Should Snowden Pardon President Obama?

Paul Jacob /Townhall Columnist

Much has been said and written about Edward J. Snowden, from bloggers to prize-winning journalists, from TV talking heads to the presidential candidates of both major parties. A diversity of opinion, sure, but the facts are not really in dispute.

As a former CIA employee and then Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, Snowden took classified material from the National Security Agency and gave it to journalists — thereby alerting Americans that their personal phone, email, social media and bank records were being illegally seized by the federal government.

Pulitzer prizes have been awarded to both The Washington Post and The Guardian of London for their reporting on NSA surveillance, reporting only made possible by the material Mr. Snowden risked all to hand-deliver to them.

On Friday, Oliver Stone’s movie Snowden opened in theaters across the country. If one hesitates to experience Stone’s sometimes fast-and-loose-with-the-facts sense of history, no problem: there are a number of excellent documentaries available, including the film Citizenfour, winner of the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Popcorn: The New York Times Had A Total Meltdown Over Missouri Constitutional Carry Law

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet

It’s now law. In Missouri, you no longer need a license to carry a firearm in public. They’re the 12^th state to adopt such a law known as constitutional carry; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) represents a state with such a law. To those who love freedom and the Second Amendment, it’s a great day for the expansion of constitutional rights. For anti-gun liberals, it’s a day for hysterics, which was perfectly captured by the editorial board of The New York Times:

The measure has drawn no great national attention, but it certainly provides further evidence that gun safety cannot be left to state lawmakers beholden to the gun lobby. 

Democrats opposed to the Missouri bill called it a “perfect storm” of lowered standards for the use of deadly force and an invitation for people to be armed without responsible controls. The measure was enacted by the Republicans, despite strong public opposition and warnings about the threat to public safety from the state Police Chiefs Association. 

Everytown for Gun Safety, one of the groups fighting the gun lobby, noted that stand your ground laws result in disproportionate harm to communities of color. […]

Trump: “People who warn about radical Islamic terrorism are not Islamophobes”
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

Trump is challenging the sacred dogmas of the political and media elites in a way no candidate has in decades. That is why he so frightens and enrages them. “Trump says Clinton’s bodyguards should ‘disarm immediately’ and ‘see what happens to her,'” by Sean Sullivan and Jenna Johnson, Washington Post, September 17, 2016: …At the […]
 
Read in browser »

 

VIDEO: Moment of IED Explosion at W 23 St & 6th Ave in Manhattan

 Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

If you are having trouble viewing, click here.

Fox News reporting that sources have said the second device is a pressure cooker. And that it, too, was found in a dumpster.

Mayor de Blasio:There is “no threat against NYC from any terror organization.” And yet he’s calls it “an intentional act.” An intentional bombing is terror. Clueless and complicit.

Reuters Top News:
MORE: Device found blocks away from explosion had wires attached, connected to cell phone, sources tell CNN

More:
Secondary device has been located at 27th Street, 6th – 7th Avenues
IED Explodes in NYC at 23rd Street, 26 Injured
Video thanks to NYC Alert

     

• Email to a friend •

 

The Alarming October 1st Event that Could Kill the US Dollar

By Damon Geller / WND

October 1st may prove to be the beginning of the end for the U.S. dollar.  On October 1, the IMF will officially add China’s currency – the Yuan – into the IMF’s foreign exchange basket.  According to Reuters, this move paves the way for the IMF to place the yuan on a par with the U.S. dollar.  This is the latest in a series of global developments that threatens to eliminate the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  Experts predict this event will trigger one of the most profound transfers of wealth in our lifetime.  So if you want to protect your savings & retirement, you better get your money out of U.S. dollar investments and into the one asset class that rises as currencies collapse.

 

The IMF Holds Supreme Power

The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, is one of the most secretive and powerful organizations in the world.  They monitor the financial health of more than 185 countries. They establish global money rules and provide “bail-out” assistance to bankrupt nations.  Some are warning that any move by the IMF to supplant the U.S. dollar could be catastrophic to American investments.

And now, the IMF has made the first move.  As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the IMF will officially add China’s currency – the Yuan – into the IMF’s foreign exchange basket on October 1.  This marks the first time in history the IMF has expanded the number of currencies in the foreign exchange basket.  This means that the Chinese currency will now become a viable global alternative to the U.S. dollar.

The Greediest People in America Are Liberal Democrats

John Hawkins / Townhall Columnist

The perfect place to start a column like this is with that notorious Elizabeth Warren quote that made liberals fall in love with her.

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Have you ever noticed how many straw men and false assumptions there are in those few short sentences?

For one thing, since roughly 45% of Americans pay no income taxes at all, “the rest of us” didn’t pay for roads, education, police forces or a military. Of course, that doesn’t even tell the whole story because 60% of American households receive more from the government than they pay in taxes. In other words, if you pay more in taxes than you receive from the government, you are a MINORITY in America today.

Tax Cuts, King Dollar & Growth

Larry Kudlow / Townhall Columnist

Fifty-four years ago, at the Economic Club of New York, President John F. Kennedy unveiled a dramatic tax-cut plan to revive the long-stagnant U.S. economy. He proposed lowering marginal tax rates for all taxpayers and reducing the corporate tax. He advised lowering the top tax rate from 91 to 65 percent and closing tax loopholes. Five times during the speech he used the word “incentives.”

In perhaps the most famous line from that path-breaking speech, he said: “In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.”

Kennedy had already in 1962 lowered investment taxes on business. And after his tragic assassination, his broader tax proposals were passed into law in early 1964. And they worked. The U.S. economy grew by roughly 5 percent yearly for nearly eight years.

Almost 20 years later, Ronald Reagan launched a 30 percent tax-rate reduction to save the economy from the high-unemployment, high-inflation 1970s. Reagan acknowledged many times that he was following in Kennedy’s footsteps. Under the Gipper, tax rates were slashed from 70 percent to 28 percent, corporate taxes were cut, and numerous loopholes were closed.