The Patriot Post Digest 09-02

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 09-02
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

"We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times." --George Washington

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE
Who elected Obama?

By Mark Alexander

Last week we answered the question "Who is Barack Obama" by posing questions that Obama did not answer during the presidential campaign. This week, we take a look at who voted for him.

Police mugshots of Obama constituents

On 20 January, Barack Hussein Obama will be inaugurated as the next president of our United States, according to our Constitution. However, his largest constituencies tend to view this event as either the coronation of the "royal one" or the ordination of the "holy one."

Before we further define those constituencies, here, for the record, is a recap of the survey data concerning the presidential election.

Some 136.6 million Americans voted -- a 64.1 percent turnout and the highest since 1908. Obama is the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote (53 percent) since Jimmy Carter. By sex, BHO's support was 49 percent male and 56 percent female. By ethnic group, his support comprised 41 percent of Whites, 61 percent of Asians, 75 percent of Latinos and 95 percent of Blacks. By age, BHO's largest support demographic was 66 percent of voters under the age of 30. By income, 52 percent of voters with more than $200,000 in annual income voted for Obama. By education, his support came from those without a college degree and those with a post-graduate degree.

So, his victory was largely due to support from non-whites, from those under 30, from those with the lowest income and education, and from a small number of voters at the other end of those spectrums, while those of middle age, income and education tended to support John McCain.

By religion, Obama received support from 46 percent of Protestant voters, 56 percent of Catholic voters and 62 percent of voters of other religions. BHO received 76 percent of atheist and agnostic voters.

The Barna Research Group looked at some other interesting characteristics of Obama voters: 57 percent of those who consider themselves "lonely or isolated," 59 percent of those affected by the economic decline in "a major way," and 61 percent of those who claim they are "stressed out" supported BHO.

So, considering the stats, the Democrats' strategy of fomenting dissent and disunity by promoting themes of disparity was vital to Obama's election. Indeed, the Left's political playbook has only one chapter defining their modus operandi -- "Divide-n-Conquer." No wonder their national leadership calls itself the DnC.

Obama's largest constituent groups fall under the general umbrella of "disenfranchised victims," those who feel they are ethnically or economically handicapped. Other significant constituent groups are those who identify with the disenfranchised; this includes two small but highly ideologically influential groups, the economic and academic elite.

The disenfranchised victim groups and those who identify with them have a number of common characteristics. They have a low civic IQ and virtually no understanding of our Constitutional Republic and its heritage and legacy of liberty. They have fully bought into the "Politics of Disparity" or "class warfare."

However, it is Obama's small economic and academic elite constituencies who pose the greatest danger to that heritage of liberty. They neither know nor care any more about liberty than the disenfranchised legions with which they seek to identify. They are the "king makers," those who have funded and charted Obama's course to the coronation.

Some have made a lot of "easy money," which explains why Obama received far more support from Wall Street than McCain. Others are inheritance-welfare liberals, those who value government welfare dependence because they were, themselves, dependent on inheritance throughout their formative years and never developed the character necessary to succeed on their own initiative.

Whether fast money or inheritance, neither group has direct contact with the unwashed masses other than those who keep their homes, offices and imported autos clean and in good repair. This utter dependence upon the low end of the "service sector" is perhaps the source of the insecurities that drive them to identify with the masses.

Obama's academic elite are just as insecure, but they are driven by ideology. They are Leftists, Western apologists for socialist political and economic agendas. Regular readers of this column will recognize them as "Useful Idiots" for their advocacy of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism. Like Obama, they reject constitutional authority and subscribe to the errant notion of a "Living Constitution".

Among Obama's Left elite are such Marxist radicals as Frank Marshall Davis and William Ayers and his religious mentor Jeremiah Wright.

[nChrist]

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There are some characteristics that are common to many BHO supporters among both the disenfranchised and the elite.

Obama's cult-like following among these constituencies is not the result of deception. In fact, it can be attributed to something much more subtle and, potentially, sinister, with far more ominous implications for the future of liberty.

Most of Obama's supporters identify with some part of his brokenness, his dysfunctional childhood and his search for salvation in the authority of the state. The implications of this distorted mass identity are grave, and its pathology is well defined.

