The Patriot Post Digest 10-26-2015

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-26-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Oct. 26, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” —Samuel Adams, 1775

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

DOJ Refuses to Convict IRS Official Lois Lerner1

This is “justice” for Lois Lerner2, the IRS official whose email showed she plotted to target conservative nonprofits for audits ahead of Barack Obama’s re-election. A Department of Justice investigation into the matter, headed by a Democrat donor, declared3 that Lerner did not deserve criminal charges. “Our investigation uncovered substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment, and institutional inertia, leading to the belief of many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints,” the IRS wrote in a letter4 to the House Committee on the Judiciary Friday. “But poor management is not a crime.” Remember: Lerner has been held in contempt of Congress, called5 conservative talk radio hosts “a-holes” in a 2012 email, and violated privacy laws by giving6 IRS information to the FBI. As a result, a judge ruled7 in April that nearly 300 conservative nonprofits could join together in a class action lawsuit against the IRS. And Lerner herself, in a February 2012 email, expected8 consequences would come if her actions ever came to light. Instead, she retired, received her pension and stands unchallenged in her less-than-ethical dealings with Congress. As National Review’s Kevin Williamson9 wrote, the situation leaves us “one banana short of a republic.” Furthermore, there’s nothing stopping Hillary Clinton from receiving the same injustice over her handling of Benghazi.

Clinton Changed Her Story Days After Benghazi10

How much gall do you need to lie to the face of the father of a man you led to death? Navy SEAL Ty Woods died Sept. 11, 2012, defending the CIA annex at the consulate in Benghazi. When then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with his father, Charles Woods, Sept. 14, Clinton hugged the man and told him punishment would come … to the California filmmaker who made a film disparaging Islam and posted it on YouTube. That, of course, was the government’s scapegoat to mitigate the diplomatic disaster weeks before Barack Obama’s re-election. But this is not the story11 Clinton told her daughter and the prime minister of Egypt. Hours after the attack, she emailed Chelsea Clinton to say that “an Al Qaeda-like group” was at fault. Woods told12 Fox News, “Either she was lying to the prime minister or she was lying to me and the American public. … In order to follow a leader as a commander in chief, the military needs to trust what their leader says.” Meanwhile, the Clinton machine has already spun the Benghazi hearing for its own use, as the morning after last week’s hearings her campaign sent out emails13 soliciting donations.

Putin’s Offer to the Syrian Rebels14

Syrian dictator Basher al-Assad traveled to the Kremlin to spend some face-to-face time with his new ally puppet master Vladimir Putin. On leaving that meeting, Putin continued to push his might while eroding America’s influence in Syria. He made an offer the Syrian rebels — some of them presumably backed by the United States — an offer they will find hard to refuse. Putin extended a Russian grace; if the rebels fight the Islamic State, they will receive backing from Russia. If they don’t, well, we can only presume that Russian bombs will continue to rain down upon them. Putin said15, recounting his conversation with Assad, “I asked him, ‘How would you feel if we were to find in Syria an armed opposition, but one that is ready to counter and really fight against terrorism, against [Islamic State]? How would you feel if we supported their efforts in the fight against terrorism just as we are supporting the Syrian army?’ He said, ‘I’m fine with that.’” In essence, Putin is telling the rebels to lay down their weapons against a brutal dictator and become his cannon fodder against a greater evil. As for the Obama administration, it’s probably just happy that someone else is dealing with the Islamic State.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Wheeler’s Death Was Indeed in Combat16

Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler became the first American military casualty in Iraq since Barack Obama withdrew all U.S. forces in 2011. Naturally, Obama won’t call his death a “combat death,” though Wheeler was killed on a mission by enemy fire.

Wheeler served 14 combat deployments and was a heavily decorated soldier, with 11 Bronze Stars (including four with Valor Device) and numerous other commendations, as well as a posthumous Purple Heart. He leaves behind a wife and four sons.

According to the Associated Press, “Officials said Wheeler, a 20-year army veteran and Oklahoma native, was killed on Thursday when he and dozens of US special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided a compound near the city of Kirkuk, freeing approximately 70 Iraqi prisoners.” The prisoners were a mix of townspeople, soldiers in the Iraqi army and former Islamic State fighters who were accused of being spies.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter had difficulty making reality jive with Obama’s position. “This is combat, things are complicated,” he said Friday. But then he added, “It doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role. It represents a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission. We do not have combat formations there, the way we did once upon a time in Iraq.”

Likewise, Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, head of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, insisted, “U.S. forces are not in Iraq on a combat mission and do not have ‘boots on the ground.’ It is important to realize that U.S. military support to this Iraqi rescue operation is part of our overarching counterterrorism efforts throughout the region and does not represent a change in our policy.”

