THE FOUNDATION
"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." --Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Ferguson Erupts in Violence Again as National Guard Is Deployed
Missouri Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to the streets of Ferguson to quell the violence and looting that erupted after a police officer shot 18-year-old Michael Brown. The increased government firepower comes days after the community policing strategy of Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson failed. When he first took over policing the town, Johnson told law enforcement to put down their tactical gear. He marched with peaceful protesters in an effort to listen to them. But on Sunday night, Johnson reported, "There were multiple additional reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown, police were shot at, makeshift barricades were set up to block police, bottles and rockets were thrown at police. Based on these conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate the level of our response." The riots are a telling example of the nation's moral decay. And as Joseph de Maistre once said, "Every nation has the government it deserves." More...Comment | Share
Good News: Navy Reverses Bible-Removal Decision
Good news out of the Navy. The Christian Post reports, "The U.S. Navy has reversed its decision to remove Bibles from Navy rooms, and has noted that it would be reviewing its policy. Navy Exchange Service Command officials had previously said they would be removing all religious literature, following complaints from an atheist group." That atheist group is the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is a chip-on-the-shoulder crowd frequently seeking to stop Christians from freely practicing religion under the guise of separation of church and state. "A Bible in a hotel room is no more illegal than a chaplain in the military. They are there for those who want them," said Chaplain Col. Ron Crews, USAR retired, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. He added, "There is nothing wrong with allowing the Gideons to place Bibles in Navy lodges, which it has done for decades at no cost to the Navy." More...Comment | Share
'We Broke the ISIL Siege'
Mission accomplished, says Barack Obama of his drive-by bombing in Iraq. “We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar, we helped vulnerable people reach safety, and we helped save many innocent lives,” the president declared. But was the mission a success? The UN says no, because there are still thousands of Yazidis stranded on the mountain. No matter, Obama says, “The majority of the military personnel who conducted the assessment will be leaving Iraq in the coming days.” And that's the important thing -- we can't have Obama validating George W. Bush by actually having troops in Iraq.Comment | Share
Why Do We Have a Border Patrol?
Evidently, even the illegals caught by the Border Patrol are frequently getting a free pass. Reporter Sharyl Attkisson says, "Whether spoken or unspoken, there is a policy coming from the top that they’re basically to be very lenient and try to let as many people go as possible. That’s what they think; that’s the message they think they're receiving." Indeed, she added, agents believe "they're being told not to do the job." The Obama administration's plan is to create a crisis so severe that either the president's preferred action will happen, or he can paint Republicans as obstructionists in time for the election. It's unbelievably cynical.Comment | Share
All This Greenhouse Gas Regulation for 0.018 Degrees Celsius
The new EPA regulations dogged on curbing greenhouse gases spewed from coal power plants will cost the nation's Gross Domestic Product $51 billion every year and 224,000 jobs, according to a report by the Chamber of Commerce's Institute of 21st Century Energy. Surely something requiring that much sacrifice will pay off handsomely, that something being no less than the salvation of the world. According to numbers crunched by the Cato Institute, all this regulation will result in a reduction of the planet's average temperature by 0.018 degrees Celsius by 2100 -- cow farts in comparison to the worldwide disruption promised by global warming evangelists. This just goes to show how arrogant ecofascists are, thinking they can play a modern-day King Canute and bid the ocean to stay. More...Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Indict 'Em
Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry has been at the helm of the Lone Star State since December 2000. During that time, Texas has been a national leader in economic growth, job creation and energy production. That success put Perry in the mix for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 and likely will again in 2016. It also slaps a Texas-sized target on his back for Democrats.The latest salvo from the Left was a grand jury indictment of the governor on Friday. Perry's crime? Vetoing appropriations -- or, more accurately, threatening to veto the appropriations before actually doing so. Well, that and the far more serious offense of GWR -- Governing While Republican. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker committed the same "crime."
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Indeed, noting that Lehmberg heads the Public Integrity Unit, Perry insisted she resign. Being a Democrat of clearly little integrity, however, Lehmberg refused. So when a bill granting appropriations to her office came for his signature, Perry vetoed it, saying he wouldn't fund the office until she was no longer in charge.
Special prosecutor Michael McCrum indicted Perry for two class A misdemeanors: abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. McCrum says Perry "coerced" a public official by calling for Lehmberg's resignation for bad behavior and threatening the veto, as well as abusing his power with the veto. The Leftmedia are gleefully reporting the indictment and its potential impact on Perry's presidential aspirations, leaving the questions of its dubious merit for later.
Perry quickly parried the attack, saying, "I will explore every legal avenue to expedite this matter and bring it to a swift conclusion. I am confident ... this farce of a prosecution will be revealed for what it is."
He later added, "I stood up for the Rule of Law in the state of Texas, and if I had to do it again I would make exactly the same decision. ... This is not the way that we settle ... political differences in this country. You don't do it with indictments. We settle our political differences at the ballot box."
Perry has plenty of folks on his side, including, believe it or not, some national Democrats. For example, no less than former Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod defended Perry, saying the "indictment seems pretty sketchy."
