THE PATRIOT POST 10/22/2015

Right Analysis | Right Hooks | Right Opinion Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily Digest October 22, 2015    THE FOUNDATION "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." —George Washington, 1795 Publisher's Note: Clinton Testifies As we go to press today, the House Select Committee on Benghazi is grilling Hillary Clinton. Despite the grandstanding from committee Democrats, her felonious complicity in and her subsequent cover-up of the true story of the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi is on full display. First, for more than a year, Clinton has endeavored to escape accountability for unlawfully maintaining all of her official secretary of state communications outside of official networks. Clearly, this was an effort to protect her 2016 presidential bid from the plethora of nefarious activities reflected in those emails. Despite Clinton's claims — "I did not email any classified material to anyone" and "There is no classified material" — it is now apparent that hundreds and perhaps thousands of her unsecured email communications contained sensitive and classified content. Transmitting that content is a felony. But not only was her arrogant "above the law" use of unsecured email illegal, it was deadly because it exposed policy directives and the names of covert operatives. We can assume Russia and China had full access to all of Clinton's unsecured communication. Second, additional details may surface about how her emails demonstrate her complicity in formulating the political lie about the murder of our personnel in Benghazi — Christopher Stevens, his aide Sean Smith, and two diplomatic security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. Her Benghazi lie was an effort to provide Barack Obama political cover for his "al-Qa'ida on the run" campaign theme just weeks ahead of the 2012 presidential election. So determined was Clinton to propagate this lie that she shamelessly stood in front of those four flag-draped caskets and declared to the families of the dead, "We've seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with." We will cover this testimony in detail Friday. Comment | Share TOP RIGHT HOOKS Biden Takes a Pass Despite a couple of well-placed endorsements from Barack Obama, Joe Biden passed on a presidential run in a Rose Garden speech Wednesday. That huge sigh of relief you heard was from the Hillary Clinton campaign. After the May death of his son, Beau, Biden wrestled with the decision and ultimately decided against it, concluding that "the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president ... has closed." Another way to look at it is that Clinton's debate performance cut off Biden a day after Jim Webb quit the race. It solidifies her iron grip on the nomination. As Obama did in distancing himself from Clinton over her email server, however, Biden implicitly repudiated the Democrat frontrunner for her political divisiveness. "I believe we have to end the divisive partisan politics that is ripping this country apart. ... It's mean-spirited, it's petty and it's gone on for far too long. I don't think we should look at Republicans as our opposition. They're not our enemies." That was a clear reference to Clinton's debate remark that Republicans were her most notable enemies. But it's ironic that Biden made his comments while standing next to Obama, who has done more to make enemies of his political opponents than anyone. Many thought Biden would be a Plan B for Democrats if Clinton is indicted by the FBI — and it's a remote possibility that he will remain so, as his remarks were basically an "I'm running" stump speech minus the "I'm running." Obama's recent dismissal of any national security implications from Clinton's careless handling of classified material makes an indictment even less likely, and Biden's stepping aside may indicate Obama knows it. We don’t anticipate that a Democrat president is going to allow the Democrat frontrunner to be indicted, even if there's no love lost between the two. Finally, while we'd never support Biden, we will miss the hilarity he would no doubt have brought to the campaign trail. Comment | Share Speaker Ryan Will Bring Leadership, Not Management The House Freedom Caucus has found its speaker. The group of 40 lawmakers that drove the Department of Homeland Security to the edge of a shutdown in February over Barack Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty and that was instrumental in the ouster of current Speaker John Boehner, announced that a "supermajority" of its members would support Rep. Paul Ryan for the speakership. Unlike Boehner, who squandered his role by trying to manage the herd of cats known as the House, Ryan plans to lead the chamber by bringing vision to the position. "Paul is a policy entrepreneur who has developed conservative rhans eforms dealing with a wide variety of subjects, and he has promised to be an ideas-focused Speaker who will advance limited government principles and devolve power to the membership," the Freedom Caucus said in a statement. Ryan said he would only run for the speakership if he got the backing from all the Republican groups in the House, ensuring that his leadership would bring a measure of unity. The Freedom Caucus torpedoed the speakership bid of House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, so its support is vital for the next speaker. If all goes well, Republicans will vote for the new speaker Oct. 29, Boehner will resign his position the next day, and the GOP will have its speaker who will lead them into a new presidential administration. So far, Ryan seems to have the votes. Comment | Share OPM's Hack Job on Security Earlier this year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) discovered malicious cyber theft of