The Patriot Post Brief 6-14-2010

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 6-14-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Foundation

"Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others." --Alexander Hamilton

For the Record
Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano are dangerously unprepared

"The most important overlooked story of the past few weeks was overlooked because it was not surprising. Also because no one really wants to notice it. ... I speak of the report from the inspector general of the Justice Department, issued in late May, saying the department is not prepared to ensure public safety in the days or weeks after a terrorist attack in which nuclear, biological or chemical weapons are used. The Department of Homeland Security is designated as first federal responder, in a way, in the event of a WMD attack, but every agency in government has a formal, assigned role, and the crucial job of Justice is to manage and coordinate law enforcement and step in if state and local authorities are overwhelmed. So how would Justice do, almost nine years after the attacks of 9/11? Poorly. 'The Department is not prepared to fulfill its role ... to ensure public safety and security in the event of a WMD incident,' says the 61-page report. Justice has yet to assign an entity or individual with clear responsibility for oversight or management of WMD response; it has not catalogued its resources in terms of either personnel or equipment; it does not have written plans or checklists in case of a WMD attack. A deputy assistant attorney general for policy and planning is quoted as saying 'it is not clear' who in the department is responsible for handling WMD response. Workers interviewed said the department's operational response program 'lacks leadership and oversight.' An unidentified Justice Department official was quoted: 'We are totally unprepared.' He added. 'Right now, being totally effective would never happen. Everybody would be winging it.' The inspector general's staff interviewed 36 senior officials involved in the department's emergency response planning and summarized the finding: 'It was clear that no person or entity is managing the overall Department's response activities.' You could almost see them scratching their heads and saying, 'No one's in charge here.' ... We may be witnessing again a failure of imagination, the famous phrase used after 9/11 to capture why the U.S. government was caught so flatfooted and was so stunned that such a terrible thing could occur. They neglected to think of the worst thing that could happen, and so of course they did not plan for it. If agencies within the government now are having a second failure of imagination, it is not forgivable. We're not being asked to imagine a place we've never been, after all, we're only being asked to imagine where we've been, and how it could be worse, and plan for it." --columnist Peggy Noonan

Government

"Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico -- BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the 'buck stops' with him and officials of his administration say they are 'in charge.' Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup -- but the company's every action has to be approved by the government. If you have noticed a lot of ambiguity in the statements of the government officials, that is because they want to be able to position themselves to take credit for whatever success occurs (no matter who is responsible for the success) yet be able to blame others for failure (if even their own). ... One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability. Those in favor of bigger government are using BP as an example of why the private sector cannot be trusted and why we must have more government. However, they conveniently overlook the fact that everything BP did was overseen and approved by the U.S. government and that the reason BP and the other big oil companies are off drilling in mile-deep water is because this same government will not allow them to drill in closer-in, shallower water or on much of the land where large quantities of oil are known to exist (e.g., the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and where accidents could be handled quickly and with little damage. BP stockholders are being severely punished because of the failure of BP's management to prevent this crisis -- and you can bet many heads will roll at BP. Yet how many heads will roll in the U.S. government, which had the responsibility to make sure BP operated safely and that the beaches and marshes were protected?" --Cato Institute senior fellow Richard W. Rahn

Political Futures

"After proclaiming loudly that the GOP's tough immigration stance was going to really, really hurt them among Hispanic voters, Democrats have finally looked at some polling and decided that to a great degree the country agrees with the Republican position. Just six weeks ago, Liberal Democrats like Al Sharpton were quaking with righteous indignation over the passage of the new immigration law in Arizona. According to the New York Daily News from April 26, 2010: 'Sharpton said he would mobilize people from across the country to march in Arizona -- and get arrested, if necessary -- to stop the controversial new law.' Now, according to Politico.com: 'Democratic officials have concluded there's only one way they can hope to pass a comprehensive immigration bill: Talk more like Republicans.' Carrie Budoff Brown reports the Democrats have done a multi-year study and decided to 'craft an enforcement-first, law-and-order, limited-compassion pitch' including calling 'the 12 million people who unlawfully reside the country "illegal immigrants," not "undocumented workers."' Having actually talked to real people, Democratic operatives are giving this advice to Liberal groups and Members of Congress about phrases like 'undocumented workers:' 'If the language appears fine to you, it is probably best not to use it. You are an activist, and by definition, you are out of the mainstream.' This isn't Rush Limbaugh, remember. Liberal Members of Congress are being told by their own guys they 'are out of the mainstream' on immigration." --political analyst Rich Galen

