ChristiansUnite Forums

THE FOUNDATION

"No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant." --George Washington

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Another Obamaphile fails to pay taxes: "As you can well imagine, I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed by the errors that required me to amend my tax returns. I apologize for the errors and profoundly regret that you have had to devote time to them." --Tom Daschle in a letter to Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) ++ "I disclosed this information to the committee voluntarily and paid the taxes and any interest owed promptly. My mistakes were unintentional." --Daschle on Daschle ++ But back then...: "Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter." --then-Sen. Tom Daschle on 7 May 1998

Throwing in the towel: "If 30 years of exposure to the challenges inherent in our system has taught me anything, it has taught me that this work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction. Right now, I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction." --former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrawing his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services

Excuses: "Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I. But that mistake and this decision cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country." --President Barack Obama

World's smallest violin: "And when Tom Daschle ended up losing an election, he didn't cash in and leave. He lost an election ending his public career. His net worth was less than a million dollars at that point. And here he went out in the private sector, and now he's found himself having made a mistake and admitted to it. He took the steps necessary to start paying the taxes, make sure they're paid. Now, that's the right thing to do. I believe Tom Daschle's one of the most honest people I've ever known or worked with in public life." --Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Belly laugh of the week: "The bar that we set is the highest that any administration in the country has ever set." --White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Belly laugh of the week II: "I didn't come here to be partisan, I didn't come here to be bipartisan. I came here ... to be nonpartisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Unbelievable: "Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs. I don't think we can go fast enough." --Nancy Pelosi

More socialism: "If it was left up to me ... I would nationalize the whole mortgage industry." --Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Class warfare: "Over the course of America's last economic expansion, the middle class participated in very few of the benefits. But now in the midst of this historic economic downturn, the middle class sure is participating in all of the pain. Something is seriously wrong when the economic engine of this nation -- the great middle class -- is treated this way. President Obama and I are determined to change this." --Vice President Joe "Middle Class" Biden

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"Just as Tom Daschle's Senate pals were preparing to grant absolution for his six-figure tax-free limousine -- could've happened to anyone -- the former Majority Leader Tuesday withdrew his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Give Mr. Daschle credit for making the honorable choice, and sparing President Obama from a bipartisan populist revolt. ... Mr. Daschle's embarrassment of riches is a typical story, and in fact is the result of the liberal ideology his critics have been advocating for decades. The main story of the Obama Presidency so far isn't the contradiction between Mr. Obama's campaign promises and the messier reality of his nominees. That was always inevitable. The real story is the massive transfer of power and wealth now underway from the private sector to the political class. Mr. Daschle could make so much money and achieve such prominence because he was expected to be a central broker in that wealth transfer. ... What Mr. Daschle's lucrative career as influence peddler really illustrates is how much Washington is now expanding its reach over the economy. ... As for Mr. Obama, as recently as Monday night the President was saying he 'absolutely' stood by his nominee before reluctantly accepting his withdrawal. So much for promising to vanquish the lobbyists before banishing the special interests. This was always an implausible bill of goods, considering that the major special interest in Washington is Washington itself." --The Wall Street Journal

UPRIGHT

"Tom Daschle's problems are more than a 'speed bump,' as one of his defenders called it. They constitute a large and growing sinkhole for this administration. Most presidents encounter difficulties with possibly one cabinet nominee or other high-level official, but Obama has had three in less than a month. Daschle could have been confirmed, given the Senate's Democratic majority, but it appears someone showed him the door rather than add to Obama's difficulties in cleaning up Washington." --columnist Cal Thomas

"There was no way, on the same day that a woman named Nancy had to leave because of a $900 tax lien, that a man named Tom could be allowed to continue after screwing up his taxes by an amount which includes the words 'one hundred' and 'thousand.'" --political analyst Rich Galen

"Americans now know that the 'change we can believe in,' which President Obama promised, means a taxes-optional administration." --columnist Debra Saunders

"When moralizing conservatives get caught, say, cheating on their wives or challenging stall mates to robust Greco-Roman wrestling in airport bathrooms, liberals justifiably howl at the hypocrisy of it all. When liberals fail to pay taxes it's merely, to borrow an old catchphrase from Daschle, 'sad and disappointing,' but ultimately not that big a deal. If Democrats are serious about their arguments for raising taxes, shouldn't they be downright giddy about paying what they already owe? And shouldn't they loathe tax cheating more than anything?" --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Even if the spending could give the economy a jolt, at what price? I don't mean the legislation's overt price tag. I mean the production lost because the money borrowed by the government won't be available for private investment aimed at satisfying consumers. Do we want politicians directing how scarce resources are used? I'd rather have those decisions made by entrepreneurs who must please consumers or go bankrupt." --columnist John Stossel

"Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire. If you cut taxes tomorrow, people would have more money in their next paycheck, and it would probably be spent by the time they got that paycheck, through increased credit card purchases beforehand." --economist Thomas Sowell

"Big government is where nations go to die -- not in Keynes' 'long run,' but sooner than you think." --columnist Mark Steyn

INSIGHT

"The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule." ---economist and philosopher Fredrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." --Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith (1723-1790)

"You know how Congress is. They'll vote for anything if the thing they vote for will turn around and vote for them. Politics ain't nothing but reciprocity." --American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

DEZINFORMATSIA

Nothing but sympathy: "You campaigned to change the culture in Washington, to change the 'politics as usual' culture here. Are you frustrated? Do you think it is much, much harder to do that than you ever anticipated?" --CBS's Katie Couric to Barack Obama on Tom Daschle

