Friday Digest: Following Obama's Lead Gets You Nowhere

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Subscribe to The Patriot Post — It's Right and It's FREE: click here. Digest · December 9, 2011 Government Economy Security Culture The Foundation "No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant." --George Washington Government A Taxing Debate Following Obama's economic lead Congressional Republicans and Barack Obama's merry band of class warriors spent much of the week battling over whether or how to extend the payroll tax cut before it expires at the end of this year. Republicans and even some Democrats initially opposed extending the cut, though for different reasons. The small number of opposition Democrats feared a shortfall in funding for Social Security, which is already paying out more than it takes in. Republicans pointed to the fact that the payroll tax cut has done nothing to stimulate the economy or employment, as the president claimed, since the cut is geared toward employees, not employers. Additionally, they opposed the Democrat plan to fund the extension with a 1.9 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million. This surtax would hit a large number of small business owners, and no doubt result in reducing the number of new hires. Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), shamelessly accuse Republicans of protecting millionaires while allowing the middle class to receive what would essentially be a tax hike. Politically, Democrats have the upper hand, and the House GOP therefore announced a proposal that would extend the current payroll tax for one year, provide for additional unemployment benefits, and avert a significant cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. It would be funded by extending a federal payroll freeze through 2015, plus other smaller cost-cutting measures. An additional provision in the package, moving forward with the production of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas, drew a veto threat from Obama. "Efforts to tie a whole bunch of other issues to what's something that they should be doing anyway will be rejected by me," Obama warned. He also taunted his opposition: "However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline, they're going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance." In what alternate reality does paying people not to work create more jobs than a pipeline project loaded with jobs? Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), responded, "We are working on a bill to stop a tax hike, protect Social Security, reform unemployment insurance and create jobs. If President Obama threatens to veto it over a provision that creates American jobs, that's a fight we're ready to have." Barack Obama's public ire toward Republicans may be due in part to their interference with his holiday travel plans. The Obama family is scheduled to travel next weekend to their beachfront getaway in Hawaii for 17 days, but Barack may have to stay behind in Washington if a tax deal isn't done. Of course, if Michelle and the girls travel separately, there goes another $100,000 in taxpayer money for the extra planes and security. Obama had lambasted Congress for not getting a deal done in time for the holiday break, and he advised them to stay in Washington until the work was completed. He originally planned to skip town regardless, but as Mitt Romney told Iowans, "I just think it's time to have a president whose idea of being 'hands on' doesn't mean getting a better grip on the golf club." Obama soon announced that he would stay in Washington until Congress presented him with a bill he could sign. As with all major decisions made in Washington, however, we must wait until the final minutes of the final hour before we learn how this gets settled. Share your thoughts on the tax cut extension. This Week's 'Braying Jackass' "[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let's ... just cut more regulations and cut more taxes [and] our economy will grow stronger [and] then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. They argue, even if prosperity doesn't trickle down, well, that's the price of liberty. Now, it's a simple theory. And we have to admit, it's one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That's in America's DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here's the problem: It doesn't work. It has never worked. It didn't work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It's not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the 50s and 60s. And it didn't work when we tried it during the last decade. I mean, understand, it's not as if we haven't tried this theory." --Barack Obama, who for some reason, doesn't see that it is socialism that has failed repeatedly The Free Enterprise Model The Patriot Post's goal is to defeat the socialist agenda of those in Washington and fight for Essential Liberty and Rule of Law. And we're proud to say we didn't qualify for government handouts. We rely on the free market -- in other words, readers like you. What can we say? It's in our DNA. Please, if you're able, make a secure online donation today to our 2011 Year-End Campaign. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form. We still must raise approximately $129,600 by year's end. Thank you! Nate Jackson Managing Editor New & Notable Legislation The Republican-controlled House sent three more jobs-related bills to the Democrat-controlled Senate this week, including the Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 3010) and the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act (H.R. 10). The House has passed 25 bills directly related to fixing America's job market, and all 25 sit in limbo in the Senate. Harry Reid refuses to take action on items that would address over-regulation or attempts by unions to overrun private businesses, or to allow entrepreneurs easier access to company-building capital. Republicans should seize this opportunity to educate voters that Obama's so-called "Do Nothing" Congress resides in the Democrat Senate, not the Republican House. Campaign Trail Tidbits Herman Cain is out. His campaign couldn't survive the latest allegation of a 13-year affair, and Cain called it quits on Saturday. In our view, more damaging than the allegations -- which were unproven -- was Cain's shocking lack of knowledge, or even the desire to gain that knowledge, about national affairs. In particular, his stock "consult the experts" answer for anything related to foreign policy caused us to question his readiness to be the nation's commander in chief. Newt Gingrich is rising. The former House speaker has shot to the top of national polls, thanks largely to his stellar debate performances. He is, after all, the "smartest guy in the room." Due to his rise, however, another former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, threatened Gingrich, "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. When the time is right. ... I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff." Newt quickly thanked Nancy for the "early Christmas gift," because, he retorted, "If she's suggesting she's going to use material she developed while she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it." Well played, and Pelosi quickly backtracked. And yet, there is plenty that is unsettling about Gingrich being the frontrunner. His horrendous personal history, his own flip-flops on policy and his mixed leadership in the House, including some pretty pointed criticisms from his lieutenants, certainly give us pause. Ron Paul is rising. The Texas congressman is running second in Iowa, and a win there could propel him forward. For numerous reasons, we still don't think he will be the nominee, but he's certainly making waves and steering the conversation toward actually cutting government. Mitt Romney is stagnant. The former governor of Massachusetts and godfather of ObamaCare can't seem to get more than 20-25 percent of the Republican electorate's support. Voters have spent the entire summer and fall looking for the Not Romney. Can he still win the nomination? One thing is certain: In his last year as governor, he spent $100,000 on new computers for his office in what Reuters called "an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret." What could that possibly be about? Hope 'n' Change: NAACP Voting Complaint In a potentially frightening development, the NAACP has filed a complaint with the United Nations claiming that there is a deliberate and concerted effort to restrict the vote of blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. They filed a report pointing to what they believe are examples of state and federal efforts to keep the minority voting population from expanding, and in some instances actually disenfranchising registered voters. The examples the NAACP point to include new regulations in certain states that require -- horrors! -- proper identification. The civil rights group claims that it's no coincidence that these states are considered important in next year's presidential election contest. They also have the fastest growing minority populations. Democrats, who have long held a lock on the minority vote, have also opposed any and all voter identification measures. Of course, these rules are really meant to prevent voter fraud, i.e., the all-too-common voting by non-citizens and individuals who cast ballots in as many precincts as their Democrat bus can get them to before the polls close. Anyone in a state that enforces these regulations may obtain the necessary documentation by making the minimal effort required, and it's free. The only disenfranchisement that occurs is being perpetrated by fraudulent voters who cast one or multiple ballots. The NAACP's report doesn't include that issue, of course, nor does it make clear just what they expect the UN to do about their bellyaching. While if the UN follows its usual model -- which is that it will likely do nothing -- the NAACP didn't file this complaint for no reason. A vigilant eye should be kept on this one. Blagojevich Sentenced Former Illinois Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Wednesday for, among other things, attempting to sell Barack Obama's former Senate seat. Oddly, though, the word "Democrat" was absent from most of the Leftmedia's coverage. As governor, Blagojevich had the power to appoint Obama's successor, but he wasn't about to do it for free. The 14-year sentence was considerably less than the 20 years prosecutors sought, but far more than the laughable three-and-a-half years desired by Blagojevich's team, his pleas about ignorance of the law notwithstanding. Still, he did say, "I caused it all, I'm not blaming anybody. I was the governor, and I should have known better, and I am just so incredibly sorry." If it's any consolation, he's not alone. He can join the gang of former Illinois governors -- Otto Kerner, Dan Walker and George Ryan -- who spent time in the big house. Economy Europe Facing Credit Downgrade With the European financial system verging on collapse, Standard and Poor's this week announced that it was placing 15 European Union members, including AAA-credit-rated France and Germany, on CreditWatch for