Daily Digest
March 3, 2015
THE FOUNDATION"If two laws conflict with each other, the Courts must decide on the operation of each. ... If, then, the Courts are to regard the Constitution, and the Constitution is superior to any ordinary act of the Legislature, the Constitution, and not such ordinary act, must govern the case to which they both apply." --John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKSHillary Clinton Broke Law Using Private Email AccountRep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) isn't done leading the committee investigating the Benghazi attack, and already he's dredged up a bombshell that previous investigative committees missed. During her time as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton never used a government email account -- a move that violates federal record keeping law. Former Director of Litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration Jason Baron told The New York Times, "It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario -- short of nuclear winter -- where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business." At this point, Clinton's defenders may chime in: What difference does it make? Well, for one thing, if Obama's administration is the "most transparent in history," what would this mean for another Clinton administration? One clue: Clinton used a domain registered the day of her Senate confirmation hearings. Clearly, she had a plan from the start to obfuscate and hide her wheeling and dealing. It's time she was put under oath again to defend this. Preferably before she announces her presidential candidacy. More...Comment | Share Lawmakers Write ATF to Object to Ammo BanThe Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently announced it is considering a ban on M855 ammunition, which is popular among AR-15 owners for target shooting. The "rationale," if it can be called that, is the ammo could be considered "armor piercing," and, with the advent of AR-15 pistols, will become dangerous to police (never mind that zero police officers have been killed with it). Several lawmakers called out the ATF on its backdoor gun control in a letter. The ATF's framework, the lawmakers say, "establishes an unduly restrictive standard, does not comport with the letter or spirit of the law, and will interfere with Second Amendment rights by disrupting the market for ammunition that law abiding Americans use for sporting and other legitimate purposes." Of course, the Second Amendment isn't primarily for "sporting purposes," but they're right about the infringement. Not that it matters to Barack Obama's administration. Spokesman Josh Earnest explained, "I'd put this in the category of common-sense steps our government can take." Ah, yes, "common sense" -- who could possibly oppose that?Comment | Share Netanyahu to Address Congress, Obama Calls It 'Distraction'Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress today to warn of the threat of Iran's nuclear program. Advance details of his speech are limited, but one thing is clear: Barack Obama is really perturbed that Netanyahu is here. Administration officials have previously promised "there will be a price" for this "departure from ... protocol" -- despite Netanyahu having waited for Obama to be notified before accepting the invitation. (The New York Times finally got around to acknowledging this in a correction.) On Monday, Obama called Netanyahu's speech a "mistake," again pointing to Israel's upcoming elections. "It makes it look like we are taking sides," he complained, "It is a distraction from what should be our focus." In this case, even Obama said the focus should be preventing Iran, the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism, from obtaining nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, he's also lost this focus, recently indicating we just need to "reduce the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon," and, if it happens anyway in 10 years, what's that to Obama?Comment | Share IRS Says It Can Dump Gobs of Money on Amnestied IllegalsThe Internal Revenue Service is digging in and standing by its claim that illegal immigrants are eligible for back tax credits if they get Social Security numbers. Under Barack Obama's executive amnesty, four million illegal immigrants can apply for Social Security numbers. An unknown number of them will be able to claim back tax credits -- even though Obama's "law" doesn't require them to pay back taxes. In a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen wrote, "Section 32 of the Internal Revenue Code requires an SSN on the return, but a taxpayer claiming the [Earned Income Tax Credit] EITC is not required to have an SSN before the close of the year for which the EITC is claimed." Gee, remember a time when was the IRS this friendly to U.S. citizens? More...Comment | Share Obama Lies About KeystoneBarack Obama earned the infamous "Four Pinocchio" rating from The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog for his recent comments defending his veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama's argument wasn't that Congress infringed on the executive branch's responsibilities. No, he claimed to be doing what was good for the American people. "I've already said I'm happy to look at how we can increase pipeline production for U.S. oil, but Keystone is for Canadian oil to send that down to the Gulf," Obama told a North Dakota reporter. "It bypasses the United States and is estimated to create a little over 250, maybe 300 permanent jobs. We should be focusing more broadly on American infrastructure for American jobs and American producers, and that's something that we very much support." But, as the Post points out, the oil that would flow through Keystone would also come from the North Dakota oil fields. And while construction wouldn't keep any permanent jobs -- few construction projects ever do -- it would keep Louisiana refineries busy. Instead, Obama repeated an untruth to stick with his environmentalist dogma. More...Comment | Share For more, visit Right Hooks. Don't Miss Patriot HumorCheck out Obama's Plan to Defeat ISIL.If you'd like to receive Patriot Humor by email, update your subscription here.
