At Issue this week... Iran by Thomas Sowell

April 8, 2015

2016 Election Etiquette versus annihilation Krauthammer (5) Lambro (9) Thomas (5) ecent statements from United can be preoccupied with the question an agreement will protect Obama politi- Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Nations officials, that Iran is whether having Israeli prime minister cally, despite however much it exposes Lowry (29) already blocking their existing Benjamin Netanyahu address Congress, the American people to unprecedented Clinton, Hillary Chavez (11) effortsR to keep track of what is going on warning against the proposed agreement, dangers. Limbaugh (10) in their nuclear program, should tell any- without the prior approval of President The other reason is that, by going to Morris (4, 18) one who does not already know it that any Obama, was a breach of protocol. the United Nations for its blessing on his Clintons agreement with Iran will be utterly worth- Against the background of the Obama agreement with Iran, he can get a bigger Thomas (4) Will (3) less in practice. It doesn’t matter what the administration’s negotiating what can turn fig leaf to cover his complicity in the nu- College Campuses terms of the agreement are, if Iran can out to be the most catastrophic clear arming of America’s most dangerous Schlafly (25) cheat. enemy. In Obama’s vision, as a citizen of Cop Shootings the world, there may be no reason why Elder (27) Thomas Cruz, Ted IT IS AMAZING — indeed, stagger- Iran should not have nuclear weapons Erickson (12) ing — that so few Americans are talking Sowell when other nations have them. Limbaugh (8) about what it would mean for the world’s Politically, President Obama could not Dear Mark biggest sponsor of international terrorism, (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate just come right out and say such a thing. Levy (19) Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be de- But he can get the same end result by Economics Will (11) veloping intercontinental missiles that can international agreement in the nation’s pretending to have ended the dangers by Economy deliver them far beyond the Middle East. history, to complain about protocol is to reaching an agreement with Iran. There Kudlow (12) Back during the years of the nuclear put questions of etiquette above questions have long been people in the Western de- Egyptian President stand-off between the Soviet Union and the of annihilation. mocracies who hail every international Tyrrell (29) Export-Import Bank United States, contemplating what a nu- Why is so anxious to agreement that claims to reduce the dan- Lambro (15) clear war would be like was called “think- have an international agreement that will gers of war. Family Structure ing the unthinkable.” But surely the Nazi have no legal standing under the Constitu- Barone (26) Holocaust during World War II should tell tion just two years from now, since it will THE ROAD to World War II was German Air Disaster Prager (21) us that what is beyond the imagination of be just a presidential agreement, rather strewn with arms control agreements on God-Given Rights decent people is by no means impossible than a treaty requiring the “advice and paper that aggressor nations ignored in Harsanyi (6) for people who, as Churchill warned of consent” of the Senate? practice. But those agreements lulled the Iran Hitler before the war, had “currents of ha- democracies into a false sense of secu- Buchanan (28) Charen (2) tred so intense as to sear the souls of those THERE ARE at least two reasons. rity that led them to cut back on military Greenberg (30) who swim upon them.” One reason is that such an agreement will spending while their enemies were build- Sowell (1) Have we not already seen that kind of serve as a fig leaf to cover his failure to ing up the military forces to attack them. Lawless Government hatred in the Middle East? Have we not do anything that has any serious chance Napolitano (22) seen it in suicide bombings there and in of stopping Iran from going nuclear. Such March 31, 2015 Lewinsky, Monica Bozell (7) suicide attacks against America by people Media Bias willing to sacrifice their own lives by fly- Bozell (24) ing planes into massive buildings, to vent Coulter (7) their unbridled hatred? Obama Presidency Barone (14) The Soviet Union was never suicidal, Shapiro (8) so the fact that we could annihilate their Pan-Arab Army cities if they attacked ours was a sufficient Bay (30) deterrent to a nuclear attack from them. Pledge of Allegiance Massie (24) But will that deter fanatics with an apoca- Racism lyptic vision? Should we bet the lives of Towery (26) millions of Americans on our ability to Religious Freedom deter nuclear war with Iran? Buchanan (16) Lowry (17) It is now nearly 70 years since nuclear Murchison (17) bombs were used in war. Long periods of Saunders (18) safety in that respect have apparently led Shapiro (23) many to feel as if the danger is not real. Russia Greenberg (31) But the dangers are even greater now and Set Prices the nuclear bombs more devastating. Williams (23) Clearing the way for Iran to get nuclear Trivia Bits bombs may — probably will — be the Paquet (14) most catastrophic decision in human his- Visas Malkin (20) tory. And it can certainly change human Saunders (13) history, irrevocably, for the worse. Walker, Scott Against that grim background, it is al- Greenberg (3) most incomprehensible how some people 2 Conservative Chronicle IRAN: March 27, 2015 Death to America: More than a chant? aybe I’m too sensitive, but tainly, death to America,’ we should “better than a bad deal.” They’ve of- sions of its nuclear program would when a foreign autocrat take him at his word, and we shouldn’t fered pledges that Iran’s centrifuges undermine the verifiability of the deal, leads his people in chants put him on the path to a nuclear bomb.” would be limited to 500, that the and thus the credibility of a compre- of M “Death to America,” I take it per- We are left to wonder at the equa- PMDs (possible military dimensions) hensive deal.” Fordo will remain open, sonally. nimity among high-ranking members of its nu- clear research would and its centrifuges will spin. President Obama and Secretary of of this administration at the unyielding be fully disclosed, that the The French government has pro- State John Kerry apparently don’t. The hostility of the facility at Fordo tested that the U.S. is retreating (think chant, which became a staple of the Is- Iranian regime. Mona (built into a moun- that one over for a minute). France’s lamic Republic during the 1979 revo- In late February, tain) would be foreign minister is reported to have lution, is not a relic of the past. Just Iran blew up a Charen shut down, and that said that “the United States was really last weekend, at a rally in the northern full-size model of (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate snap inspections ready to sign just about anything with part of the country, Supreme Leader the U.S.S. Nimitz, would be part of the Iranians.” The French ambassador Ali Khamenei was interrupted by the an aircraft carrier, in the Persian Gulf. any agreement. “We’re not blind, and I to the U.S., Gerard Araud, tweeted, chant as he was denouncing American The supreme leader’s representative don’t think we’re stupid,” Kerry once “For France, any agreement to be ac- “lies” and “arrogance.” He smiled and on the IRGC, Ali Shirazi, recently assured skeptics. ceptable will have to give concrete responded, “Of course, yes, death to boasted, “When we look at the Islamic Congress gave the administration guarantees on all issues. We won’t by- America, because America is the origi- world, we see that the culture of the “breathing room” — but U.S. negotia- pass any of them.” nal source of this pressure.” Islamic Revolution has reached all tors have backed away steadily from Each and every news leak out of countries and all Muslims throughout each of their positions. There is now Lausanne depicts the U.S. walking SOME IN Iran have urged that the the world. ... We shall not rest until we talk of 6,000 centrifuges or more. The back its demands. Just watch the faces “Death to America” chant, common raise the flag of Islam over the White Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. of the Iranian negotiators. Their smiles after Friday prayers and at political House.” negotiators are scaling back their de- tell the tale. rallies, be downplayed during negotia- A few days later, Obama responded mands for disclosure of PMDs (some- The administration reasons that in tions over a nuclear deal, but the IRGC by sending Nowruz greetings to the thing the International Atomic Energy 10 to 15 years, the Iranian regime will (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) “people and leaders of Iran” and quot- Agency had also demanded). Without improve. It is willing to gamble that rejects this, insisting, according to the ing a Persian poet as saying “many a disclosure of military dimensions, in- once Iran achieves nuclear status, it semi-official Fars News Agency, that flower will bloom while you will be in spections (notional in any case) will won’t use nuclear bombs or share them the United States “is still the great Sa- clay.” be hampered. David Albright of the with terrorists. It is willing to gamble tan and the No. 1 enemy of the (Islam- Institute for Science and International that the other unstable nations in the ic) revolution, and the Islamic Repub- THROUGHOUT THe protracted Security told the Tower magazine, “A region won’t get nuclear weapons in lic and the Iranian nation...” negotiations between the P5+1 and deal that does not include Iran address- response. It is willing to gamble that Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., respond- Iran, the Obama administration has ing the IAEA’s concerns about the past future leaders of Iran won’t be even ed, “When someone chants, ‘Yes, cer- assured Congress that “no deal” was and possibly ongoing military dimen- more radical than those in power now.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to recall a more dangerous or foolish set of as- sumptions by an American president in modern American history. Death to America might become more than a chant.

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[email protected] Visit our web site at: Contact us at 800-888-3039 or email: [email protected] www.conservativechronicle.com April 8, 2015 3 CLINTONS: March 28, 2015 A remembrance of Clintons past n abscess of anger seems to president’s mistake, made his immedi- of Representatives for the first time in failed state convulsed by civil war and gnaw at , but ate priority — health care reform. Sen. 40 years — a harbinger of 2010, when exporting jihadists. the reasons for her resent- Daniel Patrick Moynihan urged him to Obamacare helped end Nancy Pelosi’s These episodes supposedly recom- mentsA remain unclear. The world’s old- begin with welfare reform, just as wise tenure as the first female speaker. mend a re-immersion in , a est party, which governed the nation Democrats wanted President Obama Clinton’s Senate interlude was an phenomenon that in 2001 moved the during two world wars and is the pri- to devote 2009 to economic recovery uneventful prelude to her 2008 presi- Washington Post to say, more in anger mary architect of America’s regulatory rather than health care, perhaps spar- dential quest, which earned than in sorrow, that “the Clintons’ de- and redistributive state, is eager to give ing the nation six her, as a consola- fining characteristic” is that “they have her its presidential nomination, in rec- years and count- tion prize, the State no capacity for embarrassment.” This ognition of ... what? ing of economic George Department. There judgment was rendered as two episodes The party, adrift in identity poli- sluggishness. Will her tenure was de- were demonstrating that the Clintons in tics, clings, as shipwrecked sailors do Hillary Clin- fined by the “re- power were defined by their manner of to floating debris, to this odd feminist ton enveloped her (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group set” with Russia leaving it. heroine. Wafted into the upper reaches health care delib- and by regime- punctuated his presi- of American politics by stolid partici- erations in secrecy, assembling behind change-by-bombers in Libya. dency by pardoning the late Marc Rich, pation in her eventful marriage to a se- closed doors battalions of the best and a fugitive who 17 years earlier had rial philanderer, her performance in the brightest — think of many Jonathan RUSSIA HAS responded by vio- been indicted for tax evasion, fraud and governance has been defined by three Grubers weaving complexities for the lently dismembering a European na- racketeering. He also traded with Libya failures. good of, but beyond the comprehen- tion. Libya was the object of “humani- and South Africa in contravention of sion of, the public. When their handi- tarian intervention,” an echo of Bill embargos, and traded with Iran during HER HUSBAND, having assured work was unveiled, it was so baroque Clinton’s engagement in the Balkans the hostage crisis. Rich’s former wife the 1992 electorate that voting for him that neither house of a Congress con- that appealed to progressives because reportedly contributed more than $1 meant getting “two for the price of one,” trolled by her party would even vote it was connected only tenuously, if at million to assorted Democratic causes, entrusted to her the project that he, in on it. This was one reason that in 1994 all, to the U.S. national interest. Today, $450,000 for Clinton’s presidential li- a harbinger of the next Democratic Democrats lost control of the House Libya is a humanitarian calamity, a brary, and $10,000 to the legal defense fund necessitated by Clinton’s glandu- lar life that led to the Supreme Court SCOTT WALKER: March 30, 2015 effectively disbarring him from practic- ing before it. A year before the Clintons decamped from Washington to begin planning Who is this Scott Walker? their return to it, they began trucking ho is this Scott Walker, charge to which he proudly pleads state, Scott Walker has cut both prop- away from the $190,000 and why has he taken off guilty. It’s enough to bring back how the erty taxes and income taxes, supported worth of furnishings. Perhaps exigen- like a house afire in the super-sophisticated Walter Lippmann school choice and pushed pro-life leg- cies dictated this; the couple was, Hill- raceW for next year’s Republican presi- described Franklin Roosevelt during islation. There’s no doubt about his ary Clinton says, “dead broke.” The dential nomination even before it’s re- the run-up to the presidential campaign credentials as an American conserva- furnishings became, as things often do ally begun? of 1932: “He is a pleasant man who, tive, but at the same time he’s no radi- with the Clintons, another occasion for He’s the governor of Wisconsin without any important qualifications cal, and has been willing to make prac- an “it depends on what the meaning of who’s electrified his party and maybe for the office, would very much like to tical compromises to get his program the word ‘is’ is” tiptoe along the ledge of American taxpayers in general by be president.” enacted. illegality. The White House chief usher winning election after election in his You know who’s not an ordinary Perhaps the most appealing thing thought many of the items were gov- state over the last four years, includ- person, Scott Walker asks, and re- about Gov. Walker is the liberal/media ernment property donated in 1993 to a ing an attempt to recall him, despite sponds: Hillary Clinton. “Say- claque who have consistently tried to redecoration project. Several donors of every trick the usual, unholy alliance smear him without any factual basis. items said they were told this. Although of Democrats, union bosses and vested For example, Gail Collins of the New the Clintons said that all the removed interests have pulled against him. That Paul York Times (of course) claimed he was furnishings were personal gifts, they re- included a mass occupation of the state responsible for firing hundreds of hard- turned $28,000 worth of them. Capitol in Madison — and now he’s Greenberg working teachers in 2010 — never As Hillary Clinton begins her cam- supposed to be ahead by double digits (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services mind that Mr. Walker didn’t become paign to again reside with the White in the bellwether Iowa caucuses, what- governor of Wisconsin till 2011. A mi- House furnishings, remember an epi- ever that kind of early polling result ing you’re broke when you’ve got two nor detail. sode perhaps pertinent to the family means, if anything. homes, or you’re making a quarter of a Another liberal apparatchik, Katha penchant for secrecy and to her per- million dollars a speech, or you haven’t Pollitt, a columnist for the Nation, sonal email server. , who GOV. WALKER came to the coun- driven a car in 18 years, those are all called Scott Walker a hypocrite be- had been President Clinton’s national try’s attention much the same way a things that I think further embolden cause he’d fathered a child in college security adviser, was Clinton’s desig- once obscure governor of Massachu- that theory that someone like Hillary and tried to get the mother to abort it. nated representative to the commission setts named did dur- Clinton who is of Washington — who Not a word of truth to that, either. that investigated the 9/11 attacks that ing the Boston Police Strike of 1919, lives in Washington, who worked for occurred less than nine months after when the laconic New Englander (“Si- the last term for President Obama in JOHN CASSIDY of the - Clinton left office. While representing lent Cal”) declared in ringing terms: Washington, who served in the Senate er, another real sweetheart, called Gov. Clinton, Berger frequented the National “There is no right to strike against the in Washington, who lived in the White Walker “an odious politician whose Archives. Later, he was fined $50,000 public safety by anybody, anywhere, House in Washington, who spent the ascension to the presidency would be for surreptitiously taking highly classi- any time.” That statement of principle early days of her career in Washing- a disaster.” It sounds as if it would be fied documents from the Archives and electrified the country and led to his ton — this is someone who embodies more of a relief. destroying some of them. election as vice-president in 1920, and Washington.” Recommended reading: “See Scott then a highly successful tenure in the Run” by John McCormack in the ANOTHER CLINTON presidency White House when he succeeded War- OH, SHE’S extraordinary, all right, March 23, 2015, Weekly Standard, for probably would include a reprise of the ren G. Harding as president in 1923. and the American people may be sick something tells us Scott Walker has couple’s well-known patterns of be- And yet Scott Walker has been dis- of that kind of inbred Washington elite. only begun to run for president of the havior. Voters will make an informed missed as just an ordinary person, a For good reason. As governor of his United States. choice. 4 Conservative Chronicle CLINTONS: March 31, 2015 How do you solve a problem like the Clintons? his being the 50th anniversary Recall that IRS Commissioner John of the filmThe Sound of Music, Koskinen testified under oath before a please permit me a poor adap- congressional committee and claimed tionT of a few of its song lyrics, which fit in that the emails of Lois Lerner, the IRS’s nicely with our current political climate. former director of the Exempt Organiza- tions Unit, had been “lost” and the IRS HOW DO YOU solve a problem like servers unrecoverable, only the Clintons? Their incessant vacuuming to later discover they were of cash and skirt- not lost and were, in ing (no pun intend- Cal fact, recovered. ed) of laws and If Hillary Clin- regulations would Thomas ton has nothing to place lesser mor- (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services hide, she will hand tals in danger of over the server. prison, yet the Clintons’ walk free, their Truly private emails can be kept private. money-making careers booming. Any others that survived erasure should “Dough, we fear, we need more, dear be revealed, or this will — and should ‘Ray,’ the name of a Clinton foe — hang over her anticipated presidential Me, a name that fits myself candidacy, along with other dark clouds. Fah, as far from law I run So, I say when bending laws FORMER BILL CLINTON aide La, a shrug to follow so turned political pundit, , Tee(off), with me for lots of ‘bread’ says that neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton as long as those government checks keep NOW BACK to The Sound of Mu- Which brings us back to dough.” types well, and email messages longer coming. By not expecting more, we get sic. How do you solve a problem like And lots of it. than a few words were likely composed less. We get less because the people we the Clintons? You keep them away from OK, so I’m not Rogers or Hammer- and sent by aides from the aides’ own elect to public office often reflect the ethi- elective office. You tell them “So long. stein, but, joking aside, why can’t Hill- email accounts. Those servers and email cal concerns and practices of the country. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen. Goodnight.” ary Clinton just hand over the email records should also be subpoenaed for server she kept in her home for “private” examination by an independent investi- HILLARY CLINTON: March 27, 2015 emails? I’ll tell you why, because she, or gator. You can bet the Obama Justice De- someone else, has wiped it clean and we partment won’t do anything. Was that one are to take her word for it that there was of the reasons Hillary spent an hour with nothing there before it was wiped. President Obama last week at the White One doesn’t have to think long or House? Hillary in quicksand hard about how this would play if Hill- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who is ex- CBS Poll conducted at the Particularly important are Hillary’s ary Clinton were a Republican (which pected to announce his presidential candi- end of March shows that abysmal ratings among Independents, she once was). Liberal editorialists and dacy in April, has vowed to make Hillary Americans accept, for now, where she has a 36 percent unfavorable commentators would be screaming about Clinton’s ethics — or lack of them — a HillaryA Clinton’s explanation of why and only a 19 percent favorable. a cover-up, her questionable ethics, her major part of his campaign. He should. she kept all her emails on a non-gov- Is she “honest and trustworthy?” unfitness to be president and calling for The Clintons have a lot of political bag- ernment server. While 62 percent feel Americans as a whole say no, 42 to 47 someone else to challenge her. gage; so much, in fact, that if their po- it was “inappropriate” to do so, they percent, while Independents All Hillary Clinton would have to do litical baggage were real baggage, they’d largely buy her give her a scorch- to keep this latest outrage from becoming likely be charged an overweight fee on explanation of ing negative of 34 even more outrageous is to turn over the any commercial airliner. But, of course, why she did so. Dick to 52 percent. With server to an independent third party, as they fly private. Forty-nine percent Morris only one Indepen- requested by Rep. (R-S.C.), The big question is will the public accept that it was dent voter in three (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate who heads a special House committee care? We expect so little of our politicians just for the conve- finding her hon- looking into the terrorist attack on the these days that ethics and morals don’t nience of not hav- est or trustworthy, U.S. consulate in Benghazi. seem to matter as much as they once did, ing to use two devices while 38 percent there is clearly big trouble ahead for suspect that she wanted to conceal their Hillary as she announces her candidacy. content. Reports of Clinton wealth and mas- sive speaking fees, often from foreign BUT HILLARY has, in effect, nations, has led to a sharp drop in the stepped into quicksand. The more she perception that she “cares about the struggles to keep her server and emails needs and problems of people like you” private, the more voters will believe from 73 to 25 in the fall of 2013, to 56 she used a separate server to cover to 39 now. them up. Her explanation that she did But, by its very nature, the more the so out of “convenience” will wear thin emails are litigated, the more sinister with each subpoena battle, court order Hillary’s motivation for concealment and instance of Clinton stonewalling. will appear. More broadly, the CBS News poll, Will she survive the email scandal? taken in the wake of the email scandal Of course she will. Nixon survived the (poll dates: March 21-23) show that White House tapes scandal. It was what Hillary’s popularity is underwater na- was on those tapes that forced his resig- tionally, with only 26 percent viewing nation. And so it is with Hillary. her favorably and 37 percent holding an unfavorable opinion. This 11-point WHEN WE all learn the real reason deficit contrasts with a five-point net she concealed the emails, she will fall positive rating by CBS during the fall all the harder for our sense of disillu- of 2015 when her ratings were 38 to 33. sion. April 8, 2015 5 2016 ELECTION: March 27, 2015 The Republican racing form: First edition ith Ted Cruz announcing the American story in a party that lost Obvious liability: His name. True, it unwarranted influence. Sure, everyone and Rand Paul and Marco the Hispanic vote by 44 points in 2012. helps him raise tens of millions of dol- panders to Iowa, but Walker’s calling Rubio soon to follow, it’s Liabilities (in the primaries): His lars, but it saddles him with legacy and card is standing up to pressure. timeW to start handicapping the horses Gang of Eight immigration apostasy, dynastic issues that negate the inherent Most encouraging sign: ability to and making enemies. though his current enforcement-first GOP advantage of running a new vs. maintain altitude after meteoric rise. No point in wasting time on the Dem- position has wide appeal. Second, after old, not- again campaign against Numbers remain steady. And his ocratic field. There is none. The only Barack Obama, will voters want anoth- Hill- ary. speeches continue to impress. thing that can stop Hillary Clinton is an er first-term sena- Odds: 7-2. Odds: 4-1. act of God, and he seems otherwise oc- tor with no execu- Charles 3. Scott Walker. A cupied. As does Elizabeth Warren, the tive experience? fine record of con- SECOND TIER: only Democrat who could conceivably (Same for Cruz Krauthammer servative achieve- 4. . Some politi- defeat her. and Paul.) (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group ment. Has shown cians have their one moment. Christie On to the GOP. Major appeal: guts and leader- might have missed his in 2012 when Fresh, young, dynamic persona is a ship in taking on labor unions and win- his fearless in-your-face persona was FIRST TIER: powerful counterpoint to Clinton fa- ning three elections (five if you count refreshingly new. Over time, howev- 1. Marco Rubio. Trails badly in cur- tigue. proxy elections) against highly ener- er, in-your-face can wear badly. That rent polls, ranking seventh at five per- Odds: 3-1. gized Democrats. plus Bridgegate cost him traction and cent, but high upside potential. 2. Jeb Bush. The consensus favorite Good, rousing speech in Iowa, but dropped him out of the first tier. Biggest Assets: Foreign policy looms unchar- (though I remain a bit skeptical). Solid, has stumbled since, flubbing routine problem: being boxed out ideologically acteristically large in the current cycle, soft-spoken, serious, with executive ex- questions on evolution and patriotism, and financially by Jeb Bush for the rel- and Rubio is the most knowledgeable perience and significant achievements then appearing to compare the Islam- atively-moderate-governor-with-cross- and fluent current contender on every- as governor. What he lacks in passion, ic State to Wisconsin demonstrators. aisle-appeal slot. 12-1. thing from Russia to Cuba to the Middle he makes up for in substance. And he Rookie mistakes, easily forgotten — if 5. Ted Cruz. Grand, florid campaign East. The son of Cuban immigrants, he has shown backbone in sticking to his he learns from them. launch with matching rhetoric. Straight- can break into flawless Spanish (so can semi-heretical positions on immigration Pandered on ethanol and fired a forward base-oriented campaign. Has Jeb Bush) and speak passionately about and Common Core. staffer who complained about Iowa’s developed a solid following. Could break out, especially in debate. 15-1. 6. . Great name rec- 2016 ELECTION: March 26, 2015 ognition, affable, popular. But highly identified with social/cultural issues — how far can that carry him beyond Iowa and evangelicals? 15-1. How about a better 2016 agenda 7. Rand Paul. Events have conspired Hillary in quicksand “In your heart you know he’s right,” Cruz will face a problem similar to back” (www.opportunitylives.com/ against him. Obama’s setbacks and hu- was Barry Goldwater’s presidential that of a TV evangelist: competing for comeback/). The series highlights miliations abroad have created a nation- campaign slogan in 1964. dollars and votes from a fixed number stories about drug addicts, alcoholics, al mood less conducive to Paul’s non- The critics of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), of voters. When Sen. Marco Rubio (R- abusers, gamblers, prostitutes and oth- interventionism. His nearly 13-hour who announced Monday he is running FL.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY.) jump ers, who with inspiration, motivation anti-drone filibuster would not fly today. for president, are effectively saying into the race, perhaps followed by and perspiration are now inspiring oth- Is trying to tack back, even signing the of him: “In your head you know he’s Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and ers to pull themselves up and out of anti-Iran-deal letter of the 47 senators. nuts.” Dr. , all will seek money dire circumstances without help from Strong youth appeal, though outreach to Even before his announcement, Cruz and votes from the same donor pool. the government. In fact, some of those minorities less successful thus far. Bot- was labeled with the typical modifiers None of these men knows how to unite interviewed say they had been through tom line: High floor of devoted liber- the left uses to scare people who don’t conservatives much less the indepen- many government programs and that tarians; low ceiling in today’s climate. pay much attention to politics — ex- dents that those experienced in politics none of them helped. 30-1. treme, far right, out of the mainstream. believe one must attract to win. While “Comeback” is partly Ryan’s brainchild, the series is not about him, LONGER SHOTS: IN THE RUN-UP to the next elec- or Republicans. It’s about overcomers 8. Carly Fiorina. Getting her foot- tion, the left and their media colleagues Cal who do the work necessary to escape ing. Given current societal taboos, she will try to fool Republicans into nomi- poverty and addiction. The trailer con- is best placed to attack Hillary and has nating a mushy moderate from the Thomas cludes with this question from Wood- done so effectively. Can she do a Huck- party’s establishment wing. You know, (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services son: “What do you think is the answer abee 2008 and, through debates, vault someone like “President John Mc- to poverty? Well, let me show you what to the first tier? Unlikely. But because Cain,” or “President Mitt Romney.” HERE’S SOME advice, not only I saw.” she’s talented and disciplined, not im- They know that if the GOP falls for for Cruz, but for the other would-be There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer possible. 50-1. this line again, conservatives will stay candidates: Instead of nonstop attacks to poverty and the videos show people 9. Ben Carson. Polling high, but is home and Hillary Clinton will be the on President Obama, adopt a positive addressing different challenges in cre- a novice making cringe-worthy gaffes, next president. and future-oriented agenda. ative ways. These approaches should for example, on the origins of Islam and What the establishment and the left Cruz and the other candidates can not be the exclusive property of one on gay choice (“a lot of people who go really dislike about Cruz is that he start by considering some uplifting political party or candidate. Focusing into prison go in straight — and when paints in bold colors. You know where new videos created by Bob Woodson, on what works is better than ideologi- they come out they’re gay”). And not he stands, whether or not you agree president of the Center for Neighbor- cal bomb-throwing, as even Hillary knowing that the Baltic States are in with his positions. There is little chance hood Enterprise and Rep. Paul Ryan Clinton suggested in recent remarks. NATO. Truly good man, brilliant doc- Cruz will say one thing on Monday and (R-WI.), who recently accompanied tor, great patriot. But not ready for the reverse himself on Tuesday to placate Woodson on a tour of some of Amer- WOODSON AND Ryan have cre- big leagues. Chance of winning? Zero. a different audience. Weak men fear ica’s poverty pockets. They spoke ated something that could shift the strong men (and strong women) be- with people once considered beyond political debate for 2016, if Cruz and OTHERS: cause the strong expose their weak- redemption, but who have turned their the other candidates listen and get the Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Rick San- ness. Better for the weak to eliminate lives around. attention of those voters who are dis- torum and — still below the strong and hide among other weak The result is a just released seven- gusted with a dysfunctional and costly radar. If they surface, they’ll be featured people. part online video series called “Come- federal government. in the next racing form. 6 Conservative Chronicle GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS: March 27, 2015 Even if God didn’t give the Constitution, act like He did s an atheist, I suppose I should secular, are universal, that they can’t be be deeply troubled by Ted repealed or restrained or undone by de- Cruz’s God-heavy presiden- mocracy, university presidents or rhetor- tialA announcement. Although the ically gifted presidents. senator’s blast of old-fashioned Ameri- If that’s God’s position — or, more can exceptionalism garnered most of specifically, if enough people think that’s the chortling media’s attention, it’s what His position — well then He’s my co- troubles me the least about his aspira- pilot, as well. tions. If the politi- By the way, here’s cians treated the John F. Kennedy in ideals of the En- David his Inaugural Ad- lightenment as if Harsanyi dress on Jan. 20, they were handed (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate 1961: “And yet down from heaven the same revolu- rather than a pliable set of guidelines per- tionary beliefs for which our forebears petually bending to accommodate the va- fought are still at issue around the globe garies of contemporary politics, I imag- — the belief that the rights of man come ine the world would be a better place. not from the generosity of the state but They don’t. from the hand of God.” Weird, huh. AS ONE reporter for Yahoo! News On one side of the deep cultural di- asked during Cruz’s speech on : vide, the very notion that God tells us “Bizarre to talk about how rights are anything is silly. That’s why you see God-made and not man-made in your many journalists react with confusion conferred rights on us that restrict state- means Obamacare — was a “right.” The speech announcing a POTUS bid? When or with contemptuous tweets or feel the driven do-gooderism is problematic. If idea is that a right to buy insurance in a Constitution was man-made?” need to highlight something so obvious. you imagine the Constitution is merely fabricated state-run marketplace is more The Declaration of Independence On a political level, the idea that God can as “man-made” (like, say, a gun-control vital than the right to self-defense (that states, “We hold these truths to be self-ev- give us unalienable rights only threatens bill or Medicaid expansion), then con- one Obama isn’t crazy about). A few ident, that all men are created equal, that an agenda that doesn’t exactly hold your temporary men can fix it. They can do years back, the president argued that they are endowed by their Creator with right to live in peace without interfer- this by whittling away what’s wrong and “dignity and opportunity aren’t just gifts certain unalienable Rights, that among ence sacred. And this lack of reverence adding what’s moral whenever they see to be handed down by a generous govern- these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit for rights will lead to a serious battle be- fit. They can start by tacking new rights ment or by a generous employer; they are of Happiness.” This founding document tween religious freedom and progressive on whenever something troubles them rights given by God, as undeniable and informs the Constitution, which restricts aims. or whenever it’s advantageous to do so. worth protecting as the Grand Canyon or government from meddling in important FDR already thought up the Second Bill the Great Smoky Mountains.” I imagine areas of our lives. That’s how the Found- AND FOR THOSE who believe the of Rights, a list that has essentially super- this idea is shared by many millions. ers saw it. That’s how we’ve pretended primary source of human decency and seded the original for many liberals. Was that bizarre? Does a government to see it for a long time. Some of us be- fairness is the Internal Revenue Ser- Not long ago, President Obama ar- have the fundamental right to provide all lieve that these natural rights, divine or vice, the idea that a magical being has gued that health care — and by this he citizens with a good paycheck or a union job assembling subsidized wind tur- bines? If there is a God, I suspect he may well want us to get rid of the IRS and pass a flat tax so we can fill our returns on a postcard every year. But that issue, like the right to free community college, is a matter of contemporary policy and process, not a right. What is the promise of America? The idea that — the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights don’t come from man. They come from God Almighty.

