The Patriot Post Brief 08-31

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 08-31
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION: AMERICA

“We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.”  - Thomas Jefferson

INSIGHT

“I don’t pass the buck, nor do I alibi out of any decision I make.”  - Harry S. Truman

FOR THE RECORD

“Barack Obama had ample reason to recall the Berlin Airlift of 1948 during his dramatic speech in the German capital last week. The airlift was an early and critical success for the West in the Cold War, with clear relevance to our own time, the war in Iraq, and the free world’s conflict with radical Islam. But having reached back 60 years to that pivotal hour of American leadership, Obama proceeded to draw from it exactly the wrong lessons. The Soviet Union had blockaded western Berlin on June 24, 1948, choking off access to the city by land and water and threatening 2.5 million people with starvation. Moscow was determined to force the United States and its allies out of Berlin. To capitulate to Soviet pressure, as Obama rightly noted, ‘would have allowed Communism to march across Europe.’ Yet many in the West advocated retreat, fearing that the only way to keep the city open was to use the atomic bomb - and launch World War III. For President Truman, retreat was unthinkable. ‘We stay in Berlin, period,’ he decreed. Overriding the doubts of senior advisers... Truman ordered the Armed Forces to begin supplying Berlin by air. Military planners initially thought that with a ‘very big operation,’ they might be able to get 700 tons of food to Berlin. Within weeks, the Air Force was flying in twice that amount every day, as well as supplies of coal. ... It would take nearly a year and more than 277,000 flights. But in the end it was the Soviets who backed down. On May 12, 1949, the blockade ended - a triumph of American prowess and perseverance, and a momentous vindication for Truman. But not once in his Berlin speech did Obama acknowledge Truman’s fortitude, or even mention his name. Nor did he mention the US Air Force, or the 31 American pilots who died during the airlift. Indeed, Obama seemed to go out of his way not to say plainly that what saved Berlin in that dark time was America’s military might. Save for a solitary reference to ‘the first American plane,’ he never described one of the greatest American operations of the postwar period as an American operation at all. He spoke only of ‘the airlift,’ ‘the planes,’ ‘those pilots.’ Perhaps their American identity wasn’t something he cared to stress amid all his ‘people of the world’ salutations and talk of ‘global citizenship.’... Sixty years later, it is a very different kind of Democrat who is running for president. Obama may have wowed ‘em in Berlin, but he’s no Harry Truman.”  - Jeff Jacoby

CAMPAIGN WATCH

“The early precincts are in, and it looks like a landslide. Unfortunately for Barack Obama, these are only the early precincts. America votes later. The public-opinion polls show the American idol winning by extraordinary margins in the precincts of the fantasists: by 51 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany, and 30 percent even in Britain, where voters speak English and understand American politics a little better than in the rest of Europe or, for that matter, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Here at home, where there are early, tentative signs that Americans are beginning to come off a roaring drunk, he’s effectively tied with John McCain.”  - Wesley Pruden

LIBERTY

“A view of the world means you might like London and I might prefer Paris, but each preference can be equally valid because it is a matter of individual taste. A correct worldview is a way of not just looking at other countries and people, but having an intellectual and moral center that allows one to distinguish between good and evil; right and wrong; sound economic, social and political policies and bad ones. There is a reason America is what it is. The economic power and military might are effects, not causes of America’s greatness. It is because we offer the lives of our young and much of our fortune to defend liberty for ourselves and promote it for others that we are blessed with liberty. Too many other countries - especially European countries - receive liberty as America’s gift, but contribute little to it.”  - Cal Thomas

FAMILY

“Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done. It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work and achievement.”  - Walter Williams
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 08-31
From The Federalist Patriot
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CULTURE

“I would argue that most of the major costs dragging down our society today - whether its poverty, entitlements, health care, or housing - trace to our diminishing sense of personal responsibility and the erosion of traditional values. Our first great general, George Washington, would be considered politically incorrect today cautioning against believing ‘that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle’ and admonishing, ‘virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.’ ‘Gays in the military’ is more than a question of military morale. It’s about the character of this country that we have a military to defend. Who would question what George Washington would say about this important issue?”  - Star Parker

OPINION IN BRIEF

“We don’t look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating. How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways... Government laws and policies at federal, state and local levels have had the net effect of putting both borrowers and lenders way out on a limb. Yet, when that limb began to crack, the first reaction in politics and in the media has been to look to government to solve this problem because - as always - it was called the market’s fault, the lenders’ fault and everybody’s fault except those politicians who created this dicey situation in the first place. Markets often get blamed for conveying a reality that was not created by the market. ... Markets were also blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930s and New Deal politicians were credited with getting us out of it. But increasing numbers of economists and historians have concluded that it was government intervention which prolonged the Great Depression beyond that of other depressions where the government did nothing. The stock market crash of 1987 was at least as big as the stock market crash in 1929. But, instead of being followed by a Great Depression, the 1987 crash was followed by 20 years of economic growth, with low inflation and low unemployment. The Reagan administration did nothing in 1987, despite outrage in the media at the government’s failure to live up to its responsibility, as seen in liberal quarters. But nothing was apparently what needed to be done, so that markets could adjust. The last thing politicians can do in an election year is nothing. So we can look for all sorts of ‘solutions’ by politicians of both parties. Like most political solutions, these are likely to make matters worse.”  - Thomas Sowell

THE GIPPER

“The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, ‘What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.’ But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.”  - Ronald Reagan

GOVERNMENT

“Every president, every senator, every member of Congress and every Supreme Court justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The way some of them behave, though, you have to wonder if they’ve ever read it. The Constitution is clear and understandable. It gives Congress, the legislative branch, the responsibility of passing our laws. It gives the president, head of the executive branch, the responsibility of enforcing those laws. And it gives the courts, headed by the Supreme Court, the responsibility of interpreting them. Yet in recent years, leaders of all three branches have expressed confusing - and incorrect - ideas about the Constitution... Members of all three branches of our government should do some light reading this summer, and refresh themselves on their proper roles. After all, you can’t uphold what you don’t understand.”  - Ed Feulner

RE: THE LEFT

“If you restrict the supply of energy (gasoline) and demand continues to grow, what will happen to the price of energy (gasoline)? I expect most readers would answer, ‘The price will rise.’ The only class of Americans who continue to not answer that question correctly is the U.S. Congress. Why do old farmers continue to plant fruit and nut trees, even though they may not be productive in their lifetimes? Why do business people, particularly entrepreneurs, make investments that may not pay off for many years in the future? On the other hand, why do so many politicians promote policies that will cause great harm in future years? Farmers and business people tend to have long time horizons and care about future generations, while too many in the political class are narcissists and care only about the political cycle or maybe even the 24-hour news cycle. As the predictable financial and energy problems have demonstrated, if politicians were to act more like farmers and entrepreneurs, the people would be far better off.”  - Richard W. Rahn
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[nChrist]

______________________________
The Patriot Post Brief 08-31
From The Federalist Patriot
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SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“Once again, in his essay, ’The Obama-philes: Barack’s Leftmedia Sycophants,’ Mark Alexander clearly exposed Barack Hussein Obama as the most expert flim-flam man we have ever witnessed - a master of deceit. Unless the MSM begins to recognize the evil, simple people whose image of Obama is full of glamorous promises of hope for change will select the Hollywood candidate. He will be president. God bless the USA, and God have mercy upon those poor souls duped into Obamania.”  - St. Charles, Missouri

“Barack Obama’s speech in Germany was downright chilling - a frightening combination of Neville Chamberlain, Karl Marx and Jimmy Carter. Obama apologized for America’s existence, our abilities and our hard-earned wealth. One line that got the Germans cheering was that there ought not be any nuclear weapons in the world. He said we all have to trust each other, and we must be more equitable. Never has so much world socialism been promised in a single hour. If you heard or read that speech, you can’t say you don’t know who Barack Hussein Obama is anymore.”  - Rock Rapids, Iowa

“I attended the ceremony for USA CWO David Cooper. He is truly one of America’s heroes. He is one of the most decorated soldiers in the Army today. In addition to many other medals, he has two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and now the Distinguished Service Cross. Of the 13 DSC awards given since the War on Terror began, David is the only soldier to receive it alive. It was heartwarming to see some of the soldiers he saved attend the service with their families.”  - Vero Beach, Florida

“That was an inspiring story about CWO David Cooper. I especially liked the touch about the Leatherman. But aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? 27 November 2008?”  - Plymouth, Massachusetts

Editor’s Reply: Yes, that should have read 27 November 2006. It has been corrected in our archive. We also should have noted more clearly that CWO Cooper serves in the United States Army. “USA” was in the title, but not in the piece.

THE LAST WORD

“John McCain has figured out that one way to build enthusiasm among conservatives is to confront his former best friends in the liberal media. As the media glorify Barack Obama the ‘statesman’ on his trip abroad, with the three network anchors lining up for interviews like a gaggle of smitten fan-club presidents, the McCain campaign suddenly acquired a surprising ‘Annoy The Media’ flavor... McCain’s campaign is now running Internet ads mocking Chris Matthews for his ‘thrill up the leg’ comments about Obama and other assorted media goo, complete with Frankie Valli crooning ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ in the background. It’s quite clear that the media are hypersensitive about any mockery of Obama. So mocking his pitter-patter valentines in the media may be the best hardball [McCain] can throw.”  - Brent Bozell

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.)