Friday, March 11, 2014

Friday, April 11, 2014

Sebelius Out 

During a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she would "absolutely" remain in her current position until November, adding, "This is the most satisfying work I've ever done."

Sebelius may have misled the Huffington Post, just as she has repeatedly misled Congress and the American people. 

Last night Sebelius stunned Washington with a surprise announcement that she was resigning as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The New York Times reports that the White House knew weeks ago that Sebelius planned to step down. In fact, Obama has already picked Sebelius' replacement. This morning he nominated Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the next HHS secretary. 

In response to the news of Sebelius' departure, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) tweeted, "I thank Secretary Sebelius for her service. She had an impossible task: nobody can make Obamacare work." Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, "Secretary Sebelius may be leaving, but the problems with this law and the impact it's having on our constituents aren't. Obamacare has to go, too." 

Burwell's confirmation hearing could be interesting. No doubt senators will ask lots of questions about Obamacare that Secretary Sebelius would never answer. But I hope some of them will question Ms. Burwell about her role in punishing veterans and tourists during last year's government shutdown. 

By the way, Sebelius, whose name will forever be synonymous with big government incompetence thanks to the glitch-plagued Obamacare website, had to endure one "final glitch" during her resignation speech today. 

Ted Cruz Goes There 

A few days ago, Attorney General Eric Holder made headlines when he appeared to threaten Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas. While questioning Holder about his department's refusal to release documents related to terrorism trials, Gohmert said Holder didn't appear to care too much about the fact that he has already been held in contempt of Congress. Holder said, "You don't want to go there, buddy."

Yesterday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz did go there. Cruz told Sean Hannity that Holder should be impeached for "defying Congress and the rule of law" if he refuses to act on the IRS' attack on the Tea Party.

Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee formally referred Lois Lerner to the Justice Department for prosecution based on evidence that she violated as many as three criminal statutes. Yesterday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about her role in the scandal.

If the Justice Department refuses to act after these extraordinary measures by two House committees investigating corruption and abuse at the IRS, then something is grossly wrong at the Justice Department. 

What Ali Would Have Told Brandeis 

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published the remarks that Ayaan Hirsi Ali had intended to deliver to the students of Brandeis University. I am thankful that the Journal gave her the platform to exercise her First Amendment rights when the intolerant liberals at Brandeis would not. 

What Ali has to say is something all Americans should hear. I am proud to include some excerpts of her planned remarks in this report. Please share them with friends and family members. 

 

One year ago, the city and suburbs of Boston were still in mourning. Families who only weeks earlier had children and siblings to hug were left with only photographs and memories. Still others were hovering over bedsides, watching as young men, women, and children endured painful surgeries and permanent disfiguration. All because two brothers, radicalized by jihadist websites, decided to place homemade bombs in backpacks near the finish line of one of the most prominent events in American sports, the Boston Marathon.

All of you in the Class of 2014 will never forget that day and the days that followed. You will never forget when you heard the news, where you were, or what you were doing. And when you return here, 10, 15 or 25 years from now, you will be reminded of it. The bombs exploded just 10 miles from this campus. …

You deserve better memories than 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. And you are not the only ones. In Syria, at least 120,000 people have been killed, not simply in battle, but in wholesale massacres, in a civil war that is increasingly waged across a sectarian divide. Violence is escalating in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Libya, in Egypt. And far more than was the case when you were born, organized violence in the world today is disproportionately concentrated in the Muslim world. … 

In Saudi Arabia, there has been a noticeable rise in the practice of female genital mutilation. In Egypt, 99% of women report being sexually harassed and up to 80 sexual assaults occur in a single day. … In Iraq, a law is being proposed that lowers to 9 the legal age at which a girl can be forced into marriage. …

Sadly, the list could go on. I hope I speak for many when I say that this is not the world that my generation meant to bequeath yours. When you were born, the West was jubilant, having defeated Soviet communism. An international coalition had forced Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The next mission for American armed forces would be famine relief in my homeland of Somalia. There was no Department of Homeland Security, and few Americans talked about terrorism. 

Two decades ago, not even the bleakest pessimist would have anticipated all that has gone wrong in the part of world where I grew up. After so many victories for feminism in the West, no one would have predicted that women's basic human rights would actually be reduced in so many countries as the 20th century gave way to the 21st. … 

I stand before you as someone who is fighting for women's and girls' basic rights globally. And I stand before you as someone who is not afraid to ask difficult questions about the role of religion in that fight. The connection between violence, particularly violence against women, and Islam is too clear to be ignored. We do no favors to students, faculty, nonbelievers and people of faith when we shut our eyes to this link, when we excuse rather than reflect. 

So I ask: Is the concept of holy war compatible with our ideal of religious toleration? Is it blasphemy—punishable by death—to question the applicability of certain seventh-century doctrines to our own era? Both Christianity and Judaism have had their eras of reform. I would argue that the time has come for a Muslim Reformation."