The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-15-2011

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-15-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." --Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

"President Obama says he's 100% focused these days on creating jobs. So why is he taking advice from a bunch of CEOs whose companies have been shedding jobs for years? In February, Obama chartered the Jobs and Competitiveness Council with a mission of leaving 'no stone unturned' in the search of ways to boost the country's anemic job growth. But you could tell from the start that this council would have trouble even finding those stones, let alone turning them over. After all, Obama stuffed the group full of Fortune 500 CEOs — General Electric, American Express, DuPont, Time Warner, Eastman Kodak and Xerox, among them. While these may be good companies, they've hardly been roaring engines of job growth. In most cases, in fact, the opposite is true. ... The board is made up of the heads of two big unions, an energy company, a railroad, an airline, a couple investment firms, and the like. Just one business represented on the board -- Facebook -- is a genuine growth company. And the council is all but devoid of the kind of small- and midsize firms responsible for two-thirds of the nation's new jobs. It's little wonder, then, that the list of immediate must-do, job-creating ideas the council came up with -- and outlined in a Monday op-ed signed by GE's Jeff Immelt and AmEx's Ken Chenault -- is so uninspiring. More money to retrain workers? More tax dollars retrofitting commercial buildings to boost energy efficiency? More government loans passed out by the Small Business Administration? That's the best the council could come up with after almost four months' work? ... How about an immediate cut in corporate and capital gains taxes?" --Investor's Business Daily1

Upright

"We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation debate about the nature of the welfare state (entitlement versus safety net) and, indeed, of the social contract between citizen and state (e.g., whether Congress can mandate -- compel -- you to purchase whatever it wills). Let's finish that debate. Start with Obama's abysmal stewardship, root it in his out-of-touch social-democratic ideology, and win. That would create the strongest mandate for conservative governance since the Reagan era." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"Though the cost of gasoline and diesel eased a few cents with the opening of TransCanada's Keystone pipeline, the price of crude oil jumped again [last] week when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- chaired by Iran's oil minister, Mohammad Aliabadi -- rejected any increase in production. And of course, the U.S. still has no strategic energy policy. Little of this news garnered much interest from America's political princes and media elites [last] week." --columnist Oliver North

"Because we are so out of practice at condemning even utterly shameful conduct, we look for security in law. 'Remember,' a constituent cautioned, '[Anthony Weiner] has broken no laws. He has not used campaign funds...' Ah, well, that's all right then. Weiner himself, explaining his decision not to resign, said, 'I don't believe that I (did) anything that violates any law or any rule.' Is legality the only relevant standard? The question is not whether Weiner deserves to go to jail, but whether he merits the honor of holding elective office. And actually, Weiner is mistaken on the matter of rules. According to the rules of the House of Representatives, members are required to conduct themselves at all times in 'a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.' Anyone think this is a close call?" --columnist Mona Charen

"The problem is that Weinergate goes to the heart of the Democrats' cultural liberalism. Try as they might to disown him, he embodies the party's moral rot. Mr. Weiner is a progressive crusader. He has championed almost every secular leftist cause. ... The result has been a coarsening of our culture, the breakdown of the family and the disintegration of a moral consensus. Mr. Weiner is simply a product of modern liberalism -- self-absorbed narcissism combined with an obsession for sexual gratification." --columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner

The Demo-gogues

The BIG Exaggeration: "Today the single most serious economic problem we face is getting people back to work. We stabilized the economy, we prevented a financial meltdown, an economy that was shrinking is now growing. We've added more than 2 million private sector jobs over the last 15 months alone. But -- I'm still not satisfied. I will not be satisfied until everyone who wants a good job that offers some security has a good job that offers security. I won't be satisfied until the empty store fronts in town are open for business again. I won't be satisfied until working families feel like they're moving forward again, that they're progressing again. That's what drives me every day when I walk down to the oval office." --Barack Obama

"We were able to, under President Obama's leadership, turn this economy around." --congresswoman and DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

Patting himself on the back: "Targeting waste and making government more efficient have been a priority for my administration since day one. But as we work to tackle the budget deficit, we need to step up our game. ... No amount of waste is acceptable. Not when it's your money; not at a time when so many families are already cutting back." --Barack Obama

Not a laughing matter: "Shovel-ready was not as, uh, shovel-ready as we expected." --Barack Obama in North Carolina making light of his shovel-ready lie

Dezinformatsia

Upside down "logic": "At the moment there's a pretty good case that there is a kind of Laffer curve in which more is less and less is more. Namely, there's a good case that fiscal stimulus right now would actually improve the long-run fiscal situation, while fiscal austerity makes it worse." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

Saying Americans just don't get it: "A recent poll shows that a majority of voters -- a majority of whom don't really know anything about the economy -- don't believe that the economy is recovering and blame President Obama for the struggling economy." --MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell

Race bait: "There's also an economist at the University of Michigan who has studied diversity and decision making and has found that in every business decision diversity leads to better decisions. In other words, a group of all white men are not going to reach the best decisions." --ABC's Claire Shipman