THE FOUNDATION
"Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech." --Benjamin Franklin, writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, 1722TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Another Surge of Illegals Coming Our Way?
Just a few days ago, the Obama administration assured us the flood of illegal minors across the southern border was largely over. There are plenty of reasons to doubt this claim. The Weekly Standard's Jeryl Bier reports, "The Rio Grande Valley sector of the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) is looking to buy 40,000 emergency Mylar blankets. The silvery, polyester blankets are often used in detention facilities where those caught illegally crossing the border into the United States are held. ... The USBP seems anxious to have the blankets on hand relatively quickly." And National Review's Ryan Lovelace adds another wrinkle: "After the number of families arriving and being apprehended at the southern border surged this year to levels never seen before, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are opening a fourth detention facility for illegal-immigrant families apprehended in the area, and its capacity will dwarf the three existing family detention centers." It seems the administration expects another surge in border crossers.Comment | Share
Pentagon Gives Illegal Immigrants Opportunity to Serve in Military
While the U.S. Army will cut 30,000 soldiers from its ranks, the Pentagon made it easier Thursday for some illegal immigrants to join the military. The new program will allow up to 1,500 non-U.S. citizens to join the military, some illegal, some here on a student or tourism visa. This will not likely affect the waves of Hispanic youths crossing the southern border. USA Today reports, "For the first time, the program -- known as Military Accessions in the National Interest, or MAVNI -- will be open to immigrants without a proper visa if they came to the U.S. with their parents before age 16. ... Those targeted by recruiters under the MAVNI program likely will be immigrants with language skills critical to national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian." Something here is rotten. More...Comment | Share
Clinton Hints at Right-Wing Conspiracy Again
Progressive presidents would get so much more done if it wasn't for that pernicious right-wing media always getting in their way -- or so Bill Clinton says. Blame the Right for the difficulty Obama's having in his second term, he told ABC News. "I think his challenges are rooted in the fact that first of all, he had certain elements of the media and the Republican Party who were always against him," Clinton said. "It's almost impossible for the average American to understand how totally political Washington is today." We're sure it's probably the same "vast, right-wing conspiracy" that so endangered Clinton during the 1990s, only this time, Clinton implies racism is at play. More...Comment | Share
The 'War on Women' Blinders
Democrats so frequently repeat their "war on women" tripe that they may even be starting to believe it. Michelle Obama complained at a UN education event that American women are suffering under "harmful cultural norms." The First Lady explained, "Women here are still woefully underrepresented in our government and the senior ranks of corporations. We still struggle with violence against woman and harmful cultural norms that tell woman how they are expected to look and act." She might look at her buddies in the entertainment industry who objectify women, or at her own party, which encourages single motherhood with its welfare policies. But since she was speaking at a UN event, Michelle might want to remember that women in other nations struggle with far worse than underrepresentation and peer pressure. Try sex slavery, genital mutilation and forced abortions for starters. The Left's "war on women" smear is a tiresome political gag made more craven by comparison to real suffering.Comment | Share
Forest Service Bans Photography in Forests
Teddy Roosevelt, the president who created the U.S. Forest Service, would no doubt be troubled by the latest Big Government overreach. Newly proposed regulations from the Forest Service banning commercial photography on federal land leaves the agency ripe for a lawsuit. Under the rules, anyone who burns frames or records footage in the nation's forests for profit needs a permit. Don't worry, comrade, it's only $1,500, which will surely discourage more than a few aspiring Ansel Adams. A backpacker snapping a few images with his or her iPhone is subject to the rules, and the press is granted a narrow exception for "breaking news," which would regulate images for investigative and feature stories. Gregg Leslie of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press told the Oregonian, "It's pretty clearly unconstitutional. They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can't." More…Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Having Severely Politicized 'Justice,' Holder Heads for the Exit
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The embattled AG had reportedly expressed an increasing desire to leave, and plans for stepping down were finalized with Obama over the Labor Day holiday. The White House no doubt wishes to nominate Holder's successor quickly, considering the unpredictability of the midterm Senate races. If Republicans should gain control of the chamber, Obama will have only until the end of this year to squeeze in a nominee that suits his activist ways -- with just 51 votes, by the way, after Harry Reid took the nuclear option. The timing of Holder's announcement may be a signal that the White House views a GOP win as probable.
