THE FOUNDATION

“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore … never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge William Johnson, 1823

TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS

Cheney: Democrats' CIA Report Is ‘Full of Crap’

Former Vice President Dick Cheney laid into the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogations Wednesday, calling the “deeply flawed” report a “terrible piece of work,” and concluding that it’s “full of crap.” He asserted the CIA’s enhanced techniques, such as waterboarding, provided actionable intelligence that proved “vital in the success of keeping the country safe from further attacks.” For example, he said, “We’ve got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of 9/11, who has killed 3,000 Americans, taken down the World Trade Center, hit the Pentagon, would have taken out the White House or the Capitol building if, in fact, it hadn’t been for the passengers on United 93. He is in our possession, we know he’s the architect, and what are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks and say, ‘Please, please tell us what you know?’ Of course not. We did exactly what we needed to do to catch those who were guilty on 9/11 and to prevent a further attack, and we were successful on both parts.” The most important question, Cheney argued, is this: “What are you prepared to do to get the truth against future attacks against the United States?” On that score, he concluded, “The CIA did one hell of a job.”

Comment | Share

Democrats Bitterly Clinging to Gun Control

You’d think that after losing control of the House and Senate, Democrats would play a strategy in the 114th Congress that wouldn’t alienate them from the rest of the country. But led by lawmakers from Connecticut, the Left will fight the Republican majority to enact more gun control, specifically already-legislated universal background checks. “When you don’t pass background checks,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) lectured, “it’s just much more likely that someone will get their hands on an illegal gun and use it to kill their neighbors or their classmates.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined his fellow Connecticut senator when he said, “Congress’s failure to act makes it, in fact, an aider and abettor to those deaths that could be prevented.” Wrong. As gun journalist Charles Cooke notes, a law enacting universal background checks will not prevent another Newtown massacre because the shooter stole the guns from his mother. In other shootings, the perpetrators bought guns legally, passing background checks. The Left’s gun control goal comes at a time when 52% of Americans say the right to bear arms is more important than controlling guns in a feeble attempt to reduce crime – the most support the Second Amendment has gotten in 20 years.

Comment | Share

The Rolling Stone Story Could Be a Fabrication

The Washington Post did what Rolling Stone did not: It talked to the friends of Jackie, the woman whose story the pop culture magazine published alleging she was gang raped at a University of Virginia fraternity. The Post’s reporting is damning for Rolling Stone. Jackie’s friends say her story changed from when they first responded to their friend’s phone calls in 2012 to what eventually hit newsstands a few weeks ago. According to the Post, “The friends said they were never contacted or interviewed by the pop culture magazine’s reporters or editors.” Even leftist rag Salon’s feminist blog, XX factor, sides with the Post on this one, admitting that Rolling Stone’s story could very well be a fabrication, with Jackie making up swaths of her narrative – to the point of inventing a love interest. And then author Sabrina Rubin Erdely took UVA to task while not showing a hint of skepticism herself. Jackie might have been in a traumatic situation, but her story appears to be largely made up. And that will do more to hurt than help real victims of rape.More…

Comment | Share

‘Get Over Your Damn Glibness’

During Jonathan Gruber’s testimony before Congress Tuesday, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told the emotional story of her husband’s October death, in part because of the failings of ObamaCare. “My husband was having chest pains at the time that he was told we were not enrolled in ObamaCare, and come to find out he didn’t have all of the tests that he was advised by his physician to have,” she said. “So, on October 24, the week before election, my husband went to sleep and never woke up. He had a massive heart attack in his sleep at age 65.” Nearly overcome with emotion, she continued, “I’m not telling you that my husband died because of ObamaCare. He died because he had a massive heart attack in his sleep. But I am telling you that during the course of time that he was having tests by a physician, and was told we were not covered by ObamaCare, that he then decided not to have the last test the doctor asked him to have.” Lummis added, “There have been so many glitches in the passage and implementation of ObamaCare that have real-life consequences on people’s lives.” Then, in a direct rebuttal to Gruber’s faux apology for having made “glib” remarks, she concluded, “And the so-called ‘glibness’ that has been referenced today have direct consequences for real Americans. So get over your damn glibness.”