CRUZ’S SPEECH, with too many bromides for my own tastes, was the kind of unadulterated American ideal- ism that the smart people in Washington like to ridicule. “God’s blessing has been on America since the very beginning of this nation. And I believe God isn’t done with America yet,” Cruz says. I dunno. I hope so. “Revolutionary” or not, Cruz’s contention that we are providentially guaranteed certain rights is a basic idea of American history, one that journal- ists should be well acquainted with. And don’t get me wrong; I don’t have high hopes for the Ted Cruz administration. But mocking him for restating traditional ideals about faith’s role in governance is bizarre. April 8, 2015 7 MEDIA BIAS: March 25, 2015 Pretty Boy: Do you actually know what’s in the news? hen NBC Nightly News ABC executives could go for long anchor Brian Williams lunches and look forward to cashing crashed and burned over their bonus checks. Muir is young, all Wthe tall tales he had told, there must dashing — one of People magazine’s have been mirth in the hallways at 2014 “Sexiest Men Alive” — and the ABC. proud recipient of the Walter In the highly Cronkite journalism competitive world award. of TV news, find- Ann The vanquished ing the right an- Brian Williams chor is crucial Coulter had told most to a network’s (c) 2015, Ann Coulter of his fictions This would work great if Ameri- a bald-faced lie invented by Brown’s brand. After run- off air. The only can cops were bobbies arrest- ex-con co-conspirator Dorian John- ning through a few pretenders, ABC thing ABC execs had to worry about ing public school louts, but we have a son. No mention of the police officer had finally filled the iconic Peter Jen- with Muir was that the new guy would somewhat different urban reality in the being fully exonerated in two separate nings’ seat on World News Tonight just tell fairy tales ON AIR, which is so U.S. There’s no question but that the investigations. No recognition of the months earlier with David Muir. ABC much less important. “retraining” will get cops killed. fact that Officer Darren Wilson was an was perfectly poised to snatch the top Last week, Muir began the news Muir led off his broadcast with a re- exemplar of good police work. spot from NBC. with a story about the retraining of cap of the event that led to the retrain- That summary — “Ferguson, Mis- New York City police officers under ing: “Ferguson, Missouri: An unarmed souri: An unarmed black man, Michael DURING HIS first six months as Commissioner Bill Bratton. To fulfill black man, Michael Brown, is shot to Brown, is shot to death. The officer World News anchor, the newly minted the new policy of not inconvenienc- death. The officer is not indicted.” is not indicted” — is nothing short of Muir had beaten Williams only a half- ing criminals, cops are being taught Goebbels-like propaganda. dozen times. But after Williams’ fall to subdue violent suspects without AND THAT was it: “The officer is Muir’s statement of the facts would from grace, ABC sailed to the most- harming them, requiring the officers to not indicted.” Nothing about how the be wrong-headed and lefty if done be- watched evening news program. learn a series of Bolshoi ballet moves. “hands up, don’t shoot” hysteria was fore the Department of Justice issued its report on the Ferguson shooting. But Muir gave his summary well after MONICA LEWINSKY: March 27, 2015 the DOJ’s months-long, ridiculously expensive investigation had found that Officer Wilson had shot Brown in justifiable self-defense. There are Monica Lewinsky lectures America more beefcake photos of David Muir ED Talks are a hot liberal She might have been ashamed, noxious dose of revisionist history on Google than there are unjustifiable video series. The 20-minute but now the public should feel more — not to mention hypocrisy. One can shootings of unarmed black men in talks, usually taped in Van- ashamed for making her feel ashamed. sympathize with her humiliation, and Ferguson. couver,T have become such a viral force “For nearly two decades now, we millions did, in real time. But then what To be sure, Muir is new on the job, on the Internet that NPR now has a have been slowly sowing the seeds of happened? young, callow, a little insecure about weekly TED Radio Hour. shame and public humiliation in our In 1999, she was reportedly paid his lack of experience. Maybe he TED’s mission statement proclaims cultural soil, both on-and off-line,” Le- more than $1 million to narrate a best- didn’t know any better. a passionate belief in “the power of winsky announced. “Gossip websites, selling book to Andrew Morton called So we need to know from Dave ideas to change attitudes, lives and paparazzi, reality programming, poli- Monica’s Story. In it, she declared, “I which of these is true: ultimately, the world.” TED offers “a tics, news outlets, and sometimes hack- don’t want to make a career out of be- (A) You knew that Big Mike never clearinghouse that offers free knowl- ers all traffic in shame.” ing Monica Lewinsky. I haven’t done had his hands up, and the cop wasn’t edge and inspiration from the world’s anything to be proud of.” indicted because there is no more rea- most inspired thinkers.” But that’s what happened. She now son for him to be indicted than for you Brent shames the commodification of embar- to be indicted in the shooting, but you OR THEY’RE seeking the most Bozell rassment, but in 2000, two years after just didn’t give a crap. Internet clicks. Because their most the scandal, she hosted the U.K. docu- Or: (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate recent “most inspired thinker” was ... mentary series Monica’s Postcards. She (B) You didn’t know any of that. Monica Lewinsky. SHE CONTINUED: “This inva- also appeared on Saturday Night Live If Muir didn’t know his summary Seventeen years after the Year of sion of others is a raw material, effi- and on comedian Tom Green’s MTV was a lie, then he doesn’t even have a Our Intern, Lewinsky should be doing ciently and ruthlessly mined, packaged, show in an episode titled “Tom Brings passing familiarity with the news. In something different. To quote the lib- and sold at a profit. A marketplace has Monica Lewinsky to Canada.” She fact, after all the Sturm und Drang over eral lingo during that time, “move on.” emerged where public humiliation is a shames reality TV, but in 2003 hosted Ferguson, it would mean that ABC’s Yet it is Lewinsky who keeps returning commodity, and shame is an industry.” the reality show Mr. Personality on evening news anchor has managed to to the scene of her obscene behavior, All this talk of commodification Fox. keep himself so astonishingly ignorant and now insists we feel her pain, that thrills liberal ears, and she dreamed out That’s humiliation, mined for profit. of current events that he really should she is the “Patient Zero” of “slut sham- loud of a revolution, a powerful wave So might be this new narrative. At be filing reports about seat cushions in ing.” like the rush to embrace gay marriage. the risk of displaying an empathy defi- America. Lewinsky wishes to reinvent herself “What we need is a cultural revolution. cit, it’s quite possible that after her But it’s also possible that Muir knew as an evangelist and a guru, but how to Public shaming as a blood-sport has to TED Talk, Lewinsky may now be able his Ferguson recap was a complete lie do it? Call it shame-shaming. stop. And it’s time for an intervention, to create a whole new enterprise as a and decided his best course was to pro- She told a story of being nearly sui- on the Internet and on our culture,” she paid lecturer against slut-shaming, cy- mote the left-leaning agenda of ABC cidal in the days of Ken Starr’s inves- proclaimed. “We need to return to a berbulling and online harassment. How News. A prettier face, but the same old tigation and Clinton’s impeachment, long-held value of compassion. Com- many campuses and businesses will propaganda. and how her mother feared she would passion and empathy. Online, we’ve now fork over a large fee for such a fa- kill herself. She was deeply ashamed got a compassion deficit, an empathy mous (or infamous) expert? WE’RE DYING to know which it by the tapes Linda Tripp made that crisis.” is. When you have a moment, Dave, showed how catty and shallow she This drew a standing ovation from MONICA, SHAME on you. If it’s drop us a tweet and let us know. sounded. her audience, but it came with an ob- still OK to say that, of course. 8 Conservative Chronicle TED CRUZ: March 27, 2015 Cruzing toward resurrection of mainstream conservatism he ambush-prone mainstream trinsically unreasonable and their views tive ideas as if you truly believe in them somehow you think it is a hard line to media (MSM) has difficulty are abominably toxic. and present them enthusiastically as present a positive optimistic vision. My trapping Sen. Ted Cruz, not just Second, what does Lauer mean in common-sense solutions for our myriad speech today talked about imagining an becauseT he is mentally agile and verbally asking, “Is there room?” Is he wonder- problems. The effective conservative America that gets back to free-market adroit. He has truth and authenticity on ing whether Cruz would turn moderates candidate, as Cruz has said, is able to cut principles and the constitutional liberties his side, and it is much harder to trip up away if they announced their support out the middleman and the the country was built on.” someone of that description. for him — which distorting filter of the Liberals have done such a thorough Media watchdog Newsbusters shares is absurd? Is he MSM and go direct- job of demonizing conservatism, at least a litany of examples of MSM hosts doing asking whether he David ly to the American in their own minds, that they assume it’s their best to demean Cruz following the would moderate Limbaugh people to make his a given that conservatism is a skewed announcement of his presidential cam- his views to win case. It will sell. ideology held only by people who are paign. Let’s just glance at a few of those. them over, even if (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Lauer further innately lacking in compassion, back- he thinks he would accused Cruz of ward-thinking and harsh. Happily, the NBC’S MATT LAUER, co-host of be diluting and thus rendering less ef- developing a reputation as someone who opposite holds true. Today, was first up to bat for team MSM. fective ideas that he believes must be will not compromise and asked whether You see, liberals can’t understand He said to Cruz, “Senator, you’re a guy pursued to get this nation back on track? he’d “bring that brand of no-compro- Cruz’s strategy because they totally mis- who’s known for taking on your own par- Or is he inquiring whether Cruz would mise to the White House” if elected. You understand conservatism. It is not, as ty. ... You’ve also led your party into some come up with some clever gimmick to mean, as opposed to that more extreme many of them actually appear to believe, fights that backfired — the defunding of pretend to meet “moderates” halfway brand of no-compromise that character- any of the terrible things they ascribe to Obamacare comes to mind.” (Yeah, I’m like Obama invariably does before be- izes the Obama administration? it. sure this just came to Matt’s mind as he traying his promises? ABC News White House correspon- was formulating the sentence.) “So you dent Jon Karl was even more pointed, AS CRUZ HAS built his reputation have detractors,” said Lauer, “not only CRUZ RESPONDED that he in- asking Cruz, “How are you with that on the mantle of authentic conservatism, across the aisle, but within your own par- tends to stand on principle instead of hard-line conservative message going to it will be his primary job to resurrect it ty. How can you win the nomination un- — though he did not say this — pander- appeal to moderates and independents? as contagiously appealing and eminently less you build a much broader coalition ing. How refreshing. How Reaganesque. Nobody gets elected without appealing mainstream. It will be his task, in other than the one you already have?” What many liberals and all too many to them.” words, to awaken and embolden the bat- These close-minded MSMers are fond GOP Beltway denizens don’t grasp is Again, Cruz rejected the premise and tered, bruised and currently discouraged of asking these “When did you stop beat- that the best strategy for winning na- struck back. “You know, Jon, it’s a funny majority. I’m looking forward to this. ing your wife?” questions. It is hardly an tional elections is to articulate conserva- thing when you work in the media that established fact that Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare “backfired.” I doubt he ever March 25, 2015 believed he had a good chance of defeat- OBAMA PRESIDENCY: ing it. I think it was more about making a statement, calling attention to the egre- giousness of the bill and rallying opposi- tion to it across the country — perhaps The secret life of Barack Obama to reassure Americans that not everyone here is a unicorn lair in North Iran’s repeated statements that it intends the country, which has been plunged into has thrown in the towel and to keep our Korea. We know this because to wipe Israel from the map simply show full-scale civil war by the Iranian-backed hopes alive that one day we might be the Dear Leader of North Ko- that Iran requires more concessions, not Houthi militias. able to eradicate it. rea,T Kim Jung Un, tells us so. Accord- less. Iran’s open suggestion that snap But the real threat to global peace, Cruz conceded the importance of ing to the official Korean Central News nuclear inspections be ruled out of ne- in President Obama’s world, lies with building a coalition, but rejected the Agency, archaeologists have “recently gotiations show it is untrusting, not un- the quarrelsome Jews some 1,200 miles premise that it is necessary to dilute his reconfirmed” the existence of the uni- trustworthy. Iran’s expansionist policies to the northwest. There, the democratic principles in the process. Cruz said, “We corn lair dating back to the Koryo King- in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are country of Israel has endangered its sta- need to bring together the old Reagan co- dom (918-1392). all growing pains that can be eased by tus as a democracy by failing to negoti- alition of conservatives and evangelicals Western kowtowing. ate with terrorism-backing Palestinians; and libertarians and Republican women PRESIDENT OBAMA has his own there, Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- and young people...” unicorn lair. It is the world as it exists yahu, a troublesome Jew if ever there Lauer said, “And moderates?” Is there inside his head, Walter Mitty-style. In no Ben was one, insists that Iran, not Jews build- room in Cruz’s Republican Party for way does this world resemble reality; it Shapiro ing bathrooms in East Jerusalem, repre- those who are socially liberal, for those is a bizarre fantasyland of Obama’s own sents a threat to global order. If only the (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate who are pro-choice, for those who sup- construction, in which he is all-power- United States could achieve some day- port gay marriage?” ful, all-knowing and always right. It is a IN FACT, in President Obama’s light between itself and the Jewish state, First, would Lauer ever ask a Demo- world in which his foreign policy predic- world, Yemen is a shining example of all would be well — even though Jor- cratic candidate a similar question from tions come true, in which his policies are American foreign policy at work. Just dan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have never the other side? Would he ask President successful, in which the flaming world months ago, Obama used Yemen as his drawn closer to Netanyahu, knowing Obama how ardent Second-Amendment he has helped create sparkles rather than paradigm of functional anti-terrorism; that Netanyahu is a far better guarantor supporters, opponents of his open-bor- burns. two days ago, Obama’s press secretary, of their security against an Iranian bomb ders policy, those who reject his global- In President Obama’s world, Iran , said that Yemen “did serve than Barack Obama. warming hysteria, pro-lifers, supply-sid- is not a threat, but an ally. Iran, in this as a sort of template for the kind of strat- ers and strong constitutionalists would fit world, is not an Islamic dictatorship, but egy that we would employ to mitigate DELUSIONAL dictatorship is a into his rigidly leftist ideological coali- a rational actor simply demanding the the threat from extremists around the danger to regional peace. But delusional tion? global respect to which it is entitled. The world.” Earnest claimed that the Obama American leadership is a threat to glob- The answer is “no,” because it never Ayatollah Khamenei’s public statements administration’s anti-terror policy in Ye- al peace. Nonetheless, things are going occurs to liberals that people holding of “Death to America” constitute a rhe- men helped to “stabiliz[e] the country so swimmingly in Barack Obama’s head. such views are worthy of being wooed torical love tap, designed for a “domes- extremists can’t use it to plot against the Iran is a regional ally, Yemen is a model into any coalition, save perhaps the tic political audience” — presumably an West.” Last month, the American em- of peace and security, and Israel is an in- KKK. To people like Lauer, it would not audience to whom the ayatollahs must bassy closed in Yemen, with its Marine cipient enemy. The unicorns still roam be admirable for a liberal to appeal to answer, despite the lack of real elec- guard evacuated without its weapons. free, even if free people live in danger of true conservatives, because they are in- tions in Iran for well over three decades. Last week, the last American forces left chains. April 8, 2015 9 2016 ELECTION: March 26, 2015 GOP can have 2016 success with an experienced candidate he latest CNN/ORC presiden- And that has led, as we’ve seen rosurgeon and conservative star, nine out any legislative accomplishments to tial poll shows that Hillary over the course of his administration, percent; New Jersey Gov. Chris Chris- speak of, he is an official candidate. Clinton continues to lead all to a string of mismanagement abuses tie, seven percent; and freshman Sen. He delivers a great speech, and since of T the GOP contenders by wide mar- and scandals, from the Department of Marco Rubio of Texas, also at seven his election has appeared all over the gins. Veteran Affairs to the Internal Revenue percent. country, but ready to run America? If that’s not depressing enough, the Service; six painful years of an un- Everyone else draws five percent or Clinton believes she’s ready to run numbers show that none of the top derperforming economy; higher pov- less, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the country, too. But there is really very Republican candidates are within 10 erty; long-term unemployment; and a who’s announced his candidacy, and little in her resume to suggest she has points of the former secretary of state shrinking workforce. former Texas Gov. Rick Per- had any impact on domestic or foreign in 2016 election matchups. Compared to ry, who ran in 2012, policy — either in the Senate or as sec- I think it’s a bit early to take these the weak field both at four percent. retary of state. preliminary polls very seriously, but of candidates Donald A quick look at President Clinton gave his wife her veteran political analyst William Kris- the GOP had to Lambro the success rate of first big challenge when he asked her tol says, on the contrary, Republicans choose from in senators winning to come up with a health care reform “should worry about these numbers.” 2012, which in- (c) 2015, United Media Services the presidency program he would send to Congress in cluded a former over the past half- 1993. WHAT KRISTOL means is that pizza chain executive with a shady past century isn’t very promising. But the bill she drew up with a White Hillary’s early strength in the polls is and a former senator who lost his seat Until Obama’s election in 2008, the House task force was so flawed and a warning that Republicans had better in a failed re-election bid, the talent- only president who went directly from controversial that it was never brought choose their presidential nominee care- heavy lineup in this presidential cycle the Senate to the was John up for a vote in the Democratic-run fully in next year’s caucuses and pri- is a breath of fresh air. F. Kennedy in 1960. And he was in his House or Senate. maries. And, equally important, they’d Notably, it includes half a dozen second Senate term. It was a humiliating defeat for the better start laying the political ground- governors and former governors, and Clintons, who looked like they didn’t work and building on their issues now, possibly more state chief executives SINCE THEN, four former vice know what they were doing, even with because Hillary will be no pushover. who may decide to enter the race later presidents and four former governors the advantage of a Democratic Con- Why? Her campaign will be run by this year. have occupied the White House be- gress. the nation’s foremost political strate- Among the nearly dozen or so con- tween 1963 and 2008. She ran for the Senate in 2000 in gist and tactician — her husband, Bill tenders now on the list, former That’s why it has always mystified heavily Democratic New York, against Clinton. Gov. Jeb Bush leads the pack with 16 me to see freshmen senators, seem- charges of carpetbagging, but won her To soundly defeat her, the GOP percent, according to the CNN/ORC ingly on their first day in the Senate, seat handily, cruised to a second term nominee must be able to appeal to the poll of GOP voters. begin thinking seriously that they are and immediately began plotting to run widest possible spectrum of the Ameri- He is followed by Gov. Scott Walker qualified to run the country and the free for president in 2008. can electorate with a proven record of of Wisconsin at 13 percent, Kentucky world. Outgunned by Obama’s rock star hands-on executive experience. This Sen. Rand Paul at 12 percent and for- No sooner had Ted Cruz — who oratory, it was clear that Hillary was is in sharp contrast to Hillary — and mer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at won election in 2012 — taken his seat incapable of dealing with the rough- to Barack Obama, who had never run 10 percent. in the Senate in January 2013 than he and-tumble of presidential politics. The secret life of Barack Obama anything until he won the presidency. All the others fall into the single had set his sights on the Oval Office. Upon being picked for the post of And it showed. digits: Dr. Ben Carson, a former neu- Two years into a six-year term, with- secretary of state, a job for which she had zero foreign policy experience, she set a goal of visiting more countries than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, a longtime national security ex- pert. In the end, Hillary left behind a me- diocre, incompetent record at State that was entirely overshadowed by a major catastrophe in Benghazi, Libya, where she turned a deaf ear to the anguished, repeated pleas to beef up security at the U.S. consulate. To this day, after countless House and Senate hearings, she has never fully explained what led to the deaths of our U.S. ambassador and three other Americans at the hands of terrorists who overran the consulate. Nor why in the initial hours, her staff falsely described the attacks as a dem- onstration that got out of hand. “What difference, at this point, does it make?” she told a Senate hearing — a remark that we will hear in GOP campaign ads throughout the 2016 election.

