THE FOUNDATION

“Your love of liberty — your respect for the laws — your habits of industry — and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.” —George Washington, letter to the Residents of Boston, 1789

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Freddie Gray Investigation Handed Over to Prosecutors

Baltimore city officials are mum after the police department handed its investigation into the death of Freddie Gray over to state prosecutors Thursday, a day before they said the investigation would be completed. The public still doesn’t know the details surrounding the 25-year-old’s death. Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said, “While we have and will continue to leverage the information received by the department, we are not relying solely on their findings but rather the facts that we have gathered and verified. We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system.” Prosecutors will decide whether or not to bring charges against the six police officers who are currently suspended from the Baltimore police force.

Meanwhile, the likes of Al Sharpton are in Baltimore, and they will not be satisfied if the prosecutors' decision doesn’t go their way. Daniel Henninger writes in The Wall Street Journal, “When Al Sharpton popularized the chant, ‘No justice, no peace,’ it was unmistakably clear that ‘no peace’ was an implicit threat of civil unrest. Not civil disobedience, as practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. Civil unrest.” Now is the time for conservatives to focus on ways to rebuild Baltimore to counter Sharpton’s race baiting and give residents better paths to prosperity.More…

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In Campaign, Hillary Clinton Distances Herself From Bill

On April 29, Hillary Clinton stood before an audience at Columbia University and criticized America’s criminal justice system, the system her husband helped create in 1994 with the passage of his Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,” Ms. Clinton said. “And these recent tragedies [in Baltimore and Ferguson] should galvanize us to come together as a nation to find our balance again.” This is not the only instance where Hillary has positioned herself directly opposing the legislation and policies that her husband’s administration instituted some 20 years before. Bill signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law; Hillary now says same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. Bill’s administration repealed the Glass-Steagall Act; Hillary wants it restored. The Washington Free Beacon reports that this distancing extends all the way to edits of Hillary’s official campaign bio. In 2008, her biography said “she followed her heart and a man named Bill Clinton to Arkansas” instead of pursuing a career at a big law firm. Eight years later, Clinton’s bio now says she skipped the big-law career path because she wanted to fight for children and families at the Children’s Defense Fund. With all the revisions, it seems Hillary only kept the name “Clinton” for the name recognition. More…

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Updated Satellite Data Puts a Chill on Global Warming

More bad news for climate scaremongers. Remote Sensing Systems recordings, which more accurately reflect global temperatures, have perplexed many scientists ever since they revealed a global warming hiatus that’s now lasted for more than 18 years. In response, alarmists have trashed RSS findings in favor of NOAA’s complicated and flawed method. Three University of Alabama climatologists, Roy Spencer, John Christy and William Braswell, just concluded additional research on UAH Version 6, an alternative system used to study global temperatures. Not only did the new research cast further doubt on the claims of climate alarmists, but the adjustments revealed similar results to that of RSS. You can read more about why revisions are necessary and, notably, how these revisions are different than NOAA’s alleged tampering with historical data. To summarize, UAH’s newest finding is another inconvenient truth for envirofascists — which is exactly why they’ll ignore it.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Sen. Corker’s Stand for a Better GOP Budget

By Lewis Morris

Sen. Bob Corker

Republicans' first attempt to present a fiscally responsible budget after assuming control of Capitol Hill ran into some snags this week. A budget resolution hashed out between House and Senate negotiators was expected to see an easy passage before Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) stalled the process by refusing to sign on to the final proposal.

Corker, recently listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, where he was described as the “pragmatist of Congress,” is known for having a strong grasp of economics after spending many successful years in the private sector. He withdrew his support of the budget because he saw the proposal as riddled with budget gimmicks.

The resolution that Republicans crafted relies on a budget tool that gives lawmakers flexibility in dealing with spending curbs. This budgetary shell game is cleverly known as CHIMPS ⎯ Changes in Mandatory Programs — and it allows for boosting spending in some areas by offsetting spending in mandatory programs. The trouble with CHIMPS is that those spending cuts in mandatory programs are rarely, if ever, honored, basically amounting to an overall increase in spending.