background investigation records of current, former and prospective federal employees. Sensitive information was stolen, including the Social Security numbers of 21.5 million individuals. In a letter to those affected, OPM seems to have taken a one-size-fits-all approach that does not account for obvious disparities in the potential impact and threat among those whose data was stolen. From what we have learned thus far, the entry-level janitor at DHS is given the same level of "protection" as the Seal Team 6 operator, the nuclear submarine commander or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket scientist whose personal data may have been compromised. "Fairness" and expediency trump common sense as the administration attempts to sweep under the rug this massive and unprecedented breach of security. It doesn't take that JPL rocket scientist to realize that our "adversary" (the politically correct term being used to describe the Red Chinese military hackers involved) will certainly prioritize the stolen data to identify high-value targets. The threat spectrum involved could run from targeted assassination in the worst case to blackmail, covert spying recruitment and military or economic espionage. Identity theft is one of the least damaging possibilities to anyone thinking big-picture national security. To simply place all 21 million of the affected individuals in one group and provide them three years of credit monitoring and identity theft insurance is nice, but it's also the height of insult and, frankly, stupid. Such boneheaded lack of vision and forethought is what brought us such a debacle in the first place. Even worse — those responsible for preventing this nightmare are still safely ensconced at OPM, a bureaucratic haven of incompetence if ever there was one. Not a single person has been fired, demoted or jailed for this incredible breach of our security, though Katherine Archuleta did step down as OPM director. Finally, we are not at all surprised to see that OPM used the disaster to ask Congress for more money. Comment | Share Editor's Note In yesterday's story about Jim Webb, we listed several of his military awards but neglected to mention his foremost one, the Navy Cross, though we had noted it in previous coverage. That oversight has been corrected. Don't Miss Alexander's Column Read 'Truth'? Rather, '[Un]Truth', on how the movie about Dan Rather's dezinformatsia racket is a case study in Hollywood historical revisionism. If you'd like to receive Alexander's Column by email, update your subscription here. FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS Planned Parenthood Fights Defunding Efforts By Kelly Bartlett Texas Governor Greg Abbott informed Planned Parenthood that it would be dropped from the state’s Medicaid program. Abbott, a Republican, issued a press release Monday explaining, “The gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed in Texas and the barbaric practice must be brought to an end.” Amen to that. Undercover videos from The Center for Medical Progress exposed PP employees describing the harvesting of body parts from aborted babies. The fifth video was filmed in Houston and featured regional Director of Research Melissa Farrell, who implied that abortionists could change the procedure in order to obtain better "specimens." Farrell said, “If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It’s all just a matter of line items." Planned Parenthood reacted by pretending that women will no longer have access to health care. Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens called the Texas defunding “outrageous” and blamed it on “thoroughly discredited, fraudulent videos.” She claimed this will “cut women off from preventive health care.” PP has long sought to brand itself as synonymous with women’s health care, but, as CEO Cecile Richards admitted to Congress last month, the organization doesn't own or operate a single mammogram machine. However, Abbott made clear that excluding PP “will not affect access to care because there are thousands of alternate providers in Texas.” The governor also requested “cooperation in informing all clients” where to obtain Medicaid services from “providers in good standing.” Three other states have also defunded PP, including neighboring Louisiana. When the latter’s governor, Bobby Jindal, excluded the abortion organization from his state's Medicaid reimbursement program, PP promptly sued him, which resulted in a temporary restraining order signed by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles Sunday. Louisiana must continue funding PP for the next two weeks. It is not yet known whether PP will bring a similar lawsuit against Texas. On Monday, Jindal said, “I hope every governor will defund Planned Parenthood. They can't sue us all." Louisiana intends to appeal the restraining order. Jindal spokesman Mike Reed said, "Instead of going through the same administrative review as any other Medicaid provider, they are running to the federal courts and asking for special treatment." Just how much special treatment? Fox News calculates PP has received over $4 billion in government funding over the past 10 years. No wonder PP is fighting back with lawsuits. Selling human fetal body parts is not only repulsive, it’s a felony. However, Cecile Richards claimed the agency has never sold tissue but rather donated it at cost. Nevertheless, the abortion giant announced earlier this month that it would no longer accept reimbursements for donating body parts. However, this is too little, too late for many, including Tennessee Rep. Diane Black, who intends to continue defunding efforts. “It is curious that, while Planned Parenthood officials maintain there has been no wrongdoing, they still find it necessary to change their policy,” Black said. “Clearly, this