THE FOUNDATION
"[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another." —Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Hammond, 1821TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Obama Warns the Coast Guard of Rising Seas, Not Real Threats
Barack Obama stood before the 200 graduates at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. They may have been sitting there, in their crisp white uniforms, but they would soon go out and enforce maritime law, command ships and lead search and rescue missions. What words could the commander in chief give these graduates that they could take to heart as they serve their country? Obama said, "I'm here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security. And make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country. And so we need to act — and we need to act now." Instead of mentioning the growing threat of ISIL that will be around longer than his administration, instead of warning about Russia's belligerence, Obama tried to connect his longtime environmental crusade with national security. In fact, he blamed climate change for civil war in Syria: "Understand, climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world. Yet ... [i]t's now believed that drought and crop failures and high food prices helped fuel the early unrest in Syria, which descended into civil war in the heart of the Middle East." Obama's address was full of lies. This speech merely diverted from his failed security policies to focus on his socialist climate change agenda.Comment | Share
Rice Boasts of Ending Two Wars 'Responsibly'
National Security Advisor Susan Rice doesn't have a swell history when it comes to accurately describing things. She faithfully started the YouTube video talking points lie regarding Benghazi, and, perhaps less infamously, she declared deserter and likely traitor Bowe Bergdahl served with "honor and distinction." So it's little surprise that she stuck her foot in her mouth once again, this time at a German Embassy photography exhibit of wounded soldiers. With U.S. vets in attendance angry over the recent fall of Ramadi, Rice had the audacity to claim, "Now that we have ended two wars responsibly, and brought home hundreds of American troops, we salute this new generation of veterans." Neither the war in Iraq nor the war in Afghanistan is over. Barack Obama simply abandoned Iraq, leaving it to the Islamic State, though U.S. forces continue to conduct airstrikes there. American soldiers will remain in Afghanistan for the time being, but the future is uncertain. Either way, "ended" and "responsibly" are not words to describe the actions of this woeful commander in chief.Finally, a question for Hillary Clinton: Knowing what you know now, would you go along with Obama's plan to retreat from Iraq?
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More Governments Fudging Climate Data
Satellite data has found that the mean global temperature has been sitting on a plateau for more than 18 years now, which is in stark contrast to official government numbers. Just this week, NOAA reported that, at 1.33°F (0.74°C) above average, last month was the fourth warmest April recorded globally, and 2015 so far is the hottest on record. But as we've documented, the agency is currently mired in allegations of misconduct after it was discovered that historical data was manipulated to make post 1970s/1980s warming appear more alarming. And more and more foreign government agencies are engaging in the practice. Last year, "The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM) was ... forced to admit it alters the temperatures recorded at almost all the official weather stations in Australia," H. Sterling Burnett with The Heartland Institute wrote in September. Now, "Switzerland joins a growing list of countries whose temperature measurements have been adjusted to show greater warming than actually measured by its temperature instrument," Burnett revealed this week. Interestingly, he notes, "Even with fudged data, governments have been unable to hide the fact winters in Switzerland and in Central Europe have become colder over the past 20 years, defying predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other climate alarmists." Ironically, even data tampering can't hide one inconvenient fact: Temperature trends are defying the science community's predictions.Comment | Share
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Export-Import Bank Means Picking Winners and Losers
By Allyne Caan
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Created in 1934 by executive order (that should have been the first warning), Ex-Im faces extinction if its charter is allowed to expire June 30.
But here’s the thing. Increasingly, conservatives are catching on to the fact that, just like the “too-big-to-fail” bailouts meant the government picked winners and losers, Ex-Im means the government picks winners and losers. Basically, the bank decides what companies, or countries, receive taxpayer-backed financing to purchase U.S. products. And it’s for good reason Ex-Im has been nicknamed the “Bank of Boeing,” given that Boeing receives 30% of the bank’s financing, or, as Veronique de Rugy points out, more than $66 billion between 2007 and 2014.
Those opposed to letting the bank close its doors next month include, not surprisingly, Barack Obama, progressive darling Elizabeth Warren, and House Speaker John Boehner, who claimed that “there are thousands of jobs on the line that would disappear pretty quickly if the Ex-Im Bank were to disappear.”
Only, there aren’t. First, as de Rugy notes, Ex-Im subsidies don’t "create" jobs but merely "redistribute" them from non-subsidized ones to subsidized ones. Hmm, if you like your job you can keep your job? Second, tales of thousands of jobs lost may be greatly exaggerated, as evidenced by criticism from the Government Accountability Office and others of the job numbers provided by the bank.