“CHIMPS is a budget gimmick that is $190 billion in extra spending over a 10 year period,” Corker told reporters Tuesday. “And it’s something our caucus all has been for eliminating.”

Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress in part because of their promise of fiscal responsibility after a decade of budgetary chaos thanks to spendthrift Democrats. Under the leadership of heavyweight curmudgeon Harry Reid, the Senate flat out refused to craft budgets, as required by law, opting instead to hide the true nature of impending fiscal doom through a series of continuing resolutions.

The GOP wants to bring an end to this craziness by passing budgets that come into balance in ten years. But thanks to CHIMPS, military spending will increase in the coming fiscal year without any significant cuts to entitlements.

Corker’s refusal to sign on to the budget proposal made sense for fiscal hawks. The GOP’s inability to curb spending its first time out as the majority party on Capitol Hill does not bode well for the future of its grand plan to bring fiscal sanity to Washington. So-called moderate Republicans who are just as drunk on spending as Democrats gleefully rely on CHIMPS and other budget tricks to circumvent the sequestration caps put in place four years ago. Corker’s opposition to the status quo offered a welcome change to the lip service being paid on spending.

But all is not what it seems in Washington. Wednesday, Corker reversed himself and signed on to the House-Senate budget proposal. “There is no question this budget is far from perfect,” Corker said, “But it is some progress since it has been a long time since Congress has completed this basic part of governing.”

With Corker allowing the budget to proceed, the House passed the proposal 226-197 Thursday, sticking close to their self-imposed deadline to move things forward before leaving town for a brief recess. Fourteen Republicans joined all the Democrats in opposition. The Senate will vote on the proposal in a few days.

Corker’s change of attitude could be considered a flip-flop since there were no fundamental changes made to the resolution to get him on board. But by making his initial stand, he brought to light some of the fundamental problems that plague the budget process in Washington.

To say that federal spending is out of control may be the mother of all understatements. The national debt is over $18 trillion, close to $10 trillion of which has been amassed since Barack Obama took office. Budget deficits, which averaged around $1 trillion a year for his first term, are still in the $500 billion range. Obama is proposing a 7% across-the-board spending increase for the next fiscal year, and he has vowed to veto any Republican budget that adheres to the sequestration cuts that he suggested then later blamed on Republicans.

Democrats have remained resolutely committed to spending without limits while ignoring the inevitable consequences of the government’s careless fiscal strategy, or lack thereof. Senate Democrats are expected to unanimously oppose the budget like their colleagues in the House.

The budget process is complicated and filled with numerous moving parts. It’s no wonder that it puts people’s brains to sleep. Unfortunately, it’s had the same effect on those elected to actually negotiate it.

Many citizens know the dangers of not cutting back on spending, yet when it comes time for the government to actually do so people balk at their favorite programs being cut because so many are now on the government dole. This was by liberal design. Over the course of many years, Democrats have steadily convinced the public that people need the government to run all these services and provide cradle-to-grave entitlements. No one stopped to consider just how all these programs would be paid for.

That is why Corker’s stand against the CHIMPS budget gimmick, brief though it was, is so important. It highlights the fantasy world in which Congressional lawmakers live, and it reminds us all that this world must give way to reality if America wants to avoid political and economic disaster.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Baltimore: Picking up the pieces
• CEO Wage Gap Is Sexist — Against Men
• Charlie Hebdo Cartoonist Says He Will Stop Drawing Muhammad
• U.S. Navy to Escort Ships Around Waters Close to Iran

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• David Harsanyi: Democrats Deserve the Blame for What’s Happening in Baltimore
• Linda Chavez: A Thug by Any Other Name
• Tony Perkins: A Site for Soros Lies
• Michael Barone: America’s Politics Is Polarized, but Britain’s Is Fragmented

