Daily Digest
February 18, 2015
THE FOUNDATION"[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger." --George Washington, Fifth Annual Message to Congress, 1793TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKSThank Goodness There Has Never Been a Scandal With ObamaLook who suspended his subscription to The New York Times. When speaking at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Barack Obama's former adviser David Axelrod told the audience that Obama is an ethical man. An audience member had asked about the culture of lobbying in Washington, bringing up "This Town," a book by New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich that asserts the Obama administration failed to keep its promise to stay above the political fray. Axelrod said no, that was not the case. Obama is an ethical man, and there are rules in place to prevent that sort of thing. He continued, "And I'm proud of the fact that basically you have had an administration in this place for six years in which there hasn't been a major scandal. And I think that says a lot about the ethical strictures of this administration." No major scandal? Just today, New York Times investigative reporter James Risen promised to spend the rest of his life fighting to take back the freedom of the press Obama and Eric Holder destroyed. Let's not mention Benghazi, Fast and Furious and the IRS. No, according to Axelrod, there is no scandal. Obama is an ethical man. More...Comment | Share EPA's New Regulations Will Cost JobsWhatever modest gains Barack Obama can claim in job creation, his EPA will strip away in the next few years. A new study by the Heritage Foundation finds that every state in the union will "experience overwhelmingly negative impacts" from the Environmental Protection Agency's push to regulate coal plants and motor vehicles. By 2030, the U.S. may lose a half a million jobs in the manufacturing sector and 45% of the jobs in the coal mining industry. But the EPA justifies its ecofascist decrees by saying the private sector is already investing in green energy. "The energy sector sees the writing on the wall," Liz Purchia, EPA press secretary, told the Daily Signal. "Businesses like Spectra Energy are investing billions in clean energy. And utilities like Exelon and Entergy are weaving climate considerations into business plans. This means more jobs, not less. We'll need thousands of American workers, in construction, transmission, and more, to make cleaner power a reality." What Purchia chalks up to be free market entrepreneurialism is more likely big business chasing government subsidies. Or they see the agenda the EPA has set since the 70s and plan accordingly.Comment | Share Separation of Church and ObamaCareLeftists are always eager to relegate faith to one's private life and keep church and state entirely separate. Until they're not. Any time they want to advocate wealth redistribution, same-sex marriage or even killing babies, they point to the Bible and say, "See, there's a verse about _____." Naturally, such exegesis is usually out of context or misapplied. Their latest Bible-thumping involves ObamaCare enrollment. Jeryl Bier of The Weekly Standard notes, "In an effort to sign up as many consumers as possible for insurance under the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare), the Obama administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to partner with churches and other faith-based groups, even publishing sample church bulletin inserts, flyers, and scripts for announcements, as well as 'talking points.' These materials are part of the 'Second Sunday & Faith Weekend of Action Toolkit,' which is available on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)." It goes so far in one instance as to cite I Corinthians 6:19, which says, "Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit" -- and therefore you "must be insured." Good heavens, the hypocrisy! The party of "keep your laws off my body" is now misquoting Scripture to spiritualize a government mandate to buy insurance.Comment | Share How Obama Debt Ranks as Share of GDPLast fall, Barack Obama, who has already accumulated a staggering $7 trillion in debt, said, "All kinds of good stuff is happening. I mean, we have cut our deficit by more than half." Well, gee, that's great. Except it's egregiously deceiving. Most people interpret his statement to mean America's $18 trillion debt is now less than $9 trillion. What he actually means is that the amount of money perpetually added to the national debt has, at least temporarily, been slashed in half. Rather than $1 trillion in annual deficit spending, it's now only short of $500 billion. But how does public debt under Obama compare to previous administrations as a share of GDP? The Washington Examiner compiled a handy graph, which shows Obama comes second only to Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose ranking was largely driven by World War II. With public debt at 74.1% of GDP, Obama makes George W. Bush's 39.3% look relatively meager. In fairness, "Presidents do not have full control over the federal budget, so they don't deserve full responsibility for debt levels when they leave office," the Examiner's Jason Russell observes. Nevertheless, he continues, "[T]he veto pen is a major tool in budget debates, and the president deserves more credit or blame than any other individual." And just imagine the figure if Obama always got his way -- like his $4 trillion budget proposal. More...Comment | Share Beware the Flintlock Gangs of New JerseyNew Jersey is throwing the book at retired teacher Gordon van Gilder. During a recent traffic stop, Gilder told the police officer searching his car that he had a pistol in the glove compartment of his vehicle -- an unloaded flintlock manufactured in the mid-1700s. The next day, the police department showed up at Gilder's home in force and arrested him. Now, Gilder faces a 10-year sentence in New Jersey state prison because, unlike federal law, the state makes no distinction between an antique firearm and a Saturday night special. Gilder promises to fight, saying the law is unjust. But in the meantime, he warns, "Beware of New Jersey. Don't come here. Don't live here." It's a gun law so unfair gun-grabber Michael Bloomberg should get behind its repeal. After all, he only wants to get guns out of the hands of young black and Hispanic males. As Gilder said, flintlocks are not exactly gangland's weapons of choice.Comment | Share For more, visit Right Hooks.
