THE FOUNDATION
"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source -- from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives." --John Dickinson, An Address to the Committee of Correspondence in Barbados, 1766TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
'The Real Internal Revenue Scandal'
You might have thought the IRS scandal involved illegal targeting of Tea Party and Patriot groups for entirely craven political ends. Or maybe it was the agency covering its tracks by "losing" pertinent emails. You would be wrong -- according to The New York Times. "No," the Times' editorial board tells us, "the real scandal is what Republicans did to cripple the agency when virtually no one was looking. Since the broad Tea Party-driven spending cuts of 2010, the agency's budget has been cut by 14 percent after inflation is considered, leading to sharply reduced staff, less enforcement of the tax laws and poor taxpayer service." Horrors! The IRS has first dibs on your every paycheck and is therefore arguably the most powerful (and feared) agency in all the federal government. But according to the Times, it's the victim.Comment | Share
Slurring the Opposition
According to CNN's John Walsh, the former host of "America's Most Wanted," he and Joe Biden see eye to eye on the need for stricter gun control. He recounted a conversation with the vice president: "I said to Joe Biden, '90% of Americans are for a responsible background check for a gun, and you know what this Congress has done? Not voted on it, not brought it to the floor, not introduced a bill.' I said, 'They're all scared sh--less of the NRA, aren't they?'" To which he says Biden replied, "John, every one of them. Because the NRA will run a tea-bagger against you. ... They'll put 5 million bucks against you." So here we have Walsh, who says he's a gun owner, disparaging gun owners and ignoring the Constitution, while Biden uses a homosexual slur against his political opponents. And they wonder at not being able to "have a conversation" on the topic of guns.Comment | Share
Israel's Counteroffensive
Ever since three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered last month, Hamas has mounted new attacks against Israel, firing more than 160 rockets from Gaza in the last few days alone. In response, "Israel ramped up its offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Wednesday, bombing more than a hundred targets overnight, as Palestinian militants fired rockets deep into Israeli territory, striking far from the seaside enclave and reaching towards major Israeli cities and the country's coastal high-tech corridor," reports The Washington Post. "Since the Israeli offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, began Tuesday, Israel has attacked more than 400 sites in Gaza, killing at least 24 people and wounding hundreds of others." It's the third major Israeli assault since 2008, and it has succeeded (so far) in drastically reducing Palestinian violence. Israel knows it is constantly at war -- or at least prepared for it -- to preserve itself because Hamas' objective is Israel's elimination. And yet Israel faces constant pressure to sit down and talk with the very people who want to wipe it off the map. More...Comment | Share
Misleading Report on Children
"Children of same-sex couples are happier and healthier than peers, research shows." That's the title of a Washington Post article garnering high praise from homosexual advocates. The findings come from University of Melbourne in Australia researcher Simon Crouch, who asserts, "It's often suggested that children with same-sex parents have poorer outcomes because they're missing a parent of a particular sex. But research my colleagues and I published in the journal BMC Public Health shows this isn't the case." However, as you might expect, Crouch's findings come with huge caveats. FRC's Tony Perkins notes, "The study is not of same-sex couples, but of 'same-sex attracted parents,' who may or may not be in a relationship. ... But the data are of dubious value to begin with, because they are based on the parents' own self-report ('My kid is doing great!') rather than a more objective measure; and they are drawn from a 'convenience sample' (like people responding to an ad in the 'gay' media) rather than a genuinely random one." In short, the "study" is an embarrassment meant solely for propaganda purposes.Comment | Share
Why Food Inflation Is Ignored
Policymakers talk a lot about inflation, but often that discussion doesn't include food prices. As The Wall Street Journal notes, central bankers "sometimes look past food-price increases that appear temporary or isolated while trying to control broad and long-term inflation trends, not blips that might soon reverse." The question is, why? It boils down to this: Middle class Americans' focus is on "delivering the life they want to those they care for," explains Ben Domenech of The Federalist. "But when they look to government, they don't see interest in that. Politicians insist that inflation is under control, just so long as you don't include food, education, health care, housing, or energy, so it's time to start focusing on More Important Things. You wanted cheeseburgers? Well, the Fed thinks it's fine if you settle for chicken." If we want change, we'll need "a willingness to go after those policies, and for a few smart politicians to start rejecting the priorities of the boardroom table in favor of the kitchen table." More...Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
|
RIGHT ANALYSIS
Even Leftists Question Obama's Immigration Policies
|
Obama has now urged Congress to provide $3.7 billion in emergency funding to deal with the "humanitarian crisis" his own policies created. Of course he didn't quite put it that way. By some estimates, we are already spending $252 per day per illegal child, but the president's go-to plan for any crisis is more spending. And as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) notes of Obama's emergency request, "That's $60,000 per child."
Supposedly, the money is only part of an aggressive response to the crisis. The funds would be divided among various agencies -- the Department of Health and Human Services to care for children, and the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for "border security" and transporting children. But there's also some funding included for fighting wildfires in the West. Naturally.
The plan originally included hiring additional immigration judge teams and expediting immigration repatriation proceedings, but after angry pro-illegal immigration groups began complaining, Obama backpedalled. "It would take away their right to council, right to proper screening," Leslie Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, whined. "It would undermine completely due process." So, the extra judicial teams and the expedited hearings are out.
