THE FOUNDATION

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” — Thomas Paine

INSIGHT

“Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.” —Samuel Johnson

“Corruption is no stranger to Washington; it is a famous resident.” —Walter Goodman

“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” —Lord Acton

“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” —J.P. Morgan

“I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him ‘father.”’ —Will Rogers

UPRIGHT

“Mr. President… [y]our intention to win must be forcefully communicated, not just because it is preferable to losing, but because the alternative to victory in this War for the Free World is unacceptable.” —Frank Gaffney ++ “Imagine this war as a sort of grotesque race. The jihadists and sectarians win if they can kill enough Americans to demoralize us enough that we flee before Iraqis and Afghans stabilize their newfound freedom. They lose if they can’t. Prosperity, security and liberty are the death knell to radical Islam. It’s that elemental.” —Victor Davis Hanson ++ “Peace and stability require both a military and a political solution—but the political rests on the military one rather than vice versa.” —John O’Sullivan

“A more liberal policy agenda isn’t all that will be moving into the spotlight. There will be a heightened focus on liberal arguments as well—which means we’ll be hearing more about good intentions and less about good results. Political discourse will dwell even more than it already does on ‘fairness’ and ‘compassion’ and ‘unmet needs’ —and even less on factual evidence and the historical record.” —Jeff Jacoby

“The law of supply and demand works in the labor market, too. If government mandates a higher minimum wage, some workers will get a raise. Some. But something else will happen. Employers will hire fewer low-skilled workers. Others will let some current workers go. Some will choose not to expand their businesses. A few will close altogether.” —John Stossel

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“[I]n the field of economics there are few more definitive tests than the results from the tax cuts of 2003. Critics predicted disaster, supporters the opposite, and the supporters can point to more than three years of prosperity as vindication… However, those lower tax rates are set to expire at the end of 2010, and the Democrats who now control Congress want them repealed. The ‘pay-as-you-go’ rules that the House just passed would make their extension all but impossible. What this means is that if Congress merely fails to act, the tax cuts expire and the economy will be hit with one of the largest tax increases in history in 2010. The dividend rate would snap back to 39.6% from 15%, the capital gains rate to 20% from 15%, and the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 35%. Marginal and average tax rates for the middle class would also increase, returning to the Clinton-era levies that had driven taxes as a share of GDP to a postwar high of 20.9%. Now in the minority on Capitol Hill, Republicans can’t do much about this. But it certainly poses a dilemma for Democrats… Our guess is that Democrats will try to finesse all this in the near term. With President Bush now saying he’ll oppose a tax increase, they’ll be wary of voting for one that would be vetoed and provide Republicans with an issue in 2008. So perhaps they’ll try a one- or two-year AMT fix to get them past 2008, while waiting for their Presidential nominee to advance a more detailed tax proposal. Most likely, that would involve a pledge to keep the lower Bush rates for the ‘middle class,’ while raising rates on ‘the rich.’ Bill Clinton played that tune all the way to the Oval Office, only to raise taxes on everybody once he got there. It’ll be fascinating to see if voters give his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the same leave if she’s the Democratic nominee.” —The Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

More from the cut and run crowd: “[T]he fact is we need leaders who are grown-ups and who are willing to try to fix [the situation in Iraq]. Bush has ignored the actual grown-ups from the Iraq Study Group and the generals and all other experts who are nearly unanimous in the opinion that more troops will not help.” —Molly Ivins ++ “The only real question about the planned ‘surge’ in Iraq—which is better described as a Vietnam-style escalation—is whether its proponents are cynical or delusional… America is spending blood and treasure to protect the egos of men who won’t admit that they were wrong.” —Paul Krugman

Politics as usual: “Forget making nice; if [Democrats] want to pass the policies they campaigned on in a timely fashion, they can’t let Republicans in on the deal. The GOP will only erect legislative roadblocks.” —Eleanor Clift *So much for the spirit of bipartisanship.

This week’s “Leftlogic” Award: “President Bush said last week that he wanted to work with the Congress to balance the budget in five years. But he also rejected any tax increases and obviously he’s not in a mood to reduce spending on the war… Can you [balance the budget] without raising taxes?” —CBS’s Bob Schieffer

From the Clinton Legacy Rewrite Files: “Bill Clinton might have gone down in history as one of the best Presidents we ever had if it hadn’t been for that one unfortunate incident that I don’t want to talk about in case there are children watching.” —CBS’s Andy Rooney

Not too bright: “So I’m running in the park on Saturday, in shorts thinking this is great but are we all gonna die? You know? I can’t, I can’t figure this out.” —NBC’s Meredith Vieira

Belly laugh of the week: “I don’t feel that there is bias in what we do at NBC News. And I don’t think there’s bias in CBS or ABC.” —NBC’s Andrea Mitchell

Newspulper Headlines: Oh No, Not Another Sequel!: “Stallone Attacks Mexican Border Fence” —Associated Press

This Just In: “Binge Drinking Rampant Among College Students” —HealthDay.com

News You Can Use: “In Kidnapping, Finesse Works Best” —Reuters

Isaac Newton, Call the Coroner: “Coroner Says Student’s Fall From Tower a Mystery” —Chicago Tribune

How Much Did They Pay for Those Estimates?: “Medicare Drug Program Costing Less Than Estimates, U.S. Says” —The New York Times (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

