Daily Digest
February 26, 2015
THE FOUNDATION"It is of definite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various part." --George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKSIf An ICE Agent Crosses Obama on Immigration...Let's suppose there's an enterprising Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent who doesn't follow the "prioritized deportation" policies handed down by a lawmaking president, but instead, follows the letter of the law. MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart asked Barack Obama, "How do you ensure that ICE and Border Patrol won't be deporting people like this. What are the consequences?" And Obama answered that agent would have trouble. "The bottom line is that if somebody's working for ICE," Obama said, "and there's a policy, and they don't follow the policy, there's going to be consequences to it. So I can't speak to a specific problem. What I can talk about is what's true in the government generally. In the U.S. military, when you get an order, you're expected to follow it." In effect, Obama is saying his executive action on immigration -- although unconstitutional and stayed by a federal judge -- has the force of law and his authority as commander in chief behind it. Beware any lowly law enforcement official who doesn't fall into line. More...Comment | Share Senate Funds DHS, Will Consider Immigration SeparatelyAfter weeks of impasse over blocking Barack Obama's executive amnesty, the Senate finally moved. "The stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was broken Wednesday as the Senate voted 98-2 to proceed to legislation that would prevent a partial government shutdown," The Hill reports. "Democrats agreed to support the DHS bill after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to strip out provisions inserted by the House that would reverse President Obama's executive actions on immigration. The only votes against proceeding to the bill came from Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)." Now the legislation will move back to the House, where Republicans have steadfastly rejected doing anything less than blocking Obama. We appreciate the sentiment, but the battle has become House vs. Senate and Republican vs. Republican rather than the GOP Congress against Obama. That's not going to win much.Comment | Share Aspiring Terrorists in Brooklyn Are No 'Lone Wolves'The Obama administration says ISIL isn't a domestic threat. All these terror attacks you hear about around the globe, they claim, are just demonstrations by "lone wolves" who can't find jobs or something. And, hey, Obama's economy is swell, so what's the worry? Well, this, courtesy of NBC 4 New York: "Three Brooklyn men who allegedly plotted to travel to Syria to join ISIS and posted online messages about planting a bomb on Coney Island and shooting police officers were taken into custody during FBI and NYPD terror raids Wednesday. ... The men, 24- and 30-year-old Uzbekistan citizens and a 19-year-old Kazakhstan citizen who all lived in Brooklyn, allegedly planned to return to New York to commit a domestic act of terror if they failed to join the group overseas, law enforcement officials said." Does that sound like "lone-wolf terrorism"? Whether it's an attack carried out by Islamists in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Syria, Iraq or Australia, the common denominator is a twisted ideology that calls for slaying the infidel in service to Jihadistan. And while aspiring terrorists in the U.S. have for the most part kept underground, they have found new inspiration in ISIL, which is indirectly recruiting through the power of propaganda. More...Comment | Share Meanwhile, "Jihadi John" -- one of ISIL's notorious beheaders -- has been unmasked. Kerry Blasts Netanyahu for Iraq War SupportWe get it. The Obama administration really doesn't like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Secretary of State John Kerry made that clear again Wednesday in testimony before Congress, saying we can't trust Netanyahu because he supported invading Iraq. "The prime minister was profoundly forward-leaning and outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq under George W. Bush. We all know what happened with that decision," Kerry lectured. Indeed, it was the impetus for his infamous "botched joke" about uneducated people getting "stuck in Iraq." There's also the small detail of Kerry having voted for the war. We know he was for it before it was against it, but come on, Mr. Secretary. Have a little self-awareness.Comment | Share Biden Wants to Emancipate the Wealth of the One PercentJoe Biden's comments commemorating Black History Month careened right past the struggle for civil rights and mired into full-on socialism. On Monday, Creepy Ol' Joe hosted a Black History Month event where he said, "A lot of wealthy white and black people aren't bad, but they control 1% of the economy and this cannot stand. It's not fair because the business experts are saying that concentration of wealth is stunting growth. So let's do something that's worthy of emancipation." Biden continued, explaining Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: "What happened is not only did we move toward freeing black Americans but also the conscience of white Americans." Per Biden's usual rhetorical "style," these comments are filled with muddled metaphors and thoughtless arguments. Is he saying "emancipating" the wealth belonging to the Scrooge McDucks of the nation would be good for their souls? If wealthy white and black people are the problem, how is this in any way connected to the civil rights struggle of the '60s? Finally, why is he equating today's dollars with enslaved, antebellum blacks? While nothing is officially announced, Biden may be starting his campaign for president -- by signaling he'll continue Barack Obama's socialist engineering of America. More...Comment | Share For more, visit Right Hooks. Don't Miss Alexander's ColumnRead Patriotic Presidents v. Adversarial Appeasers, on Obama's lack of love of country and how it influences national security policy.If you'd like to receive Alexander's Column by email, update your subscription here.
RIGHT ANALYSISIs This Any Way to Reform Education?
