Faith in Statism

Below is an excerpt from my piece in Organization Trends: 

The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn pointed out, “Back when gay marriage was first proposed, advocates pitched it this way: What can it possibly matter to you if two men or two women wed?”  He continued: “Since then Americans have learned: It can mean an end to your small business, it can mean your church institutions—from schools to adoption agencies—can no longer run themselves according to their principles, and, if you are a Silicon Valley CEO, it can mean you lose your job.”

McGurn was referring to Mozilla co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich, who was forced from his job in 2014 for having donated to the 2008 campaign in California to recognize marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman.

Hillary Clinton (Credit: State.gov)

Gay journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote of the pizza controversy, “The whole episode disgusts me—as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today—hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else—then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us”

Government hysteria about the Indiana religious freedom law began from the top down, as the White House sounded off in April. “I do think in the mind of the president, the thought that we would have state legislatures in the 21st century in the United States of America passing laws that would use religion to try to justify discriminating against people for who they love is unthinkable,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in waiting, Hillary Clinton, also weighed in on Twitter: “Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn’t discriminate against [people because] of who they love #LGBT.”

Pointing out that Hillary opposed gay marriage until 2013, the Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf wrote, “she declares Indiana out of step with the times for making gay weddings legal, because refusing to bake cakes for them may be legal, too.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) both announced they would ban publicly funded travel to the state of Indiana. San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee (D) and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) also banned city employees from traveling to Indiana for work-related trips.

In higher education, San Francisco State University banned work-related travel to Indiana. And even in Indiana, the presidents of the three major universities—Indiana, Depaw, and Butler—issued statements denouncing the law as discriminatory and harmful to the state’s reputation.
Friedersdorf expressed concern about the mob, prefacing his April 1 post with his view that bans on gay marriage in 13 states are “callous.” Nevertheless, he added, “When 13 states prohibit gay-marriage outright, what sense does it make for gay-rights supporters to boycott a different state where gay marriage is legal?”

“Being barred from marriage puts a significant burden on gay couples—a burden many orders of magnitude greater than the relatively small possibility of being refused by an atypically religious photographer or baker in the course of planning a same-sex wedding (the outcome the law’s opponents assert to be its true purpose).”

“Now that those who would discriminate against gays are a powerless cultural minority that focuses its objectionable behavior in a tiny niche of the economy, elites have suddenly decided that using state power to punish them is a moral imperative,” Friedersdorf continued.

“The timing suggests that this has as much to do with opportunism, tribalism, humanity’s love of bandwagons, and political positioning as it does with advancing gay rights, which have advanced thanks to persuasion, not coercion.”

Does Obama Want Credit for Keystone?

So many questions as to why on earth President Barack Obama would veto a no-brainer, job creator like the Keystone pipeline bill.

The presumption is that Obama is simply an ideologue. Or he's simply beholden to Tom Steyer and the environmental lobby. Or he is so hopelessly partisan, he just wants to veto everything the Republican Congress sends him.

President Barack Obamma (WhiteHouse.gov)

Or, he wants to take credit for all the productivity that comes from the Keystone XL pipeline.

From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama Monday predicted that the State Department would conclude its review of the Keystone XL pipeline within "weeks or months," meaning the White House likely would make the final call on the project this year.

"I think it will happen before the end of my administration," Obama told Reuters on Monday, referring to the Keystone XL project, which the State Department has been reviewing for more than six years.

When pressed further, Obama suggested the evaluation would be completed within "weeks or months."

The president recently vetoed legislation authorizing construction of the 1,700-mile pipeline, just the third time he has exercised such powers.

So sure. Veto and totally get Congress out of it. Then in weeks or months, when he needs a boost and Republicans are distracted on other issues, boom, the State Department completes it's ongoing process. After the process is done, it's the Obama administration -- having done its due diligence -- that approved the Keystone pipeline. If it creates as many jobs as advertised, it's part of the president's legacy. If not, well, it was his State Department that did it.

La Raza's Reach Into the White House

After the Obama immigration actions, I looked at the National Council of La Raza's extensive reach inside the White House, as I point out in my feature on the organization in Organizations Trends.

Cecilia Muñoz (WhiteHouse.gov)

No matter who the next president is, it’s unlikely the organization will enjoy the same clout with the White House as it has under the Obama administration. The reason is what the government watchdog group Judicial Watch calls the “Muñoz factor.”

