Friday ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 2016             The truth will set you free 
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Featuring:
Supreme Hypocrisy
Thomas Sowell
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 nObama to Media: You Shouldn't Let Pols Lie 
The lecturer in chief is at it again, telling a group of journalists how to do their jobs. "A job well done is about more than just handing someone a microphone," Barack nObama pontificated. "It is to probe and to question, and to dig deeper, and to demand more. The electorate would be better served if that happened. It would be better served if billions of dollars in free media came with serious accountability, especially when politicians issue unworkable plans or make promises they can't keep. And there are reporters here who know they can't keep them. I know that's a shocking concept that politicians would do that. But without a press that asks tough questions, voters take them at their word. When people put their faith in someone who can't possibly deliver on his or her promises, that only breeds more cynicism."
          He just perfectly described his rise in 2007 and 2008, though he pretty clearly meant his remarks as a rebuke for the unending media attention given to Donald slump-Trump over the last year. Who promised "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"? Who swore he'd bring about the best recovery we've ever seen? Who insisted he would withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq and declare mission accomplished? And who not only got away with these phony promises, but won re-election after serving up such lies? nObama did, largely thanks to a Leftmedia that circled the wagons.
          So for nObama to lecture his own sycophants about truth-telling against the other side, to borrow a phrase, "only breeds more cynicism."  -The Patriot Post
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 Nation's Last Handgun Ban Shot Down 
The U.S District Court for the Mariana Islands struck down the nation's last handgun ban, ruling that permanent residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. "The Second Amendment, as well as the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, are the law of the land in the CNMI as if it were a state," wrote Chief Judge Ramona Manglona. "The Second Amendment, made applicable against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the fundamental right of armed self-defense, and prohibits any state from completely banning handguns." David Radich, a Navy veteran of the Gulf War, and his wife, Li-Rong Radich, took the commonwealth to court after Li-Rong was attacked and beaten when she was at home alone in 2010. When they applied for a weapons identification card to get a gun to protect themselves, they were ignored.
          This isn't the only Second Amendment win of late. Last week, Idaho became the ninth state to institute constitutional carry, codifying that any resident 21 years or older has the right to carry without a permit. And earlier this month, the West Virginia legislature overrode its governor's veto to institute constitutional carry in that state. Such developments show that from the Appalachians to the furthest islands in the Pacific Ocean the law recognizes everyday Americans have the right to self defense, a right that is becoming harder for the Left to erode.   -The Patriot Post
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 GOP Primary: Broken Pledges and Sharpened  Knives  All three remaining candidates in the GOP primary said at a town hall event Tuesday night that they no longer stand by their pledges to support the eventual nominee. In September, Donald slump-Trump and the rest of the 17 candidates signed loyalty oaths to the eventual nominee. slump-Trump, though, gave himself an out by saying he would break his oath if he felt he was being treated unfairly. When asked Tuesday if he considers himself bound to the loyalty oath, slump-Trump responded, "No, I don't anymore," adding that he felt he had "been treated very unfairly." He can dish it out but he can't take it. What is slump-Trump's word worth? Not much more than a certificate from slump-Trump University.
          Then again, the loyalty oath isn't exactly holding the other candidates. Ted Cruz said he would not support a candidate who attacked his wife, referring to slump-Trump's tweet comparing their wives' appearance. John "Prince of light 'n' hope" Kasich said he wants "to see how this thing finishes out."
          Red State's Caleb Howe wrote regarding the broken pledges, "I will tell you this, and if you fail to accept it, then you fail at truth: It's slump-Trump's fault. Every other candidate would have supported the eventual nominee were it not for the poisonous Donald slump-Trump campaign destroying all it touches. That's just a fact y'all."
          In related news, Marco Rubio has contacted Republican Party officials in states where he won delegates and asked that those delegates remain committed to him at the GOP Convention in July. In essence, he's trying to ensure a contested convention and block slump-Trump from winning the nomination on the first ballot. This deep division doesn't bode well for a party that must rally around a candidate in order to defeat Hilly Clinton in November.    -The Patriot Post
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nObama’s State Department Loses Another Round
in Clinton Email Fiasco
Hans von Spakovsky
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{cnsnews.com} ~  In a second loss in less than two weeks, a federal court has once again ruled against the nObama administration, this time in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tussle with Judicial Watch over the Clinton email fiasco... Previously, on March 22, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Justice Department and the IRS to stop their “continuous resistance” and “meritless” objections to producing information and documentation sought in a lawsuit filed by a Tea Party organization in the IRS targeting scandal. This time, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District Court of the District of Columbia issued an order on March 29 giving Judicial Watch the ability to take limited discovery of State Department officials on the adequacy of the Department’s “search for responsive documents” in a FOIA request filed by Judicial Watch seeking former Secretary of State Hilly Clinton’s internal email correspondence. The purpose of the discovery, which, Lamberth admitted, “is exceedingly rare in FOIA cases,” is to help the court determine whether the State Department’s search “reasonably produced all responsive documents.”...  http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/hans-von-spakovsky/obamas-state-department-loses-another-round-clinton-email-fiasco
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We Must Wage ‘Battle for Truth’ Against
Antisemitism’s Three Main Lies
Lea Speyer
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Famed humanitarian and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy

{algemeiner.com} ~ The world today is engaged in a “battle for truth” against three main lies being spread by antisemites and growing in popularity, said French philosopher and humanitarian Bernard-Henri Lévy... In his acceptance speech for the Warrior for Truth Award at the third annual Algemeiner “Jewish 100 Gala” in New York Monday evening, Lévy explained that while the current wave of antisemitism has not yet won, “It could win at the end” if “the work for the truth, the battle for truth” is not waged. Referring to the classic ancient enemy of the Jews recounted in the Torah, Lévy said, “Who is Amalek today? What is the face of Amalek today? Amalek is everywhere, of course, but especially in the minds and bodies of the antisemites. When people ask me in my country, but also everywhere, what to do against antisemitism, how to reply to antisemitism, how to resist this wave which has not won at all but which could win at the end, I used to say that the only reply is a battle for truth.”...        http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/03/30/bernard-henri-levy-at-algemeiner-gala-we-must-wage-battle-for-truth-against-antisemitisms-three-main-lies-video/#
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Former House Intel Chair Mike Rogers: Widened European Privacy LawsHurt Intelligence Collection
John Grady
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{news.usni.org} ~ As is the case in privacy laws created after World War II, and widened in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks in Europe, “we’re going to pay a price” for limiting intelligence-collection when it comes to knowing what adversaries, terrorists and even allies are thinking... the former chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday. Mike Rogers, speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, used the CIA as an example of self-imposed restrictions limiting intelligence-gathering. “If you’re not stealing secrets . . . how do you know what their intention is?” such as when China deploys troops for the first time outside its region to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa or Russia changes its cyber-use policy and then knocks out Ukraine’s electric grid. The seven-term Republican congressman from Michigan mentioned both countries’ militarization of space as another threat and one that could directly affect American military operations. He noted that the U.S. Naval Academy has decided to again teach sextant-based navigation to midshipmen, in the event global positioning systems are disrupted in a military conflict...        https://news.usni.org/2016/03/30/former-house-intel-chair-mike-rogers-widened-u-s-privacy-laws-hurt-intelligence-collection?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=b15cc26ec3-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-b15cc26ec3-231491269&mc_cid=b15cc26ec3&mc_eid=3999f18767
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BLACKOUT: The Failing Model
of Electric Utilities
Tim Maverick
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{wallstreetdaily.com} ~ The rush to be a part of the most profitable market trends often looks like the madhouse of shoppers scrambling for that must-have holiday gift... With the Federal Reserve inspiring a sense of desperation around fad markets, it’s important to stay cautious. The popular stock you pick now may have to be “returned” later at a lower price. This is especially true when it comes to electric utilities, as of late. Many of these – particularly in the eastern U.S. – are under pressure from lower demand, depressed electricity prices, and tightening environmental regulations. Current regulations alone will cost the industry nearly $10 billion annually...        http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2016/03/31/electric-utilities-investing/
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30 Years of ‘Free Trade’ Brings 400%
Trade Deficit with China
John Hayward
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{breitbart.com} ~ There is much debate over the negative effects of massive trade deficits, and what the best strategy for correcting them might be, but it’s hard to deny the U.S. trade deficit with China is staggering in scale … and it got that way after just a few decades of old-school “free trade” orthodoxy. Raul Amoros of HowMuch.net puts the issue in perspective: The start couldn’t be more balanced: in 1985, the U.S. exported $3.9 billion to China, and imported goods and services for the exact same amount. But by 2015, there was a staggering imbalance, to China’s advantage, of $365.7 billion – an all-time record, not just for U.S.-China trade, but for any bilateral trade, ever. It’s not that U.S. exports to China haven’t increased. They have, and by a lot. America exported an impressive $116.2 billion into China last year, 30 times more than in 1985. That makes China the U.S.’s third-biggest export market, nearly twice as important as Japan ($62.5 billion), in fourth place. But that’s still a lot less than U.S. exports to Canada ($280.3 billion) or Mexico ($236.4 billion). Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the U.S. have exploded. In 2015, China exported $481.9 billion to the U.S. – an amazing 123 times more than in 1985...        http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/30/30-years-free-trade-brings-400-trade-imbalance-china/
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slump-Trump battles with ‘Fox & Friends’
cast over ‘Megyn Kelly hit’ piece
Carmine Sabia