a potential downgrade. Among the reasons cited by S&P are "[h]igh levels of government and household indebtedness" and "[m]arkedly higher risk premiums on a growing number of eurozone [countries]." While unwelcome news for EU nations, it should come as no surprise, given Europe's lavish government spending on entitlements and chronic disregard for debt accumulation. While recognition of Europe's financial crisis is widespread, consensus on a corrective course of action is more difficult to find. The Washington Post reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have "reached a difficult compromise agreement ... to seek mandatory limits on budget deficits among debt-laden European governments." Yet their "fix" is hardly guaranteed to work or even be accepted. The compromise, which would amount to a renegotiated European Union treaty, is already drawing criticism on the grounds that it may encroach on national sovereignty. British Prime Minister David Cameron, for example, announced he will not "pass any powers from Britain to Brussels." Meanwhile, in the shorter term, Sarkozy and Merkel disagree on whether the European Central Bank should bail out the European countries by buying up government bond issues. In truth, the solution is quite simple: serious reform and reduction of entitlement spending. As we have seen in our own country, however, doing so is easily proposed but rarely disposed. Quote of the Week "I simply do not know where the money is." --Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global on the bankruptcy of the company and the whereabouts of $1.2 billion of client money MF Global's bankruptcy is the eighth largest in history, and Corzine, former Democrat governor of New Jersey, doesn't know what happened. He did, however, advise the Obama administration on the economy. The silence of the Occupy Wall Street crowd is deafening. As National Review's Kevin D. Williamson quipped, "Let's translate that Jon Corzine quote into Latin, engrave it in stone, and make it the official motto of Congress." Income Redistribution: Some Governors Just Don't Get It Working on opposite coasts, two governors have come up with nearly the same solution for their respective states' budget woes: raise taxes on the wealthy. How novel. That said, their approaches to getting this revenue are radically different. New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo has leavened his tax proposal by adding a slight cut on the tax rate for middle-class earners as well as a small easing of an already existing "millionaires' tax," which was set to expire after this year. The rate that high earners, most of whom are job creators, would pay is less than it was under the current rules, but far more than it would have been had the temporary tax increase expired without replacement. Once again, the new rate will be "temporary," as it expires after 2014. On the other coast, California Democrat Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown conceded that raising taxes would be impossible through the legislative process, as anti-tax conservatives have a large enough minority to block measures that require a two-thirds majority. So he's going to the people with a series of initiatives for the 2012 election, including acts that would increase tax rates on the highest earners by 1 to 2 percentage points and raise the state's sales tax -- already one of the highest in the nation -- a half-point to 7.75 percent. Brown claims these measures will raise $7 billion and are necessary to alleviate the state's massive deficit. That estimate, of course, erroneously assumes that people won't change their economic behavior when their taxes go up. The alternative, both governors claim, is to make what Brown called "deeper and more damaging cuts" that, as Cuomo added, "decimate essential services [and do] real harm to the state's economy." Of course, other states have tried the "soak the rich" approach and failed to raise the taxes needed to stave off deficits. There's no reason to believe the results will be different in California or New York. Both have lost many revenue producers over the last decade while their government spending nonetheless surged, and raising taxes certainly won't make job creators return. First-Class Mail Posts Second-Class Service The United States Postal Service is facing a $5.5 billion default on a payment due to the federal government for retiree health benefits. To address this and certain future red ink, the USPS is proposing the closure of nearly half of its mail processing centers and thousands of local post offices, resulting in perhaps the loss of 100,000. On the revenue end, the price of a first-class stamp will go up a penny early next year, to 45 cents. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is also contemplating other changes, such as reducing delivery to five days per week, revising labor contracts, and further increasing postage prices, but he needs congressional approval to carry out his plans. With the closures and job losses, local deliveries of first-class mail will no longer be promised the next day; instead, the mail will arrive on the second business day after the Post Office receives it. This may not seem like a crushing blow to the public in the era of electronic mail and Internet access, but the idea of "snail mail" becoming even slower won't make the Post Office any more enticing in the face of other delivery services that have supplanted the USPS. We think they're misunderstanding the maxim that "less is more." What do you use the mail for? Security Second Amendment: Fast & Furious Fallout As if the dirt