The Patriot Post Brief 9-27-2010

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The Patriot Post Brief 9-27-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Foundation

"It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object." --James Madison

For the Record

"On Sept. 23 last week, 12 Republican House members stood in a hardware store in Sterling, Va., and issued a Pledge to America. ... One [commitment] is to roll back non-defense discretionary spending to 2008 levels. The other is to repeal -- not revise or amend or embroider, but repeal -- the health care bill signed by Barack Obama exactly six months before the shirt-sleeved House Republicans made their pledge. The rollback to 2008 strikes me as good policy and politics -- or, at least, good conservative policy and good Republican politics. Good conservative policy because the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders vastly increased domestic spending in the 2009 stimulus package and the 2010 budget. With a Democratic president and Democratic supermajorities for the first time in more than 30 years, experienced and dedicated Democrats took out their wish lists and turned them into law. In particular, they increased the budget baselines for many domestic programs. Getting those baselines back down will make a significant difference not just this year but for years to come. ... Today, we are in, if not an official recession, at least an agonizingly slow recovery. And if Democrats complain that it's unfair for government and public employees to be limited to what they got in 2008, Republicans can reply that an awful lot of their constituents would be very happy to go back to the income levels and the housing equity and the 401(k) balances they had in 2008. ... As for Obamacare, a few months ago Republican leaders were reluctant to call for repeal. They may have feared that Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton were right when they predicted the legislation would become more popular when passed. Or they may have been wary of sounding extreme. But now they're squarely for repeal. It turns out to be a stand most Republican primary voters demand and most general election voters support. ... Can Republicans really repeal Obamacare and roll back spending to 2008 levels? Probably not. But by taking clear stands, they raise their chances of getting part way there by 2012. And maybe farther later." --political analyst Michael Barone1

Insight

"The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded." --President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)

Government

"I know it's been said before, but it merits repeating: the debate about taxes in general, and about extending the Bush tax cuts in particular, only sounds like the issue in question is fiscal. It's not. The Right and Left differ on tax policy primarily because of a difference in values. Broadly speaking, the Right believes that your stuff is yours. The Left believes your stuff doesn't really become your stuff until the government says it is. So the Right sees taxes as a way to pay for necessary government services. The Left sees taxes as an instrument of social control and redistributive justice. ... It is simply not credible for Democrats and liberals to say they oppose extending those tax cuts because of concern for budget deficits. The real reasons are just old-fashioned envy, hard egalitarianism, soft socialism, and Keynesian claptrap about the economic benefits of redistributing income to promote consumption over saving. I agree with the supply-side argument that virtually all Americans benefit from the growth effects of keeping marginal tax rates low. But the most important reason to extend the tax cuts for everyone is that it is wrong for the government to steal and redistribute income." --National Review's John Hood2

The Gipper

"Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment." --Ronald Reagan3

Political Futures

"The refutation of Crist, Murkowski and Castle is a wonderful thing, regardless of how it plays out in November. ... In three primaries Republican voters decided they didn't like what they saw in the three candidates presented by the establishment. In all three cases, the instincts of the voters were completely confirmed -- by the subsequent actions of the hacks they drummed out of the party. Crist, Murkowski and Castle have made it abundantly clear they are devoid of anything resembling principles or party loyalty. All three have made something else clear as well: contempt for the average American has revealed itself to be far more 'bipartisan' than ever before. Such contempt has become so transparent and pervasive that the term 'ruling class' resonates like it never has: many Americans have become completely alienated from their representatives, regardless of party affiliation. Here's a scary thought for Democrats: think what's happening to the Republican party can't happen to yours? Think again. A Congress with an approval rating of 23.6% while your party's in charge can't be reassuring. In November, if the public purges Democrats from the majority less than two years after Democrat political strategist James Carville's proclaimed they would rule for the next forty, expect the kind of finger-pointing and blood-letting that will make the current Republican purge look tame by comparison. Americans may not agree about many things but one thing is certain: they are sick to death of selfish phonies selling themselves as 'servants of the people.'" --columnist Arnold Ahlert4

[nChrist]

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Brief 9-27-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Re: The Left

"As Democrats head for what promises to be a midterm election fiasco of historic proportions, a pre-emptive excuse has begun to circulate: It's all because of Citizens United. Team Donkey fans claim the Jan. 21 decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned restrictions on the political speech of corporations, triggered a flood of negative advertising by what President Obama calls 'shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names.' ... In his weekly radio address [last] Saturday, President Obama complained about 'special interests using front groups with misleading names' who are saying mean things about Democrats on TV, a development he attributed to Citizens United. Yet similar complaints have been heard from both major parties in every recent election cycle. ... Toward the end of his speech on Saturday, Obama accidentally told the truth. 'You can make sure that the tens of millions of dollars spent on misleading ads do not drown out your voice,' he said. 'Because no matter how many ads they run -- no matter how many elections they try to buy -- the power to determine the fate of this country doesn't lie in their hands. It lies in yours.' Exactly right, Mr. President. No matter how shadowy or flush with corporate dollars an interest group is, the only thing Citizens United allowed it to do is speak. Advocacy has no impact unless it persuades people. So why not talk about the issues instead of impugning the motives of people who take a different position on them than you do?" --columnist Jacob Sullum5