{bizpacreview.com} ~ Donald slump-Trump took another swipe at Megyn Kelly and it caused a heated back and forth on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday... slump-Trump appeared on the Fox News’ morning show to discuss his campaign manager being charged with battery after an incident with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, but the subject quickly turned to his arch nemesis — Kelly. The panel played a clip of former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro, who resigned frovm the news site along with Fields, from his appearance Tuesday on “The Kelly File” where he said of the slump-Trump campaign “lying liars lie.” “It’s another Megyn Kelly hit,” slump-Trump responded...        http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/03/30/trump-battles-with-fox-friends-cast-over-megyn-kelly-hit-piece-322862
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Iran Expands Covert Ballistic Missile
Program, Dismisses US Sanctions
Adam Kredo
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{freebeacon.com} ~ Iran is covertly expanding an underground network of ballistic missile construction and testing sites, despite new U.S. sanctions aimed at deterring the Islamic Republic’s illicit program... which is believed to be focused on the delivery of a nuclear warhead. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has clandestinely moved to expand a network of front companies that primarily fuel the underground construction of ballistic missiles, according to sources following the country’s procurement system. Iranian military leaders—who have recently dismissed new U.S. sanctions—are now focused on perfecting intercontinental ballistic missile technology, which would enable Iran to fire a nuclear-tipped warhead over great distances...
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Nuclear Jihad: The Threats Are Inside Our Tent
Michelle Malkin
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{cnsnews.com} ~ It's not over. It's never over. After last week's deadly airport and subway bombings in Brussels, the Belgian government remains on high alert for jihad attacks and espionage at its nuclear facilities... One Belgian nuke plant security guard was murdered recently and his ID is missing. Two of the Brussels bombers reportedly spied on the home of a top senior scientist in the country's nuclear program. ISIS has been implicated in an alleged insider plot to obtain radioisotopes from one of Belgium's nuclear plants for a dirty bomb. Two former Belgian nuke plant workers left their jobs to fight for ISIS in Syria. This is all according to plan. The al-Qaida house organ, Inspire magazine, has urged its followers to conduct attacks using "specialized expertise and those who work in sensitive locations that would offer them unique opportunities" to wreak havoc...
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Investigation Enters Dangerous Phase for Hilly
Judge Andrew Napolitano  
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{newsmax.com} ~ The FBI investigation of former Secretary of State Hilly Clinton's failure to protect state secrets contained in her emails has entered its penultimate phase, and it is a dangerous one for her and her aides... Federal law enforcement sources have let it be known that federal prosecutors and the FBI have completed their examination of raw data in the case. After the FBI acquires raw data  — for example, the nature and number of the state secrets in the emails Clinton failed to protect or the regular, consistent, systematic nature of that failure — prosecutors and agents proceed to draw rational inferences from that data...        http://www.newsmax.com/AndrewNapolitano/FBI-BlackBerry-Comey-Emails/2016/03/31/id/721605/?ns_mail_uid=29878495&ns_mail_job=1661949_03312016&s=al&dkt_nbr=l43evpfa
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How Many American Politicians
Do the Saudis Own?
Michael Walsh
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{pjmedia.com} ~ If, since 9/11, you've begun to think that all American politicians are corrupt, that our national anger was deliberately misdirected to places where it could be expended with absolutely no result, and that our military has been exhausted in a series of pointless, unwinnable wars against third-rate Islamic nations...you're absolutely correct... Everywhere you look, from George W. Bush holding hands with various members of the Saudi "royal" family on down, the real enemy of civilization wraps its tentacles more tightly around us. Case in point: the sham GOP candidate, widely despised former Naval officer and second-most-loathed man in the U.S. Senate, the ineffable John McCain: A nonprofit with ties to Senator John McCain received a $1 million donation from the government of Saudi Arabia in 2014, according to documents filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The Arizona Republican has strictly honorary roles with the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a program at Arizona State University, and its fundraising arm, the McCain Institute Foundation, according to his office. But McCain has appeared at fundraising events for the institute and his Senate campaign’s fundraiser is listed in its tax returns as the contact person for the foundation...
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Supreme Hypocrisy
Thomas Sowell
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{onenewsnow.com} ~ If there is one thing that is bipartisan in Washington, it is brazen hypocrisy.

