Did Obama have any trust left to forfeit? Not in my world.

Obama Forfeits Trust by Not Enforcing Obamacare

By Michael Barone

Monday, July 15, 2013

On Obamacare, as on immigration enforcement and welfare requirements, Barack Obama is following the course that cost King James II his throne. He is dispensing with the law.

James II was ousted in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, in large part for claiming that he could in particular cases dispense with — that is, ignore — an act of Parliament. (Shameless plug: Readers who want more information on this can consult my 2007 book, "Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers.")

The law in question was the Test Act of 1673, which required that all government officials and military officers be members of the Church of England.

It is not a law admired by Americans today or, for that matter, by our Founding Fathers. Article VI of the Constitution provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

But the Founders did follow the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which stated "that the pretended power of dispensing with the laws, or the execution of the law by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal."

That seems to be the clear purport of Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which requires that the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

But the former constitutional law teacher now in the White House seems to be ignoring that duty.

Two weeks ago, a blog post by the assistant secretary of the treasury for tax policy announced that the government would not enforce Obamacare's employer mandate, the penalty for not offering health insurance to full-time employees.

That announcement appeared the day before the Fourth of July. On July 5, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a 606-page regulation announcing that state health exchanges would not verify the eligibility of those applying for Obamacare health insurance subsidies.

Both decisions go against the letter of the law — in this case, a law that the president and his critics consider the chief domestic accomplishment of his administration.

They follow the decision of the administration that insurance subsidies will be available in states that have chosen to have the federal government run their health insurance exchanges — even though the text of Obamacare authorizes such payments only for states that create their own exchanges.

Now there is an argument that the executive branch has some discretion in enforcing the law. Prosecutors, for example, are not obliged to bring criminal charges in every case where there's evidence that someone broke the law.

Such an argument might be made about the president's declaration that the administration not deport "dreamers" — persons brought to the United States illegally as children who have done well in school or served in the military.

But that argument doesn't apply to the Obamacare dispensations. They're not examples of taking individual situations into account. They're general rules that apply to everybody in the stated categories.

Dispensing with the rules is a game that can be played by two. What if, as American Commitment's Phil Kerpen suggested, a President Mitt Romney decided to dispense with all the provisions of Obamacare?

Or what if another Republican president instructed the Internal Revenue Service not to collect income taxes over 35 percent of adjusted gross income? Enforcing only the parts of laws that you like or you find politically convenient can start verging on tyranny.

That's what the English came to think back in 1688. King James believed in the divine right of kings and governed for several years without Parliament.

But in time, he forfeited the trust of both Whigs and Tories (yes, there was polarized politics back then, too). When William of Orange came over the Channel with an army, James fled the country.

Obama does not face a similar fate. But his unwillingness to faithfully execute his own signature law is a confession of incompetence — the incompetence of the architects of Obamacare, the incompetence of Obama administrators, even the incompetence of government generally.

It erodes the president's political capital. House Republicans may block an immigration bill because they fear Obama would not enforce its border security provisions.

For now, Obama's dispensing is getting pushback from Congress and could be challenged in the courts. And more voters may come to believe that they'd like to dispense with Obamacare.

How can anyone with a rational mind, with a true sense of right and wrong and a desire to respect justice argue the facts as presented by Ms. Coulter in her latest column?

Liberals would much rather stoke the flames of racism than accept the facts.  Divisiveness is one of their favorite battle tactics as taught by Saul Alinsky.

THIS YEAR'S DUKE LACROSSE CASE

July 10, 2013

This week, instead of attacking a Hispanic senator, Marco Rubio, I will defend a Hispanic citizen, George Zimmerman, on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman would make a better senator.)

It's becoming painfully obvious why no charges were brought against Zimmerman in this case -- until Al Sharpton got involved. All the eyewitness accounts, testimony, ballistics and forensics keep backing up Zimmerman. We should send a big, fat bill for the whole thing to Sharpton, courtesy of MSNBC.

With the prosecution's witnesses making the defense's case, the inquisitors' last stand is to claim that, if the races were reversed, the black guy would have been instantly charged with murder. As explained in The New York Times:

"Had Mr. Martin shot and killed Mr. Zimmerman under similar circumstances, black leaders say, the case would have barreled down a different path: Mr. Martin would have been quickly arrested by the Sanford Police Department and charged in the killing, without the benefit of the doubt." (Also, CNN could have dropped the "white" and referred to Zimmerman exclusively as "Hispanic.")

