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THE FOUNDATION

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." --Thomas Jefferson

THE DEMO-GOGUES

"These are not the droids you're looking for": "I do not want the government to run things. I've got enough to do." --President Barack Obama, who between running the banks and the automakers is finding time to talk about running health care

Getting it backwards: "If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM: paying more, getting less, and going broke." --Barack Obama, proposing to spend more to save more

The only thing to fear...: "There are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what, who will use the same scare tactics and fear-mongering that's worked in the past, that will give warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers, long lines and rationed care, decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors. We have heard this all before. And because these fear tactics have worked, things have kept getting worse. ... Let me also say that -- let me also address an illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I'll be honest; there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe ... that it's important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They're not telling the truth." --Barack Obama

Good 'ole Joe: "No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. But we took the mainstream model as to what we thought -- and everyone else thought -- the unemployment rate would be. ... Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment [the stimulus] was passed." --Vice President Joe Biden **Actually, Joe, there was plenty of opposition.

More mind tricks: "The exit strategy is that we, in fact -- these companies where the United States government, through the TARP funding, has got engaged in helping them stay alive is that they begin -- they are retooled, they are beginning to make money. We get the hell, the heck out as quickly as we can. As the president says, we don't want any part of running any of these companies." --Joe Biden

The BIG Lie: "I think the irony ... is that I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government." --Barack Obama

UPRIGHT

"If Obama candidly said he is trying to put America on the path to government-run health care, it would excite exactly the sort of massive national grassroots opposition needed to kill his plan. So what Obama is doing is paving a one-way street to a socialized medicine while expressly denying he is doing so -- and while accusing those who point out what he is doing of being untruthful." --columnist Terence Jeffrey

"It's hard to know whether President Obama's health care 'reform' is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three. The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health care 'reform' almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite." --columnist Robert Samuelson

"A government bureaucracy controlling your medical care is likely to combine the efficiency of the post office with the compassion of the IRS. Imagine a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles -- but to secure lifesaving treatment for yourself, a spouse or child, rather than simply to obtain a driver's license. What a nightmare." --columnist Carol Platt Liebau

"Only a Washington economist can argue with a straight face that providing quality health care to 46 million Americans who are now uninsured and assert it will save 'between $75 billion and $125 billion per year.' Folks, that's how government and deficits keep getting bigger." --columnist Debra Saunders

"The problem in the next four years will be not just that the president of the United States serially does not tell the truth. Instead, the real crisis in our brave new relativist world will be that those who demonstrate that he is untruthful will themselves be accused of lying." --columnist Victor Davis Hanson

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"When we first heard the phrase 'cash for clunkers,' we thought the reference was to a Congressional pay raise. Alas, no, it is the bright idea out of Congress to pay Americans to turn in their old cars so they'll go out and buy a new one. As columnist George Will recently observed, this isn't as insane as the New Deal policy of slaughtering pigs to raise pork prices, but it's close enough for government work. Under cash for clunkers, drivers would be offered vouchers of up to $4,500 to swap their current wheels for a more environmentally correct set with better mileage. The cars they turn in for destruction would have to get less than 18 miles per gallon, be drivable, and insured to the owner for at least a year. That last provision is presumably intended to deter political arbitrageurs from raiding used-car lots for trade-in wrecks. But as economic policy, this is still dotty. It encourages Americans to needlessly destroy still useful cars and then misallocates scarce resources from other, perhaps more productive, uses in order to subsidize replacements. By the same logic, we could revive the housing market by paying everyone to burn down their houses to collect the insurance money and build new ones. The proposal is really intended to help Detroit out of recession by subsidizing new car purchases, while also satisfying environmentalists who want gas guzzlers off the roads yesterday. ... For most consumers, the subsidy won't make a major difference in their purchasing decision on a new car, either because they don't have a trade-in or because a new car is still out of reach even with the voucher. But the policy will cost the Treasury revenue that the politicians will eventually claw from someone else, and it will further distort car markets and investment decisions. A far better cash for clunkers idea would be if Members of Congress gave themselves a $1 million voucher each in return for retiring. Then we could start all over with fewer economic dunces." --The Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

America = Iran: "What can we expect as far as accuracy, because we have our own problems, Florida in 2000." --CNN's Don Lemon ++ "Like Florida 2000." --CNN's Wolf Blitzer ++ "What's happening now is similar to what took place in Florida in 2000." --Karim Sadjadpour, Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ++ "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his main opponent have declared victory. Florida 2000 anyone?" --MSNBC's Rachel Maddow ++ "I think the White House shouldn't say anything, and the reason being is because of what happened in 2000 when Bush stole the election. Who are we to judge Iran?" --radio talk-show host Warren Ballentine ++ "The Supreme Court obviously, in this country, doesn't decide who's going to be on the ballot, but in 2000 they decided who was going to be president. Remember that?" --CNN's Jack Cafferty

Cost? What cost?: "I think we should figure out how to make [health care] budget-neutral. But we can't let this argument about paying for it get in the way of getting the thing done." --Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne

Speaking truth to power: "What a relief to have an urbane, cultivated, curious president who's out and about, engaged in the world. Not dangerously detached, as W. was, or darkly stewing like Cheney. Not hanging with the Rat Pack like J.F.K. or getting bored and up to mischief like Bill Clinton. ... Date on and tee it up, Mr. President. It's O.K. if they're teed off." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Pooh-poohing the opposition: "Republicans are honing an attack line against President Barack Obama in an attempt to play on Americans' fears of government overreach and economic uncertainties, suggesting he is nationalizing American industry and socializing medicine." --Associated Press writer Tom Raum **If by "suggesting" he means Obama IS nationalizing industry and socializing medicine.

Newspulper Headlines:

Now the Feds Are Picking the Furniture: "Next Chair Is Chosen for GM" --Detroit Free Press

Even 2,000-Plus Years Later: "B.C. Forest Fire Means Beautiful Sunsets in Seattle" --Seattle Times

Imagine the Sunsets That'll Produce: "Earth-Venus Smash-Up Possible in 3.5 Billion Years: Study" --Agence France-Presse

It's Always in the Last Place You Look: "Obama Administration Finds Health-Care Model in Green Bay" --Washington Post

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "What if Obama's Out of His Mind?" --Esquire.com

News You Can Use: "The Recession Is Great" --Forbes.com

Bottom Stories of the Day: "China Not Sending 3 Rare Golden Monkeys to LA Zoo" --Associated Press

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

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Another lie: "Barack Obama is not a socialist -- he's not even a liberal. ...This country needs a left wing. It doesn't have it, and part of the reason is the media." --HBO's Bill Maher

Everybody loves Obama: "I really don't think fear of socialism is gripping Americans by the throat. I think there's a feeling in some ways that the government was asleep at the switch for the past eight years. I think people see steps taken by Obama as a healthy compensation for that inactivity." --Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker

Culture bias alert: "With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that -- there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects." --Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor

Serious accusation: "I think [Dick Cheney] smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue. It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." --CIA director Leon Panetta **"I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether the Obama administration will continue the policies that have kept us safe for the last eight years." --former Vice President Dick Cheney

Why government should stay away: "Everything that the White House does concerning this deep recession contains an element of gambling because no one has been here before." --former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich

SHORT CUTS

"Governments can't even count votes accurately -- or deliver the mail efficiently. Yet now, somehow, government will run auto companies and guarantee us health care better than private firms? And the public seems eager for that!" --"20/20" co-anchor John Stossel

"The first thing is not to call it socialized medicine. Reform is much easier on the ear. The second thing is to get it enacted fast. The third thing is to call opponents naysayers. The fourth thing (although not officially recommended) might be to regret the first three things. But then it will be too late." --columnist Jack Markowitz

"On a more serious front, I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"One notes that, even in Somalia, which still has high childhood mortality, not to mention a state of permanent civil war, functioning government has entirely collapsed and yet life expectancy has increased from 49 to 55. Maybe if government were to collapse entirely in Washington, our life expectancy would show equally remarkable gains. Just thinking outside the box here." --columnist Mark Steyn

*****

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.)