THE FOUNDATION: TRUTH

“We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts… I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.” —Patrick Henry

DEZINFORMATSIA

Squashing debate: “[C]limate experts say whether hired guns or honest dissenters, [global warming] deniers are confusing the issue and delaying solutions. The scientific debate is no longer over society’s role in global warming. It is now a matter of degrees.” —NBC’s Anne Thompson ++ “No, you don’t. No, you don’t. The scientific debate is over, J.C., we’re done… No, no, no… That is science. The science is out there.” —CNN’s Miles O’Brien responding to former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts, a global-warming “denier” ++ “I can’t help feeling that we in the news media are part of the reason that steps to battle climate change aren’t on top of the national agenda. We’re good at covering things that happen on any one day—like a tornado or hurricane—but weak at covering complex trends, like climate change. And we tend to cover disputes by having a dutiful quote from each side, without always explaining where the scientific consensus lies.”—The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof ++ “To judge from all the gas-guzzlers still fouling the air and the plastic bottles clogging the dumps, it appears that the news that we are killing ourselves and the world with our greed and garbage hasn’t sunk in.” —Manohla Dargis, New York Times movie critic, on the global-warming crockumentary “11th Hour”

Bias in the newsroom: “My first night here at MSNBC was the President’s State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there were actually people in the newsroom that were booing the President basically from the beginning to the end.” —MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ++ “When word came in of Karl Rove’s resignation, several people in the [news] meeting started cheering. That sort of expression is simply not appropriate for a newsroom.” —Seattle Times executive editor Dave Boardman

Over the top: “A good newsroom is a sacred and magical place.” —Dave Boardman

This week’s “Sociocrat Sycophant” Award: “Hillary doesn’t make mistakes.” —Susan Estrich

Newspulper Headlines: Can’t We Blame Bush?: “When Gas Prices Go Up, Blame Dean” —Detroit Free Press

Global Warming Strikes Again: “Snow to Leave Before Bush” —Associated Press

‘May God Strike Me Dead. On Second Thought, May He Not.’: “Woman Saved From Lightning by Flip-Flops” —Associated Press

Dude, the Interchange Looks Just Like a Big Leaf!: “Stoner Presents Harmony/I-25 Plan” —Northern Colorado Business Report

Good Thing It Isn’t Thanksgiving: “Team USA Burns Turkey” —Charlotte (NC) Observer

But All They Attracted Was Flies: “Schools Offer Free Water, Garbage to Attract Teachers” —WRAL-TV Web site (Raleigh, NC)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Democrats Vow Pursuit of Rove Over Scandals” —Financial Times ++ “Hillary Clinton Panders in Talk to Blacks” —Chicago Sun-Times (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

INSIGHT

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” —Albert Einstein

“Whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his mind, body and soul.” —Sir Francis Bacon

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding one’s self in the ranks of the insane.” —Marcus Aurelius

“Sometimes I wish I were a Democrat because Democrats seem to have more fun. At other times I wish I were a Libertarian because Republicans are too much like Democrats. What I actually am is a right-wing independent who is registered Republican because there isn’t any place else to go.” —Lyn Nofziger

“Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.” —Will Rogers

UPRIGHT

“What is a hoax is that only rich industrialized nations are causing [global warming], that it is manmade. I don’t think we have the ability, and I think it’s outrageous for people to claim with such vanity that we have such power on the one hand, and on the other hand we’re no more important than field mice. In fact, some people would say that for the earth to survive, we’d have to get off of it, or die. It’s a religion.” —Rush Limbaugh

“The Democrats believe that defeat in Iraq would be George W. Bush’s defeat. It would not. It would be America’s defeat.” —Mona Charen ++ “[D]efeat in Iraq would vindicate not only opposition to Iraq but an entire worldview—what we’ve called the worldview of baby-boom liberalism. America’s defeat in Vietnam was a triumph for baby-boom liberalism—a triumph that some seem never to have given up trying to relive.” —James Taranto

“The sub-prime mortgage issue will probably be made worse once the Congress sticks its nose into it and decides to bail out people who took out those impossible loans—meaning you and I will be helping make all those bad mortgage payments… One of the reasons we are in this mess… is because we have become a Monthly Payment Economy.” —Rich Galen

“It’s time for ordinary Americans to come out of the shadows and remind Washington every day in words and actions that we are a sovereign nation, not a sanctuary nation. No more promises. No need to wait for Election ‘08. Just do it.” —Michelle Malkin ++ “More than 60 sanctuary zones, including 30 of America’s largest cities, provide a national networked haven for foreign and organized criminals who recruit and operate outside those areas as well. These sanctuaries include Cambridge, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Austin and Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and New York City.” —Fred Thompson