Muñoz refers to Cecilia Muñoz, a former vice president of La Raza who is now Obama’s White House domestic policy director. (Her official title is “Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council.”) The New York Times referred to her as a “fiery immigration rights lobbyist” who in 1997 was furious when Clinton White House staff twice asked her if she was an American citizen. ...

As an activist, she said there should be another amnesty just four years after the 1987 amnesty in a report she wrote for La Raza. Her report also called for ending all workplace enforcement aimed at illegal immigrants.
While serving in the Obama White House, she minimized the seriousness of illegal immigration. “If you were running the police department of any urban area in this country, you would spend more resources going after serious criminals than after jaywalkers. DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) is doing the immigration equivalent of the same thing,” Muñoz told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute conference in September 2011.

When the Obama White House asked her to come on board, she turned them down, feeling she was an activist not a policymaker. But then Obama made a personal call.
“He said that he wasn’t taking no for an answer, that he intended to make this as family-friendly a place as it could be, and that he wanted me to help change the country,” Muñoz said. After the 2012 election, Muñoz said she is glad she joined the White House staff because “the Latino community has gone from being invisible in this town to being not only visible but clear agents of change driving the country forward.” Muñoz added, “People feel empowered”.

Click here to read the full article.

Obamacare: The Sequel Isn't Looking Much Better

Who knows? Maybe they'll pull it off this time. It's only the first day. But that's what Obama administration officials said last year when the the first day of Healthcare.gov was a disaster. Look at what's happening in a few states.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Insurers involved in HealthCare.gov’s testing said fixes were still continuing as of Friday. In a handful of states that run their own enrollment marketplaces, officials have poured millions of dollars into upgrades and have yet to fix technology flaws that could foil consumer sign-ups.

Minnesota took its exchange offline this week for testing after making some fixes, and planned to direct certain consumers with major life changes to a call center, because a piece of the site isn’t complete. Maryland won’t launch statewide online enrollment until Nov. 19 and is limiting Saturday sign-ups to a single onsite event. In Vermont, some consumers who want to renew coverage won’t be able to do so online because the technology isn’t ready.

And this from the Associated Press, via ABC News on Washington State:

Washington's health care exchange shut down after the first few hours of open enrollment Saturday as state officials and software engineers tried to resolve a problem with tax credit calculations.

Officials at the exchange said Washington Healthplanfinder, which opened at 8 a.m., appeared to be working fine at first. When the exchange's quality control system reported the problem, they decided to shut the whole system down at about 10:30 a.m. to fix it. ... On Saturday afternoon, officials estimated the site wouldn't reopen until Sunday morning, but the actual timing will depend on how soon a software fix can be tested for potential side-effects.

President Obama Doesn’t Understand – McCain was Right

That first of three debates in 2008 between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain was mostly memorable for the Arizona Republican continually saying, “Sen. Obamadoesn’t understand…”

Obama vs. McCain (ipdigital.usembassy.gov)

At the time, the media narrative was of the mean and grumpy McCain standing against the hopeful and energetic Obama, past vs. future, etc…

This week, President Obama shows he doesn’t understand by spending about 30 seconds talking about a plane crash that killed almost 300 people – then making Joe Biden jokes, then racing off to raise money for Democrats in New York. (The press conference the next day wasn’t much better.)

This is after he couldn’t visit the border in Texas because he needed to make it to other fundraisers.

Retreating to fundraisers every time a crisis breaks out in the world is the natural refuge for a campaigner-in-chief that never liked being commander-in-chief. It allows him to be surrounded by the only people who still absolutely adore him, wealthy Democrats comfortable enough not to worry about a failed presidency at home and abroad. With plummeting approval ratings and even lower ratings for competency, Obama isn’t even getting adoration from the media anymore.

He’s not giving us that much confidence in how he will deal with ISIS. But we do know his hasty pullout in 2011 for the sake of a 2012 campaign theme of “ending the war in Iraq” is a paramount reason for the rise of the Sunni rebel group.

In 2008, McCain said, "Sen. Obama still ... doesn't quite understand -- or doesn't get it -- that if we fail in Iraq, it encourages Al Qaeda. They would establish a base in Iraq,” or, “I'm afraid Sen. Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.”