Another common characteristic is that liberals tend to be very emotive. Ask them about some manifestation of their worldview -- for example, why they support candidates such as Obama or Hillary Clinton and they will likely predicate their response with, "Because I feel..."

On the other hand, ask conservatives about what they believe or support, and they invariably predicate their response with, "Because I think..."

So, the once great Democrat Party has now devolved into constituencies who view the inaugural as either a coronation or an ordination.

Of course, all the MSM print and tube outlets are fawning over BHO and calling next Tuesday's inaugural "historic." Well, it's not often that I agree with the paper media and 24-hour news cycle talkingheads, but this is truly a historic inauguration -- historic for several reasons.

First, never before has such an ill-prepared president-elect been sworn in as president. Second, never before has a more liberal president-elect been sworn into office. And third, never before has a candidate had so little regard for the constitutional oath he is taking.

Oh, and some suggest this election is historic because half of the president-elect's genetic heritage is African -- and here I thought Bill Clinton was our first "black president."

It is no small irony that the day before Obama's inauguration, the nation will pause to honor Martin Luther King. In 1963, King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave his most famous oration, the most well known line from which is, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

But Obama and his party have divided the nation into constituency groups judged by all manner of ethnicity and special interests rather than the individual character King envisioned.

Perhaps the most famous line from any Democrat presidential inaugural was uttered by John F. Kennedy in 1961. He closed his remarks with these words: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Barack Obama and his party have turned that clarion call on end, suggesting that their constituents should "ask what your country can do for you."

On Tuesday, Barack Obama will take an oath "to support and defend the Constitution", but he has no history of honoring our Constitution, even pledging that his Supreme Court nominees should comport with Leftist ideology and "break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted."

Some have suggested that since the election is over and Obama is the victor, we should accord him the honor due his office. But if he does not honor his constitutional oath, why would anyone extend him the honor of its highest constitutional office?

[nChrist]

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On cross-examination

"From 1992 to 2008, the share of the vote cast by African-Americans jumped from 8 percent to 13 percent. For Hispanics the share soared from 2 percent to 9 percent; for Asians and other minorities combined, from 2 percent to 5 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of the vote cast by well-educated whites remained unchanged at 35 percent. The big losers were blue-collar whites -- those without college degrees -- whose share plummeted from 53 percent in 1992 to just 39 percent now. That's a threat to the GOP because those culturally conservative, working-class whites are today its most reliable voters.... Demography will indeed be destiny if Republicans can't broaden their reach" --columnist Ron Brownstein

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
President Bush bids farewell

"Fellow citizens: For eight years, it has been my honor to serve as your president," said President George W. Bush in his farewell address from the White House Thursday night. The president's signature achievement is keeping the U.S. free from terrorist attacks since September 11. Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom are directly responsible. "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did," he said. "Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe." He added, "There is legitimate debate about many of [my] decisions. But there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil." He didn't claim all the credit, though. "This is a tribute to those who toil night and day to keep us safe -- law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts, homeland security and diplomatic personnel, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces."

The president closed with hopeful words, quoting President Thomas Jefferson, who said, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past." President Bush spoke of his "unshakable faith in America" and reminded us that "with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great nation will never tire, never falter, and never fail." Indeed, God bless America.

Hope 'n' Change: The Obama Cabinet

Hillary Clinton's love-in, er, confirmation hearing as secretary of state this week was filled with a number of scripted questions about how the Obama administration plans to fix (read: emasculate) America's image on the world stage in a number of hot spots. Barely audible among the obsequious praise that was heaped upon Clinton and her undefined "smart power" rhetoric were questions about the conflicts of interest she will face as her husband continues to travel the world and rake in money for the William J. Clinton Foundation from the very countries that Clinton will be dealing with in her new role.

The deal that the Clintons squeezed out of Obama does not call for full disclosure of donations made -- a big problem that Democrats would rather not address. Instead, donors will now send their checks to a Clinton front group rather than the Clinton Global Initiative. Future donations need be made public only once a year, which is plenty of time to hide and shuffle the money actually raised. Even more egregious, however, is the agreement that the exact amounts and dates of previous donations will never be made public. Obama has been duped by the Clintons, either by choice or ignorance, and he has set the country up for problems that, if we know the Clintons, are sure to arise within the next four years.