was a decision motivated by optics rather than the organization’s conscience.” CMP’s reaction: “This only raises more serious questions about what Planned Parenthood leadership has been allowing its clinics to do with money and baby parts, and intensifies the need for Congress to pursue full auditing and oversight of Planned Parenthood’s unaccountable criminal enterprise of baby parts trafficking.” Harvesting baby organs for free isn’t going to cut it. If PP declines reimbursement for slicing through the face of a fetus to obtain the brain, who will pay the bill for this extra labor? The taxpayer? By changing its policy to donate parts without reimbursement, it appears Richards is missing the point. As appalling as paying for body parts is, the action of killing the baby in the first place is most horrific. “Fetal tissue donation” exposes the lie that abortion merely removes an unwanted clump of cells. Understanding how horrendous it sounds to carve out baby hearts, lungs and eyeballs, PP realized it needed a public relations makeover and hired the “Democratically aligned” communications firm SKDKnickerbocker for damage control by the time CMP released its third video. Defunding is important to stop the flow of tax dollars into the coffers of PP. But these undercover videos are even more crucial in swaying the hearts and minds of Americans as they witness what goes on behind the scenes at an abortion clinic. Seeing is believing. Planned Parenthood, you’ve come a long way, baby, from “women’s health care.” Now, it's simply “Baby Body Parts.” Comment | Share Share MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE Principal Deemed School Election Not Diverse Enough Humor: Boom Humor: The Precious BEST OF RIGHT OPINION Jeff Jacoby: Make Redistricting Better by Making It Color-Blind Hans von Spakovsky: Several States Launch New Lawsuit Against ObamaCare Victor Davis Hanson: Can California Be Saved? For more, visit Right Opinion. TOP HEADLINES Obama to Veto National Defense Authorization Act San Francisco Passes Resolution Upholding Sanctuary Policies How the Story of Clinton's Emails Has Changed For more, visit Patriot Headline Report OPINION IN BRIEF Jeff Jacoby: "Voting-rights law has gone off the rails ... and the longer the Supreme Court tolerates race-conscious rules in drawing district lines, the worse the political damage will get. The old rule — voters' skin color may not be considered when electoral districts are drawn — is the better rule, less polarizing and more decent. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments should be read to enjoin strict colorblindness when state legislatures make their maps. The means to that end is not rocket science. While continuing to require that districts be roughly equal in population, the court should require as well that they be geometrically compact, and that they take no account of voters' party registration or voting history. The parameters couldn’t be simpler; a computer could do the job. Incumbent politicians might lose the ability to choose their constituents. But voters would be equal at last, exercising their franchise under a Constitution that is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." Comment | Share SHORT CUTS Insight: "[N]othing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." —Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Upright: "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has analyzed about 70% of total global development aid and found that about one in four of those dollars goes to climate-related aid. In a world in which malnourishment continues to claim at least 1.4 million children’s lives each year, 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty, and 2.6 billion lack clean drinking water and sanitation, this growing emphasis on climate aid is immoral. ... Providing the world’s most deprived countries with solar panels instead of better health care or education is inexcusable self-indulgence. Green energy sources may be good to keep on a single light or to charge a cellphone. But they are largely useless for tackling the main power challenges for the world’s poor." —Bjorn Lomborg in The Wall Street Journal Alpha Jackass: "[Tea Partiers] come from states that used to own slaves. They come from states that the Confederate Army was pledged allegiance to. They come from states that the Ku Klux Klan and voters rights and all of those things came into play. ... It is their view that if they can bring down the government they can rebuild in their image.” —Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) Demo-gogues: "Republicans are wasting the American people's time with a partisan vote on the Donald Trump Act. That's what we're going to vote on at 2:15. That's what the House members have called it, and I think it's a pretty good description of what we're doing out there." —Harry Reid just before Democrats blocked a bill reigning in sanctuary cities Village Idiots: "[W]hen I hear a United States senator say, 'I'm not a scientist so I can't make a judgment,' or a candidate for president for that matter, I'm absolutely astounded. ... [W]hen more than 6,000-plus peer-reviewed studies of the world's best scientists all lay out that [global warming] is happening and mankind is contributing to it, it seems to me that [climate skeptics] disqualify themselves fundamentally from high public office with those kinds of statements." —John Kerry Wrong prescription: "I want to see our post office be reinvigorated. ... I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it." —Bernie Sanders And last... "Hillary's physician says her 2012 concussion has no lingering effects, except for possible one day memory lapses every 3 years." —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest 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.