THE PATRIOT POST 08/03/2015

Right Analysis | Right Hooks | Right Opinion Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily Digest August 3, 2015    THE FOUNDATION "The Constitution ... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please." —Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge Spencer Roane, 1819 TOP RIGHT HOOKS Clickbait Crap on the Chattanooga Attack By Mark Alexander Dear Allen West, stop the viral clickbait crap! In our commentary regarding the Islamist assault in Chattanooga on July 16, which cost four Marines and one Navy Petty Officer their lives, we noted that our sources advised there were at least two personal weapons belonging to military personnel recovered at the Reserve Center. We also berated the restrictions against such weapons at thousands of similar facilities and recruiting stations, where there are no security personnel. However, we also noted that if any military personnel were in possession of personal weapons, that would be a UCMJ violation and by law, Navy JAG will be obligated to review this case. JAG should not be condemned for doing just that. Indeed, Lt. Cmdr. Tim White confirmed that he was in possession of a personal weapon and did return fire — either suppression cover fire to allow his personnel to take cover, or perhaps he fired directly at the assailant. Again, by law, this would be subject to review — and that has been understood from the moment personal weapons were recovered, despite the fact they were used for self-defense. In the absence of those weapons, there may have been many more casualties. There are a number of ways White can be absolved — clearly many bases were on elevated security status at the time of the attack, and maybe he can be credited with taking personal initiative in this case. Perhaps he has a legal carry permit in Tennessee and JAG can dismiss further action on that basis. Unfortunately, my colleague Allen West has taken it upon himself to short circuit that review — knowing full well the review will have to take place. West has trumpeted what we all already knew! Obviously there is a constitutional obligation to review this case. West distributed an email claiming insider information that the Navy was going to prosecute White — typical of the viral clickbait claims too often circulated among some conservative quarters. In fact, West's sensationalist claim could create more problems for White than it solves. Contrary to West's assertions, the Navy has released a statement indicating that they have not charged White, have not prepared charges against White, and are a long way from making any such determination about this tragedy. Comment | Share Did Garland Jihadist Get a Gun Through Fast and Furious? When Nadir Soofi attacked the Muhammad art show in Garland, Texas, he may have used a gun the federal government allowed to walk into his hands as part of the infamous Fast and Furious sting. Eric Holder's Justice Department let American guns float into the hands of Mexican cartels in hopes of tracking the guns through their serial numbers. Instead of an effective crackdown on organized crime, however, the DOJ has the blood of hundreds of Mexicans and at least two American agents on its hands. In 2010, the Islamic terrorist bought a 9mm handgun at Lone Wolf Trading Co. (ironic name, no?), one of the businesses where the ATF was running the sting. While Soofi said he wanted the gun to protect his pizza restaurant, he had a previous criminal record. The Feds placed Soofi's purchase on a seven-day hold, but mysteriously the hold was cleared after 24-hours. The FBI has not released the serial numbers of the weapons Soofi used. In July, Barack Obama told an interviewer, "One area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws." Here's a common-sense idea: Uphold the laws that, when enforced, keeps guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. Meanwhile, to date, no one has been held to account for Fast and Furious. Comment | Share What's the Difference Between a Democrat and a Socialist? It may only happen once in a blue moon, but MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked a good question. Speaking with DNC Chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Matthews wanted to know if Bernie Sanders, a self-declared Socialist, would get a prime speaking slot at the Democrat Convention when he loses the nomination to Hillary Clinton. Schultz said he would, which surprised Matthews. "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?" he asked. "I used to think there was a big difference. What do you think it is?" All Wasserman Schultz could do is spin it to the question she wanted to answer — the difference between Democrats and Republicans. (And even that boiled down to "Democrats love everyone, but Republicans hate everything.") She couldn't answer because there is no difference between Democrats and Socialists. As American author Upton Sinclair wrote in 1951 to perennial Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, "The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label." That's why Democrats have adopted the platform but not the name, and it's why the question left Wasserman Schultz stammering. Comment | Share FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS The Banality of Evil By Arnold Ahlert Adelaide, who died after birth at 24 weeks The "banality of evil” became part of the cultural lexicon following the publication of German-born author Hannah Arendt's 1963 book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil." The book recounted the trial of Nazi Adolph Eichmann, who was chief of operations for the Gestapo-run Department for Jewish