That’s not necessarily to say McCain would have gotten everything right. His claim this week that he wouldn’t have taken the country to war with Iraq had he been elected president in 2000 is a little dubious. While the characterization of McCain as a war monger is unfair, it seems quite likely the U.S. might have involved itself in more needless conflicts such as Syria or even with Iran had the 2008 election gone differently.

But, McCain was right about President Obama, who doesn’t seem to understand the nature of extremism in the Middle East or the ambitions of Vladimir Putin. So McCain’s redundant theme from the 2008 debate comes to mind this week as he has no doubt been vindicated.

Komorowski: No Secondary NATO Members

President Komorowski reminded the world about the importance of Poland in the 20^th Century when he mentioned the Solidarity motto in a toast along with President Obama.

Photo Credit: ipdigital.usembassy.gov

“We were able to bring that wall down,” invoking Reagan. “We also totally destroyed it and we made it possible for Europe to be whole and free again.”

He then mentioned the Solidarity’s slogan: “There is no freedom without Solidarity.” And added, “There also is no freedom if there is no solidarity with nations who want have freedom but have not claimed it yet.”

Solidarity of nations is as important to Polish people and other nations of Eastern Europe now. And the strength of NATO is imperative.

“What is most important for us is to make sure that there are no second-category member states of NATO, that there are no countries about whom an external country, a third country like Russia can say whether or not American or other allied troops can be deployed to these countries,” Komorowski said. “ That is why the decision of the United States of America to deploy American troops to Poland is really very important for us, both as an element of deterrence, but also as a reconfirmation that we do not really accept any limitations concerning the deployment of NATO troops to Poland imposed for some time or suggested for some time by a country that is not a member of NATO.”

On the eve of June 4, the 25^th anniversary of Polish freedom, he said during a press conference with Obama that relations with Russia are important. Things have never been that smooth with Russia.

“NATO-Russia relations, I can tell you that the Western world -- including Poland, and I’m sure it goes for all other countries of NATO -- everyone is very much interested in developing as good relations with Russia as possible, and as good cooperation as possible,” he said. “Poland is also very much interested in the continuation of this uneasy process of the reconciliation beyond difficult history and painful history and bloody history.”

“A few years ago it was Georgia; now it is Ukraine, with a special focus on Crimea,” he later added. “President Putin didn’t hide -- he didn’t hide that these were elements of the Russian armed forces, and this is something that we have to acknowledge -- just the same way Russia never hid that for the last four years it has increased its defense budget twofold. We, ourselves, have to ask the question, why? For what purpose? And what does it have to mean for member states of NATO?”

“All of us are interested in Russia to get modernized so that it is possible to do not only good business modernizing Russia, but also develop relations of good neighborhood and cooperation in many dimensions, in many areas,” he continued. “But today we have to answer this situation that has come up by supporting independence of Ukraine and it tried to choose a pro-Western direction. We have to support the modernization of Ukraine, too.”

The Cold War is not returning because Russia is not yet a super power again. But it wants so badly to be again. That’s why it’s still a threat to its neighbors and potentially to the United States.

Obama’s Visit to Poland key to Affirming NATO’s Strength

I'm always interested when the leader of my current home and my former home meet. 

Polish President Komorowski and U.S. President Obama

Clearly President Obama's meeting this week with Polish President Bronisław Komorowski is among the most important post-Cold War meeting between leaders of the two countries.
 
It looks as though Vladimir Putin may have realized the gig is up and is yielding his expansionist ambitious. But as President Barack Obama is set to push Europe to be stand firm, it’s Poland that will push the U.S. president to stand even firmer against the Russian leader.

From the Associated Press:

 

President Barack Obama will press European leaders this week to keep up pressure on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, while seeking to assuage fears from Poland and other NATO allies that the West could slip back into a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow. …

Yet those reassurances may be of little solace to NATO allies who sit near the Russian border, particularly Poland, where Obama will open his trip Tuesday. In April, the U.S. moved about 150 troops into Poland to try to ease its security concerns, but Obama is likely to get requests from Polish leaders for additional support.

"He's going to hear a very strong message from Polish officials that the mission has not been accomplished," said Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "In fact, the work has only begun."

While in Warsaw, Obama will also meet with regional leaders who are in town to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland's first post-communist free elections. Among those leaders will be Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko, who won Ukraine's May 25 election and will hold his first bilateral meeting with Obama.