While we await the next Clinton scandal, Carol Browner is about to be named as head of the White House office of climate and energy policies. This post seems terrifically redundant given the existence of other executive agencies like the EPA, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy. However, aside from one more needless expansion of bureaucracy, comes the fact that Browner has served proudly for a number of internationalist organizations, including Socialist International, which openly advocates the forced reduction of American economic power to help solve our world's climate problems (assuming we have climate problems). We know the Leftmedia won't talk about it, but Browner's past associations and her own work indicate that she will not put the interests of our country first. Then again, her boss knows a thing or two about overcoming past associations and work.

Predictably, one cabinet appointment that makes sense is coming under fire. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a well respected and world-renowned neurosurgeon whose commentaries on health and well-being are broadcast far and wide in print and in the media. Yet his nomination is meeting resistance because liberals claim that Dr. Gupta has said some pretty nasty things (read: accurate things) about the concept of universal health care. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), head of the House Judiciary Committee, wants to quash Gupta's nomination because he says Gupta "lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America." That's Conyers' story and he's sticking to it.

[nChrist]

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Perhaps the most humorous development of the week is the story of Obama's nominee to head the Treasury Department. Timothy Geithner failed to pay $43,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001 to 2004, when he worked for the International Monetary Fund, despite being advised by the IMF that he would be responsible for those taxes. He paid most of the money in 2006 after an audit by the IRS, and the remainder after Obama announced his nomination in November. Naturally, all penalties were waved.

Democrats quickly leapt to Geithner's defense, with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) laying out the Democrats' talking point: "These errors were not intentional; they were honest mistakes." The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto quipped, "We're tempted to say America needs a Treasury secretary who is smart enough to figure out his own taxes. But such a cheap shot would be beneath us. Instead, we are going to make a serious point: America needs a tax code simple enough for the Treasury secretary to figure out."

This week's 'Braying Jackass' award

"It will be my great honor to be there representing ... all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. ... While [the Bible] is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans. I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer." --Episcopal Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson, a source of continuing turmoil in the Anglican Communion, on delivering the invocation without using biblical language at the "We Are One" event for Barack Obama on 19 January

News from the Swamp: Watch our deficit grow

Regarding the federal budget deficit for 2009, the prevailing assumption has been that the U.S. faces a deficit of $1.2 trillion. Scary as that number sounds, it appears to be too low. The Congressional Budget Office is now putting the number at $1.8 trillion, which supposedly accounts for the additional stimulus spending that Congress and Obama's administration have planned. But even that estimate appears optimistic when the numbers are crunched. Some budget experts are projecting a deficit of $2 trillion, which seems more realistic when accounting for the Troubled Asset Relief Program ($750-$850 billion) and the Democrats' next stimulus ($825 billion). The new figure would be more than 15 percent of GDP. The Democrats will want to blame President Bush and the Republicans for this mess, but before the Democrats took control of the purse strings, the federal deficit never exceeded two percent of GDP. And House Republican leader John Boehner claimed, "There was no Republican input at all involved in what House Democrats outlined [Thursday]."

New & notable legislation

The defeat of a filibuster led by Sen. Tom Coburn may signal the end of a long-running feud between the Oklahoma Republican and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). The Senate voted 66-12 for cloture on the "Coburn omnibus," a collection of some 160 provisions that Coburn had previously stopped from reaching a vote because of their wasteful spending. Coburn noted that this omnibus contains more than $10 billion in wasteful and redundant spending perpetrated by both Democrats and Republicans. But what's $10 billion, anyway? We deal in trillions now.

