THE FOUNDATION
"[F]oreigners will generally be apt to bring with them attachments to the persons they have left behind; to the country of their nativity; and to its particular customs and manners. They will also entertain opinions on government congenial with those under which they have lived; or if they should be led hither from a preference to ours, how extremely unlikely is it that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism?" —Alexander Hamilton, 1802TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Hillary Vows to Outdo Obama's Immigration Actions
On Cinco de Mayo, Hillary Clinton promised to go above and beyond what Barack Obama has done with his unconstitutional overreach on immigration. In a campaign stop where she spoke to a group of illegal immigrants in Nevada, Clinton said she'd ignore the Constitution — and she hasn't even taken the oath yet to uphold it. "I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive actions that would put DREAMers, including those with us today, at risk of deportation," Clinton said. "And if Congress continues to refuse to act, as president I would do everything possible under the law to go even further." Remember: This is the same politician who said last year that all the unaccompanied illegal minors who were crossing the border should "be sent back as soon as it can be determined who the responsible adults in their families are." For the Left, Obama was a successful candidate, and Clinton wants to position herself as Obama 2.0, downplaying the fact she married Bill. She may not have the outsider energy Obama had, but she can promise to continue his policies. More...Comment | Share
Enter Huckabee
Mike Huckabee officially tossed his hat in the ring Tuesday, announcing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He launched his campaign in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, (also Bill Clinton's birthplace) and promised to lead the nation "from hope to higher ground." He's uniquely qualified, he says, because "I learned how to govern and I learned how to lead." And he's focused on the economy: "Wages have been stagnant for the bottom 90% of Americans for 40 years. With all the talk of the economy in recovery, I'm talking to Americans every day whose economy is not recovering. They're working harder than they were a year ago, two, three, four years ago but they're not better off." But he also carries a well-earned reputation for being a Big Government conservative, which in our book is an oxymoron. In other words, drop the "conservative" part, and you've got it. Indeed, we've had plenty to say about Huckabee's record here and here.Huckabee will have a tougher time winning the nomination than in his previous run. Unlike in 2008, there are numerous (actual) conservatives in the race who can just as easily win evangelical voters. And though the Republican Party has a habit of nominating previous primary losers (Reagan, Bush 41, McCain and Romney), Huckabee doesn't strike us as fitting that profile. That said, it's early and an awful lot can happen between now and the Iowa caucuses.
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Clinton Continues to Resist Benghazi Committee
The dance between Hillary Clinton and the House Select Committee on Benghazi continues. First, Clinton dumped her email on the State Department and wiped her hands of the matter. And she continues to stonewall the committee's request for her to testify. In an April 23 letter to Clinton's personal attorney David Kendall, committee chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said if everyone cooperates, Clinton could testify twice before Independence Day and be done with the committee. "It is necessary to call Secretary Clinton twice because the committee needs to ensure we have a complete and responsive record and all the facts before we then substantively question her on the Benghazi terrorist attacks," Gowdy wrote. After all, the committee has only 300 of Clinton's emails.But Kendall wrote back, "Respectfully, there is no basis, logic, or precedent for such an unusual request. The Secretary is fully prepared to stay for the duration of the Committee's questions on the day she appears." Kendall suggested Clinton appear before the committee the week of May 18, but only once. She doesn't want to "prolong the Committee's efforts further by appearing on two separate occasions when one will suffice," he wrote. Obstruct, obfuscate and deny — it's the same old Clinton modus operandi. More...
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
When Drawing Muhammad, It Depends on Who Wields the Pen
By Dan Gilmore
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| Winning cartoonist Bosch Fawstin |
On Sunday, Bosch Fawstin won the top prize at the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) Muhammad-drawing contest in Garland, Texas. It was an image of Muhammad materializing under the artist's pencil. He holds a sword aloft and he's saying, "You can't draw me!"
The artist in the picture replies, "That's why I draw you."
Meanwhile, two jihadists, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, made the 1,000-mile road trip from Phoenix, Arizona. In the car, Simpson and Soofi had rifles, body armor and ammo with which they were going to silence Fawstin and as many other infidels as possible.
Thankfully, an armed police officer protecting the free speech rights of those gathered in that auditorium stopped the two cold before they could do more than wound a single security guard.
But instead of garnering the support of the Leftmedia — as it gave to Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists and editors after the massacre at its offices, insincere as it was — the liberal talking heads turned on AFDI and said no one at the event had any right drawing Muhammad. Maybe it was because the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled AFDI an anti-Muslim hate group. Maybe it was because a good guy with a gun decided the final outcome of the day.
Fawstin has all the reason in the world to draw the figure. In his acceptance speech, Fawstin revealed he grew up Muslim: "The problem with even moderate Muslims — I was raised in the Bronx by Albanian Muslim parents — is that the poison of misogyny, and Jew hatred, it gets everyone."
As he grew older, he grew hostile to the religion of his youth. He later adopted the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand.
He created a superhero — Pigman — who fights jihadists, and drew several comic books with the character. It was a response to DC and Marvel avoiding the issue of violent Islam — not allowing Captain America to fight jihadists, for example.