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

David Harsanyi: “After a night of violence and looting in Baltimore, Barack Obama spoke to the press and said that ‘we, as a country, have to do some soul-searching’ — by which he meant ‘they,’ as in conservatives, need to get on board. … Where does the blame for the civil unrest lie? In plenty of places. Some of those places have absolutely nothing to do with politics and can’t be fixed by any Washington agenda — imagined or otherwise. The tribulations plaguing cities such as Baltimore are complex, having festered for years. But does that excuse the bungling of Democratic Party governance? Does it change the fact that massive amounts of spending have done little in the war on poverty? And if Democrats claim that they are uniquely sympathetic toward the poor and weak, that welfare programs can never be reformed, only expanded, and that perpetually pumping ‘investments’ into cities is the only way to alleviate the hardship faced by citizens, it’s more than fair to gauge the effectiveness — not to mention the competence — of those allocating and overseeing those policies. Because Republicans may be horrible, but they aren’t running Baltimore.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “A free man is as jealous of his responsibilities as he is of his liberties.” —Historian Cyril James (1901-1989)

Non Compos Mentis: “We can’t continue to frame law enforcement and the police forces in America as simply a bunch of good natured people and there happen to be a few bad apples among them. That’s not the right analysis. … [I]t’s something about the job itself and the structure of law enforcement in America itself that becomes an occupying force and — they’re an occupying force in the hood.” —Morehouse College professor Marc Lamont Hill

Demo-gogues: “Excessive police force and staggering unemployment work together because what we’ve done in the United States is that we’ve said that the affluent part of our society is going to demand more tax breaks, more wealth, more privilege, leaving less for the less fortunate. The way we keep the less fortunate in control is policing and prisons — that’s the unfortunate formula that we’ve constructed. … Our society is going to have to decide if are we going to just pay the police and the prisons to keep the poor under control or we can invest and include everyone in this economy. We are connected here; we are all Americans; we’ve got to say that, look, you can make good money, but do you have to make so much that whole neighborhoods have nothing, not even any hope?” —Rep. Keith Ellison on what precipitated the Baltimore riots

Village Idiots: “Here’s my demand: I want every African-American currently incarcerated for drug ‘crimes’ or nonviolent offenses released from prison today. And the rest who [are] imprisoned — I don’t believe 50% of them did what they’re accused of. Lies. Greed. A modern day slave system…. Next demand: Disarm the police. We have a [quarter] billion 2nd amendment guns in our homes [for] protection. We’ll survive til the right cops [are] hired.” —filmmaker Michael Moore

Dezinformatsia: “Just be careful, because you know how [the police] are. If you seem like you’re being provocative towards them, you know how things can go.” —CNN’s Chris Cuomo to a Baltimore demonstrator

And last… “It’s really hard to take seriously any criticism of capitalism that’s instantly shared worldwide through the internet. … What did people do with opinions before the internet?” —Frank Fleming

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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.

THE FOUNDATION

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” —Benjamin Franklin, Letter to the Abbes Chalut and Arnoux, 1787

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

First Quarter GDP Is a Harsh Reality Check

Other than the first quarter, last year was a better year for the economy. After contracting 2.1% to start off 2014, GDP jumped to 4.6% in the second quarter and 5% in the third quarter before slipping to 2.2% to round out the year. So, how’s 2015 looking so far? Well, chilly — literally, according to Democrats. The Commerce Department released initial numbers for the first quarter of 2015, and, at a sluggish 0.2%, GDP once again tempered America’s level of economic enthusiasm. And the “worse-than-expected” downtrend is inevitably being blamed on winter weather woes. Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said this latest estimate “was likely affected by notably harsh winter weather” — interesting considering we’re supposedly coming off the warmest year on record and had a record warm start to 2015. It’s also the same recycled excuse they used last year.

Moreover, as Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal reminds us, revisions knocked last year’s initial first quarter growth down by a staggering two percentage points — from 0.1% to -2.1%. Is a repeat in the offing? Yesterday’s report continues a familiar trend under the Obama recovery — a roller coaster ride that features some signs of life along with harsh reality checks. Stability and sustainability are still lacking in the economy, which will continue through at least 2017.

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Bernie Sanders Challenges Clinton for Democrat Nomination

At least the Democrat presidential primary got interesting. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the politician who described himself as a “democratic socialist” and who was described by the New York Times as an adherent to “that old-time religion” of populism, announced he is campaigning to win the Democrat Party’s nomination as its presidential candidate. The politician that was once too far to the Left for the Democrat Party told the Associated Press, “People should not underestimate me. I’ve run outside of the two-party system, defeating Democrats and Republicans, taking on big-money candidates and, you know, I think the message that has resonated in Vermont is a message that can resonate all over this country.” Right out of the gate, Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton’s succession to the throne by bringing the progressive rhetoric that splits rich versus poor and capitalizes on income inequality. “What we have seen is that while the average person is working longer hours for lower wages,” Sanders said, “we have seen a huge increase in income and wealth inequality, which is now reaching obscene levels.” Between the two candidates, Clinton still seems the greater threat. Sanders appears more harmless than calculating, and a Sanders nomination will pull the Democrat Party further from middle America.

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Did Freddie Gray Try to Injure Himself in the Police Van?

If true, the death of Freddie Gray may not have anything to do with police brutality and more to do with an irrational man bent on self-harm. This in from The Washington Post: “A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray ‘banging against the walls’ of the vehicle and believed that he ‘was intentionally trying to injure himself,’ according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.” This story has the ring of truthiness about it, but is it really? Jazz Shaw writes at Hot Air that the prisoner could be an unreliable witness — similar to the witnesses that said Michael Brown had his hands up. Furthermore, Investigative Reporter at Baltimore’s NBC affiliate TV station Jayne Miller said the Post’s account contradicts what the Baltimore Police Commissioner said a week ago. At the time, he said the prisoner described Gray as “mostly quiet.” The timeline is still being reconstructed. When we do get the complete and truthful story, what will happen if the rioters, who already destroyed much of Baltimore, do not get the conclusion for which they demanded?

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Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read 2016 Presidential Field on Guns and Liberty, on the remarks made by candidates for the Republican presidential nomination at the 2015 NRA Leadership Forum.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

No, Riots Are Not a ‘Legitimate Political Strategy’

By Allyne Caan

Rioters and police clash in Ferguson during August's unrest

Reading the liberal media, you’d think the Baltimore rioters are the reincarnation of Lexington and Concord’s minutemen, bravely facing tyrants to defend their freedom. Well, Paul Revere might disagree. Somehow, ruining businesses and running off with condoms doesn’t quite equate to Patrick Henry’s speech “Give me Liberty or give me death.”

But the Left wants America to think it does.

A particularly absurd Salon headline this week reads, “Baltimore’s violent protesters are right: Smashing police cars is a legitimate political strategy.” The author’s argument is that non-violence is “a tactic, not a philosophy” and that black communities are struggling against “premeditated economic exploitation.” Riots are simply “reasonable responses to generations of extreme state violence, and logical decisions about what kind of actions yield the desired political results.”

According to Fordham University sociology professor Heather Gautney, “Riots like the ones we are seeing in Baltimore … should be viewed as rational responses to injustice. Riots highlight the injustice and violence that’s prevalent in impoverished neighborhoods in this country.”

And BuzzFeed’s Adam Serwer writes, “Violence — as harmful and self-destructive as it is — sometimes works.” Serwer claims that, for 80 years, the “recipe for urban riots” has been largely the same: “(a)n impoverished and politically disempowered black population refused full American citizenship, a heavy-handed and overwhelmingly white police force, a generous amount of neglect, and frequently, the loss of black life at the hands of the police.”

But is portraying lawless violence as a justified and effective quest for justice accurate?

A closer look at the facts says, “No.”

For starters, as Acton Institute Senior Editor Joe Carter points out, far from empowering black communities, urban riots leave lingering damage. In 2004, The National Bureau of Economic Research published research on riots that took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and Carter notes the research found not only a decline in the median black family income in riot-impacted cities but also declines in male employment rates and in the median value of black-owned property.

