The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-18-2010

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-18-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"A wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

"Obamanomics has done more than just keep unemployment high during a modest recovery. It may also be keeping high joblessness permanent by raising the costs to businesses of hiring new workers. July's 9.5% unemployment level was bad enough. But the real problem is that the private-sector jobs machine, which is usually going full tilt at this point in a recovery, now seems to be broken. To many, it's becoming clear that if President Obama's radical job-killing agenda stays in place, job growth will be nonexistent. One of America's great advantages has always been its flexible, private-sector labor markets. From 1985 to 2008, U.S. unemployment averaged 5.6%. For the six largest economies in the European Union, the average rate was 34% higher, at about 7.5%. Yet many of those countries now have jobless rates lower than ours. Why? They've been dropping Keynesian stimulus as a strategy and moving more toward cutting spending and, in some cases, cutting taxes. Not Obama. He and Congress remain wedded to an outdated economic model that replaces the private sector's animal spirit and dynamism with the dead hand of government bureaucrats and their unions as the main economic forces in our country. That's what last week's $26.1 billion state 'bailout' was all about. We were told it was to keep teachers from being laid off and 'for the children.' In reality, it was a cynical taxpayer-funded payback to teachers' unions, which gave Obama and his party enthusiastic support and millions in donations in the last election. This is Obama's New America -- a government-run economy, with special benefits for unions and plenty of government jobs, but few private ones." --Investor's Business Daily1

Insight

"People unfit for freedom -- who cannot do much with it -- are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a 'have' type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a 'have not' type of self." --American writer and philosopher Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience." --French Algerian author Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Upright

"The obvious fact about the stimulus bill is that the money didn't go, as the administration claimed it would, towards creating shovel-ready jobs. Obama promised that if the bill were passed, unemployment wouldn't reach eight percent. So [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid did what they do best, which is to give their congressional colleagues the choice of taking a bribe or getting a beating, and managed to get the bill passed. Then, as anyone who's not a liberal could have told you, two things happened. One, the unemployment rate hit 10%; two, Obama blamed Bush." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"We're seeing a re-emergence of constitutional principles and federalism across the country. ... Given the overreach of Washington and public disgust with politicians' disregard for the people's will, a healthy dose of state sovereignty and a reaffirmation of federalism is a good thing. ... People of all races, ethnicities, religions and creeds are concerned about the direction of the republic. Missouri's and Arizona's reassertions of the idea of state sovereignty and of federalist principles may be a sign of a new and long overdue American revolution." --Gregory L. Schneider, associate professor of history at Emporia State University

"Which is to be master, indeed? That is the question facing the people of the United States of America today. Will they be ruled by a constitution whose words have objective, propositional meaning or will they be ruled by judicial despots who strip the words of their meaning and twist them to accomplish a social agenda never envisioned by the Founding Fathers and not sanctioned by the American people?" --columnist Ken Connor

"It would be hard to think how Obama could have done a worse job on the Ground Zero mosque controversy. He took a position objectionable to the vast majority of Americans, within 24 hours chickened out, and then sent his press minions forward to assure his base and the Muslim World and its American community (over which he fawns incessantly) that he really does think we must accept a mosque that will produce nothing but pain for his countrymen and a sense of vindication to those who incinerated 3,000 Americans. It's bad policy, bad politics, and bad execution, with a side order of political cowardice." --columnist Jennifer Rubin

"You don't need to have been a lecturer in constitutional law like Obama to know that the mosque's backers have a right to build at Ground Zero. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly acknowledge that right. But unlike the president, when his fellow Americans think of the construction of a mosque on Ground Zero, their view doesn't begin and end with the First Amendment and local zoning ordinances. ... That Obama, as the leader of the nation, fails to recognize that the situation calls for more than a sophomoric analysis that could be rendered by any first-year law student is disquieting." --columnist Peter Kirsanow

The Demo-gogues

Keen sense of the obvious: "Let me be clear: As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. ... This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." --Barack Obama on Friday offering support for the nose-thumbing mosque near Ground Zero that no one is claiming they don't have the right to build

Profiles in courage: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there." --BO backtracking on Saturday after his original comments didn't poll well

Bragging rights: "We have been able to deliver the most progressive legislative agenda -- one that helps working families -- not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three." --Barack Obama

Race bait: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay? Do I need to say more?" --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)