THE FOUNDATION
"As long as property exists, it will accumulate in individuals and families. As long as marriage exists, knowledge, property and influence will accumulate in families." --John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1814TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
The 'Business-Like Relationship,' Spying and Kumbayah
Barack Obama insists that his petulant and petty behavior toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't personal. "There's a tendency ... to frame this somehow as a personal issue between myself and Prime Minister Netanyahu," Obama said Tuesday. "[T]he notion is, well, if we all just get along and everybody cools down, then somehow the problem goes away. I have a very business-like relationship with the prime minister. I've met him more than any other world leader. I talk to him all the time. He is representing his country's interests the way he thinks he needs to and I'm doing the same. So the issue is not a matter of relations between leaders. The issue is a very clear, substantive challenge. We believe that two states is the best path forward for Israel's security, for Palestinian aspirations and for regional stability. ... Prime Minister Netanyahu has a different approach. And so this can't be reduced to a matter of somehow let's all, you know, hold hands and sing Kumbayah. This is a matter of figuring out how do we get through a real knotty policy difference that has great consequences for both countries and for the region." No doubt there are substantive policy differences -- after all, Obama's bowing to the Iranians. He tries to maintain the appearance of just being a practical guy, but Obama's Narcissistic Personality Disorder means he can't abide anything he perceives as a personal slight. Netanyahu has crossed that red line.On another note, Obama is upset that Israel reportedly spied on negotiations with Iran and shared information with Congress. But he found out because the U.S. was spying on Israel. Furthermore, might the Israelis have been spying on Iran, and not the U.S.? After all, Iran regularly threatens to annihilate Israel, and nuclear weapons would make that a bit easier. Finally, Obama might try another novel idea: communicating with Congress himself.
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Administration Adopts the Language of Hamas
Before his re-election last week, Benjamin Netanyahu candidly said he didn't see a two-state solution being likely while he was Israel's prime minister. That's primarily because Palestinians want only one state -- theirs -- and won't agree to "peace" until Israel is wiped off the map. Facing intense pressure from Barack Obama, however, Netanyahu reiterated after his win that he does indeed desire a peaceful two-state solution. That's not enough for Obama, though. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough gave one condition for peace: "An occupation [of Palestinian land] that has lasted more than 50 years must end." That's the language of anti-Israel leftists and Hamas terrorists, meaning Obama's administration is showing its true colors. McDonough also said of Netanyahu's original comments, "We cannot simply pretend that these comments were never made." Let's just turn that around on McDonough for the "occupation" remark. And Obama has no problem pretending Ayatollah Khamenei didn't chant "death to America." What gives?Comment | Share
Iran Agrees to Nothing Specific as Negotiations Wind Down
No deal is better than a bad deal with Iran, right? That's what Obama administration officials have promised repeatedly. Now it is time to see if they will honor that promise, as the talks with Iran to curb its nuclear production seem to have slid sideways. Ultimately, the only way to ensure Iran doesn't obtain nuclear weapons is to have more access and more oversight into its nuclear program. But Voice of America reports Iran is resisting oversight: "Iran's nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted Tuesday on Iranian state TV's website as saying that snap inspections are 'illegal.' He did not elaborate. Kamalvandi was responding to the demand earlier this month by Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that Tehran agree to the inspections." Amano says the IAEA is not satisfied that Iran wants nuclear capabilities only for peaceful means. And Iran's resistance to agree to anything specific as the talks wind down isn't helping the unease. More...Comment | Share
Delaying Withdrawal From Afghanistan
As the Iranian deal nears, and Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya descend into chaos -- all products of Barack Obama's foreign policy malfeasance -- the U.S. reached an agreement with Afghanistan to leave 9,800 American troops in that nation through 2015. Given Obama's disastrous pullout from Iraq, maybe he learned his lesson. Or maybe not. Obama insisted his plan to reduce U.S. troops presence to 1,000 by the end of his term is still in place: "The date for us to have completed our drawdown will not change." During the press conference, Obama errantly referred to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as "President Karzai" -- the name of Ghani's reviled predecessor. Ghani, on the other hand, has worked to improve relations between the two countries, and pleaded for a troop deployment extension. It's an improvement to see Obama modify his strategy so, as he put it, "we don't have to go back," but that rhetoric aside he seems bullheadedly determined to leave Afghanistan to the Taliban after U.S. withdrawal. What's one more failed state on his résumé? More...Comment | Share
Top DHS Official Accused of Immigration Favoritism
On paper, the EB-5 immigration program sounds like a huge benefit for the nation's economy. The program fast-tracks green cards for foreign investors who put at least half a million dollars into a venture in the U.S. that will create jobs. But in practice, the program is riddled with corruption that favors businesses with ties to Democrat politicians -- all thanks to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This is the finding of a two-and-a-half year investigation by DHS's Inspector General. "The juxtaposition of Mr. Mayorkas' communication with external stakeholders on specific matters outside the normal procedures, coupled with favorable action that deviated from the regulatory scheme designed to ensure fairness and evenhandedness in adjudicating benefits, created an appearance of favoritism and special access," the report concludes. Mayorkas meddled in at least three cases. In one instance, he became personally involved when a Mexican investor wanted a green card to invest in a Las Vegas casino Sen. Harry Reid had touted. And this is where the corruption starts to stink even further. Mayorkas was under this investigation, heading the EB-5 program, when Barack Obama nominated him for his present deputy spot. It was Reid who rammed through Mayorkas' nomination using none other than the nuclear option. But they say you can trust Democrats. More...Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Global Warming Is Killing Everyone
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Take newly elected Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who wooed voters by pledging to address man-made global warming with initiatives like cap and trade. On Feb. 4, Beyer wrote on his website, "In all, extreme weather events triggered over $110 billion in losses and almost 7,000 fatalities" in 2014. He reiterated that claim a month later in the Falls Church News-Press, in which he repeated, "More than 7,000 Americans lost their lives to climate change-fueled events last year."
