Obama Declares War, Sort Of 

More than six months after ordering the first air strikes, President Obama today formally asked Congress to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State. Reaction from Congress has been mixed. 

Democrats are complaining that it is "too broad" and "open-ended." Nancy Pelosi says she is looking for something that "would limit the power of the president but nonetheless protect the American people." 

Pelosi has no problem with Obama's power when it comes to ignoring the Defense of Marriage Act, rewriting Obamacare or unilaterally granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. But when it comes to our national security, she wants limits. 

Republicans have the opposite concern -- they are worried Obama is trying to fight with one hand tied behind his back. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement saying that the "President seems determined to ask Congress to further restrict the authority of the U.S. military to confront this threat."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports today that 20,000 foreign fighters are reinforcing ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, including "at least 3,400 from Western nations." 

Illegal Immigration Is Costing Us 

While the president and his pro-amnesty allies claim they are trying to bring millions of illegal immigrants "out of the shadows," they never want to talk about how much their selective compassion is costing taxpayers. For example: 
 

• The Los Angeles Times reports that all the applications expected for Obama's executive amnesty will be processed "at an office complex in suburban Washington, with a new staff of 1,000 government workers, supplemented by as many as 1,000 private contractors." 

  The Washington Times adds that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency is planning to "operate two shifts from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every workday to keep up with the anticipated workload." The cost: nearly $500 million over three years, if government estimates are correct.
   

• A new report finds that the number of non-English speaking students in seven school districts in the metro Washington, D.C., area has increased 70% in ten years. Classes for these students "cost an average of about one quarter of each district's budget."

  The federal government helps with some of these expenses. But the report notes that "the costs of educating a student who is not proficient in English far exceeds the amount actually allocated." 

  Where does the difference come from? Other programs get cut and your property taxes go up -- all because the federal government refuses to control the border.
   

• What about all those jobs that Americans won't do? Ask the 500 or so IT workers at Southern California Edison about that. They are being replaced by foreign workers with H1-B visas. 

  I realize that there are legitimate labor shortages in certain industries, but those shortages can be handled with a good guest-worker program. But a new report from the Center for Immigration studies finds that: "In December 2014 there were 18 million immigrants (legal and illegal) living in the country who had arrived since January 2000.  But job growth over this period was just 9.3 million -- half of new immigration." 

  To put it another way, there were two immigrants (legal and illegal) competing for every one new job. What effect might that have on wages? And how compassionate is it to force unemployed or underemployed American citizens to compete in that kind of oversaturated labor market? 

  Boehner Isn't Budging 

  Senate liberals are continuing to put their pro-amnesty agenda ahead of our homeland security interests. They are holding up funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because the House-passed bill defunds President Obama's unilateral attempt to rewrite our immigration laws. 

  With funding set to run out in 16 days, Senate Republicans are getting nervous. Newly elected Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) recently tried to urge their former House colleagues to start over after Senate Democrats filibustered the DHS appropriations bill three times last week. 

  But Speaker John Boehner isn't budging. In response to a reporter's question this morning, Speaker Boehner said, "The House has done its job, why don't you go ask the Senate Democrats when they're going to get off their a** and do something other than to vote no?"  

  Atheist Hate Crimes? 

  The blogoshere and internet news sites started buzzing late yesterday with reports that three members of a Muslim family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were found shot to death, execution style, yesterday afternoon. The alleged shooter, Craig Stephen Hicks, a 46 year-old white man, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding police investigate these murders at anti-Muslim hate crimes.

  We offer our condolences to the victims' families. Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, was studying to be a dentist. He and his 21 year-old wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, were married in late December. And her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, was only 19. Their lives have been tragically and senselessly cut short.

  But before the Muslim hate crimes industry launches into another attack against right-wing Christians, there is a key fact that everyone should know: Deah, his wife, Yusor, and her sister, Razan, were not murdered by a conservative Christian. The alleged killer is a militant atheist. 

  Hicks' hatred of religion is well documented on social media sites. He identified himself as an "anti-theist" and condemned radical Christians and radical Muslims. His online avatar was "Atheists for Equality." 

  He clearly had left-wing political leanings. According to one media report, "His Facebook Likes included the Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation . . . gay marriage groups and similar progressive pages." 

  Whether it was Stalin's Russia or Mao's China, godless communism, which is militantly atheist, has killed more people throughout history than any other ideology.