The people who say this are counting on the rest of us being too polite to mention that it is nearly impossible to imagine such a case in a world where half of all murders and a majority of robberies are committed by blacks. To reverse the races with the same set of facts, first, we're going to need a gated, mixed-race community, similar to the Retreat at Twin Lakes, that has recently experienced a rash of robberies by white guys. The only way to do that is to enter "The Twilight Zone."

There were at least eight burglaries in the 14 months before Zimmerman's encounter with Martin. Numerous media accounts admit that "most" of these were committed by black males. I'm waiting to hear about a single crime at Twin Lakes that was not committed by a black male.

Just six months before Zimmerman's encounter with Martin, two men had broken into the home of a neighbor, Olivia Bertalan, while she was alone with her infant son. She had just enough time to call 911 before running upstairs and locking herself in a room. The burglars knew she was home, but proceeded to rob the place anyway, even trying to enter the locked room where she held her crying child.

Bertalan had seen the burglars just before they broke into her house -- one at the front door and one at the back. They were young black males. They lived in the Retreat by Twin Lakes.

In another case, a black teenager strode up to Zimmerman's house and, in broad daylight, stole a bicycle off the front porch. The bike was never recovered.

Weeks before Zimmerman saw Martin, he witnessed another young black male peering into the window of a neighbor's house. He called the cops, but by the time they arrived, the suspect was gone.

A few days later, another house was burglarized. The thieves made off with jewelry and a new laptop. Roofers working across the street had seen two black teenagers near the house at the time of the robbery. When they spotted one of the teens the next day, they called the police.

This time, the roofers followed the suspect so he wouldn't get away. The cops arrived and found the stolen laptop in his backpack. This was the same black teenager Zimmerman had seen looking in a neighbor's window.

The only reason it's hard to imagine the Zimmerman case with the races reversed is that it's hard to imagine a white teenager living in a mixed-race, middle-class community, mugging a black homeowner. This is not a problem of society's reactions, but of the facts.

There is, however, at least one case of a black homeowner fatally shooting a white troublemaker. He was not charged with murder.

In 2006, the ironically named John White was sound asleep at his nice Long Island home when his teenage son woke him to say there was a mob of white kids shouting epithets in front of the house. The family was in no imminent danger. They could have called 911 and remained safely behind locked doors.

But White grabbed a loaded Beretta and headed out to the end of the driveway to confront the mob. A scuffle ensued and White ended up shooting one of the kids in the face, killing him.

White was charged and convicted only of illegal weapons possession -- this was New York, after all -- and involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 20 months-to-four years in prison, but after serving five months was pardoned by Gov. David Paterson.

With all due compassion for the kid who was killed, the public was overwhelmingly on the father's side -- a fact still evident in Internet postings about the case. The kids were punks menacing a law-abiding homeowner. Even the prosecutor complained only that Paterson hadn't called the victim's family first. The local NAACP had campaigned aggressively on White's behalf. There were no threats to riot in case of an acquittal.

The centerpiece of White's self-defense argument was his recollection of his grandfather's stories about the Ku Klux Klan. George Zimmerman's memory of young black males committing crimes at Twin Lakes is somewhat more recent.

John White wasn't jumped, knocked to the ground, repeatedly punched, and his skull knocked against the ground. He wasn't even touched, though he claimed the white teen was lunging at him. Talk about no reason to "follow," there was no reason for him to leave the safety of his locked home. White's son knew the kids by name. They could have waited for the cops.

So, yes, this case probably would be very different if Zimmerman and Martin's races were reversed. It is only when the victim is black that we must have a show trial, a million-dollar reward paid to the victim's parents and the threat of riots.

COPYRIGHT 2013 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL UCLICK

Liberals never want to confuse issues with facts..."Obama orders CDC gun violence study, study shreds his position"

Published by: Robert Laurie on Thursday June 27th, 2013

Guns used overwhelmingly for defense, make carriers safer

Earlier this year, President Obama signed a set of executive orders targeting gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. Among them was an edict commanding the CDC to do a comprehensive survey of studies regarding guns and gun violence in the United States. Clearly, once the CDC produced the hard evidence that the US was a violent nation of wild-west shootouts, the American people would be eager to approve and fund future research while embracing strict gun control legislation.

At least that was the plan. The study, which was compiled by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council under the CDC's direction, was recently completed and released. The anti-gun crowd has been awfully quiet about it.

Could it be that it didn't support their bogus hypothesis?

In a word, Yes. The CDC's numbers basically back every pro-gun rights argument made over the course of the last year.

First and foremost, the majority of annual gun-related deaths are due to suicide, not crime.

The study finds that "Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.”

