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« on: September 23, 2013, 05:00:11 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Monday Digest 9-23-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.” –Patrick Henry
CULTURE
Second Amendment: Another Push for Gun Control
Barack Obama once again stood on the caskets of innocent murder victims to call for gun control. His shamelessness knows no bounds. The president spoke1 at the memorial service for the 12 people killed in the Navy Yard shooting, and seized the opportunity to rail against those who defend Second Amendment rights by opposing his gun control agenda. “We cannot accept this,” he declared, meaning the defeat of his agenda.
“The politics are difficult, as we saw again this spring,” Obama told the gathering. “And that’s sometimes where the resignation comes from – the sense that our politics are frozen and that nothing will change.” But, he insisted, “We’re going to have to change. We don’t take the basic common sense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people.” Actually, Aaron Alexis passed a background check for buying a shotgun, just like Joe Biden told him to do, and another check for a security clearance. Clearly, background checks are not a panacea.
We might also point out that Obama’s hometown of Chicago just took over as murder capital of the nation2. The Windy City has some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws – laws that don’t curb gang violence on the Democrats' inner city poverty plantations.
At the memorial service, Obama continued: “These families have endured a shattering tragedy. It ought to be a shock to us all. It ought to obsess us. It ought to lead to some sort of transformation.”
Indeed, he is obsessed – obsessed with trampling the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in response to the acts of evil men.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Defund, Repeal and Replace
House Republicans voted Friday on a continuing budget resolution to keep the government funded through Dec. 15. The big news, of course, is that the resolution also defunds ObamaCare, drawing battle lines with the Senate. The GOP was able to pass the resolution 230-189 (all but one Republican approved, and two Democrats joined the GOP), but its prospects in the Senate are dire, where Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened3, “I want to be absolutely crystal clear: Any bill that defunds ObamaCare is dead. Dead.”
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) promised to do “everything necessary and anything possible to defund ObamaCare,” but theirs is likely an unwinnable battle. After all, since 2010, the House has voted 41 times to repeal, delay or defund ObamaCare, and 41 times the Democrat-controlled Senate has ignored or defeated those attempts. Their latest tactic may actually involve filibustering the bill4 defunding ObamaCare in order to defund ObamaCare.
Last Wednesday, the Republican Study Committee also released its plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare: The American Health Care Reform Act5. They even plan to allow Democrats to offer amendments. As Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) put it, clearly referring to the way Democrats rammed through ObamaCare on a party-line vote in 2010, “You can’t pass a bill that’s entirely done by one party that affects every person in the country.”
Another favorable comparison to ObamaCare: The current law was 2,700 pages and has grown to stand 7 feet 3 inches, while the GOP alternative is less than 200 pages. Among its many goals are allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines, permitting businesses to pool together for better rates and increasing patient access to pricing. In other words, the focus is on bringing cost down rather than control up.
Meanwhile, don’t miss Mark Alexander’s comprehensive recounting on ObamaCare6.
News From the Swamp: CBO Debt Report
The Congressional Budget Office put a damper on Barack Obama’s rosy fiscal forecast with a warning about the long-term U.S. budget outlook.
Read more and comment here7.
ECONOMY
Regulatory Commissars: EPA Issues Rules
Two weeks ago we outlined8 what to expect when the Environmental Protection Agency was to present new climate regulation ordered by Barack Obama through executive power in June. The EPA’s official report9 released Friday affirms our report: “New large natural gas-fired turbines would need to meet a limit of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour, while new small natural gas-fired turbines would need to meet a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour. New coal-fired units would need to meet a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour.”
The result will be intentionally disastrous for coal-powered plants that will now be forced to install costly carbon capture technology. “No coal-fired power plant has done that yet, in large part because of the cost,” observes The Wall Street Journal10. “And those plants that the EPA points to as potential models … have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and tax credits.” Imagine that: An expensive (and likely subpar) technology in need of a government subsidy. We have a good idea how this will turn out.
Perhaps the most egregious comments come from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. While testifying last week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, McCarthy was asked what effect any of the EPA’s 26 climate regulations have had on curbing global warming. “It’s unlikely that any specific one step is going to be seen as having … a visible change in any of those [indicators],” McCarthy admitted11.
So let’s get this straight: An administration working to “save the planet” from “climate change” admits it’s likely none of the regulations have done anything to actually curb warming. And yet, the answer is to instate more carbon rules. This administration will do whatever it takes to destroy the coal industry in service to its leftist ideology.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Syrian Chemical Weapons Check
The Syrian government began its (ahem) cooperation with the UN over its chemical weapons stockpiles, submitting the first report listing its stores. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which monitors compliance with the international ban on such weapons, “received an initial statement from Syria” Friday. According to The Washington Post12, “The United States estimates that Syria has more than 1,000 metric tons of chemical toxins and blames the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the Aug. 21 attack, which U.S. officials say killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, in rebel-held or contested areas near the capital.”
Russia, on the other hand, still blames the rebels for perpetrating the attack to frame Assad. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin says he “can’t say 100%” whether Syria will truly comply with the deal to turn over its chemical weapons. File that one under “keen sense of the obvious.” Indeed, the Syrian regime has been busy moving its chemical weapons around for the last year – ever since Barack Obama drew his “red line.” One Obama administration official said, “What is unclear is whether they are moving them to consolidate the stockpile and then declare it, or are they moving it around to conceal it.” Answering that would seem to be rather important. |