Lawmakers are fighting over the addition of $80 billion to the stimulus package that will yet again stave off an expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT, designed 40 years ago to snag a small group of multimillionaires who were using loopholes to avoid paying taxes, has never been indexed for inflation. As a result, each year Congress passes another "patch" that keeps the AMT from reaching further down the income ladder. This year 24 million more people will be hit by the AMT unless Congress acts. Repealing the AMT altogether never seems to occur to Democrats, particularly since it means lost tax revenue. Opponents of adding the patch to the stimulus package claim that the legislation should not contain anything not directly related to economic stimulus. Why this patch does not qualify as such, and why we are supposed to believe that the stimulus plan will be devoid of non-stimulus spending, are questions yet to be answered.

The House passed two job measures largely along party lines this week that will reduce employer protections in lawsuits related to pay discrimination. Collectively, the bills will extend the time that a person has to file a lawsuit claiming job discrimination based on wages and will allow women greater leverage in filing grievances under the Equal Pay Act. Democrats are touting these bills as leveling the playing field between employers and workers, but that playing field was leveled some years ago. Now it is being tilted in the direction of employees (and their lawyers), allowing for more lawsuits, lower pay for everyone, and lower productivity for the country in general.

The House passed a renewal of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by a vote of 289-139. The measure provides $32 billion to renew and expand the program. (Really, when did a federal program ever get smaller?) Democrats loosened a rule imposed by Republicans in 2006 that required all applicants for Medicaid to prove their citizenship. President Bush twice vetoed the bill, but its chances of passage in the Senate are high and Barack Obama is expected to sign it.

[nChrist]

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Senators Joe Lieberman and Orrin Hatch are at it again. They have reintroduced legislation to give the District of Columbia a full voting member in the House of Representatives and give Utah a fourth congressional district, increasing the number of House members by two to 437. Utah is next in line to gain a congressional seat in any event, but this bill would use that fact to "balance out" the addition of a seat for DC. In reality, however, it's a two-seat pickup for Democrats -- gaining DC and retaining another Democrat seat that would have been lost to Utah via reapportionment.

Judicial Benchmarks: Supremes to decide if racism exists at the polls

Just days before the first minority president of the United States is sworn in, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Mukasey, which could set aside a portion of the Voting Rights Act. Gregory Coleman, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, claimed that Barack Obama's election proved once and for all the nation had moved beyond the need for the restrictions in his bid to have the case placed on this year's docket.

Brought forth on behalf of a small utility district in Texas, the lawsuit questions Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which applies to all or part of 16 states. Under the law, those jurisdictions need to secure Department of Justice or court approval for any changes in election law.

Originally passed in 1965 and intended to last only a few years, the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized in 2006 with little opposition. Last year a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, claiming the law's remedy showed "congruence and proportionality" to the problem despite the intrusion on state sovereignty.

A decision is expected by the end of April.

NATIONAL SECURITY
Warfront with Jihadistan: The audacity of false hope

Incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified this week that the Obama administration will seek direct engagement with Iran, in hopes of convincing Tehran to "abandon its nuclear program and become a constructive regional actor." Iran's leaders had no comment, probably because they were still laughing too hard to speak. Later, with no apparent sense of irony, Clinton said Barack Obama would not agree to engaging with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognizes Israel, and respects previous agreements between Israelis and Palestinians -- in short, until it changes precisely the behaviors exhibited by Iran, only on a smaller scale and without a nuclear program. We can only suppose that's what Leftists mean by "nuance."

President-elect Obama's lapdogs in the press described the new approach as a "sharp contrast to President Bush's policy of refusing to deal with countries that did not first meet conditions set by the United States." For the record, and for the umpteenth time, the United States handed over all direct negotiation with Iran to the Europeans in 2003, at the behest of those wise liberal graybeards that knew better. Since that time, there has been only one "demand" placed on Iran: that it stop enriching uranium in order for diplomacy to move ahead. In the last year, the Europeans abandoned even that request. The most recent request by the G-8 was merely that Iran stop installing new centrifuges at Natanz, never mind what Iran was doing with its 5,000 operational centrifuges. Iran's answer to the G-8 was the same as it had been to the P-5+1 in 2007 and the EU-3 in 2005: No.