RIGHT ANALYSISDOJ's Racial Witch Hunt Isn't Over
According to recent data from the Missouri attorney general, blacks accounted for 86% of traffic stops in 2013, but make up 63% of the population. Black drivers were twice as likely to be searched during a stop, yet searches were more likely to turn up contraband with white drivers. The fines collected from such traffic stops are Ferguson's second largest source of revenue. The Justice Department report goes so far as to suggest that the city uses disproportionate traffic stops against blacks to meet municipal budget shortfalls. The final report will likely include a list of recommended changes Ferguson will need to implement. Otherwise, the city could face a federal lawsuit to force compliance -- just like the four open lawsuits against cities that have not rolled over. Most cities facing such actions comply with the Justice Department's demands. During Eric Holder's time as attorney general, the DOJ has gone after more than 50 police departments for some form of discrimination or another, often at the behest of the NAACP or the ACLU. "This is about expanding federal power in the police departments," former DOJ attorney Hans von Spakovsky told The Wall Street Journal. "The lawyers at Justice believe they are the ones who should be promulgating national standards of how cops should behave. And police departments are so afraid of bad publicity that they agree to settle the case with all kinds of rules that Justice wants to impose." It is within the responsibility of the Justice Department to investigate matters in which discrimination may be taking place, but, when the AG is someone who sees everything through a racial prism like Holder, the potential for trouble escalates. For example, Holder is so motivated by his own racial grievances that he resolutely refuses to address the outrageous number of murders of blacks by other blacks. FBI statistics from 2012 show that 2,614 whites were killed by other whites that year, and 2,412 blacks were killed by other blacks. If Holder were as concerned about proportionality as he demonstrates when comparing white and blacks, then one would think he would have been troubled by these numbers. As a portion of the population, black-on-black murder remains substantially higher than white-on-white murder. And the FBI numbers for 2012 combined white and Hispanic murder rates, making the disparity even greater than at first glance. Yet, throughout his tenure at Justice, Holder has maintained his focus on race, letting himself get mixed up with professional race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He has followed their pattern by continually blaming racism and discrimination for the plight of the black community. The actions of his Justice Department confirm Holder's view that blacks are targeted for their skin color, not because of their behavior. Perhaps that's why Sharpton says, "No other U.S. attorney general has a civil rights record equal to Holder's." Amy Wax, a former DOJ official teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, wrote, "Contrary to frequently voiced accusations and despite a voluminous literature intent upon demonstrating discrimination at every turn, there is almost no reliable evidence of racial bias in the criminal justice system's handling of ordinary violent and non-violent offenses. Rather, the facts overwhelmingly show that blacks go to prison more often because blacks commit more crimes." The Justice Department's months of investigating did not bring up enough evidence to charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson with civil rights violations in the death of Michael Brown. Similarly, they were not able to pin such charges on George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin. In fact, for all of Holder's posturing, all Justice has really been able to accomplish is perpetuating the same problem they claim to be addressing. The pattern of racial indignation set by Sharpton and Co. that has been picked up by Holder's Justice Department has only served to make police less likely to engage in minority neighborhoods. This won't make inner cities less violent, and it won't make lives better for blacks. Shortly after taking office, Holder accused America of being a nation of "cowards" for not engaging in a frank discussion about race. As he prepares to step down in a few weeks, Holder still has not engaged in that discussion, either. He'd rather place blame and wag his finger because that's what makes headlines and turns out the aggrieved vote. As for the real work that it will take to reduce black-on-black crime and make minority neighborhoods safer, well, apparently that's just not worth his time. Comment | Share Next Executive Overreach: Taxes