And as for “premeditated economic exploitation” and political disempowerment justifying violence, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson notes that even during the era of Jim Crow laws, when institutionalized racism was both legal and praised, black crime was “relatively low” — no riots as a “legitimate political strategy ” then. And since Johnson’s infamous War on Poverty was launched, Peterson adds, there has been a “massive wealth transfer to black Americans in the form of welfare and other handouts.” Certainly, a case can be made for economic exploitation, but the indictment would be against those intent on keeping black voters dependent on the government for handouts.

Is violence, then, justified, or is it simply being used as an escape from tackling problems with resolution — not simply retribution — in mind? Just as profanity is often the discourse of those unwilling to develop a compelling vocabulary, so violence is often the discourse of those unwilling to develop compelling arguments.

And there is inarguably a need for compelling arguments. While America has made exceptional strides toward Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s goal of judging others based not on the color of their skin but on the content of their character, racism has sadly not yet breathed its last in America.

Yet, even amid racism, King himself held firmly his belief “that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt.” He continued, “I’ve been searching for a long time for an alternative to riots on one hand and timid supplication for justice on the other and I think that alternative is found in militant massive non-violence.”

When the colonists took up arms and declared independence from Great Britain, they had for 10 years prior sought reconciliation with the Crown and resorted to arms only when their repeated attempts at peace were disregarded. And in the Declaration of Independence, they set forth clearly their justifications for rejecting injustice.

In presenting a dignified argument against racism, Dr. King did the same. And in so doing, he made incredible strides forward for black Americans.

Tragically, the violence of lawless rioters is doing nothing to continue Dr. King’s work and much to undercut it.

Far from elevating violence to a level of rational discourse, endorsing riots as legitimate political strategy diminishes the quality of discourse and demeans the ability of Americans — black and white — to confront injustice not with stones and arson but with truth, which alone has the power to bring justice.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Senate Needs to Act in Face of Iran’s Belligerence
• Bill Would Force Transparency in EPA’s Use of Science
• Baltimore Businessman Plans on Rebuilding — and Getting a Gun
• Councilman Apologizes for Describing Rioters as ‘Thugs’
• Obama Official Admits Religious Institutions May Be Punished

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Cal Thomas: Until the Court Do Us Part?
• Tony Perkins: Man on Admission: Verrilli Reveals Taxing Truth
• Larry Elder: Tell People They’re Victims — They’ll Act Like Victims
• Michael Reagan: Another Cover-Up for the Religion of Peace

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Cal Thomas: “The problem for traditionalists — especially those who believe scripture is the sole authority in such matters — is that in an increasingly secular society where younger people are less attuned to appeals about an Authority higher than themselves, how can they be persuaded that same-sex marriage is a bridge too far? After all, don’t they ‘know’ gay people, whom they regard as wonderful and kind? That ‘standard’ becomes subjective and when it reaches the level of personal feelings it becomes a shifting boundary that is drawn in invisible ink rather than set in stone. Only two years ago, in the case of ‘U.S. v. Windsor,’ which argued whether the IRS could give federal tax benefits to all legally married homosexuals, regardless of state law, Justice Kennedy warned it was wrong for courts to ‘put a thumb on the scales and influence a state’s decision as to shape its own marriage laws.’ And now this court could do precisely that. … If people worship pleasure and material things, they are more likely to get leaders who give them what they want instead of what they need to hold society together. If we erase the boundaries that have guided humanity for generations, we weaken our society.”