Another factor in Holder's resignation may be a court ruling ordering the Justice Department to release numerous Fast and Furious documents without delay. U.S. District Court Judge John Bates denied a request from the Justice Department to delay the release of the so-called Vaughn index, a list of documents detailing elements of Operation Fast and Furious the Obama administration claimed in 2012 were protected from the public by executive privilege. Holder was held in contempt of Congress that year for obstructing the investigation, the only time an AG was ever slapped with such an action. It was the second court ruling against Holder's stalling, and the department has until Oct. 22 to release the documents.
Fast and Furious was far from Holder's only questionable action during his tenure. From his earliest days, the self-proclaimed racial-justice activist took joy in becoming a political lightning rod for the administration. One of his first actions in office was to arbitrarily dismiss an ironclad case against the New Black Panther Party, who were caught on video intimidating white Philadelphia voters on Election Day 2008. Holder then had the gall to dub America "a nation of cowards" regarding issues of race. And one of his last actions as AG was to open an investigation into alleged racism in Ferguson, Missouri.
On national security, he attempted to try 9/11 plotters in civilian courts in downtown New York City, blocks away from the World Trade Center. Thankfully, however, New Yorkers, lawmakers and victims' families rallied to put an end to that farce.
Holder was a political strongman for his boss. He sued states over voter ID laws, which he claimed threatened the voting rights of minorities. In reality, his suits were designed to protect Democrat majorities. He consistently worked to defeat voter identification, prevention of illegal immigrant voting and other efforts at fair and honest elections.
His cultural impact will long be felt, too. He supported the introduction of same-sex marriage into states by judicial fiat, even in cases where state voters had clearly defeated such redefinition. He refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. He sued Louisiana to prevent school choice through vouchers. And he swept under the rug any real effort to investigate the IRS over political targeting. Those are but a few examples of the many ways he politicized the job and the department.
Holder may want to be remembered for his work on civil rights, but what he and his race-baiting supporters don't seem to realize is that his utter disrespect for Rule of Law has pushed back the cause of civil rights for all Americans. His true legacy is that he trumpeted the actions of the state over its citizens virtually every step of the way, often for the cause of racial retribution.
As for who will replace him, names include Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a close Obama friend, former Arizona governor and Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, former Obama adviser and litigator Kathryn Ruemmler, and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
Just how will Obama decide? Have no fear. Race hustler Al Sharpton told reporters his National Action Network has been "engaged in immediate conversations" with the White House to help determine Holder's successor. Sharpton, who praised Holder as the best AG ever on civil rights, said he hopes Holder's successor will follow in his footsteps. The White House refused to comment on whether Sharpton was actually involved in the decision making process, and Sharpton later clarified, "[W]e are in a conversation to reach out to [the White House] to have meetings about what we want them to see in a successor."
For his part, Holder said, “It is the honor of my professional life to serve the American people as attorney general. I hope I’ve done a good job. I’ve certainly tried to do as good a job as I can.” The only "good job" he did was to sully the office with dirty politics while trampling the Constitution.
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The War on Military Readiness
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| Pentagon Press Sec. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby |
Despite the presence of coalition members Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar “in a supporting role,” the vast majority of the armaments and strikes were provided and conducted by American forces. Moreover, the 47 Tomahawk missiles used in initial strikes comprised almost half the number Obama was planning on acquiring next year. In fact, he wants to eliminate that program by 2016. With our current stockpile of Tomahawks, we could maintain the current pace of strikes for only a matter of weeks, since Obama wasn't planning to replace them. The Pentagon estimates our efforts in Iraq and Syria will cost between $7 million and $10 million per day.
Beyond that, officials at the Pentagon concede that wiping out ISIL could take a while. Lt. Gen. Bill Mayville called recent airstrikes “only the beginning” and warned that, to be successful, the operation would have a timeline “in terms of years.” One airstrike may bump up those all-important approval numbers and help Democrat senators in the polls. Yet to actually do long-term damage would require more diligence than Obama has exhibited thus far in the Long War.