CAN HILLARY be defeated? Sure. But only by nominating an experienced candidate, preferably from a major state, who’s run a government, enacted agendas, and knows what it will take to make America prosperous, safe and the leader of the free world. 10 Conservative Chronicle

HILLARY CLINTON: March 31, 2015 Hillary using racism template to weaponize sexism? f Hillary Clinton survives her words and topics and just as Obama sup- myriad real scandals and becomes porters have done with race for six years. the Democratic presidential candi- West and company probably have ob- dateI for 2016, are we going to be blud- served Obama’s success in pre-emptively geoned with sexism the same way Barack silencing his critics and figure the same Obama’s supporters have exploited “rac- tactic will work for them — honesty, in- ism?” tegrity and gender relations If recent rum- be damned, just as blings from Clin- David Obama’s dema- ton supporters are gogues have self- any indication, I’m Limbaugh ishly exacerbated afraid this could be (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate racial tensions in the case. the United States. New York Times reporter Amy Chozick I’m serious about this. How can honest recently received an email from a Clin- observers deny that Obama and Attorney ton-supporting group, called HRC Super General Eric Holder’s weaponizing of the Volunteers, warning her, “We will be race issue has not set back race relations? watching, reading, listening and protest- Using the standards they’ve established, ing coded sexism.” How feminist of that how does their whining about race every group. You know, that sure sends a signal time someone disagrees with their outra- that its gal can fend for herself without geous actions contribute to the image of any John Wayne character’s clearing her minorities and their self-sufficiency? I doubt seriously that the self-absorbed text. Well, put it in any context you want, path before her, doesn’t it? “I’m a thin- I’ve always believed that this shame- Hillary has genuine concerns about en- and throw in her defiant attitude. Then skinned woman. Hear me purr.” less tactic has been insulting to minori- hancing respect toward women generally, tell me it was a tactful, sensitive, accept- ties and abundantly counterproductive. as her evil quarterbacking of the “bimbo able thing to say. Dare to tell me it was JOHN WEST, director of HRC Su- In fact, Obama and his supporters have eruptions” operation to defame her hus- decent or honest of her to pretend that it per Volunteers, says that sexist media abused the race card to the point of ab- band’s female victims into silence firmly makes no difference that she and others coverage is everywhere and that he aims surdity, but they are impervious to shame attests. What manifestly drive Hillary, in the Obama administration fraudulently to eradicate it. His email to some 120 over it because it still works to insulate like husband Bill, are raw political am- blamed a video for the attacks. You can’t. journalists said he and his group “will not them from scrutiny and accountability, no bition and every delicious morsel that But along with her real heartlessness tolerate any form of sexist news cover- matter how preposterous it has become. would accompany her coveted elevation come her manufactured gender sensi- age of any woman who chooses to break So let’s get one thing straight out of to the White House. tivity and embarrassing, self-generated through glass ceilings; whether as a CEO the box. For Hillary and her henchmen, weakness. Remember when she and her or running for president of these United this isn’t about glass ceilings, respect for HILLARY CAN be as tough and chivalrous protectors decimated Rick States.” He continued, “Already we have females, gender relations or even her faux heartless as any male chauvinist, as wit- Lazio for daring to approach her lectern seen the coded language of sexism and defensive sensitivity, which would be bad nessed by her callous utterance on the during a debate in the campaign for Sen- innuendo used by major news outlets and enough. It’s a calculated offensive move cause of the terrorist attacks in which ate? we are not happy.” to put her critics off balance and deflect four American diplomats were murdered She can’t have it both ways. She’s What he’s really trying to do is intimi- heat over the misconduct she’s engaged in Benghazi, Libya: “What difference, either tough as nails or a helpless wall- date, just as proponents of political cor- in and the noxious policies she’ll be en- at this point, does it make?” Her excus- flower. rectness do with their list of forbidden dorsing. ers have said that was taken out of con- I guess her HRC Super Volunteers group is opting for defenseless damsel, as West issued this threat: “You are on notice that we will be watching, reading, listen- ing and protesting coded sexism this time around in words and phrases like polariz- ing, calculating, disingenuous, insincere, ambitious, will do anything to win, rep- resents the past, out of touch, inevitable, entitled, over confident, defiant, inserting snide comments on her looks like tired, haggard, worn out ... the list goes on but I trust you get my point.” Isn’t it interesting that these bullying buffoons unwittingly happened on de- scriptors that so precisely pinpoint Hill- ary’s aura? Or was it intentional? That would be bizarre.

IF I WERE more worried about the likelihood that Hillary will become our next president, I’d probably take this stuff more seriously. But if she gets the nomi- nation and her enablers inject sexism in this way, maybe her opponents will enjoy the ironic gratification of seeing the sor- did tactic fall on its face — largely be- cause her ideological and narcissistic soul mate Barack Obama cried wolf one too many times on race and people will be on guard against it regarding gender. April 8, 2015 11 HILLARY CLINTON: March 27, 2015 Nothing inevitable about Clinton nomination new CBS poll on Hillary far out from an election. And, obviously, more likely than men to be trustworthy over her using a personal email account Clinton this week suggests only those who register and vote actu- and ethical. to conduct State Department business, that the former first lady, New ally matter on Election Day. Clinton has shown herself to be both de- YorkA senator and secretary of state faces Nonetheless, the inevitability of a HILLARY’S PROBLEMS go back fensive and secretive, neither of which a steeper road to the White House than Clinton presidency is far from secure. to her days in the White House in the qualities inspires trust. her supporters might think. Only 26 per- For one thing, many people don’t trust 1990s. Who among those who follow Clinton also seems tired. As a woman cent in the poll of the adult population her. According to the CBS poll, only 42 politics can forget the battle who is the same age as Clinton, I can un- had a favorable view of Clinton, while percent view her as over her billing re- derstand it. I travel a great deal — about 37 percent had an unfavorable opinion, trustworthy, while cords from the Rose 100,000 miles a year — but nothing like and an astonishing 36 percent said they 47 percent do not. Linda Law Firm, subpoe- Clinton will when she runs. Sixteen-hour hadn’t heard enough to form an opinion What is unusual naed but “lost,” un- days are one thing when you’re in your or were undecided. about this find- Chavez til they showed up 40s and another as you approach 70. And, ing is that it goes (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate mysteriously two let’s face it, women may hold a gender BECAUSE THE poll sampled all against the usual years later in the advantage with the public on some per- adults, not just registered voters, the gender advantage women candidates first couple’s White House residence? sonal attributes, but age isn’t one of them. poll’s political significance is limited. have on issues of trust and ethics. For From her response to the Benghazi at- Clinton will be 69 in 2016 — the Much of the general public pays little at- decades, studies and polling have shown tack, which killed a U.S. ambassador same age as was in 1980 tention to politics, and even less so this that voters think women politicians are and two other Americans, to the dustup when he ran and won in a landslide. But age was kinder to Reagan, as it often is to men. Reagan managed to convey en- ECONOMICS: March 26, 2015 ergy and vigor by riding horseback and chopping wood in his leisure time and engaging with voters and debating on the campaign trail. Clinton doesn’t seem to Who says economics is hard? have that same gift. Sure, it’s not fair that very day the Chinese go to on new ideas, and it turns luxuries into can workers as it has without the ef- women are judged more harshly on age work, Americans get a raise: common goods.” Since 2000, the price ficiencies of outsourcing. Tamny cites — but it probably matters in an election, Chinese workers, many earn- of a 50-inch plasma TV has fallen from Enrico Moretti, a Berkeley economist, even if few people are willing to say so. ingE each day about what Americans $20,000 to $550. who says that when Americans buy an Clinton has tremendous advantages spend on a Starbucks latte, produce ap- Henry Ford doubled his employees’ iPhone online, it is shipped from China — not least intelligence, ambition and parel, appliances and other stuff cheap- basic wage in 1914, supposedly to en- and the only American who touches it a fundraising juggernaut — which have ly, thereby enlarging Americans’ dis- able them to buy Fords. Actually, he is the UPS delivery person. Is it regret- discouraged other serious Democrats posable income. Americans similarly did it because in 1913 annual worker table that Americans are not doing the from entering the race. But it’s important get a raise when they shop at the stores turnover was 370 percent. He lowered assembly jobs for which Chinese are to remember that in 2008 her nomina- that made Sam Walton a billionaire. labor costs by reducing turnover and paid the “latte wage?” tion seemed pretty inevitable, too, until a the expense of constantly training new Actually, Americans incessantly little-known first-term senator decided to THE RANKS of billionaires are hires. “outsource” here at home by, for ex- launch a challenge. We all know how that constantly churned. Most of the persons ample, having Iowans grow their corn ended. on the original Forbes 400 list of rich- and dentists take care of their teeth, But Clinton can’t be beat unless some- est Americans in 1982 were off the list George jobs at which Iowans and dentists ex- one else gets in the race. Right now, for- in 2013. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s cel and the rest of us do not. LeBron mer Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley CEO, was not born until 1984. Amer- Will James could be an adequate NFL tight looks like he might make a go of it. ica needs more billionaires like him, (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group end, but why subtract time from being O’Malley isn’t a household name, but Michael Dell, Bill Gates, a superb basketball player? The lesson, neither was Barack Obama, and unlike and Steve Jobs. With the iPod, iPhone All these thoughts are from John says Tamny, is that individuals — and Obama, O’Malley has had actual execu- and iPad, unique products when intro- Tamny, a one-man antidote to economic nations — should do what they do bet- tive experience. duced, Jobs’ Apple created monopolies. obfuscation and mystification. Thomas ter than others, and let others do other Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren But instead of raising their prices, Ap- Carlyle (1795-1881), who called eco- things. keeps saying she’s not running, but she ple has cut them because “profits attract nomics “the dismal science,” never read Millions of jobs, he says, would be has a fervent fan base in the left wing of imitators and innovators.” Which is one Tamny, a Forbes editor, editor of Real- created if we banned computers, ATMs the Democratic Party and could cause reason why monopolies come and go. ClearMarkets, and now author of the and tractors. The mechanization of Clinton some problems if she decided When John D. Rockefeller began selling cheerful, mind-opening book, Popular agriculture destroyed millions of jobs to throw her hat in the ring. But there kerosene in 1870, he had approximately Economics: What the Rolling Stones, performed with hoes and scythes. Was are other Democratic senators who also four percent of the market. By 1890, he Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Cyrus McCormick a curse? could step into the fray. had 85 percent. Did he use this market Can Teach You About Economics. Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio comes dominance to gouge consumers? Kero- THE BEST WAY to (in Barack to mind. A former Eagle Scout and a de- sene prices fell from 30 cents a gallon IN THE EARLY 1970s, when the Obama’s 2008 words to Joe the Plumb- vout member of the Evangelical Lutheran in 1869 to six cents in 1897. And in the Rolling Stones were coining money er) “spread the wealth around,” is, Church of America, he seems solidly process of being branded a menacing and Britain’s top tax rate was 83 per- Tamny argues, “to leave it in the hands Middle American and would win support monopoly, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil cent, Keith Richards, lead guitarist and of the wealthy.” Personal consumption among union members and populists for made gasoline so cheap that Ford found social philosopher, said: “That’s the absorbs a small portion of their mon- his role in blocking U.S. free trade agree- a mass market for Model T’s. same as being told to leave the coun- ey and the remainder is not idle. It is ments. He also happens not to be up for Monopoly profits are social bless- try.” The Stones decamped to France, invested by them, using the skill that re-election until 2018, which means he ings when they “signal to the ambi- leaving Britain, Tamny notes, to collect earned it. Will it be more beneficially could run without giving up his current tious the wealth they can earn by en- 83 percent of nothing. employed by the political class of a job. tering previously unknown markets.” Americans execrate “outsourcing,” confiscatory government? So “when the wealth gap widens, the which supposedly involves sending “Nothing,” Tamny demonstrates, “is IT IS FAR TOO early to know what lifestyle gap shrinks.” Hence, “income “American jobs” overseas. Well. Nike easier to understand than economics. will happen once the race for president inequality in a capitalist system is truly employs 40 times more manufacturing It is everywhere you look.” Readers begins. But I, for one, am not betting that beautiful” because “it provides the in- workers in Vietnam than in America, of his book will subsequently look at Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic centive for creative people to gamble but could not afford as many Ameri- things differently. nominee. 12 Conservative Chronicle ECONOMY: March 28, 2015 It’s time to curb your economic pessimism he economy has been in a And GDP profits are benchmarked to the fourth quarter and 3.3 percent for The Fed will probably raise its tar- tepid, soft, slow recovery for IRS tax filings, with no accounting she- 2014, will continue to advance. get rate later rather than sooner, smaller the past five-and-a-half years. nanigans. Did somebody say King Dollar? rather than larger. I’m betting on Oc- It’sT the weakest rebound in generations. Another economic positive is the It’s holding down consumer prices tober and December for some quarter- The Commerce Department’s revision rise of the consumer. Nutting of and business costs (including energy). point rate hikes. That’s consistent with of fourth-quarter GDP shows that noth- MarketWatch reminds us that consum- Even with a lousy world economy, high dollar and low commodity prices. I ing much has changed. Over the past ers got a big windfall from plunging U.S. exports increased doubt long-term rates will change much year, real economic growth registered energy prices. So 4.5 percent annu- at all. 2.4 percent, slightly higher than the re- far they’ve saved ally in the fourth So moderate growth, rising core covery average. It ain’t much. it, but that may Larry quarter, while im- profits and a still-accommodative Fed Meanwhile, winter economic reports change. Real in- Kudlow ports jumped 10.4 set the stage for a better stock market for retail sales, manufacturing and capi- comes adjusted percent. So U.S. as the year goes on. I’m still in the tal investment point to a weaker first for taxes and in- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate businesses are “buy the dip” camp. We’re not going to quarter, perhaps around one percent. flation jumped at very competitive get the kind of growth that America is And Wall Street is talking about a pos- a 7.7 percent annual rate over the past regarding export sales, and the rise in capable of producing until we get tax sible profits recession, with expecta- three months. This could set the stage American imports from overseas will and regulatory relief and a better atti- tions of a two or three percent drop in for a big boost in consumer spending. bolster the international economy. tude about free-market capitalism. But corporate earnings for the first half of One last encouraging point: C&I I wouldn’t get too pessimistic. 2015. So the market bears are out in full THE TERRIBLE winter has taken business loans have increased over force. its toll in Q1. But family spending may 15 percent annually in the last three THERE’S NO recession or inflation jump come spring and summer. Along months and about 12.5 percent in the in sight, and America is a very resilient NOW, LET’S acknowledge that with this, the basic core of the private past year. That’s a good sign, especially place. coming off a deep recession, the re- economy (consumption plus invest- for Main Street business activity, which Don’t bet against it. bound should have been four or five ment), which rose over four percent in has been lagging for years. percent, not two percent. By some calculations, GDP is 10 percent — or TED CRUZ: March 27, 2015 nearly $2 trillion — below its long-term trend, and jobs may be lagging by eight to 10 million. Government entitlement transfers pay people not to work. Family break- Cruz to the front for 2016 down has created a poverty trap for the ere the election for presi- then heralds it as a bipartisan accom- ate in 2014. Then they did win and have lowest economic groups. Upward mo- dent held today, Ted Cruz plishment. behaved like the dog that caught the car bility is lagging. And the government would be president of the Ted Cruz’s great accomplishment ever since. has attacked the high-end movers and UnitedW States. It would not be by vir- in Washington has been to fight back The measure of a conservative in shakers with tax hikes and overregula- tue of his polling, his positions or his against things that are both stupid and Washington, who went to “make DC tion. charisma. Cruz just happens to be the evil. Those who demand to know what listen” as Cruz’s twitter hashtag sug- And unfortunately, a damaging busi- only officially declared major party major policies Ted Cruz has advanced to gests, cannot be “what have you done ness psychology prevails. It says that candidate for president. That will soon passage will find few things. But those for me,” but must be “what have you success must be punished and that re- change. who ask what has Ted Cruz stopped that stopped from being done to me.” Cruz, distribution is the way to solve inad- The 2016 presidential primary for would harm Americans or their wallets however, will now ironically pivot to equate growth, inequality and unhappi- the Republicans will see the most ex- will find many things. tell the American people what he wants ness. perienced field of candidates since When the White House decided to to do as president. A presidential candi- But ... all this said ... it’s possible to 1980. That year, the former governor of suspend flights into Israel, Cruz held date cannot run on no agenda. We will be too pessimistic. California, Ronald Reagan, challenged up a presidential appointment. finally get to see Cruz’s governmental Let’s start with profits, the mother’s other governors, a former CIA director Flights resumed quickly. agenda. We can finally decide for our- milk of stocks and lifeblood of the and members of Congress to clinch the selves what the nation would look like economy. The recent GDP report shows nomination. It is worth remembering Erick after four years of a President Cruz. a slight profits decline in 2014, the first that men like former president Gerald It will not be easy for Cruz. Like in years. But this is misleading. Ford, bristled behind the scenes, con- Erickson Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Cruz has More important, the core measure of vinced Reagan could not win. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate only been in the Senate for one term. earnings, domestic nonfinancial profits, Many Republicans still think it was a increased 1.4 percent in the fourth quar- THE SAME echoes have begun with When Republicans and Democrats mistake to make a one-term senator ter and 7.8 percent for 2014. On an an- regard to Ted Cruz. The former solicitor were working together to drive up the from the president of the United nual basis these profits increased $262 general of Texas and one-term senator national debt, Cruz rallied other House States. Unlike Paul and Rubio, Cruz has billion and were widespread across in- will have to prove himself. Criticism and Senate conservatives to get the plan generated a healthy list of enemies be- dustries. from Republicans who harbor grudges scaled backed. cause of his fights. The big problem is not the U.S., but against Cruz for daring to make them the rest of the world, which is mostly actually fight the president range from CRUZ HAS NOT won every fight. TO GET THE Republican nomina- in recession and saw profits drop $36 his lack of qualifications to his lack of The Republican establishment hates tion for president, Cruz will also have billion in the fourth quarter. At roughly accomplishments in Washington. him almost as much as the establish- to draw contrasts between his accom- 18 percent, profits from the rest of the Conservatives, however, will look ment hates the Republican base. They plishments and vision and that of sev- world account for the smallest share of at Cruz’s accomplishments from a dif- blame Ted Cruz for a government shut- eral governors named Perry, Jindal and corporate earnings since 2006. ferent perspective. Everett Dirksen, the down when, essentially, that shutdown Walker at a minimum. It is a simple re- By the way, GDP profits from the Senate Republican Leader in the 60s, is exposed the Republican leadership in ality that running for governor is more National Income Accounts are far larg- often cited as coming up with the saying Washington as a bunch of hucksters fun- akin to running for president than going er, and therefore more telling, than S&P that there are two parties in Washington, draising on the desires of its voters only from a legislative to an executive role. 500 profits. Initial quarterly estimates the stupid party and the evil party. Ev- to ignore those desires once in power. Ted Cruz could be president tomorrow from GDP cover about 9,000 compa- ery once in a while the stupid party and These same leaders were almost gleeful because he is the only declared candi- nies. Over time, annual revisions will evil party get together and do something at the thought that they could blame Ted date. But the election is not tomorrow, cover roughly four million companies. that is both stupid and evil. The press Cruz for the GOP not winning the Sen- and the field is about to grow. April 8, 2015 13 VISAS: March 29, 2015 The H-1B visa: Some common sense solutions he libertarian-leaning me be- The biggest, baddest star of the lieves an American employer hearing turned out to be Southern should be able to hire pretty California Edison. The utility plans to muchT anyone he or she wants to hire. lay off 400 IT workers; another 100 But the taxpaying me believes that if workers are leaving voluntarily. What the federal government limits immi- happens to the work? SCE gration yet creates a special visa pro- has hired two labor gram for highly brokers — Info- skilled foreign Debra J. sys and Tata Con- workers with the sultancy Services assurance that the Saunders — to outsource program will not (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate most information Supporters of the H-1B program Bjorn Billhardt of Enspire Learn- cut into the wag- technology work want to expand the cap on these vi- ing in Austin, Texas, came to America es or jobs of American workers, then overseas, while 20 percent of the work sas at 85,000 so that Silicon Valley from Germany as an exchange student, Washington ought to keep its promise. will go to H-1B workers, according and other tech hot spots can attract qualified for an H-1B visa and now is to the . The news- “the best and the brightest.” For his a U.S. citizen. Speaking in favor of THIS MONTH, Senate Judiciary paper’s Michael Hiltzik found that the part, Hira testified that the lion’s share increasing the H-1B caps, Billhardt Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, utility paid its domestic IT specialists of recipients are not the cream of the argued that he needs to hire the best R-Iowa, held a congressional hearing an average of $120,000, while Infosys workforce, but more like “ordinary IT individual possible to keep his 30-em- on the H-1B visa program that elimi- and Tata pay recruits an average of workers.” As for the notion that there ployee business competitive in a fierce nated any doubt that some corpora- $65,000 to $71,000. Infosys and Tata is a shortage of STEM workers, Hira international market. If Washington tions are gaming the system to the se- are, by the way, are among the largest added that if skilled workers were as makes employers like him prove they vere disadvantage of skilled workers. beneficiaries of H-1B visas. much in demand as H-1B boosters cannot hire a qualified American work- Last year the Center for Investigative The story gets worse. In order to suggest, SCE workers would have left er, he argued, then that’s a bureaucratic Reporting reported on abuses of so- qualify for severance, SCE workers for better jobs. Instead, they are train- nightmare. called “body shops” — labor brokers had to agree to train their replacements ing their replacements. Still, Billhardt thought one reform who enlist foreign workers abroad, and to not criticize the utility in public. mentioned during the hearing made press them into exploitative contracts Asking to remain anonymous, former RUTGERS PROFESSOR Hal Sal- great sense. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illi., and cut them undersized checks as SCE employees sent Grassley letters zman has done extensive research on proclaimed, “I want to put the H-1B they do contract work for established in which they complained “they had to the STEM workforce and estimates factories out of business.” His remedy: Cruz to the front for 2016 tech concerns that may want to avert train their replacements — for weeks that 10 to 15 percent of H-1B visas go a rule to prohibit firms with more than the bad publicity. Howard University and months — knowing all along that to winners of a “talent search.” He be- 50 employees from having more than public policy professor Ron Hira tes- they were going to lose their jobs to lieves the government should accom- 50 percent H-1B visa workers. Bill- tified that Washington “inadvertently cheaper workers who didn’t possess modate such hires. But for the most hardt thought it was a grand idea. So created a highly profitable business the skills they had,” Grassley ex- part, the temporary jobs program ex- do I. model” to bring in STEM (science, plained. “They said it was humiliat- ists to replace American workers at This truly is an issue where left and technology, engineering and math) ing.” (SCE declined Grassley’s invita- lower wages. He slammed the program right can meet. AFL-CIO President professionals at cheaper wages. tion to testify.) as a “20 percent off sale” on hiring. Richard Trumka testified against the system — which puts the labor leader on the same side as Grassley and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. For years, Grass- ley and Durbin have sponsored biparti- san legislation to end temporary work- er visa abuses. While Americans think that the H-1B visa program requires U.S. firms to make a good-faith effort to hire an American, the law includes no such mandate. Grassley and Durbin want that requirement. Billhardt isn’t warm to the idea, but it would match how Washington has sold these rules to the American people. The duo also wants to raise the H-1B-wage floor to make sure it doesn’t pay to oust Amer- ican workers for lower-paid alterna- tives.

