THE FOUNDATION
“How much more do they deserve our reverence and praise, whose lives are devoted to the formation of institutions, which, when they and their children are mingled in the common dust, may continue to cherish the principles and the practice of liberty in perpetual freshness and vigor.” –Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicated he would support Republicans' budget plan to curtail Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. But this isn’t exactly good news. Republicans plan on funding most of the federal budget through September 2015, while giving the Department of Homeland Security enough dough to keep it running only until March, when the Republican-controlled Congress could better attack Obama’s power grab. Rep. Steve Womack (R-AK) told The Wall Street Journal, “We’ve just been handed an opportunity to demonstrate our capacity to lead and to govern. I don’t think it would be wise on our part … to get locked down in some kind of a confrontation.” While Red State’s Erick Erickson argues the Republican Party is caving to the will of the president, it’s likely Republicans know they can make only limited progress in this lame-duck session. More…
A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest about Barack Obama’s admissionthat he changed immigration law when he took executive action. Earnest first said it was just part of Obama’s down-to-earth rhetoric: “I think he was speaking colloquially, that what he has put in place, uh, meaning that obviously, well, no, meaning that it’s the responsibility of the United States Congress to pass laws. And it’s the responsibility of the executive branch to implement and enforce them. So I guess my point is…” The reporter pressed, asking the question again, and Earnest stumbled some more. “Well, I think the impact of the law certainly has been changed in terms of the way it affects millions of people who are in this country,” he continued. “And I think that’s what the president was alluding to.” When challenged about the legality of Obama’s actions, the White House is left stammering into a microphone.
Yesterday, we noted Barack Obama’s difficulties in choosing a new secretary of defense toreplace Chuck Hagel. Well, it now seems the likely nominee is former Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Though Carter is considered to be an aggressive and independent thinker, and he said, “I do not think they are looking for someone more aggressive and independent,” he may have been the last person standing. But he’s a technocrat who The Wall Street Journal speculates won’t “do much more than mind the store while the White House conducts its meandering foreign policy.” As even The Washington Post observes, “Obama has had a difficult relationship with the military and his defense secretaries, who have often questioned his passion and commitment to the military’s mission.” Indeed, Obama’s only mission is knocking the U.S. down a few pegs, in part by stubbornly “ending” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without a sound strategic plan. That allowed ISIL to rise flourish, leaving Carter with quite the mess to clean up – if he’s allowed to.
Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is yet another member of the leftist elite who has supposedly never heard of MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber – one of the architects of the “Affordable” Care Act. However, while she tries to sever the connection Gruber had with ObamaCare, she sure does talk like him, saying Americans are too ignorant to understand the concept of insurance. “A lot of Americans have no idea what insurance is about,” Sebelius told USA Today. “I think the financial literacy of a lot of people, particularly people who did not have insurance coverage or whose employers chose their coverage and kind of present it to them, is very low – and that has been a sort of stunning revelation. It’s not because people hid it from folks. It’s because this is a complicated product.” Insurance? What’s that? Gee, we suppose the government should tell us all what to do because we’re too stupid to protect our own futures. Mark this comment down as a Gruberism. More…
As millions of Americans were racking up credit card debt on Black Friday, the federal government published its own revised debt figures. The balance sheet reveals that the U.S. has officially accrued more than $18 trillion in debt, or 103% of GDP. The feds spent nearly as much money in one day as Americans doled out during the post-Thanksgiving spending spree. Zero Hedge reporter Tyler Durden says, “[D]ebt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.” Contrast that with a report from Bloomberg showing four-dayconsumer spending was just over $50 billion. We saw a lot of things Friday, but “black” wasn’t one of them – more like deep red. Barack Obama, who once called George W. Bush’s deficits “unpatriotic,” is making his predecessor’s spending habits look downright thrifty. According to Durden, America’s “debt has increased by 70% under Obama, from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009 to $18.005 trillion most recently.” That’s change you can believe in. More…
For more, visit Right Hooks.
RIGHT ANALYSIS
No racial profiling hereOn Monday, Barack Obama spoke to a groupof the usual suspects about how Ferguson is an example of the many communities across the country where young people of color feel cheated. In a nation governed by the basic principle of equality under the law, Obama complained too many feel they aren’t treated fairly. The president argued that when any part of the American community feels this way, it’s a problem for us all.
Obama said his conversations with young people moved him because they feel no one believes the reality of their miserable lives. Surprisingly, he also spoke fairly about police and the difficulties and dangers of the job: “[I]f they’re in dangerous circumstances, we have to be able to put ourselves in their shoes and recognize that they do have a tough job.”
