The Patriot Post Digest 6-15-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-15-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Jun. 15, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“Our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course.” —George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

HUD’s ‘Housing Equality’ Thud1

Barack Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is set to release2 a rule aimed at fostering “diversity” in wealthy neighborhoods around the country. “HUD is working with communities across the country to fulfill the promise of equal opportunity for all,” an agency spokeswoman said. “The proposed policy seeks to break down barriers to access to opportunity in communities supported by HUD funds.” This diversity scheme has shades of the last time Democrats attempted to reconfigure banking to favor unqualified people3. Promoters of the policy are suggesting it’s fair because, if states and communities don’t want to abide by Obama’s decree, they can forgo the federal money they receive. That’s a fair argument only if the people in those states can also choose to forgo paying taxes to the federal government. Of course, most of Obama’s supporters pay no taxes. Political analyst Marc Thiessen said it best: “We as conservatives believe and diversifying communities too. The way you do that is through economic opportunity. It’s not by building more affordable housing in affluent communities, it’s by creating economic opportunities so that more Americans can afford housing in affluent communities. Right now the problem is that people at the bottom of the Obama economy can’t get ahead.” HUD’s rule is nothing more than an Obama charade to ramp up class warfare and appease constituents who are enslaved on poverty plantations4 — the direct result of generations of failed Democrat economic policies.

House Democrats Doom Obama’s Trade Deal5

In a vote that served a smackdown on Obama’s trade deal with Pacific countries, House Democrats voted against a provision that was supposed to sweeten the legislation allowing Obama the authority to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Senate had sent two measures to the House: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) was the legislation that gave the chief executive authority to negotiate this trade deal, and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a Democrat priority, was legislation that — as the leftists viewed it — protected American workers (read: unions) when the economy experienced freer global trade. On Friday, the House overwhelmingly rejected6 TAA in a 302-126 vote and narrowly passed TPA 219-211. Both chambers need to agree on the legislation before it heads to Obama’s desk. So TPA will head back to the Senate where it may or may not pass; the bill’s on life support.

This comes as Obama lobbied hard for the measure to pass. He showed up at the congressional baseball game7 to personally lobby lawmakers. He even made his way to Capitol Hill8 to talk to Democrats — the first time in two years. It was personal, it was desperate and, ouch, Pelosi and Co. betrayed him. “Basically, the president tried to both guilt people and then impugned their integrity, and I don’t think it was a very effective tactic,” said Democrat Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR). Both parties are split in Congress over the issue. But those who love Liberty should appreciate that we have more time to debate a trade deal.

China’s Theft of Federal Employee Data Demands a Response 9

Not only has China scraped up the data from all federal employees past and present, the Office of Personnel Management said it had “a high degree of confidence” that the country has every SF-86 form10 submitted by any American seeking a security clearance. Former general council to the NSA and former National Counterterrorism Center head Matthew Olsen11 said the data could be used many different ways by the oppressive Chinese regime, “whether it’s [to] blackmail, to recruit, [or] to punish individuals in China who are connected to people in the United States.” As it’s been said before, China has been creating a massive database on American citizens, and it has also hacked into the databases of health insurance companies in the past to gather data. Furthermore, anonymous sources are saying the data theft of federal employees didn’t just affect four million people. Instead, the breach could affect as many as 14 million Americans. In response to impeding U.S. intelligence efforts, cataloging Americans like merchandise and sitting poised to wreak further havoc on our country, let’s hope the U.S. is also matching China’s data collection efforts. In this game of espionage, let’s make it so China also cannot keep secrets. More…12

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
June Deadline for ‘Islamic Bomb’13

By Patriot Post Staff

As yet another supposed “deadline” approaches for a final agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, the sheer determination of Barack Obama to get any deal he can before he leaves office — literally any deal — becomes more and more the driving force behind our negotiating position.

Having once said “We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon; it would be a game-changer in the region” and claiming “I will always keep the threat of military action on the table,” Obama is now willing to ignore Iranian nuclear violations, ignore Iran’s willful violation of UN Security Council resolutions, ignore Iran’s role in the Syrian war, ignore Iran’s continued arming and equipping of Hezbollah, ignore Iran’s defacto control of Iraq, ignore the mortal threat a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel, and ignore the history of the current Iranian regime, all in the hope of getting something on paper with which to declare his foreign policy legacy.

The most recent interim agreement openly ceded to Iran everything it needs to produce nuclear weapons if it will only refrain from open mischief for ten years. Ten years is a blink of an eye to a nation. Consider that just slightly more than ten years ago a previously little-known Illinois senator was delivering the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention in Boston, or that nearly 25 years have passed since the first Gulf War.

With a sense of its own history stretching back nearly 6,000 years, Iran understands how quickly ten years will pass, at which time it can begin industrial-scale enrichment without penalty. Ten years will also produce advances in Iran’s ballistic missile program, another subject once linked to the nuclear program but now tossed aside by the White House.

Why is Obama so determined to give this extraordinary gift to Iran? Because, as Reuel Marc Gerecht, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, points out in a scathing critique of the president’s misunderstanding of Iran14, Obama is afraid that if the United States tries to hold a harder line the Iranians will simply walk away from the talks. And then the president will be faced with another red line he knows he cannot bring himself to enforce.

Obama’s irresolution has been the one common thread running through all of his administration’s dealings with Iran. Time and again, he has demonstrated lack of leadership and lack of resolve in the face of unpleasant facts. Having been elected president on a platform of platitudes, perhaps he really believes that wishing can make it so. But the entire body of human history demonstrates the opposite.