Obama's Bad Example 

Barack Obama regularly pushes the limits of his authority to get around Congress. On several occasions, his aggressiveness has been checked by the courts, but that hasn't deterred him. 

Some have compared the way Obama manages the presidency to what one would expect from a Latin American strongman rather than a president of a constitutional republic with a well-established system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, there is evidence that this heavy-handed style of leadership is spreading. 

This week a candidate for governor in Virginia was caught on tape promising to issue an executive order allowing abortion centers that could not comply with new health and safety standards to stay open. In other words, this candidate is suggesting he'd keep filthy abortion mills open regardless of the law. 

He has learned well from Barack Obama. But if a candidate feels so strongly about changing the laws, then he should run for the state legislature, not governor. I suspect most voters do not want their governors acting like dictators, ignoring laws passed by their elected legislators. 

Navy Yard Assassin "Not Happy With America" 

We are learning more about the Washington Navy Yard assassin, Aaron Alexis. According to Kristi Suthamtewkal, for whom Alexis worked last year, "He was tired of dealing with the government." Alexis told her that he was "ready to move out of the country." If only he had.

Suthamtewkal added that Alexis "felt a lot of discrimination and racism with white people especially." "He did have the tendency to feel like people owed him something all the time," she said. 

He was owed something? Where could he have gotten that idea from? Sounds a lot like the class warfare rhetoric and the politics of resentment that have become a center piece of the left. 

Another former friend of Alexis, Michael Ritrovato, told CNN, "Aaron wasn't conservative like I am. He was more of a liberal type; he wasn't happy with the former administration. He was more happy with this administration." 

So far, there is no evidence linking Alexis to Islamic terrorism. But with this latest information the conclusion that most people reached yesterday -- that it was just more "work place violence" -- doesn't appear to get it right either. 

Aaron Alexis didn't have a problem with a specific co-worker or boss. He had a problem with America. When he went on his killing spree, he didn't target a shopping mall or an apartment complex. He lashed out at America by targeting employees of a U.S. military base. 

Alexis is not the first mass murderer with left-wing views. The Columbine killers were anti-Christian and singled out Christian students to be murdered. They followed a nihilist philosophy of life and hated America. 

Remember Jared Loughner, the man who shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 20 other people in Tucson, Arizona? The media blamed the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh and conservatives generally for that shooting. 

But Loughner was a 9/11 conspiracy nut, and described by one friend as a "left-wing pothead." He was also fond of the anti-capitalist, anti-American movie "Zeitgeist," which surely was far more popular with the Occupy Wall Street crowd than with the Tea Party.

And speaking of the Occupy Wall Street movement, polling found that a significant percentage of its left-wing supporters were willing to resort to violence to achieve their political objectives. We saw that demonstrated time and time again as supporters of this movement, praised by many liberal politicians, rioted, vandalized property and amassed a lengthy criminal rap sheet. 

Nevertheless, at least one liberal politician is shamelessly trying to blame conservatives for Monday's shooting. Unable to link the shooter to Rush Limbaugh or the Tea Party, Vincent Gray, Washington, D.C.'s liberal mayor, said yesterday that because of sequestration, "we somehow skimped" on security and "put people at risk." That's the liberal mindset for you: Cutting government, no matter how small the cut, puts people at risk. 

Remembering Martin Bodrog 

I mentioned in yesterday's report that one of the Naval Yard victims attended my church. The Washington Post interviewed friends and co-workers and published brief biographies of the victims in today's paper. Here's how Marty will be remembered by those who knew him: 
 

• "Bodrog loved God, family, country and the Boston Bruins. …There were three daughters -- Isabel, 23; Sophie, 17; and Rita, 16 -- and Bogrod was active in the children's ministry at Immanuel Bible Church, where Bodrog led 3-year-olds in Bible study. He was also active in the Christian outreach program Young Life. 

  "Bodrog, a longtime member of the congregation, was bulky, but he made himself small at in the presence of children at the church, crawling around on the floor and singing songs. … 

  "Bodrog was born in Woodbury, NJ, and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1981. Officially, he served 22 years, retiring as a Surface Warfare Officer. … 

  "Stephen Jasper, a retired Naval aviator, struggled to process his friend's death. 'Marty Bodrog was special,' recalled Jasper… 'He was a superb naval officer. He was a caring father and a good friend.'"

Please join Carol and me in praying for Marty's wife, Melanie, his daughters and the families of all the victims. 

If you would like to send a note of condolence to the Bodrog family, feel free to email it to me and I will make sure the family receives it. 

In The News 

I have a column up at The Daily Caller taking Obama to task for his extraordinary insensitivity during Monday's shooting at the Naval Yard. 

I was also interviewed on that subject by our friends at OneNewsNow.com..