Walesa to Obama: ‘Give the Superpower to Poland and We Will Know What to do With It’

Lech Walesa was a better revolutionary than a president, but he did reflect the mood of Poland when he called on U.S. President Obama to be a little more assertive on the world stage.  

Former Polish President Lech Walesa (Defense.gov)

Obama will be visiting Poland to mark the 25^th anniversary since Poland emerged from the darkness of Communism to freedom. It’s a commendable visit particularly when Russia’s Putin is longing for the days of Soviet dominance. So putting aside my own heritage, it’s important to reassure any NATO allies.

Obama, will meet with Walesa – a Nobel Peace Prize winner (back when it still meant something), for successfully leading the Solidarity Movement against Soviet influence next month.

“I will say: Either you want to be a superpower and guide us, or you should give the superpower to Poland and we will know what to do with it. Amen,” Walesa said last week.

 

Perhaps Poland isn’t equipped now to be a superpower, but his point is that the U.S. has largely abandoned the role it has as the only remaining superpower in large part because of a president who doesn’t like being bothered by foreign policy.

"The world is disorganized and the superpower is not taking the lead. I am displeased,” Walesa said. "The point is not in having the States fix problems for us or fight somewhere, no. The States should organize us, encourage us and offer programs, while we, the world, should do the rest. This kind of leadership is needed.”

Communism took its toll on Poland, and the country is indebted to Walesa for leading Solidarity to victory on June 4, 1989, which was the beginning of the end of Communism in the country. He’s less beyond critique in Poland than much of the rest of the West. That’s a result of being president in a free society he helped restore.

Solidarity was successful in part because the U.S. had their back. Russia’s desired reemergence could be fleeting. But China is more than ready to claim superpower status. No matter who the U.S. president is, there is an urgent need to use the economic dominance as a superpower to shape world events

Countdown to Calling VA a Phony Scandal

Nobody wants to get to the bottom of the problems with Veterans Affairs more than the outraged President Barack Obama.

(WhiteHouse.gov)

When have we heard that before?

It might almost seem like a stretch to say Obama and his apologists will begin calling the VA waiting list debacle a “phony scandal.” But it will happen. Six months, possibly a year.

The pattern is already playing out like the past controversies. If anything, the President pro-actively responded more quickly to the previous controversies the White House now calls phony scandals.

In the case of tea party targeting for example, Obama personally announced he was replacing a guy who was already leaving his position at the IRS. VA announced in press releases, no Presidential address, that a guy who was already retiring was being ousted over the waiting list. In both cases, "firing" someone who was retiring anyway was how the administration showed accountability, while promising to leave no stone unturned going forward.

So now we have an investigation led by White House staffer Rob Nabors on top of the Inspector General probe. When the IG report is complete, the administration will either attack the IG; say they cannot comment because the White House-led investigation is still going on, or both.

The White House-led investigation will likely be ongoing, because it allows the administration keep saying: “It would be premature to comment on a pending investigation. But I can assure you nobody wants to get to the bottom of this more than the President.”

Keep saying that until the media hopefully loses interest.

Eventually, Congress will begin more aggressively investigating the VA matter and issuing subpoenas. This is where the administration – and probably much of the media – will call it a partisan investigation. Jay Carney will probably even say “it is shameful that Republicans would play politics with veterans’ health care.” Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, probably the New York Times and definitely MSNBC will all declare it’s time to shut down this witch hunt/conspiracy mongering and move on at long last.

At this point, it will officially be dismissed as a Phony Scandal, and anyone in the media, the government or the general public asking questions about it will be labeled a crackpot or a dupe, because all the questions have been answered – even if we don’t know anymore next year than now.

But wait. Won't it be tougher to be dismissive of this since people died? 

Well, people died in Benghazi and Fast and Furious. Both of which have mountains of unanswered questions that much of the public is bored with. The run-out-the-clock strategy has worked extremely well so far. So there’s no reason to think it won’t work again.

To be fair, Obama really did inherit some of this problem from the Bush administration. Bush inherited it from Clinton. Clinton inherited from … The point is that the VA is a bureaucracy that has never fully kept faith with our soldiers, sailors and airmen. 

But this is worse, with massive waiting lists potentially being to blame for the death of people who risked their life for this country, and government executives allegedly lying about it to secure taxpayer-funded bonuses.