The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Win One For Nino
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER.
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Counterterrorism Logjam: Apple vs. FBI
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." —Benjamin Franklin
The attempt to find balance between Liberty and security is the primary challenge facing our efforts to fight terrorism in modern America. That debate is now playing out between the FBI and Apple over the iPhone that belonged to San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym gave tech giant Apple until Feb. 26 to decide whether to help unlock Farook's iPhone (bypass the 10-attempt limit on the passcode) so that investigators can look for evidence of connections with other terrorists. "Despite ... a warrant authorizing the search," said prosecutors, "the government has been unable to complete the search because it cannot access the iPhone's encrypted content. Apple has the exclusive technical means which would assist the government in completing its search, but has declined to provide that assistance voluntarily."
When a warrant is served, a locked door shouldn't stand in the way. The national security arguments for actually being able to serve this of all warrants are obvious. No one wants terrorists to succeed in killing innocents, and if the information contained on the phone could thwart future attacks, lives could be saved. And Apple notes it has already "worked hard to support the government's efforts to solve this crime." Apple provided all of Farook's data in its possession and had its own engineers advise the FBI.
But Apple has refused to create a way to unlock this phone. Why? It has, on 70 prior occasions since 2008, helped investigators access other iPhones. Why, as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) put it, has "Apple chose[n] to protect a dead ISIS terrorist's privacy over the security of the American people"? -The Patriot Post
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OPINION IN BRIEF
Charles Krauthammer: "Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The president proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McCon-nell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here — a radical generation-long reversal of direction of the Supreme Court — are the highest this Senate will ever face. If McCon-nell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the 'what did we get for 2014?' question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalia's seat and to the court's conservative majority. But only for now. Blocking an nObama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McCon-nell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution. In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial president in the White House. 'I would not like to be replaced,' he explained, 'by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I've tried to do for 25 years.' Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McCon-nell do his thing. Then in November it's for us to win one for Nino."
-The Patriot Post
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WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE Warren Throckmorton, professor at Grove City College, explains why Thomas Jefferson edited his own copy of the Bible stripped of the supernatural and miraculous works of Jesus, and how he came up with the idea: “In 1804 and around 1820, Thomas Jefferson took two copies of the New Testament and cut out verses that he believed truly came from Jesus. In several letters to friends, Jefferson described the process of assembling the philosophy of Jesus as being as simple as plucking diamonds from a dunghill. Jefferson had a lot of confidence that he could tell the difference between Jesus’ actual teaching and teaching added later by his followers. A copy of the 1804 abridgement of the Gospels has not survived.” -Fox News
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nObamacare Will Bankrupt the U.S.
Cliff Kincaid
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{aim.org} ~ One topic of conversation in the Republican race for the White House has been whether President nObama has been incompetent, or actually knows what he’s doing... On the matter of nObama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and nObamacare, self-declared socialist Professor Gerald Friedman seems to agree with conservatives that it can’t and won’t work. Friedman, a supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) “Medicare for All” single-payer plan, says that nObama and his advisers knew that the ACA was a “bad idea” that would not control costs, and that a total federal takeover of the health care system was inevitable. The problem with a federal takeover of health care is that it would bankrupt the U.S., leading to left-wing demands for even more federal control. This is how socialism is coming to America. http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamacare-will-bankrupt-the-u-s/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email021916&utm_medium=email.
China Cash and Movie Moguls — The Disturbing New Hollywood-Beijing Axis
William F. Jasper
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Libya disaster: Have Western
leaders learned anything?
Pete Hoekstra
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{investigativeproject.org} ~ That the U.S. has launched airstrikes against ISIS in Libya should demonstrate once and for all the total disaster of the NATO-led adventure to overthrow Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011... Libya devolved into a failed state when NATO assisted Qaddafi's radical jihadist opponents in killing him and then promptly abandoned the country. Left in the wake were two rival governments competing for power, which created space for Islamists to turn Libya into a cesspool of extremism. Former Secretary of State Hilly Clinton continues to call the debacle American "smart power at its best." Other presidential candidates still argue that it was the right thing to do. How will the West ever learn anything if it can't identify its most obvious failures? http://www.investigativeproject.org/5165/libya-disaster-have-western-leaders-learned.