While this is still a depressing statistic, it supports gun-rights advocates' claims that the country has a mental health problem, not a gun owner problem. In fact, the study found that those who own guns, carry them, and fight back against criminals are actually fare better in dangerous situations.

The report notes that virtually all studies which "assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns” found the same thing. There are "consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies.”

But self-defense with a firearm is incredibly uncommon. After all, that's what the lefties are always telling us, so it must be true. Right?

Wrong.

The CDC report finds that "Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence." In fact, while exact statistics are hard to come by, the report indicates that "Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008."

So, there's as much as a 10 to 1 ratio of defensive firearm use vs. offensive use, though admittedly the 3 million figure is probably a bit high.

On the downside, the study does indicate that we have the most firearm related deaths of any wealthy western nation, but - contrary to what the left would like you to believe - those numbers are declining. Things are getting better, not worse.

The report indicates that “Overall crime rates have declined in the past decade, and violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past 5 years." However, “Between 2005 and 2010, the percentage of firearm-related violent victimizations remained generally stable.”

According to the report, “firearm-related death rates for youth ages 15 to 19 declined from 1994 to 2009," while the number of accidental shootings declined as well. The report states that “Unintentional firearm-related deaths have steadily declined during the past century. The number of unintentional deaths due to firearm-related incidents accounted for less than 1 percent of all unintentional fatalities in 2010.”

We all know the United States has too much crime, and yes, too much gun violence. No one is arguing that we need to work to bring those numbers down. However, expanded gun control has never been the answer. The report recommends further research on a variety of topics, among them the effects of gun safety tech, videogame violence, and alcohol availability on gun crime. Still, with all of the above data in mind, we wouldn't expect to see Obama and Biden waving their study around. It simply does too much damage to many of their specious claims.

Our country continues its transformation into a decadent, secular police state

It’s Time Christians Told Those Who Seek to Silence Them, ‘Yeah, Right’

By Doug Giles / 7 July 2013

Two weeks ago a Sonoma State University student was ordered by one of the Seawolves’ lunatic supervisors to remove her cross necklace because some tender moron, who goes to that liberal madrasa, might get their panties in a wad.

Yep, the overseer thought the cross accoutrement was vulgar. This is the same school that, with their easily offended students, put on The Vagina Monologues last March 9th, 2013.

Let me see if I have this right: a pretty gold cross necklace on a blonde co-ed is nasty and a yarbling, six-foot feminist yapping about rape, mutilation, masturbation and orgasms is “funny, poignant, intelligent and courageous”? Well, color me purple.

Before I get labeled some buckle-shoed, puritanical killjoy that wants to burn vagina puppets and have everyone watch TBN ad nauseam, let me be clear: I don’t give a crap what you do, just don’t ask me to pay for it or cheer you on. That said, I’m sick of the tolerant being intolerant of expressions of faith, whether it be in word or in jewelry. Why don’t you grow a little thicker skin, Miss Priss?

The secularists on the Left want Christians to hide their faith, to back down and essentially be ashamed of whom they believe in and what the word of God says.

The examples are ubiquitous. Whether it’s screaming “Verboten” at some chick’s cross necklace, or flippin’ out over our soldiers’ praying before they wolf down their MRE’s, or cheerleaders’ making positive banners with bible passages, or our legislators’ appealing to the Decalogue for policy, the thought police are in a full court press trying to get us to zip it when it comes to expressing our faith, all while they tout the most bizarre behaviors known to mankind.

As a Christian, I’m personally tired of seeing Christians being cowed by culture and the state. If someone can wave a flag that they love anal sex from someone of the same sex or scream “hail Satan” in praise of killing pre-born kids, then I think a Christian soldier should be able to say, “God bless you”, when someone sneezes, without being kicked out of the Army as an aggressive proselytizer.

Look, who knows if the intolerant tolerant will ever cease to be reflexively irate? One thing is for certain: whether or not they do or don’t, the Christian is commanded, at all times, to be bold with his beliefs in the midst of opposition.

At first blush, one might brush this story off as Non-news...but it is so predictable and indicative of the work ethic of this entire administration...so demonstrative of their attitude that we work for them.

July 5, 2013

Busted: Secretary of State John Kerry Was Boating While Egypt Fell Apart

7/5/2013 1:49:00 PM - Katie Pavlich

Good news everyone. While Egypt (the country we just sent F16s to) was experiencing a coup this week, Secretary of State John Kerry was boating in Nantucket. Photo courtesy of the Boston Herald:



First, State Department Spokesman Jen Psaki (who also worked as a spokesman for the Obama campaign) denied Kerry was in Nantucket despite multiple reports, sitings and a Kerry motorcade traffic jam.

