THE FOUNDATION
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query 19, 1781TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Because of ISIL, the Border Is an Immediate Security Threat
It is possible for the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS depending on who you ask) to easily slip into the United States through the southern border. Texas Governor Rick Perry warned, "There's the obvious great concern that because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be [crossing the border]." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey agrees, saying the jihadi group is an "immediate threat" because of the open border. However, Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, insisted, "I've seen no indication that they are coming across the border with Mexico." He conceded, "[W]e do know they have aspirations to hit western targets," and that "we have to try to be ready for it." It appears for the moment that ISIL is stuck naval-gazing at its current conquests. But after a few more Allahu akbars, they'll move on -- possibly to attack American soil. More...Comment | Share
Is the Administration Telegraphing Punches?
Gen. Martin Dempsey says ISIL “will eventually have to be defeated,” which will almost certainly entail countering them in Syria as well as Iraq -- “both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border.” Still, he hedged, "I’m not predicting those will occur in Syria, at least not by the United States of America, but it requires the application of all the tools of national power -- diplomatic, economic, information, military.” Likewise, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, "[W]e are looking at all options" to stop ISIL, including dropping bombs in Syria. Finally, deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said, "[W]e would not restrict ourselves by geographic boundaries when it comes to the core mission of U.S. foreign policy which is the protection of our people." Put the three comments together and we wonder what the administration has in mind for Syria. Will it be a drive-by bombing, or will it be a more robust campaign to knock out ISIL? The president might let us know after he makes this putt...Comment | Share
Golf Helps Obama Clear His Mind, WH Says
Asked about Barack Obama's immediate trip out to the golf course following his statement on James Foley's murder, Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz offered the best defense he could muster. "I am not going to get in the president's mindset on that," Schultz said. "I will say that generally I think that sports and leisure activities are a good way for release and clearing of the mind for a lot of us." He added, "First and foremost the president is focused on doing his job and to us that's paramount. Just because the president is in a different location doesn't mean he's not doing his job." For our part, we think Obama probably does less damage on the golf course than anywhere else because all that time swinging clubs is less time wielding a pen.Comment | Share
Another Revision to ObamaCare Contraception Mandate
Lather, rinse, repeat. That seems to be the Obama administration's strategy when it comes to the ObamaCare contraception mandate. For the eighth time, the White House issued a modification of the rule. After its major defeat in the Hobby Lobby case, the Friday afternoon news dump isn't surprising. The Daily Signal reports on the tweak: "If a religious non-profit organization has a religious objection to providing or facilitating coverage of abortion-inducing drugs and devices or contraception, the employer can write a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informing the government of such objection. The government will then direct the employer's insurance company or third-party administrator to cover the objectionable drugs, devices, or services." There are nearly 200 religious non-profits suing the administration over the mandate, and this latest tweak does little to assuage concerns. The administration is sticking to the mandate while deigning to offer a few exceptions to favored constituents or those who jump through sufficient hoops. Regardless, it's not equal application of the law, and it's not truly respectful of religious liberty. More...Comment | Share
Reid: All You Asians Look Alike
Harry Reid made some, er, off-color jokes while speaking before the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas. "I don't think you're smarter than anyone else, but you've convinced a lot of us you are," he said to the audience. He also confessed a problem: He sometimes can't tell Asians apart. "One problem I've had today is keeping my Wongs straight," he said. The audience chuckled at his humor, but imagine the firestorm if Mitch McConnell or any other Republican had said it. Reid did later apologize, saying, "My comments were in extremely poor taste and I apologize. Sometimes I say the wrong thing." Maybe he meant the "Wong thing."Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Some Still Threaten: 'Justice in Ferguson, or Else'
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Michael Brown Sr., the slain man's father, asked, "I would like for no protesting going on. We just want a moment of silence that whole day, just out of respect for our son." We hope citizens honor his request and the funeral doesn't become a political charade.
But Sharpton made clear Sunday that he will continue to pursue his agenda. “I think that what we can say is that we must turn this moment into a movement to really deal with the underlying issues of police accountability and what is and is not allowable by police, and what citizens ought to be moving toward,” he said. “I think that we need to deal with how we move toward solutions, how we deal with the whole aggressive policing of what is considered low-level crimes.” Sharpton may have a point when he says the police response was troublesome, but he also largely misses the point -- cultural rot.
Police actions were indeed at the center of the original dispute. Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown six times. Even weeks later, however, details of the shooting are unclear, including the extent of any injuries Wilson suffered and whether he had legitimate cause for shooting Brown. And the subsequent police response to the violence only exacerbated the situation.
Yet inner city culture, with its systemic poverty, high unemployment, gang culture and broken families, is the real problem.
So-called protesters have insisted the shooting was due to racism, but they have no proof to substantiate their claims. In reality, it ended up serving merely as an opportunity to loot convenience stores while spreading Democrats' classist and racist themes.
Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. (D-MO), who represents Ferguson, did his part to inflame tensions, declaring, “I’m more concerned if we do not get to the truth and get to what actually happened and bring justice to this situation, then there’s going to be a problem in the streets.” In saying so, he joins other prominent Democrats, including Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, in condemning Officer Wilson before the facts are known. Nixon said, "I ask that we continue to stand together as we work to achieve justice for Michael Brown.”
Justice includes the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.
To Democrats and the thugs on their poverty plantations, however, "justice" means getting something for nothing. Clay and Nixon are doing little but more articulately saying the same thing as their constituents. CBS interviewed three young black men in Ferguson who blamed police for the unrest and demanded jobs so they don't have to loot any more. "If they [businesses] don't restore the community," said one, "there's going to be hell to pay." Another added, "That's why people looting [sic] -- 'cause they can't get no jobs." Unemployment for young black men in Ferguson is 46%, caused in part by the complete cultural breakdown of family and education. That in turn results in practically illiterate and bitter men with all the time in the world to cause trouble.