Of the children, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained they're not trying to avoid authorities -- they want to be found. The kids expect that after the detention nonsense they'll be allowed to remain in the country. Join the gravy train. Earnest hopes Congress will act promptly with the emergency requests -- otherwise Obama might just have to do something on his own.
Officials claim that these immigrants are entering the U.S. to escape violence in their homelands, but a leaked DHS security report tells a different story. The fact that virtually no one is ever deported motivates these kids more than poverty or violence. In 2013, only 0.1% of illegal Central American minors were deported. It may be dangerous to cross Mexico, but the potential rewards are great.
The report also says, "The same family members or sponsors are appearing several times to claim different children from the custody of U.S. authorities." And almost all of the families are illegals too.
Even some Democrats are now criticizing the Big O's handling of this mess, and his media toadies are questioning how he'll escape it. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) complained, "With all due respect to the administration, they're one step behind. They should have seen this [flood of children] coming a long time ago." Not only that, Cuellar said, "If he wants to do the fundraisers first and then after that stop by the border, it's not too far away. I think it would be good for him to put a face to it, but, again, it looks like he's dug in, not wanting to come."
The Leftmedia, too, is growing alarmed, though in their typical sycophantic way. NBC News presented the crisis facing Obama with grave concern. "Obama can't afford the perception that his policies have encouraged an uncontrolled flow of young people across the border," NBC reporter John Harwood said. "He's got to do something to stem that tide." It's more than perception.
USA Today's Susan Page described the border mess as a potential "Katrina moment" for Obama. "This is unacceptable to more than Republicans on immigration, the situation we have there," she said. "And boy is that going to anger some of his core constituents who have wanted him to do more on immigration, not less." The trouble with her analogy is that George W. Bush didn't create the hurricane.
The Associated Press perhaps unintentionally lays bare the president's craven political strategy, saying he "wants to keep the focus of the debate in this midterm election" on Republicans he's "accused of blocking progress on a comprehensive overhaul of America's immigration laws." Still, however, the AP casts the president as a victim of circumstances, saying, "He announced ... that, due to a lack of progress on Capitol Hill, he was moving forward to seek out ways to adjust U.S. immigration policy without congressional approval." Furthermore, this "crisis has put him in the difficult position of asking Congress for more money and authority to send the children back home at the same time he's seeking ways to allow millions of other people already in the U.S. illegally to stay."
It's not surprising to see hurt feelings in the media, though, as Media Research Center President Brent Bozell observed: "Imagine after Katrina that reporters are getting ready to go to New Orleans, and the Bush administration says to reporters, 'Now one thing: no recording devices, no questions, no interacting with staff or children, no photos and no interviews. But other than that you can cover Katrina,'" he said. "The response would be that this is the statement of a dictatorship." And yet too often they're barely able to muster any real criticism of Obama.
The president may wax eloquent about "humanitarian" needs, but make no mistake -- he will use the kids flooding across the border as nothing more than political pawns to advance his agenda.
Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Analysis.
|
|
|
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Mona Charen: When Government Tries to Be Nice
- Michelle Malkin: Obama's Immigration Lawyers' Enrichment Act
- Arnold Ahlert: Obama Fundraises as the Border Disintegrates
- Tony Perkins: Second Thoughts on the First Amendment?
- Walter E. Williams: Spending and Morality
OPINION IN BRIEF
Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980): "A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left."FRC's Tony Perkins: "According to a new survey, only slightly over a quarter of voters, (29%) know that the Freedom of Religion is part of the First Amendment. And that's a five percent increase from last year! The First Amendment Center, which has been tracking these numbers for the last 17 years, announced this year's results just one week after the Supreme Court's biggest religious liberty case of the year: Hobby Lobby v. Burwell and Burwell v. Conestoga Wood Specialties. Interestingly enough, those suits -- and this administration's open hostility toward religious liberty – may have had something to do with the small spike in understanding. Asked if corporations like Hobby Lobby should have 'certain religious freedoms,' 66% said yes. While that's encouraging, there seems to be a lack of understanding about what religious freedom really means -- as evidenced by follow up questions in the poll. When asked if a business providing wedding services should be required to serve same-sex couples, regardless of religious objections, 61% said yes. What does religious liberty mean if not the freedom to live and work according to the teachings of your faith?"
Comment | Share
Economist Walter E. Williams: "Does an act that's clearly immoral when done privately become moral when it is done collectively and under the color of law? Put another way, does legality establish morality? For most of our history, Congress did a far better job of limiting its activities to what was both moral and constitutional. As a result, federal spending was only 3 to 5 percent of the gross domestic product from our founding until the 1920s, in contrast with today's 25 percent. Close to three-quarters of today's federal spending can be described as Congress taking the earnings of one American to give to another through thousands of handout programs, such as farm subsidies, business bailouts and welfare. ... [S]pending is not our basic problem. We've become an immoral people demanding that Congress forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another. Deficits and runaway national debt are merely symptoms of that larger problem."
Comedian Jimmy Fallon: "House Speaker John Boehner is threatening to sue President Obama for using executive actions to create laws, instead of going through Congress first. Then Obama shrugged and made a new law that you can't sue the president."
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment