Daily Digest for Friday
February 21, 2014
THE FOUNDATION
"A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support." --Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Higher Taxes, Higher Spending
Details of Barack Obama's 2015 budget have leaked out, and one of the lowlights is --surprise -- higher taxes on the "rich." He reportedly plans to seek an end to tax advantages for the retirement savings of higher-income earners. According to Marketwatch, he "wants to limit the value of all tax deductions, defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income -- and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue." By once again moving the goal posts, the effect will be less savings, and therefore less revenue. But don't worry -- Obama will make up for it by spending more.Comment | Share
Faulty Logic on Jobs
White House health care adviser Phil Schiliro definitively and for all time answered the question about the effect ObamaCare has on jobs. "You can't say the Affordable Care Act has killed job growth," Schiliro explained. "In the 46 months since it passed, over 8 million jobs have been created." Therefore, he says, "No one would say the Affordable Care Act created those jobs, but you can't say the ACA has killed job growth." Such faulty logic is the hallmark of this arrogant administration, especially as they continue to thrash about in the wake of a recent CBO report that projects a significant reduction in U.S. workforce hours due to the perverse disincentives buried within ObamaCare.Comment | Share
Possible Military Action in Syria?
The Obama administration hasn't quite given up on Syria and is reportedly still considering military action there. But what once was likely going to be an effort to oust Bashar al-Assad is now possibly going to take advantage of the post-9/11 Authorization to Use Military Force in order to attack al-Qaida. In other words, Assad's enemies. Al-Qaida has largely infiltrated Syrian rebel forces, who are now fighting both the regime and the jihadis. If Obama attacks al-Qaida, Assad could redirect resources to bear down on our supposed "moderate" allies. The strategically smart course would have been to leave a residual force in Iraq, which is where most of these jihadis are coming from. But Obama had a campaign promise to keep, and now we have no good options.Comment | Share
Global Warming Causes Homicides
In January 2013, following a violent year in Chicago with over 500 homicides, Center for American Progress board member Christie Hefner ridiculously claimed that global warming was a leading culprit. "There is a dramatic increase in gun violence when it is warmer, and we are having this climate-change effect that is driving that," she told MSNBC. Her faux concerns are being mimicked in the L.A. Times, which is promoting an alarming new study by research firm Abt Associates. They find that, "Between 2010 and 2099, climate change can be expected to cause an additional 22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft." Gee, that sounds about as likely as all those fantastical predictions from climate models. Then again, Leftists attribute everything to global warming.Comment | Share
More Blacks Aborted Than Born
It's no secret that minorities make up a disproportionate number of abortions, but new statistics out of New York City shed a different light on the startling figures. According to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, black and Hispanic babies totaled 73%, or 54,245, of the city's 73,815 abortions in 2012. Some 31,328, or 42.4%, of the aborted babies were blacks. Most disturbingly, this equates to 6,570 more than the number of blacks who were actually born. Somewhere, eugenicist Margaret Sanger -- founder of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a staunch proponent of the forced sterilization and abortions of black and minority children -- is smiling.Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Ukrainian Unrest, American Weakness
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After three months of unrest, Yanukovych announced a pending agreement to end the violence. But that wasn't until dozens of people were killed in the past week in Kiev, leaving the capital city's Independence Square looking like a war zone. Yet all our fearless leader has done is make tired statements about how "we're going to be watching closely," that "we expect the Ukrainian government to show restraint," that "we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful," and (here's a doozy) that "there will be consequences if people step over the line." Yep, another phony "red line" from our Tough Guy in Chief.
We've heard these statements from Obama before, and so has the rest of the world. The Iranian government heard them in 2009 before they violently crushed demonstrations against a rigged national election. Islamofascists in Libya heard them in 2011 when Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown, and again the following year when four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were murdered in a terrorist attack. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad heard them last year when he used extreme prejudice and a healthy dose of chemical weapons to prevent political opponents from bringing an end to his regime.