We warned starting in 2005 that Iran was merely trying to run out the clock on the Bush administration, hanging on for a more gullible and naive American leader with whom to dance. Barack Obama has given the clearest possible indication that he is that leader, one who believes that the charisma that made the Germans swoon and a thrill go up Chris Matthews' leg can also make Iran's lunatic regime see the error in its ways and become a "constructive regional actor."

Released Gitmo detainees return to terrorism

The Pentagon said this week that 61 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to terrorism after their release (18 of them confirmed and 43 suspected). "It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world," said spokesman Geoff Morrell. The recidivism rate is now 11 percent, up from seven percent in March 2008.

This recidivism is nothing to be concerned about in the new Era of Hope™, however. President-elect Obama plans to issue an executive order closing Guantanamo, where some 255 men are still being held. The Pentagon says that at least 110 detainees should never be released given the danger they pose to U.S. interests.

Reuters reports, "The Pentagon said it considers a former detainee's return to terrorism 'confirmed' when evidence shows direct involvement in terrorist activities. U.S. officials see a 'suspected' terrorism link when intelligence shows a plausible link with terrorist activities." In a statement, the Pentagon added, "Propaganda does not qualify as a terrorist activity." This should come as a relief to American Leftmedia outlets.

[nChrist]

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Russia shuts off gas supply to Europe

Seeking to put the "cold" back into a rekindled Cold War, Russia cut off supplies of natural gas to Ukraine last week, leaving Eastern Europe dangerously low on heat, light and power during a bitter cold snap. According to The Washington Post, "Europe gets about 20 percent of its gas from Russia through pipelines that cross Ukraine." The Post adds, "Several European nations were growing desperate. Bulgaria has lost all of its gas supplies and has only two days worth of reserves. Slovakia, which has lost 97 percent of its gas supplies, said it was ready to restart an aging Soviet nuclear power plant despite EU objections."

Russia, under the anti-West leadership of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, says it is simply trying to get Ukraine to pay market prices for gas. Ukraine has been paying less than half market price due to leftover Soviet-era subsidies.

While that may be part of the reason for Russia's actions, there is also no doubt that Russia is not happy with Ukraine's tilt to the West. In a German TV interview, Putin -- after first denying that Ukraine's foreign policy factored into the gas decision -- slammed Ukraine's "Orange" revolutionaries for seeking closer ties with the West. Tentative deals to get the gas flowing again have been reached and then broken, with deliveries starting and stopping as recriminations between Russia and Ukraine fly. The European Union will attend a weekend meeting between the two antagonists, hoping for a solution to the crisis. Let the EU and the incoming Obama regime take note that the Russian bear is not hibernating this winter.

Bush and Cheney visited troops regularly

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney can surely be counted among the mainstream media's most hated pariahs. They have been compared to some of the world's most heinous dictators and have been the punch line of many a vicious joke. But as the clock winds down on their time in office, a recent Washington Times article has revealed that they have been secretly providing comfort to wounded soldiers and grieving families, declining to cash in on a story that could have earned them points on the evening news.

Over the past several years, President Bush has visited nearly 1,000 wounded veterans and more than 500 families of fallen troops. Moreover, he has written more than 4,000 letters to such families, saying that his role as commander in chief brings with it the duty to comfort grieving and wounded Americans. Most of these efforts have been unknown to the media.

Vice President Cheney has also reached out to wounded soldiers and their families. He and his wife have hosted several barbeques for them at their home, and last month the vice president met with 500 special operations soldiers at a golf club in North Carolina. Amazingly, this was also kept under the media's radar.

President Bush said his religious devotion and the support of his wife Laura have given him the strength to meet with those mourning such a loss. His fortitude also comes, he says, from his belief in the mission. "You have to believe in the cause. You have to understand that -- and believe we will be successful.... I believe it's necessary for our security. And I believe history will justify the actions...."

BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Income Redistribution: Smooth-brained economics

Keynesians, the Left's economic leper colony of choice, having been banished from planet Earth during the prosperous Reagan years, have de-orbited and once again control the nation's economic levers. Readers may not remember their name, but they are certainly familiar with their otherworldly theories, such as the idea that rising unemployment will lower inflation. This pearl, tested during the Carter years, produced a brand-new dictionary term: "stagflation." Unfortunately, as The Wall Street Journal's George Melloan highlights, a related Paleozoic idea from the Left's intellectual crypt is now being dragged out and dusted off -- the notion that the government can "stimulate" an economy by shoveling massive amounts of paper into it.