Affairs, and responsible for the deportation of three million Jews to extermination camps. Arendt hypothesized that people who carry out such barbarous crimes may not be inherently evil, but instead fairly ordinary individuals who simply accept the premises under which they operate. For the last two weeks, our nation has been rocked by a series of videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) revealing that Planned Parenthood (PP) has been involved in the harvesting and selling of fetal organs. CMP has released four of what they say is a series of 12 undercover videos, and each one has been more disturbing than its predecessor. In a bombshell claim, CMP founder David Daleiden revealed to CNN that one of those videos depicts a meeting with top leaders from organ recipient company StemExpress, admitting "they sometimes get fully intact fetuses shipped to their laboratory from the abortion clinics they work with, and that could be prima facie evidence of born-alive infants. And so that’s why they’re trying to suppress that videotape and they’re very scared of it.” Indeed, StemExpress sued to keep the video from going public, and they secured a temporary stay from Judge William Orrick, a California federal judge who raised $230,000 for Barack Obama. And, by the way, PP President Cecile Richards has visited the White House 39 times since 2009 — just to be clear how much Obama supports the abortion industry. None of what the public has seen so far could be described as banal. Yet for the pro-abortionists and their supporters in government and the media, who ultimately convinced the Supreme Court to decide the entire nation must accept the premise of abortion on demand is an integral part of the auspices under which the nation must now operate, the act that has precipitated every bit of this descent into organ-harvesting darkness has become the essence of banality. Yet as this author noted in a column on organ harvesting last week, banality is virtually impossible to maintain in the presence of photographs. That same reality also applies to abortion. First, here’s a list of all 50 states and their current abortion restrictions. The majority of them allow abortion as late as 25 weeks into a typical 39-week period of gestation, or until a baby is “viable,” which generally occurs between the 22nd and 24th week of gestation. Note that seven states and the District of Columbia have no restriction on the abortion timeline at all. Here is a 3D ultrasound of a 25-week-old baby, and another photo (shown above) and story of a 24-week-old baby born prematurely. Please use the hyperlinks and look at these pictures as it is necessary to fully understand what this nation has abided as the “premise under which we operate” since Roe v. Wade required us to do so beginning in 1973. Remember these pictures, along with the legal restrictions cited above, when a pro-abortion supporter reduces abortion to the idea of eliminating a “clump of cells” or a “lump of tissue.” What about the fact that most abortions are performed in the first trimester? Here’s what that "lump of tissue" looks like in week 6, week 7, week 8 and week 9. Note that even in week 6 lungs are forming and a heart is beating. In week 7, limbs and ear buds appear. Week 8 shows more defined limb development, a nose, an upper lip and a rapidly developing brain. In Week 9 there is continued development of lips, nose, eyes and eyelids, and substantial limb movement. Moreover, until the Supreme Court finally banned the procedure in 2007, pro-abortionists were fully on board with everything about very late-term abortions, save the highly accurate term used to describe them — partial-*birth* abortions. Like pictures and video of abortion, that term infuriated the pro-abortionists who labeled it highly inaccurate. Yet what is inaccurate about a procedure that involves pulling a live baby feet-first out of the womb, except for the head, and then puncturing the skull and suctioning out the brain? Here is a video of that indescribably grotesque procedure. But fair WARNING: It is one of the most disturbing videos one might ever view, so be prepared or take a pass. Either way, remember that Congress tried to pass national bans on the procedure in 1996 and 1997 only to see them vetoed by abortion-on-demand champion Bill Clinton. And the first time a case appeared before the Supreme Court in 2000 based on the state of Nebraska attempting to ban it, the Court ruled that ban unconstitutional because it didn’t include a health exception. Unsurprisingly, the issue of late-term abortions has become part of the 2016 election debate. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz defined the pro-abortionist position in April when GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul asked reporters to inquire if she was OK with "killing a seven-pound baby that is just not yet born.” Wasserman Schultz’s response? “I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved. Period. End of story.” In other words, yes. It was Daniel Patrick Moynihan who coined the term "defining deviancy down.” There is no better way to describe the unbroken line that travels from abortion on demand to harvesting fetal organs, even as the latter procedure has also become so banal it can be casually discussed by its perpetrators over lunch. Such is inevitable in a nation that has long catered to the lowest common denominator of human behavior. Thus with regard to abortion, we have allowed a procedure that at worst ought to be implemented only in the direst of emergencies to become convenient — and commonplace. So commonplace, the permutations engendered by this wholesale