The Patriot Post Chronicle - 11-4-2009

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The Patriot Post Chronicle - 11-4-2009
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Foundation

"We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections." --John Adams

Republicans win governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey
Editorial Exegesis

"We knew it was going to be a bad election night for the Democrats when former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe announced on NBC's 'Today' program that 'the results of these elections tend to be overread.' Certainly that was not the prevailing opinion in Democratic circles in 2008, when giddiness over Barack Obama's election reached manic proportions. Virginia, which voted Democratic for president for the first time since 1964, was singled out as an indication of the shape of things to come. In 2008, Mr. Plouffe bragged that only Mr. Obama could make Virginia competitive, and when he won the state, it was hailed as a bellwether, an indicant of the emerging 'permanent Democratic majority.' ... In Virginia, the zest for change seems to have taken a 180-degree turn. The last commonwealthwide poll before Election Day showed Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell leading Democrat R. Creigh Deeds by double digits in most regions of the state and among most age groups. Mr. Deeds held a mere five-point edge in Northern Virginia, which lately has been voting 2-1 for Democrats. ... The irrational exuberance of the 2008 race has since crashed down to cold, hard reality. Mr. Obama ran on a vaguely defined 'hope and change' platform, and Americans have discovered that the devil is in the details. Mr. Obama's election brought the United States astronomical public debt, a slumping currency, increasing government control of the economy, continued job losses, radical judges, a disastrous foreign policy, a proposed government takeover of health care and a job-killing energy bill. Americans -- some unwittingly -- put in place the most radical government in generations, and they now are realizing what they have wrought. The results of the 2009 elections could be overread, but they cannot be ignored. Democrats have failed to exhibit responsible stewardship of the country, and voters are putting them on notice." --The Washington Times

Insight

"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." --Greek historian Plutarch (c. 46-120 A.D.)

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." --physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Vote: The instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." --American author Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

"I guess truth can hurt you worse in an election than about anything that can happen to you." --American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Dezinformatsia

Pay no attention: "Advice to readers about the coming orgy of analysis about the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: Ignore it. Disquisitions on The Meaning of It All for President Obama or the 2009 results as a harbinger for Congress in 2010 have scant basis in reality." --Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus

Hijackers: "There's growing concern among some GOP leaders that controversial commentators and far-right conservatives have hijacked the message." --CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric

Slap a label on it: "Since the far right did get into that race in upstate New York, is this a legitimate defeat for them tonight?" --CNN's Larry King

Name-calling instead of analysis: "The battle for upstate New York confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama. The movement's undisputed leaders, [Sarah] Palin and [Glen] Beck, neither of whom has what Palin once called the 'actual responsibilities' of public office, would gladly see the Republican Party die on the cross of right-wing ideological purity. Over the short term, at least, their wish could come true." --New York Times columnist Frank Rich under the title, "The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York"

Civil war: "What's most interesting here is civil war inside the Republican Party. You saw this conservative candidate just come in and swamp the Republican who was pro-choice, pro-gay rights. And what the White House is trying to do even if they lose here is exploit -- is fan the flames of this civil war." --ABC's George Stephanopoulos

Adventures in logic: "A public plan does not provide a new entitlement. It just doesn't. It's a different form of providing an entitlement." --New Republic senior editor Jonathan Chait

Speak for yourself: "Howard, is [Obama] smarter, Howard is he smarter than us?" --MSNBC's Chris Matthews to Newsweek's Howard Fineman, who answered, "Of course he is! Much smarter!"

Newspulper Headlines:

A Republic, if You Can Keep It: "King: One Year After Obama's Victory" --CNN.com

If This Is News, Crime Must Really Be Down: "Burglary Reported in North America" --Daily Register (Harrisburg, IL)

Is That Like Being Too Big to Fail?: "Lawyer Says Florida Man Is Too Fat to Kill in New Jersey Murder Case" --ABCNews.com

We Still Predict He'll Die: "Revealed: Lockerbie Bomber Defies Doctors' Prediction of Death" --Daily Telegraph (London)

Pigeons Land Safely After Hitting Planes -- Now That Would Be News: "Northwest Plane Lands Safely After Hitting Pigeons" --FoxNews.com

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Animals Take Over Downtown Library" --Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA)

News You Can Use: "Feminism Wasn't Meant to Guarantee Happiness" --Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

Bottom Stories of the Day: "$900 Billion House Health-Care Reform Bill Likely to Cost More Than $900 Billion" --Reason.com

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

"Among the most pathetic letters and e-mails I receive are those from people who ask why I don't write more 'positively' about Obama or 'give him the benefit of the doubt.' No one -- not even the President of the United States -- has an entitlement to a 'positive' response to his actions. The entitlement mentality has eroded the once common belief that you earned things, including respect, instead of being given them. As for the benefit of the doubt, no one -- especially not the President of the United States -- is entitled to that, when his actions can jeopardize the rights of 300 million Americans domestically and the security of the nation in an international jungle, where nuclear weapons may soon be in the hands of people with suicidal fanaticism. Will it take a mushroom cloud over an American city to make that clear? Was 9/11 not enough?" --economist Thomas Sowell

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Chronicle - 11-4-2009
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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"I am ... nostalgic for the days when the American President seemed to be fond of his country, and its people. This is largely because I have increasing doubts that our current President is fond of either one. ... Can anyone -- even Barack Obama's most ardent supporters -- honestly say that our current President believes that Americans are, in a general sense, 'good people,' and worthy of defense? Both his words and actions would suggest that America might someday become good, but only if he can first bring us to justice." --columnist Austin Hill

