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« on: September 17, 2015, 08:35:55 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 9-3-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Sep. 3, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable.” —James Madison, Speech in Congress, 1790
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Predetermined Outcome Now Inevitable on Iran1
Congress was never going to stop Barack Obama’s deal with Iran. Not when he deliberately negotiated a treaty and didn’t call it a treaty specifically so as to avoid Congress. And certainly not when Sen. Bob Corker crafted a deal to guarantee congressional review but with a huge caveat — Obama didn’t need a two-thirds majority to ratify a treaty, but rather only one-third to sustain a veto. A couple of Democrats — Chuck Schumer2 and Robert Menendez3 — made a show of bucking Obama, but in the end it was only a matter of Minority Leader Harry Reid granting a few no votes to Democrats whose electoral fortunes depended on it. The rest would fall into line with Obama. That wagon circle was completed Wednesday when Sen. Barbara Mikulski became the 34th senator to announce her support for the deal, virtually guaranteeing its passage. Now Obama just needs 41 Democrats to sustain a filibuster so he doesn’t even have to bother vetoing. The predetermined outcome is why Obama felt so free to slander Republicans as making “common cause4” with Iranian hardliners. Well, that and his narcissistic personality disorder.
There are a couple of important points here. First, Obama’s vote count charade has never been about national security or Iran; it has been about cutting back room deals for votes. His “defining legacy” was always secure. Second, and to that point, Democrats now own Iran5. Rep. Patrick Murphy had the complete lack of historical awareness to unwittingly quote Neville Chamberlain in declaring the deal would bring “peace in our time.” But when — not if — Iran obtains nuclear weapons, Democrats have now affixed their names to that Obama legacy. Obama admitted as much, saying “it’s my name on this” for an Iranian bomb. Giving Iran $100 to $150 billion in sanctions relief with which the ayatollahs will continue funding terrorism is also Obama’s legacy. And Congress won’t do anything about it.
307,000 Veterans Died Waiting on the VA6
About three times as many veterans died while trying to enroll for care at the Department of Veterans Affairs than died while fighting World War I, a new report7 by the VA’s inspector general shows. While 116,516 Americans lost their lives in The Great War, when the inspector general looked at the pending enrollment system records in September 2014, it discovered that 35% of the applications, or 307,000 veterans, belonged to people who died. Part of the problem, it seems, is how the VA manages its information. “Due to data limitations, we could not determine specifically how many pending [enrollment system] records represent veterans who applied for health care benefits,” the VA’s Deputy IG, Linda Halliday, wrote. “These conditions occurred because the enrollment program did not effectively define, collect, and manage enrollment data.” As program specialist at the VA Health Eligibility Center Scott Davis told8 CNN, the VA’s inability to process applications cost more than one combat veteran from the War on Terror his ability to receive VA care because it took more than five years for the VA to get the soldier enrolled. If this is how the government treats those that risked life and limb for it, we can’t wait for when ObamaCare reaches its zenith.
Chick-fil-A Is Coming to Denver Airport After All9
Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that soars in customer satisfaction surveys10, recently bid to open a restaurant in the Denver International Airport, but it was initially denied due to “concerns” that a local franchise could generate “corporate profits used to fund and fuel discrimination.” The unforgivable sin, of course, was Chick-fil-A founder Dan Cathy’s 2012 defense of biblical marriage11. The Denver City Council’s opposition was completely absurd, but, fortunately, sanity prevailed. Well, perhaps we should rephrase: Fear of losing a lawsuit prevailed. National Review’s John Fund writes12, “City-council members sat through a closed-door briefing from Denver’s city attorneys, where they were warned that barring a business on the basis of political prejudice would be a one-way ticket to a successful First Amendment lawsuit. Minority groups spoke up against the council, noting that Chick-fil-A’s local partner was a minority-owned business named Delarosa Restaurant Concepts.” And eventually they caved, though none walked back their original reasons for opposing the lease. In other words, it’s good news of a sort, but leftists will simply wait for a more opportune time to browbeat anyone who doesn’t fall in line with “tolerance.”
Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column
Read USAFA — A Final Visit13, on how “So Help Me God” has now been rightfully restored to the USAFA oaths.
If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here14.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Melting Glacier National Park?15
By Allyne Caan
The power to tax may be the power to destroy, but the power to regulate is equally dangerous. This week, Barack Obama stood in front of a receding glacier in Alaska to once again raise the specter of catastrophic climate change. His real agenda, of course, is to push for more environmental regulations that are already killing jobs, crushing industry and hurting hardworking families.
Speaking in Alaska to the Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic, Obama warned, “If [current] trend lines continue the way they are, there’s not going to be a nation on this earth that’s not going to be impacted negatively. … More drought, more floods, rising sea levels, greater migration, more refuges, more scarcity, more conflict.”
This, of course, according to indisputably settled science. Or not.
For example, The New York Times editorialized on Obama’s trip to Alaska this week in a piece titled “Mr. Obama’s Urgent Arctic Message16.” It was accompanied by a photo of Margerie Glacier, ostensibly to demonstrate the magnitude of the state’s receding ice. One small problem: That particular glacier isn’t receding at all. Writing for the National Park Service, Dr. Daniel E. Lawson says17 Margerie Glacier “has been advancing about 30 feet per year for the past couple of decades.” To be clear, other glaciers are melting. But for a newspaper that prides itself in supposed journalistic integrity, you’d think it would research basic information.
But never mind all that. After renaming America’s tallest mountain18, Obama staged photo ops with glaciers to herald imminent global demise and sophomorically ridiculed19 those who disagree with him for being “on their own shrinking island.”
In truth, “very substantial disagreement about climate change” exists, according to Judith Curry20, professor at Georgia Institute for Technology and a participant in the International Panel on Climate Change and National Academy of Sciences. In fact, data from both the UN and the U.S. fails to show21 higher frequency of extreme weather including floods, tornadoes and drought. People just think these things happen more because of the 24-hour news cycle.
Nevertheless, Obama cries endangered wolf, and here comes his EPA, ready with a slew of new regulations to save the planet. Just what will his plans accomplish? Well, aside from regulating the coal industry towards extinction, upping the ranks of the unemployed, and reducing overall income levels, not much20.
In fact, according to EPA modeling, Obama’s Clean Power Plan22 would avert rising global temperatures by a minuscule 0.02 degrees Celsius23.
But we all know this was never about global warming; it’s always been about control. Obama doesn’t want to grow glaciers so much as he wants to put the federal government in every backyard in America.
And he’s doing just that, the law be melted. This past weekend, the EPA implemented new regulations related to the Clean Water Act that pretty much give the federal government control over every pool of water in the country. Astoundingly (or not, given this administration), the EPA went ahead with these rules even though a federal judge had already suspended them24 in 13 states. But in Obama’s fundamentally transformed America, who cares what the law says? |