Kerry spokesperson Jen Psaki denied the report.

“Since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 am, Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt,” Psaki said in a statement.

Kerry was absent from a White House photo showing President Obama meeting with members of his national security team to discuss the situation in Egypt, but Psaki said he had dialed in on a secure phone line for that meeting.

“He participated in the White House meeting with the President by secure phone and was and is in non-stop contact with foreign leaders, and his senior team in Washington and Cairo.”

Earlier a State Department spokesperson said she could not comment on Kerry’s whereabouts on Wednesday, but said Kerry is kept in the loop on all the latest developments.

“The secretary’s department is in touch with officials regarding the developments in Egypt at all levels at all times,” State Department Press Secretary Beth Gosselin said in a statement.

Secretary of State John Kerry's motorcade gets stuck in #Nantucket rotary traffic. #awkwardhttps://t.co/ZEOlDHo39Y
— Jason Graziadei (@JasonGraziadei) July 3, 2013

State Dept's @jrpsaki says re CBS tweet on @JohnKerry: "Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate."
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 4, 2013

Then, Psaki admitted Kerry was on his boat "briefly" after saying reports of Kerry being in Nantucket were completely false. 

State Dept spox @jrpsaki corrects previous statement: Secretary of State @JohnKerry "was briefly on his boat on Wednesday" cc: @Mosheh
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 5, 2013

And yes Secretary Kerry, this looks pretty bad.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry — who spent the Fourth of July on sun-splashed Nantucket even as the chaos from a military takeover rocked Egypt — drew fire from Republican critics who said it’s a bad time for the nation’s top diplomat to be seen cavorting on an island getaway.

“It doesn’t look good, and I think it sends the wrong message” said Republican strategist Brad Marston. “If I were advising him, I’d already have him on a plane.”

As first reported on bostonherald.com, Kerry, who owns a house and a yacht on the ritzy retreat, was seen yesterday strolling down Federal Street away from July Fourth festivities on Main Street in jeans and a light-colored polo shirt.

Later in the afternoon, Kerry was seen offloading bags from a single-person kayak to a boat in Nantucket Sound after launching from the beach behind his home at 5 Hulbert Ave.

Republicans pounced on the image of the vacationing secretary of state and sought to use it as a symbol of what they deem a big Obama administration failing — the inability to convey a clear message on foreign policy on hotspots like Syria, Turkey and Egypt.

“I would think the secretary of state would interrupt his vacation and at least send a very clear signal — even by flying back to Washington for a day or two — that on our Independence Day we are very concerned about the freedom and democracy that we hope is instilled for some period of time in the Arab World,” said Patrick Griffin, a New Hampshire-based GOP strategist.

Then of course, Psaki tried to run cover by reassuring everyone Kerry was hard at work solving the world's problems...from his kayak of course.

Kerry’s staff yesterday insisted he’s fully engaged and has been logging long hours and high miles, including a recent 12-day, 25,000-mile trip to the Middle East and Asia.

Yesterday he dialed into a meeting with President Obama and members of his national security team in the Situation Room, according to the State Department. Kerry also called foreign dignitaries from Egypt, Israel, Norway, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

“Secretary Kerry has been working tirelessly around the clock since he returned from his 10-day trip and there has not been a moment where he has not been focused on doing everything possible to communicate with his team in Washington and in Egypt, within the administration and with his counterparts around the world,” Kerry spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the Herald last night.

As a reminder, the violence in Egypt was expected to be so bad, the State Department pulled all U.S. diplomats. But hey, Kerry had some tanning to do, okay?

The State Department has ordered all nonessential U.S. diplomats and the families of all American Embassy personnel to leave Egypt in anticipation of potential violence.

And in case you're wondering, things in Egypt are just getting worse.

Egyptian troops reportedly opened fire Friday on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi outside the Republican Guard headquarters, where he was believed held, but there were conflicting reports on casualties.

The Associated Press, which had a photographer at the scene, said at least one protester was killed.

Citing security sources, Reuters reported security forces fatally shot three demonstrators.

Liberals and progressives are destroying our country...

Rescuing citizenship and civic virtue

by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2013

As we celebrate our nation’s 237th birthday, a crucial facet of American life has all but vanished. We have forsaken, in a systematic and deliberate public manner, one of our most fundamental duties: fostering civic virtue in each and every one of our citizens.

What does it mean to be an American? Politicians in both parties keep pushing to create a new “path to citizenship” for millions of illegal aliens. But if sovereignty and self-preservation still matter in Washington, citizenship must be guarded ferociously against those who would exploit and devalue it at every electoral whim.