ACCORDING TO the Department of Labor, the Immigration and Nation- ality Act requires that hiring a foreign worker “not adversely affect the wages and the working conditions of U.S. workers comparably employed.” That is common sense. Americans don’t learn skills and refine them so that they can pay taxes to bankroll a lot- tery that allows some employers to lay off workers and replace them with for- eign workers at below-market wages. Whom does such a system serve? 14 Conservative Chronicle OBAMA PRESIDENCY: March 31, 2015 Where the red line came from — before it was crossed here are still nearly two years series of meetings” on the weekend of Romney, in which Obama held his Shortly afterward the red line van- left in Barack Obama’s presi- Aug. 18-19 on the issue where it was own. ished, as Obama ruled out military dency, but historians looking decided that Obama would address the But after he was re-elected, intel- action and accepted Vladimir Putin’s backT on his record in foreign policy issue publicly. ligence agencies reported chemical offer to supervise removal of Syrian will surely identify one costly error: Hence his surprise appearance in the weapons attacks in Syria in December chemical weapons. But the damage his refusal to follow through on the im- pressroom. But the Times also report- 2012 and March 2013. An was done. “The president bungled the plied threat in stating that the Syrian re- ed that “red line” April letter to sena- language,” concluded longtime Wash- gime’s use of chemical weapons would was “unscripted Michael tors acknowledged ington Post diplomatic reporter Glenn be a “red line.” and that some ad- that U.S. intelli- Kessler. “He made it appear as if he That statement was made in a press visers were sur- Barone gence thought the was denying he had called it a red line, conference on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. prised he uttered (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Syrian regime when that obviously was not the case.” The president was not scheduled to ap- those words.” But was using chemi- pear; press secretary said, he apparently decided not to take the cal weapons “on a small scale.” UNFORTUNATELY, bungling of “Looks like there’s a surprise guest words back. On the day following the In an April 30 press conference, language has consequences. Govern- here.” After fielding questions on other press conference, spokesman Josh Ear- Obama shifted his emphasis, saying ment leaders use words like “red line” topics (Missouri Senate candidate Todd nest said that “use or proliferation” of that chemical weapons use “would be a to mean that grave consequences — in- Akin, Mitt Romney’s attack ads and chemical weapons “would be very seri- game-changer not simply for the Unit- cluding military action — will follow if tax returns, friendly fire deaths in Af- ous, and it would be a grave mistake.” ed States but for the international com- the line is crossed. Obama’s failure to ghanistan) Obama responded to NBC’s munity.” In September, after it became back up his “red line” statement with Chuck Todd’s question on whether he IF OBAMA wanted to protect clear Syria was using chemical weap- such action has undermined America’s envisioned using U.S. military to keep against political attacks, he succeed- ons, Obama shifted further, saying, “I credibility. That’s a problem for Amer- Syria’s chemical weapons in safekeep- ed. Syria was mentioned 28 times in didn’t set a red line. The world set a red ica — and the world — until Jan. 20, ing. the Oct. 22 foreign policy debate with line.” 2017.

“WE HAVE BEEN very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other TRIVIA BITS: April 6, 2015 players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” Obama said. Stamps, Ming Dynasty, “We have communicated in no un- tamps aren’t just paper and provided a period of artistic achieve- C) Cricket certain terms with every player in the glue anymore. Hong Kong and ment, particularly blue and white por- D) Yachting region that that’s a red line for us and Malaysia both issued glow-in- celain vases that became famous in the 2. What country’s astronauts are that there would be enormous conse- the-darkS stamps, and China celebrated West. This blue inspired Dutch delft- called vyomanauts, from the Sanskrit quences if we start seeing movement the Year of the Pig a sweet and sour ware. word for “sky?” on the chemical weapons front or the scented stamp that even tasted that way Gerald Ford got shot at twice dur- A) Brazil use of chemical weapons.” After that when you licked it. Brazil did the same ing his short stay in the White House, B) China question, the press conference was sort of thing to promote its coffee, and both times by Manson groupies. When C) India over. raised awareness about forest fires by Sara Jane Moore tried to kill him, her D) Vietnam This was one year and two days af- printing stamps on recycled paper that arm was jostled by an ex-Marine named 3. What MLB expansion team adopt- ter Obama said, “the time has come for smelled of burnt wood. Oliver Sipple. The bullet instead hit a ed the same name as a local NHL team, President Assad to step aside.” Which, cabbie, who survived. Sipple was later which moved away more than a decade of course, he didn’t do and, two-and-a- IN 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote a outed as gay and eventu- earlier? half years later, hasn’t done. book called Futility. It is about the SS A) Colorado Rockies It was also three months after Re- Titan, a ship so unsinkable they don’t B) Florida Marlins publican presidential candidate Mitt bother with lifeboats much. But on an Paul C) Kansas City Scouts Romney called for arming Syrian op- April trip across the North Atlantic, it D) Toronto Blue Jays position groups and one week before hits an iceberg and goes down. That Paquet 4. The most common name for pet the scheduled opening of the Republi- spookily the real-life plot of what hap- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate goldfish also happens to be the name of can National Convention. pened to the Titanic in 1912. To prove a James Bond villain. What is it? And one month after U.S. intelli- he was a time traveller, when the book ally committed suicide. Things didn’t A) Jaws gence agencies detected signs that the was re-published in 1914, he included end well for Sipple. Harvey Milk outed B) Nemo Assad regime was moving chemical a story called “Beyond the Spectrum,” him, against his wishes. He became es- C) Oddjob weapons out of storage, according to about a Japanese sneak attack on Pearl tranged from his parents and started to D) Rocky a May 2013 story by the well-sourced Harbor. drink heavily. His mental health deterio- 5. This question is legen ... wait for Peter Baker and three New York Times The TV show Castle is about a writ- rated and he died at age 47. it ... what TV character’s job was never colleagues. er of that name, who retires his popu- Speaking of How I Met Your Mother, defined, but it did involve the Goliath Perhaps presidential politics was lar Derrick Storm character in favor the show was created by Carter Bays National Bank ... dary? on Obama’s mind. Four days after of Nikki Heat, inspired by the cop he and Craig Thomas, who based it on A) Tracy Jordan the press conference, Romney said is shadowing and working with. Nik- their own experiences as recent Wes- B) Tom Haverford he would send troops to Syria to pre- ki first appears in a book called Heat leyan grads. The pair also recorded the C) Dwight Schrute vent the spread of chemical weapons. Wave, which, by an amazing bit of mar- show’s theme song, “Hey Beautiful,” as D) Barney Stinson Obama may have communicated his keting coincidence, is actually available the Solids. Barney Stimson, by the way, 6. What 1979 Vietnam movie begins “red line” — which seemed to suggest for sale in the real world, as are several was named for a heroin peddler in the with “The End,” or more exactly, the similar action — to pre-empt a Repub- sequels. The book hit the top 10. James Ellroy book L.A. Confidential. Doors song of that name? lican attack. In 1368, for the first time, all of China TRIVIA A) Apocalypse Now Or perhaps, as the Times story sug- was conquered from the south. This was 1. If your forte is etymology, you B) Coming Home gests, he spoke out of concern that Isra- the start of the Ming Dynasty, founded probably know that the word “forte” C) The Deer Hunter el might take action. It reported that De- by the Hongwu Emperor (born Zhu Yu- comes from what sport? D) Platoon nis McDonough, then-deputy national anzhang). The Ming restored Chinese A) Fencing security adviser, convened a “frantic tradition, notably the civil service, and B) Boxing (answers on page 19) April 8, 2015 15 EXPORT-IMPORT BANK: March 31, 2015 Export-Import Bank has outlived its usefulness t isn’t drawing front-page cov- While the legislative fight is getting erage, but the Republicans’ no attention on the nightly network budget-cutting battle to abolish news, the GOP’s struggle to cleanse theI Export-Import Bank deserves our the economy of corporate welfare says attention and support. a great deal about the direction the par- This outdated agency, founded in ty wants to take the country. the New Deal, is the epitome of cor- “I think we should let it expire. porate welfare and crony capitalism Just let it go,” House Ways at its worst. And and Means Commit- it’s one of the tee Chairman Paul programs that Donald Ryan told reporters the GOP’s senior last week. “Most leaders in the Lambro of the benefits go House and Sen- (c) 2015, United Media Services to a few very large ate and America’s companies. I see it foremost conservative organizations as crony capitalism,” said the GOP’s are fighting tooth and nail. 2012 vice presidential nominee. The fact that it is on the GOP’s And it isn’t just Republican con- lengthy budget-cutting list, along with gressional leaders who want to put this Obamacare, tells us a lot about what agency out of business. the new GOP Congress hopes to ac- The GOP’s field of likely presiden- complish — were it not for President tial candidates want to end its charter Obama’s veto pen. too, pointing to “billions for Boeing” The Ex-Im Bank offers low-interest as an example of the corporate give- loans to the tune of more than $20 bil- aways they would abolish. I dug into 50 federal agencies and Chris Rufer, founder of the Morning lion to major foreign companies that Former governor Jeb Bush of Flori- programs that were unnecessarily cost- Star food-processing company, wrote help rich U.S. corporations like Boe- da, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Flor- ing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in last week. ing, Caterpillar and General Electric ida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. a year. A Wall Street Journal editorial “The Congressional Budget Office, sell their products abroad. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, In- said that “if the title (of the book) isn’t using the fair-value accounting meth- Stamps, Ming Dynasty, Gerald Ford Last year, more than $15 billion, or diana Gov. Mike Pence and Louisiana all it could be, neither are the agencies od that is common in the private sector three-quarters of the bank’s authorized Gov. Bobby Jindal were among those Mr. Lambro cites.” because it is considered more accurate, funds, was dished out to these and oth- who spoke out against the bank at the “There are numerous government estimates that the Export-Import Bank er hugely profitable global exporters. Club for Growth’s Winter Economic programs that work in direct competi- will actually lose $2 billion over the And it’s not just Republicans in Conference. tion with and to the detriment of the next decade — a $200 million annual Congress who want to end this pro- While the bank became a hot issue American worker and taxpayer, but tab for taxpayers,” he says. gram. A growing number of the GOP’s in the big-spending debate soon after few quite so deceptively and despair- This is why House Republicans like major corporate donors, such as bil- the new Congress opened for business, ingly as the Export-Import Bank,” I Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader lionaires Charles and David Koch, it’s not a new issue for this columnist. wrote at the time. Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip Steve want to pull the plug on the agency. It was one of my chief targets in the Scalise, Financial Services Committee Subsidiaries of Koch Industries first book I wrote on wasteful spending THE AGENCY and big spenders in Chairman Jeb Hensarling and a bevy have benefited from Ex-Im loans in the (The Federal Rathole) back in 1975 as Congress insisted the program actually of conservative leaders say that the Ex- past, but now the two brothers are lob- a young reporter covering Congress paid for itself. But auditing reports by Im Bank should not be reauthorized. bying against its reauthorization. for United Press International. the government pointed to hidden sub- It’s “another example of govern- sidy costs. ment trying to do what the private sec- “The interest and other financial ex- tor does best, and doing it badly,” says pense reported by Ex-Im Bank include David McIntosh, president of the Club interest charges on a significant part of for Growth. the borrowings from the U.S. Treasury In many ways, the battle to shut at rates lower than the rate prevailing down the Ex-Im Bank, among oth- at the time the funds were borrowed,” er programs, is sharply redefining the General Accounting Office said in the GOP and its efforts to enact pro- a 1971 report. growth, pro-capital investment and The Wall Street Journal said at the pro-job policies. time that there was no way anyone Barack Obama and the Democrats “could persuade us that wresting capi- rose to power in 2008 promising to tal away from Americans, then forcing rescue the economy by rejecting those it abroad through the subsidy mecha- ideas, saying that increased federal nism, does anything but distort rela- spending, higher tax rates and still tive prices, misallocate resources and more corporate welfare was the solu- diminish revenues, with zero effect, at tion to all of our troubles. They were best, on the trade balance.” wrong. Now this was at a time when the an- nual federal budget was “only” $350 CONSERVATIVES ARE pushing billion and the gross federal debt had a pro-growth agenda to slow spending, reached just $504 billion. delete the loopholes and exemptions, Fast-forward to today when the and cut tax rates across the board. Get- bank’s supporters are still insisting that ting rid of the Ex-Im Bank is a good its lending pays for itself and will re- beginning. turn $14 billion to the Treasury. “Yet this analysis fails to account for the market risk of the bank’s loans,” 16 April 8, 2015 Stand up for Indiana! The culture war arrives n what has been called the “Catho- who deny rooms to unmarried couples or lic moment” in America, in the late for homosexual liaisons should be pros- 1940s and 1950s, Catholics were ecuted for being faithful to their moral admonishedI from pulpits to “live the code? faith” and “set an example” for others. How are we supposed to punish Chris- Public lives were to reflect moral be- tians for sinning against liberal- liefs. Christians ism? Will jailing be were to avoid those necessary, or can- “living in sin.” Pat ing, or just depriv- Christians who op- ing them of their erated motels and Buchanan livelihood? hotels did not rent (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate The Hillarys of rooms to unmar- our world have a ried couples. right to call such folks bigots and homo- Fast forward to 21st-century America. phobes. But should they have the power to punish people for acting on their reli- INDIANA JUST enacted a law, as gious beliefs? have 19 other states, to protect the rights Isn’t the First Amendment supposed to of religious people to practice their be- protect this right? liefs in how they live their lives and con- Whatever became of the conserva- duct their businesses. tives’ Free Society? freedom of religious people who believe or racist language, or whose behavior is And the reaction? Nearly hysterical. Initially, under Obamacare, Christian homosexuality is wrong to not have to be boorish, or whose politics he detests. The head of the NCAA, the founder colleges and businesses were forced to associated with individuals or events that To the mayor, it appears commendable of Apple, chief executives of SalesForce provide employees with birth control and celebrate it. for him not to be associated with Indiana and Yelp, Martina Navratilova, Larry abortion-inducing, morning-after pills. The mayor may not like how people because of its values. Why is it then intol- King, Miley Cyrus and other celebrities The regime was ordering religious people exercise their freedom. Does his dislike erable for Christians not to be associated are rushing to express their shock. to behave in ways that were abhorrent to justify depriving them of that freedom? with gay events because of their values? Boycotts of Indiana are being demand- them and contravened the teachings of A little double standard there, Mr. Mayor? ed. Tweeted Hillary on her now-empty their faith. THE GAY RIGHTS community What the Indiana issue is really all server: “Sad this new Indiana law can Like Shariah Law, liberalism imposes seems to have advanced from asking for about is the replacement of Christian val- happen in America today. We shouldn’t its values upon nonbelievers and punish- tolerance of their lifestyles — to demand- ues with secular values as the operating discriminate against [people because] of es noncompliance. ing punishment for those who refuse to premises of society. who they love.” Says Mayor Edwin Lee, who has accept its moral equality. And the hallmark of our new society is The culture war has come to Indiana, banned city-funded trips to Indiana, “We Why do they care that a handful of intolerance of those who reject the revo- and all these folks are eager to be seen as stand united as San Franciscans to con- Christians still reject their truth? Are they lution. It is ever so with revolutions. standing tall with the LGBT revolution. demn Indiana’s new discriminatory law, so insecure in their convictions about In 1964, across the bay from San Fran- But what are they actually saying? and will work together to protect the civil themselves that they must have confor- cisco, the Free Speech Movement was Are they saying that Christian bakers, rights of all Americans.” mity? Must all kneel before their Golden born at Berkeley. Students demanded the photographers and florists may not refuse But the “discriminatory law” that has Calf? freedom to say what they believed, no to provide their services at same-sex wed- the mayor upset does not discriminate Like all of us, the mayor has a right not matter how objectionable to the majority. dings? Are they saying that hotel owners against anyone. It merely guarantees the to associate with people who use obscene Soon, dirty language became common on radio, cable and in film. Pornography was declared constitutionally protected. Larry Flynt was the First Amendment hero. Rap singers used the crudest of terms for women and the N-word for each other. A new freedom was born. That is, up until two soused freshmen from Sigma Alpha Epsilon began a chant on a bus with high school seniors that used the N-word. Then the air raid sirens went off. Mass protests were held on campus. Students told how sickened they were to TV cam- eras descending on campus. Oklahoma University President David Boren ex- pelled the evildoers. The frat house was shut down and fumigated.

