The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-29-2011

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-29-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." --George Washington

Editorial Exegesis

"President Barack Obama has chosen a curious moment to release 30 million barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The president initially justified the release as protection against disruptions in supply caused by the conflict in Libya. Later, the administration changed the explanation, saying Obama hopes to stabilize gasoline prices going into the summer vacation driving season. Libya is an important source of oil. But the fighting there has not had a major impact on supplies. And oil prices have fallen back in recent weeks from their yearly highs. ... As we've said when previous presidents considered using the reserve to influence short-term prices, that's not what the stockpile is there for. The reserve is designed to shield the American economy from dramatic disruptions in the oil supply. Such a major cutoff hasn't happened. Using the reserve to manipulate market prices is a futile enterprise. ... The president's decision to release oil reserves, coming at a time when his approval rating is sinking, opens him to criticism that his re-election campaign is driving his economic and energy decisions. He can claim credit for future declines in gasoline prices that may have occurred naturally. If the priority of the administration is now to keep gasoline cheap, it should also drop its opposition to increased domestic oil production, which would have a larger impact on long-term oil prices than would tapping into the reserve. Likewise, that goal should also inform its current considerations of sharply higher fuel economy standards for the automotive fleet. ... In any case, the release of the oil reserves in response to fluctuations in the market is not sound policy." --The Detroit News1

Upright

"On economic growth, real GDP has risen 0.8% over the 13 quarters since the recession began, compared to an average increase of 9.9% in past recoveries. From the beginning of the recession to April 2011, real personal income has grown just .9% compared to 9.4% for the same period in previous post 1960 recessions. The standard response from Obama apologists is that recession of 2008 and 2009 was different because, as former Clinton administration economist Robert Shapiro puts it, 'this was a financial crisis, and these take longer to recover from.' In fact, in most cases, the deeper the recession, the stronger the recovery to make up for lost ground." --columnist Stephen Moore

"Right now America is nothing more than Greece with better PR. And note I said right now, because at the rate we're going, we're well on our way to making that country look like amateurs by comparison." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"The salient feature of America in the Age of Obama is a failed government class institutionally committed to living beyond its means, and a citizenry too many of whom are content to string along." --columnist Mark Steyn

"A recent poll showed that nearly half the American public believes that the government should redistribute wealth. That so many people are so willing to blithely put such an enormous and dangerous arbitrary power in the hands of politicians -- risking their own freedom, in hopes of getting what someone else has -- is a painful sign of how far many citizens and voters fall short of what is needed to preserve a democratic republic." --economist Thomas Sowell

The Demo-gogues

Gaffe prone: "Throughout my service, first as a senator and then as a presidential candidate and then as a president, I've always run into you guys. And for some reason it's always in some rough spots. First time I saw the 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn't receiving it posthumously." --Barack Obama speaking to the 10th Mountain Division. (Note: Jared Monti was actually killed in Afghanistan on June 21, 2006. Obama did award him the Medal of Honor, but he did so posthumously in September 2009. Obama presented the first Medal Of Honor to a living recipient who served in Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, last year.)

Spending our way to austerity: "Of course, there's been a real debate about where to invest and where to cut, and I'm committed to working with members of both parties to cut our deficits and debt. But we can't simply cut our way to prosperity." --Barack Obama

Paying more in taxes doesn't equal a tax hike: "The fact of the matter is, we have on the table all kinds of revenue raises that [Republicans] keep calling tax increases. How do you call closing loopholes to oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profits, closing up these loopholes that would generate $40 to $50 billion in revenue, how do you call that a tax hike? We are not asking anybody to raise anybody's rates. We want us to have an effective tax collection and close these loopholes, stop giving billions of dollars in breaks to millionaires and billionaires." --Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC)

Doesn't pass the giggle test: "The U.S. government cannot default on its debt, largely accrued by President George W. Bush." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Big Brother: "Government should not tell you what to do unless there's a compelling public purpose." --New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Insight

"The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. ... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs, when he first appears he is a protector." --Plato (429-347 BC)

Dezinformatsia

Emulating the Germans? "Now, when you look at the ... German Constitution, apparently as I've read it once, [it] is very similar to the American one, but it's sort of more modern, more streamlined. It doesn't have some of the kinks you know, for example, people point out that the Second Amendment is a grammatical mess, whatever you may think of the right to bear arms. ... So are there things that constitutional scholars look at and say, you know, these were really -- these have been problems for 222 years?" --CNN's Fareed Zakaria wanting to "modernize" our Constitution

More Bush than Bush himself: "I covered the Bush White House. He started the war in Afghanistan. But it took President Obama to finally capture and kill [Osama] bin Laden. There have been more drone attacks under the Obama administration than the Bush administration. There's an argument that can be made, and there are numbers that support that Obama has more aggressively prosecuted the quote unquote War on Terror -- if you like that phrase, some don't -- than Bush did." --CBS's Norah O'Donnell