Blame the Republicans: "This does read to the public as though the Republicans went after Tom Daschle, someone that the president very much wanted, and brought him down." --MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell

Those blasted Republicans again: "Not one Republican voted for the House stimulus package, turning a cold shoulder to the president's appeal for bipartisan support." --ABC's Charlie Gibson ++ "Have the Republicans no shame? After swarming around President Obama like adolescent girls swooning over the Jonas brothers, getting their picture taken with him and accepting his invitation to a White House cocktail party, every Republican in the House still voted like Rush Limbaugh instructed them to -- registering a big fat 'no' on Obama's stimulus plan." --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

"But don't you think that right now ... it behooves the Republicans to be a little bit more in the middle? I mean ... their voices aren't going to be heard anyway, as we saw with this economic stimulus plan. ... So doesn't it behoove them to be more bipartisan and meet in the middle?" --CBS's Maggie Rodriguez to Ann Coulter

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain: "This isn't socialism. ... This is time for all Americans to step up to the plate and give." --former ABC reporter Jami Floyd on the "stimulus" package

Tortured logic: "There is another riddle inside a second enigma tonight. A detainee released from Guantanamo Bay is now found to be leading al-Qa'ida operations in Yemen. The knee-jerk questions: Since the guy went back to his terrorist ways, does that not mean we can never close Gitmo? But perhaps the real question is: Since we never tried him, never found him guilty, and the Bush administration set him free, what if he wasn't a terrorist in the first place but we turned him into one by sending him to Gitmo?" --MSNBC's Keith Olbermann

Asking the tough questions: "So you've been president twelve days. So let me ask you the question that's on everyone's mind right now: How's it going living with your mother-in-law?" --NBC's Matt Lauer to Obama

Newspulper Headlines:

Questioning the Obama Administration's Patriotism: "Biden Calls Paying Higher Taxes a Patriotic Act" --MSNBC.com, 18 September 2008

We Blame Global Warming: "Punxutawney Phil Sees Shadow, Winter to Continue" --Associated Press

Headlines Al Gore Would Like to See: "Hellishly Hot Planet Hits Highs of 2,240 Degrees Fahrenheit" --FoxNews.com

Nothing Gets Past Tony Blair: "Tony Blair: International Strategy on Gaza Hasn't Worked" --Ha'aretz

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Palin, Obama to Share Stage" --Politico.com

News You Can Use: "It's the Economy, Girlfriend" --The New York Times ++ "Failure Is Always an Option" --Slate.com

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

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Population control: "I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible." --global warming alarmist Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the British government's Sustainable Development Commission

More government control: "If Congress acts right away to pass President Obama's Recovery package and then takes decisive action this year to institute a cap-and-trade system for CO2 emissions ... the United States will regain its credibility and enter the Copenhagen treaty talks with a renewed authority to lead the world in shaping a fair and effective treaty. ... A fair, effective and balanced treaty will put in place the global architecture that will place the world -- at long last and in the nick of time -- on a path toward solving the climate crisis and securing the future of human civilization." --greenhouse gasbag Al Gore

Getting it right on Al Gore and the alarmists: "Environmentalism and the global warming alarmism is challenging our freedom. ... I'm afraid that the current crisis will be misused for radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy all around the world. I'm more afraid of the consequences of the crisis than the crisis itself." --Czech President Vaclav Klaus

Hope for schools: "There's a lot of work to do and we're going to need you. The children of this country are counting on all of us. ... I am a product of your work. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along." --Michelle Obama, who put her own kids in private school, to the employees of the Department of Education, which didn't exist until 1980 -- her junior year in high school

SHORT CUTS

"It is easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because, you know what? They don't pay them." --House GOP Whip Eric Cantor

"For all the promises of a revolution in ethics, President Obama has created a new syndrome: The well-off can be made to stop evading their taxes by nominating them for cabinet posts." --Victor Davis Hanson

"'Stimulus' comes from the verb stimulare, which is Latin for 'transfer massive sums of money from what remains of the dynamic sector of the economy to the special interests of the Democratic Party.' No, hang on, my mistake. Stimulare means 'to goad.' And, on that front, the Democrats are doing an excellent job. They've managed to goad 58 percent of the American people into opposing the 'stimulus' package." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Didn't you ever wonder if the witch doctors themselves thought dropping a virgin in the volcano would really bring good crops? I'm thinking they didn't. But it kept them in their witch-doctor jobs and gave them a few final moments in private with the virgins. And that, boys and girls, is how government works." --columnist Randall Hoven

Jay Leno:

There was a huge scientific breakthrough today. Researchers say they are very close to finding someone from Obama's Cabinet who's actually paid their taxes.

Tom Daschle, whom President Obama wants as secretary of health and human services, apparently did not pay $128,000 in taxes that he owes the government. Did you realize President Obama hasn't had a cabinet member with an embarrassing tax problem like this since the last guy he appointed?

Because of a huge budget crisis, California is now going to delay paying tax refunds. To which Tom Daschle said, "That's why I didn't pay them in the first place."

President Obama says he needs nearly a trillion dollars to help kick start the economy. That's a lot of money. Do you realize with that money, you could give every man and woman and child in this country $3,300? Or you could buy shoes for everyone in South America for life. Or you could cover the New York Yankees' payroll for a season and a half.

*****

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.)