View online at: http://patriotpost.us/digests/24388 Right Analysis | Right Hooks | Right Opinion Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily Digest for Thursday March 27, 2014    THE FOUNDATION "We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions." --George Washington, General Orders, 1776 TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS Russia Likely Isn't Done This just in: Russia may not stop with annexing Crimea. A new U.S. intelligence report indicates that Russia may seek to takeover a corridor in Ukraine connecting Russia with Crimea. As one official put it, the assessment is "that the likelihood of a further Russian incursion is more probable than it was previously thought to be." There are tens of thousands of Russian troops amassing at the border with Ukraine, and, while Moscow insists that's for "training exercises," it's clearly meant at the very least to rattle Ukraine and the West. The whole thing even provoked Barack Obama to say something very un-Obama-like. He chastised fellow NATO members for cutting defense spending, saying, "The situation in Ukraine reminds us that our freedom isn't free, and we've got to be willing to pay for the assets, the personnel, the training to make sure we have a credible NATO force and an effective deterrent force." Surely he was reading from the wrong teleprompter. Comment | Share The Latest Delay Explained The White House is in full spin mode over its latest delay of the March 31 deadline for enrollment in ObamaCare. "This is not an extension of open enrollment," insisted HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "It's actually a very logical way to make sure people get through the system." Logical because it benefits Democrats to have as many people enrolled as they can squeeze through the turnstiles. Meanwhile, Harry Reid says the problem of low enrollment is because "people are not educated on how to use the Internet." Saying the extension -- or whatever it's called -- is needed, he recounted how a 63-year-old woman came close but lamented, "Every time I just about got there, it would cut me off." But ObamaCare isn't suffering from a lack of 63-year-old women signing up; it's the young and healthy who aren't answering the call. And in the age of quick social media sites, the broken and plodding Healthcare.gov is a problem. Comment | Share CBO: Minimum Wage Hike Costly Once again, the CBO is warning about the detrimental effects of the minimum wage. On Wednesday, it released a report warning that raising the minimum wage to $10.10, as Democrats want to do, will cost the economy $15 billion and increase the deficit by $5 billion over the next decade. Governments at all levels will spend another $1 billion over those 10 years on wages and higher prices. The math is simple: Higher-priced labor means higher-priced products and/or less profit margin and room for growth. This report also comes on the heels of February's warning that the minimum wage hike would cost 500,000 jobs. Democrats are bound and determined, however, so we doubt this latest report will dissuade them. Comment | Share The Gun-Running Democrats The ATF's gun-running operation isn't the only one in town. Anti-gun California Democrat State Senator Leland Lee was arrested Wednesday and charged with arms trafficking in exchange for campaign contributions. As if that weren't bad enough, Lee worked with a San Francisco gangster known as "Shrimp Boy" and he offered a $2 million arms deal -- including automatic rifles and shoulder-fire missiles -- to Islamic rebels in the Philippines. The hypocrisy is astounding, as Lee was also a repeat offender when it came to introducing anti-gun legislation in California, including a ban on all types of semiautomatic guns. Evidently, he merely wanted to eliminate anything remotely close to competition. We suppose this also means Nancy Pelosi will retract her endorsement. Comment | Share Reid's 'Gifts' to Granddaughter While Harry Reid is busy blasting the Koch brothers for supposedly ruining our campaign finance system -- hitting them just Wednesday for their "outrageous spending" -- he's under scrutiny himself for making campaign gifts to his granddaughter. Specifically, the Federal Election Commission would like to know why Reid spent more than $16,000 on "gifts" purchased from "Ryan Elisabeth," who turned out to be Ryan Elisabeth Reid. She is a jewelry vendor in Berkeley, California, and the items bought from her were later given to campaign donors. Reid says he'll repay the campaign, but clearly her identity was deliberately obscured. Additionally, two Nevada-based foundations made uncharacteristic donations to her New York theater company. In any event, don't look behind the curtain ... look at the Koch brothers! Comment | Share For more, visit Right Hooks. Share RIGHT ANALYSIS There's Always the Lawless Approach to Immigration With approximately 12 million illegal aliens living, working and receiving taxpayer-paid benefits within U.S. borders, immigration reform has long been the perpetually unfulfilled promise. In 2008, Barack Obama pledged to make it a "top priority" in the first year of his first term. Four years later, he promised to tackle it in the first year of his second term. Perhaps third time's the charm, but no thanks. As Obama morphed from a candidate who feigns belief in Rule of Law to a president who openly believes in rule of one man -- himself -- his approach to immigration has changed. In November of last year, for example, he pretended to be constrained by law in acting on immigration reform. Responding to a request that he issue an executive order on immigration, Obama said, "If, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing this through Congress, then I would do so. But we're also a nation of laws. That's part of our tradition." The irony here is that he had already begun disregarding the law long before. Indeed, in 2012, he issued an executive dictum ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to halt certain deportations. Then there was his statement earlier this year, when he basically announced that Congress could take a long walk off a short pier, threatening, "Where Congress isn't acting, I'll act on my own." And of course his now infamous "I've got a