That's pretty startling. And egregiously wrong. After Beyer's assertion received backlash, spokesman Thomas Scanlon attempted to clear the air. "That number should be globally, not just in the United States," he told PolitiFact. "We made an error in editing this column."
Even still, the claim is deceptive. The statistic (which was actually 7,700) was derived from Germany-based insurer Munich RE, which tallies "global natural loss event." According to researcher Peter Hoeppe, "We do not have the ability to identify the direct impact of global warming on fatalities caused by natural catastrophes, other than to say any fatality caused by the earthquake peril are not due to global warming."
On that note, PolitiFact writes, "Of the 7,700 deaths, Munich RE estimated 850 were caused by earthquakes. The remaining 6,850 deaths, the company wrote, were caused by 'weather-related' events."
But the evidence to back Beyer's claim is essentially nonexistent. Michael Bastasch of The Daily Caller notes, "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change itself says there’s 'limited evidence of changes in extremes associated with other climate variables since the mid-20th century.'" Moreover, Bastasch adds, "Not only has weather not been getting more 'extreme' in the last century, mankind’s ability to withstand extreme weather events has increased globally. The International Disaster Database reports that more than 3.5 million people were killed by natural disasters in the early 1930s when the world population was about half what it is today. Fast forward to 2014 and only 7,700 people worldwide were killed by natural disasters (which includes earthquakes), according to Munich Re."
Any loss of life is a tragic part of the human condition, but 7,000 individuals is a far cry from 3.5 million. We should be thankful for the protection we have today, largely driven by fossil fuels and other economic development in the face of ecofascist opposition. But advancing the climate agenda requires alarmism.
One final note: Beyer made a career owning and operating Volvo, Land Rover, Kia, Volkswagen and Subaru dealerships. If he sincerely believes that alleviating "the harmful consequences of global climate change is the existential crisis of our generation," as he so adamantly professes, perhaps he should start by shuttering his fossil fuel-burning, CO2-belching businesses.
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Leftmedia Dismiss Obama's Mentor
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Davis was one of many past Obama associates who was resolutely ignored by the Leftmedia in the run-up to the 2008 election -- and since then, too. While other presidential candidates, particularly Republicans, can always count on the unwavering scrutiny of the press, Obama remained free of such probing questions. In fact, the media circled the wagons to protect him from any information that might damage the glowing narrative of Hope 'n' Change™. Consequently, Davis went largely unmentioned. And questions about Obama’s early dalliances with communism went unanswered.
This week, The Washington Post, one of the media gatekeepers of the Obama persona, gave the Davis story their fact-check "Pinocchio test.” After an article that documented barely half the story of Davis’s background and his associations with Obama, the Post decided any attempt to label Davis as Obama’s communist mentor was worth three Pinocchios out of four.
Nothing to see here; move along.
Who is the real Frank Marshall Davis? You won’t learn the answer from the Post or any other mainstream outlet that has been carrying Obama's water for years. You have to turn to the likes of Paul Kengor, author of "The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, the Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor,” to get any serious information.
Davis was a card-carrying member (#47544) of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) since the early 1940s. The media and leftist revisionist historians treat such Communist affiliations during the Cold War period as trivial, yet it's worth remembering at the time that the CPUSA was not merely a club where disenchanted college students gathered to debate Karl Marx and do drugs. The stated purpose of the CPUSA was clear in the oath its members swore to "ensure the triumph of Soviet power in the United States.”
Davis was no armchair activist, either. He was the founding editor of a Communist paper in Chicago in 1946. He then moved to Hawaii in 1948 to write for the Honolulu Record, another Party journal. Throughout the 40s and 50s, Davis remained active. Obama apologists would have us believe Davis spent this time writing about the treatment of blacks, the cycle of poverty and ways to achieve social justice.