Comment | Share

Barack Obama, Biblical Scholar

Speaking on the subject of immigration, Barack Obama once again turned to his translation of the Bible for inspiration. He last abused God’s Word by paraphrasing Exodus in his speech announcing his amnesty executive action. This time, he quoted a verse that doesn’t exist: “The good book says don’t throw stones in glass houses, or make sure we’re looking at the log in our eye before we are pointing out the moat in other folks' eyes.” Unfortunately, the Bible never says anything about glass houses, and he’s also a bit muddled with logs and moats. Undeterred, Obama continued the Sunday school lesson, saying, “If we’re serious about the Christmas season, now is the time to reflect on those who are strangers in our midst and remember what it was like to be a stranger.” If he’s referring to Mary and Joseph as strangers in Bethlehem, well, that was Joseph’s ancestral home – which might not be the best analogy to today’s illegal immigration.

Comment | Share

For more, visit Right Hooks.

Liberty Depends on You

No matter the cost, The Patriot Post will continue to stand on the front lines of the battle to restore the constitutional limits on the central government – and thousands of Patriots have joined our ranks in the last decade. We don’t just “preach to the choir” – because our donors support the distribution of The Patriot Post without charge, we reach large numbers of those who are politically indifferent and fire them up!

Given the economic struggles our nation faces, we are once again holding the line on our budget – it’s not going up. However, we still must raise $139,604 to meet our Christmas Day goal.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Blame All Those Racist Cops?, on the purely partisan attempt to vilify law enforcement.

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

Share

RIGHT ANALYSIS

A Christmas Gift No One Wants

Because $18 trillion simply isn’t enough debt, the House is expected to vote Thursday on a $1.01 trillion spending bill that would add to that by funding most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 27. At that point, the newly sworn in Congress plans to hit Barack Obama’s amnesty plans through funding negotiations targeting the chief immigration enforcement agency.

The House vote on the 1,603-page bill, which by the way is longer than “War and Peace” and averages more than $630,000,000 worth of spending for every page, comes just hours before the deadline for funding the government. Using those two politically charged words – “government shutdown” – as motivation and justification, Republican and Democrat leadership hashed out a deal that has some liberals crying foul, some conservatives arguing it doesn’t go far enough, and all Americans on the hook for the cost.

What exactly is in the spending monstrosity? Well, don’t expect legislators to know. They only voted on it; reading it is an entirely different matter. But some of the highlights (and lowlights) are worth noting, as We the People are the ones footing the bill.

For starters, ObamaCare is funded. Yes, despite conviction-laden statements about defunding Obama’s health care catastrophe, when push came to shove, if you like your funding, you can keep it. Some funding is withheld, though, as the spending bill does not allocate anything related to ObamaCare for the IRS or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Under the bill, the IRS would see its budget cut by $345.6 million. And the agency would also be banned from targeting organizations applying for tax-exempt status simply because of ideology. Not that the IRS was allowed to do this before; this administration just didn’t care.

A similar scenario plays out with abortion. The bill prohibits federal funding for most abortions, but ObamaCare already forces Americans to pay for abortions, so again, just because something is law doesn’t mean this administration will follow it.

On the military and foreign affairs front, $5 billion is directed to fighting the Islamic State ($1.6 billion of which is for training Iraqi and Kurdish forces) and $1.3 billion is allocated for a new Counterterrorism Partnership Fund. There is also $5.4 billion for security at U.S. embassies around the world – $46 million more than Obama requested.

The EPA is no doubt unhappy (which makes us happy) because its budget would see a $60 million cut. And despite the fact that Congress has long been entirely unable to balance a budget, they got one math problem right, as the bill would not fund Common Core standards or Obama’s failed “Race to the Top” initiative.

