The Patriot Post Digest 9-9-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-9-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Sep. 9, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” —Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Kim Davis Out of Jail, but the Saga Continues1

U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered2 Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis3 to be released from jail Tuesday after her deputy clerks issued all the backlogged marriage licenses. A crowd of 5,0004 and presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee greeted her on her release. However, little has changed. While she sat in jail for a few days, Davis' deputies altered the marriage licenses to remove Davis' name from the form. But now that she’s back, Kentucky law states that Davis is the one who has to issue the marriage licenses, and her lawyers believe5 she may once again stop her office from doing so. The situation will only change once the state of Kentucky changes its laws to reasonably accommodate clerks who disagree with same-sex marriage. Nuance notwithstanding, the pair of Republican presidential candidates took the opportunity to publicly back Davis. Huckabee told6 the crowd, “Lock me up if you think that’s how freedom is best served, because folks, I am willing to spend the next eight years in the White House leading this country but I want you to know I’m willing to spend the next eight years in jail.” In reality, this episode is less about a war on Christianity and more about finding the balance between conscience and Rule of Law for a government official.

Baltimore Settles in Freddie Gray Civil Suit7

In an effort to put the whole debacle in the past, the City of Baltimore settled a civil suit brought about by the death of Freddie Gray. The $6.4 million settlement is separate from the criminal trial (or trials, depending on how that legal drama plays out) of the six police officers associated with Gray’s death. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement8, “The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial. This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages.” And just like that, Gray’s family won this round of the legal lotto. To be clear, the settlements in these cases of alleged police brutality have never been about justice. New York City agreed to pay out9 $5.9 million for the death of Eric Garner. But where is the settlement for the death of Walter Scott10? In the video of that incident, it was clear the police officer leveled his gun against the fleeing Scott, aimed and killed him. Baltimore is helping to set a precedent where if enough frenzy is drummed up over the death of someone in police custody — and in Gray’s instance, he might have been trying to intentionally harm himself — the money will flow soon after to make the issue go away.

Only 36 Miles of Up-to-Date Fence on the Border11

The Department of Homeland Security recently informed the Senate that the border between Mexico and the United States is only properly fenced for 36.3 miles, or 0.02% of its entire length. Two-thirds of the border has no fencing at all, and there are no current plans to build a barrier. “A Senate official said that the 2006 Secure Fence Act required 700 miles of double-layer fencing because Border Patrol members said double layer works best,” the Washington Examiner wrote12. “Reports indicated that illegal immigrants can easily scale single fences.” Currently, some sections of the border are simply fenced with metal sheets once used as helicopter landing pads during the Vietnam War. This is not a failure solely of the Obama administration. The DHS Office of Inspector General issued a report13 in 2009, which said the Border Patrol did not fully staff the project and faced difficulty in getting the land needed to erect the fence — even though it got a waiver to ignore environmental requirements. But the chance that the Border Patrol can restart the construction and bring an increase of law enforcement to the border is fraught with political barriers, thanks to this current administration.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Hillary ‘Apologizes,’ Offers Desperate Redirect14

By Nate Jackson

Hillary Clinton is perhaps the worst “inevitable” presidential candidate in history. It seems the high point for her 2016 run was the day before she announced. And even before that, the scandals surrounding her private email server and the Clinton Foundation slush fund — not to mention her long record of malfeasance15 — threatened to undermine her appeal. So what’s the would-be first woman president to do to secure her right to the Oval Office? Solve all America’s problems by proposing … more campaign finance limits.

But first, her remarks about her email. In a twist few expected from a Clinton, she finally decided to apologize — sort of. “What I had done was allowed, it was above board,” she first insisted. “But in retrospect, as I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.”

She left out a couple of words, though. We’ll add them: “That was a mistake [to not better cover my tracks]. I’m sorry about [getting caught].”

Indeed, just last week, she said, “I certainly wish that I had made a different choice,” adding that she was “sorry that this has been confusing to people.”

