The Patriot Post Monday Brief 11-11-2013

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The Patriot Post Monday Brief 11-11-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.” –John Adams

NATIONAL SECURITY
Veterans Day

On the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month…

This Day is set aside now, in honor of American Patriot Veterans, who have carried the banner of Liberty forward since the first shots at Lexington and Concord! And it is now time for us to deliver this banner to the next generation.

Millions of Patriots – American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen – have for generations honored their oath to “support and defend1” Liberty, as “endowed by our Creator2” and enshrined in our Constitution.

Today, and every day, we formally honor them. We remain the proud and the free because they have stood bravely in harm’s way, and millions remain on post today. For this, we, the American People, offer our heartfelt thanks.

“Mighty men of valor, men trained for war, who could handle shield and spear, and whose faces were like the faces of lions.” (1 Chronicles 12:8.)

“Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.” –Gen. Douglas MacArthur

“War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” – John Stuart Mill

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-14)

American Patriot: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier3.

(See Mark Alexander’s essay, The Most Noble of American Patriots4.)

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
IRS Scandal Investigation Continues

Six months after the May 10 discovery that the IRS illegally targeted conservative organizations5 for additional “scrutiny,” House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) remains committed to finding answers about the scope of the IRS prying. It was the admission of former IRS official Lois Lerner that blew the lid off a scandal of epic proportions. Lerner then pleaded the Fifth6 before going on paid leave and finally retiring. The scandal was ignored by the Leftmedia and pushed out of any other headlines by the troubles in Syria, the government shutdown and the ObamaCare disaster. But congressional investigators are quietly continuing to work.

Issa issued a subpoena Thursday for Treasury Department documents that could detail interactions with the IRS about those Tea Party and Patriot groups. Both the House Committee and the Senate Finance Committee aim to release reports in December.

At first, we learned that the IRS was scrutinizing Tea Party and Patriot applications for tax-exempt status. But the House Ways and Means Committee is now looking into whether the IRS also targeted conservative groups for audit after tax-exempt status was granted. Again, despite what the Obama administration first told us, this is far more than just a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati. Audits also spread the trouble to the Dallas office.

When it comes to this (and any other scandal), Obama has long used the Sergeant Schultz defense: “I know nothing, I see nothing, I was not here, I did not even get up this morning.” And Democrats continue to circle the wagons around the White House, too. Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI) says, “There is zero evidence that the White House was involved in this.” But it would be better if the White House had made a phone call or sent an email directing this targeting. If there was, in fact, no White House involvement then this is systematic corruption and abuse of power by a government agency. Either way, it was not merely “incompetence” as Democrats would have us believe.

Issa’s subpoena reflects something else important: It asks for details of the apparatus set up to deal with ObamaCare. That’s right – the IRS is the agency that will enforce that law.

ECONOMY, REGS & TAXES
Regulatory Commissars: Clean Water Act Holes

Ronald Reagan once noted, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Under the Obama administration, the EPA is relentlessly proving Reagan’s observation by attempting to regulate small water bodies as “wetlands” under the Clean Water Act. Naturally, leftist green pressure groups who mindlessly believe an ever more intrusive big government bureaucracy is the most effective environmental steward are cheering the agency’s mission creep.

EPA’s gambit to regulate these water bodies is based on its novel new interpretation of the Clean Water Act’s applicability to its undefined phrase, “waters of the United States.” Judges and EPA regulators have struggled to interpret this phrase in the absence of legislative clarity. Now the agency is proposing a regulatory solution and conducting a politically tainted review to accumulate evidence to back up its interpretation of its shiny new rule. Lost in the politicizing fog is the common-sense notion that bodies of water can’t all be wetlands – they’re either water or land.

As with so many of the Obama agencies, EPA has run wild and must be reined in. Perhaps the 2014 election will bring conservatives to office who will do just that.

CULTURE, SCIENCE & FAITH
Euthanasia Gains Steam

A proposed amendment to Belgium’s 2002 euthanasia law would give children the right to decide whether they wish to be euthanized. The bill also applies to disabled infants and seniors with dementia. Existing law limits euthanasia to those over 18 and requires consent of the person or guardian. “It is strange that minors are considered legally incompetent in key areas … but might [be able] to decide to die,” Catholic Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard testified. Michel De Keukelaere, founder of the March for Life in Brussels says, “Children never choose to die.” She suggests that the law is symbolic, a “sort of the revenge of these socialist and liberal parties who want to show that Christianity in Belgium is finished.”

In the last decade, the number of reported deaths by euthanasia rose over 400%. But the Belgian Medical Journal asserts that the true number is considerably higher, and some 32% of deaths happen without “explicit request.” No cases violating the current law have ever been prosecuted. Ironically, the rationale for the amendment is that “it’s already happening anyway,” and “doctors need a legal framework.”

Meanwhile, Quebec’s legislature stands on the verge of enacting a law similar to Belgium’s existing one. It passed last week with an 84-26 vote in the national assembly. Opposition parties will have the opportunity to offer amendments before a final vote, but the only significant opposition comes from the Liberal Party. Leader Philippe Couillard says the bill as it stands doesn’t set sufficiently strict standards. One difference between Canada and Belgium is Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms that recognizes all Canadians as equal under the law. If euthanasia is legalized, it will eventually be extended to all Canadians, including children. As one opponent said, “You can’t have a little bit of euthanasia.”

We wonder: How long until ObamaCare and its death panels bring the same tidings to the U.S.? People are getting policy cancellation letters now; wait until they’re getting life canceling letters because the cost to keep them alive would be too great for the system.