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« on: July 24, 2015, 08:50:27 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 7-24-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Jul. 24, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.” —Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Duane — 1811
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
The Politics of the Louisiana Theater Shooting1
People are trying to make sense of Thursday’s shooting in the Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater. Twenty minutes into the 7:10 showing of “Trainwreck,” John Russel Houser, 59, stood up and fired a .45 pistol into the audience. He killed two and wounded nine. He tried to escape by blending into the fleeing crowd, but when two police officers quickly responded, the murderer killed himself. Later, police discovered the man’s car didn’t match its license plate, and the motel room where he was staying contained disguises like wigs and glasses. Police described him as a drifter, and there is a Tea Party Nation page2 set up by a man with his name. This incident comes just as a Colorado jury decided3 James Holmes, the man who entered a Colorado movie theater three years ago with the intent of killing as many people as possible, could be sentenced to death for his crimes. The shooting also comes hours after Barack Obama told an interviewer, “The one area that I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied … is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws.” But the greatest demonstration of character came from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. When asked about gun control, the presidential candidate said4, “We’re just learning the details … let’s focus on the victims. Tonight’s not the night to be political.”
Meanwhile, the Charleston murderer has also been charged with federal hate crimes5. The taking of one American’s life shouldn’t be deemed more important than the taking of another. Murder is murder. And all murders are hate crimes.
IRS Used Donor Lists for Targeted Audits6
Another day, another “smidgen of corruption” at the IRS. The intrepid folks at Judicial Watch have stayed on the case, and the watchdog group has issued yet another press release7 that puts the lie to Barack Obama’s bald-faced denial of wrongdoing: “Judicial Watch announced [Wednesday] that it has obtained documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that confirm that the IRS used donor lists to tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits. The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under ‘high scrutiny’ from the IRS.” Specifically, Lois Lerner and her leftist pals at the IRS targeted high-profile organizations like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, and checked their donor lists to identify further subjects for audit. “These documents that we had to force out of the IRS prove that the agency used donor lists to audit supporters of organizations engaged in First Amendment-protected lawful political speech,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And the snarky comments about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the obsession with Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS show that the IRS was targeting critics of the Obama administration. President Obama may want to continue to lie about his IRS scandal. These documents tell the truth — his IRS hated conservatives and was willing to illegally tax and audit citizens to shut down opposition to Barack Obama’s policies and reelection.” Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon was for allegedly using the IRS to target certain citizens. The reluctance of today’s GOP to vigorously pursue justice in this case is deeply disappointing.
But never mind all that. Obama says the “real scandal around the IRS is that they have been so poorly funded that they cannot go after these folks who are deliberately avoiding tax payments.”
Secret Side Deals Erode Iran Nuke Accord8
Forget Iran. The least trustworthy party in the Iranian nuke deal may well be the Obama administration. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) called on the administration9 to disclose the whole Iran deal to Congress — even the two secret side deals that could completely discredit the larger nuclear deal. The first deal was between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and it involved how the two will resolve some military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program. The second deal lays out how the IAEA will inspect the Parchin military complex — a shadowy military base where Iran may test ballistic missile technology. Unbelievably, Iran will collect its own soil samples10 at that and other facilities.
With such provisions missing from the larger agreement, Congress cannot fully review it. Furthermore, the bipartisan Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act required the Obama administration to disclose all the documents and side deals. “The failure to disclose the content of these side agreements begs the question, ‘What is the Obama administration hiding?’” Pompeo said, “Even members of Congress who are sympathetic to this deal cannot and must not accept a deal we aren’t even aware of.” Obama adviser Susan Rice admitted11 the deals do exist, and said that the Obama administration would brief Congress in classified hearings. But even head U.S. negotiator John Kerry might not know12 what’s in the side deals. It appears that the least transparent administration in history is also the least competent.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s Legacy Will Be Undoing Clinton’s13
By Paul Albaugh
When comparing the presidency of Bill Clinton with that of Barack Obama, it’s clear just how far left Democrats have gone in 20 years. Not only that, but it seems Obama’s primary legacy will be to undo that of his Democrat predecessor.
Just one day after Obama delivered a speech before the NAACP in Philadelphia to declare criminal justice reform, Clinton took the stage to admit that his prison reform policies actually made things worse.
“I signed a bill that made the problem worse, and I want to admit it,” Clinton confessed. “In that bill, there were longer sentences. And most of these people are in prison under state law, but the federal law set a trend. … And that was overdone. We were wrong about that. … The good news is we had the biggest drop in crime in history. The bad news is we had a lot of people who were locked up, who were minor actors, for way too long.”
Obama is now poised to fix undo Clinton’s policy by pushing for prison reform14, which both conservatives and liberals agree needs to be addressed. Clinton’s approach was viewed as tough on crime, and crime did decline. Obama’s approach is essentially to go the other direction — to focus on the community, the courtroom and the cell block by spending money on pre-kindergarten education, reducing or eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing and allowing convicted felons the right to vote. Perhaps Obama recognizes that Hillary needs all the help she can get.
But the legacy rewrite is more than just prison reform.
Clinton’s legacy also includes enacting the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military, which allowed homosexuals to serve in the military as long as no one asked and no one told. Obama pledged to end this “discrimination” and urged Congress in December 2010 to repeal Clinton’s policy15 over the objections of the Service Chiefs and the majority of military members.
Then we have the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Bill Clinton signed into law16 after receiving “overwhelming congressional support.” In 2011, Obama and then-Attorney General Eric Holder deemed DOMA to be unconstitutional and stated that the administration would no longer enforce the law. But it didn’t stop there. Under pressure from Obama and Holder, numerous lower courts overturned state marriage amendments. Ultimately, we saw the results of Obama’s political goals to fundamentally transform America when five black-robed despots of the Supreme Court forced same-sex marriage on the entire country17.
Under Clinton, the federal budget was balanced18, though the credit really belongs to the Republican Congress. Obama did the opposite of balancing the budget, spending more money in six years than all of the presidents before him combined. Deficits and the debt skyrocketed to record highs. It’s quite apparent that Obama thinks the position of commander in chief means spender in chief — unless it’s spending money for defense. |