She’s spent months either dodging questions entirely or stubbornly refusing to admit any error. In a Labor Day interview with the Associated Press, Hillary argued, “What I did was allowed. It was allowed by the State Department. The State Department has confirmed that.”

Uh, wasn’t she running the State Department at the time? What a relief to know she gave herself permission to run a private email server.

Then she went on more than once to deny wrongly handling classified information: “I did not send or receive any information marked classified. I take the responsibilities of handling classified materials very seriously and did so.” Also, “I’m so careful about classified information. I take classified material very, very seriously.”

Virtually everything she has said about the ordeal, however, is a lie that we’ve recounted extensively16. The latest is that a second intelligence review of two particular emails found that both contained “Top Secret” information when they were sent to Hillary in 2009 and 2011, respectively. One email had information regarding North Korea’s nuclear program from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. For intelligence agencies to agree on the classification undermines Clinton’s regular rebuttal that it’s just an inter-agency dispute over the meaning of “classified.”

And not only did she receive information classified by other originating agencies (the only classification that matters is that of the originating agency), but we learned last week17 that Hillary originated classified emails. So for her to continue her denial is, well, very Clintonesque. But it’s the “drip, drip, drip” of the release of information that might help her most, as Americans tune out and quit caring that she violated multiple laws regarding classified information and obstruction of justice.

Perhaps her apology came because of her plummeting poll numbers. She brings universal name recognition, a sizable war chest, inevitability and first-female president potential … and she’s still struggling. That speaks volumes about just how bad a candidate she really is — all the Clinton baggage with none of Bill’s appeal.

In a pitiful attempt to redirect the conversation to policy — not to mention shore up her left flank against Bernie Sanders — she announced this week a proposal to further limit political campaign donations. Recall that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, universally despised by Democrats, stemmed from an anti-Hillary video during the 2008 election cycle. The Court struck down some donation restrictions implemented in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform” law.

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-9-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Wall Street Journal explains18, “She would have the government provide matching funds for campaign donations below a certain dollar amount, lower the cap on the amount individuals can contribute to candidates, and force independent groups to disclose their donors. She would also try to rewrite the First Amendment to allow more regulation of political speech.”

Hillary railed against “unaccountable money that is distorting our elections,” though she has no problem putting current law to full use through her Priorities USA Action super PAC, which brought in $15 million in July. Does that super PAC disclose its donors? Please. You see, her campaign says, she couldn’t possibly “unilaterally disarm.”

There’s also that little side venture called the Clinton Foundation19, which no doubt will be exempt from any of Hillary’s reform proposals. She’s more than happy to divert a sizable portion of her and Bill’s massive income to her foundation’s slush fund to avoid taxes and questions of influence. As secretary of state, she worked on behalf of people, companies and governments that, lo and behold, had given millions and millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation.

The Constitution protects free speech, and part of that speech is through making campaign donations. So until the day when people and companies are free to give to candidates rather than super PACs — and Hillary fully discloses her own operations with the Foundation and email servers — she can spare us the lecture about “transparency.”

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: Iranian Parliament Has More Say Than Congress20
SAT Scores Disappoint, Affirming Federal Control Isn’t the Answer21
Executive Thespian Interviews With Fiction-Creating Magazine22
Trump Hits Boring Bush in Clever Ad23

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Gary Bauer: Christians and the Law24
Stephen Moore: Pain for Many on Labor Day25
Star Parker: Young Black Men in Crisis26

For more, visit Right Opinion27.