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SHORT CUTS

Upright: “Baltimore is not America’s problem or shame. That failed city is solely and completely a Democrat problem. Like many failed cities, Detroit comes to mind, and every city besieged recently by rioting, Democrats and their union pals have had carte blanche to inflict their ideas and policies on Baltimore since 1967, the last time there was a Republican Mayor. … Poverty has nothing to do with it. This madness and chaos and anarchy is a Democrat-driven culture that starts at the top with a racially divisive White House heartbreakingly effective at ginning up hate and violence.” —Breitbart’s John Nolte

Race bait: “You don’t have to look too far from this magnificent hall to find children still living in poverty or trapped in failing schools. Families who work hard but can’t afford the rising prices in their neighborhood. Mothers and fathers who fear for their sons' safety when they go off to school — or just to go buy a pack of Skittles.” —Hillary Clinton at Columbia University, referring to Trayvon Martin (For the record, the shooter, “white Hispanic” George Zimmerman, was acquitted. But he’s still guilty in Clinton’s eyes.)

Dezinformatsia: “All Baltimore City public schools were closed on Tuesday in response to violent protests breaking out across the city in response to Freddie Gray’s death. About 84 percent of students in city’s public schools receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to the school district’s website. The closings mean that these students were unable to access these lunches, and churches and community centers have been scrambling to fill the gap. That’s why it was so shocking to hear that Whole Foods and Five Guys had taken the initiative to provide free food forNational Guard soldiers instead of for thousands of high-need children.” —Salon’s Joanna Rothkopf (The Leftmedia will do anything to slander our troops.)

Non Compos Mentis: “The [GOP budget] is no more balanced than the earthquakes they’ve had in Nepal.” —Harry Reid (“[W]e probably shouldn’t be shocked that Reid would use the Nepal earthquake to score some quick points. He’s leaving; why should he care.” —Hot Air’s Matt Vespa)

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton has temporarily changed her campaign logo to rainbow colors in support of marriage equality. Of course, her idea of marriage equality is both of you should get to be president.” —Seth Meyers

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines a

THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.” —John Adams, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1812

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Same-Sex Marriage Decision Hinges on Justice Kennedy

In the oral arguments over the Supreme Court case that may institute same-sex marriage nationwide, the Court appeared to split along its usual lines, with Justice Anthony Kennedy once again becoming the justice on which the whole decision rests. Like many, Hot Air’s Allahpunditsaw Justice Kennedy sympathetic to the arguments made by the pro-same-sex-marriage lobby. Allahpundit believes the Court will rule against traditional marriage; the only question now is by what vote. Nevertheless, some justices were cautious. For thousands of years, marriage has been defined as between a man and a woman. Then, the Netherlands changed its definition of marriage in 2001. “You’re not seeking to join the institution,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “You’re seeking to change what the institution is.” He added, “One of the things that’s truly extraordinary about this whole issue is how quickly has been the acceptance of your position across broad elements of society.” The plaintiffs' attorneys have been practicing for months, running moot courts and rehearsing responses to Justice Antonin Scalia’s style of questioning. The goal, The New York Times reported, is not just win, but “win big.” If SCOTUS rules in their favor, then they already have. More…

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National Guard, Curfew Quell Second Night of Baltimore Unrest

The rioting Monday night in Baltimore left 19 buildings and 144 vehicles burned, 20 police officers injured and 235 people arrested. But what we saw by dawn on Wednesday is that Tuesday’s violence was subdued. Two thousand National Guard members and 400 state troopers enforced a 10 p.m. city-wide curfew. Baltimore was hesitant at first to crack down on the initial stages of unrest because many of the unruly were youth, but then the violence evolved. “When we deployed our officers yesterday, we were deploying for a high school event,” Baltimore PD spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalcyzk said. “I don’t think there’s anyone that would expect us to deploy with automatic weapons and armored vehicles for 13-, 14- and 15-year olds.”

