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"A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired." --Alexander Hamilton

Treasury Secretary Geithner wants power

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"Didn't Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner say that it was not the administration's intent to control private companies? Then why is it reportedly reluctant to accept TARP repayments from some banks? If it has indeed declined to accept $340 million in payments from banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California, the administration is tacitly admitting that it wants to control those banks as well as others that will try to pay back the taxpayers' money they took in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. By refusing repayment, the government can keep the leverage it bought with the bailouts. Banks that still 'owe' would not be in position to reject the administration as a 'partner.' This reminds us of mobsters making a small 'investment' in a family-owned shop, which is not always wanted by the owners, and then using it to justify taking over the business. ... Before his trip to Europe, President Obama, according to Politico, told a group of financial institution CEOs who were unhappy with the federal war on executive salaries and bonuses, 'My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.' At the time, that sounded like nothing more than exaggeration. ... Looking back, these are small signs that reveal the administration's desire to seize command of the nation's financial system. The bigger, unmistakable sign is the reluctance -- or is it outright refusal? -- to take $340 million from four banks trying to be responsible and operate on their own. This shouldn't be happening in this country. The private sector and the state are not to be mixed. The American financial system is best directed by markets, not politics. Prosperity and liberty suffer when the latter excludes the former." --Investor's Business Daily

INSIGHT

"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich." --National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008 )

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand." --Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

UPRIGHT

"It's recently been reported that President Obama is refusing to allow banks to repay their TARP funds. In other words, he's declined to allow them to exercise the 'accountability' he has rhetorically embraced. ... Could it be, after all, that President Obama's objective isn't so much to demand responsibility from the private sector than it is to strengthen the government's control over it?" --columnist Carol Platt Liebau

"Five minutes of explanation to James Madison, and he'll have a pretty good idea what a motorcar is (basically a steamboat on wheels; the internal combustion engine might take a few minutes more). Then try to explain to Madison how the Constitution he fathered allows the president to unilaterally guarantee the repair or replacement of every component of millions of such contraptions sold in the several states, and you will leave him slack-jawed." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"More important than the left's hypocrisy is their ongoing disrespect for the Constitution when it suits their political ends. We are living in a time when the very integrity of the Constitution is being threatened daily, from federal bailouts to federal assumption of control over private business." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production. Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses, which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television." --economist Thomas Sowell

"If the Republicans can't break out of being the right-wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012.... Remember, everything Obama's doing, Bush started last year. If you're going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama's first two, three months." --former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

DEZINFORMATSIA

Looking to the wrong guy: "I think we all find [Obama] very charismatic, very handsome, and almost with the responsibility of being a savior on his shoulders." --CBS's Julie Chen

Downplaying mediocrity: "The president's stagecraft on this trip and his star power have really held up all through his trip to Europe so far. As Jake [Tapper] pointed out, though, on the substance the president hasn't gotten all he wanted either at the G-20 or at this NATO summit, but he's done a good job of managing expectations." --ABC's George Stephanopoulos

Still bashing Bush: "The last president we had that went to Europe, I mean no one wanted to see him. There was great hostility. This president's changed the tone. Just changing the tone was a great plus for the United States." --ABC's Sam Donaldson

Drooling over the First Lady: "With Michelle [Obama], you can almost feel those warm arms. You know, there's a kind of real red-blooded feel to her. But there's also -- I mean she's almost like overtaking Oprah, I think, as the kind of inspirational 'it' girl at this point. ... She's also, I think, getting a kind of almost Princess Di-like empathy going at this point." --CBS's Tina Brown

Obama bows to Saudi Arabia's king

Blame the Right: "Gun sales are up, violence is back on the front page and conservatives are calling for revolution. Is the red-hot rhetoric of the Right helping foment something dangerous in this country?" --MSNBC's David Shuster

This week's "Leftmedia Buster" Award: "You have to look really hard to find it, but the American mainstream media are glancing at the stunning Obama bow before the King of Saudi Arabia, but only for the purpose of dismissing it. The Hotline, widely read among political pros, publishes a brief note focusing on conservative blog reactions, not the incident itself, in its 'Blogometer' feature. The implication is that only right wing kooks care about such matters. Quite clearly, many in the media would rather nobody reported on the incident, but since news is leaking out, they feel a need to minimize it, and make sure nobody important ever sees the full extent of the leader of the free worlds' self-abasement before a slave-holding absolute monarch, whose country exports Salafism worldwide." --American Thinker editor Thomas Lifson

Newspulper Headlines:

They Can't Help the Way They're Aligned: "Iowa: 'The Gay Marriage Mecca'?" --ABCNews.com ++ "Mecca Mosques 'Wrongly Aligned'" --BBC Web site

We Blame Global Warming: "Europe Melts for Michelle" --Politico.com

Also Known as Gravity: "North Korea Launches Rocket, Defying World Pressure" --FoxNews.com