cheapening of life — from gang violence and mass murder, to the collapse of the nuclear family and anything resembling a national moral center — are impossible to ignore. The world was disgusted by Eichmann's extermination of three million Jews. Since 1973, roughly 19 times that number of potential human beings have been aborted, even as champions of the procedure continuously repeated their hypocritical mantra that abortions should be "safe, legal and rare." The CMP videos will continue to elicit outrage from millions of Americans. But in reality they are little more than reminders of what this nation has already countenanced. And regardless of what they further reveal, Planned Parenthood will never lose its army of defenders — as in fairly ordinary individuals who simply accept the premises under which they operate. In short, we are a nation that long ago accepted the incremental surrender to the banality of evil. Until now. Here’s hoping the CMP videos initiate a paradigm shift in the nation’s thinking. We’ve got nothing to lose but our self-imposed cultural degradation. Comment | Share Share TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US ANALYSIS: The Mirage of Recovery FDA Delays Mandatory Posting of Calorie Counts Wait, Polar Bears Can Dive? Suit: CO Planned Parenthood Did Not Report Sex Abuse A Year of Bombings Fail to Quash the Islamic State Big Business Scrambling for Ex-Im Bank Renewal BEST OF RIGHT OPINION George Will: The Barbarity of a Nation Peggy Noonan: What Voters See in Donald Trump Jeff Jacoby: China Has Its Own Horrors to Atone For Burt Prelutsky: Lincoln, Obama & Other Villains For more, visit Right Opinion. TOP HEADLINES Obama Doubles Down on Clean Power Plan Mandate U.S. to Provide Air Defense Support to Syrian Rebels Black Man Fatally Shoots Memphis Police Officer OPINION IN BRIEF George Will: "In partial-birth abortion, a near-term baby is pulled by the legs almost out of the birth canal, until the base of the skull is exposed so the abortionist can suck out its contents. During Senate debates on this procedure, three Democrats were asked: Suppose a baby’s head slips out of the birth canal — the baby is born — before the abortionist can kill it. Does the baby then have a right to live? Two of the Democrats refused to answer. The third said the baby acquires a right to life when it leaves the hospital. The nonnegotiable tenet in today’s Democratic Party catechism is not opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline or support for a $15 minimum wage. These are evanescent fevers. As the decades roll by, the single unshakable commitment is opposition to any restriction on the right to inflict violence on pre-born babies. So today there is a limitless right to kill, and distribute fragments of, babies that intrauterine medicine can increasingly treat as patients. We are wallowing in this moral swamp because the Supreme Court accelerated the desensitization of the nation by using words and categories about abortion the way infants use knives and forks — with gusto, but sloppily. Because Planned Parenthood’s snout is deep in the federal trough, decent taxpayers find themselves complicit in the organization’s vileness. What kind of a government disdains the deepest convictions of citizens by forcing them to finance what they see in videos — Planned Parenthood operatives chattering about bloody human fragments? 'Taxes,' said Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 'are what we pay for civilized society.' Today they finance barbarism." Comment | Share SHORT CUTS Insight: "We in government should learn to look at our country with the eyes of the entrepreneur, seeing possibilities where others see only problems." —The Gipper Upright: "[Donald Trump's] rise is not due to his supporters' anger at government. It is a gesture of contempt for government, for the men and women in Congress, the White House, the agencies. It is precisely because people have lost their awe for the presidency that they imagine Mr. Trump as a viable president. American political establishment, take note: In the past 20 years you have turned America into a nation a third of whose people would make Donald Trump their president. Look on your wonders and despair." —Peggy Noonan The BIG Lie: "Today, we’re often told that Medicare and Medicaid are in crisis. But that’s usually a political excuse to cut their funding, privatize them, or phase them out entirely — all of which would undermine their core guarantee. The truth is, these programs aren’t in crisis. Nor have they kept us from cutting our deficits by two-thirds since I took office." —Barack Obama (Both programs are nearing insolvency, and it's easy to cut the deficit when you quadruple it first.) Dezinformatsia: "One of the loudest opponents of Medicare was actor Ronald Reagan, who was then the Donald Trump of his time, a celebrity with no governing experience and very forceful opinions about government." —Lawrence O'Donnell Oh the humanity: “The problem [with cutting federal funding] is, in my state and many others, Planned Parenthood is the primary provider of women’s health services in certain parts of my state. So I don’t know how you would ensure that all of the patients of Planned Parenthood could be absorbed by alternative care providers.” —Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who opposes cutting federal funding Late-night humor: "Hillary also said today that her greatest strength is her passionate commitment to helping people. For instance, there was that time in 2008 when she helped a young black man from Chicago become president." — Seth Meyers 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.