Meanwhile, about 50 protesters were demonstrating in Ferguson, Missouri, last night when a man was shot in the lower leg. While it’s not clear if the shooting is connected to the demonstrations, police threatened to use “chemical munitions” to clear the crowd. Later, a group set fire to trashcans and a portable toilet. Even after all this time, violence still lingers in the St. Louis suburb. However, Barack Obama wasn’t about to say the riots are due to a malformed relationship between cops and citizens. No, for him, the problem is Republicans. He said at a press conference yesterday, “I’m under no illusion that out of this Congress we’re going to get massive investments in urban communities … But if we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could.” Leftists believe the answer to everything is more money. More…

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Obama: Congress Is Just Afraid of a Little Globalization

In pushing for a free-trade agreement with countries arrayed around the Pacific Ocean, Barack Obama has managed to enter the rare political situation of gaining opponents in both Democrat and Republican parties. Democrats, led by the likes of Elizabeth Warren, bray that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will hurt the middle class. Republicans, well, they have a right to be suspicious, because the administration that “led” the U.S. economy on its slowest recovery to date wants to negotiate a trade deal that will have huge economic implications. Furthermore, Obama is seeking approval for this treaty in a simple yes-no vote, a move that speeds up the negotiation process, but one that also cheapens Congress' role in negotiating treaties. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Obama called the skeptics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership scared of a little globalization. After all, if the U.S. does nothing, then China will establish its trade agreements and earn influence over that corner of the globe. “What we can’t do, though, is withdraw,” Obama said. “There has been a confluence of anti-global engagement from both elements of the right and elements of the left that I think [is] a big mistake.” There is a reason why the Constitution grants Congress the power to approve treaties, and the argument that we’re running out of time is no excuse to trust the judgment of one man. More…

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Why Is SCOTUS Even Considering Same-Sex Marriage?

By John J. Bastiat

Since the very definition of marriage is up for grabs at the U.S. Supreme Court this week — SCOTUS entertained oral arguments Tuesday on a number of cases consolidated under the central issue of the un-constitutionality of states' ability to deny gay marriage — we thought this an appropriate point to interject reason into the debate, strengthened by an understanding of history — Constitutional history. Let’s start with the basics: The Constitution of the United States has nothing to say about marriage, “gay” or otherwise. What does that mean?

Well, if you know nothing about civics, it means nothing. Unfortunately, that’s the take the religiously zealous supporters of same-sex marriage are trying to foist off on the Supremes this week. Their approach, of course, doesn’t admit to this, or even begin to touch on the truly core issue — Federalism — for the same reason abortionist supporters of Roe v. Wade did not: They would otherwise lose. Let’s walk through this Matrix together, Neo.

The Constitution is the foundational legal document governing our nation. For almost 200 years it served as the backbone behind the body of laws under which the lowliest individual to the U.S. President operated. All of that changed with the Progressive Movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, FDR’s New Deal and a host of other progressive assaults on the concept of the Rule of Law. Wiser-than-the-rest-of-us progressives rejected this idea in favor of the arrogation that some people (read: them) are better suited to rule than others (read: you), and accordingly pushed to make the Constitution a “living, breathing document” (read: changeable to suit progressives' needs). The practical upshot of this “breathing” is that Rule of Law is all but a dead letter in our nation. But we digress.

Since the progressives' constitutional onslaught, the model formerly known as “federalism” has died yet another — virtual, if not actual — death. The Constitution originally gave power to the federal government to make and enforce certain, very particular laws across the land. These so-called “enumerated” powers were so called because they were very limited in scope, though unlimited within the span of that scope. Such laws were applicable to the entirety of the United States and evolved from the previous federal power failures of the former bedrock document, the Articles of Confederation. For example, the power to regulate commerce among the states — a power itself abused over the past century by an overly-ambitious SCOTUS interpretation of the term “interstate commerce” — is specifically granted to Congress under Article I of the Constitution. Likewise, the power to enter treaties — another power very recently abused, since the current office holder ignores the prerequisite Senate consent to such power (“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties… ”) — is specifically granted to the president under Article II.

However, the rest of governmental power is vested within the states. This structural component was codified under the Tenth Amendment, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In a nutshell, the Tenth Amendment is saying if We-the-People didn’t give you-the-federal-government a particular power in the Constitution, we are keeping that plenary power for individual states to make those calls. The rationale behind this principle, as aptly annunciated in the opinion section of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, is that the “Founders believed that social mores should be reflected in law through the democratic process, not judicial command.” Indeed.