No One Ever Got Younger: "Nation's Teachers Getting Older, Study Finds" --Detroit Free Press

The Patients, That's WHO!: "WHO Wants Money Spent on Making Hospitals Safe" --Reuters

It's Always in the Last Place You Look: "Hidden Planet Discovered in Old Hubble Data" --Space.com

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "On Top of Everything, Recession Is Annoying" --MSNBC.com

News You Can Use: "Applying for Jobless Benefits? Here, Pee in a Cup" --CNN.com

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

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Making up languages: "It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics." --Barack Obama, who apparently doesn't know that Austrians speak German

From the supremely arrogant America-hater-in-chief: "In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." --Barack Obama **"One should remind Mr. Obama and the Europeans how America has 'shown arrogance' by saving Europe from itself innumerable times in the 20th Century. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the wars in the Balkans were largely resolved by American blood, treasure, and leadership. One can be 'dismissive, even derisive' toward Europeans because they pretty much caused those conflicts and then dithered, for the most part, until those arrogant Americans had to step in to clean up their mess. Much of the problems of the Third World, including the rise of Islamo Fascism, can be laid at the doorstep of European colonial practices, including the chaotic and often bloody process of decolonialization that took place starting with the end of World War II. Africa is a butcher shop and the Middle East is a cockpit of terror and war, not because of American 'arrogance', but European stupidity when it ran those two places." --columnist Mark Whittington

Moral relativism: "One of the great strengths of the United States is -- although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." --Barack Obama on our nation, which was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and values ++ "We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world -- including in my own country." --Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament **"The most significant event connected to the Islamic faith that has shaped the character of the United States was the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001." --author Robert Spencer

VILLAGE IDIOTS

He's changed America, alright: "You have given renewed hope not only to the citizens of the United States of America, but to all citizens in all parts of the world. I want to thank you for your leadership, your vision and your courage, which you've already shown in your presidency, and congratulate you on the dynamism, energy and indeed the achievements that you have been responsible for. Your first 70 days in office have changed America, and you've changed America's relationship with the world." --British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Obama

You first: "We, like the rest of the world community, are awaiting a world free of nuclear arms. Our expectation from the U.S. and others is to take serious and practical measures toward nuclear disarmament and dismantling of weapons of mass destruction." --Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi

Logical fallacies: "We have 32 people being murdered by guns every day in this country. If peanut butter or pistachio nuts or spinach killed that number of people once in one day, they'd be pulled by the FDA." --Michael Wolkowitz, member of the board of trustees for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence **Apply that logic to alcohol or automobiles and see where it gets you.

SHORT CUTS

"It's that time of year again. Uncle Sam takes off that gaudy blue coat, puts on his white smock and snaps that all-too-familiar rubber glove into place. And we, the taxpayers, must gird ourselves for intrusions of proctological magnitude and glacial duration by the revenuers. ... Yes, I want to keep more of my money -- because it's mine. But there are people who don't see it that way. The problem with those people isn't simply that they're wrong. It's that they are in charge." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Throwing trillions of dollars around is addictive, particularly if it's only money that other people don't have. (The next big number, for anyone keeping score, is 'quadrillion,' and after that, if there is an after that, a 'quintillion.' These numbers are almost beyond comprehension, but there's already a gleam in Barney Frank's eye. Nancy Pelosi's, too.)" --columnist Wesley Pruden

"Now the government has set up a site to help us get through the coming depression (although, really, it's done enough). At http://www.samhsa.gov/economy, you can learn more about the possible health risks associated with an economic downturn. Do you feel 'depression'? 'Anxiety'? (And, considering your 401(k), if you're not, perhaps you're a sociopath.) Are you engaging in compulsive behavior? How about 'substance abuse'? (Fingers crossed; I'm only one fiscal quarter away!) Or is there 'persistent' crying going on? Hey, why not? In the eyes of Washington, we are children, after all. If we're not, how about doing us a public service and leaving us alone?" --columnist David Harsanyi

"London hosted a Group of 20 meeting amid chaos. Chinese communists are now the capitalists, France's president is Hungarian, the Anglo-Saxons are being led by a socialist and a Kenyan, and Germany is refusing to send troops into other countries. Astronauts aboard the Space Station report the Earth is spinning backwards." --comedian Argus Hamilton

Jay Leno:

President Obama and the First Lady met with Queen Elizabeth and the royal family at Buckingham Palace. Actually, you know why they did that? This is all part of Obama's campaign to reach out to those people without any real jobs.

A lot of Americans don't understand the role of the queen. The queen is merely a figurehead. She wields no real political power. Or, as we call it in this country, the vice president.

At the G-20 summit, the White House accidentally listed a phone-sex line for journalists seeking an on-record briefing call for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. To which Bill said, "Boy, did they get the wrong number."

*****

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.)