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"Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

Obama 'saves' GM
EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"Well, at least now we know who's running General Motors. The Obama White House, in an extraordinary expansion of the government's reach, Sunday demanded and got the head of Rick Wagoner, the automaker's embattled chief executive. In doing so, the president brushed aside GM's board of directors, selected by shareholders and entrusted with the power to hire and fire executives, and assumed that role for himself. ... Shareholders can read the handwriting on the wall -- this isn't their company anymore. That's the risk you take when you go hat in hand to Washington. It ought to be a red flag for other companies and industries that might be thinking a federal bailout is the answer for surviving the recession. President Barack Obama is using the $13.4 billion in federal loans as leverage to re-create GM in the image of a Washington with little apparent affinity for manufacturers. ... The president also needs a scalp to wave before both a Congress growing queasy about federal bailouts and the automaker's bondholders, who aren't happy about granting a huge discount on their GM debt. The trick now is to find someone to run the automaker. Good luck with the headhunting. How many top-notch corporate executives will jump at the chance to lead a company that is sinking like a rock? Who will be willing to share the corporate suite with federal bureaucrats? And by the way, the job pays a buck a year, and if you need to fly, it better be coach. Running a tobacco company has to have more appeal." --The Detroit News

UPRIGHT

"There has always been a line ... which no president would cross, with respect to the distinction between the public and private sectors. Obama has now crossed that line. There is no limit to government's destruction of private activity or control over it." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"Why isn't Obama's special auto task force ordering a replacement for Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW's president? Weren't their oversized pay and benefit packages a big part of the problem? Well, that's never gonna happen. The election power of the union is too strong. But this does reveal the political nature of these government bailout operations." --economist Lawrence Kudlow

"We are seeing the biggest power grab by politicians in American history. The idea that they would propose that the Treasury could intervene and take over non-bank, non-financial system assets gives them the potential to basically create the equivalent of a dictatorship." --former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

"If you listen to the principal spokesmen for U.S. economic policy -- Obama and Geithner -- they grow daily ever more explicitly hostile to the private sector and ever more comfortable with the language of micromanaged government-approved capitalism -- which, of course, isn't capitalism at all." --columnist Mark Steyn

"The financial markets are sluggish, but they are functioning. It's time to wind down the bailouts -- and get the federal government out of the way." --Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Extreme abuse of power: "While GM has made a good faith effort to restructure over the past several months, the plan they have put forward is, in its current form, not strong enough. However, after broad consultations with a range of industry experts and financial advisors, I'm confident that GM can rise again, provided that it undergoes a fundamental restructuring. As an initial step ... Rick Wagoner is stepping aside as Chairman and CEO. ... In this context, my administration will offer General Motors adequate working capital over the next 60 days. During this time, my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan. ... Let me be clear: The United States government has no interest or intention of running GM." --Barack Obama

Government warranty: "If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired just like always. Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been because ... the United States government will stand behind your warranty." --usurper in chief Barack Obama **What was that about "no interest in running GM"?

Another czar -- who has no interest in running GM, of course: "I am designating a new Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers to cut through red tape and ensure that the full resources of our federal government are leveraged to assist the workers, communities, and regions that rely on our auto industry." --Barack Obama

It won't if you leave it alone: "We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish." --Barack Obama

Wrong: "The market will not solve this. And the great risk for us is we do too little, not that we do too much." --Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Gun grabbers: "There's no doubt in my mind that the 10 years we had an assault weapons ban in America was one of the tools that helped to drive down the crime rate." --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Mexico City discussing Mexico's drug crime **If by "drive down" she means "had no effect whatsoever," she's correct.

Corruption is as corruption does: "If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district." --Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)

INSIGHT

"The common man is the sovereign consumer whose buying or abstention from buying ultimately determines what should be produced and in what quantity and quality." --economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

"A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody." --Irish comic dramatist George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

"I want people to be able to get what they need to live: enough food, a place to live, and an education for their children. Government does not provide these as well as private charities and businesses." --American frontiersman, soldier and politician Davy Crockett (1786-1836)

DEZINFORMATSIA

Gun grabbers II: "It's my understanding that 90 percent of the guns that they're getting down in Mexico are coming from the United States.... Do you need any kind of legislative help on that front? Have you, for example, thought about asking Congress to reinstate the ban on assault weapons?" --CBS's Bob Schieffer to Obama ++ "It would be tough but why doesn't the administration challenge the gun lobby and take on the assault weapons ban and reinstitute it?" --NBC's Andrea Mitchell to Hillary

You gonna believe me or your lyin' eyes?: "In fact, it may not be rational at all [to fear Obama's anti-gun maneuvers]. It might even be paranoid. But one thing is certain: Many gun owners believe this president is somehow out to curb their rights and they're stocking up just in case." --CNN correspondent Sean Callebs, just as the on-screen news crawler scrolled that BHO "wants to make expired Assault Weapons Ban permanent."

From the sycophants: "I'm hopeful. I like Obama a lot. I think he's a bright guy. I like the fact that he's visible and that, you know, he's attempting to bring some transparency and some legitimacy and honesty to the office, which has been missing for a while. And I'm rooting for him." --CNN's Jack Cafferty

Newspulper Headlines:

What Would Obama Do Without Experts?: "Experts: Obama Needs to Watch the Gaffes" --The Hill

This Is Why We Need Scissors-Defense: "North Korea May Also Launch Mid-Range Missile-Paper" --Reuters

Newsweek Launches Investigation of People Who Remove Tags From Mattresses: "Time to Tackle Illegal Tire Dumpers" --Paris (TX) News

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Earth Hour Candle Sets Mississauga Townhouse Ablaze" --National Post (Canada)

Bottom Stories of the Day: "Canada Objects to France's Claim on Coastal Waters" --Canwest News Service

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

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Typical Hollywood: "[Barack Obama is] doing a pretty remarkable job. ... The guy is just so articulate and he is so well versed in something that is so new to him and I think he has a good team around him. It sounds cliché, but he makes me feel proud to be an American." --actress Mandy Moore ++ "[Obama] is thoughtful and considerate and he gets all the information before he speaks which I think is a wonderful quality for the ruler of the free world to have." --actress Debra Messing **Uh, "ruler of the free world"?

Look who's talking: "You know, the last eight years I was the loyal opposition and now there's another loyal opposition. The only problem I really have is the spreading of hate by right wing, you know, super right -- the spreading of hate, I don't get it. I don't understand it." --Lynda Carter, a.k.a. "Wonder Woman"

Sometimes they get it right: "If I have anything to say against Obama it's not because I'm a racist, it's because I don't like what he's doing as president and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against him you're called a racist. But it has nothing to do with it, I don't care what color he is." --actress Angie Harmon

Global warmism: "I think it's, it's a call to action. It's, it's, it's-, turning off the lights won't solve the problem, obviously. But in the same way that the, the march on Selma, Alabama was a symbolic gesture for the civil rights movement I think those who care about climal [sic] change, climate change and carbon mitigation -- which is a global movement -- are, are trying to find ways to symbolically demonstrate the, the unity of purpose around the planet and, and really get our leadership to take action." --actor Ed Norton on the symbolism of turning off the lights for one hour last Saturday evening

SHORT CUTS

"I was going to write an April Fool's Day column about how the President of the United States fired the CEO of General Motors and made it clear he wanted the majority of the board of directors to resign and how he was going to replace them with people from the Administration but I thought that was way, WAY too far fetched. Then I was going to write how the President had appointed a guy to run an outfit named 'Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers,' but I thought the 'and Workers' part was too obvious even for Barack Obama, so that wasn't going to work as an April Fool's prank. I mean, don't Workers count as part of the Community of Autos? Or did someone want to make certain that the UAW and the AFL-CIO understood they were going to be actually running the Auto Communities ere long? Next I thought I might write a joke item about how 'Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors."' The funny part was going to be a when I reported that the Associated Press headlined her appearance before a Senate Subcommittee as part of her confirmation process: 'HHS nominee calls for health care fraud crackdown.' But who would believe that on the same day she admitted to missing by $7,000 on her taxes she would have the chutzpah to say she wanted to, 'send the signal that there's a new sheriff in town.' No one would believe that, so I couldn't use it as part of my April Fool's Day column. ... Finally, ending up where we started with the car companies, I watched the press conference by the Obama-appointed Chairman of GM, Fritz Henderson claiming that GM would cover up to nine months of car payments for people who bought a GM vehicle then lost their job. I thought that had to be an early April Fool's joke. Where would Fritz Henderson get the money to do that? I mean, that would be just about as funny as giving mortgages to people to buy houses who... Oh. Wait a minute. You mean my tax dollars -- already going to people who bought houses they couldn't afford -- are now going to go to people who buy cars they can't afford? Looks like the joke's on me." --political analyst Rich Galen

Jay Leno:

The Obama administration asked General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner to step down, and he agreed. This is good news for Obama; the last time he tried to get someone to quit, it took months -- and even then, he had to promise her a job as secretary of state.

According to the government, Rick Wagoner was forced to resign because of poor performance. That's embarrassing -- run an organization that loses billions of dollars and then get fired by a guy who heads up an organization that loses trillions of dollars.

Obama also said if you buy a new car, you will able to deduct the sales tax from your income tax. Or you can just take a job at the White House and you wouldn't have to pay taxes at all.

President Obama said this week that things will get worse before they get better. That's something you never hear before the election -- "Let me tell you, if I'm elected it's going to get a lot worse."

*****

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.)