Hilly Railed Against GOP Senators Over Scalia Replcaement, Then...
Kevin Whitson
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{patriotupdate.com} ~ The fight to replace recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is heating up, with both Democrats and Republicans weighing in on the matter... Hilly Clinton tweeted out what MSNBC called a “firestorm” of tweets, charging the Senate with the task of swiftly confirming a nomination for the vacant SCOTUS seat. However, as even MSNBC noted, moving swiftly to confirm a SCOTUS nomination wasn’t something Clinton tried to do when George W. Bush was president in 2005. Clinton’s recent tweets telling the Senate to quickly approve a Scalia replacement when nObama presents a nominee are in complete contrast with Clinton’s full and active participation in the delay of a Supreme Court nominee while she was a senator, an apparent hypocrisy which MSNBC noted on Tuesday. http://patriotupdate.com/hillary-railed-gop-senators-scalia-replacement-video-surfaced/ Video: http://patriotupdate.com/hillary-railed-gop-senators-scalia-replacement-video-surfaced/
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nObama’s Phony Geraldine Accent Makes
A White House Appearance
Rick Wells.
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Clinton Teams Up With Pro-Tehran
Lobby For Fundraiser
Adam Kredo.
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{freebeacon.com} ~ Democratic presidential candidate Hilly Clinton is scheduled to host a fundraiser this weekend with key members of a pro-Tehran lobbying outfit that is working to kill new anti-terrorism laws that would prevent Iranians from travelling to the United States without first obtaining a visa permit... Clinton is scheduled to travel to Silicon Valley this weekend for three fundraisers with wealthy tech moguls, many of which have expressed skepticism about the candidate. Clinton will participate in a Menlo Park fundraiser on Sunday hosted by Twitter executive Omid Kordestani and his wife Gisel Hiscock, as well as National Iranian American Council (NIAC) board member Lily Sarafan and Noosheen Hashemi, who serves on the board of the pro-Iran advocacy group Ploughshares, a major funder of pro-Iran efforts..
Homeland “Security” Is Our Vulnerability
Rick Wells.
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EPIC Beatdown as Conservative Pundit Destroys #BlackLivesMatter Defender!
Onan Coca
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{eaglerising.com} ~ AM 770 KTTH is a lone conservative voice in the wilderness of the liberal Northwest. The radio station broadcasts in Seattle, Washington and the surrounding area and has worked hard to reach out to their community with the truths of conservatism... This past year the station hosted a debate between two liberal #BlackLivesMatter activists and two conservative activists -- the brilliant Ben Shapiro being one of those conservatives. What followed was an hour and a half long debate drubbing that even seemed to turn the tide of opinion in the audience. Here are the highlights for you to enjoy – 5 minutes of awesome. http://eaglerising.com/30548/epic-beatdown-as-conservative-pundit-destroys-blacklivesmatter-defender/.
nObama Propped Up, Armed ISIS
– Putin Deserves Nobel Prize
Rick Wells.
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EPA Stalling on Underground Fire
Near Nuclear Waste Dump
Trey Sanchez
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Win One For Nino
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER.
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In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. “Except in extraordinary circumstances.” None such arose. Surprise! Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack nObama.
In Year Seven of the George W. Bush administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly opposed filling any Supreme Court vacancy until Bush left office. “Except in extraordinary circumstances.” None such arose. Surprise! Today he piously denounces Republicans for doing exactly the same for a vacancy created in Year Eight of Barack nObama.
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Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the president deference. Elections have consequences and nObama won re-election in 2012.
Republicans, say the Democrats, owe the president deference. Elections have consequences and nObama won re-election in 2012.
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Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014 — if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.
Yes. And the Republicans won the Senate in 2014 — if anything, a more proximal assertion of popular will. And both have equal standing in appointing a Supreme Court justice.