The problem with Keynesian paper-pumping theories is that value doesn't derive from money (i.e., paper), but rather, from the intrinsic worth of products or services exchanged. This worth is measured, in the aggregate, as a nation's Gross Domestic Product. For a given GDP and a specified supply of money in circulation, an increase in money supply simply dilutes the value of the base currency -- in this case, the U.S. dollar.

That dollar is about to become a lot weaker, too. Just this week President-elect Obama asked Congress to release the second half of the enormous $700 billion bailout package known as TRAP -- er, TARP. Both houses quickly obliged, and Obama pledged to use as much as $100 billion to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Conservative estimates now put total bailout costs at roughly $2 trillion. Where does all that money come from? Well, it's simply printed up -- really. So how much is a trillion dollars? Well, one trillion dollars laid out end-to-end would stretch from the earth to the sun (roughly 93 million miles), with four million miles in spare change; a fighter flying at the speed of sound would take almost 15 years to span that distance. That's a lot of paper.

All of this is to point out that we have been down this road before, and we should reflect on the costly lesson the Carter era taught us: "loose money," while temporarily easing the pain, is nowhere near worth the ultimate suffering it brings.

[nChrist]

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Regulatory Commissars: TV coupon program out of money

President-elect Barack Obama will fit in comfortably in the Swamp. Regulation and micro-managing appear to be on page one in his playbook. This week news surfaced that the billion-dollar federal program to provide $40 coupons for converter boxes that convert analog television sets to receive digital broadcasts is out of money. Five million people could be on the waiting list for coupons by early February. The not-yet-ready-for-prime-time Barack Hussein Obama called for a delay of the 17 February transition deadline. Given that this transition has been in the works for about five years now, we were not surprised to see that the government was unprepared when the deadline drew near. And naturally, as with Hurricane Katrina, many Americans are just waiting for the government to save them from the horror of no TV. Industry analysts at Nielsen Co. estimate that 6.8 percent of the 114 million households with televisions are not ready for digital broadcast. If something isn't done soon, we expect "Jeopardy!" to lose some serious advertising revenue.

2009 Index of Economic Freedom

In alarming conjunction with recent headlines reporting that the global influence of the United States has slipped dramatically due to the dereliction of government regulators largely responsible for triggering the current recession, the 15th annual Index of Economic Freedom published jointly by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation reveals the U.S. saw a corresponding slip in its rankings to sixth place. Hong Kong is tops again, followed by Singapore, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand to round out the top five.

Evaluating numerous criteria relating to economic freedom, the study again shows an affirmative correlation between economic freedom and national income. Freer countries enjoy per capita incomes more than 10 times higher than those in "repressed" countries occupying the bottom of the rankings. In a chilling highlight, it was repressed nations that turned to deficit spending, government seizure of land and resources, and government support of favored enterprises, eventually devastating their economies even further with government mismanagement. Not to suggest that our government's current bailout debacle bears a striking resemblance to government mismanagement that landed many of the repressed countries at the bottom of the rankings, but as Founding Father John Adams once said, "Facts are stubborn things."

When the engines of capitalism occasionally backfire, socialists sing their siren song that only government can save the economy. What these same 19th-century thinkers never can explain is how an entity responsible for today's recession through sheer incompetence is supposed to solve the debacle by taking even more money away from the productive segment of society. Yet the audacity of big government arrogance will only grow worse beginning next week.

CULTURE & POLICY
Village Academic Curriculum: Math pays

Facing a projected $1.9 billion budget shortfall for FY 2010, the state of Maryland has enough financial woes to worry about without an unexpected expense. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it got thanks to a math error made in November 2007 that has returned to haunt the state in the form of $31 million in overpayments to several county schools. Maybe someone should sign up for a remedial math class.

