The Patriot Post Digest 8-6-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-6-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Aug. 6, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.” —George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Chattanooga Officer Won’t Be Charged1

Lt. Cmdr. Tim White, the U.S. Navy officer who returned fire at the jihadi in the attack in Chattanooga, will not face charges, the Navy said Wednesday2, contrary to some earlier reports3. Military bases were on high alert at the time of the attack, and it’s possible White was viewed as taking his own initiative as the commanding officer. Such officers have more discretionary ability than their personnel do. As Mark Alexander noted, while the Navy will not be bringing charges against White, this does not preclude some other disciplinary action against him, and we will keep you posted. The ban on firearms at military installations is foolish and absurd, and given that Lt. Cmdr. White’s actions were heroic and saved lives we certainly hope the JAG review will determine no grounds for disciplinary action.

In related news, the FBI has issued an alert regarding threats to U.S. military families in Colorado and Wyoming. Reports indicate intimidation and harassment by “Middle Eastern males” has been a problem in the first half of this year. But we have an administration (and complicit media) more concerned with political correctness than identifying and countering the radical Islamic threat. Threatened families in Colorado should contact the FBI Fort Collins Resident Agency at (970) 663-1028. In Wyoming, contact the FBI Cheyenne Resident Agency at (307) 632-6224.

Obama’s Clean Power Plan Targets Coal Industry4

And just like that, the Obama administration assumes the kind of power that controls whole segments of the U.S. economy. Again. The Clean Power Plan5 will more than decimate the coal industry, as an American Action Forum report finds6 that this regulation will close 66 power plants, destroy 125,800 jobs and slash the coal industry by 48% by 2030. You’d think Americans would want some kind of input through Congress on a government decree of that scope, but that’s the creep of regulation for you. Already, the coal industry has lost 47,500 jobs since the beginning of Obama’s term. “These troubling figures are also static, one-time snapshots at industry employment,” writes AAF Director of Regulatory Policy Sam Batkins7. “They hardly capture the true economic costs to the region and the local community of losing so many jobs so quickly. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study implying that one energy job supports 3.7 additional jobs hints at the total economic damage, but remaking an entire industry in one administration is no small feat.” But, to Obama, those union jobs are just collateral damage on his way to appease the envirofascists.

Sometimes, People Are Punished for Sending Classified Email8

Here’s an interesting contrast. On the one hand, we have a Marine officer who argues he was trying to warn of dire consequences and was subsequently punished for communicating classified material via an unclassified email network9. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton — for no other reason than political expediency — appears to have routinely communicated similarly sensitive (and probably even more important) information via unclassified means and thinks she’s above reproach. Her lawyer’s recent claim that “nothing she sent was marked as classified” is about par for her defense. Of course it wasn’t marked as classified, since emails generated and circulated on unclassified networks — particularly personally operated ones — don’t even allow the option of choosing a classified label, unlike the classified networks that allow you to chose anything from “unclassified” up to the highest clearance for that network (usually “secret” with caveats). That said, while the comparison is instructive, we’re not particularly sympathetic to the Marine major. There’s probably more to the story and we don’t believe a panel of officers would arbitrarily seek to “retaliate” against him (as he alleges) because of his views. If they recommended discharge, he likely communicated more than just a warning of a potential threat. Just as Hillary almost certainly communicated more sensitive or classified information (not just documents) than she’ll ever admit.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Memo to the 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates10, on the perilous mistake the GOP may make.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here11.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s Far Tougher on Political Opponents Than Iran12

By Dan Gilmore

In the 1980s, the federal government’s nuclear energy program created a problem. In places like the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the government disposed its nuclear waste underground. Like any dump, it would eventually be sealed up and abandoned. But unlike a candy wrapper or a broken toaster, nuclear waste leaks radiation for hundreds of thousands of years before it reaches half-life. In the meantime, the government would post signs warning people away.

But what would the warning signs mean to humans 10,000 years in the future? Language evolves. Symbols change meaning. What could they use to communicate the danger that lay beneath? The urgency to warn future generations created a field called “nuclear semiotics.”

Contrast that to the flippancy with which Barack Obama approaches the Iranian deal supposedly ensuring nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

Obama visited American University Wednesday to lobby for the Iran nuclear deal before jetting off to a Martha’s Vineyard vacation. He was ostensibly aiming to give the handful of undecided lawmakers something to think about over their August recess, but he didn’t appear to be interested in persuading anyone.