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It’s hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered nObama’s serial constitutional depredations: His rewriting the immigration laws by executive order stayed by the courts; his reordering the energy economy by regulation stayed by the courts; his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate by declaring it an executive agreement.
It’s hard to swallow demands for deference from a party that for seven years has cheered nObama’s serial constitutional depredations: His rewriting the immigration laws by executive order stayed by the courts; his reordering the energy economy by regulation stayed by the courts; his enacting the nuclear deal with Iran, the most important treaty of this generation, without the required two-thirds of the Senate by declaring it an executive agreement.
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Minority Leader Harry dinky-Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is dinky-Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did dinky-Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to nObamacare.
Minority Leader Harry dinky-Reid complains about the Senate violating precedent if it refuses a lame-duck nominee. This is rich. It is dinky-Reid who just two years ago overthrew all precedent by abolishing the filibuster for most judicial and high executive appointments. In the name of what grand constitutional principle did dinky-Reid resort to a parliamentary maneuver so precedent-shattering that it was called the nuclear option? None. He did it in order to pack the U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia with liberals who would reliably deflect challenges to nObamacare.
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On Tuesday, nObama loftily called upon Congress to rise above ideology and partisanship in approving his nominee. When asked how he could square that with his 2006 support of a filibuster to stop the appointment of Samuel Alito, nObama replied with a four-minute word salad signifying nothing. There is no answer. It was situational constitutional principle, i.e., transparent hypocrisy.
On Tuesday, nObama loftily called upon Congress to rise above ideology and partisanship in approving his nominee. When asked how he could square that with his 2006 support of a filibuster to stop the appointment of Samuel Alito, nObama replied with a four-minute word salad signifying nothing. There is no answer. It was situational constitutional principle, i.e., transparent hypocrisy.
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As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing president to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?
As I said, this is all about raw power. When the Democrats had it, they used it. The Republicans are today wholly justified in saying they will not allow this outgoing president to overturn the balance of the Supreme Court. The matter should be decided by the coming election. Does anyone doubt that Democrats would be saying exactly that if the circumstances were reversed?
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Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell’s moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from “anti-establishment” candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal nObamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc.
Which makes this Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell’s moment. He and his cohorts have taken a lot of abuse from “anti-establishment” candidates and media for not using their congressional majorities to repeal nObamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, block executive orders, etc.
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What was the 2014 election about, they say? We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the “Washington cartel.”
What was the 2014 election about, they say? We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the “Washington cartel.”
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As it happens, under our Madisonian Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the president, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have.
As it happens, under our Madisonian Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the president, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have.
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But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The president proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McCon-nell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here — a radical generation-long reversal of direction of the Supreme Court — are the highest this Senate will ever face.
But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The president proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McCon-nell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here — a radical generation-long reversal of direction of the Supreme Court — are the highest this Senate will ever face.
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If McCon-nell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the “what did we get for 2014?” question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalia’s seat and to the court’s conservative majority.
If McCon-nell succeeds, he will have resoundingly answered the “what did we get for 2014?” question. Imagine if the Senate were now in Democratic hands. What we got in 2014 was the power to hold on to Scalia’s seat and to the court’s conservative majority.
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But only for now. Blocking an nObama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McCon-nell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution.
But only for now. Blocking an nObama nominee buys just a year. The final outcome depends on November 2016. If the GOP nominates an unelectable or unconservative candidate, a McCon-nell victory will be nothing more than a stay of execution.
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In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial president in the White House. “I would not like to be replaced,” he explained, “by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I’ve tried to do for 25 years.”
In 2012, Scalia averred that he would not retire until there was a more ideologically congenial president in the White House. “I would not like to be replaced,” he explained, “by someone who immediately sets about undoing everything that I’ve tried to do for 25 years.”
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Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McCon-nell do his thing. Then in November it’s for us to win one for Nino.
Scalia never got to choose the timing of his leaving office. Those who value the legacy of those now-30 years will determine whether his last wish will be vindicated. Let McCon-nell do his thing. Then in November it’s for us to win one for Nino.
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