op ed review 4/26
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
National Debt Tops $18 Trillion: Guess How Much You Owe? Answer $154,161
Liberals Sputter As Scott Walker Proposes Bold New
Immigration Platform. “He’s not afraid
to push for a legal immigration system that doesn’t box out American workers
with a massive influx of inexpensive foreign labor.”
Obama burns 9000 gallons of fuel celebrating Earth Day
“Obama emitted 5 times the carbon in a day that most of us
do in a year - to make a speech on climate change.”
How low can TV go? “New
Spouse-Swap Series Has Married Couples Sleeping With Strangers...”
More signs
of decline: Willie Nelson plans to roll
out his own brand of marijuana that he intends to make "the best on the
market."
Here they come: “The FBI is investigating a possible ISIS-inspired terrorist
threat in the United States, law enforcement officials said Saturday.”
One of the biggest
benefactors to the Clinton Foundation has been trading with Iran and may be in
breach of U.S. sanctions imposed on the country.
Coincidence? “Cash
Flowed to Clinton Foundation as Russians Pressed for Control of Uranium
Company”
Mitt Romney has finally taken the gloves off. If only he had
done so in 2012, a lot more people in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere would be
alive, and the American economy and Supreme Court would be in far better
shape……Romney: ” I’ve got to tell you, I
was stunned by it. I mean, it looks like bribery. I mean, there is every
appearance that Hillary Clinton was bribed to grease the sale of, what, 20% of
America’s uranium production to Russia, and then it was covered up by lying
about a meeting at her home with the principals, and by erasing emails.”
Exactly two years after President Obama's bid for gun
control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting died in Congress, a
new poll has discovered a huge shift in public opinion to backing Second
Amendment gun rights and away from controlling gun ownership. The reason:
Americans now believe having a gun is the best way to protect against crime, 63
percent to 30 percent.
The VA sends veterans’ personal medical and financial
information directly to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, which can seize their guns in home raids, if they are thought to be
“dangerous.”
Red ink could kill California Obamacare
President Ronald Reagan is one of the most famous Americans
of the 20th century. Between his acting career and his eight years as
president, you would think that his face would be instantly recognizable to
anyone with even a basic knowledge of recent American history. Among college students you would be wrong.
That was then, this is now:
Watch Hillary Clinton in 2004 defend heterosexual marriage as a
'fundamental bedrock principle' going back "into the mists of
history" that was primarily about raising children.
GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio says there is NO
constitutional right to gay marriage. “It doesn’t exist. There is no federal
constitutional right to same sex marriage…..You have to have a ridiculous
reading of the U.S. constitution to reach the conclusion that people have a
right to marry someone of the same sex.”
Thousands march in US capital against gay marriage
Republican 2016 contenders promise to restore strong U.S. support for Israel
A series of pro-life banners of images of 11-week-old
fetuses in the womb saw mere hours of daylight at the University of Southern
California on Tuesday prior to being removed by the same university
organization that had initially approved them. They were replaced with hand-written
signs reading, “Women deserve the right to choose.”
__________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Michael Goodwin
4/24/15
A passage from Ernest Hemingway fits the moment. In “The
Sun Also Rises,” one character asks, “How did you go bankrupt?” and another
responds: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The exchange captures Hillary
Clinton’s red alert. She’s been going politically bankrupt for a long time, and
now faces the prospect of sudden collapse. If she’s got a winning defense, she
better be quick about it. The ghosts of scandals past are gaining on her and
time is not on her side.
The compelling claims that she and Bill Clinton sold favors
while she was secretary of state for tens of millions of dollars for themselves
and their foundation don’t need to meet the legal standard for bribery. She’s
on political trial in a country where Clinton Fatigue alone could be a fatal
verdict. After 25 years of corner-cutting and dishonest behavior, accumulation
is her enemy. Each day threatens to deliver the straw that breaks the camel’s
back. It may already have happened and we’re just waiting for public opinion to
catch up to the facts.
Meanwhile, her Houdini skills are being tested big time.
Hillary’s one big advantage is obvious — she’s the only
serious contender for the Democratic nomination, and she beats most GOP
opponents in head-to-head matchups. But everything else weighs against her,
including momentum. Start with the fact that the sizzling reports of corrupt
deals are coming from major news organizations that reliably tilt left. With
supposed friends making the case against her, the tired Clinton defense that
the attacks are partisan hit jobs has been demolished.
And after digging up so much dirt, The New York Times, The
Washington Post, Politico, Reuters, Bloomberg News and others are not likely to
be content with stonewalling and half-truths, especially given her recent lies
about missing e-mails. No wonder the Times editorial page called on her to
provide “straightforward answers” to the accusations.
I don’t see how she can meet that test. The outlines of cozy
relationships and key transactions are not in dispute. The only issue is whether
the millions the Clintons got amount to a quid pro quo. On the face of it,
that’s certainly what they look like. There are several deals we know of, and
more could emerge, that put money in the Clintons’ pockets while helping
businesses, including some loathsome international figures, make a killing. It
is preposterous to argue that it’s all a coincidence.