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“Brooklyn-born [Jose] Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, whose reign of death spanned from street gangs to jihad, was found guilty by a Miami jury last Thursday of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people, plus two counts of giving material support to terrorists. Two foreign-born co-conspirators tried with him were also found guilty on all criminal charges. Padilla apparently admitted while in custody to plotting the detonation of a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ in a U.S. city; he even filled out a five-page application to get terrorist training in Afghanistan. Now he faces life in prison… But future cases may not go the same way. Besides, placing terrorist prisoners under the same jurisdiction as nonpolitical criminals means courts could demand that the U.S. government provide intelligence data and other secrets. Interrogation techniques to which enemy combatants have been subjected are but one type of classified information that could reach the eyes of lawyers representing terrorist operatives. Such knowledge could give groups like al-Qa’ida an advantage… Like the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance program and the CIA’s interrogation program, trying terrorists on our soil must be viewed through a wartime lens. Treating Padilla and others like him as common killers, rather than prisoners of war, gives in to the wishful thinking that we’re not really in a global war on terror. It’s also a step in the direction of losing that war.” —Investor’s Business Daily

THE DEMO-GOGUES

A la John Kerry: “We’ve got to get the job done there [in Afghanistan], and that requires us to have enough troops so that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure there.” —Barack Hussein Obama, accusing the U.S. Armed Forces of war crimes

Vast, right-wing conspiracy: “The idea that you’re going to escape the Republican attack machine and not have high negatives by the time they’re through with you, I think, is just missing what’s been going on in American politics for the last 20 years.” —Hillary Clinton

On qualifications: “Well, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know a lot about Cuba’s health care system. Is it a government-run system?” —John Breck Dogg Edwards bobbling a question from an Iowan on the campaign trail

Getting it (partially) right: “I believe that the decision to invade Iraq and the post-invasion management of that country were among the largest foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. I voted against them, and I still think they were the right votes, but we’re on the ground now. We have a responsibility to the Iraqi people and a strategic interest in making this work.” —Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA)

The Big DUH: “I think, frankly, the immigration issue has caused me some difficulties with our base, because I think we still, we’ve failed to convince the American people that we’re serious about securing our borders.” —John McCain **Actually, you’ve convinced us you are NOT serious about securing our borders.

It’s called “projection”: “We know these people. We know their game plan. They’re going to attack us personally. They attacked Elizabeth personally, because she stood up to that she-devil Ann Coulter… I should not have name-called. But the truth is—forget the names—people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language.” —John Edwards

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Cat fight: “One of the things, the important aspects of this race is role modeling what good families should look like, and my view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House.” —Michelle Obama with a not-so-veiled shot at Hillary Clinton

From the Glitterati: “Senator [Obama], I’d like to support you in any way I can, including staying home. Because you never know how [the vast right-wing media conspiracy] in our country is going to characterize participation.” —actor George Clooney in support of Barack Obama

What a drag: “I’m a drag queen, darling… not an extremist… and I still say if Pakistanis had more self-respect, we’d be even more anti-American.” —Ali Saleem, a Pakistani drag queen The Washington Post found to support their own anti-Americanism

Phenomenal contradiction: “I am Pro-Life. I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn. …I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party… Its values and its programs—on a whole variety of issues—most clearly reflect my values. Hillary Clinton is the candidate whom I most admire… I repeat: I am a Christian; I am a Democrat. I support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.” —author Anne Rice

“O 4 O”: “My money isn’t going to make any difference. My value to him, my support of him is probably worth more than any other check that I could write.” —Oprah Winfrey on supporting Barack Obama

Thank goodness: “Nobody’s going to elect me president of the United States.” —New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

SHORT CUTS

“Most of the disciples of global warming are liberal Democrats who never have enough of our money and believe there are never enough regulations concerning the way we lead our lives. That ought to be enough to give everyone pause, along with emerging evidence that the global warming jihadists may be more full of hot air than the climate they claim is about to burn us up.” —Cal Thomas

“Ethanol is to Iowans what marijuana is to Rastafarians: a substance that is considered quasi-holy, but only because it delivers really good times.” —Rich Lowry

“ Hillary Clinton led all Democrats by a wide margin despite her high negative rating among voters. The poll points to a solution. She has 100 percent name recognition, and if she can change that, there is a chance she could win.”—Argus Hamilton

“The fall of the Soviet Union deprived us of the biggest example of how socialism works. We need laboratories of failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the U.S. Post Office, and state motor-vehicle departments.” —John Stossel

“Aides are always there to cut their roast beef, butter their bread, button their overcoats, knot their ties, polish their shoes, and, in the case of John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, touch up eye shadow, lip gloss and moisturizer.” —Wesley Pruden

David Letterman: “Top Good Things About Marrying Into The Bush Family”: Great deals on Fallujah honeymoon; You’ll inherit President Bush’s extensive collection of Chuck Norris memorabilia; Might see Cheney shoot an old guy; Learning from Grandma Barbara how to spit chaw; Every Wednesday is Taco Night; If half the family hates you, you still have better approval rating than George Bush; W. can lend you the “Mission Accomplished” banner to put up in the bedroom.

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.)