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THE FOUNDATION

"There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust." --James Madison

UPRIGHT

"Whether you're running for office, holding a public trust or simply voting -- politics are all about conscience. Being guided by it, protecting it and understanding it." --columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez

The face of Chicago's political corruption

"Is there any system of governance or economics that can withstand rampant corruption or self-entitlement? ... Has the astounding success of American capitalism spawned people who consider themselves completely removed from the ethical guidelines that govern mere mortals? Has the wholesale abandonment of religion for secularism produced a moral vacuum? ... No system can survive when its prime movers and shakers are fundamentally corrupt -- most especially when they don't consider themselves to be so." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"So, do the rest of you now have some idea of the depth of corruption in Chicago and Illinois, and why some of us were so concerned about electing a president who emerges from this cesspool? ... Brazen, appalling, unbelievable, they say. But for those of us who have spent a lifetime covering the news here, it's how it works." --Chicago columnist Dennis Byrne

"Reality check: The chances of House Democrats opening an ethics investigation into either [the junior Jesse] Jackson's or [Rahm] Emanuel's involvement [in the "Blago" scandal] is exactly zero. Ethics. Democrats. Say that three times fast." --columnist Rich Galen

"The automakers' contention that they pay workers $73 an hour takes into account the cost of pensions and health insurance for retirees. Still, no one disputes that Detroit's unionized active workers cost a good $10 an hour more than the nonunionized work forces that build Toyotas, Hondas and BMW's in the largely nonunionized South." --columnist William Murchison

"[Illinois Gov. Rod] Blagojevich allegedly assumed someone would be willing to pay dearly to be a U.S. senator. I'm sure he was right. But if government were less important in our lives, politicians would have fewer goodies to trade. In return, we'd have more money and more freedom. That's one more reason to limit government power." --ABC News' "20/20" anchor John Stossel

"It looks as if we are going to have to relive all of the mistakes of the 20th century one more time -- let's hope it is one last time -- before we relearn the big lesson of that century: the moral and material superiority of capitalism and the disastrous consequences of socialism in all its forms." --columnist Robert Tracinski

INSIGHT

"We shall return to proven ways -- not because they are old, but because they are true." --Barry Goldwater

"Never assume the obvious is true." --William Safire

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." --Groucho Marx

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"A charismatic Democratic President takes office promising to extend health insurance to all Americans. His party enjoys majorities in Congress, and the GOP is at sea. The press corps finds policy a bore and instead files stories that draw facile analogies to the heyday of FDR... Any taxpayer commitment this large ought to require a social consensus reflected in large majorities, but Democrats are determined to plow ahead anyway. They know that a health-care entitlement for the middle class will never be removed once it is in place; and that government will then dominate American health-care choices for decades to come. That's all the more reason for the recumbent GOP to get its act together." --The Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

Historical revisionism: "Noting the date, Dec. 7, which marks the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, [Jeremiah] Wright instead chose to focus on the thousands of Japanese civilians who died four years later when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima." --Chicago Tribune "journalist" Manya Brachear on Wright's remark, "Today is December 7th, the day that this government killed over 80,000 Japanese civilians at Hiroshima in 1941, two days before killing an additional 64,000 Japanese civilians at Nagasaki by dropping nuclear bombs on innocent people."

Victimitis: "The Windy City is a political stew of characters, a cast of players that even Hollywood would envy. Governor Rod Blagojevich is just the latest squeaky wheel in Chicago's political machine. Although he promised to be different, he fell victim, prosecutors allege, to history." --NBC's Lee Cowan

Untainted?: "I should also highlight ... that [Barack Obama has] also set down a marker for transparency. He promised a transparent government ... and he has revealed now much more than we usually hear in these kind of investigations scandals from a politician." --CNN's Jessica Yellin

Can't wait another minute: "If I had my druthers right now, we would convene a special session of Congress, amend the Constitution and move up the inauguration from Jan. 20 to Thanksgiving Day. ... Just get me a Supreme Court justice and a Bible, and let's swear in Barack Obama right now -- by choice -- with the same haste we did -- by necessity -- with L.B.J. in the back of Air Force One." --New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman

Putting the hype in hyperbole: "And coming up here on the show, with wildfires, droughts and storms getting worse, Barack Obama is about to announce his team to take on what has been described as humanity's greatest problem." --ABC's Dan Harris teeing up for Leftmedia propagandizing about how Obama is going to lower the global seas and heal the planet

Said with a straight face: "Mother Nature, of course, is oblivious to the federal government's machinations. Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it's thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming." --AP writer Seth Borenstein

Newspulper Headlines:

Too Much Information: "Obama: I Probed Myself and I'm Clean" --NewsMax.com

The Timid Ones Remain Under Suspicion: "Obama Says Confident Staff Clear in Ill. Scandal" --Associated Press

'Let Them Eat Cake': "State Asks Powerless to Remain Patient" --WBUR-AM/FM Web site

