THE FOUNDATION: BUREAUCRACY

“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

DEZINFORMATSIA

The blame game: “The total outlay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so far, over $600 billion. Think for a minute about what we could do with that money here at home, not only to improve our own infrastructure, but for other domestic needs that go wanting. Here’s the question: In light of the Minnesota bridge collapse, how could the U.S. better spend the $2 billion a week that we’re pouring into Iraq here at home?” —CNN’s Jack Cafferty ++ “The bridges of every county: How the endless war and endless spending crippled our ability to repair or just check our infrastructure.” —MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann ++ “Is it time we raise the federal gas tax to start fixing up our nation’s bridges and roads?…In Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty, who vetoed an increase in his state gas tax, said now he may consider one. Is this Republican dogma against taxes now precluding the ability of you and your party to come up with the revenues that the country needs to fix its bridges?” —Columnist David Yepsen to debating GOP presidential candidates ++ “Funding the nation’s infrastructure is all a matter of priorities… Congress and the White House have traditionally had trouble making the tough decision to collect and spend more tax dollars on infrastructure.” —CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson ++ “As time goes on, the [infrastructure] problem gets worse. And we’re coming up against it at the time when we’re spending, what, $4,000 a minute on the Iraq war.” —Margaret Carlson

“All of the leading Democratic candidates are articulate and impressive. It’s easy to imagine any of them as president.”—The New York Times’ Paul Krugman, obviously oxygen-deprived, and out of his daily medication

Newspulper Headlines: We Blame Global Warming: “Sun Has Profit for Third Straight Quarter” —The New York Times

Everything Is Cheney’s Fault!: “Former Eastern Michigan University President Blames VP for Student Rape Cover-Up” —FoxNews.com

Everything Is His Fault!: “Bush Visits Collapsed Bridge Site” —BBC Web site

Who Else Could They Possibly Blame?: “Americans blame the media for the saturation of celebrity coverage on TV.” —Hollywood Reporter via Reuters

If Clinton Were President, They’d Be Called ‘Wages’: “Employment Costs Rise in 2nd Quarter” —Associated Press

Trust but Verify: “Can Cowpies Be Trusted?” —Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN)

What Does He Want With a Skyrocket?: “Mexican Refugee Requests Skyrocket” —Toronto Star

News You Can Use: “Evidence Plays Major Role in Finding Answers” —Tyler (TX) Morning Telegraph (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

VILLAGE IDIOTS

The blame game II: “Some may object to even asking the question, ‘Did climate change contribute to the Minneapolis bridge collapse?’ My guess is those are the same people who deny that global warming is caused by humans or that it is a serious problem.” —Clintonista Joseph Romm

Artistic license: “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff… I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.” —singer Elton John

Life, liberty and… regulation?: “With regard to media consolidation, the rules were relaxed too much. Anti-trust law should apply. I think we shouldn’t have abandoned the fairness law; if a media outlet were pushing a particular political point of view… then you had a right to demand the opposite point of view. The airwaves belong to the public, not to anybody, particularly not to Fox News. But having said all that, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News. And completely predictable… it’s like Pavlov’s dogs.” —First Lady hopeful Bill Clinton on Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of the WSJ

One way ticket?: “I came here looking for a great country. I found a great country.” —actor Sean Penn on his trip to Venezuela

Michael Jackson, call your office: “We can’t make John black, we can’t make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars.” —Elizabeth Edwards

UPRIGHT

“The real problem is that the political incentives are to spend the taxpayers’ money on things that will enhance politicians’ chances of getting re-elected. There may be enough money available to maintain bridges and other infrastructure but that same money can have a bigger political pay-off if spent building something new instead of maintaining and repairing existing structures.” —Thomas Sowell

“I believe we can reduce costs and improve the quality of care by increasing competition. We can do it through tax cuts, not tax hikes. We can do it by empowering patients and their doctors, not government bureaucrats. Instead of being more like Europe, we need to be more like America.” —Rudy Giuliani

“Real America’s dread of a ‘President Hillary,’ though understandable, is not sufficient to get any Republican elected on that basis alone. Yet time and again, the standard reaction of GOP insiders to Hillary’s candidacy is to attempt to form and mold their field of candidates in direct response to her.” —Christopher Adamo

“Incumbents loathe political uncertainty. If Democrats and Republicans don’t find a way to stop the erosion of pubic confidence in their work, they could be heading into a 2008 election in which neither party has a clear advantage and voters are looking to take scalps in both their camps.” —John Fund

“[Bill Clinton]… will never dodge the spotlight. If his wife is elected, he will speak at conferences and be ambassador to the world. Will he bring drama and mess? Yes. He brings drama wherever he goes because wherever he goes, there he is. Will he bring the particular drama everyone expects? He is officially and forever The Rogue. If Americans hire her as president they will do it knowing he is going to bring his Billness with him.” —Peggy Noonan

INSIGHT

“To tell the truth about your opponent is not dirty politics.” —Murray Chotiner

“The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promotes democracy, but checks it.” —Horatio Seymour

“The mere absence of war is not peace.” —John F. Kennedy

“We are apt to be deluded into false security by political catch-words, devised to flatter rather than instruct.” —James A. Garfield

“Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.” —G. K. Chesterton

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“In the weekend [terrorist-surveillance] deal, the Bush Administration grants the FISA court power to review procedures even for foreign communications, which is unprecedented. Under Article III of the Constitution, the courts are granted the power to settle disputes. The judiciary also has power under the Fourth Amendment, which gives courts the ability to issue warrants. But nowhere does the Constitution empower our nation’s judges to serve as foreign policy advisers or reviewers of intelligence policy. Judges have no particular expertise on intelligence, and in any case they are unaccountable to voters if their decisions are faulty. Recent news reports have suggested that several current FISA judges are uncomfortable with making such intelligence decisions, and rightly so. As for the possibility that Presidents will abuse this power, fear of exposure is an even more powerful disincentive than legal constraint. The political costs of being seen as spying on Americans for partisan ends would be tremendous. Congress, on the other hand, is only too happy to use the courts to squeeze executive power, in part because this allows the Members to dodge responsibility themselves. If there’s another terror attack, the President still gets the blame even if some unelected judge refused a warrant. Congress can blame everyone else… The weekend law expires in six months, and it would be nice to think enough Democrats would put aside this ideological obsession to work with Mr. Bush on a more permanent wiretap statute. Given the current state of Beltway rationality, we aren’t optimistic.” —The Wall Street Journal

THE DEMO-GOGUES

On qualifications: “We are facing a dangerous and complicated world. The next president will require a level of understanding and judgment unprecedented in American history to address these challenges.” —Sen. Christopher Dodd, presidential candidate, who obviously doesn’t meet his own qualifications

Foreign-policy expert: “Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now—where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife—which we haven’t done. We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea.” —Barack Obama

Belly Laugh of the Week: “The Democratic Party, the party of the people, ought to say from this day forward, we will never take a dime from a Washington lobbyist; we do not do business with these insiders; we’re going to give the power in this government back to the people. Senator Obama and I have already done it.”—John Breck Dogg Edwards

Belly Laugh of the Week II: “I don’t think based on my 35 years of fighting for what I believe in, anybody seriously believes I’m going to be influenced by a lobbyist or a particular interest group.”—Hillary Clinton

Retreat!: “Whatever schedule for redeployment we want to do, we want to do consistent with the safety of our troops and maximizing the opportunity to stabilize Iraq and the neighborhood.”—House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

Why he lost: “We should not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq… The agony of exiting a quagmire is that there are few certainties and no good options. That choice was created not by the advocates for changing course, but by the architects of a disastrous war.”—Jean Francois Kerry

SHORT CUTS

“As a rule, I don’t approve of people who lay their own shortcomings at the feet of their parents, but when I realize that for no other reason than the way I was raised that I actually voted for Jimmy Carter, it’s awfully tempting to blame my folks.”—Burt Prelutsky

“Barack Obama is attempting to portray himself as the next John F. Kennedy… And Lloyd Bentsen had the audacity to make fun of Dan Quayle.”—Doug Patton

“The Democratic candidates for President all refused to attend a meeting of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council (of which Bill Clinton was a charter member) but, went out of their way to attend a convention of the most acidly Liberal group of Bloggers in America all of whom are either (a) lunatics, (b) hypocrites, © embarrassments, or (d) all of the above.”—Rich Galen

“It was fun to hear the Democratic candidates give heart-rending reasons for not sending their own kids to public schools. Except John Edwards. He got a ‘woo’ for sending his kids to public schools from all those ‘young, hip’ Democrats whose greatest concern is how to transfer more money to public schoolteachers while reducing their workload.”—Ann Coulter

“Latest on the campaign: It was reported that things are going so badly for Senator John McCain that he has to carry his own luggage. Meanwhile, things are going so badly for Dennis Kucinich’s campaign, he has to carry Barack Obama’s luggage.”—Conan O’Brien

David Letterman: “Top Signs President Bush Needs A Vacation”: Staffers found him having a conversation with a coat rack; Asked CIA director to have Jason Bourne join hunt for Osama; Hasn’t stopped sobbing since he was passed over for “The Price is Right”; Has only seen the new Harry Potter movie four times; So overworked he’s pronouncing words correctly; He’s been drinking like an astronaut.

Jay Leno: Today Chinese officials recalled one million tons of lead because it may contain toys. … Hillary Clinton was chastised by The Washington Post for showing too much cleavage in front of the Senate. See, that seems sexist to me. They’ve never gone after Senator Ted Kennedy for doing the exact same thing. … Isn’t this ridiculous? Shouldn’t we be focusing on I-raq, not her rack? … It’s amazing isn’t it? The United States is 231 years old, but apparently the media is only 13. … Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said today that he would not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances. I didn’t realize his battle with Hillary had escalated to this level. I just thought there was a little friction. … Madame Tussauds’ new wax museum in Washington, DC, is going to feature a “scandal room,” featuring wax likenesses of elected officials involved in sex, alcohol or ethics scandals. Why would you go there, when you can just walk five blocks to the Capitol building and see the real thing? … If you haven’t seen “The Bourne Ultimatum,” it’s about a guy who works for the government but can’t remember his past. The original title was “The Alberto Gonzales Story.” … Happy Birthday to our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is 60 years old. You can tell he’s getting up there. Remember when he used to say things like, “I’ll be back”? Now he says, “Ow, my back.”

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 granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)