Perhaps drawing some of the most ire from the Left is the bill’s provision that would increase by tenfold the limit on campaign donations to national political parties. The Wall Street Journalexplains, “The higher limit … is designed to allow the parties to fund their conventions with private dollars, since Republicans have eliminated taxpayer funds for those political shindigs.”

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the Left’s populist darling, warned that this provision is “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.” Democrats like to sounds righteous about campaign financing until their own billionaires help them outraise Republicans.

In photo-op fashion, House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) released a joint statement that was anything but unique: “While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government. These are the tough choices that we must make to govern responsibly and do what the American people sent us here to do.” They appear to have forgotten that the American people just fired a number of them.

For the bill to pass, House Republicans need to garner Democrat support as several conservative House Members are expected to oppose the bill for not going far enough regarding Obama’s amnesty declaration. Still, most expect the bill to pass and then head to the Senate for a quick turnaround.

And a quick turnaround it will undoubtedly get. After all, the government rarely delays when it has a chance to spend so much taxpayer money.

Comment | Share

Sandy Hook Families Renew Political Theater

Leftists' only answer

Two years after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass murder in a Connecticut suburb that took the lives of six teachers and 20 elementary schoolchildren, America is no closer to preventing mass shootings. Indeed, it may never solve just how to stop the violence. But Newtown’s teachers have turned into political activists and the parents of the victims are about to sue everyone in sight.

In the emotional aftermath of the murderous rampage, the Connecticut government enacted some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and considered even more legislation – like regulating homeschooling – just because the progressive Nutmeggers believe more laws fix everything.

Now, as support for gun rights is at its highest point in two decades, teachers in the Newtown school district believe they are at the tipping point for fundamentally changing America’s gun culture. Four of them appeared on CBS News and said their work to roll back the Second Amendment has reached critical mass. Sandy Hook educator Mary Ann Jacob said, “We’re at a tipping point. We’re up against a really big lobby, but we know we can make a difference.”

The teachers have written letters. They have organized to defund the gun industry by persuading teachers unions to divest from businesses that support the gun industry. They have done their best to attack that great leftist Satan – the NRA. But they haven’t considered how guns stopped the shooter – and could have stopped him sooner. CBS journalist Jane Pauley asked the group of teachers, “Is there no one here that that day didn’t wish they had a gun?”

Two teachers said that they didn’t wish for a gun in the moments when the shooter sprayed more than 150 rounds in the school. Jacob said it wouldn’t have even mattered. “And you know what?”she said, “If there had been someone at the entrance to our school with a gun, they would’ve been dead, too. There’s a reason they call them assault weapons. It’s an impossible barrage to survive from. We survived because we were lucky and because he was stopped for whatever reason before he could do more damage.”

A few points: “They” call them assault weapons for all the wrong reasons. Handguns kill several times more people each year than rifles of any type. And Jacob fails to consider that while a deranged man attacked the school for five minutes, he stopped only when police surrounded the building with “assault weapons” of their own.

The parents of 10 of the 20 children slain that day are poised to sate their grief by seeking money in the courtroom, the Hartford Courant reports. (Never mind the outpouring of donations and support from around the country, from cash to offers to babysit.) Ten estates have been created in the children’s names – the first step in suing the Town of Newtown, Newtown School Board, the estate of the shooter’s murdered mother, and Bushmaster – the company that made the AR-15 Nancy Lanza legally bought and her son then stole to commit the crime. The parents and their lawyers have only a couple days until the window closes to sue these institutions.

Gun writer Robert Farago points out some of these lawsuits may yield useful information about how law enforcement may have failed to properly respond to active shooter situations. Others, like suing Bushmaster, are frivolous as defined by a 2005 law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which prevents many lawsuits against the gun industry if the firearms are used in a crime.

