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Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily Digest
September 28, 2015
THE FOUNDATION"The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail." —Thomas Jefferson, 1775TOP RIGHT HOOKSBoehner Failed to Lead
Boehner also had some parting words over the weekend, echoing the biblical warning to "beware of false prophets." He was referring to those who think holding congressional majorities means getting your way all the time, even with a president of the opposite party. So far as that goes, he's correct that expectations have sometimes been too high. For example, shutting down the government to stop ObamaCare was never going to succeed. But what has grassroots conservatives outraged is, again, the failure of principled leadership. Boehner was such a failed leader and negotiator that he made Obama stronger than he should have been after two electoral "shellackings." Conservatives don't expect to roll back most of Obama's overreach until we retake the White House, but Democrat majorities didn't have much trouble getting things done with George W. Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Is it too much to ask that a Republican Congress do likewise? Certainly we expect more than preemptive surrender at every opportunity. Editor's Note: Stay tune for further coverage in Mark Alexander's column Wednesday.Comment | Share Email Scandal Deepens While Hillary Clinton LaughsOn Friday, the State Department announced that it handed over 900 emails to the House Select Committee that Hillary Clinton had sent and received regarding Libya and Benghazi. Last December, the Department of Defense discovered email conversations between then-Gen. David Petraeus and Clinton dating back to Jan. 2009. The Pentagon handed the documents over to State and the revelation was reported Friday. This news contradicts three of Clinton's lies: First, that she is fully cooperating with the investigation. Second, she previously claimed she operated her homebrew server from March 2009 onward. And third, that she only deleted emails that were private in nature. Just last week, Clinton said, "When I did it, it was allowed, it was above board. And now I'm being as transparent as possible, more than anybody else ever has been." As the revelations have grown more damning, Clinton has become more dismissive — one of the only rhetorical tricks she has left. Last week, she joked, "You can count on me not to have a private email server," in response to a question about how transparent her administration will be if she attains the White House. When Chuck Todd of "Meet the Press" grilled Clinton Sunday on her email use, Clinton replied, "Another conspiracy theory?! Ha ha ha ha." It's no laughing matter, though, Clinton's dishonesty is on display, and the fact that she's continuing to be dishonest indicates that this scandal may hide a larger one that may have hurt the nation.Comment | Share Obama's Deal With China: Cyber Security in Our TimeBarack Obama just made the easiest cyber-security agreement in the world. From the administration that brought you the Russian reset, the red line in Syria and the nuclear deal with Iran comes an agreement with China that is billed as protecting American trade secrets and intellectual property. In the past, the U.S. has accused China of stealing billions of dollars' worth of information through hacking — for example, information about America's F-35 fighter jet from the plane's manufacturers. When China's President Xi Jinping visited Obama in Washington last week, they agreed: No more cyber stealing. "Both countries affirm that states should not conduct or knowingly support misappropriation of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information with the intent of providing competitive advantages to their companies or commercial sectors," reads a White House Fact Sheet on the agreement. "Both countries affirm that states and companies should not by illegal methods make use of technology and commercial advantages to gain commercial benefits." But here's the catch: Both countries deny spying on the other. So why make the agreement in the first place? As The Washington Post points out, this agreement doesn't stop attacks against the information held by the two governments, like the theft of federal employees' data from the Office of Personnel Management. The Chinese are too good at cyber espionage to give up simply because Obama made a pinky-promise with them.Comment | Share FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSISProblematic Papal PolitickingBy Arnold Ahlert
While Francis apologized for “pleading my own case,” he nonetheless exhorted Catholic bishops in the United States to embrace the massive influx of Hispanics into America during an address last Wednesday at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral. “Perhaps you will be challenged by their diversity,” he said. “But know that they also possess resources meant to be shared. So do not be afraid to welcome them.” When he addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, he offered a similar take, further implying America has a unique responsibility in that regard. “On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life,” he said. “Is this not what we want for our own children?” One sentence later his agenda became far more transparent: "We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation." That is a profoundly Christian view individuals must heed, but it requires nuance and adjustment when applied to national policy. Americans are taken aback by the free-for-all at our southern border and, frankly, what they want and what the Catholic Church wants are hardly in alignment. While many Americans have been cowed into silence by the political Left and its media enablers who label any resistance to the fundamental transformation of America into a polyglot of statist-loving sub-groups as xenophobic or nativist, there is little doubt they believe America should prioritize the interests of Americans. The priorities of the American Catholic Church are another matter altogether. There has been a precipitous decline in America’s Christian population, with Catholics and mainline Protestants taking the biggest hit over the last seven years, according to a Pew Research Center survey. And while the Conference on Catholic Bishops seemingly recognizes a right for a country to maintain its territorial integrity, they ultimately insist that "the first principle of Catholic social teaching regarding immigrants is that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families,” and that the "native does not have superior rights over the immigrant.” In 2013 the Church announced a coordinated effort aimed at pushing Congress to embrace the pro-amnesty agenda known as “comprehensive immigration reform,” even as it was revealed Hispanics have become the Church’s largest demographic group. In other