Unfortunately, over a century of assaults on the Tenth Amendment have withered it to a bare thread of what it once was. Were this not the case, the issue before SCOTUS wouldn’t even be here. It would be among each of the 50 states to decide for themselves. Sadly, that option was foreclosed with SCOTUS’s unreasonable shoot-down of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), whose primary focus was the assertion of individual states' rights to choose for themselves whether or not to recognize same-sex marriage. Ultimately, that means the decision of whether to recognize same-sex marriages rests not with individual states, but rather with an arbitrary and often-fickle Supreme Court.

The real issue is whether a state’s free people can decide for themselves whether they can choose one such path or another. The more the Tenth Amendment is eviscerated by the Court, the less likely they can. The Founders envisioned the states as political laboratories to experiment with governmental models. Those that worked encouraged people to move and join in the prosperity of successful models; those that didn’t encouraged people to vote with their feet. Let’s hope the Supreme Court learns its lesson from Roe v. Wade and decides the Founders' model is best. If history is any guide, however, we’re not overly optimistic.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• Krauthammer: To Help Inner Cities, Embrace School Choice
• Due to Finances, Clinton Foundation Placed on ‘Watch List’
• Earnest: You Know Who’s Really at Fault for ISIL’s Rise?
• Vietnam Veteran to Rioters: Do Something With Your Lives
• Iran Flexes Naval Might by Seizing Cargo Ship

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Star Parker: Defending Traditional Marriage
• Terence Jeffrey: Give Every Child in Baltimore a $17,329 School-Choice Voucher
• Michelle Malkin: Debunking Obama’s Bilious Baltimore Babble
• John Stossel: What Creates Jobs
• Walter Williams: California’s Water Problem

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Star Parker: “[I]f leaders in these various institutions of our nation’s left-wing elite look in the rearview mirror to their own family histories, histories of Christians and Jews arriving and settling in America, they most certainly, overwhelmingly, will find families — parents, grandparents, great-grandparents — defined by the very traditional values that their offspring today throw to the trash. Central to the propaganda being sold is the notion that embracing sexual behaviors that our religions prohibit represents progress. But in fact, these behaviors are more ancient than our religions. Our religions were the answer to these destructive behaviors. And no, this is not about freedom. Few do not believe or accept that every American should be free to live as he or she chooses. This is a battle about redefining the values of our nation’s culture and, hence, redefining our nation itself.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security.” —Author Robert Welch (1899-1985)

Non Compos Mentis: “I’m under no illusion that under this Congress we’re going to get massive investments in urban communities. And so we’ll try to find areas where we can make a difference around school reform, and around job training, and around some investments in infrastructure in these communities trying to attract new businesses in.” —Barack Obama, faulting Republicans for the rioting in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore

“The fact is that al-Qaida was not in Iraq prior to President Bush’s decision to commit significant American resources on the ground in that country. That is a historical fact.” —Obama spokesman Josh Earnest, shooting back at George W. Bush after he criticized his successor’s foreign policy

Dezinformatsia: “You get into Baltimore, you can’t find a job with a short commute. And that’s, to me, the problem that’s behind all of this [rioting]. … [The jobs] went to the right-to-work states … where the unions didn’t have any power. You could get people to work for nothing and the stuff wasn’t that good that was made down there.” —MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

Village Idiots: “[Baltimore] policemen and firemen have the right to work in the city and live in the suburbs. Some live as far away as … Pennsylvania. And so they come in as an occupying force, not as neighbors. So, often people are afraid of them, because they’re not taxpaying neighbors whose children go to school with their children. So there is this gap between police and people. And you really ought to have residential requirements for policemen and firemen. Those who get nectar from the flower should sow pollen where they pick up nectar.” —Jesse Jackson

And last… “Sixth-year president blames fourth-month GOP Congress for blocking agenda which would’ve aided city run by Democrats for decades. #Baltimore” —twitter satirist @hale_razor

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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.