Days after the Sandy Hook shooting, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy stood before the state’s legislature and broke down and cried as he gave his State of the State address. Many of the legislators wore green ribbons to symbolize solidarity with the Sandy Hook victims. If there was a political climate that would do all the wrong things for the sake of security and school children, it was there in that room.

The best Connecticut had to offer was its infamous gun bill, and more money. In the months following, the state threw millions of dollars to its school districts to boost security through the installation of cameras, ballistic glass, buzzer systems and panic buttons. Tellingly, this money didn’t extend to the state’s private schools. The security strategy seemed fatalistic: If another school shooting were to happen in Connecticut, schools would go into lockdown. Children would huddle on the floor and hope a shooter didn’t burst through their classroom door. Meanwhile, school administrators would hope ballistic glass and security cameras were enough to slow the shooter down until the police swooped in to save the day. When seconds count, police are only minutes away.

Connecticut towns were divided over the questions whether to even hire police officers devoted solely to patrolling schools. But despite the headlines, shootings are extremely rare. What do we teach kids about Liberty and self-governorship when we think the only way to keep them safe is to keep a G-man with them always? Besides, there are other soft targets in local communities, such as shopping centers and churches.

Security is not the endgame of education. Liberty is. As for double-doors, buzzers and cameras? They aren’t built to stop a shooter as much as they are for custody disputes. Divorce and domestic violence: These are the signs of culture decay found in every school system in the nation.

Comment | Share

For more, visit Right Analysis.

TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS

• George Will: The Plague of Overcriminalization
• Victor Davis Hanson: The Other America
• Cal Thomas: Why Release a Report on the CIA in Wartime?
• Ann Coulter: The College Rape Club
• Larry Elder: Crippling Children by Selling Them Racism

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859): “The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves?”

Columnist George Will: “In 2012, one of every 108 adults was behind bars, many in federal prisons containing about 40 percent more inmates than they were designed to hold. Most of today’s 2.2 million prisoners will be coming back to their neighborhoods and few of them will have been improved by the experience of incarceration. This will be true even if they did not experience the often deranging use of prolonged solitary confinement, which violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishments’ and is, to put things plainly, torture. The scandal of mass incarceration is partly produced by the frivolity of the political class, which uses the multiplication of criminal offenses as a form of moral exhibitionism. This, like Eric Garner’s death, is a pebble in the mountain of evidence that American government is increasingly characterized by an ugly and sometimes lethal irresponsibility.”

Comment | Share

Historian Victor Davis Hanson: “In such a depressing American landscape, why is the United States doing pretty well? Put simply, millions of quiet, determined Americans get up every morning and tune out the incompetence and corruption of their government. They simply ignore destructive fads of popular culture. They have no time for the demagoguery of their politicians and the divisive rhetoric of social activists. Instead, these quiet Americans simply go to work, pursue their own talents, excel at what they do, and seek to take care of their families. The result of their singular expertise is that even in America’s current illness, the nation still soars above the global competition. … America is not saved by our elected officials, bureaucrats, celebrities and partisan activists. Instead, just a few million hardworking Americans in key areas – a natural meritocracy of all races, classes and backgrounds – ignore the daily hype and chaos, remain innovative and productive, and dazzle the world. The silent few of a forgotten America have given the entire country an astonishing standard of living that is quite inexplicable.”

Comment | Share

Comedian Argus Hamilton: “Obama asked Congress for and obtained a ninety-day extension Monday for the NSA to monitor phone calls in the U.S. for terrorist activity. The NSA Director assured Congress that the NSA does not use the information on political opponents. That’s the IRS’s job and they’re a different union.”