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: Giant Black Hole Found at Heart of Milky Way" --FoxNews.com ++ "Big Cat Bites Santa During Photo Shoot at NJ Store" --Associated Press

News You Can Use: "Lesson 1: Don't Drive Into Parked Police Car" --San Francisco Chronicle

Bottom Stories of the Day: "Canadian Productivity Continues to Lag" --Canwest News Service ++ "Gore Urges Quick Action on Climate Change" --Associated Press

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Political bailout: "The auto executives undeniably made many misguided decisions that brought us to this point, but our battered economy can hardly afford the risks of these companies going bankrupt, adding to rising unemployment and plunging us further into recession." --auto industry expert Harry Reid (D-NV) ++ "It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly, behavior of these U.S. Senators to cause this country to go from a recession into a depression." --Michigan Demo Gov. Jennifer Granholm objecting to the defeat of the "bridge loan" bailout of U.S. auto companies

Belly Laugh of the Week: "But the other point I would make is this: The purpose of this is to be able to get the federal government the he** out of it. They need us for now. But the federal government is there to try to make the federal role unnecessary within a few years." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) on the bailouts

Promises, promises: "We will keep our promise to drain the swamp that is Washington, DC, to let sunshine disinfect the Congress." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Sure: "I reject and denounce 'pay-to-play' politics... I thought I deserved to be the senator because I earned it." --Jesse Jackson Jr., a.k.a. "Senate Candidate #5" in the Rod Blagojevich scandal

Global warming alarmism: "The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way." --Barack Obama on global warming

VILLAGE IDIOTS

How unions saved America: "Unions ... have been the vehicle for economic growth, economic equity and the American Dream. ... The Republican attack on the auto workers is an attack on the American Dream for all workers." --Chris Chafe, executive director of Obama-linked Leftist political agitator group Change to Win

Way off base: "In fact the UAW has given concession after concession.... But even doing all that wasn't enough to satisfy the bastard Republicans. These Senate vampires wanted blood. Blue collar blood. You see, they weren't opposed to the bailout because they believed in the free market or capitalism. No, they were opposed to the bailout because they're opposed to workers making a decent wage. In their rage, they were driven to destroy the backbone of this country." --Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore

More global warmisim: "We're out of time. Things are going extinct." --Stanford University biologist Terry Root on "global warming" ++ "The equivalent of a five-alarm fire that has to be addressed immediately." --Algore on well, you know

From the gun grabbers: "We don't do enough in this country to keep dangerous people from getting dangerous weapons. A murderer came very close to getting a concealed carry permit. ... But it raises the alarm that people who are dangerous are getting concealed carry permits and endangering our families and communities." --Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, using the fact that convicted murderer Andrew Golden was prevented from receiving a concealed carry permit -- even after changing his name -- to argue that "dangerous people are getting concealed carry permits"

The annual Christmas capers: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds. Placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of its Washington State Members." --an atheist sign in Olympia, Washington, set up next to a nativity scene

SHORT CUTS

"I didn't know what the guy said, but I saw his sole." --President George W. Bush on the Iraqi reporter who threw two shoes at him

"Congress has insisted that auto company executives achieve performance standards or be financially penalized. The CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and GM are all working for $1 per year. Shouldn't congressional pay be adjusted the same way?" --columnist Oliver North

"Government officials are said to be concerned at the risk that the collapse of Santa Claus could pose to the nation's intricately related system of holiday happiness. Though a failure by Santa Claus poses the largest systemic risk, the government is also prepared to step in to bail out Christmas trees, caroling parties and mistletoe producers. ... Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson personally concluded, however, that 'Santa Claus is too big to fail.'" --columnist Daniel Henninger

"But Mr. Obama, eager to get where it is he may be going, is surely the first president to arrive with fresh scandal. New presidents usually get to unpack their suitcases and learn the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night before they have to explain why what the rest of us see is not really there." --Washington Times editor Wesley Pruden

"There are so many things to love about the Rod Blagojevich scandal it's hard to know where to begin. Wait. That's not right. There are so many bleeping things to love about this bleeping-bleep Blagojevich scandal it's hard to know where to begin." --Jonah Goldberg

Jay Leno:

As you know, [over the weekend] in Iraq, President Bush was attacked by a "shoe-icide" bomber.

You got to admit, whatever you think of the guy, he's got good reflexes. Even Bill Clinton was impressed. You know, Clinton's an expert at ducking shoes, ashtrays, lamps. Everything.

The journalist who threw the shoe was immediately arrested, and then offered his own show on MSNBC.

Now, here's my question, and no offense here, but where was the Secret Service? I mean, shouldn't they at least have jumped in front of the second shoe? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Come on. Seriously. Aren't these guys supposed to take a bullet for the president?

Well, here's my favorite part. Cable news just over-thinks this. On CNN, they brought in an expert on Iraqi culture and he said, "Let me clarify what happened here." He said, "In the Arab world, throwing your shoes at someone's head is considered an insult." Oh, really? As opposed to here in America, where it's a huge compliment.

*****

Veritas vos Liberabit -- Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff.

(Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)