AN INVESTIGATION of SAE na- tionally is being conducted. Editorials blazed, though the U.N. Security Council has yet to table a resolution of condemna- tion. As the Jack Nicholson character George Hanson said in Easy Rider, “You know, this used to be a helluva good country.” It surely was. Stand up for Indiana!

March 31, 2015 This Week’s Conservative Focus 17 Religious Freedom Hey, kick those Christians yet again! n the political game — human- The reason these critics crawl with Nineteen states in addition to In- No possibility seems too far-fetched ity’s reward for forbidden fruit ease through legislators’ thought diana have passed religious freedom in these days of aggressive contempt chomping in the Garden of Eden processes is easy enough. In recent laws that might apply in the cases of for revealed religion in general and — I all disagreements concern power: months, same-sex couples intending vendors — landlords, travel Christianity in particular. I wouldn’t Who’s No. 1 around here; who gets the marriage have agents, employers put it past a secularist constituency final say-so. sued florists and of various kinds in Oregon or Massachusetts one of The ludicrous, and disheartening, bakers who de- William — whose theol- these days to attempt hemming-in free dust-up over Indiana’s new law on re- clined their busi- ogy trumps secular speech from the pulpit. ligious freedom shows where growing ness on grounds Murchison understandings of numbers of Americans think power has that Christian (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate matters moral and NONE OF THESE lawyerly gam- shifted with respect to society’s funda- teaching has his- sexual. bits is exactly reasonable, but then we mental and most important institution, torically held male-female marriage Potential applications are in fact hardly live in reasonable times. We marriage. to be the estate congruent with God’s much wider: for instance, employer live, instead, in times when the foun- will. resistance to the provision of birth dations of order and rationality appear CRITICS OF the Religious Free- These set-tos, and others doubtless control devices to employers, a right to be crumbling. To believe that reli- dom Restoration Act, signed into law to come, are one predictable conse- upheld recently by the U.S. Supreme gious sentiments and beliefs and doc- only last week by Gov. Mike Pence, quence of the spreading conviction in the Hobby Lobby case. What about trines and teachings ought to influence accuse Indiana of providing citizens that same-sex marriage is about to the right (here and there seriously con- 21st-century thinking — in a pig’s eye legal cover to discriminate against triumph legally — hence holdouts tested) of religious college students to they should!, Indiana law’s assailants gays — to deny them jobs or services against it must be Bad People deserv- organize exclusively religious clubs might as well be saying. on “religious” grounds. ing of restraint, punishment or both. on a state university campus? Their language is the language of the civil rights era, when Martin Lu- ther King Jr. (a minister of the Gospel, speaking the language of the Gospels) was marching through Selma. “Dis- crimination” — in its broadest sense a mark of civilized purpose; to wit, not In defense of the state of Indiana all human actions are equally worthy Indiana is experiencing its two mandate any particular outcome; it from punishment for opting out of — is the all-purpose reproach to the minutes of hate. simply provides a test for the courts in gay-wedding ceremonies that drives “backward” and the “bigoted,” never It is doubtful that since its admit- those rare instances when a person’s progressives mad. mind their rights, never mind their tance into the union in 1816, the here- exercise of religion clashes with a law. Why? It’s a large, diverse country, rationales. Away with ‘em! Off to the tofore inoffensive Midwestern state Nineteen other states have similar with many people of differing faiths guillotine! has ever been showered with so much protections, and they are all modeled and different points of view. More spe- I suppose we could reply, OK, chop elite obloquy. on a federal version of the law that cifically, the country has an enormous and let’s get it over with. It’s what hap- Indiana’s sin is that its Legislature passed Congress with near unanimity wedding industry not known for its pens when a new king wins the power passed and Gov. Mike Pence signed in 1993 (Indiana’s law is arguably a hostility to gays. The burgeoning insti- and his enemies sprawl in the dust be- into law a Religious Freedom Resto- little more robust than the federal ver- tution of gay marriage will surely sur- fore him. ration Act, setting out a legal standard sion, since it applies to private suits). vive the occasional florist who doesn’t The disdainers of religious truth, in for cases involving a clash between a If these Religious Freedom Restora- want to provide flowers for a same-sex the form of Scripture and the witness person’s exercise of religion and the tion Acts were the enablers wedding for religious reasons. of saints and martyrs, are feeling their state’s laws. As a practical matter, such a dissent- oats. The Supreme Court may decree, ing florist doesn’t make a difference; albeit by the narrowest of margins, a TO LISTEN to the critics, you’d Rich the affected couple might be offended, whole new canon of sexual ethics, just think the law was drafted by a joint Lowry but can take its business elsewhere. right for the 21st century. If you never committee of attorneys from the Ku But for the left, it’s the principle of the liked the old canon, or if it embarrasses Klux Klan and the Westboro Baptist (c) 2015, King Features Syndicate thing. For all its talk of diversity, it de- you as a businessman wary of offend- Church. mands unanimity on this question — ing potential customers, you show all The enlightened are stumbling over of discrimination they are portrayed individual conscience be damned. So it bigoted holdouts just how powerless themselves in their rush to boycott In- as, much of the country would already isn’t bothered when religious wedding they have become. You say, “Jump!” diana. Seattle and San Francisco are have sunk into a dystopian pit of ha- vendors are sued or harassed under They respond: “How high?” banning official travel, and Connecti- tred. anti-discrimination laws for their non- cut is following suit. In a Washington participation in ceremonies they mor- THE MARRIAGE question, deep Post op-ed, Apple CEO Tim Cook LEGAL HISTORIANS a century ally oppose. and profound, and eons probably pronounced the Indiana law part of from now may be mystified by how It’s not clear that Religious Free- from settlement, rarely engages those a “very dangerous” trend that allows a measure that was uncontroversial dom Restoration Acts will shield these schooled in the art of push-’em-over “people to discriminate against their for so long suddenly became a mark kind of business people (they haven’t, politics. Arguments against their po- neighbors” (never mind that his com- of shame. They will find their answer to this point). It might be that more sition would only discommode them. pany is happy to do business in Com- in the left’s drive to crush any dissent specific exemptions are necessary. But Shut up, shut up!, they explain. If their munist China). from its cultural agenda, especially on the mere possibility that the Religious tactics do no service to republican The anti-Indiana backlash is a per- gay marriage. Freedom Restoration Act might pro- government or the cause of individual fect storm of hysteria and legal igno- The religious-freedom laws once tect a baker opposed to gay marriage freedom, I suspect they are not much rance, supercharged by the particularly were associated with minorities that is enough to create a furious, unhinged concerned. The pleasure of lording it censorious self-righteousness of the progressives could embrace or toler- reaction. over the losers, actual or presumptive; left. ate — Native Americans who smoke pronouncing their arguments unrea- All the Indiana law says is that the peyote as part of religious ceremonies, YES, THERE is intolerance afoot sonable and unworthy of civilized con- state can’t substantially burden a per- Amish who drive their buggies on the in the debate over Indiana, but it’s not sideration is more fun in any context son’s exercise of religion, unless there roads, and the like. That was fine. It is on the part of Indianans. than the search for truth. is a compelling governmental interest the specter of Christian small-business at stake and it is pursued by the least- people — say, a baker or a florist — March 30, 2015 March 31, 2015 restrictive means. The law doesn’t using the laws to protect themselves 18 Conservative Chronicle HILLARY CLINTON: April 1, 2015 Hillary is stuck: Dems must ask if she can win oliticians depend on their abil- trophe, should the scandal drag out and ity to maneuver as their most the negatives continue, that would be- basic survival skill. Force them fall the Party cannot be overstated. The to P stand and exchange blows without elections of 1974, the post-Watergate the ability to shift their ground and they wipe- out of Republicans, are as helpless as will seem minor a kitten. Dick compared to what Presidents, will happen to Dem- for example, fail Morris ocratic Congres- when they get (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate sional and Senate stuck and can no candidates in 2016 longer maneuver, as with Johnson on if Hillary leads the party into disaster. Vietnam, Nixon on Watergate, Carter on the hostages, Reagan on Iran-Contra, DEMOCRATS SEEM impervious Bush on taxes, Clinton on Monica, and to negatives about Hillary. Through Bush Jr. on Iraq. thick and thin, they appear willing to Now, Hillary is stuck over the emails. stick with her. So lets rephrase the ques- tion and ask Democrats whether they HER ABILITY to maneuver is lost, think Hillary can win with her current and her campaign comes down to a sim- baggage. As the evidence mounts that ple mantra: “I erased the emails. There’s she cannot and her announcement of nothing there you wanted to see. Trust candidacy just pushes her lower and me.” lower, likely they will come to their Hillary’s tactic of hiding at home in senses and look for an alternative before Chappaqua coming up occasionally to it is too late. miration for Hillary is undimmed, the entitlement checks, their government tweet, offering up to 140 characters to As Congressional hearings come and prospect of carrying her into the elec- handouts. They cannot afford, literally, show she’s still alive, isn’t working. She Hillary looks worse and worse in the tion will appear increasingly daunting. to lose. is getting pounded each day in the me- witness chair, it will likely dawn on even And Democrats have to win in or- dia. Nobody believes her explanations. the most dedicated of the party faithful der to survive. Politics, for them, is no HILLARY MAY become a luxury About half the voters in the key swing that the jig is up. Even if their own ad- spectator sport. Its their living, their they cannot afford. states of Ohio, Fla. and Pa. told Quinni- piac pollsters that they do not find the former Secretary of State “honest and RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: March 31, 2015 trustworthy.” And a recent poll by CBS showed that while voters believed by 49-38 that “convenience” rather than “concealment” was her motive for us- Onward, Christian florists ing a private server, this does nothing to “There’s something very dangerous sex marriage is a bigot and thus has no Pence would not give a simple answer justify her erasure of 30,000 emails. For happening in states across the coun- rights. — that a florist could use the new law if that, she has no explanation other than try,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook Except religious dissenters do have a gay couple were to sue him. repeating that they are none of our busi- warned Monday in a Washington Post rights. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Pence did ask, “Is tolerance a two- ness. Voters aren’t buying that. opinion piece against Indiana’s newly Court recognized that family-owned way street or not?” The answer from Under the constant attacks and dis- passed Religious Freedom Restoration corporations have religious rights. In corporate boardrooms appears to be closures, Hillary offers no defense — Act. It matters not to the corporate big the 5-4 Hobby Lobby decision, the big “not.” and not even any offense — against the shot that President Bill Clinton signed a bench recognized CEO David Green’s Pence — who may be thinking of Republicans. federal Religious Freedom Restoration right to get around an Affordable Care running for the White House himself — The bad polls and the nervousness of Act in 1993 (which current House Mi- Act mandate that his employer-spon- obviously sees powerful forces aligned the Democrats will combine to force the nority Leader Nancy Pelosi supported) sored health plan offer employees con- against him. Angie’s List announced candidate-in-hiding to come out in pub- or that then-Illinois state Sen. Barack traceptives that, Green argued, it was stopping a major project in In- lic, announce her candidacy and cam- Obama voted for a similar law in 1998. “risk killing an embryo.” dianapolis. Salesforce.com CEO Marc paign. While going public is the only Benioff tweeted, “We are canceling all real option for Hillary at this point, it IT WAS ONE thing for Democrats Debra J. programs that require our customers/ will prove counterproductive and only to support religious freedom when there employees to travel to Indiana to face mire her more deeply in the email mess. was no downside to standing up for the Saunders discrimination.” (The Federalist’s Mol- Hillary is truly stuck. Nothing she devout. Today there could be a cost. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate lie Hemingway was amused that Be- says about any other topic will be cov- An Indiana baker might refuse to sell a nioff stood up to Indiana while doing ered, and the chance for the media to wedding cake to a same-sex couple and LAST YEAR, federal court rulings business with China, a bastion of human question her will just expose her to more cite the new law if the couple were to legalized same-sex marriage in Indiana. rights abuses.) negative coverage about the emails. She sue him or her. Cook believes that such In a more tolerant world, the court rul- has already shown her difficulty in han- discrimination would be “bad for busi- ings would leave gay couples free to “OPPOSING discrimination takes dling questions without proper script- ness.” I agree. Cook also believes that marry and religious dissenters free to courage,” Cook wrote. He has the ing. She has nowhere to turn. Nowhere the baker wouldn’t have the right to say not cater same-sex weddings. Each side Democratic Party, some Republicans, to hide. no. I do not agree with that. would win the right to be true to itself. Hollywood and CEO-dom on his side The question looming over the When Obama first ran for the White Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republi- — and they completely outgun true presidential race is: How much can the House, he supported a ban on same-sex can, was no profile in courage when he believers who oppose same-sex mar- Democratic Party take before it comes marriage. If Cook had a problem with appeared Sunday on ABC’s This Week. riage. They’re not standing up to China; up with a default candidate? Will they Obama’s stand, he kept it to himself. Host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly they’re standing up to Hoosier Christian get serious about finding an alternative Years later, Obama announced that his asked Pence whether the law he signed florists. They think they’re brave when to Mrs. Clinton or are they willing to position had evolved and he had come last week would allow a florist to refuse they’re rank bullies for whom it’s not bet that the bleeding staunches and the to support same-sex marriage. Voila: to serve a gay couple at their wedding. enough to win; they have to make dis- wound heals? The extent of the catas- Now anyone who disagrees with same- “Yes or no?” Stephanopoulos asked. senters buckle. April 8, 2015 19 DEAR MARK: March 27, 2015 Bowe Bergdahl and the codes for sexism DEAR MARK: American people but to the liberal ten- — Get Michelle to lay off my eating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been official- tacle of the Democrat party and he still habits CONTACT INFORMATION ly charged with desertion. As a 20 year wants to socialize with these people af- — Break 80 in golf Army veteran myself it disgusts me that ter 2016. As we’ve learned these past six Individual Contact Information National Security advisor de- years, it’s not about President Obama DEAR MARK: scribed this traitor as having served with hanging terrorists; it’s about who Barack Have you seen this group called HRC Greenberg - [email protected] honor and distinction. Maybe he served Obama hangs with after the White House. Super Volunteers which stands for Hill- the terrorists he went crying to with hon- Obama doesn’t seem to care that the ary Rodham Clinton? They are threaten- Krauthammer - [email protected] or but not my United States Army. I’m swap involved five high risk Taliban lead- ing journalists if they use certain words Levy - [email protected] also p----- that Barack Hussein Obama ers who will be back on the battlefield that they consider sexist against Ms. Lowry - [email protected] swapped five murderous Taliban terror- looking for Americans to kill. Instead Clinton. Between her personal email Malkin - [email protected] ists for Bergdahl’s release. What in the of admitting he made a mistake, server and now this, Hillary sounds like Napolitano - [email protected] heck is President Obama thinking? — President Obama doubled a paranoid loon. Could this be true? — Saunders - [email protected] Proudly Served America Laughing Larry Schlafly - [email protected] Dear Proudly: Mark Dear Laughing: First of all thank you for your service According to my Magic Eight Ball “it Thomas - [email protected] and I’m sure you served with “honor and Levy is as you say.” I’m not sure how closely Will - [email protected] distinction” unlike Susan Rice who has (c) 2015, Mark Levy connected HRC Super Volunteers is to served only the Obama administration the Hillary campaign but this falls in line Contact through Creators Syndicate by lying to the American people about down on the decision because the pris- with what I’m sure will be a whiney “war Benghazi and Sgt. Bergdahl. oner swap was not done for Bowe Berg- on women” strategy from Mrs. Clinton. , Austin Bay, Brent Here’s what President Obama is think- dahl; it was just another step towards John West, director of the group ing; let’s get closer to shutting down the the complete closure of Gitmo which is emailed 120 journalists “You are on no- Bozell, Pat Buchanan, Ben Carson, Guantanamo Bay POW camp by releas- number one on Barack Obama’s bucket tice that we will be watching, reading, Mona Charen, , Larry ing five more prisoners. I believe Team list. listening and protesting coded sexism Elder, David Harsanyi, Terry Jeffrey, Obama attempted to cover up this portion Speaking of the president’s “bucket this time around in words and phrases , David Limbaugh, Dick of his master plan plan by announcing list” my crack staff was able to obtain like polarizing, calculating, disingenu- Morris, William Murchison, Chuck the swap with pomp and circumstance this copy. ous, insincere, ambitious, will do any- Norris, Paul Paquet, Dennis Prager, Ben thing to win, represents the past, out of and a nauseating Rose Garden ceremony — Close Guantanamo Shapiro, Thomas Sowell while wrapping itself in the American — Universal health care and make touch, inevitable, entitled, over confident, flag crowing that America never leaves a healthy Americans pay for it. defiant, inserting snide comments on her man behind. — Eliminate fossil fuels from the looks like tired, haggard, worn out ... the Contact - [email protected] Team Obama didn’t fool anybody as United States; China can do what it wants list goes on but I trust you get my point.” there was already a mountain of evidence — Open borders with amnesty to in- When did all of these words become Contact through Universal Press supporting the notion that Bergdahl was crease Democrat voters code for “sexism?” But then again this not captured by the Taliban but in fact — End wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is how nutso the liberal left can become Ann Coulter Onward, Christian florists deserted as the Army has now officially ­— I don’t care if we win. when one of its icons is challenged. I charged. Unfortunately for the American — Raise taxes on all those mean up- can’t wait to see what happens when the people, President Obama doesn’t care per income people. word “pantsuit” is mentioned. Contact by mail : that he has been caught in a lie as long as — Find my dad and kick his butt; c/o Universal Press Syndicate he closes Gitmo. until then, take out my frustrations on E-mail your questions to mar- 1130 Walnut Street Barack Obama made a campaign America [email protected]. Follow Mark on Twit- Kansas City, MO 64106 promise to close Guantanamo, not to the — Fire the White House florist ter @MarkPLevy

Answers from page 14 TRIVIA ANSWERS Trivia BITS

ANSWERS 1) The forte is the strongest part of the sword used in fencing. 2) Vyomanauts are from India. 3) There were Colorado Rockies in both the NHL and MLB. 4) Lots of goldfish are named Jaws. 5) Barney Stinson was legen ... dary! 6) Apocalypse Now starts with “The End.”

