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Fox News Sunday panel 6-7-15: Brit Hume, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, George Will and Juan Williams discuss Hillary’s voting rights ploy, and coverage of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s driving record.
On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume, Sheryl
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On June 3, 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) operatives in Iraq’s Ninveh province published photos of a public execution in Mosul of three gay men convicted of homosexuality. The three men, who were being punished under Sharia law were blindfolded and dropped head first from the roof of a tall building in front of a large crowd of spectators, including children.
The photos were released by ISIS via social media in a report by the terror group entitled, “Implementation of the Punishment of Those Who Have Committed Acts of Homosexuality” on the jihadist online forum Shumoukh Al-Islam.
The executions took place almost one year to the day since ISIS, otherwise known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIL, stormed into northern Iraq and captured the strategic and symbolic city of Mosul. The group vowed to create a caliphate spanning the Sunni-dominated sections of neighboring countries, boasting control of large regions in Syria. One month later, the terror army destroyed the tomb of Jonah the prophet, a sacred and holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Since then, they’ve captured Tikrit, the birthplace of not only former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein but also the famed muslim ruler Sahalidin.
Shiite militias backed, trained and joined by Iran launched a major and somewhat successful campaign against ISIS to take the city back last month.
Last week, Ramadi, the strategically important Iraqi city and capital of Anbar province, also fell in a politically embarrassing defeat for the Obama administration and the Iraqi security forces. The city, which was the location of the Anbar Awakening that gave a now-blown victory to the U.S. and their allies in 2008, was besieged by a series of car bombs before the 5 to 1 outnumbered ISIS force drove the Iraqis into a full retreat.
Islamic State (ISIS) operatives in Iraq's Ninveh
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The McLaughlin Group discusses the shutdown of the NSA bulk metadata collection procedures under the new reformed USA Patriot Act, the policy debate’s impact on Rand Paul’s bid, North Korean aggression and more.
The McLaughlin Group discusses the shutdown of
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Jan. 26, 2010) A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol helicopter awaits passengers as a Navy MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft lands in the background near the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The U.S. military is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage in Haiti Jan. 12. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Candice Villarreal/Released)
BREAKING: PPD has confirmed a report claiming that a Mexican drug cartel fired on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter at La Bota Ranch, a subdivision of Laredo, Texas. The incident occurred in the early morning hours on June 5 at approximately 5:00pm near the Rio Grande River, during a joint CBP-Border Patrol operation to intercept drug smuggling.
“At least five shots were fired from members of the cartel on the other side of the border and three hit the CBP chopper,” the source said. “The smugglers, on both sides of the border, all got away.”
The smugglers are believed to be members of the Los Zetas cartel, which is based just over the border in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. According to the source, the helicopter was not technically shot down, as some have suggested, but rather forced to make an emergency landing in Laredo. At the time the cartel opened fire, the CBP helicopter was flying in U.S. airspace.
While Breitbart Texas reported that Border Patrol agent and National Border Patrol Council Local 2455 President Hector Garza confirmed that he received unofficial reports, the agency did not return a request from PPD to confirm or deny the incident on the record.
PPD has confirmed that a Mexican drug
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform during a visit to Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)
I’m not a big fan of Obamanomics. We’re going through the weakest recovery since the Great Depression. Income and wages have been stagnant, particularly when compared to previous expansions. And while the unemployment rate has finally come down, that’s in part a consequence of people dropping out of the labor force.
The net result is that our nation’s output is far lower than it would be if economic performance had simply matched the average for previous business cycles. And that translates into foregone income for American households.
Yet the President seems to think that he deserves applause for his economic legacy. Here are some excerpts from an AP story in the Oregonian.
President Barack Obama is not shy about defining his achievements and casting them in the most positive light…on Monday Obama offered a rare glimpse at how he wants history to judge his presidency, letting the “L” word cross his lips as he touted the U.S. economic recovery… “Obviously there are things that I’ve been proud of,” he said. He first cited the economic crisis he faced upon assuming office in 2009. “It was hard, but we ended up avoiding a terrible depression,” he said.
