusing Eich of practicing discrimination. Yet supporters pride themselves as shepherds of "tolerance" and "inclusiveness"? Interestingly, lefty Andrew Sullivan was one of the few openly homosexual individuals to denounce this ridiculous lynching: "If this is the gay rights movement today ... then count me out," he said. By the way, until 2012, Barack Obama was on Eich's side. Just saying.Comment | Share
Obama's Military Priorities?
Recently, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp described a 2010 meeting when Obama summoned the service chiefs to tell them he expected no resistance to his "Gay Pride" agenda. Papp said, "We were called into the Oval Office and President Obama looked all five service chiefs in the eye and said, 'This is what I want to do.' I cannot divulge everything he said to us, that's private communications with the Oval Office, but if we didn't agree with it -- if any of us didn't agree with it -- we all had the opportunity to resign our commissions and go do other things." If only the commander in chief were that committed to our real national security interests.Comment | Share
The Unpresidential President
Barack Obama isn't known for his warmth or goodwill toward political opponents. In fact, he seems to have far kinder words for the likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un than for Republicans. He spent Wednesday in the Midwest, stumping for an increase to the minimum wage while in ultra-liberal Ann Arbor, Michigan, before heading off to some glitzy Chicago fundraisers. Of course, he also found time during his busy day to mock Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal. "It's like that movie 'Groundhog Day,'" he said, "except it's not funny. If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman's [an exorbitantly expensive Ann Arbor deli he just happened to drop by], they'd have to call it the stinkburger or the meanwich." Wow, did he come up with those zingers all by himself? The man continues to bring down the dignity of the Oval Office.Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
A First Amendment Victory
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Based on the caterwauling by the Left, though, you'd think McCutcheon v. FEC was the second coming of the Dred Scott decision. (In fact, one Senate candidate did liken the two.) Playing the class envy card was the Sunlight Foundation, which whined that the "Citizens United ruling four years ago opened up the floodgates for unlimited spending in our elections, and now it might as well have tied a big bow around Congress and deliver it to the one percent."
As a pot decrying the kettle, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten cried, "We once had rules that allowed everyone a fair shot at the American dream and access to democracy, but now access to government is reserved for the most powerful and influential with millions and millions of dollars to buy elections." Never mind that over the last quarter-century the AFT was one of the largest political donors, spending the vast majority of its $37 million on Democrats. Or that the National Education Association, its larger sibling, is the third largest political donor. Republicans aren't exactly raking it in there, either.
With the McCutcheon ruling, the Supreme Court comes a step closer to undoing the damage done to free speech by onerous campaign finance laws. It's obvious that the Left liked the system because the list of top donors revealed by the OpenSecrets website shows most donate primarily to Democrats. The right-wing donor most demonized by Democrats like Harry Reid, Koch Industries, comes in all the way down at number 59; meanwhile, 10 of the top 15 donors are heavily invested in Democrat candidates.
But even if the tables were turned, the idea of limiting speech is out of step with this court. As Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out, "If there is no corruption concern in giving nine candidates up to $5,200 each, it is difficult to understand how a tenth candidate can be regarded as corruptible if given $1,801, and all others corruptible if given a dime." We don't get the connection either. More to the point, the First Amendment was designed primarily to protect political speech, of which campaign donations are a major part. Congress should remember that.
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Jindal's Cure for ObamaCare
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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
- Charles Krauthammer: Kerry's Folly, Chapter 3
- David Limbaugh: Obama Tackled in the End Zone
- David Harsanyi: The GM Scandal Is Worse Than You Think
- Jonah Goldberg: Obama's Stand-Up Routine Is Laughable Indeed
- Burt Prelutsky: Sorting Through the Rubble
OPINION IN BRIEF
Charles Krauthammer: "For their part, the Israelis are tired of the diplomatic Ponzi scheme in which they are required to release terrorists to keep Abbas at the table. Until when? Until every murderer has been freed -- at which point Abbas will go to the U.N. anyway? To keep stringing along the Israelis, some genius decided to dangle Jonathan Pollard. ... He is an American traitor who is up for parole next year anyway. It has long been a mistake for Israel to agitate for his release. He disgracefully betrayed his country. What kind of corrupt and cynical quid pro quo is this? ... Instead of trying to stave off Abbas' U.N. bid with the release of Palestinian terrorists and an American spy, perhaps the administration could simply stop fighting Congress, which developed a far more effective method. Under law, any U.N. agency that recognizes 'Palestine' has its U.S. funds cut off."Comment | Share
Author Ayn Rand (1905-1982): "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. ... [J]ust pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt."
Columnist Burt Prelutsky: "[T]he department of Homeland Security has granted the Romeikes, the German family seeking asylum, indefinite deferred status. That means they will not be deported back to their homeland, where they faced losing custody of their children because of their insistence on home-schooling the kids. The bad news is that our government took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which wound up denying them asylum on a technicality. What was the point? To frighten them? To prove America can be as intolerant as Germany? To show that even in the midst of the longest recession in our history and all of those pricey Obama vacations, we still have money to waste on pointless legal exercises?"
Comedian Argus Hamilton: "The U.S. Supreme Court voted Wednesday to eliminate the limits on campaign donations to multiple candidates and political groups. Reaction was swift. MSNBC called for revolution, Fox News reported the stock market surge, and at CNN they threw paper airplanes around the studio to re-create the flight pattern of the Malaysian airliner, followed by expert commentary."
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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