But he's no Charlie Hebdo cartoonist. "They tell the truth about Islam and jihad every single day. I'm a cartoonist, I have a blog ... every so often, I have a comic book series I do, but I don't do it every day," he said.
Renald “Luz” Luzier drew Muhammad twice for the cover of Charlie Hebdo. When jihadists attacked his paper, killing his coworkers, he drew the figure again as a response to the terrorists who tried to silence him. Recently, however, he said he would stop drawing the figure because "It no longer interests me."
Both cartoonists had reasons to draw Muhammad. But now everyone is bickering over who has more of a right to draw the figure. When PBS's Charlie Rose asked Charlie Hebdo's film critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret to offer his opinion about the attacks in Garland, Thoret labeled AFDI's images of Muhammad illegitimate because, unlike Charlie Hebdo, the group was making fun of only Muslims. Charlie Hebdo, on the other hand, lampoons everyone to advance a socialist political philosophy.
"To be honest, I can’t imagine the kind of comparison you can make between the Charlie Hebdo attack January 7 and this event," Thoret said. "You have, as you said, a sort of anti-Muslim movement, a very harsh movement against Islamization of the U.S."
Since Charlie Hebdo is also anti-Christian and anti-Jew, they're in the clear.
Thoret's not the only progressive to justify the attacks against AFDI.
Chris Matthews played "hardball" with the story, calling the event a "mousetrap" to enrage Muslims. "Well, I think [AFDI's president Pamela Geller] caused this trouble, and whether this trouble came yesterday, or it came two weeks from now, it’s going to be in the air as long as you taunt."
See folks? AFDI's skirt was a little too short, its blouse a little too tight. Those Muslim jihadists couldn't help themselves.
That said, just because free speech is free doesn't mean it's not obnoxious or that it won't have consequences, though responsibility for the attack rests on the jihadists alone.
This is the failure of the Leftmedia's moral backbone. The Founders included the First Amendment specifically to protect political speech — even speech that is gratuitously offensive or deliberately obnoxious. This is why that amendment is interpreted so liberally, and also why leftists' fair-weather defense is so hypocritical.
The jihadist veto is a growing influence in the Left's thinking about free speech. Now, the Left implies there are limits to speech. They assume Americans are free to speak until someone threatens them with a gun. Now, they only cower in fear, talking amongst themselves about who most deserved the violence.
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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US
- ANALYSIS: Big Brother's Keeper: How Obama Exploits Black Poverty
- Garland Shooter Was Once Tried on Terrorism Charges
- Bill's Gotta Pay the Bills, Hence the Clinton Foundation Slush Fund
- Police Misbehavior Is No Excuse for General Mayhem
- Obama Has Only Exacerbated Racial Discord
- Study Touts Clean Power Plan's Supposed Life-Saving Effects
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Stephen Moore: America's Slow-Rolling Economic Crisis
- L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: 'Hate Group' Blamed for ISIS Attack
- Jonah Goldberg: To Break the Cycle of Poverty, Fix the Culture of Poverty
- Walter Williams: Black Lives Matter
- Tony Perkins: Visas: They’re Everywhere Obama Wants Them to Be
OPINION IN BRIEF
Stephen Moore: "Last week’s pitiful 0.2 percent economic growth for the first quarter of this year means the Obama slow-growth machine trudges onward. ... Economist Arthur Laffer shows that racial rioting in big cities is negatively associated with the economic growth rate. In the late 1960s and 1970s, cities became war zones, but the rioting almost entirely disappeared in the high-flying 1980s and 1990s, when incomes were rising, and job growth surged. Under Obama’s slow-growth economy, urban unrest is bubbling over. Comparing the growth rate during this recovery with others during the past 50 years, we are $1.6 trillion lower on current gross domestic product than we should be. Even more amazing: With a Reagan-style recovery, we’d have $2.5 trillion more output and income today. On average, every family in America would have $20,000 more annual income. That’s the crisis that has many Americans feeling so angry. It is, to borrow a phrase from Barack Obama about the Baltimore riots, 'a rolling crisis.' He could have being referring to the economy."Comment | Share
SHORT CUTS
Insight: "When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered." —journalist Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961)Non Compos Mentis: "Pamela Geller, the woman behind the Texas cartoon contest attacked by two gunmen late Sunday, knew what she was doing when she staged the controversial event featuring irreverent depictions of the prophet Muhammad in Garland, Tex. ... If the contest was intended as bait, it worked." —The Washington Post's Sandhya Somashekhar in a piece titled, "Event organizer offers no apology after thwarted attack in Texas"
Village Idiots: "[M]y argument to people who worry about comprehensive immigration reform and the effect on their jobs is: It's just the opposite. The sooner we can get to legalization, the better the job market will be for everybody." —Hillary Clinton
And last... "The would-be terrorists in Garland fell for one of the classic blunders: Never assume that you’ve outgunned an art show in Texas." —National Review alum Daniel Foster
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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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