pen" remark. Spoken like a true tyrant. Turns out, however, that when it comes to immigration, Obama hasn't used a pen at all, just an eraser. And through an extra-legal policy of selective law enforcement, Obama granted de facto amnesty to virtually every illegal immigrant. According to an analysis issued by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the Obama administration has given a free pass to millions of illegal aliens -- not only those in the United States today but also those who may be in the United States in the future. The reports notes that "a review of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) published enforcement statistics for 2013 reveals a shocking truth: DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has blocked the enforcement of immigration law for the overwhelming majority of violations -- and is planning to widen that amnesty even further." Specifically, ICE has stopped deportations for virtually all illegal aliens except those who are caught crossing the border, are convicted criminals, or are fugitives or habitual breakers of immigration law. What does this mean in real numbers? According to the analysis, in 2013, ICE recorded 368,000 removals. Of these, 235,000 were border apprehensions (which are not typically counted as deportations), and 110,000 were removals of convicted criminals. Of the remaining 23,000, which are termed "interior removals" (as opposed to border removals), 13,000 were "either fugitives or habitual offenders/previous deportees." This leaves just 10,000 -- or 2% of the 368,000 removals -- deported for breaking immigration law without additional demerits against them. Placed in context, those deported simply for breaking immigration law -- without having criminal convictions or being habitual immigration law offenders or previous deportees -- comprised a total of 0.08% of the 12 million individuals who are currently in the United States illegally. By refusing to enforce immigration law, Obama has granted amnesty to nearly all of the illegal aliens living in the United States today and granted near carte blanche immunity (and don't forget government benefits) to the vast majority of those considering entering the U.S. illegally tomorrow. Perhaps this is why Republicans have reined in their efforts at immigration reform. After all, even were it to pass, what good is a law in the hands of the chief lawbreaker? Comment | Share Explaining the Causes of Poverty Is Racist Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan has long been the go-to guy for GOP budget strategy. As such, he earns opposition from all sides -- including many conservatives for not going far enough. Recently, Ryan waded into a discussion on the endemic nature of poverty and how it relates to government spending, and leftists accused him of racism. Read the rest of the story here. Without Sanctity of Life, There's Only the Incinerator The report of aborted babies being incinerated in UK hospitals, in some cases to provide heat for those facilities, is sickening. But the question "pro-choice" folks must answer is this: Why is it unacceptable if there's no life in the womb? Read the rest of the story here. For more, visit Right Analysis. TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS Ann Coulter: Screw You, Mickey Kaus Cal Thomas: God and Caesar (Again) Victor Davis Hanson: Massaging of Critical Data Undermines Our Society R. Emmett Tyrrell: The Invader's Weakness George Will: When Geography Matters For more, visit Right Opinion. OPINION IN BRIEF Columnist Ann Coulter: "It used to be shameful to be a public charge. Now it's shameful to pay for yourself. And it's shameful to work for yourself. The self-employed are currently the only Americans subjected to Obamacare. ... But we're the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. You may have an employer-provided plan now, but the waivers can't go on forever. If you live in America, your health insurance is going to disappear, too. The government simply cannot force all insurance companies to give subsidized health care to a third of the country, to ignore the pre-existing health conditions of its customers, to pay for every little thing tangentially related to health -- like smoking cessation programs, marital counseling and pediatric dental care -- and also expect them to cover your cancer treatment. It doesn't matter if you've been paying for insurance your whole adult life. That policy is now 'illegal.'" Comment | Share House Speaker Thomas B. Reed (1839-1902): "One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation." Columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell: "[Vladimir Putin's] recent tirades to the press about how he has suffered at the hands of the West sound heartfelt. He did not have to invade Crimea. He could have worked out a very agreeable lease on his warm water naval base of Sebastopol. Yet he chose to invade out of genuine indignation, and no one knows where his invasions will end. With the klutz we now have in the White House, all we can count on is Russia's projected growth of zero this year, and if we are lucky even slower growth next year." Comedian Argus Hamilton: "The Group of Seven voted to suspend Russia and cancel the group's next meeting in Sochi to punish Vladimir Putin for seizing the Crimea, It doesn't sound thought-out. How does it teach Vladimir Putin a lesson if every time he invades another country he gets to skip a meeting?" Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team 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. *PUBLIUS* The Patriot Post is protected speech pursuant to the "unalienable rights" of all men, and the First (and Second) Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. In God we trust. Copyright © 2014 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved. REPRINTING, FORWARDING AND POSTING: Subscribers may reprint, forward or post original content from The Patriot Post, in whole or part, in accordance with our Terms of Use, with the following citation: "The Patriot Post (www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/ )" You have received this email because you are subscribed to The Patriot Post. To manage your subscription or to unsubscribe, link to http://patriotpost.us/manage/.