words, despite all the pieties, practicality explains the Church’s motivation: More Hispanic immigrants, legal or illegal, equals more Catholics sitting in Church pews on Sunday. The immigrants’ motivation to move northward is primarily economic — as in away from the basket cases in Central and South America to the so-called land of plenty. Ironically, Pope Francis embraces the Marxist-influenced, anti-capitalist ideas emanating from the “liberation theology” that gained popularity in the '70s, especially in the pope’s home country of Argentina. “And he carried that into the Vatican,” explains columnist Charles Krauthammer. “So, it’s completely understandable that he would complete and repeat and amplify the anti-capitalist message.” Krauthammer further notes that "if you adopt liberation theology economics, the ones who suffer most, as in Argentina, are the poor.” Thus, whether Pope Francis realizes it or not, he is taking a typically leftist position of embracing a disastrous idea that creates a big problem, while calling for a “solution” that creates an even bigger problem. In other words, if Latin American countries embraced genuine free market capitalism and an affinity for Rule of Law, the need to "travel north in search of a better life” would become moot. And while the pope may be sanguine about the current influx levels, a Senate report reveals the sobering details: America already has 10 million more foreign-born citizens than the entire European Union, and more immigrants admitted than all 21 Latin American and 27 EU nations combined. Which brings us to the "do as I say not as I do" part of the equation regarding the pope’s current “country,” more familiarly known as Vatican City. As The Washington Times indelicately reveals, while the Vatican welcomes millions of visitors on an annual basis, "only a very select few, who meet strict criteria” are admitted as citizens. According to a 2012 Library of Congress report, such citizens include church cardinals, the pope's diplomats around the world, and those with job-related citizenship, such as the Swiss Guard and maintenance workers. The Times notes that Francis has responded to criticism from Italian leaders who bristle at the pope’s call for immigration leniency with "a vow that the Vatican itself would take in a couple of refugee families” [emphasis added]. Two refugee families is a symbolic commitment. Amnesty for 11 million illegals is not. Furthermore, while the pope advocates for what is essentially a borderless world, the massive walls that surround the Vatican remind us that no one is immune from leftist double-standards. Double standards that extend to championing the huge financial burdens that accrue for nations tasked with absorbing millions of migrants, even as the vast and largely inestimable wealth of the Catholic Church will never be sold off to mitigate those burdens. New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin calls Pope Francis "an inspiring example for all mankind” — politics aside. That idea was put a far better way more than 2,000 years ago. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God’s,” said Jesus Christ. Amen to that. Comment | Share
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OPINION IN BRIEFJohn Goodman: "The marketplace uniquely melds altruism and self-interest. Take Bill Gates, the man who pioneered the personal computer revolution. By empowering computer users everywhere, he became the world’s richest man; and now he is giving all his wealth away. Was he motivated by selfishness? Or was he altruistically trying to create the greatest good for the greatest number? The beauty of the marketplace is that Gates' motivation doesn’t matter. You get pretty much the same result either way. In a voluntary exchange, both parties are made better off. Moreover, new entrants into a real market are opportunities for more mutually beneficial exchanges. But under zero sum rationing, other people are a threat. One person’s gain is invariably another person’s loss. One person’s place in the bread line is a place another cannot have. One person’s state-owned housing unit is an apartment another cannot have. It is under statism, not capitalism, that the powerful exploit the powerless. And unlike Bill Gates, socialist rulers derive their income by theft, not by trade."Comment | Share SHORT CUTSThe Gipper: "It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work — work with us, not over us; stand by our side, not ride our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."For the record: "Republicans should be the party of smaller government. Given that the most noticeable cutbacks in government in 2013’s shutdown were Twitter accounts announcing they were not going to post anymore and the federal government barring veterans from visiting memorials, I think we all got a clear example of just how frivolously the government chooses to spend its money. In all likelihood, more essential services could have and possibly should have been cut." —Joe Cunningham Observations: "The right thing to do is to defund Planned Parenthood. If President Obama shuts down the government, Republicans should explain what the shut down is for. They should wonder why the President is more invested in funding Planned Parenthood than children’s food assistance programs. We have been confronted with savagery. We have been confronted with seventeen hours of videos showing American citizens carving up dead children for profit. If Republicans in Washington are not willing to fight that, shame on them. The rest of us will just keep having to replace them." —Erick Erickson Annals of the absurd: "I don't stipulate that these [Planned Parenthood] videos are real.... [Y]ou can create any reality that you want. ... [The Center for Medical Progress] should be investigated as to how they obtained those and doctored those and then had them be accepted as something that was an indictment against Planned Parenthood, because that's not true." —Nancy Pelosi Village Idiots: "I have never seen so much expended on so little." —Bill Clinton in Hillary's email scandal Demo-gogues: "I happen to believe ... that in a Democratic, civilized society, all people should be entitled to health care as a right. Yeah, I do believe that. Is this a radical idea? No it's not. Every other major industrialized country on earth does the same. ... Yes, I do believe that public colleges and universities should be tuition free. Is this a radical idea? Well gee, Germany does it. Other countries around the world do that." —Bernie Sanders Late-night humor: "After Pope Francis became the first pontiff to address a joint session of Congress ... he went to meet with a group of homeless people. That’s right, he spoke to some people who spend all their time begging for money, and then he met with the homeless." —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. |
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