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

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

“Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.” –Samuel Adams, Speech in Philadelphia, 1776

TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS

At Eleventh Hour, Congress Agrees to Spend More Money

One day before the deadline to fund the government passes, congressional leaders introduced a 1,603-page spending bill that will allocate $1.01 trillion. Because the House expects Congress to break the Dec. 11 deadline, it plans to pass a temporary measure to keep the government funded so they can read what’s in the bill dicker over what’s in the bill. In a joint statement, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) said, “While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government.” The bill seeks to tweak some of the Obama administration’s policies because Congress holds the power of the purse. Most famously, the bill will fund the Department of Homeland Security only until Feb. 27 so the 114th Congress can better attack Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. The bill also cuts $60 million from the EPA’s budget, and $345.6 million from the IRS – as Republicans seek to reform the organization after it targeted non-profit groups over political beliefs. The bottom line, though, is this is the same as it ever was – spending, spending and more spending. More…

Comment | Share

GOP Mulls Unilateral Disarmament in Senate

Senate Republicans are debating whether to restore the filibuster for presidential nominations. Soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid detonated the so-called “nuclear option” in November 2013 as a means to ram through a few extra of Barack Obama’s nominees – particularly to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, where many federal regulations and laws are challenged. Now some Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, think the GOP should do the sportsmanlike thing and restore the filibuster. “I think it’s rank hypocrisy if we don’t,” McCain said. On the other hand, wouldn’t that essentially be agreeing to one set of rules when Democrats are in charge and another when Republicans are? In other words, Democrats need only 51 votes for nominees, while Republicans need 60. Like it or not, that’s now the world Democrats have created. More…

Comment | Share

Obama Yelled Profanity at Reporters

Before Ann Compton retired from her position at ABC News, she told C-SPAN that when journalists talked to Barack Obama off the record, he yelled and swore at them for how they covered his administration. “I have seen in the last year Barack Obama really angry twice,” Compton said. “Both were off-the-record times. One, profanity-laced where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals. Another where he took us to task for not understanding the limits he has with foreign policy and the way he’s dealing with the Middle East and Iraq, and Afghanistan. And I don’t find him apologetic. But I find him willing to stand up to the press and look them in the eye, even though it was off the record, and just give us hell.” For such a narcissistic control freak, we’re almost surprised Obama didn’t stomp his feet and cry, too. More..

Comment | Share

Don’t Say ‘All Lives Matter’ When Only Black Ones Do

Kathleen McCartney, the president of Smith College in Massachusetts, sent an email to students advising them that “all lives matter,” and saying she would lead the college in endeavoring to “teach, learn and share what we know” and to “work for equity and justice.” In a normal world, the story might end there – good lesson learned. But we don’t live in a normal world. The email was sent as a response to the unrest over black deaths at the hands of white police officers, but it was unacceptable to suggest that “all lives matter” when, as one student critic admonished McCartney, “This isn’t about everyone, this is about black lives.” After all, “black lives matter” has become a rallying cry. So, naturally, McCartney apologized, saying, “despite [her] best intentions,” she had been properly corrected by those who shared their “wisdom and wise counsel.” Some of that “wisdom” included this dreck from one sophomore: “It felt like she was invalidating the experience of black lives.” By saying “all lives matter”? It is remarkable how successful race-hustlers have been in undermining culture and education. More…

Comment | Share

Bale: You Know, Some People Might Call Moses a Terrorist

Ridley Scott’s epic interpretation of the biblical story of Exodus hits theaters Dec. 12. Scott is agnostic, and this latest Hollywood retelling is unlikely to satisfy Christians. Rebecca Cusey writesthat the movie “plays like an atheist manifesto. Moses, a modern skeptic in sheepherder’s clothes, squares off against God, portrayed as a petulant, vengeful, irrational child. The film at time takes the part of the Egyptians, blaming God for devastating plagues striking the populace as Moses takes God to task for His incomprehensible ways.” Sounds like a real box-office smash. But if that’s not enough, Christian Bale, who plays Moses in the film, opined, “If you’re not religious, you can look at it as one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. … Moses was a far more human and fallible character than I had imagined before.” The biblical account – written by Moses, we might add – makes no effort to hide his many failings. He was indeed a human in need of a Savior himself. But the story isn’t his, it’s one of God’s justice, holiness, goodness and salvation. If Bale thinks Moses is just “one man’s terrorist,” he may still be stuck in the ninth plague – he’s in the dark. More…

Comment | Share

For more, visit Right Hooks.