RIGHT ANALYSISDemocrats Are Wearing Blinders
Terrorism is "random," he says, and the Islamic State isn't Islamic. Twenty-one Christians beheaded by ISIL were merely "Egyptian citizens" -- as if religion had nothing to do with it -- but three Muslims killed by a leftist atheist in North Carolina were clearly targeted because of their faith. "No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," Obama said, despite early evidence that such targeting wasn't the case anyway. The White House began a three-day summit Tuesday focused on combating "violent extremism." One official explained the stance on ISIL: "We are not treating these people as part of a religion. We're treating them as terrorists." But addressing that summit, Joe Biden warned of right-wing extremists committing violence in the name of the Bible. After all, Obama says not to get on your "high horse" because Christians are still guilty of the Crusades. Meanwhile, Marie Harf, spokesperson for the Obama State Department, continued this pattern when she explained that ISIL's terrorism isn't so much religious as economic plight, and that all these angry [Muslim] men need is a little "middle-class economics." She pontificated, "We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, [including the] lack of opportunity for jobs. ... We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people." We suppose if the jihadis were employed and still committed acts of terror, Harf would explain that away as "workplace violence." In a better world, the U.S. would be unequivocally fighting evil instead of excusing it, and people like Marie Harf would be looking for "job opportunities" in the private sector. Never mind that Obama abandoned Iraq, leaving a vacuum for ISIL to fill. And forget that his entire strategy for dealing with ISIL consists of a few airstrikes, or that his Authorization for Use of Military Force severely handicaps the fight. Faced with pushback over her foolish comments, Harf insisted, "No one should doubt our commitment" to defeating ISIL. Well, let's ask Attorney General Eric Holder about that commitment. "We're not at a time of war," he informed us Tuesday. Tell that to the American military personnel flying sorties over ISIL territory and the soldiers still stationed in the region. And does Holder's pronouncement mean Congress can disregard Obama's AUMF request? Not exactly, since Holder's Justice Department has previously justified airstrikes -- even if they kill American citizens -- because we're at war. As far as calling Islamic extremism what it is, Holder dismissed the idea: "Radical Islam, Islamic extremism -- I'm not sure an awful lot is gained by that." Though he did say, "If Fox [News] didn't talk about this, they would have nothing else to talk about, it seems to me." Radical Islam is far more than a right-wing talking point. It's reality, and Holder should check in some time. Our nation is being led by men and women who are so Orwellian they insist up is down, hot is cold, and Islam is innocent but Christians are guilty. Such morally bankrupt lies and distortions are plainly dangerous to our future. Comment | Share Immigration Ruling Provides an Opportunity for GOP
The Department of Homeland Security "was not given any 'discretion by law' to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the DHS itself labels as 'legal presence,'" Hanen wrote. "In fact, the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed. The DHS has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions. These changes go beyond mere enforcement or even non-enforcement of this nation's immigration scheme." "In fact," Hanen continued, "the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed." The most powerful portion of the decision follows: "This is not the end of the inquiry; in fact, in this case, it is really the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, this injunction (as long as it's in place) will prevent the immediate provision of benefits and privileges to millions of individuals who might otherwise be eligible for them in the next several months indoor DAPA and the extended-DACA. The Court notes that there is no indication that these individuals will otherwise be removed or prosecuted. They have been here for the last five years, and given the humanitarian concerns expressed by [DHS] Secretary [Jeh] Johnson, there is no reason to believe they will be removed now. On the other hand, if the Court denies the injunction and these individuals accept Secretary Johnson's invitation to come out of the darkness, there may be dire consequences if DAPA is later to be found to be illegal or unconstitutional. The DHS -- whether under this administration or the next -- will then have all pertinent identifying information for these immigrants and could deport them." Obama's plan, known as Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), is designed to cover illegal alien parents of "anchor children" (children of illegals born in