It all started when two state assessment workers used projected real estate values for Montgomery County instead of actual values, igniting a chain reaction that spanned agencies. They reallocated $24 million in education funding away from Montgomery's schools while sending 17 other systems overpayments. One intergovernmental relations officer requested confirmation of the accuracy of the numbers, but with none forthcoming, the mistake wasn't confirmed until July. Officials dilly-dallied for five more months before notifying the county hardest hit.

The state will pay the $24 million owed to Montgomery, but with little expectation of recouping $31 million in overpayments (one can only surmise that the 17 lucky systems opted to expand their budgets rather than question their good fortune). So kids, when you ask your math teacher, "When am I ever going to use this?" now you know.

[nChrist]

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Faith and Family: Prop 8 supporters harassed

Pro-homosexual opponents of California's Proposition 8 -- which amended the state's constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman -- claim theirs is the position of tolerance, but their actions say otherwise. Reacting against Prop 8's passage by California voters, pro-homosexual activists have targeted the measure's financial supporters with threats of violence, acts of vandalism and destruction of property -- aggression made easy thanks to campaign finance laws requiring donors to submit their names, home addresses and employers for public record.

A challenge to the campaign laws, filed in federal court by the "ProtectMarriage.com-Yes on 8" committee, details hate mail and threats received by Prop 8 supporters. For example, "Burn in hell" and "we have plans for you and your friends."

Beyond threats, some activists went so far as to vandalize the facade of San Francisco's Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church by spraying it with black swastikas. The vandals goofed, however, as the church is itself pro-homosexual. Church Pastor Steve Meriweather regretted the act, noting, "t's unfortunate that they selected our community to attack because it's the wrong one." Apparently, Pastor Meriweather would have been had no problem had the vandals attacked the "right" church.

Climate change this week: The coming Ice Age

The earth is possibly on the brink of another Ice Age -- and we don't mean the third installment of the animated movie trilogy. According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, there are three astronomical cycles that affect the climate: the tilt of the earth, which varies over a period of 41,000 years; the shape of the earth's orbit, which changes over 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, sometimes called the earth's "wobble," that over a period of 26,000 years rotates the direction of the earth's axis. The confluence of these events in the not-too-distant future could mean a return to another Ice Age.

Fans of anthropogenic global warming -- man-made warming -- point to rising CO2 levels over the last thousand years with the accompanying warming of the planet to point to humans as the cause and give dire warnings of the future without massive government intervention. The trouble is, CO2 reflects climate change -- it does not predict it. The ice core data collected from Russia's Vostok station in Antarctica reveals that CO2 levels today are approximately what they were at the end of the last interglacial period. At the very least, reports such as this put the lie to the "consensus" argument of global warmists, and, if true, we should be stocking up on warmer clothes.

To keep and bear arms

A 70-year-old South Bend, Indiana, woman was hauling firewood from her garage into her home recently when a man came running at her from the street, chasing her inside. She grabbed her gun and dialed 911. After the assailant burst through her living room window, she held him at gunpoint until police arrived, advising him that he was at the wrong end of the muzzle to make any moves. She has become an instant star, having been contacted by "Good Morning America" and "Fox and Friends" about appearing on both shows. She even did a re-enactment for "Inside Edition," but she had to wait until she was released from the hospital after suffering a heart attack due to the stress of the event. "I'm hoping it will be inspiring to others," she said of the reason she agreed to film the segment, "to let them know that they can do this, that they can protect their homes. And if it comes to it, they can take extreme action."

And last...

What is it with Democrats and potty-related trouble? As hordes of hopeful Obamaphiles descend upon Washington, DC, for Tuesday's inauguration, a George Washington University law professor called attention to a serious problem: the 5,000 port-o-potties designated for Inauguration Day will be "grossly inadequate." The National Park Service recommends one toilet per 300 people, leaving the expected crowd about 8,000 potties short. Professor John Banzhaf, a.k.a. the "Father of Potty Parity," wrote to the Presidential Inaugural Committee warning of lawsuits. He wants the committee to make all the toilets gender-neutral so that women don't have to wait longer than men. Indeed, we think that rectifying this issue should be Obama's number one priority. Then again, maybe this dirty job should be left to his Number Two, Joe Biden.

*****

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.)