Share

RIGHT ANALYSIS

Senate Tortures the Facts

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The United States under Barack Obama is the laughingstock of the world. Earlier this year, Obama traded top Taliban terrorists for an Army deserter. Now the administration and Senate Democrats have released a reportspanking the CIA for waterboarding terrorists. All because, Obama says, these interrogation techniques are “contrary to who we are.”

Obama then had the gall to say, “One of the things that sets us apart from other countries is when we make mistakes, we admit them.” When has he ever admitted a mistake?

The report was written by Democrat staffers, whose “expert” findings include:

• Enhanced interrogation techniques don’t work.

• The CIA provided inaccurate information to the Bush administration about its interrogation program.

• Management and oversight was negligent.

• The program was more brutal than represented.

All horse manure. Brutal is when you saw off the head of a civilian noncombatant captive, as ISIL is fond of doing.

According to former POW Sen. John McCain, “I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence.”

First of all, waterboarding is nothing like what McCain endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese. And as several other highly decorated POWs have noted, waterboarding did work in some cases – and they approve. It did produce “good intelligence,” including, according to the CIA, intelligence that helped to disrupt plots, led to the capture of other terrorists, and led to Osama bin Laden’s courier, who ultimately led to bin Laden.

Former CIA Director Michael Haden confirmed, “Enhanced interrogation contributed to the wealth of knowledge that we needed to [get to bin Laden].” Without such techniques, Obama would not have been able to walk to that microphone and say “we got him.”

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., a 31-year veteran of the CIA, likewise noted that interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed resulted in more than 2,000 intelligence reports, including contributing info leading to Osama.

And for the record, former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden, along with deputy directors John McLaughlin, Albert Calland and Stephen Kappes, recount in The Wall Street Journal many of the CIA’s other numerous successes, as well as criticizing Senate Democrats' profound errors in producing this one-sided, incomplete and out-of-context report.

No CIA officials were interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee because Attorney General Eric Holder refused to coordinate those interviews on the basis that the Justice Department had its own ongoing investigation. (Apparently Rolling Stone followed the Senate Intelligence Committee model by refusing to interview the accused.) Note that the DOJ investigation produced no charges.

The DOJ investigators who reviewed the Senate investigation confirmed they found nothing that would warrant bringing criminal charges against CIA officers and operatives. And that investigation ended two years ago – which is to say Democrats could have called CIA witnesses.

Now Obama administration officials have placed military and law-enforcement personnel on high alert, acknowledging the report may spawn terrorist attacks.

According to Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, “We have U.S. personnel, both intelligence officials and military special operators, in harm’s way. Why would we release [this report] now? What did we have to gain? All of this has been debated. All of this has been settled. … Clearly the administration knew it was going to cause trouble as they sent out warnings all across the world.”

Joe Biden insisted it was just the kind of transparency for which this administration is decidedlynot known: “We made a mistake. We made a big mistake. … [This report] is a badge of honor.”

On the other hand, George W. Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, described the report as “a crock.” Cheney said of intelligence officials, “They deserve a lot of praise. As far as I’m concerned, they ought to be decorated, not criticized.”

Obama’s current CIA director, John Brennan, agreed with Cheney. According to Brennan, the CIA interrogations “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.” That assessment directly challenges the core assertions in the Senate Democrats' report. Brennan threatened to resign over the report, but we believe he remained in place to defend the agency.

The White House insists that Obama has full confidence in Brennan as CIA director. But the problem is Brennan has little or no confidence in Obama as president and commander in chief – and he is not alone.

Outgoing Sen. Saxby Chambliss said, “The majority side of the intelligence committee has spent the last five years and over $40 million focused on a program that effectively ended over eight years ago, while the world around us burns.”