Currently there is much indignation being expressed by Democrats because the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to hold confirmation hearings on President nObama's nominee to the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Democrats complain, and the media echo their complaint, that it is the Senate's duty to provide "advice and consent" on the President's appointment of various federal officials. Therefore, according to this claim, the Senate is neglecting its Constitutional duty by refusing even to hold hearings to determine whether the nominee is qualified, and then vote accordingly.

First of all, the "advice and consent" provision of the Constitution is a restriction on the President's power, not an imposition of a duty on the Senate. It says nothing about the Senate's having a duty to hold hearings, or vote, on any Presidential nominee, whether for the Supreme Court or for any other federal institution. The power to consent is the power to refuse to consent, and for many years no hearings were held, whether the Senate consented or did not consent.

Nor have Democrats hesitated, when they controlled the Senate, to refuse to hold hearings or to vote when a lame-duck President nominated someone for some position requiring Senate confirmation during a Presidential election year.

When the shoe was on the other foot, the Republicans made the same arguments as the Democrats are making today, and the Democrats made the same arguments as the Republicans are now making.

The obvious reason, in both cases, is that the party controlling the Senate wants to save the appointment for their own candidate for the Presidency to make after winning the upcoming election. The rest is political hypocrisy on both sides.

None of this is new. It was already well-known 40 years ago, when President Gerald Ford nominated me to become one of the commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission during the 1976 Presidential election year.

After months passed without any hearings being held, I went to see the chief legislative aide of the committee that was responsible for confirming or denying. When the two of us were alone, he said to me, quite frankly, "We've gone over your record with a fine tooth comb and can find nothing to object to. So we are simply not going to hold hearings at all."

"If this were not an election year," he said, "your nomination would have sailed right through. But we think our man is going to win the Presidential election this year, and we want him to nominate someone in tune with our thinking."

Various Democrats who are currently denouncing the Republican Senate, including Vice President loose lips-Biden, have used very similar arguments against letting lame-duck Republican Presidents appoint Supreme Court justices.

Last week, the New York Times ran a front-page "news" story about something Chief Justice John Roberts had said, more than a month ago, prior to the death of Justice Scalia, under the headline "Stern Rebuke For Senators."

Since Justice Scalia was still alive then, and there was no Supreme Court vacancy to fill at the time, Chief Justice Roberts' remarks had nothing to do with the current controversy. Nor were these remarks news after such a long lapse of time. But this was part of a pattern of the New York Times' disguising editorials as front-page news stories.

In short, the political hypocrisy was matched by journalistic hypocrisy. Indeed, there was more than a little judicial hypocrisy in Chief Justice Roberts' complaint that Senate confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominees do not confine themselves to the nominees' judicial qualifications, rather than their conservative or liberal orientations.

If judges confined themselves to acting like judges, instead of legislating from the bench, creating new "rights" out of thin air that are nowhere to be found in the Constitution, maybe Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees would not be such bitter and ugly ideological battles.

Chief Justice Roberts himself practically repealed the 10th Amendment's limitation on federal power when he wrote the decision that the government could order us all to buy nObamaCare insurance policies. When judges act like whores, they can hardly expect to be treated like nuns.

Politicians, journalists and judges should all spare us pious hypocrisy.
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