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Daily Digest for Friday June 13, 2014  THE FOUNDATION "Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34, 1788 TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS GOP Goes Left? While the primary win of David Brat over soon-to-be-former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was a spectacular victory for the ideals promoted by the Tea Party, the political jostling by Republicans to fill Cantor's leadership seat may push the party left. Cantor endorsed Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the next Republican to warm his seat, and McCarthy is reportedly sprinting to secure support. As National Review's John Fund reports, "McCarthy, a former minority leader of Republicans in the California assembly, is thought of as a skillful vote counter but someone whose views on issues are actually less conservative than those of Eric Cantor. 'It would be ironic indeed if Cantor's loss moved the House GOP to the left, because that's not what the message of Tuesday's primary results was,' one conservative member told me." That indicates the GOP leadership isn't doing so well listening to the base. More… Cold War II It looks like Russia is funneling weapons into Ukraine, including a few tanks and artillery pieces, if the accusations by Russia's smaller neighbor are to be believed. Barack Obama may wish to go back in time to revise his West Point speech, because it looks like the fight isn't over in Ukraine (or Iraq, for that matter). "But this isn't the Cold War," Obama insisted last month. "Our ability to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia right away. Because of American leadership, the world immediately condemned Russian actions. ... We don't know how the situation will play out and there will remain grave challenges ahead, but standing with our allies on behalf of international order working with international institutions, has given a chance for the Ukrainian people to choose their future without us firing a shot." No, we're not firing any shots, but the Russians certainly appear to be calling them. More... Hillary's Flip-Flop Here's what we know about Hillary Clinton's views on same-sex marriage thanks to NPR's Terry Gross, who put the screws to the presidential hopeful: Hillary's views have evolved. Growing up, Hillary never imagined same-sex marriage. Her husband signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1993. As secretary of state, Clinton said she didn't talk about same-sex marriage because she was championing "LGBT" rights internationally. When she stepped down in 2013, Hillary said she publicly supported same-sex marriage and she was happy when DOMA was repealed. She admits the social change "has been an extraordinarily fast, by historic terms social, political and legal transformation." But now she criticizes people in, say, Texas who "believe they have a direct line to the divine" and who "operate in an evidence-free zone" when it comes to the issue. You'd expect someone who completely changed her mind in 20 years would have some understanding, but the winds of public opinion have shifted and Hillary once again sails with the wind. Not Liberal, Just Incorrect The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is not just the most liberal federal court -- it may be the most incorrect. Of the 11 most recent rulings that went from the Ninth Circuit to the Supreme Court, 10 decisions were reversed by the high court with both sides of the bench supporting the reversals. The Wall Street Journal reports, "The latest reversal came Thursday in Pom Wonderful v. Coca Cola, with an 8-0 ruling that the Ninth Circuit erred in accepting Coca-Cola's argument that federal regulations precluded Pom's claim it was harmed when Coke labeled a drink to highlight the presence of pomegranate juice. The ruling was 'incorrect,' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote of the Ninth Circuit. 'There is no statutory text or established interpretive principle to support' the appellate court's contention. 'Quite to the contrary.'" Members of the Ninth should re-read the Constitution. If they don't have one, we've got a few copies. More... 'History Will Not Be Kind' Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is certainly no climate skeptic, but he understands better than Barack Obama the negative economic ramifications of regulations like those recently issued by the EPA. Scaremongers blasted Abbott earlier this year for abandoning unrealistic renewable energy standards and for opposing the United Nations' climate agenda. Before the prime minister met with Obama this week, Al Gore poked the fire, hoping to encourage Abbott to take more drastic measures to combat global warming. "[W]e have had deniers of the climate crisis in office in the U.S. as well," he said, implying Abbott rejects the alarmists' view. (He doesn't.) "History will not be kind to those who looked away, much less those who sought to prevent [action]." This is a battle between realism and fanaticism. History won't be kind to those who fell for this hoax. More... For more, visit Right Hooks. Father's Day Is Sunday There are four contexts for "father" -- God the Father, our own earthly fathers, the role of men as father to their children, and the legacy of our forefathers. They combine to create a rich and abiding sense of what fatherhood means, as well as what it should look and feel like in heart and practice. But for tens of millions of Americans from