the U.S.) and legal permanent residents. It includes a three-year stay of deportation, Social Security numbers and work permits to compete legally for jobs. And some 95% of those who applied for the 2012 Dreamer program were approved. The Obama administration did say, however, that it would honor the ruling until such time as an appeal can be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court. Obama should have legal difficulty defending his amnesty when he has served as the opposition's key witness. He has said the president isn't above the law so many times that House Speaker John Boehner documented 22 such occasions on his website. For example, Obama once said, "I am not a dictator. I'm the president. ... If in fact I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress then I would do so. ... I'm not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed." Now, he says, "I'm confident that it is well within my authority and the tradition of the executive branch's prosecutorial discretion to execute this policy." Thus, Boehner wasn't surprised by the ruling. Ironically, he bears some responsibility for enabling Obama's autocratic coup. During December's lame-duck session, Boehner persuaded reluctant House members to pass an omnibus spending bill to fund Obama's entire budget for the last nine months of the fiscal year. But now, the House has passed a funding bill aimed at reining in DHS. Republicans are trying to persuade Senate Democrats not to filibuster, but nothing will change Democrats' minds. Lacking passage of the bill, DHS will shutdown on Feb. 28. Despite the fact Democrats in the Senate have filibustered the DHS budget three times, Republicans should use this court decision as an off-ramp for the funding battle because the low-information public does not understand the idiosyncrasies of Senate rules. Democrats are winning the propaganda effort by accusing Republicans of refusing to fund DHS, even though Republicans in the House have funded all of DHS except for Obama's illegal immigration plans. Republicans are in the right position but have not successfully made their case to the public. Obama never expected his plan would succeed. He only wanted to blame Republicans for the failure -- exactly what he was doing until the court stepped in. The battle over illegal immigration is coming to a head. After 40 years of fighting -- from early skirmishes in the 1970s to California's Proposition 187 in 1994 to more recent court fights over bilingualism in schools -- we may well be headed for a clash at the Supreme Court. Comment | Share For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
 OPINION IN BRIEFHumorist Will Rogers (1879-1935): "One of these days they are going to remove so much of the 'hooey' and the thousands of things the schools have become clogged up with, and we will find that we can educate our broods for about one-tenth of the price and learn 'em something that they might accidentally use after they escape."Columnist Mona Charen: "With each passing day, this administration’s refusal to speak plainly about radical Islamic terrorists becomes more and more surreal. King Abdullah of Jordan says it. President Sisi of Egypt says it. European leaders say it. The United Arab Emirates has published a list of 80 terrorist groups around the world -- all of them Muslim. This week, the White House is hosting an international conference on 'countering violent extremism.' The administration promises that the conference will 'work to address the underlying conditions that can help foster violent extremism such as poverty, inequality and repression. This means supporting alternatives to extremist messaging and greater economic opportunities for women and disaffected youth.' What 'extremist messaging' would that be? The Christian Science Monitor? This is gibberish. The administration uses language to impede thought rather than to elucidate it -- which suits the jihadis very well." Comment | Share Columnist Walter E. Williams: "Liberalism is a moral manipulation that exaggerates inequity and unfairness in American life in order to justify overreaching public policies and programs. Liberalism undermines the spirit of self-help and individual responsibility. For liberals in academia, the fact that black college students earn lower grades and have a higher dropout rate than any group besides reservation Indians means that blacks remain stymied and victimized by white racism. Thus, their push for affirmative action and other race-based programs is to assuage their guilt and shame for America’s past by having people around with black skin color. The heck with the human being inside that skin." Comment | Share Fred Thompson: "During an interview, Michelle Obama said you should eat healthy 'if you don't like folks messing with your life.' I remember back when that's what the Constitution was for." 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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