The Patriot Post Friday Digest 10-11-2013

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The Patriot Post Friday Digest 10-11-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

“No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable.” –James Madison

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Train Wreck Proceeds as Expected

The fight began with ObamaCare, and it led to 17% of the government shutting down. The House GOP offered a deal Thursday night to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks but without reopening government. Senate Republicans are pursuing a three-month increase. Barack Obama still refuses to budge until Republicans completely cave.

Meanwhile, the problems with ObamaCare’s public rollout continue to stack up as the program closes its second official week in operation. On the technical front, insurance companies are receiving incomplete applications, bad data and unusable files from the mere 51,000 enrollees1 who somehow managed to sign up on the ObamaCare exchanges in the first week. Government computer contractors with a three-year head start and at least $94 million2 failed to design a system that could effectively communicate with private insurance companies. Now insurers will have to clean up the data on their end, leading to a backlog of applications and possible delays in coverage.

In other news, the Better Business Bureau raised a red flag about the potential for mass fraud with ObamaCare. The ridiculous complexity of the law and the dysfunction of the online system present myriad opportunities for scammers who thrive on confusion and misinformation. One popular tactic already in effect is identity thieves posing as insurance representatives offering customers a short cut to signing on by getting them to turn over their Social Security and bank account information. And since the system was never properly tested, there’s no telling what kinds of security holes hackers will exploit.

Finally, those who do manage to sign up, get their insurance and avoid being robbed in the process, face significantly higher costs than promised. Even government actuaries found that ObamaCare will increase health care spending by at least $621 billion over the next 10 years. Despite the snake oil that Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats were selling us in 2009, there’s no way health care will cost less when more people are added to the insurance rolls and forced to buy more expensive plans.

Don’t miss Mark Alexander’s commentary on the shutdown: Republicans under fire3, Shutdown Theatrical Review4 and Conservative House Republican strategy5.

ECONOMY
Regulatory Commissars: Enforcing the Ethanol Mandate

On the heels of federal subsidies and legislation designed to force a commodity into a market with little appetite for it, ethanol may be getting yet another assist. Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) recently sent a letter6 to the Federal Trade Commission requesting investigation of the oil industry for “anticompetitive practices aimed at blocking market access for renewable fuels.” In other words, having failed to create demand with special treatment for ethanol, they now want Big Brother to harass oil companies forced to blend it with their product.

This goes back to the 2007 congressional mandate that 36 billion gallons of ethanol must contaminate the nation’s gas supply by 2022. With a growing gasoline supply, this might not have been problematic, but demand for gas hasn’t grown because of the EPA’s mileage demands and better technology from car manufacturers. And since gasoline with more than 10% ethanol wreaks havoc on engines not built to handle its corrosive effects, refiners have found themselves stuck between reality and the mandate. Unbothered by the former, the pro-ethanol lobby claims the oil industry is “blocking the introduction of cheaper, cleaner, and renewable alternatives.”

Meanwhile, even one Democrat has conceded the mandate’s failure, calling the standard7 a “flop” that’s caused both “environmental … [and] economic detriment to many sectors of the economy.” The White House, however, continues to vow loyalty8 to the ethanol lobby. But then again, that’s not surprising for an administration that doesn’t let facts cloud its judgment.

NATIONAL SECURITY
‘Progress’ in Syria

Since taking office, Barack Obama has never shied away from diplomacy (unless of course it’s with the Republican Party). We all remember the “Kumbaya” tone of his campaign speeches, and it comes as no surprise that his tireless efforts to “make nice” in the Middle East have resulted not in a decline in violence but only in America’s influence there. This was most recently illustrated in the president’s handling (or lack thereof) of Syria’s chemical weapons.

Obama’s show of bravado fooled no one, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who warned that we should be “prepared for anything” if we struck Syria. The absence of American leadership always creates a power vacuum, and those stepping into that vacuum might not be friendly to our interests, or to liberty in general. This time, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the helm.

In the meantime, Assad is putting his own spin on the situation, namely, that Putin is a “real friend” who truly “understands the fight against terrorism” due to Russia’s own troubles in Chechnya. Of Obama, Assad said something with which we can sympathize: “He has nothing to offer other than lies.” Currently, UN inspectors say they’re in the process of destroying Syria’s weapons and the machinery that created them. But we have no knowledge of what specifically is being destroyed, only the “promise” that the entire program will be shut down by the middle of next year.

Finally, from The Washington Post9: “The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Hague-based agency responsible for destroying Syria’s chemical weapons, has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday in Oslo.” Yet another meaningless prize handed to someone who hasn’t actually done anything yet.

CULTURE
Village Academic Curriculum: Common Core or Common Sense?

The latest effort at government control in education comes in a set of standards purportedly set up to help us compete on a global scale. The Common Core State Standards Initiative, better and more simply known as Common Core, was sold to states as a replacement for the much-maligned No Child Left Behind program enacted by the George W. Bush administration. States that adopted Common Core were given waivers from many NCLB standards. The pot was sweetened by billions of dollars in stimulus money promised to states, with adoption of Common Core being a factor. Just five states – Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia – do not yet participate.

But a backlash is developing as parents learn about the program and educational experts decry the watering down of standards and “empty promises”10 of Common Core. Some states have listened – Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation last spring to “slow down” the adoption of Common Core until more research and input could be obtained – but others are moving full speed ahead and even arresting parents11 who question the motives of the state in blindly following.

Even parents who think they can avoid Common Core by sending their children to private school or homeschooling them may find an issue, as the ACT, SAT and even the GED high school equivalency exam are in the process of aligning their tests12 with the Common Core curriculum.

Surely, though, when succeeding generations graduate from whatever school they attend, they’ll find the school of hard knocks will give them an education they’ll never forget. It’s lifelong learning we all endure and are tested on daily.