So he’s got a plan. His first initiative is the creation of the 21st Century Policing Task Force (TCPTF), which will involve local law enforcement, community activists and other “stakeholders” to provide input. The TCPTF will report back to Obama within 90 days with concrete recommendations. Obama guarantees that, unlike most task forces, this one would not be a waste of time.
Next he wants to ensure that “we’re not building a militarized culture inside our local law enforcement.” The heavy hardware Ferguson police used during the rioting did indeed cause concern across the political spectrum. Yet Obama plans no pause or reduction in the program of giving local and state police unnecessary military supplies and hardware. He just wants $75 million to subsidize 50,000 body cameras.
Third, the TCPTF will focus on – wait for it – racial profiling. Obama’s coming executive order will require federal agencies to stop racial profiling. Fortunately, our federal system saves us from his foisting it on the states. Racial profiling can cause problems, but it doesn’t appear that was the case with Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown.
Noteworthy, of course, is that white cops kill an average of 96 blacks every year – prompting a major White House initiative to address it. Yet blacks killed 6,000 other blacks last year, as well as 409 whites with nary a peep from the president. How’s that for racial profiling?
Meanwhile, Obama thanked his outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder for doing “excellent work” in Ferguson. And Holder kicked off a series of “honest conversations” with a speech at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church – the one pastored by Martin Luther King Jr. Another conversation about race. Whoopee.
Where Obama soft-pedaled, Holder let loose. “What we saw [in Ferguson] was a genuine expression of concern and involvement,” Holder said. “And it is through that level of involvement … and I hope a level of perseverance … that change ultimately will come.” He continued, “[Ferguson] presents this nation with … a unique opportunity, and I think it’s incumbent on all of us to seize this opportunity to deal with issues that for too long have been ignored.”
To that end, Holder will pursue two civil rights investigations, one aimed at Officer Darren Wilson and one at the Ferguson Police Department. So the Left’s racist merry-go-round that began in the 1960s just keeps spinning.
Holder called the protests in Ferguson “a genuine expression of concern and involvement,” meaning it was a righteous display. The rest of America saw a bunch of savages rioting, looting, setting fires and destroying businesses.
Indeed, non-aggrieved people are fed up. In the 1970s movie “Network,” the lead characteradvised people should yell, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” On talk radio, on the Internet, in the social media, in the supermarket, people are figuratively yelling just that.
And non-minorities aren’t the only ones fed up. Black Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke blasted Holder for his interference in Ferguson. Clarke said he “listened to Eric Holder throw law enforcement officers under the bus for political expediency,” and he compared Al Sharpton and his ilk to “vultures [feeding] on a roadside carcass.”
Granted, Michael Brown didn’t grow up in a good family – he was raised mostly by his grandmother. And it’s terribly sad that every year black babies are born into Brown’s kind of life (if they’re born at all). But the finger of blame rests on the heads of those like Obama, Holder and all the others who continue enflaming race for personal gain. Enough already!
The UK Telegraph describes the result of America’s increased oil production as “one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in modern economic history.” The Washington Postdeclares its effect on the world to be the “most important economic story of 2014.” And you can see this story played out at the gas pump in your hometown.
Gone are the days when gas was four or five dollars per gallon. According to the American Automobile Association, the average price for a gallon of regular gas on Dec. 2 is $2.76. Here in East Tennessee, the price of gas is expected to drop below $2 a gallon, just like in Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas.
Thanks to fracking and a boom in the oil production from shale deposits, the price of a barrel of crude oil is $66.88. Increased oil production in the United States hobbles hostile countries abroad while giving the wallets of the middle and lower class a boost. Did we also mention it’s good for education? Educating liberals in the effects of free markets, that is.
For years, America was tied to foreign oil, OPEC controlled the lion’s share of oil, and no matter what the feds tried, none of their schemes could break the dependence of foreign fuels. In 2005, a record 60.3% of the petroleum products consumed in America came from outside the states. The demand for oil – felt by price spikes at the pump – led to new technology for harvesting oil and that led to a boom in American oil extraction.
Today, if Texas were counted as a separate country, it would be the seventh largest oil producer in the world. According to Mark Perry, an economic scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Texas produced 3.17 million barrels of oil per day in July. During the same time, Iran produced 3.23 million barrels – the sixth largest oil producer. But let’s not forget the American contributions of offshore drilling, the Alaskan oil fields and North Dakota.
This was a result of pure American entrepreneurship, the free markets acting on their own. Obama never created an energy policy guiding the energy now pouring out of the shale deposits around the nation. The EPA? It was too busy chasing coal companies and rubbing shoulders with environmentalists that break out in hives when they catch a whiff of industry.