The pavers of the amnesty pathway think illusory requirements of paying piddling “fines” and back taxes will inculcate an adequate sense of responsibility and ownership in the American way. Other fair-weather friends of patriotism satisfy themselves with shallow holiday pop quizzes on American history to fulfill the “well-informed” part of the “well-informed citizenry” mandate of our Founding Fathers.

But Thomas Jefferson said it well: “No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and … their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice… These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.”

John Adams said it better: “Liberty can no more exist without virtue … than the body can live and move without a soul.”

And Thomas Paine said it best: “When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.”

Civic virtue cannot be purchased with token gestures or passed down in perfect form like a complete set of family china. A life of honor, honesty, integrity, self-improvement and self-discipline is something you strive ever to attain. Being American is a habit of mind, but also a habit of heart and soul. Abraham Lincoln spoke of the “electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”

Calvin Coolidge, profiled in “Why Coolidge Matters,” a terrific new book by Charles C. Johnson, echoed the Founding Fathers’ emphasis on virtue, restraint and work ethic. “If people can’t support themselves,” he concluded, “we’ll have to give up self-government.”

The failure of public schools to impart even rudimentary knowledge of self-government principles, natural rights theory and the rule of law is compounded by the suicidal abandonment of civic education. As Stanford University education professor William Damon notes: “Our disregard of civic and moral virtue as an educational priority is having a tangible effect on the attitudes, understanding and behavior of large portions of the youth population in the United States today.”

Add militant identity politics, a cancerous welfare state, entitled dependence and tens of millions of unassimilated immigrants to the heap, and you have a toxic recipe for what Damon calls “societal decadence — literally, a ‘falling away,’ from the Latin decadere.” Civilizations that disdain virtue die.

Independence Day sparklers will light the skies overhead this July 4th, but George Washington’s “sacred fire of liberty” belongs in the breasts of Americans every day of the year.

How to rescue citizenship and civic virtue?

Let’s start by sending a message to politicians in the nation’s capital who imperil our sovereignty.
Citizenship — good citizenship — is not just a piece of government-issued paper. It is not merely a bureaucratic “status.” It’s a lifelong practice and propagation of founding principles. A nation of low information is just half the problem. A nation of low character cannot long remain a free nation.

 

I really, truly loathe this president

 

Priorities: Fourth of July Cancelled for Military Bases While the Obamas Tour Africa on the Taxpayer Dime

Posted 07.01.13 by Todd Cefaratti, Editor of TPNN

What makes a good leader? Is it the willingness to do as one would have others do? Is it an underlying bravery, to do what needs to be done even in the face of potential peril? As philosophers have contemplated this notion for millennia, I cannot honestly claim to have a firm, definitive answer as to what makes a leader great.

I can, however, pinpoint qualities that are not found in a true leader. Cowardice, selfishness and an almost pathological willingness to avoid any accountability whatsoever are not qualities that can ever be found in a true leader.

Which brings me to President Obama…

Though we ask our soldiers to risk life and limb for their country, many soldiers will be unable to see the rocket’s red glare this year as we celebrate our nation’s birthday. But don’t worry; The Obamas are reportedly having a great time on their taxpayer-funded vacation to Africa.

Fourth of July celebrations have been cancelled at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and at the Army’s Fort Bragg. The fourth of July celebrations have also been cancelled at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia. The Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina have also cancelled their Fourth of July celebrations as well as the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

All of the celebrations have been cancelled due to budgetary restraints.

The Tea Party is a fiscally conservative organization and we advocate small, limited government. Though Senator Harry Reid and other hysterics would like to label us “anarchists” or advocates of no government, we are merely advocates of small government that makes good decisions with taxpayer money.

We don’t mind paying taxes; we just observe that we pay too much into a complicated system to fund a largely inefficient government layered with redundant bureaucracy and nonessential services. We are happy to pay for paved roads, for mail delivery and, yes, for those who risk their lives in the defense of their country to see some fireworks on the Fourth of July.

When we consider what else the government is spending our money on this month, it seems clear where their priorities are:

While the government spends $37 million to promote the greatness of Obamacare (including $990,000 to the Los Angeles school district to train children to promote it to their families), the government can’t keep the White House open for tours.

While the government spends $53 million on the “Yes Youth Can” program to promote fair elections and voter ID requirements in Africa, we cannot spend money on fireworks for military bases.

And, of course, all of this occurs as Obama, Michelle, their children, Michelle’s mother and Michelle’s niece sightsee around Africa on a fabulous $100 million vacation that is paid for by you and me.

It is absolutely shameful where our government’s priorities are.