Her position was further undercut when the family foundation
announced it would refile five years of tax returns. In one three-year period,
it omitted tens of millions in foreign contributions, reporting “zero” to the
IRS. In another two-year period, it admitted to overreporting government grants
by more than $100 million. A foundation aide described the errors as
“typographical,” which is bizarre — and par for the Clinton course. To concede
the errors during the firestorm must mean keeping them quiet was an even
greater liability.
Sooner rather than later, Hillary will have to meet the
press — but what can she possibly say to alter the story lines? If history is a
guide, she’ll insist she did nothing wrong, offer ambiguous answers to specific
questions, take offense at persistent reporters and end by playing the victim.
She’ll follow up with a fund-raising pitch for money to keep “fighting for everyday
Americans.”
To imagine that scenario is to realize it won’t fly, but I’m
not sure what other options she has. She can’t tell the truth. It will sink
her. Nor can she credibly demand to be trusted, given her past. A recent
Quinnipiac poll finds 54 percent of Americans already say Clinton is not honest
or trustworthy.
Swing-state surveys show similar lopsided findings and each
new sordid revelation will deepen the trust deficit. At this point in her life,
it would take a near-miracle to change people’s basic view of her. Her best
hope is that a missing ingredient remains missing — a Democrat who could take
the nomination from her, the way Barack Obama did in 2008. None of those
already in the race or committed to it — Martin O’Malley, Bernie Sanders, even
Joe Biden — comes close to measuring up.
The only possible rival who does is Elizabeth Warren, the
fire-breathing senator from Massachusetts. Gender aside, she is everything
Hillary isn’t — an anti-Wall Street conviction populist with a record to match
her rhetoric. A movement to draft her started before Hillary hit the fan, so
Warren would begin with a built-in constituency. So far, though, she insists
she’s not running. Then again, that also could change suddenly.
_______________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“Headless bodies lie in the sand. Above those corpses stand
the black-clad minions of ISIS, outlined against the coastline of Libya. This
is the second video in three months depicting Islamic terrorists cutting the
heads off of Christian captives. Bodies float in the Mediterranean Sea, face
down. Twelve Christian bodies, thrown from a rubber boat by 15 Muslims. Their
launch point: Libya. Approximately 700 more bodies float face down in the
Mediterranean, victims of a smuggling operation gone wrong when their rickety
craft sunk as it made its way to Italy. Its source location: Libya. Four
American bodies in Benghazi, Libya. These are the wages of Hillary Clinton’s
war. … Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy has promoted chaos around the world.
Nowhere is that better illustrated than in her signal foreign policy legacy,
the collapsed state of Libya.”
-Ben
Shapiro
________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
The book does not hit shelves until May 5, but already the
Republican Rand Paul has called its findings “big news” that will “shock
people” and make voters “question” the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign
Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter
Schweizer — a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton
Foundation by foreign entities — is proving the most anticipated and feared
book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy.
______________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
Still snowing in 23 states, as far south as New Mexico.
Saturday’s Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day rally, left the
grounds of the Washington Monument smelling like “cow poop.”
Our climate models are WRONG: Global warming has slowed -
and recent changes are down to ‘natural variability’, says study.
Top scientists start to examine fiddled global warming
figures. The Global Warming Policy
Foundation has enlisted an international team of five distinguished scientists
to carry out a full inquiry.
5 Things You´re Not Likely to
Hear About on Earth Day
_______________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
A Pakistani man and his father have been arrested in the
country's latest so-called "honour killing" after they set the son's
wife on fire for leaving the house without asking his permission.
The Islamic State franchise in Libya released a 30-minute
video over the showing two separate group executions of Ethiopian Christians.
If you dive into the madness and try to follow ISIL's "logic," it
seems these jihadis murdered 30 people for evading the tax on nonbelievers.
______________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
MSNBC, the liberal network that advocates at every turn for
a progressive revenue system, is home to four tax delinquents who have all
lectured their audience about tax fairness over the years.
“It is not true that regulation holds poor people down or
regulation keeps the middle class from advancing. That’s kind of patently
bulls—.”
-former
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley
_____________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
The Environmental Protection Agency is putting the final
touches on a rule requiring a 30% reduction of CO2 emissions from
fossil fuel-burning power plants by 2030. An independent analysis by The
Heritage Foundation predicts "[a]n average employment shortfall of nearly
300,000 jobs," adding the U.S. may lose half a million jobs in the
manufacturing sector and 45% of the jobs in the coal mining industry.
The Questions Hillary Clinton Doesn´t Want Answered About the Clinton Foundation
The number of voters who believe terrorists are winning the
fight against the United States and its allies continues to grow, while views
of Muslims in general and U.S. relations with the Islamic world have
worsened.
___________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Tracking Hillary Clinton’s Use of Every American Accent East
of the Mississippi
___________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
“We may look up to armies for defense, but virtue is our
best security. It is not possible that any state should long remain free, where
virtue is not supremely honored.”
-Samuel
Adams
"Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief
to the morals and principles of mankind."
-Dr. Benjamin
Rush, 1783
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