University of Kansas professor John Edgar Tidwell insists, "He was not out there on the front lines carrying pickets and signs. He wasn’t trying to overthrow the government at all.” Yet his writings were not those of an impassioned intellectual seeking a better America. Indeed, the FBI collected a 600-page file on Davis.
The Bureau kept Davis under constant surveillance and placed him on a watch list, meaning if war broke out with the Soviet Union, he would be arrested. At this point, Obama apologists will break out the Red Scare card, reminding us of the overzealous FBI tactics used during the 1950s. History has proven, though, that Alger Hiss was a Communist, the Rosenbergs were spies, and there were in fact Communists working in the State Department. These are not myths, and Frank Marshall Davis was not the victim of some rabid anti-Communist witch-hunt. He was the real thing.
Davis was introduced to Obama in 1970 by Obama’s grandfather for the express purpose of mentoring the boy. By many accounts Davis and Obama met some 10-15 times between then and when Obama went off to college nine years later. These extensive sessions had a profound impact on Obama's life and certainly impacted his views on America, race and economics.
Obama was clever in hiding this relationship and the extent to which Davis influenced his thinking. "Frank” is mentioned 22 times by name in Obama’s "Dreams from My Father,” but only by his first name. And when the audio version of the book was released in 2005, all mentions of Frank were scrubbed from the edition. If Davis was such a wholesome influence on Obama, why did he get the redacted treatment in the future president’s autobiography?
Obama’s worldview and actions should be proof enough that the defining political and social influences in his life do not, to put it mildly, hold America in the highest regard. His first months in office were spent apologizing to other nations for America’s behavior. At every turn, Obama plays down and even insults America’s Christian heritage while repeatedly trying to remind us that Islam is the Religion of Peace™. He's always on the lookout for ways to convert America into a government-run economy. His foreign policy agenda is driven by embracing America’s enemies and shunning our allies. And he has no respect for the Constitution or the office of the presidency.
Frank Marshall Davis belongs with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and an infamous list of anti-American activists and revolutionaries who can claim to be friends and mentors of the 44th president. With no help at all from the mainstream media, we have been able to piece together the nature of some of these associations. And we have Obama himself as proof of the life he led and the people with whom he chose to spend his time.
Still it would be nice if the media did its job once in a while. Then again, with Republicans running for president in 2016, they will surely pick up their muck rakes very soon.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Jacob Sullum: Ted Cruz Is Right About Taxes
- Walter Williams: What's Gone Wrong With Democracy?
- Tony Perkins: Obama Uses Climate Hoax to Bully Govs
- Jonah Goldberg: Washington, DC, Comics: Dr. Ignoro vs. Bibi
- John Stossel: Gentrify!
OPINION IN BRIEF
Chief Justice Earl Warren (1891-1974): "A republic is not an easy form of government to live under, and when the responsibility of citizenship is evaded, democracy decays and authoritarianism takes over."Columnist Jacob Sullum: "'The most serious problem facing U.S. taxpayers is the declining quality of service provided to them by the IRS when they seek to comply with their federal tax-filing and payment obligations,' says the Taxpayer Advocate Service ('Your Voice at the IRS') in its latest annual report to Congress. 'Even when a taxpayer manages to get through to a telephone assistor with a question, the assistor may not be able to provide an answer.' That’s because the IRS decided in 2013 that 'it would answer only what it terms "basic" questions, declaring "more complex" questions that it previously answered "out of scope."' In other words, the less likely you are to resolve a tax compliance question on your own the less likely the IRS is to help you. You can, of course, consult a 'tax professional,' who makes a living by helping perplexed citizens figure out how much they owe the government. But the very existence of this occupation is an indictment of our Byzantine tax system, which is so complicated that even the IRS is reluctant to answer questions about it -- yet it imposes civil and criminal penalties on people who fail to comply with its numerous picayune requirements."
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Columnist Walter Williams: "The ideal way to organize human conduct is to create a system that maximizes personal liberty for all. Liberty and democracy are not synonymous and most often are opposites. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison explained, 'Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.' Democracy and majority rule confer an aura of legitimacy and respectability on acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical. ... Would you want the kind of car you own to be decided through a democratic process, or would you prefer purchasing any car you please? Ask that same question about decisions such as where you shall live, what clothes you purchase, what food you eat, what entertainment you enjoy and what wines you drink. I’m sure that if anyone suggested that these choices be subject to a democratic process, we would deem it tyranny."
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Comedian Argus Hamilton: "GOP Senator Ted Cruz announced he's running for president Monday. He was born in Canada to a Cuban father and to an Anglo-Saxon mother. Democrats fell over laughing at the idea that Americans would elect a bi-racial senator with a Harvard law degree who was born in another country."
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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