Chambliss concluded, “It seems as though the study takes every opportunity to unfairly portray the CIA in the worst light possible, presupposing improper motivations and the most detestable behavior at every turn.”

In fact, the CIA briefed Congress on its efforts roughly 30 times along the way. Senate Democrats were last briefed on the CIA’s methods in 2006 and the last interrogations were in 2007. Democrats could have stopped the interrogations then. Notably, Nancy Pelosi was fully briefed on the CIA operation in 2002, despite claiming later she had no knowledge of it (these memory lapses are an issue with Pelosi).

The administration’s chief talking point on this report is that the CIA’s actions were an affront to “American values.” But that ignominious distinction belongs to Obama, Biden, Pelosi and Reid.

And a footnote: United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, issued a statement: “The US Attorney General is under a legal duty to bring criminal charges against those responsible. … [T]he heaviest penalties should be reserved for those most seriously implicated in the planning and purported authorisation of these crimes.”

So should Obama and administration officials be prosecuted for releasing Gitmo prisoners who wound up back on the battlefield killing people? If this report results in the death of Americans, should Obama and Dianne Feinstein be prosecuted?

In conclusion, the group of former CIA directors and deputy directors wrote, “Between 1998 and 2001, the al Qaeda leadership in South Asia attacked two U.S. embassies in East Africa, a U.S. warship in the port of Aden, Yemen, and the American homeland – the most deadly single foreign attack on the U.S. in the country’s history. The al Qaeda leadership has not managed another attack on the homeland in the 13 years since, despite a strong desire to do so. The CIA’s aggressive counterterrorism policies and programs are responsible for that success.”

Comment | Share

Congress Grills Gruber for ObamaCare Candor

It’s impossible to guess how much of the fabrication and disinformation the Obama administration crammed into its first six years will ever be discovered. But thanks to the thoughtless blabbering in front of cameras by an arrogant yet fatuous member of the higher education intelligentsia, the soft underbelly of Barack Obama’s only significant achievement is being sliced open, and the fetid tangle of lies and corruption are gradually being pulled apart.

Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and other Republican members had the rare pleasure Tuesday of ripping into Obama apparatchik Jonathan Gruber, the MIT health care wonk who contributed much to the design of ObamaCare. Notwithstanding Gruber’s insistence that “I was not the ‘architect’ of President Obama’s health care plan,” he played an enormous role in its construction and was quite proud of that role until Tuesday.

In numerous venues, Gruber arrogantly told many tales about lies Democrats fed the American people about ObamaCare before its passage. Those comments opened a can of worms Democrats would rather have kept under wraps.

To Congress, Gruber offered an apology for saying “mean and insulting,” and “uninformed and glib” things about the intelligence of American voters: “I knew better. I know better. I’m embarrassed and I’m sorry.” Nevertheless, clinging to his popped balloon, Gruber stressed that “my own inexcusable arrogance is not a flaw in the Affordable Care Act.”

But Issa summed up why this is so critical, telling Gruber, “You made a series of troubling statements that were not only an insult to the American people, but revealed a pattern of intentional misleading [of] the public about the true nature of ObamaCare.”

One of the congressmen angriest with Gruber was Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). “As far as I can tell,” he growled, “we are here today to beat up on Jonathan Gruber for stupid … comments he made over the last few years. … They were irresponsibly, incredibly disrespectful, and did not reflect reality.” But worse, Cummings complained, “Dr. Gruber’s statements gave Republicans a public relations gift in their relentless political campaign to tear down the ACA and eliminate health care for millions of Americans!” But Cummings disclaimed any responsibility for the Democrats' scamming the American public. “I was in Congress when this law was debated, and Dr. Gruber does not speak for me. … Never once did I believe or did anyone suggest that we were somehow hiding our goals from the American people!”

I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing! Cummings is only mad because Gruber gave the game away.

