|
nChrist
|
 |
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2015, 05:12:29 PM » |
|
________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 3-24-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________
Many conservatives, particularly of the Tea Party strain, are thrilled about Cruz’s candidacy and avidly support his ideas. The videos relate his belief in hope, freedom and faith in God. His agenda includes repealing ObamaCare, dealing seriously with the national debt, stopping Barack Obama’s amnesty, ending IRS political harassment, instituting a flat tax, restoring the Constitution, confronting ISIL and Iran and repealing Common Core. Needless to say, it’s a solidly conservative platform.
Cruz’s key constituencies are the Tea Party, social conservatives and libertarians, pretty much in that order. Over the course of the primaries, he aims to raise $40-$50 million to build a coalition of these groups, and, along with other conservatives, challenge and defeat the presumed establishment candidate, Jeb Bush26.
Yet The New York Times speculates27 that, even if Cruz were to have a spectacular run through the primaries, the chance of his ever gaining the establishment’s support would be slight. In fact, the establishment would pull out all the stops and outspend him heavily to torpedo his candidacy.
But Cruz has much to commend him. A graduate of Harvard Law School, liberal professor Alan Dershowitz described28 Cruz as “off-the-charts brilliant.” Cruz taught constitutional law at the University of Texas, where he cultivated his firm belief in the separation of powers. He argued in his thesis29 that the Framers included the Ninth and Tenth Amendments “as an explicit stop against an all-powerful state.”
Cruz has held several public offices, including ones at the Federal Trade Commission, at the Department of Justice and with the George W. Bush administration. After serving as solicitor general of Texas, Cruz ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2012. In that primary, he aligned with the Tea Party and pummeled establishment favorite David Dewhurst, earning the enmity of many of Dewhurst’s supporters. He also won the general election in a landslide.
A man of strong convictions, Cruz is not a typical politician. While in Iowa recently, he had the “gall” to criticize the ethanol mandate30 that is popular among far too many Iowa Republicans, and, thus, other presidential hopefuls. But that’s just one example of his firebrand approach.
Sometimes, however, his all-or-nothing approach is ill-advised. Case in point: He led the GOP into an avoidable box canyon31 on the fight over ObamaCare funding. His principles were admirable; his strategy was not. The episode won him the enmity of many in the Senate, including fellow Republicans. In fact, in April 2013, Foreign Policy magazine identified him as “The Most Hated Man in the Senate,” describing him as “the human equivalent of one of those flower-squirters that clowns wear on their lapels.” Of course, that title would win him even greater support among those who are fed up with Congress, and last time we checked that was a lot of people.
Running for president is a daunting task. Besides Cruz, seven other likely candidates are expected to formally announce their campaigns. For Cruz, that crowd along with carrying the ill will of many party elites make his candidacy an uphill battle. Never the shrinking violet, however, Cruz says, “If you want more of the same, there’ll be plenty to choose from, but if you want real conservative change and a proven record, I hope I can win your support.” We’ll have to wait and see if he can win it.
Police Reduce Rolling Stone’s Rape Story to Rubble32
New details from the alleged University of Virginia rape case emerged Monday, and the results weren’t exactly what many mainstream journalistic outlets were hoping for.
Last November, Rolling Stone magazine featured an article33 on the supposed UVA rape case concerning a college student named “Jackie,” the alleged victim, and members of campus fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, the alleged gang of rapists. Shortly after Rolling Stone published the article, it retracted several of the claims reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely put forth.
We noted34 at the time that Rolling Stone, in an attempt to support the narrative of a widespread “rape culture” on campuses around the county, was guilty of shoddy and reckless journalism. We hold fast to this assertion, and the Charlottesville Police Department agrees.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Police Chief Timothy Longo told reporters35 the Charlottesville Police Department was “not able to conclude, to any substantive degree, that an incident which is consistent with the facts contained [in] that article occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, or any other house for that matter.”
Chief Longo noted36 that a time-stamped photo of the frat house where the alleged assault occurred revealed the house was practically empty at the time Jackie said the rape occurred. There was no party that night. Furthermore, Longo said his investigators had spoken with nine of the 11 members of the fraternity who were living at the house during the time of the incident, and none of them had any knowledge of the alleged assault or even who Jackie was.
To make things even sketchier, when Jackie came to police in the spring of 2014 to report a non-sexual assault, she provided details of the supposed 2012 rape. However, the details she provided to police were much different from those depicted by the Rolling Stone article. When the article was published, Jackie agreed to meet with police investigators, but, according to37 Reason’s Robby Soave, she “declined to give a statement or provide documents and was generally uncooperative.”
Chief Longo emphasized to reporters38 that despite lack of evidence from Jackie’s rape claim “the case is not closed by any stretch of the imagination.” He and his department are hoping someone will come forward soon with information related to the case. At this point there are no charges against Jackie for false statements. But the message is clearly that her story has little or no basis in fact.
Perhaps the most profound statement Chief Longo made is this: “Having police involvement in the early stages of an investigation is extremely, extremely important.” Ouch. Actually, that’s a nice way for the police chief to tell mainstream reporters (i.e. Rolling Stone) to stop reporting facts that aren’t facts.
Investigative journalism in this case and many others is dead. Why? Because it was more important for Erdely and Rolling Stone to perpetuate a (false) narrative about sexual assault on college campuses than it was to get the facts straight. While Rolling Stone magazine did apologize for making a wrong judgment in publishing the story, young men, a fraternity and an entire university were besmirched as a result.
In both police work and good reporting, it takes time to gather evidence, receive statements and get the facts right. Erdely spent time telling a good story, but the basics fell by the wayside. Yet Leftmedia outlets purposefully glamorized a story to draw attention to a particular phenomenon with the hopes of capturing a mesmerized audience. The cliché that “sex sells” is sad but true. Even in cases of alleged rape the facts are distorted in order to make a profit off of the individual(s) involved.
In a world full of false information, people want and deserve the truth. Truth never fears a challenge; yet too often mainstream news sources aren’t willing to be honest. It’s time they start, because anything less is a disservice to the American people.
For more, visit Right Analysis20. |
