The Patriot Post Digest 5-29-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-29-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

May 29, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“The best service that can be rendered to a country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation, and the enjoyment of the blessing.” —James Madison, letter to Littleton Dennis Teackle, 1826

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Secrecy Surrounds Dennis Hastert’s Indictment1

The Department of Justice unveiled an indictment2 against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Thursday, accusing him of lying to the FBI and withdrawing cash in such a way as to hide the fact he was paying someone “$3.5 million in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct.” It’s stunning enough that federal prosecutors brought charges against a politician of Hastert’s caliber. But the question of the hour3 is why he was so willing to pay someone $3.5 million. Before entering politics, Hastert taught high school history and coached wrestling in Yorkville, Illinois. Someone in the U.S. attorney’s office apparently believes paying a bribe is a greater crime than Hastert’s misconduct. So they covered up the information because it’s embarrassing to the former politician. He was once one of the most powerful politicians in the country and we are denied the ability to know whether this affected his leadership. More…4

Surprise! First Quarter GDP in the Tank5

A month ago, the government pegged GDP growth at a tentative 0.2% for the first quarter of 2015. However, as we noted6 at the time, revisions knocked last year’s first quarter GDP down by a staggering two percentage points — from 0.1% to -2.1% — meaning the economy actually contracted to start off 2014. That inevitably raised the question: Is a repeat in the offing? We now know the answer to that question, and it’s a resounding yes. Today, Commerce Department revisions showed first quarter GDP was lower than initially reported. Instead of 0.2% growth — an already sluggish number — January-March GDP now stands at -0.7%. The Wall Street Journal reports, “The latest downgrade came after new data showed a wider trade deficit and a slower pace of restocking by firms than earlier estimates, damping demand at factories and service providers. Those developments added to an already bleak picture of weak consumer spending and a downturn in business investment.” And according to Reuters, “With growth estimates so far for the second quarter around 2 percent, the economy appears poised for its worst first-half performance since 2011.” A myriad of rehashed excuses are already flooding in — from winter weather woes to flawed government methods to a mere hiccup — but it’s not like the economy ever gained much footing under the Obama recovery to begin with.

Los Angeles Labor Leaders Want Minimum Wage Exemption7

Oh the irony. Fourteen Los Angeles council members recently voted8 to incrementally raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Considering a whopping 50% of the city’s workforce makes minimum wage, the new law is bound to have significant ramifications — which may explain this oddity from the Los Angeles Times: “Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.” Rusty Hocks with the Federation of Labor defended the proposed exemption by opining, “With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them.” Yet, as the Times notes, “For much of the past eight months, labor activists have argued against special considerations for business owners, such as restaurateurs, who said they would have trouble complying with the mandated pay increase.” In other words, labor leaders want the flexibility to negotiate a mutually fair hourly wage — one that may very well fall below $15 — while forcing non-unionized businesses to comply with an admittedly harmful law. The Left, it seems, doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage so much as coerce businesses into joining a union, which would then translate into political capital.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Debate Over the Death Penalty Has Just Begun9

By Lewis Morris

Nebraska lawmakers voted Wednesday to make that state the 19th to ban the death penalty. Republican Governor Pete Ricketts vetoed earlier in the week the bill that sought to repeal the state’s death penalty statute. According to Nebraska law, it takes 30 of 49 senators in the unicameral legislature to override a gubernatorial veto. And 30 votes are exactly what death penalty opponents got. The original bill was passed last week and sent to Ricketts with 32 votes.

Ricketts stated in his veto10 of the original legislation, “Repealing the death penalty sends the wrong message to Nebraskans who overwhelmingly support capital punishment and look to government to strengthen public safety, not weaken it.”

The governor burned phone lines and called in favors in an effort to sustain his veto, but he was ultimately unable to do so. Still, with a thin majority supporting the original ban, and the thinnest of majorities overriding Ricketts' veto, it is almost guaranteed that this issue will come up again next term. The governor vowed11, “While the legislature has lost touch with the citizens of Nebraska, I will continue to stand with Nebraskans and law enforcement on this important issue.”

Nebraska’s rejection of the death penalty is certainly being heralded in liberal circles as a victory. Advocates for the rights of convicted criminals — often acting without any regard for the rights of victims and their families — have been marching forward to make America a death penalty-free country for decades. And they have been experiencing some success lately.

Of the states without the death penalty, a third have banned it after 2007. Many of those actions have been motivated by concerns that capital punishment is cruel and unusual, grossly misapplied across various cases, and inherently racist. (This last reason is patently false12. White defendants make up 55% of all executions since 1976, with blacks and Latinos comprising 34% and 8%, respectively. Seventy-five percent of the victims have been white, with 15% black and close to 7% Latino.)

Just the same, Nebraska’s case is unique. It is the most conservative state to ban the death penalty, and the reasons that motivated lawmakers to support the ban are varied.

State Sen. Mark Kolterman13, a self-professed conservative, reasoned that support for the death penalty ran afoul of his commitment to protecting life. He also expressed fiscal concerns: “The state has spent approximately $100 million on death penalty related cases since 1976, but has only executed three people.”

The fiscal argument rang true for a number of senators who supported the ban, but the lawmakers who wanted to keep the punishment in place reasoned that Nebraska has executed few criminals under the statute. Ricketts wrote in the Omaha World-Herald14, “In Nebraska, there are only 10 inmates on death row. Unlike California or Texas, which have hundreds on death row, we use the death penalty judiciously and prudently. Retaining the death penalty is not only important to the integrity of criminal prosecutions but also vitally important to good prison management and protecting our prison officials.”

A majority of Americans support the death penalty, although that margin has been declining over time. As might be expected, Republicans overwhelmingly support it, while a majority of Democrats do not.