and skullduggery weren't thick enough in Washington, new controversy surrounds the ill-fated would-be firearms sting "Operation Fast and Furious." In addition to letting several thousand firearms walk across the border illegally, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) also helped launder and transport millions of dollars in cash into Mexico in efforts to track and disrupt drug trafficking. That's right: the DEA is helping drug cartels make money. Of course, we all understand the need to infiltrate organizations to get to the "top guy," but two things give us pause: First, the organizations "infiltrated" are the same ones the ATF and State Department decided to arm courtesy of Uncle Sam. Second, one might expect, as we did, that after several years we would see drug cartels taken down, weapons caches recovered, and money and drugs confiscated. We're still waiting. The upshot is that not only are we arming Mexican drug gangs, but, apparently, we're directly funding them, as well. But wait, it gets better. It turns out that a parallel "gun running" effort by communistas in the Obama administration is actually responsible for the bulk of the surge in arms supply to cartels. Specifically, under the "direct commercial sales" program approved by the U.S. government, large numbers of firearms were sold directly from manufacturers to the Mexican government. Unfortunately, however, the weapons either never arrived or were diverted by military and police personnel defecting to the cartels. The Mexican military recently claimed nearly 9,000 such weapons to be "missing." The State Department, which oversees the program, found in a recent audit of sales from 2009, the most recent year for which publicly released data is available, that over a quarter of the roughly 19,000 guns sold that year to the region including Mexico were "diverted" or, in bureaucrat-speak, had other "unfavorable" results. For those counting, that's about 5,000 guns a year that are almost certainly winding up in criminal hands, all courtesy of Team Hope 'n' Change. And, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, those guns will be turning up at crime scenes "for years to come," and "it is going to continue to have tragic consequences." In the wake of this additional buffoonery by the White House, it's reasonable to think that the "Fast and Furious" operation itself would have faded into oblivion. However, as long as new controversies surrounding this operation keep arising -- this week, for example, comes the revelation that ATF officials sought to leverage the operation to implement draconian reporting requirements on U.S. gun dealers -- "Fast and Furious" will remain in the headlines. After all, as Holder maintained, "I have no intention of resigning." The BIG Lie Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to Eric Holder: "Tell me what's the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?" Holder's response: "Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie." TSA Abuses Continue Apace "They who can give up Essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety." So said one of our nation's Founders, Benjamin Franklin, in 1775. Nowhere is Franklin's keen insight better exemplified than by what the Transportation Security Administration has become. The stories of TSA oppression are legion, but it appears that this holiday travel season may be a record breaker. Last week, crack TSA goons prevented a teenage girl from boarding her flight to Jacksonville because her handbag had a gun design on the front of it. Yes, you read that right. Agents told her, "This is a federal offense because it's in the shape of a gun." The girl asked, "But it's a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?" Agents refused an answer, and she was delayed and missed her flight. Meanwhile, TSA abuse of the elderly continues apace at New York's JFK airport. One woman in her 80s claimed this week that agents made her pull down her waistband to show her colostomy bag. Another 80-year-old woman said that she was forced to lower her pants and underwear in front of an agent so that her back brace could be inspected. This woman, being in a wheelchair, tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap when the metal bars banged against her leg, causing a bleeding gash due in part to her blood thinning medication. "My sock was soaked with blood," she said. The TSA agents showed no sympathy, instead pulling down her pants and asking her to raise her arms. "Why are you doing this?" she asked the agents, who, being good, unthinking brownshirts, did not respond. The TSA later both denied the incidents and claimed that agents were just following protocol. We find the official response as cold as the agents' behavior. Clearly, we're all guilty until proven innocent in the TSA's eyes, all for the sake of avoiding politically incorrect profiling or more targeted searches. This is nothing more than tyranny and oppression from our own government, and it must stop. Department of Military Correctness: 'Workplace Violence' During a joint session of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committee this week, even liberal Senate Republican Susan Collins of Maine rightly took issue with the Obama administration's depiction of the Fort Hood massacre in 2009. She referenced a letter from the Defense Department that read, in part, "The documents attached illustrate how the Department is dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in the context of a broader threat of workplace violence." Workplace violence? And here we thought they would classify it as an "expression of faith" protected by the First Amendment. On the contrary, as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) put it, the military has become a "direct target of violent Islamist extremism." Indeed, as The Washington Times reports, jihadis are trying to infiltrate the military, likely in hopes of perpetrating another massacre. In other words, as with most things, the administration has it exactly backward. There may be workplace violence, but it will be in the context of a broader threat of Islamic extremism. What do you think of "workplace violence"? Warfront With Jihadistan: Iran and the UAV Iran claimed on Sunday to have shot down an advanced American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the RQ-170, in eastern Iran. The Pentagon eventually acknowledged the loss but reported that it was due to command link malfunction, not hostile action, and that it was flying over Afghanistan when the malfunction occurred. Western media speculated wildly about who might gain access to the UAV's technology (Russia and China), where the UAV had really been flying (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan), and how it was lost (crash, anti-aircraft fire, Iran hijacking the command signal). On Thursday Iran released video footage, but aviation enthusiasts around the world immediately noted the near-total lack of airframe damage, the clumsy appearance of the connection between wing and fuselage, and numerous other oddities, all of which only muddied the picture even further. The important issue is what happens next. For starters, China will win the bidding war with Russia to exploit any surviving technology from the UAV -- regrettable, but not terribly serious. Iran will have a new grievance with which to complain of U.S. and Western "psychological warfare." Iran's leaders will wonder how many other UAVs may be flying over their nation, and to what purpose, adding to their already high level of paranoia. And we hope and expect the U.S. and our allies will go right on using UAVs and every other tool available to keep pressure on Iran. 2011 has seen Iran make significant strides on its path to nuclear capability, and the day of reckoning grows closer. Even the Obama administration seems to realize that a charming personality and an expensive suit are not enough to change Iran's behavior and that military force may be required as the last resort. In that context, UAVs perform a valuable function in gathering information and "shaping the battlefield." Culture Climate Change This Week: More Emails From East Anglia With the latest release of data massaged to suggest Himalayan glaciers are melting, previously discredited and politically motivated climate-change charlatans from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have failed to learn the Rogers Rule. Derived from singer Kenny Rogers's song "The Gambler," it says you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. It appears that the Warmists within the IPCC are crummy gamblers. Climategate I, which involved the leak of thousands of emails and documents from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, revealed that the climate change industry is a hoax perpetrated by modern day snake oil salesmen. Their livelihoods depended upon continuing a scheme that claimed the climate would face irreparable harm unless leading industrial nations tithed hundreds of billions of tax dollars to poorer nations. To help maintain a fiction that requires far more blind faith than any religion, scientists who disputed the contaminated data were ostracized and denounced. Now these same characters are again trying to spin the same old yarns under the wildly incorrect belief that they have regained some scintilla of credibility. Unfortunately, since they weren't bright enough to fold 'em the first time, they now find themselves ensnared in Climategate II due to the recent release of another 5,300 emails from ground zero of Climategate I. These messages contain dire warnings about getting caught manipulating data, such as the message from Peter Thorne of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration who wrote, "I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run." Too clever by half, Mr. Thorne. The hacker/leaker releasing these emails has advised that there are another 220,000 encrypted emails that may be released at some future date. Unless these hoaxers quit while they're behind, the Warmists' failure to heed the maxim "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" (false in one thing is false in all) may lead to Climategate III. Village Academic Curriculum: Zero Tolerance A North Carolina principal tendered his resignation this week, ending his 44-year career in education. He came under fire after suspending a nine-year-old boy, not for bullying or acting out in class, but for referring to a teacher as "cute." The principal was so busy overreacting that he overlooked two key issues: The first is that sexual harassment is not so much about sex, but about power. Even for those who could make the stretch to believe that a nine-year-old could intend to sexually harass someone, he certainly didn't have any power over a teacher to do so. Second, he didn't even say it directly to the teacher, but to another student. If not for a substitute teacher who overheard the remark and a principal with an overdeveloped sense of political correctness, the boy would have been like any other child, sitting in class or even engaging in -- heaven forbid -- a game of dodge ball. Instead, he was branded as some sort of sex offender in training. That all changed, however, when