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« on: December 18, 2015, 02:31:23 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 12-18-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Dec. 18, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“A good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life.” —George Washington, 1790
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Obama: No Credible Terrorism Threat Over the Holidays1
And we thought the holidays were about joy, hope and peace. The commander in chief — who is leading a government that 56% Americans believe2 cannot protect the nation from a large-scale attack and 77% believe cannot protect the nation from a lone-wolf attack — said his intelligence community has not received credible information that there will be a terrorist attack over the holidays. “At this moment our intelligence and counterterrorism professionals do not have any specific and credible information about an attack on the homeland,” Barack Obama said Thursday. “That said, we have to be vigilant.”
The biggest obstacle to the Obama administration’s ability to protect the homeland is that Obama makes everything political. Currently, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations sent a letter of questions3 to the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson kicking off an investigation into the DHS policy4 of not reading what visa applicants post on the Internet via social media as part of the vetting process for entrance. This is the same administration that shuttered5 a task force that was tracking members of the Muslim movement to which one of the San Bernardino killers belonged because it was “profiling Muslims.”
Meanwhile, the feds charged6 the friend of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino murderers, for conspiring to commit another terror attack with Farook in 2012. Enrique Marquez Jr. passed a background check and bought the rifles Farook used in the San Bernardino attack — a straw purchase. And who wants to bet that Obama, ever the opportunist to plug for gun control, uses this to argue that the nation’s background check system isn’t doing a good enough job vetting citizens seeking to purchase arms? Better to ban, he might say. And in the meantime, given his impeccable timing7 for national security boasts, you better watch out this holiday season.
Don’t Trust Democrats With Secrets and Email Tech8
Playing fast and loose with secrets — national and otherwise — is only a problem for Democrats if political enemies do it because that’s when the rules matter. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is in hot water with the Democratic National Committee after his staffers accessed9 voting data compiled by the Hillary Clinton campaign. As part of its service to the candidates, the DNC keeps a database of potential Democrat voters (and you thought they didn’t want to keep track of illegal immigrants). Each candidate’s campaign can access the data, and add their own information and firewalls to keep the candidate’s own research secret from the others. During scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, a Sanders staffer accessed the data of the campaign of the heiress to the Democrat nomination. In this age of data-driven campaigns, this was a huge no-no. The DNC blocked Sanders' access to the data until there was assurance that all of the ill-gotten information was destroyed. Maybe Sanders just wanted his fair share.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Party of Clinton played fast and loose with sensitive information. Regarding that email scandal, a recent review10 from the intelligence community confirmed (despite State Department protests) that at least two emails containing information that was top secret — the highest classification level — passed through Clinton’s server. Meanwhile, Obama Defense Secretary Ashton Carter admitted11 Wednesday that he too used his private email account to communicate about official business. Think about it: The cabinet member heading up the defense of the nation was using unsecured email. Amazingly, Carter kept using his private email for at least a full two months after Clinton’s email habits were discovered and roundly criticized. It seems that Democrats — and especially those in the Most Transparent Administration in History™ — have a systematic problem with following the rules.
Why Wheaton College Is Right12
Wheaton College professor Larycia Hawkins created a stir last week by announcing she would wear a hijab, the head scarf worn by Islamic women, to “stand in religious solidarity with Muslims” during Advent. Hawkins was later suspended13 by the school, though not for the reasons presumed by secularists and even some Christians. To be clear: We believe there are numerous flaws14 in the way she spiritually rationalizes and physically chose to display solidarity. But that alone is not a sufficient reason for punishment. What got Hawkins suspended was a fundamental assertion in her statement: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”
It’s not difficult to see why this might raise some critical issues for a Christian school. In a statement, Wheaton wrote15, “The freedom to wear a head scarf as a gesture of care and compassion for individuals in Muslim or other religious communities that may face discrimination or persecution is afforded to Dr. Hawkins as a faculty member of Wheaton College. Yet her recently expressed views, including that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, appear to be in conflict with the College’s Statement of Faith.”
As RedState’s outgoing editor in chief and seminary student Erick Erickson points out, “Muslims are not ‘people of the book’ in common understanding among evangelicals, though they do descend from Abraham. They do not worship the same God. According to Islam, Allah neither begets nor is begotten — a line explicitly rejecting the trinity. Professor Hawkins and her supporters may wish to distract or may not even care, but Wheaton sets its hiring standards and requires fidelity to the Bible. Professor Hawkins' statement suggests a theological diversion not in keeping with Wheaton’s standards.” That’s why the college’s response isn’t just justified, but warranted.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Water Under the Historically Revisionist Bridge?16
By Arnold Ahlert
There’s an old saying attributed17 to Russians who endured the travails of Soviet totalitarianism: “The future is known — it’s always bright — but the past keeps changing.” According to Hollywood Reporter, Apex Entertainment is producing18 a feature movie entitled “Chappaquiddick,” a film whose utterly twisted rationale is revealed by Producer Mark Ciardi: “I’ve done a lot of true life stories, many sports stories, but this one had a deep impact on this country. Everyone has an idea of what happened on Chappaquiddick, and this strings together the events in a compelling and emotional way. You’ll see what [Senator Ted Kennedy] had to go through.”
What Kennedy had to go through? How about what Mary Jo Kopechne had to go through19?
Hollywood may wish to engage in another Orwellian effort stringing together events in a “compelling and emotional way,” but pesky facts are indisputable: After a drunken Kennedy drove his car off Dike Bridge into Poucha Pond, the man who would become the “Lion of the Senate” extricated himself and left the 28-year-old Kopechne to drown.
According20 to Edgartown search-and-rescue head John Farrar, who reached the scene the next morning, Kopechne’s corpse was positioned in a way that indicated she was searching for pockets of air. Farrar believes she lived for two hours after the crash. In other words, if Kennedy had merely knocked on the door of the nearest house — only yards away — and summoned that rescue squad, Kopechne might have survived. Not that anything Farrar said became part of the public record. “I was told outright by the D.A.’s office that I would not be allowed to testify on how long Kopechne was alive in the car,” he told People magazine in July 1989. “They were not interested in the least in anything that would hurt Ted Kennedy.”
After leaving the scene, the rest of Kennedy’s “ordeal” consisted of walking back to the party he attended — and trying to get his cousin, Joe Gargan, to say that it was Gargan driving the car. Gargan refused, but insisted that they return to the scene and attempt to rescue Kopechne. When that proved unsuccessful, Ted went back to his hotel room, where he tried to set up an alibi with the hotel clerk. After that he went to bed without notifying authorities until after 8 a.m. the next day. |
