The Patriot Post Brief 11-21-2011

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The Patriot Post Brief 11-21-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens." --George Mason

Government

"In 2008, the slogan was 'Yes We Can.' For 2011-12, it's 'We Can't Wait.' What happened in between? Candidate Obama, the vessel into which myriad dreams were poured, met the reality of governance. ... Never mind that you had control of the Congress for two-thirds of your current tenure. It's all the fault of Republican rejectionism. Hence: 'We Can't Wait.' We can't wait while they obstruct. We can't wait while they dither with my jobs bill. Write Congress today! Vote Democratic tomorrow! We can't wait. Except for certain exceptions, such as the 1,700-mile trans-USA Keystone XL pipeline, carrying Alberta oil to Texas refineries, that would have created thousands of American jobs and increased our energy independence. For that, we can wait, it seems. President Obama decreed that any decision must wait 12 to 18 months -- postponed, by amazing coincidence, until after next year's election. Why? Because the pipeline angered Obama's environmental constituency. But their complaints are risible. Global warming from the extraction of the Alberta tar sands? Canada will extract the oil anyway. If it doesn't go to us, it will go to China. Net effect on the climate if we don't take that oil? Zero. ... 'The administration,' reported The New York Times, 'had in recent days been exploring ways to put off the decision until after the presidential election.' Exploring ways to improve the project? Hardly. Exploring ways to get past the election. ... Sure, the pipeline would have produced thousands of truly shovel-ready jobs. Sure, delay could forfeit to China a supremely important strategic asset -- a nearby, highly reliable source of energy. But approval was calculated to be a political loss for the president. ... We can't wait." --columnist Charles Krauthammer1

What do you think of Obama's decision to punt the pipeline decision until after elections?2

Opinion in Brief

"As the clock ticks toward ... Wednesday's deadline for the 'super committee' on deficit reduction to come up with $1.2 trillion in savings, it's looking increasingly likely that the panel will fail. ... But the failure of the 'super committee' raises a broader question, particularly if the triggered cuts get overridden: is it actually possible for Congress to cut spending? The problem Congress always runs into is that immediate spending cuts are seen as too disruptive, so even when members propose to reduce spending, they typically push for phasing in any cuts over time. Yet by doing that, they're putting the actual task of implementing cuts in the hands of future Congresses. And history has shown that such cuts are often undone when it comes time to make them. In 1996, for instance, the new Republican congress voted to phase out farm subsidies over seven years, but by the end of that period, was doling out more subsidies than ever before. ... Follow the spending debate now, and even the proposals that are considered the most ambitious ... all rest on the assumption that the current Congress will be able to dictate the behavior of future Congresses. ... The hard truth is that it may take a Greece-like collapse for the nation to cut spending, but by that point it'll have to be done in a state of emergency, and likely accompanied by drastic tax hikes." --The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein5

The Gipper

"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? 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, inalienable 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 Reagan6

For the Record

"On Jan. 5, the new House of Representatives convened. ... On March 1, the Republican-majority House approved a continuing resolution to keep the government-funded from March 4 through March 18. ... Since March 4, federal spending has been the result of a Republican-Democrat partnership. Liberals and establishment media figures often decry 'gridlock' in Washington and suggest the system does not work because Congress does not enact more legislation. But what we have had in Washington this year is the opposite of gridlock. We have had free-flowing spending, authorized by legislation approved by the leaders of both parties. ... By the close of business on Nov. 14, the federal debt had climbed to $14,977,884,880,834.39. That equaled about $127,430 for every household in the country -- or an increase of about $6,766 per household during the period the Republican House had an effective veto over federal spending. During that time, House Speaker Boehner also negotiated a deal with President Obama to increase the legal limit on the national debt by as much as $2.4 trillion. ... We are as much in need of great leaders today as at anytime in our history. We will not find them among those who now run Congress." --columnist Terence Jeffrey7

Insight

"I believe that if the people of this nation fully understood what Congress has done to them over the last 49 years, they would move on Washington; they would not wait for an election. ... It adds up to a preconceived plan to destroy the economic and social independence of the United States!" --senator George W. Malone (1890-1961)

Essential Liberty

"The signs of a gathering storm can be detected if one is paying attention. The 9/11 attacks, for example, surprised us all, but they were hardly a bolt out of the blue. 'In August 1998, Osama bin Laden's Afghanistan-based terrorist network bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,' Middle East expert James Phillips wrote in a paper published by The Heritage Foundation in July 2000. 'Yet Afghanistan has still not received the high-level attention that it deserves as the world's leading exporter of terrorism, Islamic revolution, and opium.' We'd also seen the USS Cole bombed while it lay in port in Yemen. And let's not forget the first bombing attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. ... It's easy to forget sometimes that the president is also the commander-in-chief. ... When you consider our position in the world, and what it takes to make sure that we remain secure, we see the need to be prepared -- not just in a general sense, but to anticipate specific threats and figure out how to deal with them." --Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner8

Re: The Left

"Can you imagine how differently our political climate would be if the mainstream media had the slightest inclination toward fairness and balance? The liberal media have never, to my knowledge, shined the spotlight on Obama's many embarrassing gaffes. They have rarely called attention to his deceit, broken promises and policy failures. Part of the reason is their presupposition that because he's a credentialed left-winger, he is brilliant, and any departure from that is a mere aberration, an exception that couldn't possibly detract from his presumptive brilliance. And as a bona fide 'progressive,' he is imbued with superior moral standards, and his misdeeds must be excused in exchange for his dedication to policies the liberal media deem are ethically unassailable. From the mainstream media's perspective, conservatives, on the other hand, are presumptively dimwitted or morally bankrupt, because you can't be intelligent and conservative unless you're morally depraved." --columnist David Limbaugh9

How would elections look different today if the MSM were fair and balanced?2