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« on: October 08, 2015, 08:18:50 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 10-6-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest
Oct. 6, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.” —James Madison, 1816
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Obama Thinks We’re Not Playing Chess With Russia1
For months, Barack Obama received politically tainted intelligence briefings about the rise of the Islamic State, causing him to confidently consider the group the “JV team.” What reason do we have in not assuming that he’s receiving bad info on Russia’s intentions? Obama has tried to quell concerns over Russia’s aggression in Syria. “We’re not going to make Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia,” Obama said Friday. “This is not some superpower chessboard contest. And anybody who frames it in that way isn’t paying very close attention to what’s been happening on the chessboard.” Obama shouldn’t have been quick to insult the nation’s intelligence. Not only had the Great Bear brought anti-aircraft weapons into Syria to fight a terrorist organization that has no air force, but Sen. John McCain said2 America’s secretary of state called his Russian counterpart three times and Obama had a long conversation with Vladimir Putin in order to figure out what Moscow is up to. The answer became clearer when a Russian general showed up in Baghdad Wednesday to announce that Russia would strike Syria within the hour. Now, after days of bombings, it’s apparent3 Russia is targeting CIA-backed Syrian rebels. On Saturday, the Obama administration’s strategy4 was to double down, to send more arms and make more bombing runs. It’s time, however, to rethink that chessboard.
Baltimore: A City Broken After Mismanagement5
Politically, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a mistake after the incident in Baltimore that left Freddie Gray mortally injured in the back of a police van. During the protests and criticisms of the city’s police force, she sided with the mob looking for its brand of “justice” instead of her police force attempting to uphold Rule of Law. It yielded bitter fruit. Police officers strapped on their guns every morning demoralized. City residents viewed the police with disrespect. And criminals are flexing newfound confidence. As a result, crime has spiked6 in the city. During September, the number of non-fatal shootings were double that of 2014. Homicides climbed 39%. This is where it gets ironic: Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw notes7 that the U.S. Council of Mayors held a meeting in the city at the beginning of October to discuss, in the words of the Baltimore Sun8, “economic development, community policing and the spike in homicides many cities saw over the summer.” Baltimore is hardly the poster child for solutions to these problems, as Rawlings-Blake announced that she would not seek another term as mayor. Another leftist village burns.
Apologizing for America Day9
Whether it’s ethnic pride, gay pride or what have you, we’re all about pride in America these days — unless it’s pride in America. The latest outrage from the Village Academic Curriculum File is a Wyoming school that canceled “America Day” because some immigrant students might feel excluded. True story. “Many different students could have felt singled out,” Activities Director Mike Hansen told the local newspaper. “We’re trying to be inclusive and safe, make everyone feel welcome.” Well isn’t that sweet. Maybe they’re taking a page from Barack Obama’s book on “fundamentally transforming” or apologizing for our nation. But this is America, and some of us won’t be cowed by the politically correct Left. Many teens showed up to class decked out in patriotic garb and waving American flags in defiance of their “educators.” Besides, as Todd Starnes notes10, “There was a time when immigrants came to America because they loved freedom. They loved this land of opportunity. They wanted a better life for their children.” The Left doesn’t want students to hear that message, though. It might lead to, well, American pride.
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Clinton Misfires on Gun Control13
By Nate Jackson
You can always rely on leftists to offer the wrong solution to a problem. Hillary Clinton’s gun control proposals are typically off the mark. Anything to get the focus off her private email server, right?
“We need universal background checks,” Clinton says of her first “brilliant” idea in her newly released stance on gun violence prevention. “We know that they will work.” Unfortunately, a background check didn’t stop the murderer in Oregon. Nor did it stop the man who killed two journalists on live TV in Virginia, or the sociopath who killed six and wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, or the movie theater killer in Aurora. All four men passed background checks and bought guns legally.
As for the Charleston murderer, Clinton blamed a “loophole in the Brady Bill.” But as we’ve noted previously14, that particular case was due to human error, not a “loophole.” Clinton repeated the claim that 40% of guns are bought without a background check, though that statistic originates from a 1994 survey of 251 people — hardly definitive evidence of anything.
Nevertheless, Clinton took a page out of Barack Obama’s playbook and says “if Congress won’t act,” she’ll take “administrative action to close” the supposed loophole by reclassifying anyone who sells a “significant number of guns” as someone “in the business of selling firearms.”
But as The Federalist’s Sean Davis points out15, “The federal government already has the statutory authority to define who does and does not qualify as an individual ‘in the business of selling firearms.’ It derives that authority from 18 U.S. Code § 921.”
Anyone who sells more than very occasionally is considered a dealer by existing law, so Clinton’s “loophole” users are already criminals. As Davis adds, “The only federal background check exemption that exists is for transactions between private, non-FFL individuals who reside in the same state. That’s it.”
To be clear, we have little problem with requiring background checks to own firearms (as current law does for the vast majority of transactions), with the caveat that they are not a fix-all solution and, as with any law, effectiveness depends on proper enforcement.
Naturally, Clinton’s proposal only gets worse. She wants gun manufacturers to be liable for how their products are used. It’s typical of Democrats to take away individual accountability. Of course, if this violation of due process was ever allowed, it would put gun manufacturers out of business — as it would any other industry where such an absurd standard was applied.
Even Bernie Sanders criticized Clinton’s notion, saying, “If somebody has a gun, and it falls into the hands of a murderer, and that murderer kills somebody with the gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer. That is not what a lawsuit should be about.”
Another of Clinton’s proposals is re-banning certain cosmetic features on some rifles, dubbed with the deliberately nefarious misnomer “assault weapons16.” But whether a rifle has a pistol grip or a collapsible stock has no bearing on the deadliness of the weapon, and a ban would not (and did not while it existed) save a single life in any mass shooting. Rifles of any type accounted for just 248 murders in 201417 — that’s fewer than are committed with “hands, fists, and feet.” As much as Clinton would love to relive the “glory years,” her husband’s 1994 “assault weapons” ban was completely ineffective (unless you count costing Democrats the ‘94 election) and unconstitutional. |