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who describes himself as a “liberal Democrat who would never vote for Rick Perry,” called the indictment "outrageous." He added, "Everybody, liberal or conservative, should stand against this indictment."
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley likewise called the indictment "very troubling on a separation of powers basis." In fact, he said, "There are significant constitutional concerns raised by this type of indictment."
Furthermore, leftist writer Jonathan Chait called the indictment "unbelievably ridiculous." Not only that, he said, but "[t]o describe the indictment as 'frivolous' gives it far more credence than it deserves."
Yet while it doesn't seem the Travis County prosecutors have public opinion on their side, this could still cause serious problems for Perry. Fighting the indictment will cost the state money and likely Perry as well, at least in terms of possible campaign fundraising. We think he will be vindicated because he did nothing but exercise his constitutional right of free political speech and his duty as governor. But his victory won't come without time and money spent on a pathetic and petty distraction, all under the headlines "Governor Indicted."
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Russia: Two Tests for Obama
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In separate convoys, Russia sent “humanitarian aid” and armored personnel carriers to the Ukrainian border. While many of the trucks loaded with aid supplies were practically empty, the fate of the armored personnel carriers (APCs) was less clear as they proceeded across the Ukrainian frontier at a breach in the border fence. Ukrainian claims to have destroyed part of this column of APCs were dismissed as “fantasies” by Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. He denied the invasion occurred, but reporters for the UK Guardian newspaper claimed over 20 vehicles crossed the border.
The incursion comes at a time when Russian-backed rebel forces have lost their advantage in the fighting, routed from the countryside and generally holed up within the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Putin's dreams of restoring the old Soviet empire might begin in Ukraine, but after the Crimean annexation this spring he's finding Ukrainian resistance more stout. Ukraine perceived the humanitarian convoy as a Trojan horse and stopped it.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration finally got around to admitting that Russia is testing the R-500 cruise missile in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) prohibiting cruise missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Unfortunately, while that information was known in classified circles for years, it was withheld from the Senate as they debated and passed New START in 2010. The White House had a "reset" to maintain, after all.
“We are asking Russia to return to compliance with the [INF] treaty in a verifiable manner,” said Rose Gottemoeller, a State Department official charged with arms control and international security. As The Wall Street Journal opined last week, “Arms control ... works when it isn't needed among U.S. friends, but it fails with adversaries who can't be trusted.” Obviously, the State Department forgot to “trust but verify.”
Furthermore, both Russia and China are developing anti-satellite space warfare weapons as well, Gottemoeller added. That's proof of the level of trust both nations deserve.
While Barack Obama is vacationing and golfing, though, one congressman is demanding action. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, introduced a bill that would penalize Russia for the INF violations as well as authorize development of our own intermediate-range missiles and install ground-based missile interceptors in Europe.
Barack Obama has had what's described as a “working vacation” and returned to Washington Sunday night for one day of meetings with Joe Biden and other advisers before resuming his holiday on Martha's Vineyard. There's no denying we're in the midst of an Obama tenure that's been shooting bogeys on key foreign policy issues, and our enemies have taken notice.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- George Will: In a Stew Over Inversions
- Star Parker: Barack Obama's Zero Sum World
- Stephen Moore: You Work This Many Hours a Week to Pay Your Federal Taxes
- Peggy Noonan: The 2016 Battle Heats Up Already
- Burt Prelutsky: The Fat Lady Is Practicing Her Scales
OPINION IN BRIEF
Italian politician Benedetto Croce (1866-1952): "Morality and the ideal of freedom, which is the political expression of morality, are not the property of a given party or group, but a value that is fundamentally and universally human."Columnist George Will: "Progressives say corporations using inversions are unpatriotic, which is amusing. When the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision stipulated that Americans do not forfeit their First Amendment right to political advocacy when they act together through corporations ... progressives ridiculed the idea that corporations should be treated as people. Now, progressives charge that corporations resorting to inversion are not behaving like patriotic people. ... Inversions strengthen the U.S. economy by increasing the after-tax profits that U.S. corporations have for investment, by increasing the pool of profits available for the wages of U.S. workers, and by making the companies' U.S. shareholders wealthier. Which is why the sensible corporate tax rate would be zero. This is so because corporations do not pay taxes, they collect them, necessarily passing on the burden as a cost of doing business. ... This illustrates the grandstanding frivolity of the political class. It legislates into existence incentives for what it considers perverse behavior, and then waxes indignant when businesses respond sensibly to the incentives."
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Columnist Star Parker: "Zero sum politics plays out in ... destructive ways in our own country. Instead of building a culture of achievement and responsibility, politicians of the left stoke grievances of low income Americans, inspire envy and resentment, and teach that the poor are poor because the rich are rich. By stoking these politics of envy and victimhood, it’s the politicians, at home and abroad, who grow powerful and wealthy. The disenfranchised languish as political pawns, never hearing the truth that life is about making correct personal choices in an imperfect world."
Humorist Frank J. Fleming: "If you don’t #StandWithRickPerry, it’s probably because you’re falling down drunk."
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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