As Perry writes:
“It happened not as a result of government mandates, regulatory pressure or taxpayer subsidies. Rather, it came about primarily due to innovation, entrepreneurial problem-solving and the marketplace, with some early government assistance in developing the technology for fracking and horizontal drilling.
"Lo and behold, the shale revolution is not only driving economic growth and putting millions of Americans to work but also providing elegant and efficient solutions to problems like foreign-oil dependence that policymakers couldn’t solve.”
The result is a price cut that can be felt by anyone with an automobile. Americans can spend more money on clothes and food instead of sinking green into the gas tank. As The Washington Post reports, “Every day, American motorists are saving $630 million on gasoline compared with what they paid at June prices, and they would get a $230 billion windfall if prices were to stay this low for a year.” Obama probably read about this one in the paper. How much did he say ObamaCare was projected to save taxpayers again?
On the world stage, America’s oil production pulls this nation’s economy ahead while stalling countries hostile to America. Last week, OPEC decided it was not going to cut oil production in response to the plummeting cost of a barrel of oil.
That was a mistake, writes the Telegraph: “Opec has misjudged the threat. As late as last year, it was dismissing US shale as a flash in the pan. Abdalla El-Badri, the group’s secretary-general, still insists that half of all US shale output is vulnerable below $85.”
Currently, the world’s oil producers are in a game of chicken with their economies. If the price of oil drops too low, the competing countries will have to stop production because the cost would not be worth it. At the moment, their cost of producing oil is much higher than that of the United States.
The Telegraph again: “The fiscal break-even cost is $161 for Venezuela, $160 for Yemen, $132 for Algeria, $131 for Iran, $126 for Nigeria, and $125 for Bahrain, $111 for Iraq, and $105 for Russia, and even $98 for Saudi Arabia itself, according to Citigroup.”
And how far does the price of oil have to drop before it starts to hurt the U.S. shale fields? $50,according to CNBC.
This sets the U.S. in the strategic position to win in the economic struggle for oil domination against hostile nations. For example, Russia is now facing serious economic challenges, and as a result will possibly slow exploration for oil and gas in its Arctic seas. According to the Brookings Institute, the Great Bear estimated the global price of oil would be at $97 dollars as it set its 2014 budget. Once the price of oil slid below $80, however, it headed for economic trouble because oil accounts for 14.5% of Russia’s GDP. If oil prices remain low, how will Vladimir Putin fund his shadow war in Ukraine?
It’s a story the late economist Milton Freidman would love: A whole industry rises up under a regulation-happy government and sets the stage for economic security here and abroad. Our analysis? Drill, baby, drill.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
For more, visit Right Opinion.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852): “The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.”
Columnist Walter E. Williams: “Whether a student is black, white, orange or polka-dot and whether he’s poor or rich, there are some minimum requirements that must be met in order for him to do well in school. Someone must make the student do his homework. Someone must see to it that he gets eight to nine hours of sleep. Someone has to fix him a wholesome breakfast and ensure that he gets to school on time and respects and obeys teachers. Here’s my question: Which one of those basic requirements can be accomplished through a presidential executive order, a congressional mandate or the edict of a mayor, a superintendent of schools or a teacher? If those basic requirements aren’t met, whatever else that is done in the name of education is for naught.”
Columnists Stephen Moore & Kathleen Hartnett-White: “[The EPA’s Clean Power Plan] would expand federal control over electric power on a scale comparable to Obamacare’s transformation of health care but with a disturbing difference. At least Congress passed the Affordable Care Act – albeit without a single Republican vote – to overhaul the nation’s health care system. By contrast, Congress has repeatedly rejected legislation to give the EPA the power to control carbon dioxide. Congress has rejected carbon taxes, the Kyoto Treaty, cap-and-trade schemes, and other regulatory measures that would harm jobs and the economy. Regardless of how one feels about global warming, this is hardly the way the Constitution intended for the really big decisions affecting our economy and livelihoods to be decided. Most amazing of all is that we have here is an extraordinarily expensive rule, but the EPA can’t tell us what it hopes to accomplish.”
Comedian Argus Hamilton: “The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the U.S. unemployment rate fell below six percent last month with the jobless rate down in thirty-four states and payroll up in thirty-eight. However on Monday, the number of non-working Americans rose by five hundred and thirty-five. Congress returned to session.” 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.
It’s unconstitutional.
Several lawmakers took to the House floor Monday evening to make the “Hands up, don’t shoot,” gesture to protest the police shooting of the unarmed Ferguson teen, Michael Brown.