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 6-14-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Opinion in Brief

"I'm taking a stab that Obama won't be doing the Sunday talk show circuit to field questions about recent reports that Obamacare doesn't allocate nearly enough money to cover the estimated 5.6 million to 7 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions who will qualify for temporary high-risk insurance pools. I'm betting he won't respond substantively to the study by the Center for Studying Health System Change that Obamacare 'could leave hundreds of thousands of potential participants with serious medical problems unable to obtain coverage' and that the $5 billion earmarked for the pools might cover as few as 200,000 people a year. ... The Hill reports that the administration and Democrats 'have especially focused on seniors, who make up a crucial voting bloc in November and who traditionally show up at the polls in higher numbers than younger citizens.' ... The [New York] Times assures us ... 'A veritable army of outside groups' will be 'orchestrating campaigns to echo the White House message.' This 'advocacy campaign ... will last until after the law is fully put into place in 2014.' Heading up the effort will be none other than President Obama himself, who 'intends to stand by his pledge' not to abandon Democrats who supported Obamacare. His senior adviser David Axelrod said Obama is eager to 'campaign for folks who showed the courage to stand up. ... I think he'll do it with a special relish.' Here's hoping he does it with extra-special relish and mustard. He has helped ensure defeat for almost every candidate he's campaigned for to date." --columnist David Limbaugh

Liberty

"America's current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that's the envy of most of the world. Why did that happen? Prosperity isn't the norm. Throughout history and throughout the world, poverty has been the norm. Most of the world still lives in dire poverty. Of the 6 billion people on earth, perhaps 1 billion have something close to our standard of living. Why did America prosper when most of the people of the world are still poor? Milton Friedman taught me the answer. More than any other American, Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1976, clearly warned the world about the unintended consequences of big government. 'We've become increasingly dependent on government,' said Friedman. 'We've surrendered power to government; nobody has taken it from us. It's our doing. The results -- monumental government spending, much of it wasted, little of it going to the people whom we would like to see helped.' That's from Friedman's PBS TV series 'Free to Choose,' which aired 30 years ago and became the basis of his No. 1 bestseller by the same name. The title says a lot. If we are free to make our own choices, we prosper." --columnist John Stossel

The Gipper

"Today we celebrate Flag Day, the birthday of our Stars and Stripes. As we think back over the history of our nation's flag, we remember that the story of its early years was often one of hardship and trials, sometimes a fight for simple survival. ... As the American Republic grew and prospered and new stars were added to the flag, the ideal of freedom grew and prospered. From the rolling hills of Kentucky to the shores of California to the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon, our pioneers carried our flag before them, a symbol of the indomitable spirit of a free people. And let us never forget that in honoring our flag, we honor the American men and women who have courageously fought and died for it over the last 200 years, patriots who set an ideal above any consideration of self. Our flag flies free today because of their sacrifice." --Ronald Reagan, Flag Day 1986

U.S. Army Birthday and Flag Day 2010

Today is the 235th birthday of the United States Army, born of the desire to defend liberty and spread its flame. As the U.S. Army now leads the way in the Long War, let us not forget to pray for these brave Patriots standing in harm's way and their families awaiting their safe return.

Today is also Flag Day. Our flag is a beacon of liberty, a symbol of hope for all people who "hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed -- that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...." On this Flag Day, we American Patriots display and pay homage to our national flag.

To purchase the highest quality American-made U.S. flags available, please visit The Patriot Shop.

The Last Word

"[Barack] Obama is in danger of becoming a figure of ridicule, which is particularly ominous for a presidency that runs almost entirely on high-octane rhetoric. For instance, Obama recently told high school students in Kalamazoo, Mich., 'Don't make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes; take responsibility where you fall short as well.' As many immediately noted, this was odd advice from a man who would put the blame for the hitch in his golf swing on eight years of George W. Bush. In that same interview with Lauer, the president said he hadn't bothered talking to Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, because he knew Hayward would 'say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions.' This from the man who swore that words were magical and thought it was worth sitting down to talk with the president of Iran? ... And as for the receding oceans, well, they're filling with light-sweet crude -- just one more thing the president blames Bush for. But there is good news. Any day now, after thorough interagency review, the Standing Committee for Posterior Selection will have given provisional approval for a working list of asses for POTUS to kick with an OSHA-approved shoe. Alas, final environmental-impact statements are pending. But once that hurdle is cleared, the president will focus like a laser on ass-kicking." --National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

(Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)