Need to make a correction on your mailing label? Contact us at 800-888-3039 or [email protected] 20 Conservative Chronicle VISAS: April 1, 2015 The green-card racket for beltway cronies an we stop putting America up nal Democratic House sponsor and his for sale to the most politically spokesman went on to establish for-prof- connected bidders yet? Where it companies that marketed the program is ourC self-respect? and provided consulting services. For- Since 2001, I’ve warned about the mer federal immigration officials from systemic and bipartisan corruption of the George H.W. Bush administration America’s EB-5 immigrant investor formed lucrative limited partnerships to visa program. The latest report from the cash in on their access and EB-5 exper- Department of Homeland Security’s in- tise. An entire side industry spector general of economic book- — which outlines Michelle cookers arose to the meddling and supply analyses of in a Las Vegas casino hotel, which just Jindal and former Mississippi GOP Gov. pandering of No. Malkin the “job creation” happened to be represented by Reid’s Haley Barbour both signed letters urging 2 DHS official (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate benefits of EB-5 lawyer son Rory. Adjudicators balked DHS to approve Gulf Coast as a regional Alejandro May- projects and to at the preferential treatment. Mayorkas center. orkas, Nevada Sen. , Demo- gerrymander Census employment data steamrolled the dissenters, who report- After adjudicators dismissed the cratic bagman Terry McAuliffe, Hillary to fit the program’s definition of- “tar ed on shouting matches over the cases. company’s job claims as “ridiculous,” Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham, former geted employment areas” in order to Reid’s staffers received special briefings “flawed” and “not approvable,” McAu- . Gov. Ed Rendell and for- qualify for lower investment thresholds from Mayorkas to update them on the liffe personally leaned on then-DHS mer Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, to (as was done in New York City’s Atlan- project’s progress. Secretary Janet Napolitano, “complain- name a few — provides yet more sordid tic Yards/Pacific Park EB-5 deal). ing about the denial of the Gulf Coast evidence that the green cards-for-sale Think Solyndra and federal stimulus ONE UNDERLING called it “a amendment and requesting her assis- scheme should be completely scrapped. math on steroids. whole new phase of yuck.” tance to get the amendment approved Since the program’s inception, rank- Meanwhile, in the words of one DHS and to expedite more than 200 investor CREATED UNDER an obscure sec- and-file adjudicators have tried to en- official at the Immigration and Customs petitions.” tion of the expansionist 1990 Immigration force the investment standards. But se- Enforcement bureau, Mayorkas “abso- In violation of recordkeeping and Act, EB-5 promised bountiful economic nior managers leaned on them to reverse lutely gave special treatment” to electric disclosure rules, Mayorkas met with development for the U.S. in exchange EB-5 rejections when wealthy donors, car racket GreenTech, which zealously McAuliffe in February 2011 after USCIS for granting permanent residency (and law firm pals and political hacks com- sought EB-5 visas for another group denied GreenTech’s requests. Mayorkas eventual American citizenship) to foreign plained. of deep-pocketed Chinese investors. mysteriously took no notes and could investors. A few years later, Congress Fast-forward to 2015. The blood pres- McAuliffe helmed the company after it not recall just exactly how many phone conjured up the idea of EB-5 “regional sure-spiking DHS IG report released last was spun off from a Chinese venture. He calls he took from McAuliffe and what centers” — government-sanctioned busi- week confirmed what whistleblowers plugged in Rodham as president of Gulf exactly they discussed (though he did ness groups and corporate entities acting have been telling Capitol Hill for years. Coast Funds Management, which won remember the “caustic” Democrat yell- as middlemen to administer the immi- Behind the scenes, the IG found, designation as an EB-5 regional center ing “expletives at high volume.” May- grant investments and facilitate the visa Dirty Harry Reid pressured Deputy certified to invest foreign capital in fed- orkas met personally with senior staff to peddling. DHS Secretary Mayorkas to overturn erally approved commercial ventures urge the agency to reverse its denials and Beltway cronyism was embedded in his agency’s rejection of expedited EB-5 in Louisiana and Mississippi, including give McAuliffe and company what they EB-5’s DNA from the get-go. The origi- visa applications for Chinese investors GreenTech. Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby wanted and even offered to write the re- versals himself. On a third front, Mayorkas intervened on behalf of EB-5 petitioners seeking green cards by investing in Hollywood studios such as Sony Pictures and Time Warner. He had received pressure from the L.A. mayor’s office, where an aide helpfully mentioned she knew a mutu- al acquaintance of his from his old law firm, O’Melveny and Myers, and from Rendell, a paid consultant to the EB-5 regional center representing the foreign investors. Mayorkas reversed his staff’s rejections of more than 200 suspect EB-5 applications and set up a special “deference review board” to bow to Hol- lywood. Two decades ago, when the program’s failures were first exposed, Rep. John W. Bryant, a Texas Democrat, protested on the House floor: “This provision is an unbelievable departure from our tradi- tion of cherishing our most precious birthright as Americans.”

HOW MUCH more evidence do you need that this foreign investor pay- for-play swindle makes an irremedi- able mockery of the American Dream? The only effective way to “reform” this abomination is to kill it. April 8, 2015 21 GERMAN AIR DISASTER: March 31, 2015 Life lessons from the German air disaster IT IS FAR EASIER FOR AN IN- Yet, every one of us knows one or two DIVIDUAL TO DO GREAT EVIL depressed individuals, and it is incon- THAN TO DO GREAT GOOD. ceivable that they would commit mass That the world isn’t fair is known to murder. As a number of Lincoln biogra- every human being who thinks. It may phers have noted, most recently Richard be our first insight into life. What child Brookhiser, the great president was prob- who ever complained, “That’s not fair,” ably de- pressed all his life. wasn’t told by And he was a moral some adult, “Life Dennis giant. isn’t fair?” Lubitz murdered One sad exam- Prager 149 people be- We take it for granted that German- THE DAMAGE LUBITZ DID IS ple of how unfair (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate cause he was a nar- life is concerns cissistic individual wings, the German government and the INCALCULABLE. how much harder it is to do massive who lacked a properly functioning con- German people will fully acknowledge This one man murdered 149 people. good than massive evil. One psycho- science. The number of people walking any findings, no matter how damning of An ancient Hebrew saying is worth re- path, in one hour, killed 149 innocent around in the world with a broken moral one its pilots. peating here: He who destroys one life people aboard a Germanwings airliner. compass is quite large. Not all of them are We shouldn’t. Acknowledging painful is considered to have destroyed the How many people will ever be able to do depressed. And I am not only referring truths is not a universal value. whole world. This is not mere hyper- nearly as much good for 149 people in a to violent Islamists. The U.N. just voted To this day, neither the Egyptian na- bole. Every one of us is an entire world. lifetime? to condemn one country in the world for tional airline, nor the Egyptian govern- Read the stories of those on board Ger- With very few exceptions, good can mistreatment of women: Israel. Are all ment, nor the Egyptian people acknowl- manwings flight 9525, and this insight only be achieved one by one by one. those U.N. ambassadors depressed? edge that it was the Egyptian first officer, becomes all too clear. That’s why, if you want your name re- Gameel Al-Batouti, who deliberately But the damage is much more than membered by many people, you have a THE 149 WERE ULTIMATELY sent EgyptAir flight 990 into the ocean that. far better chance of accomplishing it by KILLED BY THE 9/11 TERROR- south of Massachusetts en route to Cairo Lubitz not only killed all of these doing evil than by doing good. And that’s ISTS. on Oct. 31, 1999. people. He thrust them into a state of why most great evils are done by move- The pilot of the Germanwings plane In many societies, the Arab world terror the likes of which few humans ments that want to change the world. If could not get back into the cockpit be- most particularly, saving face matters far ever experience. People with termi- you really want to change the world for cause after 9/11, cockpit doors were more than truth. And where that is the nal illnesses know that they will soon the better, work on making better people, made impregnable. That is how it should case, social and moral progress is impos- die. But they have time to prepare for not a better world. be. If anyone could get into a locked sible. it. And, over that time, and given the cockpit, terrorists would also be able to It would be a sign of major progress illness, they eventually expect to die. DEPRESSION AND LACK OF do so. For that reason, it can be said that in Egyptian life if, watching the German There is, of course, great sadness, but CONSCIENCE AREN’T THE SAME. the 149 passengers and crew were addi- airline and German society acknowl- there is no terror — certainly none in We’ve heard repeatedly that German- tional victims of 9/11. edge that a German deliberately crashed any way comparable to the terror on wings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was being his plane into the Alps, Egyptians re- board the Germanwings flight. For at treated for depression — as if that largely THE WEST TAKES TRUTH SE- thought their position on Al-Batouti and least five minutes, these people knew explains why he did what he did. RIOUSLY. EgyptAir 990. they were about to die. Out of nowhere. They had just boarded an airplane — one of modern society’s most routine and safest activities. And suddenly they were about to die. Add to that the ter- rified screaming of everyone else, and you realize what an almost unique hell these people — many traveling with a child or a spouse — went through. Then there are the people who were not on this flight who loved the people who were. These people — parents, grandparents, siblings, children and, never forget, friends — will suffer this loss in varying degrees until they die. And then there are the pilots of the world. I flew the day after the crash. Though I fly, on average, every week, on that day, I looked at the pilots at the airport a bit differently. It was not an in- tellectual reaction. But I have no doubt just about every passenger did the same. Finally, there are Lubitz’s parents — arguably the most harmed people of all. Losing a child is the ultimate parental nightmare. But there is something much worse: when your child is a murderer. And even worse than that: a mass mur- derer. As a parent, I can only imagine the pain of parents who lose a child. But no- where in my imagination is there a place for a child who is a mass murderer. 22 Conservative Chronicle LAWLESS GOVERNMENT: March 26, 2015 Amendment by consent: Our personal liberties Here is a short pop quiz. transcripts obtained without search war- When Israeli Prime Minister Benja- rants — and they asked the police who min Netanyahu addressed Congress ear- obtained them to explain their sources, lier this month about the parameters of how is it that the cops could refuse to the secret negotiations between the Unit- answer? The government has the same ed States and Iran over nuclear weapons obligation to tell the truth in a courtroom and economic sanctions, how did he as any litigant, and in a criminal case, the know what the negotiators were consid- government must establish that its acqui- ering? Israel is not a party to those nego- sition of all of its evidence was lawful. tiations, yet the prime minister presented The common themes here them in detail. are government spy- When Hillary Andrew ing and lawlessness. Clinton learned We now know that that a committee Napolitano the Israelis spied of the U.S. House (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate on Secretary of of Representatives State John Kerry, had subpoenaed her emails as secretary and so Netanyahu knew of what he spoke. of state and she promptly destroyed half We know that the Clintons believe there of them — about 33,000 — how did she is a set of laws for them and another for know she could get away with it? De- the rest of us, and so Mrs. Clinton could struction of evidence, particularly gov- credibly believe that her deception and ernment records, constitutes the crime of destruction would go unpunished. obstruction of justice. fixation on spying and lying. Think know that government spying is so en- WE KNOW that the NSA can listen about it: The Israeli Mossad was spying demic today that it is almost the new nor- WHEN GEN. Michael Hayden, the to all we say if we are near enough to a on Kerry while the CIA was spying on mal. director of both the CIA and the NSA in device it can turn on. (Quick: How close the Mossad. Hillary Clinton thought she Yet, government spying is not normal the George W. Bush administration and are you as you read this to an electron- could destroy her emails just because she to the Constitution. Its essence — gov- the architect of the government’s mas- ic device that the NSA can access and is Hillary Clinton, yet she forgot that the ernment fishing nets, the indiscriminate sive suspicionless spying program, was use as a listening device?) And we also administration of which she was an inte- deployment of government resources to recently publicly challenged to deny that know that the feds gave secret roadside gral part dispatched the NSA to spy on see what they can bring in, government the feds have the ability to turn on your listening devices to about 50 local po- everyone, including her. And though it interference with personal privacy with- computer, cellphone or mobile device in lice departments, which acquired them might not voluntarily release the emails out suspicion or probable cause — was your home and elsewhere, and use your generally without the public consent of she thought she destroyed, the NSA sure- rejected by the Framers and remains ex- own devices to spy on you, why did he elected officials in return for oaths not ly has them. The police have no hesita- pressly rejected by the Fourth Amend- remain silent? The audience at the venue to reveal the source of the hardware. It tion about engaging in the same warrant- ment today. where he was challenged rationally con- came from the secret budget of the CIA, less surveillance as the feds. And when For our liberty to survive in this fear- cluded that his silence was his consent. which is prohibited by law from spying Hayden revealed a cat-like smile on his ful post-9/11 world, the government’s And when two judges were recently in the U.S. face when challenged about the feds in lawless behavior must be rejected not confronted with transcripts of conver- What’s going on here? our bedrooms, and the 10,000 folks in just by the words of dead people, but sations between known drug dealers — What’s going on here is government’s the audience did not reveal outrage, you by the deeds of we the living. When the president violates the Constitution and the Congress and courts do nothing to stop him, we have effectively amended the Constitution with a wink and a nod — by consent, if you will. Its guaran- tees of liberty are only guarantees if the people in whose hands we repose it for safekeeping honor them as guarantees and believe and behave as such because the Constitution means what it says. Where is the outrage? If you knew the feds were virtually present in your bedroom or your automobile, and your representatives in Congress did nothing about it, would you buy the nonsense that you should have nothing to hide? Would you send those weaklings back to Congress? Or would you say to a law- less government, as the Founders did to the British, “Thou shalt not enter here?” Does the Constitution mean what it says in bad times as well as in good times?

THESE ARE not academic ques- tions. They address the most important issue of our day. For nothing will destroy our personal liberties more effectively than the government refusing to honor them and Americans sheepishly accept- ing that. And without freedom, what are we? April 8, 2015 23 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: April 1, 2015 The facist left and same-sex marriage ast week, Indiana Gov. Mike general applicability.” That rule does Pence signed a law with the not apply only if the government’s same name as one signed action “is in furtherance of a compel- on L the federal level by President ling government interest” and is also Bill Clinton in 1993, which was co- “the least restrictive means of further- sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, ing that compelling government inter- D-N.Y., the presumptive next Senate est.” If government does act minority leader. against someone Naturally, Pence in violation of that found himself on Ben person’s religious the wrong end of Shapiro principles, he or a partisan barrage she can assert how to conduct one’s business and ernment’s gun in order to force some- from ABC News’ (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate that violation “as freedom to practice one’s religion in one to provide a good or service. George Stepha- a claim or defense one’s practice of business. That system is a heck of a lot safer nopoulos for signing that law the fol- in a judicial or administrative proceed- for minorities than a system by which lowing Sunday. It sure is nice to be a ing.” UNDER A philosophy of freedom, government regulates the proper con- Democrat. The law does not specifically single the market solves the general prob- duct of voluntary activities. Black out same-sex marriage as an activity lem of private discrimination, because Americans should know that, given WHAT EXACTLY does the law against which a religious person may if one person decides to discriminate that Jim Crow was not merely a system state? The Religious Freedom Resto- discriminate, but it certainly holds out against Jews or blacks or gays, he or of voluntary discrimination but a gov- ration Act in Indiana states that “a gov- that possibility. Of course, that pos- she loses money and is put out of busi- ernment-enforced set of regulations ernmental entity may not substantially sibility is already inherent in a little ness for his or her trouble. Nobody has designed to ban voluntary transactions burden a person’s exercise of religion, concept we in the United States used the right, under a philosophy of free- involving blacks. Gays, too, should even if the burden results from a rule of to call freedom — freedom to choose dom, to invoke the power of the gov- understand that freedom is far prefer- able to government-enforced societal standards governing consenting trans- SET PRICES: April 1, 2015 actions, given that government used to be utilized to discriminate openly against homosexual behavior. But the left has rewritten the con- Self-enforcing discrimination cept of freedom to mean “whatever lack politicians, civil rights young woman. What would you predict Racist intentions were obvious dur- the government allows you to do,” and organizations and others who about the man’s income? I’m guessing ing the legislative debate on the Davis- leftists now insist that government can- say they are concerned with you’d predict it was high. The fat, old, Bacon Act (1931), the nation’s first not allow discrimination — unless, of theB welfare of poor black people often ugly cigar-smoking man essentially federal minimum wage law. Among the course, the government is itself enforc- support harmful measures. One of the propositions: I can’t compete for your statements of support for this racially ing discrimination against religious most effective tools for disadvantaged hand on the basis of a guy like Wil- discriminatory law were those of Rep. Christians who don’t want to violate people is to be able to charge a lower liams, so I’m going to offset my disad- William Upshaw, D-Ga., who com- their belief in traditional marriage. price for what they sell and pay a high- vantages by offering you a high price. plained about the “superabundance or Same-sex marriage, it turns out, er price for what they buy. Let’s look Some might conclude that it’s unfair for large aggregation of Negro labor.” Rep. was never designed to grant legal ben- at this principle first using a couple of pretty women to exact higher Miles Allgood, D-Ala., said, “That con- efits to same-sex couples. That could nonracial examples. tractor has cheap colored labor that he have been done under a regime of How does chuck steak compete with transports, and he puts them in cabins, civil unions. Same-sex marriage was a more preferred cut such as filet mi- Walter and it is labor of that sort that is in com- always designed to allow the govern- gnon? Everyone knows the answer. It Williams petition with white labor throughout the ment to have the power to cram down sells for a lower price, say $7 a pound country.” American Federation of Labor punishment on anyone who disobeys compared to filet mignon’s $20. Sup- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate President William Green complained, the government’s vision of the public pose one wanted to rig the market “Colored labor is being sought to de- good. One need not be an advocate of against chuck steak. He need only terms from fat, old ugly men than from moralize wage rates.” discrimination against gays to believe lobby the legislature to set a minimum handsome men. If they managed to en- How about the right to pay higher that government does not have the price for steak, say $15 a pound. act a law banning such a practice, they prices? During grossly racially dis- ability to enforce the prevailing social would take away the less preferred criminatory times, one could not prevent standards of the time in violation of MANY CUSTOMERS would vol- man’s most effective means of compet- whole urban neighborhoods from going individual rights. There are many situ- untarily discriminate against chuck ing with the more preferred man: offer- from white to black virtually overnight. ations in which advocates of freedom steak in favor of the more preferred filet ing a higher price. Blacks simply outbid whites. For ex- dislike particular exercises of that free- mignon. The reason is simple. Before ample, a white family might have rent- dom but understand that government the law, it cost 13 additional dollars per HOW ABOUT a couple of real- ed a three-story brownstone for $100 a attacks on individual rights are far pound to discriminate in favor of filet world examples of minimum prices? month. Maybe six black families told more threatening to the public good. mignon. With a minimum steak price of During South Africa’s apartheid era, the landlord that if he’d cut the build- $15 a pound, it only costs five addition- the secretary of its avowedly racist ing into six parts, they’d pay him $50 YOU DO NOT have a right to my al dollars to do so. A fundamental law Building Workers’ Union said, “There a month for each unit. Landlords found services; I have a right to provide my of economics posits that the lower the is no job reservation left in the build- the higher income preferable to their dis- services to whomever I choose. If you cost to do something the more people ing industry, and in the circumstances, criminatory preferences. If there were a believe that your interpretation of pub- will do of it. That applies to doing any- I support the rate for the job (minimum law setting a $100 maximum rent on a lic good enables you to bring a gun to thing, including discrimination. wage) as the second-best way of pro- three-story brownstone, discriminated- the party, you are a bully and a tyrant. What about the opposite of setting tecting our white artisans.” The South against poor people could not compete So it is with the modern American left, not minimum prices but maximum African Nursing Council condemned with wealthier more preferred people. to whom freedom now means only the prices like a price ceiling? Again, let’s low wages received by black nurses freedom to do what it is the left wants begin by using a nonracial example. as unfair. Some white nurses said they MINIMUM AND maximum prices you to do at point of gun. Suppose you see a fat, old, ugly cigar- would refuse wage increases until the are but two ways do-gooders handicap smoking man married to a beautiful wages of black nurses were raised. poor and discriminated-against people. 24 Conservative Chronicle PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: March 22, 2015 Pledge of Allegiance: American not Muslim hether it is another WHAT KHALIQUE conveniently similate into our culture, not come here lives were changed forever because of transpicuous display of ignored is that it is precisely because and form their own independent cul- their hate-filled act of terrorism. She Erebusic diversity (and it of the welcome mat that has been ex- tures. overlooked the fact that acts of Islamic is),W or another blatant attempt to trans- tended — those from other lands and The depth of arrogance embodied in terrorism continue in America today. mogrify the Untied States into accept- of different religions, owe it to America Khalique’s statement is shocking. Those She further overlooked the fact that ing the incursion of Islam as a valued to uphold our sacred traditions — not settling in Arabic countries are Muslims are not speaking out against tradition of America (and it is), all rea- least of which is expected to assimi- those of her so-called religion con- sonable minded Americans should be Pledging our Flag late into their Islamic demning their acts of terror or that the outraged. in English. Mychal culture and there are planning for some of these attacks takes The Pledge of Allegiance to the Islam played Massie harsh penalties for place in their mosques located right here American flag isn’t a case of “should no part in Ameri- not doing same. in America. be” always said in English, it is a case ca’s history apart (c) 2015, Mychal Massie Muslims come of “it must always be” pledged in Eng- from ensuring that here and make de- RECITING THE Pledge of Al- lish. There is no acceptable reason for there was a robust supply of slaves. mands that would never be allowed for legiance to America in Arabic isn’t “a it to be otherwise. For this essayist and I emphatically state that Muslims foreigners going to their countries. simple student activity to promote mu- hundreds of millions of other Ameri- are not welcome to come here and form We should be outraged by her in- tual understanding;” it is an act of rev- cans, English is recognized as the of- their own idea of government and es- dictment of America. Especially when erence to those who gave their lives to ficial language of the United States; tablish their own definitions of what is Christians around the world are being make America free. It is a Pledge of loy- regardless of the fact that Congress and acceptable based on their so-called reli- brutally slaughtered by Muslims and the alty born out of the debt that was paid in Obama refuse to codify it as same. It gious beliefs. This is the United States Muslims living here are silent as stones. blood for America to become the great- is the language of those whose blood of America. It is not an Islamic outpost. Khalique also conveniently ignored est nation in the world and if Muslims was shed — from which the Pledge was All are welcome here and with that the fact that Muslims on September 11, do not like that, then I submit perhaps born. thought in mind, our ancestors intended 2001, murdered over 3,000 innocent they would be more comfortable back in for all who came to these shores to as- Americans. She ignored the fact that the Middle East. BUT IN PINE BUSH, New York, a public school claimed it was an ac- MEDIA BIAS: April 1, 2015 cident and a misunderstanding that al- lowed for the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited in Arabic. During national Foreign Language Week, March 9-15, the Pledge of Alle- The whitewashing of Ted Kennedy giance to the United States, which was magine an eighth grader, pre- listened to the other side and worked so tion of Edward Kennedy’s social life is usually recited by senior class presi- sented with a portrayal of Sen. well with the other side.” enough to make an editor’s head throb.” dent, Andrew Zink, was turned over to Edward Kennedy, the late patri- Except he didn’t. Let us recall his vi- They lamented out loud about how to an Arabic-speaking student. “The idea archI of the “royal family” of Ameri- cious “Robert Bork’s America” speech handle the topic, concluding with a D.C. was to promote the fact that those who can politics. The student would learn in 1987, when he stated, “Robert Bork’s dinner party where “14 talented and in- speak a language other than English nothing but legends about “the greatest America is a land in which women teresting men and women talked of noth- still pledge to salute this great country,” senator of all time,” as Sen. Ed Markey would be forced into back-alley abor- ing but (Kennedy’s) sexual activities.” the district said in its statement. proclaimed. tions, blacks would sit at segregated But now? Sen. John McCain an- The problem with that reasoning On the occasion of the opening of an lunch counters, rogue police could break nounced on Face the Nation on CBS that should have been apparent from the “Edward M. Kennedy Institute” in Bos- down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, Kennedy was a man of his word (and his outset. If foreign speaking students ton, CBS Evening News anchor Scott schoolchildren could not be taught about vows?): “Ted always kept his word. The claim to “pledge to salute [our] great Pelley oozed, “Another New England evolution, writers and artists would be only times I saw him angry was when country,” then it is more than reason- superstar was honored today. Politics censored at the whim of govern- somebody didn’t keep their word to able to expect them to honor America was his game, and we’ll have his story ment.” him.” At the opening ceremonies, Presi- by doing so in our American English next.” There was not one discouraging dent Barack Obama shamelessly asked, language. word — not even the word “liberal” Brent “What if we carried ourselves more like However, and not surprisingly, the — applied to arguably the single most Ted Kennedy? What if we worked to fol- Council on American-Islamic Rela- leftwing senator of all time. Bozell low his example a little bit harder?” tions (C.A.I.R.) viewed it differently. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Does this involve his driving habits? Taking the lead their New York chapter THIS IS NOT a bipartisan prac- Oh, that. challenged the school’s justification for tice. When President George W. Bush BUT NBC brought on his son Pat- The double standard also happened apologizing to the American students dedicated his library on April 25, 2013, rick Kennedy to proclaim, “My dad in newspapers. With Bush in 2013, New and their families who found the Pledge CBS reporter Jim Axelrod insisted that was always an optimist. I mean, having York Times reporter Peter Baker gave being performed in Arabic disrespectful “this library is an intellectual fortress overcome so many of his own personal Bush-bashers their due, writing, “While — not least of all because some of the defending one of the most controver- challenges and political challenges — critics have fumed about what they students and families had lost family sial modern presidents, whose time in I mean, this was a guy that everyone called the whitewashing of his record in members and friends in Afghanistan. office saw the (9/11) attack on the U.S., loved. Why? Because he persevered.” the media blitz leading up to the library The school assured all that “the Pledge two wars and the worst financial crisis One might expect Teddy’s politician dedication, many Americans have been [of Allegiance to the United States of since the Great Depression.” son to spin things this way, but it doesn’t reminded about aspects of Bush they America] would be read in English The whitewash was so complete that mean the hyperbole should go unchal- once liked.” from now on.” even Sunday host Chris Wal- lenged by a discerning press. “A guy that But the Times published two gush- C.A.I.R. spokeswoman Sadyia lace barked up the carnival: “Up next, everyone loved?” The 1970s, 1980s and filled articles on Teddy, without a single Khalique said: “When a simple student our Power Player of the Week: Vicki 1990s would beg to differ. mention of a Kennedy critic. Reporter activity designed to promote mutual Kennedy, on her husband’s vision to In these “superstar” tributes, there was Carl Hulse wrote, “Members of the (Ken- understanding receives such a nega- inspire new generations about the U.S. no talk of womanizing, before and after nedy) institute’s staff said it was not too tive reaction and the school in which it Senate.” Wallace noted that Teddy was the senator got divorced from Joan Ken- late for younger Americans to learn how takes place is forced to issue a public fiercely partisan, and the second Mrs. nedy in 1982. Gearing up for Kennedy’s to tolerate an opposing point of view.” apology, all Americans who value our Kennedy replied, “He was the proudest presidential run in 1979, Time magazine nation’s history of religious and ethnic Democrat that there was, but the great ran a piece titled “Sex and the Senior BUT IS IT TOO late for journalists diversity should be concerned.” thing about Teddy was that he always Senator.” They wrote, “The mere men- to learn journalism? April 8, 2015 25 COLLEGE CAMPUSES: March 31, 2015 What’s going on on college campuses? ho would have thought, pression. Students are even offended by only a few years ago, that professors correcting their papers and our basic First Amendment exams because corrections allegedly de- rightW of free speech would be under at- ride their intellectual capacity and harm tack on college campuses (of all plac- their psycho-physiological health. es!)? But those are now ordinary campus Another trendy phrase among college events. students is the claim that they Progressives need “safe spaces” want to shield col- Phyllis where their feel- lege students from ings can’t be hurt. what are called Schlafly The safe place at “scary ideas.” (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Brown University, They are not refer- for example, was ring to Halloween pranks or costumes, equipped with cookies, coloring books, or to historic wartime episodes of bitter Play-doh, calming music, pillows, a fighting; the new buzz words are “trigger video of frolicking puppies, plus staff warnings,” “outgrowths of fragility,” or trained to deal with trauma. “sexual paranoia.” “Safe places” are designed to shield Professors talk about the need to over- students from being “bombarded” with turn the “privilege theory.” Anyone who upsetting opinions. For example, if a can’t claim to belong to an oppressed class discusses the “rape culture,” the safe place reserved for the University the Middle East. But at California State group must be unfairly advantaged by college should provide a “safe space” of California, Irvine students who were University, Stanislaus in Turlock, the unearned “privilege.” for students who find some comments upset when dozens of leftist professors Christian fraternity Chi Alpha and its “troubling” or even (the new buzz word) signed a letter supporting banning the Stanislaus Christian Fellowship were A WHOLE NEW vocabulary has “triggering.” American flag on campus? barred from campus for “discrimination” come into collegians’ lingo. Students At Reed College in Portland, Oregon, because their leadership positions were claim they suffer from “microaggres- freshman Jeremiah True was banned THE PROFESSORS’ letter stated reserved for professing Christians. sions,” a word defined as the use of a ver- from participating in class discussion that “nationalism, including U.S. nation- And what about the students at Pine bal expression or any customary social after he challenged the concept of “rape alism, often contributes to racism and xe- Bush High School in New York State norm of behavior to which somebody culture” and questioned the widely used nophobia” and referred to the American where, during the regularly scheduled The whitewashing of Ted Kennedy might take offense or feel threatened. statistic that one in five college women is flag as “paraphernalia of nationalism ... morning announcements, the speaker Everyone is subject to having his or- sexually assaulted. The 19-year-old stu- used to intimidate.” Rather than banning read the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic? dinary conversation or acts construed dent was accused of “placing too much the flag, the university could have desig- This event exploded into a raging contro- as secretly or inadvertently using rac- emphasis on men being unfairly charged nated a “safe place” for any students who versy that divided the school into angry ism, sexism or heterosexism. Everyday with rape,” which was “deeply upset- feel “intimidated” by the mere sight of factions, even though the principal came slights or indignities, verbal or behav- ting” to other students and “retrauma- the American flag. on the loudspeaker to apologize. ioral, are assumed to be giving offense. tized and triggered survivors.” At Cornell University, an assistant has blown the whis- Some students gripe about hostile Funny thing, I haven’t heard of any dean of students said he would wel- tle on who really does enjoy “privilege” classroom environments, which the Left safe places reserved for those who are of- come a pro-ISIS group on campus, even in America. This useful article shows usually attributes to “white privilege” fended by anti-American, anti-Christian, if it wanted to conduct a training camp that the most valuable “privilege” is not and other forms of institutionalized op- or even anti-religion talk. Where is the for students or ship care packages to “white privilege” nor even “wealth privi- lege,” but is the “marriage privilege,” i.e., the advantage of growing up in a home with a mother and father who are married to each other. Richard Reeves of the Brookings In- stitution also found that only 19 percent of the kids in the lowest economic quin- tile remain stuck at the bottom of the economic pile if they are born to parents who are married and stay married. This marriage privilege works for the middle class, too. Harvard Professor of Economics Raj Chetty is another scholar who has noted the significance of the marriage privi- lege, but he added another dimension: the neighborhood where the kid lives. “Once we control for the fraction of sin- gle parents in an area, we find no corre- lation between racial shares and upward mobility.”

