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THE FOUNDATION

"With respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age..." --Thomas Jefferson

Obama's money pile hasn't helped the economy

GOVERNMENT

"Meanwhile, in Brazil, India, China, Japan and much of Continental Europe the recession has ended. In the second quarter this year, both the French and German economies grew by 0.3 percent, while the U.S. economy shrank by 1 percent. How can that be? Unlike America, France and Germany had no government stimulus worth speaking of, the Germans declining to go the Obama route on the quaint grounds that they couldn't afford it. ... And yet their recession has gone away. Of the world's biggest economies, only the U.S., Britain and Italy are still contracting. All three are big stimulators, though Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi can't compete with Obama's $800 billion porkapalooza. The president has borrowed more money to spend to less effect than anybody on the planet. Actually, when I say 'to less effect,' that's not strictly true: Due to Obama, one of the least-indebted developed nations is now one of the most indebted -- and getting ever more so. We've become the third most debt-ridden country, after Japan and Italy. According to last month's IMF report, general government debt as a percentage of GDP will rise from 63 percent in 2007 to 88.8 percent this year and to 99.8 percent of GDP next year. Of course, the president retains his formidable political skills, artfully distracting attention from his stimulus debacle with his health care debacle. But there are diminishing returns to his serial thousand-page, trillion-dollar boondoggles. They may be too long for your representatives to bother reading before passing into law, but, whatever the intricacies of Section 417(a) xii on page 938, people are beginning to spot what all this stuff has in common: He's spending your future. And by 'future' I don't mean 2070, 2060, 2040, but the day after tomorrow." --columnist Mark Steyn

LIBERTY

"The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical care legislation that President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it. What we also should stop to think about is the mindset behind this legislation, which is very consistent with the mindset behind other policies of this administration, whether the particular issue is bailing out General Motors, telling banks who to lend to or appointing 'czars' to tell all sorts of people in many walks of life what they can and cannot do. The idea that government officials can play God from Washington is not a new idea, but it is an idea that is being pushed with new audacity. What they are trying to do is to create an America very unlike the America that has existed for centuries -- the America that people have been attracted to by the millions from every part of the world, the America that many generations of Americans have fought and died for. ... The thing most associated with America -- freedom -- is precisely what must be destroyed if this is to be turned into a fundamentally different country to suit Obama's vision of the country and of himself. But do not expect a savvy politician like Barack Obama to express what he is doing in terms of limiting our freedom. He may not even think of it in those terms. He may think of it in terms of promoting 'social justice' or making better decisions than ordinary people are capable of making for themselves, whether about medical care or housing or many other things. Throughout history, egalitarians have been among the most arrogant people." --economist Thomas Sowell

OPINION IN BRIEF

"Looking back, this must have been the White House health-care strategy: Health care as a subject is extraordinarily sticky, messy and confusing. It's inherently complicated, and it's personal. There are land mines all over the place. Don't make the mistake the Clintons made and create a plan that gets picked apart, shot down, and injures the standing of the president. Instead, push it off on Congress. Let them come up with a dozen plans. It will keep them busy. It will convince them yet again of their importance and autonomy. It will allow them to vent, and perhaps even exhaust, their animal spirits. Various items and elements within each bill will get picked off by the public. Fine, that's to be expected. The bills may in fact yield a target-rich environment. Fine again. Maybe health care's foes will get lost in the din and run out of ammo. Maybe they'll exhaust their animal spirits, too. Summer will pass, the fight confined to the public versus Congress. And at the end, in the fall, the beauty part: The president swoops in and saves the day, forcing together an ultimate and more moderate plan that doesn't contain the more controversial elements but does constitute a successful first step toward universal health care. That's not what happened. It all got hotter, quicker than the White House expected. The many plans of Congress congealed in the public mind into one plan, and the one plan became a poison pool. The president is now immersed in it." --Peggy Noonan

THE GIPPER

"Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can't afford it." --Ronald Reagan on health care in 1961