"Does anyone in Washington tell the truth? Why should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid be believed when he promises that states can 'opt out' of a public option on health care? This isn't like opting out of sex-education class. Individuals won't be able to avoid the consequences of national health care once the government puts the insurance companies out of business, because there will be no other choice than the government program." --columnist Cal Thomas

"This is not about insuring the uninsured. This is not about health care. This is about stealing one-sixth of the U.S. private sector and putting it under the control of the federal government. And when they get this health care bill, if they do, that's the easiest, fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior, because it will all have some related cost to health care -- what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do. And there'll be penalties for violating regulations. It's going to be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"Scholarly debate about its various clauses has been non-stop since the document became the law of the land. But one aspect of the Constitution is beyond debate: it is a document entirely constructed to limit the power of the government, not the people." --Arnold Ahlert

"The bottom line is that the idea that government bureaucrats have enough knowledge to manage an economy well is the height of conceit -- what Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek called the 'fatal conceit.'" --economist Walter E. Williams

The Demo-gogues

Nanny State personified: "I view my work in politics and government as an extension of my role as a mom." --House Speaker Nanny Pelosi (D-CA) in a rare moment of honesty

Sometimes they get it right: "'Nothing' is better than getting that. We ought to follow the doctors' oath and say, 'First, let's do no harm.'" --Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on the "public option"

Taxes, taxes and more taxes: "We [the United States] tax everything that moves and doesn't move, and that's not what we see in Pakistan." --Hillary Clinton, advocating tax hikes in Pakistan

Demos are wrong on energy policy: "The fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was drill, baby, drill. No. It's a lot more complicated, Sarah, than drill, baby, drill. ... I know what these guys are against. I know what Bill's [Owens] opponents are against. I know what Rush Limbaugh is against. I know what Dick Armey is against. I know what all these folks are against. I'm not being a wise guy. But I don't know what they're for." --Vice President Joe Biden ("Any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always 'against,' never 'for' anything." --Ronald Reagan)

Now that he's saved the world... "Having brought the economy back from the brink, the question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families. It's not going to happen overnight, but we will not rest until we are succeeding in generating the jobs that this economy needs." --Barack Obama

Recovery? "Oh, I'm confident we've hit bottom. ... We're getting to the end of this toboggan run. We're no longer talking about a depression. We're talking about the shape of a recovery." --Joe Biden

Write 'em off: "Sometimes when I hear the crazy ideas being dispensed by the Right, I think, 'Have these people totally lost their minds?' Congress wants to create death panels? America is on a slippery slope to socialism? Fascists are loose in the White House? It's tempting to just tune it all out, to write it off as the outrageous rants of a fanatical fringe." --Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)

Village Idiots

False choices: "When this all comes down, a vote for real reform, which is the public option, means you're on the side of the American people and giving them choices. A vote against the bill and against the public option means you're in favor of the insurance companies." --Demo loudmouth Howard Dean

Redefining success: "When a, when a school does not have to fire a teacher, when a city doesn't have to fire a fireman, when it can keep teachers in the classroom, cops on the streets, firemen in the firehouse, that's a job saved. ... When businesses cut fewer jobs, that's a job saved. ... The government's doing exactly what it should be doing." --Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner on "saved jobs"

He's got to be kidding: "Obama has created an atmosphere of no fear. Nobody is really worried about the revenge of Barack Obama, because he is not a vengeful man. That's what we love about him; he is so high-minded, and a conciliatory guy, and he tries to govern with a sense of consensus--all noble goals, but they don't get you very far in this Washington knifing environment." --Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University and political biographer who has apparently missed the entire kerfuffle over White House Enemy No. 1, Fox News

Sometimes they get it right II: "If the U.S. passed a cap and trade and other countries did not, it wouldn't work. It would ruin the U.S. economy and it wouldn't save the climate either." --Dr. Steve Running, co-author of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report on global warming

Short Cuts

"How many people are stuck in jobs they hate and aren't good at, rather than going out and doing something useful, because they need the health insurance from their employers? I'm not just talking about MSNBC anchors -- I mean throughout the entire economy." --columnist Ann Coulter

"The new president -- OK, newish president -- has been drifter in chief for almost a year, but he's too busy speaking truth to the former power to get on top of the situation. It could be a while yet. In his more self-regarding moments, such as his speech to the United Nations, he gives the strong impression that the 'long years of drift' began in 1776." --columnist Mark Steyn

"I think it behooves us to come up with ways to make politics a less attractive option. The one notion that popped into my head was to take a leaf out of the Aztec playbook and initiate human sacrifices. Would any of us really have strong objections to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Arlen Spector, Susan Collins, Henry Waxman, Charles Schumer, Olympia Snowe, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, being offered up to pacify the angry spirits of the Founding Fathers?" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"By the way, it was reported well after the polls closed that the former candidate for President of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, had endorsed Chris Christy on the grounds that he was for anyone whose first and last names were about the same." --political analyst Rich Galen

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produced a health care reform bill on Thursday. She called opposition to the bill heartless. Democrats possess a finely honed sense of tragedy and outrage which sustains them through life's brief moments of happiness." --comedian Argus Hamilton

*****

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.)