Worst of all, Russia's Vladimir Putin has received the transmission of Obama's weakness all too clearly, and he's called Obama's bluff every single time he's tried to invoke American power in world affairs. Obama's equivocal statements and rudderless foreign policy are no match for the KGB-trained Putin, who has outmaneuvered Obama at every turn. There can be no mistaking that Russia is driving the conflict in Ukraine. Putin doesn't want this former Soviet republic drifting toward the West, and he has done everything short of outright military intervention to prevent it.
Obama is at a serious disadvantage in large part because his administration doesn't understand the world we live in. White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest couldn't identify a national security interest for the U.S. in Ukraine, and also took the opportunity to refute any ideas of renewed Cold War rivalries. Putin most definitely sees a national interest -- rebuilding the Soviet Union in the face of American and Western weakness -- and that gives him the upper hand. Russia never sought to be America's friend and never accepted Obama's (and Hillary's) pathetic "reset" in relations. The longer Obama refuses to face that reality, the harder it will be for America to reassert itself on the world stage after he exits.
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Making the California Drought Worse
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| Smelt fish get diverted water |
Actually, according to The New York Times, "[T]he most recent computer projections suggest that as the world warms, California should get wetter, not drier." But that's just right-wing propaganda, we suppose.
Truth be told, there are other culprits for California's predicament, but they're hardly subtle or climate related. As the Heritage Foundation reports, "Hundreds of thousands of acres of water have since been diverted from farmlands" courtesy of federal government regulations -- all to save a three-inch smelt fish. According to California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin, this diversion has cost the ability to irrigate 200,000 acres of farmland or to provide water to meet the needs of 1.4 million households for one year.
Instead of easing the regulations, however, the government -- ruled by the environmental lobby -- is effectively choosing to prolong the effects of the drought while trying to lay the blame on climate change. Meanwhile, farmers are hurting, crops are dying, and workers are preparing for unemployment. But apparently that's okay for Washington. Because somewhere, a smelt is smiling.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Arnold Ahlert: Progressive Insanity and the Global Warming Cult
- Linda Chavez: Unions Can't Win
- Charles Krauthammer: The Myth of 'Settled Science'
- Mona Charen: Cruz Aims at His Own Side -- Again
- Thomas Sowell: The Lesson of Dunkirk
OPINION IN BRIEF
Economist Thomas Sowell: "The army under General Washington was no match for the British army, in either military experience or firepower. The American army repeatedly had to withdraw, retreat and even flee to avoid being annihilated. George Washington did not have to fight futile battles in order to prove his courage. He was already well known for being in the thick of battles, with bullets whistling around his head. But he had to wait for situations where he had the enemy at a disadvantage, and then strike. When Washington made his celebrated crossing of the Delaware, he was headed for a dramatic victory, using soldiers he had saved for just such a moment. Wars are about winning, not futile symbolic gestures that leave you worse off. Politics must be the same, if you are serious about the issues."Comment | Share
Columnist Charles Krauthammer: "'The debate is settled,' asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. 'Climate change is a fact.' Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. ... Climate-change proponents have made their cause a matter of fealty and faith. For folks who pretend to be brave carriers of the scientific ethic, there's more than a tinge of religion in their jeremiads. If you whore after other gods, the Bible tells us, 'the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit' (Deuteronomy 11). Sounds like California."
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Columnist Arnold Ahlert: "Make no mistake: those who would employ questionable science to impose what amounts to a death penalty on millions of Third-World residents struggling for their very existence don't think twice about imposing untold economic hardship on their fellow Americans, 76 percent of whom live 'paycheck to paycheck,' for the same reason."
Anglo-Irish Poet and Satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): "Laws are like cobwebs which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
Comedian Conan O'Brien: "[A]t the Olympics the Russian men's hockey team, which was favored, was eliminated by Finland. Then an hour later, the Russian men's hockey team was eliminated by Putin."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
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.
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