TOP HEADLINES

Democrats Clinch Enough Votes to Filibuster Iran Nuke Deal28
Moscow Admits Its Military Is Assisting in Syria29
Muslim Migrants ‘Converting’ to Christianity to Boost Chances of Asylum30

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report31

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Bauer: “When the law was the Defense of Marriage Act, the president and attorney general of the United States refused to enforce it. President Obama has routinely refused to enforce various immigration laws or parts of Obamacare. Why were Obama and Holder not held to the same standard as [Kim] Davis? Commentators insist that Davis is violating the law. What law? Congress has not passed a law recognizing same-sex marriage. Neither has Kentucky. In fact, 75% of Kentucky voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Supreme Court’s decision redefining marriage was a narrow five-to-four vote that upended hundreds of years of accepted law, defied the values of the American people and invalidated the votes of millions of citizens. And the court has been wrong before. When it ruled that Dred Scott was the property of his slave master, was the proper response for Christians to promote slavery? When the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal was constitutional, was complying with segregation the proper Christian thing to do?”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The necessity of every one paying in his own labor for what he consumes, affords the only legitimate and effectual check to excessive luxury, which has so often ruined individuals, states and empires; and which has now brought almost universal bankruptcy upon us.” —Josiah Warren (1798-1874)

Upright: “The left has no interest in discussing ghetto pathology. Summer movies like ‘Straight Outta Compton’ are too busy glorifying it, and summer books like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the World and Me’ are too busy intellectualizing it. The Black Lives Matter crowd has become an appendage of the civil-rights industry, which uses the black underclass to push an agenda that invariably leaves the supposed beneficiaries worse off.” —Jason Riley

For the record: “So Hillary Clinton mumbled some kind of apology yesterday: … This raises the question: Who gives a rat’s ass? Were you demanding an apology from Hillary Clinton? I wasn’t. I wanted the facts.” —Jonah Goldberg

Birds of a feather… “Donald Trump and I both agree that there ought to be more taxation of the billionaires, the people who are making their money on Wall Street.” —Elizabeth Warren

Non Compos Mentis: “I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people.” —Donald Trump on his time in military boarding school

Actually, that’s exactly what he’s doing: “I don’t think Barack Obama has bad motives. I just think he’s wrong on a lot of issues.” —Jeb Bush

Friendly fire: “There is something profoundly wrong when … the average American is working longer hours for lower wages and we have shamefully the highest rate of child poverty of any major country on earth.” —Bernie Sanders on the Obama economy

And last… “In his weekly address, President Obama said he’d ‘push our economy and the world to ultimately transition off of fossil fuels.’ Uh huh. Still waiting for him to start flying around in that solar-powered Air Force One.” —Fred Thompson

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/37497
2 http://juryverdicts.net/Released.pdf
3 http://patriotpost.us/articles/37391
4 http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/09/08/huckabee-cruz-plan-meet-kim-davis/71729486/
5 http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/09/08/judge-orders-kim-davis-released-jail-wolf.cnn
6 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-huckabee-id-go-to-jail-in-kim-davis-place/
7 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37502
8 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-boe-20150908-story.html
9 http://patriotpost.us/posts/36372
10 http://patriotpost.us/posts/34474
11 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37486
12 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dhs-just-36-miles-of-u.s.-mexico-border-has-effective-double-fencing/article/2571418
13 https://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/OIG_09-56_Apr09.pdf
14 http://patriotpost.us/articles/37506
15 http://patriotpost.us/alexander/37087
16 http://patriotpost.us/alexander/37088
17 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37358
18 http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillarys-scarlet-m-1441756438
19 http://patriotpost.us/tags/clinton%20foundation
20 http://patriotpost.us/articles/37499
21 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37483
22 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37482
23 http://patriotpost.us/posts/37498
24 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/37490
25 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/37493
26 http://patriotpost.us/opinion/37484
27 http://patriotpost.us/opinion
28 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/49a2f41e0fe4432bbfa4afbde3f2fca8/congress-plunging-debate-iran-nuclear-deal
29 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/09/russia-undeterred-after-kerry-phone-call-continues-flights-to-syria/
30 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3225014/How-Muslim-migrants-converting-Christianity-Germany-hundreds-boost-chances-winning-asylum.html
31 http://patriotpost.us/headlines