Rep. Patrick McHenry told Gruber that, in a sense, at least he appreciated the professor’s honesty about the intentional lack of transparency in planning ObamaCare. “Dr. Gruber … as everyone knows … when the president said if you like your plan you can keep it, it turns out it was the lie of the year. This was a very significant thing. … [A]ccording to the North Carolina Department of insurance, 473,000 lost their health insurance because of ObamaCare. … When I think about my constituents, though, did you think that there would be such a large number of folks that would lose their health insurance?”

Gruber replied, “What I was focused on was the net increase in newly insured we had under the law, which has been quite substantial.” So he wasn’t focused on the “folks” (as Obama likes to call us) but on projected statistics of newly insured – or so he said. And the increase has in factnot been substantial.

McHenry continued, “So it’s not relevant to your calculation that there would be people that would lose their health insurance?”

Gruber admitted, “That was part of the calculation.” When asked if that was part of his conversations at the White House, though, he insisted, “I don’t recall.”

Reportedly, Gruber received $400,000 for his consulting services with the administration, but his total haul for health policy consulting is much higher. When asked for specific figures on his income, he referred an astonished Issa to his counsel.

“We’re going to have to serve a subpoena. … It’s amazing you haven’t given us one number,” Issa said. “Likely, you’re going to be back here again.”

The committee members returned to this question repeatedly throughout the remainder of the meeting, getting the same smug response to refer to Gruber’s counsel. No doubt, Gruber will be on the hot seat again, and let’s hope he squirms the entire time.

Comment | Share

For more, visit Right Analysis.

TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS

• L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: Rolling Stone Crumbles
• Jonah Goldberg: Using Allegations of Rape in a Grab for Power
• Michelle Malkin: Welcome to TotCare: Obama’s Preschool Takeover
• John Stossel: Climate Catastrophe
• Walter E. Williams: What’s Rule of Law?

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006): “A society that puts equality … ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.”

Columnists L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: “No parent wants to consider the travesty that when he sends his 18-year-old daughter to college, she could be vulnerable to sexual assault. But in the increasingly punitive atmosphere surrounding sexual-assault allegations, he should also fear sending his 18-year-old son to campus, where he may be falsely accused of rape. The national media are deeply feminist. Their default position is the presumption that ‘the victim’ is the female accuser. Some pundits have even argued in national newspapers that the accuser should be ‘automatically believed.’ This is a serious problem for the left. First, they are the ones who have been exquisitely sensitive about the presumption of innocence for communists, radical Muslim terrorists and violent thugs like Willie Horton. Second, they have forcefully extolled that female accusers of sexual assault are to be automatically disbelieved if they are accusing Bill Clinton or other powerful Democrats. These allegations and any attempt to discuss them or verify them are considered ‘witch hunts’ and ‘McCarthyism.’ … The liberal media never lose their halo as the sympathetic guardians of the public good, no matter how wrong – painfully, harmfully wrong – they are.”

Comment | Share

Columnist Michelle Malkin: “On Wednesday, the White House Summit on Early Education will unveil nearly $1 billion in new ‘investments’ to ‘expand access to high-quality early childhood education to every child in America’ from ‘birth and continuing to age 5.’ It’s a retread of President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union school-spending plan, which was a repackaging of his 2011 Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge program. … Think Obamacare is bad? Well, welcome to TotCare. The goal of the educational central planners, you see, is the elimination of competition. The fact is that the vast majority of Pre-K kids are already happily enrolled in early childhood programs outside of Fed Ed’s clutches. The ‘problem’ isn’t most families' lack of access to preschool. It’s Washington’s lack of access to your kids for their institutionalized warehousing, data mining and pedagogical propaganda schemes. The Nanny State’s ceaseless quest for control keeps creepily rolling along.”

Comment | Share

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel: “Obama was diagnosed with acid reflux. His approval rating is so low that he’s starting to get pushback from his esophagus. … His doctor said he needs Zantac. Sadly, that’s actually the best news President Obama’s gotten in a very long time. So now, Joe Biden is just a heartburn away from the Oval Office.”

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

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.