“After two years of negotiations, we have achieved a detailed arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama said13. Except his Iran deal makes two assumptions irreconcilable with human nature: That Iran doesn’t want the bomb and that weak-kneed bureaucratic oversight is a sufficient deterrent.

Iran agreed to halt nuclear research, allow some inspections and dispose of some of its nuclear reserves for 15 years in exchange for the lifting the economic sanctions levied against it. Iran will receive about $150 billion in sanctions relief over the next 16 months, which the mullahs probably aren’t going to use on education or building bridges.

Obama was divisive. To him, you either favor his deal, or you want “some sort of war.” It’s “not just the best choice among alternatives,” he boasted, “this is the strongest non-proliferation agreement ever negotiated.” Thanks to him, a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

No, sanctions are the alternative, not war.

If the deal falls apart, he warned, then Iran will have no check on its development of nuclear weapons. If lawmakers approve the deal, he promised, then Iran will comply. The world will be safe, he assures. He also told us if we liked our health insurance plan we could keep it.

We certainly know what Obama thinks of the domestic dissenters to his plan. “Many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal,” Obama said. It’s more of the politically hostile, take-no-prisoners approach we’ve come to expect from this executive. His administration will sweat it out for two years across the table from Iran, but when it comes to people that have taken the same oath of office, the knives come out.

For Obama, the debate over this deal comes down to the enlightened moderates and the extremists. “Just because Iranian hardliners chant ‘death to America’ does not mean that that’s what all Iranians believe,” he lectured. “In fact, it’s those hardliners who are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hardliners chanting ‘death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal. They are making a common cause with the Republican caucus.”

Not only is this a frighteningly new rhetorical low for Obama, Charles Krauthammer explains, “what is even worse here is how delusional he is.” Obama “is pretending that those who chant death to America are some kind of KKK fringe in Iran,” Krauthammer elaborated. “The people leading the chant are the Revolutionary Guard, the army, the parliamentary leaders and of course … the supreme leader himself in a speech he made just a few days after the signing of the agreement.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-6-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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This is the best Obama the Great Orator can muster. This is the speech that is supposed to highlight his legacy and mastery of politics. Seven years from when an Illinois senator wowed audiences, he’s reduced to conniving pot shots. The peace prize winner is virtually promising war. But then again, he’s not aiming for Republican support, or even skeptical Democrats — all he needs is a third of the House and Senate to back his deal.

Obama admits his deal isn’t perfect. Israel hates it. As for the billions of dollars released after the lifting of sanctions, he concedes, “Let’s stipulate that some of that money will flow to activities that we object to.” That would be supporting the terrorists of Hezbollah and Syria’s Assad regime, and generally extending Iranian hegemony. But what’s funding a little terrorism when Obama’s legacy is at stake?

And, by the way, the people getting that $150 billion are the people chanting “death to America.”

While Obama was strong-arming for his deal, Michael Singh, managing director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was testifying14 to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about it. Nuclear weapons development needs three things, Singh said: The ability to create fuel, a program to develop the weapons and a way to deliver the bomb to ground zero. Obama’s deal allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium, and it does nothing to curb the nation’s ballistic missile program. Furthermore, programs to develop the bomb “tend to be secretive by their very nature.”

Obama leaves America and the rest of the world with scant assurance that Iran will not pursue the bomb. For nonproliferation to hold, Iran has to have no desire for the weapon and the international community must be extremely vigilant for any violations.

In fact, the U.S. intelligence community says Iran is already sanitizing its military site at Parchin15, a facility suspected of nuclear activity. And the State Department apparently has no idea what’s going on16.

Obama made much in his speech about the courage it takes to pursue peace. But this isn’t courage; it’s the gripes and lectures of a petulant narcissist in pursuit of a legacy.

TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

ANALYSIS: Voting Rights Act Is 50, and Some Are Still Living in 196517
Nobody Circles the Wagons Like the Leftmedia18
ObamaCare Gives America the Heebie-Jeebies19
The Leftmedia Obsession With ‘Gunmen’20
Meme: Looting21

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Victor Davis Hanson: History’s Complexity Should Discourage Retroactive Morality22
Veronique de Rugy: Washington’s Millennial Betrayal23
Ken Blackwell: Body Parts Scandal ‘Infuriates’ Obama24

For more, visit Right Opinion25.

