The Patriot Post Digest 10-2-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-2-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Oct. 2, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” —Thomas Jefferson, 1781

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s ‘Gun Violence’ Pivot Point1

By Mark Alexander

On Thursday evening, Barack Obama interrupted the East Coast primetime news hour with a 15 minute press conference.

Obama called the conference to acknowledge the death of six American military personnel, who were killed when an Air Force C-130 crashed in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, three hours before his press conference. Except that’s not actually why he called the press conference — in fact, their commander in chief didn’t even mention them from the podium.

Instead, Obama did what Democrats2 do every time there’s an opportunity to assail the Second Amendment3 with an emotionally charged appeal on the blood of innocents4.

That’s right. In a crass pivot away from the catastrophic crisis5 he created in the Middle East, which we learned Wednesday is now putting American and Russian fighter pilots6 on a collision course for direct confrontation, Obama preempted the primetime news to address the tragic murder of nine adult students at a Roseburg, Oregon, community college, and the wounding of seven others.

Saying “We should politicize this,” Obama devoted only 80 of his 1,306 word diatribe7 to the families of those murdered. That would be 6% of his message. His other 1,226 words were about his political gun control agenda and the need for more firearm regulation.

He did not mention what law he wanted to add to the more than 10,000 currently on the federal and state books, but he did mention needing “states and legislatures” on board, which sounded a bit like he was calling for some revision of our Constitution.

According to early accounts, the Oregon assailant targeted Christians for execution, but Obama did not mention that either.

Moments after Obama’s remarks, Steve Hayes, senior editor for The Weekly Standard, boldly expressed my own sentiments: “[Obama] has had an avalanche of bad news over the past 36 hours and I think he is using this shooting to get out from under it. … He’s the one that said we should ‘politicize’ this. Well he did. He’s distracting attention from his other problems.”

Indeed, he disgracefully did just that.

Most of the media talkingheads noted variations on this theme: “Obama is passionate about this issue.” No, Obama and his Leftist NeoCom cadres8 are passionate about increasing the power of the state, and the biggest obstacle to subordinating the American people to this statist agenda is the Second Amendment. When they say “commonsense gun laws” they mean “gun confiscation laws.”

The inconvenient truth about guns is, as the number of legally owned guns has increased, violent crime has decreased, according to the FBI’s statistics — continuing a 12-year decline9.

Of course, in those states and cities with the most restrictive gun laws, violent crime is thriving. In Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago, almost 3,000 people have been murdered since Obama took office — and almost all of those murders were related to gang violence. However, Chicago ranks high among those cities with the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.

Likewise, Oregon has universal background checks, and Umpqua Community College was the latest of “gun free zones10” where victims are prohibited from the most effective means of self defense.

In his parting remarks, Obama said, “Tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side.” He lamented the fact that we spend so much on counterterrorism efforts.

But if Obama really wants to “tally up some numbers,” how about starting with the fact that in five states alone (Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas), more than 5,400 people have been murdered by illegal aliens11. That is more than all Americans killed defending our nation against terrorism in both Operation Enduring Freedom12 and Operation Iraqi Freedom13.

Or maybe Obama would like to post a comparison with the 327,000 children14 who are killed on Planned Parenthood’s abortion tables every year, 900 of whom died just yesterday in PP clinics.

For the record, “The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any.” —James Madison (1788.)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Russia Creates Coalition to Back Assad Regime15

Where is America’s moral high ground now? The Obama6 administration justified its abandonment of Iraq by saying the young government had to solve the problem of the Islamic State on its own. And that’s exactly what it’s trying to do. Reuters16 reports the country has aligned itself with the coalition that has sprung up to support Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria — a coalition that includes Russia, Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran. While the U.S. worried terrorism would fill the void Barack Obama’s weak leadership created, it was a stronger leader that ultimately took America’s place — Russian President Vladimir Putin. The not-exactly-American-friendly coalition is preparing for a ground campaign against the rebels — some armed with U.S. weapons — backed with Russian airpower. Obama won’t admit it, but Moscow’s interests are different than American interests. While the U.S. would like the Great Bear to strike the Islamic State, Russian aircraft struck rebel areas that threatened Assad strongholds17. So far, the Obama administration’s response is to complain about Russia’s “indiscriminate military operations against the Syrian opposition,” per Obama spokesman Josh Earnest. Don’t they understand this is no longer just about “degrading and ultimately destroying” the Islamic State? No, the long arc of history doesn’t naturally bend toward peace and justice. The “international community” doesn’t just iron out its differences to stop evil. Putin the Machiavel just swept over Obama’s hope-for-change foreign policy.

September Jobs Report Hit With Autumn Chill18

The U.S. needs to add more than 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth. So September’s number — 142,000 jobs — was not only below expectations but below what we need just to tread water. It also follows August’s terrible report of 136,000 jobs added (revised down from 173,000), making for the worst back-to-back numbers in three years. But in the last two years, just seven months have cracked 250,000 jobs created. It seems the only number going up these days is the number of Americans leaving the workforce entirely — another 350,000 gave up in September, and a record 94.61 million Americans are not working. The labor participation rate fell to 62.4%, the lowest since October 1977. When you read that the unemployment rate held steady at 5.1%, remember low participation is the biggest reason why.

And Barack Obama has 16 months remaining in office.

House Probing Group That Wants Climate Dissenters Imprisoned19

Exactly one month ago, 20 scientific researchers with the Institute of Global Environment and Society penned an open letter calling on the White House to prosecute20 global warming skeptics under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. That letter, which appeared on the institution’s website, went strangely missing21 this week — likely in response to severe criticism, and not just from the Right. The authors are now probably wishing they hadn’t written anything at all. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology launched a probe into IGES after it was revealed the institution is heavily taxpayer-subsidized. And Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the committee, wants to get to the bottom of it. In his own letter22 to IGES President Jagadish Shukla, Smith writes, “IGES appears to be almost fully funded by taxpayer money while simultaneously participating in partisan political activity by requesting a RICO investigation of companies and organizations that disagree with the Obama Administration on climate change. In fact, IGES has reportedly received $63 million from taxpayers since 2001, comprising over 98% of its total revenue during that time.” And since “IGES’s recent decision to remove documents from its website raises concerns that additional information vital to the Committee’s investigation may not be preserved,” Smith outlined steps Shukla should follow “so that a full and complete record of relevant communications can be produced.” Talk about a backfire.