THE FOUNDATION
"I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair." --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Noah Worcester, 1817TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Obama Throws Intelligence Under the Bus
The U.S. intelligence community is now sporting the tread marks of the Obama-Mobile after the commander in chief said they "underestimated" the rise of the Islamic State. In a CBS "60 Minutes" interview, Barack Obama said it's "absolutely true" that U.S. intelligence "underestimated what had been taking place in Syria." He admitted al-Qaida in Iraq "went back underground" until chaos gave them a chance to "reconstitute themselves" -- and we missed it. This blame game is yet another pathetic political dodge by the president. He is the one who repeated the 2012 campaign fairytale that al-Qaida was "decimated," despite the large intelligence haul from the bin Laden raid indicating otherwise. He is the one essentially seeking a mulligan on his failed policy of fleeing Iraq. Yet the pathological narcissist in the Oval Office is telling us it's really the fault of U.S. intelligence. The buck stops, er, over there. More...Comment | Share
Obama and Congress May Be in Agreement Over ISIL War
The logjam in Congress could soon break over the war against ISIL. While Barack Obama has authorized airstrikes over Iraq and Syria based on the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force that allowed George W. Bush to enter Iraq, his administration is still saying it wants to repeal that authorization. As for Congress, both Democrats and Republicans would like to take up the issue. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told ABC News, "The president typically in a situation like this would call for an authorization vote and go sell that to the American people and send a resolution to [Capitol] Hill. The president has not done that. He believes he has authority under existing resolutions to do what he's done." Boehner continued, "I think he does have the authority. But the point I'm making is this is a proposal that the Congress ought to consider." But Obama has "gone rogue" with his recent actions, according to David Harsanyi, because going it alone is expedient but cowardly. Let's see if he respects the Constitution and the deliberative process of Congress this time when the political wind shifts in that direction. More...Comment | Share
Beheading Suspect Converted to Islam
The FBI is investigating a beheading in Oklahoma because the suspect was allegedly trying to convert fellow workers to Islam. "The alleged suspect, Alton Nolen, 30, was recently fired from Vaughan Foods in Moore prior to Thursday's attack," Fox News reports. "Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis told KFOR that Nolen drove to the front of the business and struck a vehicle before walking inside. He then attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, stabbing her several times before severing her head. He also stabbed another woman at the plant, 43-year-old Traci Johnson. Lewis said Mark Vaughan, the company's chief operating officer and a reserve county deputy, shot Nolen as he was stabbing Johnson, who remains hospitalized in stable condition [as of] Friday." Fortunately, there was a good guy with a gun to stop this "workplace violence." The message of Islam, meanwhile, is convert to the Religion of Peace™ ... or else. More...Comment | Share
Ferguson Police Officer Shot, No Riots
The police department in Ferguson, Missouri, appears to be trying new tactics to be a more community-based and accountable police department, but so far it's not working. On Saturday, a police officer exchanged gunfire with a suspect, or two, in an incident that left the officer wounded in the arm. Ferguson police say the incident is unrelated to the protests and riots that happened ever since the department killed Michael Brown. But the department also said the officer discovered two men burglarizing a business initially, and later revised the story to say the officer discovered two men behind the community center. The details are few, because the officer's body camera was turned off, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. One thing is sure -- there have been no riots over this shooting. More...Comment | Share
Obama on Same-Sex Marriage: Holder 'Opened the Door'
We noted that Attorney General Eric Holder supported the introduction of same-sex marriage into states by judicial fiat. He also refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Indeed, Barack Obama hailed Holder's activism, saying, "[H]e recommended that our government stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act -- a decision that was vindicated by the Supreme Court, and opened the door to federal recognition of same-sex marriage, and federal benefits for same-sex couples. It's a pretty good track record." Blithely ignoring Rule of Law is hardly a "good track record." By that logic, being held in contempt of Congress is simply par for the course. Standing alongside Obama, Holder chimed in with his own remarks. "I'm also grateful for the support [Obama] has given me and the department as we have made real the visions that you and I have always shared," Holder brazenly declared. "I often think of those early talks between us, about our belief that we might help to craft a more perfect union." The self-proclaimed racial-justice activist's tenure, as he illustrated, was never about upholding the Constitution, but reshaping America through his own "visions." More...Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
|
RIGHT ANALYSIS
Where ObamaCare Isn't Working
|
Just in time for the ramp-up to both the midterm election and the next open enrollment period, commentator Ezra Klein decided it was time to convince Americans that this bitter pill of ObamaCare is really good for them. Klein attempts to make the case that ObamaCare really isn't as bad a disaster as those in conservative media portray because now “[t]hey know that premiums are lower than projected and insurers are joining the exchanges." He adds, "So the argument has developed a good-news-is-bad-news quality.”
If you look at the argument in those limited terms, perhaps Klein is correct. Instead of being a sudden calamity, perhaps we're witnessing a slow-motion disaster.