When Congress did not pass immigration reform in accordance with Obama's wishes, he acted unilaterally. Obama's executive order provided for more than four million illegal immigrants to receive some form of legal status -- work permits, Social Security numbers and driver's licenses. Instead of securing our borders, he wants to secure votes for Democrats. Surely, Obama shouldn't get away with this egregious overreach, but who's stopping him? Worse, his immigration actions only established a pattern. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest indicated there are possibly more executive orders coming our way. Earnest confirmed Monday that Obama is "very interested" in taking unilateral executive action to raise taxes. He explained, "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle-class Americans." Earnest continued, "Now, I don't want to leave you with an impression that there is some imminent announcement -- there is not, at least not that I know of. But the president has asked his team to examine the array of executive authorities that are available to him to try to make progress on his goals. ... [T]he president is very interested in this avenue generally." Obama is so bent on "fairness" that he's willing to "examine" the possibility of taxing Americans without Congress. Obama declared in his State of the Union address that Congress needed to act to close the loopholes in taxes among corporations. So perhaps he will ask Congress to pass corporate tax hikes, and, when Congress inevitably says no, Obama may simply turn to the IRS to implement the taxation. The IRS already has a track record of helping him politically -- Lois Lerner was no "lone wolf." Since there isn't enough revenue to pay for Obama's $4 trillion boondoggle budget, he can claim now is the time to act; now is the time to raise taxes on those who need to "pay their fair share." Progressives in general erroneously claim America's debt problem is a lack of revenue, while they continue to spend ever more money on failed programs and policies. A recent Congressional Budget Office report shows that "compared to historical averages, from 1965 to 2014, spending is rising much faster than revenues." Not that it takes a CBO report to see that the debt is growing. It so happens the greatest increase in spending and debt has occurred during Obama's administration. Further, the gap between spending and revenue is projected to widen, therefore increasing our debt. Clearly, Obama doesn't believe we have a problem with spending or debt, even though during his six years in office the national debt has risen nearly $8 trillion to a whopping $18.1 trillion. With Obama's executive actions on immigration and his potential maneuver on raising taxes, the question to ponder is when will he stop? The tragic reality is he likely won't. The only limit on his power he seems to acknowledge is whatever he deems unnecessary. Comment | Share For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
 OPINION IN BRIEFAugustine of Hippo (354-430): "Put no faith in salvation through the political order."Columnist Dennis Prager: "Appeasers hate those who confront evil. Given that this president is the least likely of any president in American history to confront evil – or even identify it – while Benjamin Netanyahu is particularly vocal and eloquent about both identifying and confronting evil, it is inevitable that the former will resent the latter. ... [T]hose who refused to characterize the Soviet Union as evil loathed Ronald Reagan and other anti-communists for doing so; and those who objected to the 'Axis of Evil' label placed on North Korea, Iran, and Iraq loathed George W. Bush and his supporters. The loathing of Benjamin Netanyahu is simply the latest example of the rule that those who will not confront evil will instead confront those who do. (It’s much safer, after all.) Since the end of World War II, there has been a name for the people who refuse to confront evil and who resent those who do: leftists." Comment | Share Columnist Ed Feulner: "This is no time to make more concessions. It’s a time to stand up against Iran’s nuclear program, which threatens not only the security of the Middle East, but the U.S. as well. As the 2015 Index of Military Strength shows, Iran’s missile threat is growing at an alarming rate. Its longest-range current missile can reach as far west as Egypt, and as far east as China – and it’s working to go much farther. 'Iran could develop and test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States by 2015,' the Pentagon reports. As in this year. It’s crucial that we stand with Israel, a staunch ally fighting on the front lines, at this critical time. The safety of millions depends on us doing the right thing. Will we?" Comment | Share Comedian Jimmy Fallon: "There's this picture of a dress that someone took, and people online are fighting over what color it is. Some people say it's black and blue. Some say it's white and gold. I think someone should ask Obama, our country's first gold president." 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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