From the ‘08 Jackass Stampede: “I am running for president. I’m going to be Joe Biden, and I’m going to try to be the best Biden I can be. If I can, I got a shot. If I can’t, I lose.” —Joe Biden on entering the presidential race ++ “My thinking as a leader has evolved. Identifying a problem is not good enough, but taking action to solve it is key.” —John Edwards *“Wow, this ‘solutions’ thing is going to revolutionize politics! And you thought Edwards was just another pretty face.” —James Taranto

The new Demo majority: “[T]here is no purely military solution in Iraq, there is only a political solution in Iraq… [A]dding more U.S. combat troops in the middle of this civil war undermines our efforts…” —Harry Reid ++ “The American people and the Congress support those troops, but if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it.” —Nancy Pelosi, who supports “those troops” ++ “Well, first of all, we all support our troops. And I believe the best way to support the troops is to bring them home… [W]e have to make a determination that we’re not going to let this war continue.” —Dennis Kucinich **At least he said “our troops.”

More class warfare on the docket: “What we’re saying is Democrats propose tax cuts for middle income families. We want to have pay-go, no new deficit spending. We’re not going to start with repealing tax cuts, but they certainly are not off the table for people making over half a million dollars a year… [T]hat’s not where we’ll begin. It’s an option. It’s not a first resort.” —Nancy Pelosi

From the Moral Innumeracy Department: “The policy [for the White House after Katrina], I think, is ethnic cleansing by inaction.” —Barney Frank, who should be ethically cleansed

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Quite touching: “[Saddam Hussein’s] mind would have been a unique resource for historical, political and psychological research: a resource that is now forever unavailable to scholars… [I]n a small way his execution represents a wanton and vandalistic destruction of important research data.” —atheist Richard Dawkins

From the Global Village: “[President Bush] should resign straight away and be tried by the same kangaroo court [as Saddam Hussein]… [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] is as much a war criminal as he accuses Saddam of being a war criminal. The number of people he kills or causes to be killed is very many more than the number of people that Saddam caused to be killed.” —former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad

Her again?: “We didn’t put you in power to work with the people that have been murdering hundreds of thousands of people since they have been in power. We put you in power to be opposition to them…” —Cindy Sheehan interrupting a Demo press conference

Demo Diplomacy: “How can you talk about bombing a country [Iran] when you won’t even talk to them? It’s outrageous. We’re the United States of America; we don’t do that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the military option is off the table, but diplomacy is not what Jim Baker says it is. It’s not, ‘What will it take for you boys to support us on Iraq?’ It’s sitting down for a couple of days and talking about our families and our hopes, and building relationships.” —Wesley Clark

SHORT CUTS

“In the past week, there are 476 documents on Nexis heralding the magnificent achievement of Nancy Pelosi becoming the FIRST WOMAN speaker of the House. I thought we had moved beyond such multicultural milestones. The media yawned when Condoleezza Rice became the first black woman secretary of state (and when Lincoln Chaffee became the first developmentally disabled senator).” —Ann Coulter ++ “Yesterday was all about celebrating estrogen. More powerful than strontium-90, deadlier than polonium-210, estrogen is better for you than testosterone. That was the new speaker’s message, and she got a lot of ‘amens,’ even if most were from the ‘womens’.” —Wesley Pruden

“This is not the time to lament the dictator [Saddam], but of course that’s what many did. As his appointed hour grew nigh, the humanitarians of the world found a new champion. ‘He held the country together!’ Well, if President Bush gassed New York and California and outlawed the Democratic Party, he could impose the same sort of remarkable cohesion.” —James Lileks

“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a new plan in California that will give free health insurance to everyone. The plan is being paid by Blue Cross of Mexico.” —Conan O’Brien

David Letterman: “Top Things Heard Outside Saddam Hussein’s Execution”: Would it have killed him to wear a tie?; You know he left his entire estate to the Boys and Girls Club of New Jersey; $4 for a goat dog; I loved it when Chemical Ali sang “Wind Beneath My Wings”; Not what I had in mind; Let’s start the wave; Is it too soon to start hitting on his wives?; Uday and Qusay wanted to be here, but they were too busing rotting in Hell.

Jay Leno: Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House… [She] said today ‘we’ve waited 200 years for this.’ 200 years? How many face lifts has this woman had? … Just one week after they were back to work, Congress took the day off to watch the BCS [Championship game]. Remember the Democrats promised… a five-day work week. It didn’t even last a week. That’s why they want to raise the minimum wage—they get a wage and give us the minimum. … There’s some talk in Democrat circles that with Barack Obama becoming so popular that Hillary is considering him for her vice presidential running mate. Give you an idea how popular Obama is, he’s considering Hillary as his vice presidential running mate. … A new poll shows Hillary Clinton finishing fourth among Democratic hopefuls in Iowa. Which is not really that bad considering she came in eighth behind other women in her own home. … [A]n Iraqi judge officially dropped all remaining charges against Saddam Hussein. Well, that’s nice. You don’t want to leave a guy hanging. … U.S. officials have now approved the first anti-obesity drug for dogs. I’m no a veterinarian, but if your dog is over eating, try putting a little less food in the bowl. Do we really need to give him a pill? Is the dog taking your car keys and driving to McDonalds?

Veritas vos Liberabit—Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot 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 have died in defense of American liberty, while prosecuting the war with Jihadistan.)