RE: THE LEFT

"President Obama's handling of health care is unpopular with a majority of Americans and a majority of self-proclaimed independents. Focusing on the town halls has its merits, but if you actually wanted ObamaCare to pass, casting a majority of Americans as the stooges of racist goons may not be the best way to go. ... It's funny how these supposed champions of the Enlightenment can't grasp that people can disagree with them for honest reasons. Instead, we simply must be [Rush] Limbaugh's automatons, which is to say racist, fascist thugs. In addition to the slander, such complaints are monumentally, incandescently lame coming from a party that controls Washington. According to liberals themselves, these evil-mongers are a tiny minority, a bunch of 'AstroTurf' frauds. So why not ignore them and get on with the work you were elected to do? ... But no. Obama wants the debate to be about angry white men. And, as lame as that is, that's what's happening. It won't make ObamaCare a reality, but it will shift the blame from where it rightly belongs." --National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

FAITH AND FAMILY

"There is a pattern here and it will not change as long as we don't recognize that our little girls are being used. The mass marketers of Hollywood hype know that today's youth spend some 200 billion dollars a year of their own money on trinkets, music and all the accessories that go with it. They also know that pre-teen girls are easily manipulated and that more than anything else, want to be popular as they grow into young adults. So, they discover cute, talented young girls, make them superstars by playing on your daughter's dreams of glitz, and morph the 'wholesome' starlets into trampy sex stars as they grow older, hoping to take the dollars of your girls with them. ... History repeats itself. You know what happened to teen idol Britney Spears. America's little girls and their moms swooned and spent millions on Britney fashions. However, just as the Britney wannabes reached critical mass, the star's light started to short circuit. Her sexy ways quickly turned into bizarre behavior, drug problems and a raunchy attitude. Not to worry, High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens was there to take her place. But just as Vanessa hit her zenith in the eyes of our little girls, nude photos and other sexual revelations about her captured the headlines. Down came Vanessa and up went the posters of the twinkling, sparkly Miley Cyrus. Now Miley has made the transition to tramp too. And millions of preteen girls have, once again, been manipulated into believing that being trampy is not only normal, but is the only way to succeed. It's time for moms to wake up and protect our little girls from being used. Find other moms who are sick of the abuse -- it only takes a few friends to create your own sub-culture within the madness of the crazy pop culture. Finding allies is one of the most effective ways to fight back and win." --columnist Rebecca Hagelin

CULTURE

"Somewhere betwixt swine and swindle, we've got a flu crisis. Well, maybe not a real crisis, or even a semi-convincing phony crisis, but the government is working on it. What we have, actually, is a crisis of hysteria promoted in certain government precincts. Swine flu ... has only disappointed the crisis-mongers since it was identified in the spring. ... [Last] week the Commerce Department, alarmed and chagrined to see one of its concerns sink so low in public fears, put on an impressive dog-and-pony show in Washington to dispense detailed guidelines to business firms for dealing with approaching doom (or at least severe annoyance). The story made large headlines in the newspapers, and of course provided the usual fuel for high-decibel TV news noise. The government bureaucrats, with no experience in running a business as large as a lemonade stand or a hot-dog cart, were free with expensive advice: Plans should be put in place now for 'tele-working and cross-training,' the secretary, Gary Locke, said. 'The key is for every business to put into place on how to continue with perhaps a severely reduced work force.' The government even supplies a helpful 'tool kit' to instruct businesses on how to prevent disease from 'drastically affecting business operations.' Though no advice is yet available for how to quiet hysteria, the government has a few hints to live by: Everybody should wash his (or her) hands frequently and cover his (or her) mouth when coughing and nose when sneezing. If that doesn't stop it, a conscientious citizen should avoid putting contaminated beans up his nose, spitting in public or putting coins in his mouth. This is the advice we pay for, so we might as well use it." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

(To submit reader comments visit our Letters to the Editor page.)

"Thank you for Mark Alexander's essay 'Media Blackout.' I went to Halls High School with Chris Newsom, but have since moved to Florida. If it had not been for the coverage of this crime by *The Patriot Post*, I would have never known about his passing -- thanks to the horrible double standard by the liberal media. Thank you for the update on the trials of the sociopaths that killed my classmate. The nature of this crime and what happened to Channon and Chris deserves exposure and coverage. R.I.P to Chris Newsom and Channon Christian." --Saint Augustine, Florida

"I am now retired from my career as an Albuquerque, NM police officer, and over the course of my career, the vast majority of crimes in investigated were 'hate crimes.' Each time I would mark the hate crime box on my standard report form, if the crime was black on white, it was rejected and sent back for correction. When I marked the hate crime box when it was white on black crime, I never had a report rejected. The double standard was very frustrating." --Albuquerque, New Mexico

"In Alexander's essay, 'Media Blackout,' he used the initialism 'MSM' several times without spelling it out. Please elaborate." -- Chicago, Illinois

Editor's Reply: Well, it either means "Mainstream Media" or, according to the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association stylebook, it means "men who have sex with men." Take your pick.

Editor's Note: There is an addendum to Alexander's Essay, "Media Blackout," elaborating on two other outrageous cases of media double standards. We invite readers to check it out.

Rose and Milton Friedman

FOR THE RECORD

"The Journal of Economic Literature recently described the last quarter century of rapid economic growth and rising living standards as 'The Age of Friedman,' after Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist. The editors could as fairly have called it the Age of Friedmans to include Milton's wife of 68 years and collaborator, Rose Friedman, who died Tuesday at age 98. Rose was small in stature like Milton -- both were less than five-feet tall -- but their ideas were of towering impact. That was especially true in the postwar era through the 1970s, when statist economists dominated most universities and national capitals. The Friedmans re-popularized the principles of economic freedom, which led to the Reagan-Thatcher ascendancy and the spread of capitalist ideas to China, Eastern Europe and even dirigiste India. Rose carried half the load on many of Milton's major works, as he was quick to acknowledge. They co-wrote 'Free to Choose,' an international best seller in 1980 that was adapted into a popular documentary on PBS. 'Our central theme in public advocacy,' wrote Rose in 'Two Lucky People,' their joint autobiography, 'has been the promotion of human freedom....' It is said that Rose was the only one who ever won a debate with Milton. Once in a discussion on tax policy between Milton and economist Arthur Laffer, she intervened and admonished them: 'I think we should cut tax rates way below the revenue maximizing rate.' We asked her not long ago if she thought the recent economic troubles and revival of statist policies was a repudiation of Milton's legacy. 'Oh heavens no,' she said. 'Milton's ideas are timeless.' So are hers." --The Wall Street Journal

THE LAST WORD

"You know, the one thing that I learned from this last election is that if you have a young, hip, likable, historic candidate, and you promote him through CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and all the rest, not to mention stand-up and late night comedy, the entire music industry, university, high school and even elementary school teachers, just about every major movie and television star ... and run against the oldest candidate in the history of the Republic, despised by the base of his own party, a man unwilling to take the fight to the only fields in which he can win, and representing the incumbent party responsible for two unpopular wars, a two-term President with historic disapproval ratings, in the middle of the 'worst economy since the Depression...' Well, you put all of those forces in harness and you, sir, will attain 53% of the vote! Just think about that for a second. Think about how many things have to go perfectly for Liberals to eke out a bare majority. This leads me to think that their entire edifice doesn't need a whole lot of demolition to swing the tide. One or two planks ought to do nicely and then the rest of it will collapse under its own weight. One of those planks is marketing and packaging. The Obama example is a case of horrible content beautifully packaged. Conservatism, on the other hand, is a beautiful message horribly packaged, and if we ever hope to win again we'd better get in this game and right quick." --columnist Bill Whittle

*****

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

(Please pray for our 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.)