Faith & Family

"While addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Obama began to recite key passages of the Declaration of Independence and slipped up. Or did he? He enumerated the 'certain inalienable rights' part beautifully. He even listed the right to life. (Hmmm. How does that comport with an Obamacare law that if unrepealed would subsidize abortion and thus deny the right to life to millions yet unborn? ...) The trouble came when Obama omitted who endowed the people with these inalienable rights6, 'their Creator.' The White House is trying to tamp down any controversy: The president was merely paraphrasing. 'Don't try to read anything into this' is the administration line. But it does matter. The Weekly Standard's Jeffrey Anderson certainly thinks so: 'Only two plausible explanations spring to mind. One is that President Obama isn't very familiar with the most famous passage in the document that founded this nation; that even when plainly reading from a teleprompter, he wasn't able to quote it correctly. The other is that President Obama doesn't subscribe to the Declaration's rather central claim that our rights come from our 'Creator' (also referred to in the Declaration as 'Nature's God' and 'the Supreme Judge of the World'). Only the president likely knows for certain which of these two explanations is true, or whether perhaps there is another....' We are left to conclude that for the liberal left, our rights do not come from God. They come, instead, from government pronouncements, from UN documents, or from the courts. This is a most disturbing conclusion. And it goes to the heart of who we are as a people." --columnist Ken Blackwell7

Reader Comments

"I purchased a bulk order of Essential Liberty booklets8 recently and placed them next to tables in our family restaurant. They are a big hit with our customers. They offer to pay for them but are delighted we are giving them away. The comment we hear most often is: 'This is such a great idea! Thank you for doing this!' Thanks to The Patriot Post for the opportunity to share these documents and this message of liberty." --Helen in Cheyenne, Wyoming

"Yet another brilliant article9 by Mark Alexander. You mixed in some humor that helped make your points very clear. What Obama, his czars and the leftmedia are doing is what Glen Beck coined as the Overton Window in his book. They are gradually shifting the window (our society) to the left by use of rhetoric. Unfortunately it fools many. Let's hope there are enough of us who see thorough the charades to the true intent of the words and actions of the evil administration currently in control of the White House." --Joel
"I am a regular reader and have never disagreed with any of your articles or insights. I believe our current president is an 'empty suit' who was propelled to the presidency by limousine liberals. I believe his philosophy and policies are destructive to American exceptionalism. However, he does not belong on the poster you are selling in The Patriot Shop10 with two of the worst mass murderers in the history of the world." --Randall

    Editor's Reply: Neither Stalin nor Hitler began as murderers when they set out to displace liberty with tyranny. The terminus of the rule of men is always tyranny, and tyranny is always ugly.

"A Pledge To America11? Are the Republicans out of their minds? Rolling back government spending to fiscal 2008 levels would still leave spending at a rate that bears the burden of years of Republican profligacy plus a couple years of Democrat spending added on for good measure. They still don't get it." --Lee

The Last Word

"The Republicans' 'Pledge to America' is an encouraging step on the road back to recapturing America. It's not enough for Republicans merely to stop Obama's disastrously destructive agenda in its tracks. This pledge is their acknowledgment that they have heard the grass roots, too -- that they are not exempt from scrutiny or accountability merely because they are the anti-Obamas. Rep. Paul Ryan conceded as much in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos when he said that the Republicans have lost their way in the past and that with this pledge, they are embracing bold steps to get this nation back on track. That said, Ryan made clear that Republicans are not trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather, he said, 'We are here trying to reclaim our country by rededicating ourselves to those timeless principles that made us exceptional.' The pledge, he said, contains the basic building blocks to get us back on the right track. Precisely correct. This is not rocket science. It's a matter of rolling back government, radically reducing spending, ensuring that taxes are not so high that they smother economic growth, repealing and replacing Obamacare, bolstering our national defense and embracing traditional values. These are not complicated ideas, and they don't need to be. We just want to restore government to its intended role under the Constitution. These timeless principles -- not some gimmicky ideas designed by faux conservatives to appeal to 'moderates' -- are what allowed America to be exceptional." --columnist David Limbaugh12

(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://patriotpost.us/opinion/michael-barone/2010/09/27/gop-battle-cry-repeal-obamacare-cut-spending/
   2. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/247676/tax-issue-isn-t-about-fiscal-policy-john-hood
   3. http://reagan2020.us/
   4. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0910/ahlert091710.php3
   5. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/jacob-sullum/2010/09/22/ad-rage-democrats-blame-the-first-amendment-for-their-impending-losses/
   6. http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2010/09/21/obama-on-the-declaration/
   7. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/ken-blackwell/2010/09/22/leaving-out-god/
   8. http://patriotshop.us/index.php?cPath=85
   9. http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2010/09/23/whose-money-is-it-anyway/
  10. http://patriotshop.us/product_info.php?cPath=52&products_id=1388
  11. http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/09/24/digest/
  12. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/david-limbaugh/2010/09/24/gop-pledge-is-a-step-in-the-right-direction/