TOP HEADLINES

10 Tea Party Groups Still Awaiting IRS Approval26
Senate Report: IRS ‘Mismanaged’ Conservative Groups27
Appeals Court Rules Against Texas Voter ID Law28

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “There are lots of strange paradoxes in the current frenzied liberal dissection of past sins. One, a historic figure must be near perfect in all dimensions of his or her complex life to now pass progressive muster. That [Thomas] Jefferson is responsible for helping to establish many of the cherished human rights now enshrined in American life apparently cannot offset the transgression of having owned slaves. Two, today’s moral standards are always considered superior to those of the past. Ethical sense supposedly always improves with time. However, would American society of 1915 have allowed a federally supported agency such as Planned Parenthood to cut apart aborted fetuses to sell infant body parts? … The past is not simplistic ‘gotcha’ melodrama in which we convict figures of history by tabulating their sins on today’s moral scorecards. Instead, history is tragedy. It is complex. Moral assessments are dicey. With some humility, we must balance past and current ethical standards, as well as the elements of the good and the bad present in every life. And we must avoid cheap, politicized moralizing that often tells us more about the ethics and ignorance of today’s grand inquisitors than the targets of their inquisitions.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The task of weaning various people and groups from the national nipple will not be easy. The sound of whines, bawls, screams and invective will fill the air as the agony of withdrawal pangs finds voice.” —columnist Linda Bowles (1952-2003)

Alpha Jackass: “I know it’s easy to play on people’s fears, to magnify threats, to compare any attempt at diplomacy to Munich. But none of these arguments hold up. They didn’t back in 2002 and 2003; they shouldn’t now. The same mindset, in many cases offered by the same people who seem to have no compunction with being repeatedly wrong, led to a war that did more to strengthen Iran, more to isolate the United States than anything we have done in the decades before or since.” —Barack Obama

Demo-gogues: “I recognize that Prime Minister Netanyahu disagrees — disagrees strongly. I do not doubt his sincerity. But I believe he is wrong. I believe the facts support this deal. I believe they are in America’s interest and Israel’s interest. And as President of the United States, it would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best judgment simply because it causes temporary friction with a dear friend and ally.” —Barack Obama (This from the man who thought exchanging jihadi terrorists for deserter Bowe Bergdahl was good judgment.)

The BIG lie: “Let me just tell you this. We have talked to the experts. There is no way to hide your development of a nuclear bomb.” —Dick Durbin (He’s right. Once it explodes, the whole world knows it.)

Non Compos Mentis: “I don’t know [if Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map]. … They’ve signed on to an agreement where they say they’ll never try and make [a nuclear bomb] and we have a mechanism in place where we can prove that. So I don’t want to get locked into that debate. I think it’s a waste of time here.” —John Kerry

And last… “Hillary Clinton is having a bad week. Actually, we’ve discerned an emerging pattern: Every time a week has seven days, it turns out to be bad for Mrs. Clinton.” —James Taranto

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.

Links

1 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36840
2 http://www.stripes.com/navy-no-charges-against-officer-for-weapons-violations-in-chattanooga-attack-1.361644
3 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36764
4 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36824
5 http://patriotpost.us/articles/36790
6 http://freebeacon.com/issues/report-obamas-climate-plan-will-shrink-coal-industry-by-48-percent/
7 http://americanactionforum.org/research/epas-greenhouse-gas-regulation-expects-coal-generation-to-decline-48-percen
8 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36827
9 http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/29/lawmakers-petition-obama-investigate-marine-officers-dismissal/30837301/
10 http://patriotpost.us/alexander/36823
11 http://patriotpost.us/manage/
12 http://patriotpost.us/articles/36841
13 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/05/remarks-president-iran-nuclear-deal
14 http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/080515_Singh_Testimony.pdf
15 http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-05/iran-already-sanitizing-parchin-nuclear-site-intel-warns
16 http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-unaware-of-reports-iran-is-sanitizing-nuclear-sites/
17 http://patriotpost.us/articles/36837
18 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36825
19 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36826
20 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36839
21 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36755
22 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/36833
23 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/36830
24 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/36834
25 http://patriotpost.us/opinion
26 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/5/irs-cleared-serious-tea-party-targeting-charges/
27 http://thehill.com/policy/finance/250363-irs-mismanaged-tea-party-applications-senate-report
28 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/appeals-court-texas-voter-id-law-violates-voting-rights-act-discriminatory/