Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily DigestTHE FOUNDATION"Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us." —Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Francis W. Gilmer, 1816TOP RIGHT HOOKSObama Plans to Debate Islamic State Into SubmissionBarack Obama should be more up front with what he's trying to do to the Islamic State. Why doesn't he just say he's practicing a strategy of non-intervention? On Monday, Obama touted the "success" of his strategy to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State. Still, he had one caveat: "Our strategy recognizes that no amount of military force will end the terror that is ISIL unless it's matched by a broader effort — political and economic — that addresses the underlying conditions that have allowed ISIL to gain traction. ... Ultimately, in order for us to defeat terrorist groups like ISIL and al-Qaida, it's going to also require us to discredit their ideology. This broader challenge of countering violent extremism is not simply a military effort. Ideologies are not defeated with guns; they're defeated by better ideas — a more attractive and more compelling vision." Clearly, we didn't win independence from Britain with superior debating skills, nor did we defeat the Nazis or Soviets with speeches. Debate works amidst a civil society, but not when one side is enslaving minorities, burning prisoners alive and beheading others, while vowing further violence against people with whom it disagrees. On the flip side, if Obama believes no further debate can be had and the gloves must come off, there's always the IRS.Comment | Share South Carolina Nears Removing Confederate FlagThe nation is one step closer to finally solving the racism Rubik's cube once and for all. No, not really, but the South Carolina Senate did just vote 37-3 to remove what's commonly known as the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds. After a formality of a third vote, the measure moves to the state House, and what Republican Gov. Nikki Haley recently said was not "going to be easy" or "painless" will have turned out to be rather easy and relatively painless. The debate over the flag began with the horrific murders of nine blacks at a church in Charleston by a racist thug who took a picture with a Confederate flag. As far as public debate was concerned, that cemented the connection between the flag and racism. It's one thing to remove the flag from state grounds — a flag put there by a Democrat governor, by the way, and kept there in a compromise supported by slain Rev. Clementa Pinckney. But it's something else entirely to try to purge the flag from every store shelf, TV show or NASCAR race, while leaving untouched symbols of Nazism and Communism — ideologies that still exist and are still killing people. The bottom line is that the Left is intent on blaming all Southerners — especially Republicans — for slavery and all racism.Comment | Share No, Polar Bears Won't Face Existential Threat Within 10 YearsAccording to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey, computer models suggest nearly one-third of polar bears could be wiped off the planet in 10 years as greenhouse gas emissions rise. Let's get this straight: The same scientific lobby that warned decades ago polar bears would be extinct by now — but which instead grew in population — are now telling us that a significant percentage of bears could face eradication within a decade based on computer models. The same computer models that utterly failed to forecast the current 18-year-old global warming hiatus. That kind of logic is enough to make even a polar bear do a facepalm. Comment | Share Don't Miss Patriot HumorCheck out TV Land.If you'd like to receive Patriot Humor by email, update your subscription here. FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSISSanctuary Cities and Obama's Failed Immigration PoliciesBy Paul AlbaughThe fact is Sanchez should not have been in the United States at all. Sanchez had already been convicted of seven felonies and deported five times before this murder. Yet he chose San Francisco as his dwelling because it's a “sanctuary city.” Sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants, that is. Cities like San Francisco that adopt such policies typically don't necessarily seek out undocumented immigrants, but they also don't enforce deportation, which yields the same result. These cities — primarily run by Democrats — have a policy in place that benefits illegal aliens at the expense of citizens. Such a policy is detrimental to these communities, as evidenced by this recent killing, and the politicos responsible for this terrible policy should be held accountable. Democrats, of course, claim creating sanctuary cities is good policy. One such enlightened progressive is Hillary Clinton, who claimed in a 2007 speech at Dartmouth College that sanctuary cities help to ensure the “personal safety and security of all the citizens.” (Note the particular irony of using the word "citizens.") Furthermore, she claimed that if local police officers acted like immigration enforcement officers, then people would be hiding from the police instead of reporting crime. We're still waiting for the Leftmedia to question Hillary on her continued support of this policy, but the noise from Donald Trump's recent bombast on immigration seems to be drowning that out. It would be a prime opportunity for serious conservative candidates to say something about the failed policy of sanctuary cities, but so far most of them are missing it. Sanctuary cities aren’t the only problem with immigration policy. There is a massive problem at the federal level too, which is one of the reasons Sanchez wasn’t kept out of the U.S. for good. Yet he is just one of the many illegal immigrants who remain in or return to the U.S. because of a faulty deportation process. Recent documents from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) show that “about 900,000 undocumented immigrants, including 170,000 criminals, have been ordered deported ‘in absentia,’ meaning a judge kicked them out without them even knowing it.” How can someone be deported for being here illegally when they don’t even know they have been ordered to leave? Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies at CIS, notes, “[E]ven those immigrants who are in court to receive their removal orders are not immediately removed. Instead, they are often told to report in with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — but often vanish.” Certainly there could be more and better detention centers to hold these illegal aliens. After all, does anyone really think that someone who is here illegally would turn themselves into Immigration and Customs Enforcement? Apparently the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t see the need for more detention facilities, as it has sought new rules that will loosen detention policies. According to a recent DHS release, "[O]nce a family has established eligibility for asylum or other relief under our laws, long-term detention is an inefficient use of our resources and should be discontinued." Can the Department of Homeland Security explain how this bolsters homeland security? Not surprisingly, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest took to the stage Monday to not only defend the administration's immigration policies but to blast Republicans for blocking "common-sense" immigration reform. Of course, Obama's version of common-sense immigration reform was nonsense. Democrats have made the issue of immigration a divisive one for their own political benefit. Forget security, they are worried about votes. Republicans, on the other hand, need to do a better job at explaining how they are going to fix immigration policy. And there are basically four points to drive home: First, the “immigration reform” pledges by Obama and his Democrat lackeys are disingenuous because they would undermine the Left’s entire “living wage” platform. Allowing 5-10 million immigrants to compete for low-wage jobs is certainly not consistent with that agenda. Second, Obama is willing to trash the Constitution in order to advance his ruinous policies. Republicans need to use his abject abuse of power and the threat it poses to Liberty as a constitutional teachable moment. Third, any debate about immigration is useless unless it begins with a commitment to securing our borders first. That includes eliminating sanctuary cities. As Ronald Reagan declared, “A nation without borders is not a nation.” Likewise, it must address the issue of so-called “birthright citizenship,” which is a gross misinterpretation of our Constitution’s 14th Amendment. And last, Republicans need to embrace the fact that Liberty is colorblind. It’s not a “white thing.” Essential Liberty is timeless. And because it transcends all racial, ethnic, gender and class distinctions, it will appeal to all freedom-loving people when properly presented. In the end, Americans like Kathryn Steinle shouldn't pay the ultimate price for Democrats' vote-buying schemes. Comment | Share TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
OPINION IN BRIEFCal Thomas: "The 'culture wars,' while well-intentioned, were a mistake from the beginning. Evangelical Christians, whose Leader said, 'My Kingdom is not of this world,' thought they could organize people of like mind and like faith and create a voting bloc to elect people who would impose something resembling that other kingdom on people who do not see themselves as members of that kingdom. Given the number of politicians who seem to have difficulty imposing a moral code of any sort on themselves, such a strategy was doomed from the start. Why didn’t they learn from previous 'moral improvement' movements that if one wants to change culture, one must first change individuals? For evangelical Christians that can only be done by the transformation of the heart, soul and mind, something that is beyond the power of secular — or even religious — politicians. ... The country grows increasingly secular in part because conservative evangelicals gave the impression that being born again means instant adoption into the Republican Party. ... [T]his isn’t about surrender; it is about enlisting in a different 'army,' using more powerful nonpolitical weapons. Google 'Beatitudes' and see what I mean. Practice them and observe the impact they have on the culture."Comment | Share SHORT CUTSInsight: "All our liberties are due to men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land." —English philosopher William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879)Upright: "Today the moral horror of slavery is so widely condemned that it is hard to realize that there were thousands of years when slavery was practiced around the world by people of virtually every race. Even the leading moral and religious thinkers in different societies accepted slavery as just a fact of life. ... What was special about America was not that it had slavery, which existed all over the world, but that Americans were among the very few peoples who began to question the morality of holding human beings in bondage. That was not yet a majority view among Americans in the 18th century, but it was not even a serious minority view in non-Western societies at that time." —Thomas Sowell Gun rights: "The discussion over the debate to own a gun is just ridiculous. As Americans we have the right to bear arms and as humans the right to protect ourselves. I’m sure that the man who shot my husband did not have a gun permit. Criminals will always have guns. The rest of us legally obtain our gun permits. If you don’t want to carry, please don’t. Then, shut the f— up about it." —former CNN anchor Lynne Russell, whose husband killed an armed assailant last week And last... "Solution to Supreme Court is make it like jury duty. Grab people off the street to rule based on plain meaning of language in Constitution. The Constitution is a frick'n six page document. Doesn't require years as a judge to understand anymore than rules to Monopoly." —Frank Fleming Comment | Share 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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