You won’t be surprised to learn that I have a different perspective. I was on CNN earlier this week and expressed my disappointment with the President’s policies and their impact on the nation.
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To be fair, I’m focusing in the interview on the strength (or lack thereof) of the recovery. Obama, by contrast, wants credit for the fact that the 2008 recession didn’t turn into a depression.
Needless to say, there aren’t alternative universes where we can see what would have happened if Obama didn’t get to the White House. And it probably wouldn’t matter even if there were alternative universes since neither McCain nor Romney had a substantially different vision anyhow.
But here’s why I think it’s absurd for Obama to take credit for avoiding a depression. Simply stated, it takes a lot of mistakes, on a sustained basis, to produce a depression.
And that’s precisely what we got from Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt. Thanks to protectionist policies, higher tax rates, a bigger burden of government spending, and massive intervention in markets, a normal downturn was magnified and extended to last an entire decade.
So I suppose we could give Obama credit for not being as bad as Hoover and Roosevelt, but that’s an extreme case of damning with faint praise. And even faint praise is probably unwarranted since Obama wanted more statism and was stopped by the 2010 election.
The bottom line is that Obama wants people – based on zero evidence – to believe a depression would have occurred naturally in the absence of his policies.
The more realistic assessment is that Obama’s policies have been a net negative for the economy. But as I remarked in the interview, I’m not making a partisan argument. Bush’s policies also were a net negative.
By comparison, you can look at Reagan and Clinton for examples of Presidents who increased economic freedom during their reigns.
P.S. Since today’s topic is the economy, here’s a grim reminder of one of the reasons why growth has been relatively anemic.
The folks at Mercatus have put together a pictograph on the regulatory burden.
Something to keep in mind when considering the degree to which red tape is constraining growth and entrepreneurship.
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When compared to previous expansion, this is
State Sen. J.P. Morrell, a Democrat who voted against eliminating the tax holidays, told the Times-Picayune that his Republican colleagues were encouraged to keep the tax holiday for guns and hunters in a letter from U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). (Photo: AP)
If you’re a libertarian or a small-government conservative, it’s quite likely you believe both these statements.
But what happens if these two statements are in conflict?
This isn’t a hypothetical question. As reported by Politico, there’s legislation in Louisiana to have a special three-day “tax holiday” on purchases of selected products, including guns and ammo.
Louisiana’s state legislature decided Tuesday to eliminate a tax holiday for hurricane equipment and school supplies, but keep one for guns and other hunting tools. In a 7-2 vote, the Louisiana Senate’s Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs decided that for a three-day weekend at the beginning of September the state would eliminate its sales tax on firearms, ammunition, knives and ATVs. …Ultimately, three Democrats voted with four of their Republican colleagues to keep the tax holiday for hunting while eliminating the other two.
Is this a good idea?
I’m conflicted. As a fan of the flat tax, I obviously don’t want government to micro-manage the economy with back-door industrial policy in the tax code. And I’ve also written that tax holidays are a less-than-ideal way of reducing taxes. So this suggests that I’m against the Louisiana proposal.
But on the other hand, I’m an advocate of “starve the beast,” which means I support policies that will shrink the amount of revenue controlled by politicians. And I also strongly support the Second Amendment and want safer communities, so I like the idea of expanded gun ownership.
So how would I have vote if (Heaven forbid!) I was a Louisiana legislator?
I guess I would vote yes. Based on the limited information in the article, the proposal is a pure tax cut. So while I don’t like loopholes, I’ve also stated that I only want to eliminate such preferences if all the revenue was used to lower tax rates.
So the bottom line is that I would oppose the policy if the holiday was financed by an increase in the overall sales tax rate (similarly, I would support getting rid of the holiday as part of a proposal to lower the overall sales tax rate). But since such tradeoffs don’t apply, I would grudgingly offer my support (especially since I know the plan would offend anti-gun statists such as Michael Bloomberg).
P.S. We’ll add this post to my collection of libertarian quandaries.
P.P.S. Since we have a gun-related topic, I can’t resist sharing this example of pro-Second Amendment propaganda.