THESE CONCLUSIONS were con- firmed by the late William Raspberry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist. He expressed little tolerance for those who blame black problems on poverty, crime or even racism when, he wrote, the chief cause is the failure of marriage and the absence of fathers. 26 Conservative Chronicle FAMILY STRUCTURE: March 27, 2015 Can family breakdown in low-education U.S. be reversed? ur kids, at least many of Send them money is one answer. But let’s, he says, eliminate pay-for-play denounce people for breaking old moral them, are not doing very as the Manhattan Institute’s Scott Win- fees for extracurricular activities. rules even when that hurts their kids. well. The reason, writes Har- ship points out, low-level wages and in- Other proposals sound unavailing, The libertarian Murray doubts that vardO professor Robert Putnam in his comes, taking into account proper infla- like moving low-education households government can do much. But he thinks just-published Our Kids: The American tion measures and fringe benefits, have to more upscale suburbs; Section 8 that high-education elites, with their Dream in Crisis, is the “two-tier pattern not fallen over the last 40 years. Food housing subsidies already do strong family structures, can. They need of family structure” that emerged in the and clothing has that. And Putnam’s to “preach what they practice.” Bloom- 1970s and 1980s and continues to pre- become less ex- faith that child care berg’s Megan McArdle, agreeing, vail today. pensive (thanks, Michael centers and manda- nominates Hollywood for a lead role. Starting in the late 1960s, rates of Wal-Mart) and Barone tory pre-school can Midcentury America’s universal media divorce, unmarried births and single most households make a difference — radio, movies, television — celebrat- parenthood rose sharply among all seg- classified as poor (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate haven’t been sup- ed the old rules. ments of society. About a decade later, have smartphones, ported by research, they fell and leveled off among the col- microwaves and big-screen TVs that except for two experiments more than THERE ARE signs this is happen- lege-educated, who almost entirely raise did not exist in the 1960s. 40 years ago whose results haven’t been ing. Teenage birth and violent crime their kids in Ozzie-and-Harriet style replicated. rates have been falling. Younger millen- families today (except that Mom usually LIKE SEN. MIKE LEE and other Putnam doubts the chances of “a re- nials may be learning delayed gratifica- works outside the home). reform conservatives, Putnam would versal of long-established trends in pri- tion and self-restraint. Maybe, as they increase the Earned Income Tax Credit vate norms,” though they’re common in grow older, divorce and single parent- AMONG THE bottom third of and expand the child tax credit. Margin- history: The gin-soaked mobs of 18th- hood will become less common, too. Americans in education and income, al help. He hails the bipartisan support century London became the orderly Few kids in broken homes will read Our however, the negative trend accelerated. for reducing incarceration for minor Victorian masses. Like most high-ed- Kids or Coming Apart. But they already In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was offenses and helping ex-convicts. And ucation Americans, he doesn’t want to know the story. alarmed that 26 percent of black births were to unmarried children. The rate is RACISM: March 26, 2015 about twice that for the least educated third of Americans of all races today. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Charles Murray’s 2012 book Coming Apart describes the same phenomenon Coffee cups can’t replace action among white Americans. Curiously, t didn’t take a genius to predict African-American leaders and enter- Republican. But again, I would suggest Putnam refers only glancingly to Mur- that the idea of promoting discus- tainers, such as Tyler Perry, has no full- that the most conservative and partisan ray’s work. But Putnam agrees with sion about race between baristas time tour it can offer of the many sites of readers consider his recent speech Murray (perhaps grudgingly) that this is at StarbucksI and their customers would in the city related to the civil rights in accepting the Humanitarian Award bad for the kids involved. come to a rapid and certain end. Howev- movement. Houck has taken it upon at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s na- They’re careful to concede that single er well intended, the concept of entering himself to raise funds to create such a tional tribute. parents have a hard job and that some a coffeehouse and having a protracted tour. And he has done so through old- In accepting his award, Weinstein do well at it. But the data says those are conversation about race while holding fashioned free enterprise, not a hand- argued for more than a note on a coffee the exception rather than the rule. On up lines and diverting customers from out. cup in confronting what is a very clear average and by a wide margin, children their usual routine just sounded juvenile. and frightening rise in anti-Semitism, raised in such households do worse in Credit Starbucks leaders for good in- particularly in Europe. Weinstein went school, have more trouble with the law tentions and even better sense in halting well beyond the lip service some give and make less money and gain less sat- the program abruptly. Matt this new trend and bluntly stated that isfaction in life than those from the sta- Towery those who want to fight it, particularly CONSIDER TWO those of the Jewish faith, must get orga- ble families of the upper third. men who are (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Putnam is troubled by the resulting more about action when it comes to nized and plan to get as well-organized inequality and lack of upward mobil- race relations and fighting other forms IT HASN’T been as “the mafia” in fighting back against ity. He begins Our Kids in Port Clinton, of discrimination, including an alarm- easy for him. There have been no in- those who would bring the world back Ohio, where he grew up in the 1950s ing rise in ant-Semitism both here and vestments from the likes of a Starbucks. to the days of Nazi Germany. in a community unequal in income, but more aggressively in other parts of the But many people of good will have Weinstein made it clear that there egalitarian in manners and mores. Since world. Both men would hardly qualify come forward to put time and resourc- should be no problem working with then, Port Clinton’s factory jobs have as conservatives, nor would they want es into what will be an invaluable set of others, including those with good inten- mostly disappeared and the town seems to. But that is of no significance. In both videos containing personal interviews tions of the Islamic faith. But, as is the riven between the gleaming condomini- cases, their calls to action are steeped in from Young, former NAACP President case in Houck’s efforts, Harvey Wein- ums on the now-clean waters of Lake an understanding of history and a real Julian Bond and members of the King stein seeks to rally people to remember Erie and gritty neighborhoods where desire to do what is right. family, among others. Houck’s tour the dangerous past and to “stand up and many kids grow up in disorderly homes. Everyone, regardless of politics, race teaches a history that should not be for- kick these guys in the a--.” With a corps of researchers, Putnam or religion should take heed of what each gotten. And his effort, which has real For the politically correct world fanned out across the country and found of these two men are doing, because in elbow grease support from conserva- we live in, Weinstein’s words might similar trends from fast-growing Bend, their own way they are articulating what tives, liberals, Democrats and Repub- be considered out of order. But with Oregon, to the down-at-the-heels Kens- many believe to be true. licans is an example of turning words threats to Jews rising all over the world, ington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Tom Houck is a white man who start- into action. his message is much needed. He tells the stories and quotes the words ed his adult life as the personal driver While Houck is of relatively hum- — often heart-wrenching, sometimes for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Over ble means, Harvey Weinstein, argu- BOTH MEN prove that understand- heart-warming — of specific kids iden- many decades, he remained an activist ably the most powerful person in the ing history and true actions speak loud- tified by first names. in Atlanta, helping with the careers of world of motion pictures, has amassed er than coffee cups. And solutions to “America’s poor kids do belong to us civil rights icons such as Congressman a financial fortune and in doing so has problems often come from those with and we to them,” he concludes. “They John Lewis and former Ambassador An- brought us many of the greatest films knowledge, age and a sense of history. are our kids.” The nation as a whole drew Young. in modern years. As noted earlier, It would be a shame if Houck’s efforts has to do something to help them. But Incredibly, Atlanta, with its nearly six Weinstein would never, ever be known and Weinstein’s call to action were ig- what? million people and hugely successful as a conservative and certainly not a nored. April 8, 2015 27 COP SHOOTINGS: March 26, 2015 Four (black) cops in seven days: Where’s the outrage? ednesday, March 4: Ful- “‘They said they thought it was going ton County police detec- to be an easy target,’ said police spokes- tive Terence Avery Green man Capt. James Clark. ... Wilson con- wasW killed, shot in the head by a suspect. fronted (the suspects), and a firefight According to WXIA-TV, Atlanta: “Po- broke out, police said. lice responded to a shots fired call early “The officer, an eight-year Wednesday. They veteran, stepped were told the sus- away from others pect was possibly Larry in the store to keep intoxicated. Neigh- Elder them out of the bors said the man crossfire, police was going from (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate said after watch- house to house, ing the store’s se- banging on doors and firing a long barrel curity camera footage. gun. ... “He was a hero and a warrior, Clark “(Fulton County Assistant Police said. “He fought until the very, very end, Chief Gary) described the situation as an firing at both of them.”... Within 30 to 40 ambush, saying the officers ‘were trying seconds, 50 shots fell, he said. ... to do their job, they were trying to protect “Wilson was 30 years old. In addition this neighborhood from someone who to his son, he leaves behind a one-year- was shooting. And they had no other op- old daughter. His son turns 10 on Mon- tion but to do their job. And the way it ap- day. The game was also going to be a pears to me, they were ambushed without birthday present.” as he attempted to apprehend a fugitive custody. It was a very, very high price.’ warning.’ ... Saturday, March 7: Police Officer accused of killing a brother and sister. “Wells was a graduate of East Central Brennan Rabain was killed while try- High School in Hurley, Mississippi, and “GREEN WAS a veteran officer with ing to make a traffic stop on a speeding ACCORDING TO the Associated of Jackson State University. ‘He was a nearly 22 years of service. He is survived driver. The officer lost control of his Press: “The fugitive, Jamie D. Croom, tremendous student,’ East Central Prin- by his parents and his four sons.” squad car and crashed into a fence. Ac- 31, was shot and taken to a hospital. cipal James Hughey told WLOX-TV. Thursday, March 5: Officer Robert cording to the local NBC affiliate news: ... Croom was wanted in the shooting ‘He was very well liked.’ ... Wells’ fa- Coffee cups can’t replace action Wilson III, while on duty and in uniform, “Police are searching for anyone who deaths of a brother and sister in New ther, Obie Wells Sr., is a retired Jackson walked into a game store to purchase a may have witnessed a crash that killed Roads, Louisiana. ... County sheriff’s deputy. His brother, gift for his son. Two men robbed the store, a Prince George’s County police officer. “The shootout took place in Scot- Obie Wells Jr., is an officer with the and shot and killed Officer Wilson. Ac- ... Rabain had been off duty, but when landville, an area north of Baton Rouge. Jackson Police Department in the state cording to CNN: “Wilson was standing at he initiated the traffic stop, he went back A task force made by federal Marshals capital. the counter across from employees at the on duty, police said.” Rabain, 27, had was serving an arrest warrant when the “‘His dad was so proud of him for be- GameStop store when two brothers, Carl- been with the department less than two shootout happened. ... Croom, a resident ing a U.S. marshal,’ (Mississippi state ton Hipps and Ramone Williams, walked years, and leaves behind a three-year- of New Roads, had a lengthy criminal Rep. Manly) Barton said.” The day after in carrying guns, police said. old daughter. record, (local Sheriff Beauregard) Torres his death, Wells’ wife — who is pregnant “They allegedly stuck up the store Tuesday, March 10: Deputy U.S. said. ‘He was a dangerous criminal,’ Tor- with the couple’s first child — learned with at least five patrons and two employ- Marshal Josie Wells, 27, was killed in a res said. ‘It was a very high price to pay the sex of their baby. She is having a boy, ees inside. shootout near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for this warrant to bring this man into and she plans to name him Josie Wells, Jr. Last year, according to the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Me- morial Fund, 126 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers died in the line of duty in 2014 — although some deaths were attributed to health prob- lems or traffic accidents. Fifty officers were killed by firearms, 15 of them in ambush attacks. The memorial fund says that shoot- ings against officers increased 50 - per cent in 2014. This total includes two NYPD officers killed in December in an ambush. The suspect, killed by police, had posted Internet messages that ac- cused police of racism, threatened to kill officers and urged others to do the same. Despite the widely publicized recent cases where cops killed blacks, new studies show cops — black and white — more reluctant to shoot a black suspect compared to a white suspect. Reasons are unclear, but fear of additional scru- tiny — whether fair or not — might be a factor.

SUSPECTS WHO kill cops, how- ever, appear colorblind. 28 Conservative Chronicle IRAN: March 27, 2015 The enemy of my enemy — a truce? he forces that do not want a denly on their way home. With the acci- U.S. nuclear deal with Iran, nor dental shoot-down of an Iranian Airbus any U.S. detente with Iran, are by the cruiser Vincennes in 1988, the impressive.T Ayatollah ended his war with Saddam Among them are the Israelis and their Hussein, fearful the Americans powerful lobby AIPAC, the Saudis and were about to intervene on their Sunni al- the side of Iraq. lies on the Persian Pat Why Iran wants Gulf, a near una- to avoid war is ob- nimity of Repub- Buchanan vious. Given U.S. licans and a plural- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate air, missile and ity of Democrats naval power, and in Congress. cyberwarfare capabilities, a war with Is there a case to be made for a truce the United States would do to Iran what in the venomous conflict that has gone we did to Iraq, smash it up, set it back on between us since the taking of U.S. decades, perhaps break up the country. hostages in 1979? Is there any common Some mullahs may be fanatics, but ground? Iran is not run by fools. Yet even if we have a mutual interest TO BOTH QUESTIONS, President in avoiding a war, where is the common Obama and John Kerry believe the an- ground between us? swer is yes. And they are not without an Let us begin with the Sunni terror- argument. ists of al Qaeda who brought down the First, the alternative to a truce — twin towers, and the Islamic State that When the Islamic State seized Mosul Undeniably. But when we destroyed breaking off of negotiations, doubling is beheading Christians, apostates, and and most of Anbar, the Iranians helped the Sunni Baathist regime of Saddam, down on demands Iran dismantle all nu- nonbelievers, and intends to establish a to rally Shiite resistance to defend disbanded his army and held elections, clear facilities, tougher sanctions — in- Middle East caliphate where there are Baghdad, and are now assisting the Iraqi we greased the skids for a pro-Iranian evitably leads to war. And we all know it. no Americans, no Christians, and no army in its effort to recapture Tikrit. Shiite regime. We can’t walk that cat Yet Americans do not want another Shiites. Until this week, the U.S. stayed out, back. war in the Middle East, with a nation Americans and Iranians have a com- as Shiite militias were mauled by fewer Consider Yemen. three times the size of Iraq, and its allies mon goal of degrading and defeating than 1,000 jihadis. Wednesday, howev- This week, the Saudis sent their air across the region. them. er, we intervened with air power, thus force against the Houthi rebels who Nor can Iran want such a war. Had the exposing Iraq’s reliance on us. had seized the capital of Sanaa, driven ayatollahs and mullahs wanted it, they IN THE SYRIAN civil war, Iran This does not contradict but rather out the president, and have now driven could have had a war with the United and its Shiite allies in Hezbollah have reinforces the point. In the war to expel south to Aden to take over half of the States at any time in the third of a century prevented the fall of the Alawite regime the Islamic State from Iraq, we and Iran country. since they seized power. of Bashar Assad. For years, Iran has are on the same side. Why is the Saudi air force attacking Yet as Ronald Reagan was taking the helped to keep the al-Nusra Front and Does Iran wish to displace American the Houthis? oath in 1981, our hostages were sud- ISIL out of Damascus. influence in Baghdad? The Houthis belong to a sect close to the Shiite and are supported by Iran. Yet the Houthis, who bear no love for us, be- gan this war to expel al Qaeda from Ye- men. And their hatred for ISIS is surely greater than it is for us or Israel, as, last week, 137 of their co-religionists were massacred in two mosque bombings in Sanaa. ISIS claimed credit. In summary, though the Houthi reb- els in Yemen, Shiite militia in Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Alawite regime of Assad may not love us, they look on al Qaeda and ISIS as mortal enemies. And, thus far, they alone have seemed willing to send troops to defeat them. Where are the Turkish, Saudi, Ku- waiti or Qatari troops? During World War II, the U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine shipped tanks, guns and munitions to a Soviet Union that was doing most of the fighting and suffering most of the casualties in the war against Hitler. No matter all the “Uncle Joe” drivel at Tehran and Yalta, we were never true friends or allies, and shared nothing in common with the monster Stalin, save Hitler’s defeat.

