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« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2010, 11:53:53 AM » |
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________________________________________ The Patriot Post Brief 9-6-2010 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription ________________________________________
Liberty
"Many have charged that President Obama's decision to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan 10 months from now is hampering our war effort. But now it's official. In a stunning statement last week, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway admitted that the July 2011 date is 'probably giving our enemy sustenance.' A remarkably bold charge for an active military officer. It stops just short of suggesting aiding and abetting the enemy. Yet the observation is obvious: It is surely harder to prevail in a war that hinges on the allegiance of the locals when they hear the U.S. president talk of beginning a withdrawal that will ultimately leave them to the mercies of the Taliban. How did Obama come to this decision? 'Our Afghan policy was focused as much as anything on domestic politics,' an Obama adviser at the time told The New York Times' Peter Baker. 'He would not risk losing the moderate to centrist Democrats in the middle of health insurance reform and he viewed that legislation as the make-or-break legislation for his administration.' If this is true, then Obama's military leadership can only be called scandalous. During the past week, 22 Americans were killed over a four-day period in Afghanistan. This is not a place about which decisions should be made in order to placate congressmen, pass health care and thereby maintain a president's political standing. This is a place about which a president should make decisions to best succeed in the military mission he himself has set out. But Obama sees his wartime duties as a threat to his domestic agenda. These wars are a distraction, unwanted interference with his true vocation -- transforming America." --columnist Charles Krauthammer5
Political Futures
"Simply put, Democrats find themselves heading into a midterm election that looks as grisly as any the party has faced in decades. It isn't hard to find Democratic pollsters who privately concede that the numbers they are looking at now are worse than what they saw in 1994. The race-by-race outlook confirms the dire forecasts. Cook Political Report House Editor David Wasserman points out that at this point, 32 Democratic incumbents are running even or behind their Republican challengers in one or more public or private polls. At this point in 2006, when Republicans lost control of Congress, only 11 GOP incumbents were running even or behind. Privately, some Democratic pollsters say that they are routinely seeing districts where Democratic incumbents are running only even with relatively unknown GOP challengers. In other districts where the Republican challengers are reasonably well known, the incumbents are often running 5-10 points behind, a rather extraordinary development at this point. In the Senate, while the odds still favor Democrats holding on to a narrow majority, it is not only mathematically possible for the GOP to capture a majority this year, but it has become plausible. The odds of Democrats capturing even one currently Republican-held seat appear to be getting longer. Meanwhile, Republicans are running ahead or roughly even in 11 Democratic-held seats, one more than necessary for control of the Senate to flip. It's still a tall order but not crazy to say that Republicans will win the Senate. Congress does not come back to town for two more weeks, but it is a pretty safe assumption that the mood among Democrats will be surly and the fingers will begin pointing. A party has not lost a House majority in such a short period of time in over a half-century. This is not going to go down well." --political analyst Charlie Cook6
Reader Comments
"The Brushfires of Freedom7 was probably the best put together essay of what's gone on and what's going on in America today that I can remember, anytime or anyplace. No ranting or raving, just plain common sense and history. Ronald Reagan was the only president that I ever voted FOR. By that, I mean I voted for the man, not for the lesser of two evils. I thought W would be more like him. I suppose the alluring song of spending all that money that bites so many Washington types must have become to much for him. Mr. Reagan would spend money when he had to, as in rebuilding our military back from the sorry state it had fallen into. But his answer to budget shortfalls was 'don't spend what ain't yours,' unlike our current crop of politicos on both sides of the aisle. I foresee a new political designation arising. Not Democrat, not Republican, but Conservative, owing allegiance to neither party, but to a principle of conservatism and the Constitutional foundation of this country. Let us all work for and pray for that arising." --Jeff
"Mark, you've recapped the last 25 years of our nation's ups and downs beautifully. And you have identified why we Americans, when faced with a choice of bad and worse in an election cycle sometimes choose worse. You have skillfully identified the enemies of liberty as the Progressive Democrats and the Establishment Republicans, who have worked hand in hand to rob Americans of their freedoms and fortunes. We must preserve our constitutional rights, especially our second amendment rights, or these forces of enslavement will pile more chains upon us. Thanks for the clear and insightful post." --Carl
"'It's a free country. I wish it weren't...' --Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick8, a Democrat.' At last. Honesty from a Democrat." --RiverKing
"The radical environmentalists have a point, [Discovery building hostage taker James J.] Lee died from lead poisoning8." --Bill
The Last Word
"On this Labor Day, like most Americans, I come to praise labor, not indulge in it. ... American efficiency, American organization, and therefore American prosperity has been something of an example around the world -- at least since Henry Ford, that half-genius, half-crank and all-American revolutionary, put the world on wheels. And sagely raised his workers' pay to unheard-of levels ($5 a day!) so they could buy the Model Ts they were making. A few kinks have developed in the American image since -- like the Great Depression and occasional lapses in that once vaunted made-in-USA craftsmanship. Still, no other system seems to have responded so flexibly to the challenge, mystery and psychological thriller known as the 'science' of economics. ... Americans long have sought to avoid the kind of labor that demeans: dull, rote, repetitive, unthinking and literal as the workings of a computer, the kind of brutish labor that will follow binary orders right out the window. But we never seem to tire of the kind of labor that elevates and expands the human consciousness, that approaches a craft or even art. ... To equate labor with inevitable drudgery is a European confusion, and a positively un-American habit of thought. The labor that is celebrated this holiday is the opposite of drudgery; it is intended to set us free, to earn our self-respect, and free us from mere work. Naturally a day of rest has been set aside to honor labor. ... Happy Labor Day." --columnist Paul Greenberg9
(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.)
Links
1. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/to-reform-government-reform-the-culture-first/?singlepage=true 2. http://reagan2020.us/ 3. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/jacob-sullum/2010/09/01/simpson-and-the-sacred-cow/ 4. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/walter-e-williams/2010/09/01/something-for-nothing/ 5. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/charles-krauthammer/2010/09/03/our-distracted-commander-in-chief/ 6. http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/print_friendly.php?ID=po_20100901_3522 7. http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2010/09/02/the-brushfires-of-freedom/ 8. http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/09/03/digest/ 9. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/paul-greenberg/2010/09/06/a-labor-of-love/
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