As health insurance expert Bob Laszewski writes, “We won't know what the real Obamacare rates will be until we see the 2017 rates -- when there will be plenty of valid claim data and the Obamacare reinsurance program, now propping the rates up, will have ended.” Look for an executive order in the next year or so to extend that reinsurance program for an extra year to remove a potential October surprise for the 2016 Democrat nominee.
This also helps explain why additional insurers are joining the exchanges, as the reinsurance program can cover them in case of loss. The insurance industry is not known for stupidity, nor is it immune to standing in line for taxpayer handouts, and the expansion of Medicaid rolled into ObamaCare simply put Uncle Sam first in a very long line.
In short, Klein's piece is the Left's latest attempt to squeeze some lemonade out of the truckload of lemons we received with ObamaCare.
But after all the false starts, accounting tricks, carve-outs for favored groups and industries, and years of toil on a half-finished website, we have only to think back to the system it replaced. While the employer-based health insurance system has numerous flaws and many people could slip through the cracks, it was effective in most cases. Americans still had a significant choice of providers and plans depending on how much they wished to pay, while those who chose to forgo coverage or participate in the market via their own health savings account (HSA) had those options, too. Now we have decreased choice in smaller networks, with higher co-pays and deductibles, and increased restrictions on HSA spending. All this comes with the added bonus of the IRS breathing down your neck if you still wish to opt out of health insurance.
Finally, there's a philosophical question that Klein doesn't address but was brought up by ObamaCare architect Ezekiel Emanuel, who hopes to die at the age of 75. Namely, how much value will bureaucrats put on your life?
Because most over 75 are covered under Medicare, which isn't a sustainable model without taxpayer assistance -- witness the annual fight over whether to slash Medicare payments to physicians as a budget fix -- bean counters, not doctors and patients, will determine what age constitutes a full life. Perhaps Emanuel will “stop getting any regular preventive tests, screenings, or interventions [and] will accept only palliative -- not curative -- treatments if [he is] suffering pain or other disability,” but what if those who wish to prolong their life find the treatment will no longer be covered under insurance because the government has to allocate its scarce resources toward those who are younger or healthier? We've opened this Pandora's box with ObamaCare.
And with a president who prescribes painkillers over pacemakers, the answer may not be the one with which Liberty seekers would agree.
Comment | Share
Midterm Victory a Function of GOP Unity
|
However, if the captains and crew of the conservative, constitutional ship don’t stop their bickering and infighting and start paddling together, the November results will be a shipwreck.
Read the rest here.
Challenging the Public School Status Quo
|
Read the rest here.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
|
|
|
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Peggy Noonan: Republicans Need a Direction
- Burt Prelutsky: Lobbying for Islam
- Star Parker: Americans Concerned About Declining Influence of Religion
- Stephen Moore & Joel Griffith: What the Left's Scare Tactics on Keystone Pipeline Get Wrong
- George Will: Battle Royal in Iowa
OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: "Excellence demands competition. Without a race there can be no champion, no records broken, no excellence -- in education or in any other walk of life."Columnist Peggy Noonan: "If Republicans can't make, catch and ride a wave in an environment like this, they've gone from being the stupid party to the stupid loser party. ... Shouldn't the Republican Party make it clear right now exactly what it is for and what it intends to do? ... The cliché is that Republicans are old, white, don't like women or science, are narrow, numeric and oppose all modern ways. The cliché probably isn't as powerful as it used to be because the president has made so many new Republicans, but it's still there. But Republicanism right now has a special duty to be dynamic and serious. It has to paint a world of the possible. It has to make people feel that things can be made better. ... When you have a poor brand, do you spend all your time saying the other guy is worse? Or do you start rebuilding your reputation? In politics that means saying what you are for, not what you are against, and what you will do, not what the other guy will do if the voters let him."
Comment | Share
Columnist Burt Prelutsky: "The argument Obama made was that [ISIL] is not Islamic because no religion condones killing innocents.' The problem is that Islam doesn’t consider Christians or Jews as innocents; it regards them as infidels whose very existence is an affront to Allah, and killing them is therefore nothing less than a religious obligation. ... The question that occurs to me ... is why our leaders feel compelled to lie about our enemies. ... What is it about Islam, which can best be described as a wolf in wolf’s clothing, that has our commanders-in-chief mincing words and pussyfooting around the truth? Just for the record, Voodoo is practiced by about 60 million people worldwide. If it was practiced by a billion, would our presidents feel obliged to speak respectfully of a belief system that involves the sacrificing of goats, sheep and dogs, and the drinking of animal blood?"
Twitter satirist @hale_razor: "A Muslim beheading a co-worker doesn't represent the peaceful religion, but every idiotic thing Fred Phelps did STANDS FOR ALL CHRISTIANS! ... Obama was so upset by a Muslim beheading an Oklahoma woman that he almost spilled champagne on his tux at [Friday's] DNC fundraiser."
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment