The Patriot Post Brief 08-40

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 08-40
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.”  - Thomas Jefferson

THE GIPPER

“I believe that the people you and I represent are ready to chart a new course. They look to us to meet the great challenge, to reach beyond the commonplace and not fall short for lack of creativity or courage... We can restore our economic strength and build opportunities like none we’ve ever had before. As Carl Sandburg said, all we need to begin with is a dream that we can do better than before. All we need to have is faith, and that dream will come true. All we need to do is act, and the time for action is now.”  - Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN BRIEF

“Sometimes bipartisanship is grounds for celebration, but more often it is cause for tears. Last week, congressional leaders from both parties went into a room to hammer out a plan that would put taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion. But they assert that the investment is essential to the health of the economy. And they insist that if we make this investment, we’ll get all or most of it back. This promise would be more believable if the federal government had a long record of using tax dollars responsibly. In fact, it’s the equivalent of the guy who raids his kid’s piggy bank to feed the slots. The most notable impulse of our leaders is spending money the Treasury doesn’t have, piling up bills that future Americans will have to cover.”  - Steve Chapman

CULTURE

“Under [Bill] Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001. Instead of looking at ‘outdated criteria,’ such as the mortgage applicant’s credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named ‘Caylee.’ Threatening lawsuits, Clinton’s Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn’t a joke - it’s a fact. ... In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration’s affirmative action lending policies as one of the ‘hidden success stories’ of the Clinton administration, saying that ‘black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded.’ Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn’t get out of their loans by selling their houses. A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it’s gone off.”  - Ann Coulter

GOVERNMENT

“Much of that mess [in the financial markets] is due to the very people we are now turning to for solutions - members of Congress. Past Congresses created the hybrid financial institutions known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, private institutions with government backing and political influence. About half of the mortgages in this country are backed by these two institutions. Such institutions - exempt from laws that apply to other financial institutions and backed by the implicit promise of government support with the taxpayers’ money - are an open invitation to risky behavior. When these risks blew up in their faces, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government, costing the taxpayers billions of dollars. For years the Wall Street Journal has been warning that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking reckless chances but liberal Democrats especially have pooh-poohed the dangers. Back in 2002, the Wall Street Journal said: ‘The time for the political system to focus on Fannie and Fred isn’t when we have a housing crisis; by then it will be too late.’ The hybrid public-and-private nature of these financial giants amounts to ‘privatizing profit and socializing risk,’ since taxpayers get stuck with the tab when high-risk finances don’t work out... Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been generous in their contributions to politicians’ political campaigns, so it is perhaps not surprising that politicians have been generous to them. This is certainly part of ‘the mess in Washington’ that Barack Obama talks about. But don’t expect him to clean it up. Franklin Raines, who made mega-millions for himself while mismanaging Fannie Mae into a financial disaster, is one of Obama’s advisers.”  - Thomas Sowell
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 08-40
From The Federalist Patriot
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FOR THE RECORD

“The World Economic Forum has ranked the United States as the world’s most competitive economy for the last two years... Its statistics show that per-capita gross domestic product in the U.S. consistently has grown faster than in other developed economies since 1980. Looking deeper at the causes of American competitiveness shows that we score especially strongly not only in domestic market size (No. 1 in the world) but also in such areas as time required to start a business (No. 3), venture capital availability (No. 1), the cost of firing an employee (No. 1), ownership of personal computers (No. 2), university/industry research collaboration (No. 1) and quality of scientific research institutions (No. 2). The availability of venture capital might be affected temporarily by the market turmoil, and we should worry if Democrats gain control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in November because they might exacerbate what the survey found to be the two most ‘problematic’ issues for doing business in the U.S.  - high tax rates and cumbersome tax regulations. But whatever happens in the next few months, most of the other advantages that have been powering the U.S. economy forward for decades will remain unchanged.”  - Max Boot

SELECT READER COMMENTS

(Our servers automatically delete “Reply” messages to this e-mail. To submit or to view reader comments visit our Reader Comments page. Join the debate at the Patriot Blog.)

“Wow, I have been listening and reading as much as possible on the bailout subject. I felt like my brain was spinning out of control. Then I read Mark Alexander’s explanation, ’Bailout Basics.’ Now I think I understand things much better. Why can’t Congress and the media explain it that way, so that we ‘peons out in the sticks’ can understand? Thanks Mark.”  - Rhoadesville, Virginia

“Concisely and accurately stated! You should be writing the speeches for the candidates and the president! Straight truth minus the partisan BS! I love it!”  - Boone, Iowa

“Why doesn’t the media expose the facts on the bailout to the general population, all in one place like Alexander’s article? You would think the talking heads would be clamoring to divulge this information for no other reason than the possibility of a Pulitzer. All of this bolsters my confidence in my decision to vote for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin. I am a registered Democrat who is about to change that. I am so embarrassed by the party of my personal history that I cannot remain affiliated. I wish to apologize to the entire country for ever voting for Bill Clinton, though at least I learned, and did not vote for Gore or Kerry.”  - Spokane, Washington

LIBERTY

“This election year has generated a lot of talk about the role of America’s military in the Middle East. Less frequently does the conversation turn to what’s really at the heart of the matter whether we, as Americans, are committed to a world blessed with freedom for all humankind... Our warriors understand that America has a special calling to promote freedom and democracy. In the words of one Marine, ‘the United States is a beacon of light, whether we want to admit it or not.’... Our Declaration of Independence cites freedom as an unalienable right, not just for Americans but for all human beings. Our way of life, our very right to exist, is the ‘everything’ for which our service men and women are willing to give so much of themselves. They fight to defend America’s freedoms, and they fight to grant the gift of freedom worldwide.”  - Rebecca Hagelin
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Brief 08-40
From The Federalist Patriot
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RE: THE LEFT

“The image of Obama that the press has presented to the public is not a fair approximation of the real man. They consciously have ignored whole years of his life and have shown a lack of curiosity about such gaps, which bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct. Thus, the public image of Obama is of a ‘man who never was.’... The major media simply have not reported on Obama’s two years at New York’s Columbia University, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter-mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers. Later, they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Ayers. Should the media be curious?... Nor have the media paid any serious attention to Obama’s rise in Chicago politics. How did honest Obama rise in the famously sordid Chicago political machine with the full support of Boss Daley?... The public image of Obama as an idealistic, post-race, post-partisan, well-spoken and honest young man with the wisdom and courage befitting a great national leader is a confection spun by a willing conspiracy of Obama, his publicist (David Axelrod) and most of the senior editors, producers and reporters of the national media. Perhaps that is why the National Journal’s respected correspondent Stuart Taylor wrote, ‘The media can no longer be trusted to provide accurate and fair campaign reporting and analysis.’ That conspiracy not only has Photoshopped out all of Obama’s imperfections (and dirtied up his opponent McCain’s image) but also has put most of his questionable history down the memory hole. The public will be voting based on the idealized image of the man who never was. If he wins, however, we will be governed by the sunken, cynical man Obama really is. One can only hope that the senior journalists will be judged as harshly for their professional misconduct as Wall Street’s leaders currently are for their failings.”  - Tony Blankley

POLITICAL FUTURES

“The news media have been shamefully stoking the idea that the only way Barack Obama could possibly lose the presidential election is if American racists have their way. Indeed, the fact that Obama isn’t leading in polls by a wide margin ‘doesn’t make sense... unless it’s race,’ says CNN’s Jack Cafferty... Many journalists are so convinced that racism is the only possible explanation for an Obama loss that they are beginning to see any effective anti-Obama ad as an attempt by John McCain to ‘viciously exacerbate’ America’s ‘race-fueled angst,’ in the words of one New York magazine writer...[T]he only racists who matter in this election are the ones in the Democratic Party. News flash: Republicans aren’t voting for the Democratic nominee because they’re Republicans... Obama’s problem is with precisely those voters the Democratic Party claims to fight for, working- and middle-class white folks. Of course, Democrats can’t openly complain that their own vital constituency is racist. If the media were more objective, we’d be hearing a lot more about the racism at the heart of the Democratic Party (imagine if the black nominee this year were a Republican!). But such objectivity would cause too much cognitive dissonance for a press corps that defines ‘racist’ as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign.”  - Jonah Goldberg

THE LAST WORD

“Meanwhile, the press continues to treat the inexperienced and gaffe-prone Sen. Barack Obama as though he is the next JFK. Among the howlers is the presumption that he is an orator of great gifts as JFK was an orator of great gifts. In truth, the Prophet Obama suffers one of the strangest oratorical disabilities I ever have seen in a presidential candidate: a dependence on the teleprompter. We know of politicians who depend on the teleprompter for fluency. Sen. Obama, however, relies on a teleprompter so that he will not be heard talking down to the electorate. If he is not lecturing with his nose in the air, he is all uhhs and ahhs. Perhaps if he had served as mayor in a small town, he would have gotten over this revealing disorder.”  - Emmett Tyrrell

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.)