Obama’s line about Iraq since the beginning was that it was the “dumb war” George W. Bush started without good reason. He set out to “end the war responsibly” and withdraw all U.S. troops. Now that his mission is accomplished, he has no intention of admitting anything is different.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-26-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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“I think we always have to guard against mission creep,” Obama said in June 2014, “so let me repeat what I’ve said in the past: American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again.” But here we are.

To strike the Islamic State, the U.S. loaded up five helicopters with “dozens” of U.S. soldiers and peshmerga fighters. Even before the body armor was shouldered and the magazines loaded, the U.S. helped collect intelligence and supported the operation with air strike capabilities. The U.S. soldiers — the official story goes — were only there in an advisory role. But when do advisors go into the thick of combat, standing within striking distance of Islamic State bullets?

Indeed, Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey says parsing the terminology used to describe the U.S. role in Iraq is not helpful. “We have thousands of forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” McCaffrey said. “We’re conducting active air combat operations throughout Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. We have huge CIA involvement to include with paramilitary forces in Jordan and elsewhere. And we have Congress and the White House both playing political, arcane games with each other over the description of what these forces are doing. It makes no sense.”

The only thing that matters to Obama is politics. He said that there would be “no boots on the ground” and the geopolitical situation is under control while “al-Qaida is on the run.” And it’s no small irony that his withdrawal from Iraq gave rise to the Islamic State, which is why Wheeler was in Iraq in the first place.

Additionally, the same day the administration was tripping over itself to avoid the word “combat” Obama vetoed the national Defense authorization act. Obama is holding the military budget hostage until he gets his increased domestic spending agenda to ensure handouts to his political constituencies.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

    ANALYSIS: Crushing Fundamental Transformation17
    ANALYSIS: War Between the States: Clean Power Plan Edition18
    Hillary Is All Choked Up19
    Clinton Already Fundraising on the Benghazi Hearing13
    Senators Rethinking the Iran Nuclear Deal20

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Michael Reagan: It’s Choosing Time for the GOP21
    George Will: Fix the Criminal Justice System22
    Joe Bastardi: Hurricanes Become a Ping-Pong Ball in the Climate Debate23

For more, visit Right Opinion24.

TOP HEADLINES

    ObamaCare Premiums Going Up25
    In Final Legacy Push, Obama Shifts to Global Climate Deal26
    Clinton: VA Scandal Not ‘Widespread’27

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report28

OPINION IN BRIEF

Jeff Jacoby: “Everyone knows about Donald Trump’s bottomless narcissism; this is a man who has affixed the name ‘Trump’ to everything from hotels to golf courses to cologne. Asked the other day which world leaders he would reach out to upon being elected, Trump replied that he wouldn’t need to call anyone: ‘I think I’d probably have them call me.’ But Obama’s march to the White House also involved startling displays of self-glorification, from Greek-style columns to a triumphal foreign tour to his own official seal (complete with Latin motto). … Anyone who finds such vanity attractive should relish the prospect of a Trump presidency. Trump, after all, never doubts his own brilliance. He’s always the smartest person in the room; just ask him. Sound familiar? ‘I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,’ Obama told campaign aides in 2008. ‘I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.’ When a presidential candidate talks that way, what could possibly go wrong?”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “Our friends in the other party will never forgive us for our success, and are doing everything in their power to rewrite history.”

Upright: “In the ideal situation, the mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy and should not be looking to terminate the baby. … We’ve allowed the purveyors of the vision to make mothers think that that baby is their enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?” —Ben Carson

For the record: “Lois Lerner’s cynical, overt politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, and the fact that she and other IRS leaders misled investigators, Congress, and the public about the extent of the IRS’s political shenanigans, undermines the legitimacy of the federal government. DOJ won’t lift a pinky against a friend of the Obama administration. This is banana-republic stuff.” —Kevin Williamson

Fine journalism: “Sources confirm that Joe Biden will enter the 2016 presidential race.” —Sunday tweet by AOL.com — four days after he had already bowed out29

Protecting one of their own: “[The attack in Benghazi] is a tragedy, and it should be investigated. … But there’s no crime here on [Clinton’s] part. … There’s no evidence of a crime. There is evidence of inconsistency.” —Bob Woodward

Non Compos Mentis: “It has not been easy for me. And, you know, I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of $1 million. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back and pay him back with interest.” —Donald Trump

And last… “Poor Hillary. She was forced to sit there testifying about the exact length of time Americans in Benghazi waited for help that never came.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest

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.