IF PRESIDENT NIXON could toast Mao Zedong, can we not deal with Ayatollah Khamenei? April 8, 2015 29 EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT: March 26, 2015 Reforming Islam: A president’s new role hat do you know, the religious. He has called upon religious beheaded Egyptian Christians. He is no lim prayer rug. President el-Sissi is a world’s leading reformer clerics assembled at the premier Cairo pushover. pious Muslim. of Islam is turning out to university of Al-Azhar to commit Islam In an interview with the Wall Street be Wa general. He is not a learned mullah. to a “revolution.” ALL OF THIS is to the good, but Journal President el-Sissi made clear He is not a suicide bomber. He does not The Egyptian president’s political what is even more salutary is Presi- his differences with his opponents in the even have a weaponized bicycle. He is reforms have brought his country into dent el-Sissi’s foray into Muslim Brotherhood. “There are mis- Egypt’s Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi who, a closer align- religious reform. As conceptions and misperceptions about somewhat reminiscent of our own Gen- ment with Israel R. Emmett of January, he has the real Islam,” he said. “Religion is eral George Washington, turned in his than ever before. become the preemi- guarded by its spirit, by its core, not by uniform for civilian garb and was elected Today, he has Tyrrell nent Arab leader human beings. Human beings only take president of Egypt with a huge majority. outdone even (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate to call for reform the core and deviate it to the right or President Sadat in Islam. Virtu- left.” And he went on: “The real Islamic PRESIDENT EL-SISSI’S new role by sharing intelligence with Israel and ally no Arab personage — religious or religion grants absolute freedom for the as reformer should not be terribly sur- sending Egyptian troops into Gaza to political — has spoken out against the whole people to believe or not. Never prising. After all, the last great reform- demolish the system of tunnels through fundamentalist currents in Islam. Presi- does it dictate to kill others because they er in the Arab world was the Egyptian which Hamas supplies lethal weaponry dent el-Sissi did at Al-Azhar where he do not believe in Islam. Never does it statesman Anwar Sadat. Sadat restricted to its agents in Israel. In Israel’s recent called on the clerics to reform Islam, dictate that [Muslims] have the right to his reforms to politics, initiating a de- blow-up with Hamas, Egypt led a coali- which is still rooted in the wilds of the dictate” to the world. ... Never does it marche with Israel. Those reforms ended tion of Arab moderates including Jor- 7th century. President el-Sissi carries say that only Muslims will go to para- abruptly when assassins shot him as he dan, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia a peculiar credential for speaking out dise and others go to hell.” My earlier appeared at a public ceremony in Cairo in cheering for — albeit discreetly — on Islam. On his forehead he bears the comparison of the Egyptian president in 1981. To be sure President el-Sissi’s Israel. He has sent his air force against zebibah, the darkened spot of skin that to George Washington was not such a reforms are political, but they are also Islamic State targets in Libya after ISIS comes from sedulous prayer on a Mus- stretch after all, no? The vast majority of Muslims are what calls “Mecca Mus- AYANN HIRSI ALI: March 26, 2015 lims” in her new book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now. They are devout practicing Muslims, follow- ers of the Quran, who do not advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a hero for our time jihad and eschew violence. Still, they Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be the per- ers. But some heretics are more wel- with her this week, Daily Show host have a problem. Their world of dietary fect feminist hero. come than others. In the case of Islam, Jon Stewart worried that “people sin- regulations, religious dress, daily prayer In theory, she fits the role on mul- the pieties of multiculturalism clash gle out Islam,” when Christianity un- — withal traditional values based on tiple levels: She’s an escapee from an with what should be an imperative of derwent its own difficult reconciliation hierarchies decided by age, gender and abusive patriarchy. She’s an African feminism (i.e., forcefully standing up with modernity. True enough, but the inherited status clashes frequently with immigrant who made her own way in for the basic rights of women in Mus- horrific intra-Christian bloodletting of the modern world of Western values a Western country, the Netherlands. lim societies), and feminism tends to the Thirty Years’ War was 400 years and material success. Ali claims that the She’s a fierce advocate for women’s lose out. ago. Mecca Muslims “cocoon” themselves rights. She’s a target for deadly vio- “The concern,” as one feminist If Islam is on the same trajectory, it away from the demands of modern lence by angry men who want to shut wrote of Hirsi Ali, “is that is badly trailing the pace. Hirsi Ali’s Western commercial life, whereby they her up. She left her religion and be- her intervention into the is- prescriptions are hardly unassailable. “attempt to wall off outside influences, came a scourge of its repressive prac- Her notion of religious reform bears permitting only an Islamic education for tices. Rich an atheistic stamp. If change in Islam their children and disengaging from the depends on getting Muslims to admit wider Muslim community.” That pretty EXCEPT FOR the blemish on her Lowry that Muhammad was not The Prophet, much sums up President el-Sissi’s chal- record: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a dissident (c) 2015, King Features Syndicate as she writes in Heretic, the cause is lenge to the Muslim clerics of Al-Azhar from the wrong religion. indeed hopeless. The ummah is not go- and to the generality of Mecca Muslims. Raised a Muslim in Somalia, sub- sue of gender equality in Muslim soci- ing to dissolve itself into a gooey Uni- The traditional world of the Mecca Mus- jected to genital mutilation and mar- eties will strengthen racism rather than tarian Universalism. lims needs to reconcile itself with mo- ried off to a distant cousin, she is weaken sexism.” In the fashionable Hirsi Ali recalls the dissidents from dernity, if it wants to partake of the good famously a critic of Islam. She has ex- neologism designed to be a conversa- communism in the 20th century like things to come with modernity. If it does coriated it at extraordinary risk to her tion-stopper, she is “an Islamophobe.” the great Whittaker Chambers. Their not, it will continue in the world of the own safety, and makes the case again Brandeis University notoriously re- personal experience redoubled their cocoon, a world of frustration whenever in her latest book, Heretic: Why Islam scinded a planned honorary degree for commitment to the fight for freedom modernity intrudes, a world of growing Needs a Reformation Now. her last year. and human dignity. They, too, were bitterness that invites the jihadism. When she collaborated on a film often dismissed as fanatics and as em- in the Netherlands in 2004 cataloging IF HIRSI ALI had had a strict Bap- barrassments to polite opinion. But THIS IS THE challenge President el- abuses against Muslim women, her tist upbringing and left to tell the story their intellectual contributions, and the Sissi presented to the clerics of Al-Azhar fellow filmmaker Theo van Gogh was of its hypocrisies and closed-minded- examples of their own bravery, were this January. They must contemplate the assassinated by an Islamist who left ness, she would be celebrated in such indispensable in the long ideological reform that Christians and Jews did at an a note threatening her pinned to van precincts as Brandeis, without anyone struggle. earlier time. They must revise their tra- Gogh’s chest — with a knife. uttering a peep of protest. ditional way of life to accommodate the But Hirsi Ali wouldn’t be silenced. This is the “Book of Mormon” ef- AYAAN HIRSI ALI is not just a modern world. It will be difficult, but it is She is truly a hero of our time. She is fect — no one cares about offending heretic; she also is a believer. She has possible. The president closes on an op- defying the jihadi censors, the misbe- the inoffensive. It’s only debate over a more confidence in Western civiliza- timistic note: Egypt’s “... past three years gotten hate-speech laws and the polite religion that is home to dangerous fa- tion and its values than people who have been a critical test to those people conventions of Western debate that all natics that must be carefully policed. have never had to live outside it, or who were promoting religious ideas. limit what can be said about the rela- Even people not otherwise known face down the enemies who want to Egyptians experienced it totally and said tionship of Islam to modernity. for their solicitude for religious sen- destroy it. If she doesn’t get the recog- those people [the Muslim Brotherhood] Our society, and especially the left, sibilities are uncomfortable with her nition she deserves, so much the worse do not deserve sympathy and we will not tends to reflexively celebrate dissent- criticisms of Islam. In his interview for her detractors. allow it.” Well said, President El-Sissi. 30 Conservative Chronicle PAN-ARAB ARMY: April 1, 2015 Evaluating the pan-Arab ‘joint army’ pan-Arab military coalition is how long can they keep it up before has begun waging war in Ye- logistic and maintenance deficiencies men, ostensibly on behalf of emerge? They can hire private contrac- deposedA Yemeni President Abd Rabbu tors to provide these services. Mansour Hadi. Is this Arab League-ap- At the moment, naval operations are proved “joint army” a combat second- ary, though that could force? change if the Iranian- That depends Houthi coalition takes on who emerges Austin complete control. Ye- as the joint army’s men’s Southwestern central actor and Bay edge borders the commander. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate strait connecting So far, Saudi the Indian Ocean Arabia has served as the coalition’s most and Red Sea. However, coalition na- prominent public advocate and actor. The val operations indicate the centrality of Saudis contend Iran backs the Houthi the Arab world’s strongest nation state: insurgents who overthrew Hadi. Strong Egypt. Egypt’s Al-Ahram reported that evidence supports their contention. Egyptian warships shelled Houthi fight- ers advancing on the Yemeni port of YEMEN’S WAR involves sectar- Aden. Egyptian officials did not com- tary reputations. Every regime can field EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT Abdel ian sympathies. Ayatollah-led Iran, the ment, on the record. a small elite force, but the Egyptian and Fattah al-Sisi adds credibility to the co- world’s great Shia Muslim power, sup- Jordanian armies field larger units (bri- alition. Al-Sisi has the military skills. He ports the Shia Houthi movement. Saudi GROUND OPERATIONS will de- gades) with comparatively higher train- also understands the ideological com- Arabia’s Wahabi-sect leaders have con- termine Yemen’s winner, and Egypt’s ing standards than other Arab states. Last ponent. He has shaped his own coun- cluded that Iran intends to use a Houthi- large and comparatively capable army is year, Egyptian forces conducted some try’s fight as one against militant Islam, infested Yemen to harass and destabilize the pan-Arab coalition’s decisive force. cursory training exercises with countries whether Sunni or Shiite. If al-Sisi has their Sunni kingdom. Bankrolls matter, but the quality of now participating in the coalition, so that the final decision in the pan-Arab army’s In concept, Iran’s Yemen proxies generals, captains, sergeants and pri- coalition’s formation may not be as sud- operations against Iranian proxies and — would attack the Saudis in somewhat the vates matters as well. At times their den as the headlines suggest. Egyptian potentially — Iran itself, there is a very same way Tehran uses its Lebanon-based quality matters more than cash. Egypt advisers are reportedly in Saudi Arabia, good chance it will prevail. If the Arab Hezbollah proxies to harass and distract and Jordan both have fair-to-good mili- on both the Iraq and Yemen borders. force fails? The Israelis won’t. Israel. The Arabian Peninsula, rife with tribal factions, gives the Iranians numer- IRAN: March 31, 2015 ous volatile human targets to rile and exploit. Fracturing these often delicate tribal political arrangements would be a major step toward achieving a beloved Iranian goal: toppling the Saud family Dusting off the Logan Act regime. hen there’s nothing to ar- American; he can look anybody in the Right. And if pigs had wings, they Israel, a nation state rather than tribal gue about, knee-jerk critics eye and say just what he thinks. Without could fly. Or at least bump along as awk- confederation, presents Iran’s ayatollahs of Arkansas’ junior senator apology or hesitation. May he continue wardly as Tom Cotton’s congenital crit- with a much harder and more ferocious — Wenergetic and determined Tom Cotton to do so. May all of us. ics. target. Nation states vary in strength, but — will argue about nothing. In this case, The latest nitpicking criticism directed Meanwhile, another great charade the Israeli nation state is a high-technol- about the antiquated Logan Act, which at Sen. Cotton by the White House, State continues as this administration tries to ogy, highly trained warrior nation state. you might say was antiquated from the Department and their legalistic minions shift the whole ground of American di- Iran needs nuclear weapons to destroy moment it was passed in 1799. For it was demonstrates mainly the historical igno- plomacy in the Middle East, moving the Israeli nation state. Unfortunately, part of the Federalist Party’s package of rance and partisan arrogance of away from all this country’s old friends ayatollah Iran’s nuclear weapons quest, Alien and Sedition Acts, a conglomera- this administration. To quote and allies. Such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, thanks to feckless western governments, tion of bad ideas and worse law designed Israel, Jordan, the Persian Gulf emirates. including the current one in Washington, to silence the Jeffersonian opposition. Paul Instead, the administration is embracing appears to be on the verge of succeeding. old enemies like Iran’s mullahs as they The sectarian analysis of Iranian am- SUCH TACTICS didn’t work then, Greenberg get a nuclear weapon of their own. With bitions stresses Shia regional hegemony and will surely prove at least as futile (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services all the uncertainty and danger that would as Tehran’s goal. It’s there, but don’t buy now when they’re rolled out of moth- unleash throughout the region and maybe it as a sufficient answer. A “golden age” balls to silence Sen. Cotton, a man who Stephen Vladeck, professor of law at world. With the result that the Arab states myth of Aryan divine and ethnic right to does not silence easily — if at all. The American University in Washington: are moving toward forming a new mili- rule, circa Persian Empire 500 BC, se- notorious Logan Act made it a crime for “The larger problem is that the Logan tary alliance of their own to fill the power duces Tehran’s ayatollahs. Yes, Aryan. a private citizen to correspond with a Act is a relic of an era in which Congress vacuum America is leaving behind. Iran is “Aryanistan.” If you didn’t know foreign government “without authority” routinely criminalized political differ- that, well, now you do. Arabs are Semitic — but Tom Cotton is a sitting member ences. It was enacted about the same THERE HAS scarcely been a more peoples. So are Jews. If you didn’t know of the U.S. Senate, the body that must ap- time as the heavily discredited Alien and cynical or futile diplomatic reversal this ethnic dimension is in play, well, it prove treaties with foreign governments. Sedition Acts.” since the Nazi-Soviet Pact set the stage is. Surely that is authority enough to express for the outbreak of the Second World Now to the pan-Arab military force. his views. To anybody. And that includes PETER SPIRO, another professor War in 1939 — an alliance of “conve- Money talks, and the Saudis have the foreign governments, of law, has contributed this bit of woolly nience” that would soon be undone when bankroll. The Saudis also have an air Oh, yes, the senator is also a citizen speculation to the debate: “All of this is the Nazis turned around and invaded the force (flying U.S.-made jets) capable of of the United States who, like all of us, academic because nobody is going to get Soviet Union in 1941. When the partners conducting a credible air campaign. On enjoys freedom of speech under the First prosecuted under the Logan Act, but if to a diplomatic deal neither trust each March 26, the coalition’s Operation Res- Amendment. If that’s not sufficient “au- there were ever a good case for prosecu- other nor should, then abandon hope all olute Storm began with air strikes against thority” to express his opinion — to any- tion (and there never is), this is probably ye who enter so dangerous a diplomatic various Houthi targets. The question body — what would be? The man is an as close as it gets to a pretty clear case.” quagmire. April 8, 2015 31 RUSSIA: March 26, 2015 Are we seeing Guernica all over again? t was one of the most searing mated 16,000 German ‘volunteers’ of the paintings of the modernist era: Condor Legion. Encouraged by Germa- Pablo Picasso’s scream of a mas- ny, Mussolini sent the Nationalists 660 terpieceI inspired by the fascist bombing planes, 150 tanks, 800 artillery pieces, of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War, a 10,000 machine guns and horror that would prove but a prelude to 240,000 rifles. In addition to the Second World providing arms, War that began a Paul Germany trained couple of years 56,000 Nationalist later. Greenberg infantry, gunners The same evil (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services and pilots. The empires that con- Luftwaffe pilots ington followed suit, passing a series of many began to arm itself in violation of spired to crush republican Spain in the secured Nationalist dominance in the air, Non-Intervention Acts that hindered only the Treaty of Versailles make him scale 1930s — Nazi Germany and Soviet Rus- strafing Republican troops and bombing the republican side, while leaving its en- down his ambition? Did inaction help sia — would unite again to invade Po- Madrid with impunity, while the Italian emies free to import arms and welcome after Hitler violated another article of land at the end of that decade, and set off Navy controlled the Mediterranean and “volunteers.” the Versailles treaty by moving troops worldwide calamity. bombarded Malaga, Valencia and Barce- into the Rhineland in 1936? Did ceding lona.” SOUND FAMILIAR? To quote Czechoslovakia appease him?” SPAIN WAS only an early victim. For more details, see Leon Aron’s Aron, a long-time student of communist And so the West proceeds down this While the West continued to dither, refus- piece in the March 2 Weekly Standard tactics, “while democracies usually seek all-too-familiar road to the next catastro- ing to intervene on behalf of the Spanish (“Spain 1936-39; Ukraine, 2014-? The peace, their opponents are always after phe. But what is the alternative — war republic, both Nazi Germany and fascist perversity of not arming victims.”) victory. This is useful to recall in light of with Russia? That is the familiar false Italy dispatched proxy legions to fight Meanwhile, Moscow was doing its the arguments by the opponents of arm- choice — either oppose aggression or in Spain — just as Vladimir Putin now nefarious part to undermine the Span- ing Ukraine that doing so would ‘pour declare war on the aggressor. sends his kontraktniki, his not very well ish republic by dispatching Communist gasoline on the fire” and ‘antagonize’ Professor Aron proposes a third and disguised Russian invaders to seize more forces more intent on crushing Trotskyite Vladimir Putin into ‘widening the war.’ better way to deal with Russia’s thug- and more of Ukraine while the West only dissenters than on fighting the Germans If only it were that easy!” in-chief: Arm the Ukrainians. But would wrings its hands. or their Spanish allies. That was the trap “Where and when,” Dr. Aron wonders, “sending defensive weapons to Kiev The amount of Nazi-supplied arma- real volunteers fighting for the republic “has ‘not angering’ dictators bound on force Putin to scale down his designs? ments shipped to Francisco Franco’s — like George Orwell — were caught conquering or destabilizing their neigh- Not right away. Putin has bragged of be- fascist legions during the 1930s was im- in. He was lucky to get out of Spain with bors ever worked? Where and when have ing able take Kiev in two weeks, which is pressive, not to mention all the German his life. such aggressors been dissuaded from probably not far from the truth. Thus, the troops dispatched to fight in Spain. Ac- As for Western governments in the proceeding according to their own plans Western strategy should not aim to force cording to one tally: ‘30s, they remained neutral on the side and timetables, shaped by ideology, cold him out of Ukraine by securing a deci- “From 1936 to the defeat of the Re- of the aggressors. When civil war broke geostrategic calculus, and opportunity? sive Ukrainian victory on the battlefield. public three years later, Nazi Germany out in Spain, the British declared “a strict Name one dictator whose aggression has This is unlikely to happen any time soon. spent an estimated $215 million — $3.6 and impartial attitude of non-interven- been prevented or even slowed down by “Instead, bolstering Ukrainian defens- Dusting off the Logan Act billion in today’s money — to provide tion ... essential if the unhappy events in noninterference. Was Mussolini? Was es would increase the domestic political the Nationalists with 600 planes and 200 Spain are to be prevented from having Saddam Hussein? Did ‘not angering’ price of Russian aggression. Any ‘widen- tanks and to pay the salaries of an esti- serious repercussions elsewhere.” Wash- Hitler by not confronting him after Ger- ing of the war’ by a Putin ‘enraged’ by the delivery of Western defensive weap- ons would carry very real domestic polit- ical risks. Vast majorities of Russians in- terviewed by pollsters have consistently opposed a large-scale war with Ukraine. Soviet casualties in Afghanistan contrib- uted mightily to the fall of the USSR, and Putin remembers the lesson. “Denying Moscow a quick and de- cisive victory would raise the domes- tic cost of aggression. It would force the Kremlin — unable to borrow in the West because of sanctions — to choose between keeping hospitals open, paying pensions on time, raising the salaries of doctors and teachers to keep up with in- flation, on the one hand, and spending on tanks, missiles, artillery batteries ... on the other. Only if the Kremlin is con- fronted with these tough choices will Pu- tin begin rethinking his endgame objec- tives in Ukraine.”

THERE IS still time to restrain Tsar Vladimir by exercising good judgment, constancy of purpose and all the other elements of a prudent foreign policy so long missing from this administration’s conduct of foreign affairs. RUSH! •NEWSPAPER• •DATED MATERIAL•

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