Furthermore, even if Ex-Im went dark, the life of current loans and loan guarantees wouldn’t be cut short. For Boeing, this would mean, as Hensarling notes, an additional 18 years of financing. Plus, the primary recipients of Ex-Im subsidies have work backorders that would sustain their business for years — Boeing’s threat notwithstanding.
So what’s Congress to do? Well, several members, including several presidential candidates or potential candidates, say the bank needs to go — whether quickly or over time. Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, all with eyes set on 2016, have come out against the bank, as have Governors Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, as well as former CEO Carly Fiorina. Senator Lindsay Graham, not surprisingly, has come out in favor of the bank.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, who was for the bank before he was against it, recently announced his opposition to Ex-Im, not on philosophical grounds, but given “recent revelations of corruption and bribery at the institution.” Indeed, Ex-Im has been called out for noncompliance with congressionally mandated reforms and is the subject of 31 open fraud investigations. We're shocked that any executive agency could have even a smidgeon of corruption.
At issue is whether the federal government has a constitutional reason to redirect taxpayer dollars to foreign countries and customers. Subsidizing the purchase of U.S. exports picks winners and losers at great expense and it's probably contrary to what the market would dictate.
For the party in congressional power — which supposedly stands for free markets — letting Ex-Im's charter expire should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen all too often, even no-brainers can sometimes prove a stretch for Republican congressional leadership.
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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US
- ANALYSIS: Making Hay Out of the Haystack
- Secretive Hillary Can't Be Trusted
- Ready for Hillary's Hilarious Fake Interview
- Los Angeles Starts Its Minimum Wage Experiment
- ISIL Ignores Community Organizing in Syria
- NYC Mulls Stepping Back From Broken Window Policing
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Victor Davis Hanson: Think Like a Liberal — or Else
- Jim DeMint & Ed Feulner: Congress Trying to Push Through a Program Shown to Hurt Workers
- Ann Coulter: Knowing What We Know Now, Would You Say Jeb Bush Is Retarded?
- Tony Perkins: A Fourth to Be Reckoned With
OPINION IN BRIEF
Victor Davis Hanson: "If Clinton is really worried about the role of big money in politics, she would have done better to have insisted that the Clinton Foundation did not solicit donations from foreign governments while she was the secretary of state. She might have ensured that her family’s foundation distributed 90 percent of its expenditures — instead of a reported 10 percent — directly to the charities it claimed to help, especially given that it has raised close to $2 billion. Clinton might also have blasted former presidents seeking hefty lecture fees and family foundation donations from wealthy entrepreneurs who hope to buy access and influence from either a sitting secretary of state, a former president of the United States — or a future president. Or, Clinton herself might have cut back on lucrative speaking fees, often paid by wealthy corporations seeking influence. Bill and Hillary Clinton have pulled in $30 million in lecture cash in just the last 16 months. Mysteriously, the closer Hillary Clinton got to announcing her bid for the presidency, the more frequent and the more lucrative the Clinton duo’s lecturing became. When news organizations, judges or Americans in general do not think or speak in the correct fashion, then elite progressives believe they must do whatever is necessary to silence them — while making themselves exempt from their own agendas."Comment | Share
SHORT CUTS
Insight: "The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction." —legendary Greek fabulist Aesop (c. 620–564 BC)Friendly fire: "[Obama administration officials] go around to ABC and CNN and say, ‘We’re not going to listen to [Fox News], and neither should you.’ To me, it’s so unprecedented. They can’t handle any dissent. It’s got to be completely 100% behind what they want — they don’t want to debate, they won’t send anybody on Fox News. … It goes without saying that if George Bush had done this, he would have been Hitler." —Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers, who calls herself a "proud liberal"
Non Compos Mentis: "Americans do not seem to be able to handle gun ownership in a way that permits maintenance of a civil society. ... In an era of extreme concern about national security, Americans need to recognize that one of the greatest threats to national security is their own heavily armed population. ... Unfortunately, our proven inability to handle widespread gun ownership suggests strongly that the way to do this is to deeply restrict access to and ownership of most types of guns." —University of Texas at Austin professor John Traphagan
Alpha Jackass: "ISIS's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sounds like a Republican candidate for president." —Slate's William Saletan
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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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