The Patriot Post Digest 6-1-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-1-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Jun. 1, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness.” —George Washington, Fifth Annual Message, 1793

EDITOR’S NOTE

Sometimes events remind us all that life is more than politics. The death of Beau Biden, son of Joe Biden, is one of those events. Beau had privately battled brain cancer for the last few years, but succumbed on Saturday. Beau, 46, was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard. He served in Iraq and was awarded the Bronze Star. He was also attorney general in Delaware and once considered a potential governor. Beau leaves behind his wife, Hallie, and two children, Natalie and Hunter. Joe Biden is no stranger to tragedy, either. In 1972, he lost his first wife, Nelia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, survived. Political differences aside, we in our humble shop offer our sincerest condolences to the Biden family.

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

DOJ Planning Next Assault on Gun Rights1

If Barack Obama can’t push gun control through the nation’s lawmaking body, then he’ll pile on the regulations. By November, the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are expected to finalize regulations that would restrict who is qualified to exercise their Second Amendment rights. “The regulations range from new restrictions on high-powered pistols to gun storage requirements,” The Hill2 reports. “Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable or have been convicted of domestic abuse. … As proposed, the regulation makes it illegal for some who has been convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence offense to own a gun.” The Left has been test firing these regulations since 1998, but it is revising the proposed regulation binge because of Sandy Hook and “public health.” Furthermore, what constitutes domestic assault and mental illness is subject to social mores, and rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not tied to majority rule.

Patriot Act Expires After Last-Minute Senate Fight3

The Senate allowed the Patriot Act to expire Sunday after opposition, led by Rand Paul, derailed the efforts of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to renew the act and endorse the NSA’s mass metadata collection efforts. The chamber did, however, vote 77-17 to take up the House-passed USA Freedom Act, which would revise the Patriot Act to specifically prohibit the NSA’s domestic spying program — a program ruled illegal by a federal court. Unfortunately, congressional efficiency being what it is, leadership waited too late to bring either bill up for debate, almost ensuring unnecessary drama. That means the good of the Patriot Act was thrown out with the bad. Yet as Reuters reports4, “Intelligence experts say a lapse of only a few days would have little immediate effect. The government is allowed to continue collecting information related to any foreign intelligence investigation that began before the deadline.” Fighting terrorists is critical, but collecting data from every American to create the proverbial haystack doesn’t strike us as an efficient or trustworthy way to go about doing that. And it’s time Congress took its national security responsibly more seriously than leaving important work to the last minute.

O'Malley Officially Challenges Hillary5

The symbolism was a bit off, or a telling example of what the future may hold if Martin O'Malley wins the White House. With the Baltimore skyline in the background, the former mayor of the city announced Saturday that he would seek the Democrat nomination for president. Between the idealistic socialist Bernie Sanders and the conniving politician Hillary Clinton, O'Malley doesn’t seem to have much of a chance winning the Democrat Party’s horse race. Publisher of the Rothenberg and Gonzales Political Report, Stuart Rothenberg, told the Baltimore Sun6, “The only way he’s going to have a path, is if [Clinton] stumbles. Right now, it’s not about O'Malley and I don’t believe it ever will be about O'Malley.” While we know Clinton’s track record on foreign policy, we know O'Malley’s track record on domestic issues through his leadership in Maryland. It was he that brought tough, zero-tolerance policing to Baltimore — the policing strategy that contributed to the riots that recently rocked the city. Furthermore, it was the guitar-playing7 politician’s progressive economic strategies as governor that drowned Maryland in taxes and waterlogged the state’s economic engine. That economic policy caused Maryland to have the third slowest economic growth of all the states from 2011 to 2013, The Wall Street Journal reports8 — something the nation’s economy cannot bear after years of implementing Obama’s economic ideas.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Breaking the Tyranny of DC Gun Laws9

By Robin Smith

The left-wing ruling class in the District of Columbia continues its relentless fight against the God-given freedom recognized by the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms, the palladium of liberties10. Of course, to the Left, the thought of a constitutional right that doesn’t involve the redefinition of marriage or legalizing the dismemberment of a baby in the womb seems ludicrous.

This chapter in the ongoing saga revolves around a federal judge’s ruling last July that overturned the city’s 40-year ban on carrying firearms for self-defense. In response to the ruling, the leftist DC government designed a very restrictive right-to-carry permit process — one that approved as few applications as possible.

That, too, has been struck down in a federal decision joining the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller ruling11 that overturned the District of Columbia’s complete ban on handgun ownership. Since that restoration of rights, over 3,000 handguns have been registered in DC, but only for use in protecting one’s home.

The impact of crime upon citizens has made clear that law enforcement is only minutes away when seconds count. The necessity of armed self-defense is becoming more and more a reality in a world where abled-bodied thieves, emboldened by the Left, are confident that only criminals and those riding in squad cars have access to firearms.

In late October 2014, DC politicos crafted a very narrow “may-issue” policy awarding carry permits on the basis that at least one of three conditions can be met: A) there’s a clear and immediate threat to personal safety, B) the applicant works with enough physical currency or items of high value to create a substantiated risk of theft or harm, or C) the applicant cites responsibility for protecting a disabled family member. Further, the applicant must prove they’ve not suffered from mental illness within the last five years. And finally, they have to undergo 18 hours of certified training.

Once the applicant squeezes through the eye of that needle, further restrictions await: No personal weapon can be carried on public transportation, at schools, in any government buildings, bars, hospitals, stadiums, at any protests, or around the White House. An approved permit holder would also have to remain 1,000 feet from any U.S. or foreign dignitary.

By the way, 1,000 feet is more than the length of three football fields. Is anyone in DC that far from a “dignitary”?

As a result of this blatant attack on the constitutional rights of DC citizens, three applicants filed a lawsuit in federal court to combat the ruling. And they succeeded. In his 23-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. wrote, “For all intents and purposes, this requirement makes it impossible for the overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens to obtain licenses to carry handguns in public for self-defense, thereby depriving them of their Second Amendment right to bear arms.”