Republicans introduced the Student Success Act (SSA), a bill aimed at scaling back Uncle Sam's increasingly outsized role in the classroom. But two major groups that are in agreement more often than not -- Heritage Action (affiliated with the Heritage Foundation) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) -- have come down on opposite sides of this bill, with AEI backing it and Heritage not. As is often the case with legislation aimed at reining in a runaway government, the core issue comes down to whether the bill goes far enough in returning the federal government to its constitutionally authorized role in education. Incidentally, that role is "none." According to AEI, SSA offers several "fixes" to NCLB, including eliminating or consolidating 65 programs, promoting school choice by allowing Title I funds to follow low-income children to the district or charter school parents choose, repealing adequate yearly progress (AYP, which, as we've previously noted, has done more harm than good), eliminating the "highly qualified teacher" mandates, and preventing the federal government from pressing states to adopt Common Core or other national academic standards. Heritage, however, holds that some of the bill's claims are misleading. For example, according to Heritage, those 65 programs are not eliminated but only consolidated, and the consolidation does not mean spending is reduced. Similarly, while AYP disappears, the requirement that states develop state-level accountability structures does not; instead, SSA "direct[s] the state to establish a single uniform assessment, limiting the ability of local schools to determine their own curriculum." And while Title I funds can follow the child to district and charter schools, they may not be used for private schools. Further, Heritage notes of the SSA, "The suggestion that Congress needs a 616-page bill to reduce the federal education imprint is implausible." Siding with those who believe SSA doesn't go far enough, Heritage supports the A-PLUS (Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success) option, referring to an amendment offered by Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) that "enables states the flexibility to completely opt out [of federal education programs] and dictate how to best utilize federal education funding." AEI is less than convinced by A-PLUS, however. Max Eden and Michael Q. McShane explain that the actual wording of the amendment may encourage, not curb, federal involvement as A-PLUS opt-out requests could require the subjective approval of the secretary of education. Barack Obama's current secretary, Arne Duncan, isn't exactly someone conservatives should trust. If the committee vote is any indication, the Student Success Act will pass the House on party lines and head to the Senate. Already, Obama threatened to veto the bill. He claims it "abdicates the historic federal role in elementary and secondary education of ensuring the educational progress of all of America's students." Obama must have studied Common Core history. Yes, the federal government has a history of interfering in education, but a "historic role" doesn't mean it's a constitutional one. In truth, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was first passed only in 1965, and the Department of Education didn't become a Cabinet-level agency until 1980. Shockingly (ahem), all this "historic" involvement has failed to yield the stellar results promised. Perhaps America's Founders were actually onto something when they didn't delegate to Congress the power to regulate education and, by the Tenth Amendment, reserved it to the states and the people. Of course, when Washington runs the classroom, this is a "historic" fact many students will never hear -- and that suits politicians just fine. Comment | Share For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
 OPINION IN BRIEFAmerican philosopher Robert M. Hutchins (1899-1977): "Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible."Columnist Jeff Jacoby: "When one in three Americans is unsure of Obama’s religious affiliation, why should the governor of Wisconsin be expected to weigh in on the matter? Why should any public figure be quizzed about an officeholder’s spiritual beliefs? It is to [Scott] Walker’s credit that he wouldn’t venture a judgment on something he doesn’t know enough about. 'I’ve actually never talked about it,' he responded when the [Washington] Post pressed him to confirm Obama’s Christian identity. 'I’ve never asked him that.' Perhaps he should have reminded the reporters that in this country, the theological views of political leaders carry no constitutional weight. 'No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office,' the Framers specified in Article VI. Candidates for president need not be Christian, and it is not the business of any presidential hopeful to gauge the religious credentials of the current White House incumbent. Nor is it the business of journalists to try to goad them into doing so." Comment | Share Columnist Larry Elder: "When actress Patricia Arquette won an Oscar, she pled for 'wage equality' for women.... Arquette’s plea comes after the Sony Pictures cyber attack. Publicly disclosed private emails shows that then co-studio chief Amy Pascal paid Jennifer Lawrence less money than her not-as-popular male co-stars in 'American Hustle' -- and this was after Lawrence starred in the blockbuster 'Hunger Games.' When asked why, Ms. Pascal was blunt: 'Here’s the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money, I’ll pay them less money. I don’t call them up and say, "Can I give you some more?" Because that’s not what you do when you run a business. The truth is, what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away. People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs. … People should know what they’re worth.' Pascal, like Patricia Arquette, is also a contributor to the 'pay equity' Democratic Party. For his second term, President Obama wants to combat 'income inequality.' To get started, he won’t even have to leave the White House." Comment | Share Comedian Argus Hamilton: "The National Institute on Drug Abuse warned against legalization of marijuana after the latest study on pot's effect on young people. The study discovered that the use of marijuana by teenagers may seriously affect their judgment once they become adults. It's based on a study of President Obama." 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. |
Thursday, February 26, 2015
THE PATRIOT POST 02/26/2015
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