But violence and looting probably aren't the best qualifications to put on a résumé.
Perhaps these men should direct some of their ire at Barack Obama and the Democrat Party. Blacks have been a monolithic vote for Democrats for the last 50 years. Where has this "Great Society" gotten them?
Dr. Ben Carson, a rising conservative star and a black man, says the issue is one of "personal responsibility," and that while jobs are key, people still must "take control of their own lives." Indeed, Liberty won't survive without a moral people who take on that personal responsibility. The worst part is Democrats are working to destroy morality, create dependence and undermine Liberty.
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Survey Says ObamaCare Is a Job Loser
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In the Philadelphia district, 18.2% of businesses queried said they're cutting jobs and employees, just as a similar number are taking the same steps in the New York district. Meanwhile, a separate questionnaire from the Atlanta Federal Reserve found that 34% of those businesses are planning to hire more part-time workers than they have in the past in order to keep people under the magic 30-hour threshold.
Even if employees are keeping their hours, increasing insurance costs are either coming out of their paychecks or being passed along to customers. More than one-third of manufacturing firms, as well as 20% of service companies, in the New York area reported their health care costs were “a lot” higher this year than last year. Of course, “a lot” is subjective and leftists would argue insurers are using ObamaCare as an excuse to raise their rates unnecessarily. Try as they might, though, they can't give a valid explanation as to why the job market remains so rough five years into this “recovery.”
A July White House report pegged half of the persistent decline in labor force participation to an aging population. Some of the rest is due to a “cyclical decline in line with historical patterns in previous recessions,” and about one-third is blamed on “other factors, which may include trends that pre-date the Great Recession and consequences of the unique severity of the Great Recession.” Or the reason could be the unconstitutional and wrong-headed overhaul of an imperfect but functional benefit system that was satisfactory to both employers and employees. Instead of addressing the unemployment situation early in his term, Barack Obama assumed the government would create “shovel-ready” jobs through his stimulus program and concentrated instead on cramming through the "Affordable" Care Act.
Meanwhile, some on the Left choose to believe that, as “settled law,” ObamaCare is losing its effect as a campaign issue this fall based on the reduction in the number of ads devoted to it, something we pointed out last week. While this decrease in advertising emphasis is real, the truth is that ObamaCare is still unpopular and will once again become a hot topic when 2015 insurance rates are announced sometime this fall. Democrats will try two things: Keep what are expected to be astronomical increases under wraps until after the election, or spin price hikes as milder than they would have been without ObamaCare or with Republicans in control of Congress.
In fact, ObamaCare is even messing with America's pastime. A Cubs-Giants baseball game was practically ruined when there weren't enough employees on hand to bring out the tarp during a rain storm. The reason: ObamaCare cutbacks in employee hours.
The ObamaCare ad slowdown is more a reflection of the vast array of other issues on which to run against the president -- immigration, foreign policy and the perception Barack Obama has “checked out,” for starters.
So you can bet your bottom dollar -- if you have any dollars remaining from trying to make ends meet in this sluggish economy -- that there will still be a good share of ads from both sides, Republicans promising to address ObamaCare and Democrats finding a few fortunate souls who benefit from the law. It's doubtful any of those Democrats will be seeking out the employers who have to shoulder these increased costs and break the bad news about job losses and cuts in hours to their employees.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Larry Kudlow: The Obama Bank Shakedown
- Star Parker: We Don't Have to Have More Fergusons
- Peggy Noonan: A New Kind of Terrorist Threat
- Ken Blackwell: The Effects of Obama-Steyer Extremism on American Workers and Families
- Frank J. Fleming: Give Obama a Break About Vacations: Presidenting Is Hard
OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: "The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern."Economist Larry Kudlow: "The $16.65 billion settlement by Bank of America over financial-crisis-era mortgage securities 'highlights a pattern of the government extorting the banks,' Dick Kovacevich said on CNBC [last] week. Kovacevich is the former Wells Fargo chairman and CEO. ... Kovacevich is right on target. These huge bank settlements are election-year ATMs for the Obama administration. ... [N]o one even remotely knows how these penalty-payment numbers are calculated. And the federal government’s disbursement of these funds is equally mysterious. As the Wall Street Journal editorial page has pointed out, a lot of money has gone to states run by Democratic governors. ... And now, in the saddest of ironies, the Obama administration is again loosening credit standards for 'affordable' home purchases and expanding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is incredibly stupid. The same mistakes are being made. But it’s all part of Obama’s election-year strategy. Blame it all on the big boys. Pull out the class-envy cards. Rekindle divisive resentments and anger."
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Columnist Star Parker: "Tragedies, like what we are now witnessing in Ferguson, bring national attention to the ongoing, self-perpetuating realities of poverty and crime in these ghettos, and the liberals turn the discussion immediately to race rather than policies. They get their 15 minutes of fame and media and then everything goes back to business as usual, with no change, until we repeat with the next incident. ... It is insulting that liberals pretend to care about the poor yet fight any acknowledgment of what has failed and block efforts to move forward with what can succeed. Despite mountains of data showing the fruitlessness of secularism and government dependency, the liberal black establishment fights to hold these communities hostage to these destructive forces."
Humorist Frank J. Fleming: "All of America’s enemies getting together for a golf tournament would be a great end to the President Obama movie."
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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