THE FOUNDATION: THE PRESS

“Newspapers… serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.” —Thomas Jefferson

OPINION IN BRIEF

“Dan Rather seems divinely inspired to crash more times than a Kennedy driving home from an office party. The multimillionaire semi-retired newsman is suing [CBS] for $70 million, $1 million for every year he’s been alive since he was 5 years old. Which is fitting, because that’s what he sounds like. The gist of his lawsuit is that CBS used him as a ‘scapegoat’ in the Memogate story to ‘pacify the White House.’ The swelled-headed former anchor, who used to brag incessantly about his toughness and independence, also whines in his suit that the network forced him to apologize under duress when ‘no apology from him was warranted,’ and that the former managing editor of CBS News ‘was not responsible for any such errors.’ Indeed, according to Rather and his lawyers, the only mistakes made were by CBS management, which, in its eagerness to ‘appease angry government officials,’ had the temerity to apologize for passing off fake documents as real ones in a news story intended to sway a presidential election… Frankly, we need this. And by ‘we,’ I mean a grand coalition of people who delight in watching one of the 20th century’s most pompous gasbags fall from the top of the laughingstock tree and hit every branch on the way down. These are dour times, and if Gunga Dan and Hurricane Dan and What’s-The-Frequency-Kenneth Dan want to trade their Afghan robes, yellow windbreakers and enormous tinfoil hats for some baggy pants, bright-orange wigs and floppy shoes, I say let them. I just hope all of the Dans show up at the courthouse in a teensy-weensy clown car.” —Jonah Goldberg

INSIGHT

“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.” —Mark Twain

FAMILY

“Parent-centered education reforms continue to proliferate nationwide. This year, more than 1 million children will be able to attend safe and effective schools chosen by their parents, thanks to reforms implemented at the state and local level. I urge you to become better acquainted with the many schooling options now available. Heritage [Foundation]’s ’Types of School Choice’ is a great place to start. It outlines just about everything, from tax credits and education savings accounts to scholarships and charter schools. And it shows why parents should settle for nothing less than excellence when it comes to the supremely important task of educating their children. We need to remember that parents—not federal bureaucrats—are best situated to direct their children’s education.” —Rebecca Hagelin

CULTURE

“It’s impossible to read King Lear or Hamlet without questioning the deepest human values. Because John Milton is a dead white man, the erudition of his poetry is discounted (or ignored). The political and religious issues he raises in ‘Paradise Lost’ would animate any discussion of democracy, terrorism and war, but raising questions is not the aim of much that passes for higher education. Milton’s debate of the devils over how to perpetuate the war against God, ‘which if not Victory is yet Revenge,’ has much to tell us about our own times. Students arrive on campus yearning to think big thoughts and often get political polemics from little professors with small minds.” —Suzanne Fields

LIBERTY

“One of my friends complained bitterly about the anti-gun rhetoric spewed by one of his former sociology professors—a man we shall refer to as Gary (because that’s his real name). Specifically, my friend was annoyed that Gary spent valuable class time arguing that the 2nd Amendment protects the citizen’s right to own guns but not to own bullets. With a straight face, his professor had argued that the key to reducing gun violence in America is to enact a legislative ban on the manufacture, distribution, and sale of bullets. This, he thought, would actually pass constitutional muster… Our college campuses need an organized response to anti-gun extremists like Gary—one that has the same level of enthusiasm and visibility that the campus feminists have enjoyed for decades… There can be no better response to an anti-gun extremist like Gary than to establish a 2nd Amendment club at the local state college or university. And to those who have already done so I would suggest making a funding request to your university for an afternoon’s supply of ammunition. Taking your 2nd Amendment club to the gun range at the taxpayer’s expense will surely get under the skin of your liberal administrators.” —Mike Adams

THE GIPPER

“Our problems are both acute and chronic, yet all we hear from those in positions of leadership are the same tired proposals for more government tinkering, more meddling and more control—all of which led us to this state in the first place… We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable, and then the courage to bring our government back under control and make it acceptable to the people.” —Ronald Reagan

GOVERNMENT

“There has been a void in the Republican presidential race. The GOP candidates have spoken about immigration, taxes, social issues, and the war in Iraq. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain have also spoken frequently about Ronald Reagan in order to position themselves as the political heirs to the great president. The candidates, however, have overlooked a central idea that animated Reagan’s view of government. That was federalism, the constitutional principle that the federal government’s responsibilities are ‘few and defined’ as James Madison put it. That’s why I’m pleased that Fred Thompson has thrown his hat into the ring. Thompson has been talking and writing about his belief in federalism. In a recent speech, he argued that ‘centralized government is not the solution to all our problems…[T]his was among the great insights of 1787, and it is just as vital in 2007.’ Thompson rightly argues that the abandonment of federalism has caused a range of pathologies including a lack of government accountability, the squelching of policy diversity between the states, and the overburdening of federal policymakers with local matters when they should be focusing on national-security issues.” —Chris Edwards