Who wouldve thought pic.twitter.com/fKJQpggAqz
— Libertarian Leaders (@LibertarianTeam) May 24, 2015
By the way, if you disagree with the message in this image, please take this IQ test for criminals and liberals and reconsider your views.
What happens when the promotion of gun
Black men wait on an unemployment line in Atlanta, Ga. (Photo: Reuters)
The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 280,000 jobs in May, outpacing expectations, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5 percent. Minority employment, wages, and labor force participation continue to underscore fundamental challenges to an economy that contracted in the first quarter.
The unemployment rates for adult men overall stood at 5.0 percent and adult women at 5.0 percent, but overall unemployment among blacks and Hispanics stood at 10.2 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. Teenager unemployment remained a staggering 17.9 percent and real unemployment remains near 11 percent. Asians, at 4.1 percent, continued to outperform all other demographics, including whites (4.7 percent).
So, how is it that the unemployment number ticked up if job creation stood above expectations?
As PPD Business repeatedly hammers each and every month, the U.S. economy needs to add over 250,000 jobs each month simply to keep pace with population growth. However, when factoring in the upward revision in March from 85,000 to 119,000 and a downward revision in April from 223,000 to 221,000, job gains have averaged 207,000 per month in the last three months.
Further, the abysmal labor force participation rate, which continues to stand at a 37-year low, has real long-term consequences on the labor market. While it was little changed at 62.9 percent, up from 62.7 percent the month prior, the civilian labor force rose by 397,000. When adding these American workers attempting to re-enter the labor force, the quality and quantity of current and past job creation is and has been completely insufficient.
Consequently, the number of Americans employed part time for economic reasons — sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers, who want to work full time but are unable to find such an opportunity — was about unchanged at 6.7 million in May and has shown no movement in three months. Considering the teenage unemployment number, there is no surprise that the number of unemployed new entrants, or those who have never worked but searched for employment in the last four weeks, edged up by 103,000.
This further contributed to the slack in the labor market, which sadly boasts an employment-to-population ratio of just 59.4 percent, essentially unchanged from the month prior.
Job gains by sector, when considering good-paying versus poor-paying positions created, were mixed at best. Job creation in professional and business services (63,000) and health care (47,000) was decent, but these respectable paying sectors are not widely available to the population, as a whole. Employment in construction, another good paying sector, was up by just 17,000, while transportation and warehousing added just 13,000. Financial services added 13,000.
Along with job creation in retail employment at 31,000, low-paying leisure and hospitality accounted for a whopping 57,000 jobs created this month, while higher paying sectors continued to struggle. Manufacturing was unchanged at just 18,000 — and is contracting in the Midwest, according to the latest ISM Chicago Business Barometer — while mining employment continued to decline for the fifth month in a row, this month by 17,000.
As a result, wage growth has continued to lag far behind the pace of real inflation, stubbornly remaining stagnate as the cost of health care, utilities and other necessities rise.
In May, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained at just 34.5 hours, while average hourly earnings for all employees rose by just 0.8 cents. That’s sadly an improvement from the prior three-month average, but obviously insufficient to keep pace with real inflation. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by only 6 cents.
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The Labor Department reported Friday that the
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Former Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He made the announcement in Addison, TX.
Former Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, announced his
Since almost everybody wants a society that is just, that presumably means we all favor social justice. But in the American political system, the phrase has been adopted by those who favor bigger government and more intervention. Sort of the way “solidarity” and “social” are code words for statism in Europe.
Leftists think that this phrase gives them the moral high ground, but shouldn’t we judge “social justice” by outcomes rather than intentions?
Is statism really compassionate if it actually winds up lining the pockets of wealthy insiders?
Is statism really compassionate when it gives people an excuse to be stingy, as we see in Europe?
Is statism really compassionate when it means less long-run growth and lower living standards for ordinary people?
The answers to those questions probably depend on one’s definition of a just society.
For those fixated on equality, it appears that they are willing to accept more deprivation and hardship if everyone is equally poor.Which is the sentiment expressed in this clever image.
Supporters of liberty, by contrast, want less government because they don’t mind if some people get richer faster than other people get richer.