the Gaston County Schools superintendent heard the story. He assured the boy's mother that the suspension would not go on her son's record and that he would get extra classroom instruction to make up for time lost. He also told the principal that he could either resign or be fired. The principal chose the former, but he also complained that the superintendent's actions were "politically motivated." Faith and Family: Atheist Claus It just wouldn't be the Christmas season without a bunch of atheists trying to ruin it for everyone else. This year, they set up a grotesque display on the lawn of the Loudoun County Courthouse in Virginia -- a crucified skeleton in a Santa suit. Not surprisingly, the community was outraged, and before long "Skeleton Claus" was mysteriously dismantled. Rick Wingmore, the president of the Virginia Chapter of American Atheists, had the nerve to complain that the Loudoun County sheriff was watching while a "vandal" took down the skeleton. A spokesperson for the sheriff denied this and said they are "investigating" the matter. Of course, the list of suspects is nearly endless, as most people objected to such a display. Why the atheists' disdain for Christ has extended to Santa is unclear, but it's ironic that an organization with no respect for the beliefs and traditions of others becomes angry when the favor is returned. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, who just found Jesus after the most recent presidential poll showed his weakest support was from church-going voters, celebrated Hanukkah at the White House this week. He lit all the candles, but did so two weeks early, saying, "we never need an excuse for a good party." Non Compos Mentis: Time's 'Story of the Year' Time magazine's bizarre leftist antics are well known, including their numerous controversial selections for "Person of the Year." This week, it's their choice for the top U.S. news story of the year. But before we tell you their selection, here are a few candidates: the economy, the debt ceiling crisis, the European fiscal crisis, Osama bin Laden's death or the GOP presidential race. Time chose none of those. Their top story of the year? Occupy Wall Street. Marveling over what began as "a couple hundred protesters demonstrating against the excesses of corporate execs" in Manhattan, Time describes a movement that changed the world, became an answer to the Tea Party, and was a cry against what we should all be angry about -- "not at big government but at the big banks that gutted the world economy and took billions in bailouts from the U.S. government." Priceless. National Review's Jonah Goldberg wrote, "I'm not at all shocked by the suggestion that Time's editors want it to be the #1 news story of the year. But if you actually believe it was the most important news story of the year, it's a very good sign you live in a liberal bubble." That's putting it mildly. What do you think is the story of the year? And Last... Speaking of the Occupy Movement, the Los Angeles Times reports, "Some Occupy L.A. arrestees feel traumatized, might seek therapy." They're not traumatized by participating in a ridiculous movement that frequently turned destructive or violent. No, they're very upset about how they've been treated by police when they resist removal or arrest. According to the Times, "Several [of the 300 arrestees in LA] said they felt traumatized after witnessing police use non-lethal force and being forced to wait for hours in zip-tie handcuffs. Some displayed cuts on their wrists from the handcuffs. Others complained that they were forced to urinate in bags on the bus as they were transported to jails." Sounds to us like a marked improvement over the sanitary conditions at their camp. Regardless, whatever the therapy that's involved here, we just hope it includes taking a shower. Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team (To submit reader comments click here.) Patriot News Review UN Climate Confence: U.S. Is 'Immoral' Obama Voter Fraud Case Heats Up In Indiana DA Drops Death Penalty for Cop-Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal Occupiers Take Back San Fran Camp More Companies Covering Gender Reassignment Surgery Costs Holder: Fast & Furious Guns Will Be Crime Weapons 'Years to Come' More News The Right Opinion Burt Prelutsky: Notions Victor Davis Hanson: Oil-Rich America? Cal Thomas: It's a Tough Time for Jews Michael Barone: Obama Pursues Rich and Poor, Not White Working Class R. Emmett Tyrrell: Republicans Are Losing the Tax Debate William Murchison: What Cain Showed Us Ken Blackwell: Ending Marriage, Dashing Hopes: Clinton and Obama Speeches Larry Elder: Cain: Enter as a Problem Solver, Exit as a Victicrat Jonah Goldberg: GOP Presidential Race: What's the Rush? Jeff Jacoby: For Arab Christians, a Wintry 'Spring' Rebecca Hagelin: Christmas, Moms and Stress Walter E. Williams: Free to Die? More Opinion Grassroots Commentary The Arab Autumn Get Your Act Together U. S. Senate Approves Sodomy (and Bestiality) for the U.S. Military Does Falling Unemployment Herald Success, or Failure? Are We REALLY A Secular Nation? Smoke and Mirrors More Commentary Policy and Analysis Heritage Foundation Insider Heritage Foundation Research American Enterprise Institute Center for Strategic and International Studies The Cato Institute Hoover Institution National Rifle Association Ludwig von Mises Institute Citizens Against Government Waste National Center for Policy Analysis The Heartland Institute (Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) Follow The Patriot Post:

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