The Patriot Post Wednesday Digest 9-25-2013

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The Patriot Post Wednesday Digest 9-25-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people … must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.” –Federalist No. 33 (1787)

Editor’s Note

Ahead of the Senate showdown on ObamaCare today, be sure to read Mark Alexander’s summary of the Republican strategy1 (yes there is one, even if GOP “leadership” is trying to catch up with the rank and file).

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
American v German Democrat Voters

Angela Merkel, Germany’s first female chancellor, won re-election Sunday by an overwhelming margin – the largest since Helmut Kohl’s post-reunification victory of 1990. Merkel’s right-leaning Christian Democrats defeated the opposition Social Democrat candidate, Peer Steinbrueck. The Christian Democrats, however, fell five seats short of winning an absolute majority in the 630-seat Bundestag – Germany’s lower parliament house – leaving them in need of a coalition partner, which most likely will be the Social Democrats. Serving another four-year term means Merkel will eclipse Margaret Thatcher2 as Europe’s longest-serving female head of state.

What led to Merkel’s victory? Well, economic austerity measures, which have left Germany, Europe’s largest economy, with the lowest unemployment rate in almost two-decades, and the virtual elimination of the nation’s budget deficit.

So how are American and German voters different? A majority of American voters re-elected a candidate whose policies have failed miserably, leaving the nation with record debt and real unemployment, and a stagnant economy.

NATIONAL SECURITY
Shot Down, Twice

Shot down over Laos in 1969, the bodies of two MIA Vietnam era Air Force aviators were recovered and returned home for burial at Arlington National Cemetery this week. Major James Sizemore and his navigator Major Howard Andre were buried at Arlington National Cemetery, laid to rest side by side, just the way they flew.

However, the Air Force refused the traditional ceremonial flyover to honor these men. Captain Rose Richardson noted, “The Air Force is unable to support the flyover request for Major Sizemore due to limited flying hours and budget constraints.” In other words, this is the latest entry in Obama’s “blame the Republican sequester3” charade. However, volunteer pilots with the Warrior Flight Team4 stepped into the gap and provided a flyover, including a Douglas A26 Invader of the type Sizemore and Andre were flying when they were shot down 44 years ago. The Invader was joined by P51 Mustangs off its wings.

The Patriot Post has now written about Obama’s moratorium on honor flights several times since his sequestration cuts began, and each time we have noted that, while these flights have been denied, Barack Obama continues to use Air Force One and its entire contingent of additional Air Force aircraft and support crews to commute to political fundraisers, stump speeches and vacations5. It is not that we think Obama should book his flights on Expedia, but the fact that the Commander in Chief continues to use this most costly Air Force asset for purely political or pleasure trips, while denying honor flights, should be called out by the national media. Even the conservative Beltway media have not seen fit to mention this unmitigated hypocrisy once.

Kenya Be Any More PC?

Apparently, the U.S. now has another “Overseas Contingency Operation” (OCO) available, in the wake of a terrorist attack in Kenya, with all fingers pointing to al-Shabaab, Somalia’s closely-tied version of al-Qaida. With the “War on Terror” now over – thanks to the politically correct (PC) handiwork of Team Yes-We-Can – it’s good to know the world can now rest easy.

Read more and comment here6.

ECONOMY
Sliding Farther Down the Freedom Scale

It’s becoming an annual lament7: Once the United States was among the most economically free nations on the planet, but now we barely crack the top 20. According to the 2013 Economic Freedom of the World report8, now co-published by the Cato and Fraser Institutes, we rank not only behind the usual leaders Hong Kong and Singapore, but Jordan and the United Kingdom as well. Jordan? Are you kidding us?

Apparently they’re serious, and a key reason for the decline is the ever-growing role of our government in shaping the economy. At the turn of the century, the United States was generally just behind Hong Kong and Singapore atop the rankings, but that was before the size and scope of government grew thanks to the 9/11 terrorist attack and its resulting “enhanced” security measures, new and exploding entitlement programs, and – particularly in the last five years – a new regulatory state in response to economic crisis. “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system,” said George W. Bush in 2008, and with that our economic freedom continued its plunge.

One piece of good news, if any can be found, is that the U.S. has stabilized its ranking at 19th after plunging eight spots from 10th to 18th between 2009 and 2010 – the current edition of Economic Freedom of the World is based on 2011 data, which is the latest available. The value assigned by the study showed we actually improved our lot from a 7.70 score (out of a possible 10) in last year’s report to 7.74 this time. But that’s a long way from the 8.65 rating we attained in the year 2000, and it may be at least a half-decade before we claw our way back over the 8-point barrier.

CULTURE
Village Academic Curriculum: Failing Schools

“Philadelphia’s schools,” notes The Wall Street Journal9, “are a textbook case of chronic, systemic failure.” Why? Well, just 40% of Philadelphia’s students tested proficient or better in reading. Paradoxically, 99.5% of teachers have a satisfactory rating. On top of that, the average teacher at a traditional school in Philadelphia earns $110,000 in salary and benefits. Last year, the district borrowed $300 million to cover a budget deficit and this year closed more than 20 schools and laid off 3,000 employees to cover another $300 million hole, all while union benefits remain lavish. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, is working to get some concessions from the union, but, as usual, they’re putting the kids, er, their bottom line first.

While Philadelphia’s schools crumble, a New York teacher fired earlier this year for possessing a stash of heroin could get his job back10 after a judge found his firing to be “unduly harsh.”

And then there’s the story of the Virginia seventh graders who were suspended and could be expelled11 for firing airsoft guns on private property. They allegedly violated their school’s “zero tolerance” policy while waiting for the bus. We’d say it’s time the U.S. education system displayed “zero tolerance” for mindless leftists.

BRIEF OPINION
Re: The Left

Columnist Mark Steyn12: “‘This is the United States of America,’ declared President Obama to the burghers of Liberty, Missouri, on Friday. ‘We’re not some banana republic.’ He was talking about the Annual Raising of the Debt Ceiling, which glorious American tradition seems to come round earlier every year. … As Obama explained in another of his recent speeches, ‘Raising the debt ceiling, which has been done over a hundred times, does not increase our debt.’ I won’t even pretend to know what he and his speechwriters meant by that one, but the fact that raising the debt ceiling ‘has been done over a hundred times’ does suggest that spending more than it takes in is now a permanent feature of American government. And no one has plans to do anything about it. Which is certainly banana republic-esque.”

Political Futures

Blogger John Hinderaker13: “You would think that Republicans will sweep in 2014 – increase their hold on the House, and take the Senate. But that isn’t what voters have in mind. Rasmussen … finds that currently, Democrats lead Republicans in the generic Congressional preference poll by 40%-37%. It’s a paradox: voters prefer Republicans on the issues, but still lean toward voting for Democrats. One could speculate about why that is true; I think it is obvious that the press’s ceaseless attacks on Republicans are part of the explanation. That is a longstanding problem, but the numbers suggest that Republicans will do best if they keep pounding away on the issues, especially the ones where voters are predisposed to favor them.”