Indeed, "in terms of years" is a far cry from “shifting away from a perpetual war footing” as Obama proclaimed to the UN last year. Having killed Osama bin Laden and "decimated" al-Qaida, Obama foolishly figured he could simply remove American forces and cede our influence in that volatile region of the world.
Given that thought process, it's no surprise Obama's latest defense budget signals a further retreat from military readiness at less than $500 billion, with corresponding manpower limits reducing the size of our military. According to Wall Street Journal foreign-affairs columnist Bret Stephens, "By 2017, the U.S. military will be an increasingly hollow force, with the Army as small as it was in 1940, before conscription; a Navy the size it was in 1917, before our entry into World War I; an Air Force flying the oldest -- and smallest -- fleet of planes in its history; and a nuclear arsenal no larger than it was during the Truman administration." That's not the sort of military that would suggest we're ready for a prolonged fight against radical and resolute Islamist forces.
It's worth asking a few questions: If our various coalition members were truly willing to eradicate ISIL, why did they not come together to do the job themselves? Those five allies who helped with this mission, along with France, certainly signed on knowing it was America's fight, however reluctantly, to wipe out Islamist terror cells acting under the banner they call the Islamic State. So when -- or if -- we decide ground troops are necessary, will they lend a hand in that respect? Furthermore, can we really trust these Islamic allies? A favorite tactic of Islamist terrorists is the “blue-on-green” attack such as the one that killed Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene in Afghanistan recently. So who's to say ISIL operatives won't try to likewise infiltrate our allied forces?
We've spent years arguing that the Long War will indeed take years. If Obama finally comes to that realization as well, that's a good thing. But he's also making drastic cuts to our military while at the same time deploying our forces for such things as a humanitarian mission (read: campaign distraction) against an Ebola outbreak in Africa. It's high time Obama began taking the job of commander in chief seriously.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Linda Chavez: World Domination
- David Harsanyi: Obama Goes Rogue
- Jonah Goldberg: Debates About War Protocol Hamstring Our Defense Efforts
- David Limbaugh: Holder's Unfortunate Legacy
- Michelle Malkin: What's Really Going on in Jefferson County Schools
OPINION IN BRIEF
Nobel Laureate Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992): "Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time. And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality."Columnist Linda Chavez: "The struggles of the 20th century to defeat first Nazism and then communism in some respects pale in comparison with the challenge of the 21st century to defeat Islamist totalitarianism. As an ideology, communism ultimately collapsed of its own weight. Its utopian premise could not meet the test of reality. Communism promised heaven on earth but delivered scarcity and deprivation. ... But radical Islamism faces no such earthly reality check. ... Islamism promises not heaven on earth but a reward that will only be received after death. And who returns to report that there are no virgins awaiting the suicide bomber or beheader? ... Obama's call to 'dismantle the network of death' established by the Islamic State is not enough. Terrorism and death are simply the tools radical Islamism employs in its struggle for world domination. To misjudge its aims would cost us dearly."
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Columnist David Limbaugh: "Republicans and other lovers of the rule of law ... have little reason for optimism as to the character of Holder’s eventual successor, for anyone President Obama selects will doubtlessly be of the same bent -- strong on partisan politics and weak on justice. During their tenure, both Holder and Obama have also used the Justice Department as a vehicle to promote racial grievances, and they’ve made no secret of their obsession. It’s hard to miss that they both view the United States justice system as deeply tainted by institutional racism. ... America gets no points from this grievance industry for having elected an African-American president. Holder announced early on in Obama’s term that Americans are cowards on the issue of race. Obama himself has publicly shown his race-consciousness on numerous occasion... The Obama-Holder legacy ... has been regrettable, and we should all do what we can to reverse it on our own."
Comedian Jimmy Fallon: "The federal government is starting to plan for climate change by making extended forecasts that can help people plan for extreme weather -- because what can go wrong when you combine the efficiency of government with the accuracy of weathermen?"
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
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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