RE: THE LEFT

“When the entertainment mogul David Geffen, once a Clinton supporter, called both Bill and Hillary liars, Hillary not only decried the remark as a particularly vivid example of the ‘politics of personal destruction,’ but she demanded that Barack Obama do the same—and return a $2,300 donation Mr. Geffen had given him. Yet when Mrs. Clinton herself was asked to repudiate the abuse of Gen. Petraeus, she either saw no reason to do so or, much more likely, was afraid to alienate an important constituency, the 3.3 million members of MoveOn.org. She would, it seems, rather be president than right… The MoveOn.org ad was the moment for Mrs. Clinton to rise above hackdom… That moment is gone…” —Richard Cohen

POLITICAL FUTURES

“There continues to be a pro-life advantage over candidates who assume a pro-choice position. Assuming that the pro-life candidate is competitive he or she will have from a 4-6 point advantage over the pro-abortion candidate. Unless former Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani obtains the Republican nomination most likely the Republican nominee will be pro-life. It is a certainty that the Democratic nominee will be pro-abortion. In a tight race the Republican candidate would have an advantage. The pro-life movement has made incremental improvements. This began with the Reagan Presidency in 1981 and all the way through the Clinton Presidency once he had a Republican Congress, and now through the Bush era. If the Democrats were to win the Presidency and continue to control the Congress, it would be the first time that the pro-life movement would suffer a setback in the past quarter century.” —Paul Weyrich

FOR THE RECORD

“In recent years, the old ‘let’s tax them more’ crowd was on the defensive. But now, with a politically weakened president, the tax increase lobby is out in full force. All the Democrats running for president have promised to increase taxes. Almost every week, some senator or representative advocates more taxes to impose upon the American people. The tax increasing Democrats are betting the new generation of voters does not remember how the old, high tax rates affected the economy. The U.S. has only suffered three ‘down’ quarters of economic growth since 1982—a record never before enjoyed. To pull off the ‘new taxes will not hurt’ charade, the Democrats need to convince people the Reagan and Bush tax cuts had nothing to do with the unmatched economic growth and job creation. But the record is very clear about how the economy improved once the Reagan and, subsequently, the Bush tax rate reductions were enacted. Thus, the new line of attack is that the economy would somehow magically have improved without the tax cuts, and that the people behind the Reagan tax cuts were ‘crackpots.’…[If the] high tax allies in Congress told the truth about what was proposed and done by whom during the Reagan years, they would have no story; hence… no excuse for proposing destructive tax increases.” —Richard Rahn

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“Your article, ’White supremacists in the mainstream media?’, was right on the money! The real issue has nothing to do with what color we are but the actions we take! If one segment of the population is proportionately committing a larger percentage of the crime, it stands to reason that they should be imprisoned or stopped by law enforcement at a higher rate than another segment of the population. The fact that black-on-white crime doesn’t get the same publicity is a travesty!” —Wapakoneta, Ohio

“On Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton… These two bottom feeders cannot survive if they aren’t stirring up lies and deceit. How can they keep blackmailing large corporations, who pay them to not march and protest? These two are a sick pair.” —New Madrid, Missouri

“Speaking as a black person, I think another reason MSM fails to report black-on-white crime is they are afraid of and don’t want the hassle and attacks from $harpton and Jack$on calling them racist. By the way, thanks for refusing to be politically correct—yes, I am a black person.” —Greenville, South Carolina

“Every week it is my joy and blessing to read the issues of The Patriot Post. I tell people everywhere I go where they can find great insightful and patriotic news, from a Christian perspective as well. As a Vietnam veteran who knows that we cannot repeat our failures in Vietnam, may God make your voices heard across the nation! Semper Fi!” —San Jose, California

THE LAST WORD

“The only ‘crisis’ in health care in this country is that doctors are paid too little. (Also they’ve come up with nothing to help that poor Dennis Kucinich.) But the Democratic Party treats doctors like they’re Klan members. They wail about how much doctors are paid and celebrate the trial lawyers who do absolutely nothing to make society better, but swoop in and steal from the most valuable members of society. Maybe doctors could get the Democrats to like them if they started suing their patients. It’s only a matter of time before the best and brightest students forget about medical school and go to law school instead. How long can a society based on suing the productive last? You can make 30 times as much money as doctors by becoming a trial lawyer suing doctors. You need no skills, no superior board scores, no decade of training and no sleepless residency. But you must have the morals of a drug dealer. (And the bank wire transfer number to the Democratic National Committee.) The editors of The New York Times have been engaging in a spirited debate with their readers over whether doctors are wildly overpaid or just hugely overpaid. The results of this debate are available on TimeSelect, for just $49.95. ‘Many health care economists,’ the Times editorialized, say the partisan wrangling over health care masks a bigger problem: ‘the relatively high salaries paid to American doctors.’ Citing the Rand Corp., the Times noted that doctors in the U.S. ‘earn two to three times as much as they do in other industrialized countries.’ American doctors earn about $200,000 to $300,000 a year, while European doctors make $60,000 to $120,000. Why, that’s barely enough for Muslim doctors in Britain to buy plastic explosives to blow up airplanes! How much does Pinch Sulzberger make for driving The New York Times stock to an all-time low? Probably a lot more than your podiatrist.” —Ann Coulter

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.)