broken homes, the consequences of failed fatherhood are the enormous obstacles their children must endeavor to overcome in relationships with their Creator, with their own spouses and children, and in their ability to honor their forefathers' legacy. Patriot fathers, if you want to extend the Legacy of Liberty to the next generation, there is no better place to start than in your own home. In the words of the Father of our Nation, George Washington, "May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy." (1790) For more, read Mark Alexander's essay, Fatherhood: The Foundation of Liberty. U.S. Army Birthday and Flag Day 2013 Tomorrow is the 239th birthday of the United States Army, born in 1775 of the desire to defend Essential Liberty and spread its flame. As the Army and its fellow service branches continue to lead the way in defending Liberty, let us not forget to pray for these brave Patriots standing in harm's way and their families awaiting their safe return. Tomorrow is also Flag Day. Our flag is a beacon of Liberty, a symbol of hope for all people who "hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed -- that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..." On this Flag Day, we American Patriots display and pay homage to our national flag. To purchase the highest quality American-made U.S. flags available, please visit The Patriot Post Shop. We also have information on etiquette and protocol. RIGHT ANALYSIS Jihadistan Rising In December 2011 at Fort Bragg, Barack Obama boasted of his grand achievement in ending the war in Iraq as the last U.S. troops were removed. "We knew this day would come," he said. "We've known it for some time. But still there is something profound about the end of a war that has lasted so long. It's harder to end a war than begin one. Everything that American troops have done in Iraq -- all the fighting, all the dying, the bleeding and the building and the training and the partnering, all of it has landed to this moment of success. ... We're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations and we are ending a war not with a final battle but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement." Today, the news coming out of Iraq is yet another sad reminder of the utter failure of Barack Obama's leadership on the world stage. The jihadist group known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit this week in lightning fast strikes that sent unprepared Iraqi security forces scrambling. ISIS has made steady progress in its campaign against government forces in recent months, having seized much of Anbar Province earlier in the spring. Its forces are now poised less than a hundred miles from Baghdad. By the way, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of ISIS, was released from U.S. custody in 2009. Anyone still think those five Taliban leaders "are not a threat to the United States"? America's national security team assures us that Baghdad will not fall because of the high concentration of military forces there. But U.S. embassy officials are laying out contingency plans for evacuation. Last one to the helicopter on the roof can turn out the lights. It's a stunning turn of events, particularly for those gullible enough to believe Obama's claims about his "extraordinary achievement." For instance, let's recall his boast upon pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq: "Al-Qaida is decimated." Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared in July 2011 that the U.S. was close to "strategically defeating" al-Qaida. It turns out that al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), the major jihadi force that U.S. troops were fighting before Obama's ignominious retreat, was not actually defeated. It just morphed into something else that is even more of a threat. As recently as Wednesday, responding to the news of ISIS's military gains, our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president maintained, "The world is less violent than it has ever been." Perhaps true when compared to, say, World War II, but his statement is willfully ignorant of realty. Iraq is unraveling, Ukraine is fighting for its very existence against a resurgent Russia, and Boko Haram continues to terrorize Nigeria, just to pull three examples from the headlines. The Middle East is a raging battlefield once again, with al-Qaida at the center of the conflagration. Call the brand of al-Qaida whatever you like, the blame for this rapidly unfolding disaster lays squarely at the feet of this president. Obama was so eager to end George W. Bush's "dumb war" that he ignored the advice of senior Pentagon officials to leave a sizable American force in Iraq. He doesn't seem to comprehend that leaving a battlefield is not synonymous with victory on the battlefield. The growth and success of ISIS is a direct result of Obama's complete foreign policy malfeasance. The Islamic militant group is made up of Sunni fighters from Syria and Iraq motivated to create a Pan-Islamic caliphate stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Iranian border. The civil war in Syria, which Obama refused to dirty his hands with, inevitably spilled over the porous border with Iraq, and militants traveled back and forth in that region for the last two years or more, causing death and destruction and growing stronger by the day. It's a mistake to assume that ISIS is just another al-Qaida affiliate that can be neutralized with drone strikes. This is not some ragtag band of fighters roaming the desert in rusty pickups. They are trained soldiers, equipped with more than military hardware left behind by fleeing Iraqi National Security forces and abandoned U.S. military outposts. They are motivated, which is more than can be said for the White House. Just as Bill Clinton's willful ignorance of al-Qaida in the 1990s left us unprepared for 9/11, so too Obama's self-centered hubris has allowed Iraq to come to the brink of anarchy. Headlines say the White House was "caught off guard" by the advance of al-Qaida. Perhaps Obama only found out about ISIS's military gains from news reports. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has begged the administration to consider air strikes against ISIS staging areas since May. Going back as far as March, American advisers who visited Baghdad had been told by senior Iraqi leaders that air power was sorely needed to turn the tide against the insurgents. Yet the requests fell on deaf ears. Now, Obama says all options are on the table to help the Iraqis. "I don't rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria." Not getting a permanent foothold? His oblivion knows no bounds. Maybe he can try a few Twitter hashtags on his way to Laguna Beach for golf and a fundraiser. Things have gotten so bad that Iran is now getting into the fight on behalf of the embattled Iraqi government, sending Revolutionary Guard units to combat its Sunni foes. So, while Iran remains a state sponsor of terrorism, props up Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and continues its quest for nuclear weapons, it's defending U.S. interests in Iraq better than Obama is. Even Assad is offering to help. To put it conservatively, Iraq is a total mess. Obama has made it plain he has no intention of correcting his egregious mistakes in Iraq -- he's given away everything we fought for and he's proud of it. We will likely have to watch chaos spread across the region for another two years until, hopefully, a new president does what's needed to stabilize the region and protect U.S. national security interests. Thursday's anniversary of Ronald Reagan's challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall reminds us that America can be a beacon of freedom and security in the world. Unfortunately, we've gone a long way in the wrong direction. The VA Morass Deepens With each passing day and new revelation, the Veterans Affairs secret wait-list scandal shows a rotten and decaying system where corruption was rampant and accountability nonexistent. Inspection visits to under-performing facilities were "paused" for two years, bonuses were tossed out like candy at a parade, to the tune of over $100 million in a three-year period, and whistleblowers were threatened with firing -- or worse. Read the rest here. For more, visit Right Analysis. TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS For more, visit Right Opinion. 
OPINION IN BRIEF Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961): "Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether
the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism." Columnist Mona Charen: "Have you seen the 'Ready for Hillary' bumper stickers? I've seen one already and wondered about the implied insult to the current occupant of the White House. You're 'Ready for Hillary' when the greatest statesman of our age isn't even halfway through his second term? ... [T]he rationale for the Clinton candidacy is the heart and soul of the progressive project -- identity politics. ... The 'first woman president' was trumped in 2008 by a superior victim claim, but now, unless a black woman candidate should materialize, Clinton holds the high card. She may not know how to avoid pitfalls like saying she and Bill Clinton were 'broke' when they left the White House, but Hillary knows how to bow the 'woman' violin. To extricate herself from the embarrassing stories about her wealth, she wasn't above knifing her former rival/boss. The Obama campaign, she's begun telling interviewers, was riddled with sexism. Why, they asked her to criticize Sarah Palin! If you can buy Hillary -- who mercilessly trashed every woman who stepped forward to accuse Bill Clinton of harassment -- as a stalwart defender of Palin in the name of female solidarity, you'll buy anything." Economist Thomas Sowell: "Barack Obama is the biggest reason to pass no immigration 'reform' laws until after he is gone. It doesn't matter what immigration policies you believe in if you don't control your borders -- and the vast numbers of minors flooding across our borders today show that the Obama administration has no intention of controlling the borders. They are more concerned with controlling the border guards and ordering them not to take pictures that show the public what is happening. If you are serious about controlling the borders, then you pass laws to control the borders first. Some years later, after you can see whether the border has been controlled or not -- you can start discussing what our national immigration laws should be. Otherwise, 'comprehensive' immigration reform means granting some form of amnesty up front and promising to control the border later. How many more times are we going to fall for that bait and switch fraud?" Fred Thompson: "Harry Reid said that the sale of his house would 'create 60 jobs.' Well, that's 60 more than he's created as majority leader." 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. | 
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