You won’t (or at least shouldn’t) be surprised that John Stossel is in the latter category. Writing for Reason, he debunks the notion that “social justice” is either social or justice. Instead, he explains that it’s just a new term for a defective product.
Protestors demand “social justice.” …But there’s nothing “just” about the leftist protesters’ claimed solution: more big government.
He points out that Venezuela supposedly is a role model for social justice, yet ordinary people are impoverished.
Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and Harry Belafonte praised Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez for his socialist revolution. Chavez then proceeded to destroy much of his country. …Only socialism could take an oil-rich nation and turn it into one where people wait in line for hours for survival rations.
Stossel correctly explains that genuine social justice is achieved with free markets.
Without the free market setting prices and allocating resources, all the cries of “justice” in the world don’t help anyone. You can’t eat justice. You can’t use it as toilet paper. …Socialists say capitalists just want to make a quick buck, but it’s government that can’t plan for the long haul. …Calling it “social justice” doesn’t make it work. …Markets, in which individuals, not just rulers, have property rights, give people options. Businesses have an incentive to serve as many people as possible, regardless of gender or ethnic group. They also have an incentive to be nice—customers are more likely to trade with people who treat them fairly. Everyone gets to choose his own path. That’s what I call justice.
Of course, I’m not holding my breath waiting for statists to agree with me or John Stossel.
That’s because, as Jonah Goldberg explains in this Prager University video, “social justice” is a catch-all term for the left’s agenda. And that agenda means more power for government and less freedom for individuals.
I particularly like how Jonah explains how statists are the ones that want to impose their values on others.
P.S. If you enjoyed this video, you’ll also like other Prager University videos, including ones on profits, the Laffer Curve, and the Great Depression.
P.P.S. I wrote last month to mock Senator Bernie Sanders for being a hopeless statist, but I also said he was a “faux socialist.”
George Will has the same jaded assessment.
Is it obligatory to take seriously his pose of being…a “socialist”? It gives excitable Democratic activists a frisson of naughtiness to pretend… In olden days, socialism meant something robust — government ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Then, voters and reality being resistant to such socialism, the idea was diluted to mean just government ownership of an economy’s “commanding heights,” principally heavy industries, coal mines, railroads, etc.
But you’d have a hard time finding people who still believe that nonsense, even in the diluted form. In Europe, for instance, Social Democrats have morphed into conventional statists.
Today, “socialism,” at least in Western Europe where the term is still part of the political lexicon, is the thin gruel of “social democracy.” This means three things — heavy government regulation of commercial activities, government provision of a “social safety net” and redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation and entitlement programs. …Sanders, who thinks European social democracies are exemplary, evidently thinks America should be more like Greece.
And Thomas Sowell has the best (and most hard-hitting) way of describing the ideology of modern-day statists.
We all favor social justice, but in
Photo of the 101 arrested in a two-week joint sting, known as “Operation L and P,” in both Lake and Polk counties. The investigation concluded late last week. (PHOTO/Dave D’Marko, Staff)
Ahmed Saleem, a CAIR official and organizer based in Orlando, Florida, was also one of 101 men arrested in a two-county operation that targeted cyber prostitution rings.
Saleem, a Muslim youth coordinator and founder of the Saleem Academy, was traveling in car destined for Clermont that had a license plate that said, “Invest in children,” with the hopes of having sex with a child.
The two-week joint sting, known as “Operation L and P,” was conducted in both Lake and Polk counties. It not only resulted in a bust that further stains the questionable Counsel On Islamic American Relations (CAIR), but numerous men that had jobs working with children, including theme park workers at Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, and a former Walt Disney World cast member who left that job before his arrest.
SeaWorld also confirmed that the men arrested and charged in the case were no longer employed at the theme park.
“These are very dangerous people and they are after our children,” said Grady Judd of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. “He’s well known as a community outreach leader interacting with teens in and around the Orlando area.”
During the first week, investigators say, 22 people traveled to Clermont to have sex with children ranging between the ages of 10- to 14-years-old.
Seventy-nine others were arrested on charges connected to prostitution.
Ahmed Saleem, a CAIR official based in
