THE FOUNDATION: CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION

“The construction applied… to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power… ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers.” —Thomas Jefferson

GOVERNMENT

“Speaker Pelosi says that for the cost of 41 days in Iraq, 10 million children can receive health insurance for a year… Cut-and run Democrats argue that it’s an either/or proposition. The choice, they say, is between defense spending in general and funding the Iraq war in particular and expanding programs like the State Child Health Insurance Program beyond its original intent to meet a need largely already met by the private sector… Democrats such as Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin have proposed a separate ‘war tax’ to pay for the War on Terror. We have one: It’s called the income tax, which began as a 2% levy only on the very rich, but which has morphed into an economy-strangling behemoth that finances an annual budget of $3,000,000,000,000—that’s three trillion dollars. Defense spending constituted only $528 billion of that budget in fiscal 2006—or about 4% of gross domestic product. In 1953, during the Korean War, it hit a postwar high of 14.2% of GDP. In 1968, in the middle of Vietnam, it reached 9.5%. And in 1986, at the height of the Reagan buildup that doomed the evil empire, it was 6.8%. We’re not spending too much on the military. We’re spending too little to meet both the needs of the War on Terror and the rising threat of a nuclear Iran, not to mention dealing with the frantic pace at which both Russia and China are arming… The Preamble to the Constitution speaks of the need to ‘provide for the common defence’ and to ‘promote the general welfare.’ But ‘promoting’ doesn’t mean providing. And while the Constitution speaks loudly on the structure of our armed forces and the role of Congress and commander in chief, it is silent on things like children’s insurance. Democrats forget that the greatest social service that a government can perform for its people is to keep them alive and free.” —Investor’s Business Daily

RE: THE LEFT

“What the politicians are offering is for the massively indebted U.S. government to pay all the medical bills, no matter how small (and, of course, with money they don’t have). It’s not about health, but about sickness. And it is not insurance. Insurance is about major, unpredictable expenses. Our auto insurance (which we pay for ourselves) does not cover gas, oil, tires, maintenance and depreciation. So why do we keep electing leaders who keep running up bills that they can’t pay, who borrow from the Chinese and pass the resulting debts to our children and grandchildren to pay? Because we want something paid for by someone else; that’s what the politicians promise they can give us, and we keep believing them. In the end, it is we who are the fools. When are we going to wake up and acknowledge the obvious? We do not have the money to do these things. There is no ‘somebody else.’ We have to pay for these additional benefits ourselves if we want them.” —Bert McLachlan

THE GIPPER

“Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, ‘What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.’ But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector. Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we’re always ‘against,’ never ‘for’ anything.” —Ronald Reagan

INSIGHT

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” —Winston Churchill

IChThUS IMPRIMIS

“The central doctrine of the Christian faith is that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for sinners and by repenting of sin and accepting Christ as Savior, one is ‘saved’ and is guaranteed a home in Heaven. Muslims do not believe God had a son and, therefore, no atonement for sin is necessary. Muslims believe simply telling God one is sorry and repenting of sin is enough, if one also lives up to the five ‘pillars’ of Islam. Furthermore, according to Muslims, Jesus did not die on a cross (as Christians believe); instead, God allowed Judas to look like Jesus and it was Judas who was crucified. Evangelical Christians believe the Bible is God’s Word and is without error in the original manuscripts. Muslims respect the word of the prophets, but claim the Bible has been corrupted (mostly by Jews) and is only correct insofar as it agrees with the Koran. God calls himself ‘I Am’ and says He is one, but with three personalities. Muslims believe God’s name is Allah and reject the Trinity. How can [President Bush] say that we all worship the same God when Muslims deny the divinity of Jesus, whom the president accepts as the One through whom all must pass for salvation?” —Cal Thomas

CULTURE

“Sometime in the 1960s, [colleges and universities] abandoned their role as advocates of American values—critical advocates who tried to advance freedom and equality further than Americans had yet succeeded in doing—and took on the role of adversaries of society. The students who were exempted from serving their country during the Vietnam War condemned not themselves but their country, and many sought tenured positions in academe to undermine what they considered a militaristic, imperialist, racist, exploitative, sexist, homophobic—the list of complaints grew as the years went on—country. English departments have been packed by deconstructionists who insist that Shakespeare is no better than rap music, and history departments with multiculturalists who insist that all societies are morally equal except our own, which is morally inferior. Economics departments and the hard sciences have mostly resisted such deterioration. But when Lawrence Summers, first-class economist and president of Harvard, suggested that more men than women may have the capacity to be first-rate scientists—which is what the hard data showed—then, off with his head. … What [this regnant campus culture] doesn’t explain is why the rest of society is willing to support such institutions by paying huge tuitions, providing tax exemptions and making generous gifts… It’s too bad the rest of America is not paying more attention.” —Michael Barone

LIBERTY

“America [is] losing its cultural identity to a massive influx of people from incompatible cultures that will not assimilate into America but inject their own culture against ours. They cannot comprehend that our national culture and history form the bedrock of our existence. Our schools must teach our children about our culture in our country. Nothing about America remains more sacred than our culture. Without it, we become the same as those our forebears have fought and died to keep us from becoming: we lose freedom and the ability to preserve it. A country that loses its identity suffers the same kind of disintegration as a child who loses its family. As proven around the world today, multiculturalism fails at every level of human interaction. It proves, ultimately, one of the greatest dangers to humanity. If America loses Christmas, Halloween, Easter, 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, President s day and Thanksgiving to multiculturalism, we lose parts of the foundation of our spiritual grounding in an uncertain world.” —Frosty Wooldridge

OPINION IN BRIEF

“I believe that people of conscience—very much including voters across the country—have an obligation to struggle with the stress between principle and political pragmatism—even at the risk of failing to make the right judgment. Politics is the zone where one’s religious and ethical habits are not always the only and best guides. We can make a 100-percent commitment to, for example, obey our marital vows or adhere to the teachings of our churches—and consciously strive never to fall short. But in the practicality of democratic elections, we cannot make such a similar commitment to every one of our governing ideals. Elections are very specific and limited choices between different outcomes. The decision not to vote or vote for a third-party candidate with no hope of winning is itself a moral choice for the outcome such a vote will effectuate. People of conscience will have to decide whether feeling pure by voting ‘none of the above’ is the highest ethical act or not.”—Tony Blankley

POLITICAL FUTURES

“To be sure, some women in politics have been less successful than others. France’s first female prime minister was Judith Cresson, who lasted less than a year in office, and the first Canadian was poor Kim Campbell, who held the job for less than six months before leading her party to catastrophic electoral defeat. But Helen Clark in New Zealand and Angela Merkel in Germany have fought the political fight on equal terms, neither expecting nor receiving any favors because of their sex. What a contrast Hillary Clinton presents! Everyone recognizes the nepotism or favoritism she has enjoyed: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has written that without her marriage, Clinton might be a candidate for president of Vassar, but not of the United States. And yet the truly astonishing nature of her career still doesn’t seem to have impinged on Americans. Seven years ago, she turned up in New York, a state with which she had a somewhat tenuous connection, expecting to be made senator by acclamation (particularly once Rudy Giuliani decided not to run against her). Until that point, she had never won or even sought any elective office, not in the House or in a state legislature. Nor had she held any executive-branch position. The only political task with which she had ever been entrusted was her husband’s health-care reforms, and she made a complete hash of that.”—Geoffrey Wheatcroft

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“Oliver North’s article, ’Permission Slip For the Sea,’ hits the proverbial nail right on the head. The ‘Law of the Sea Treaty’ (LOST) is simply another step on the road to World Government and further decreases the sovereignty of These United States of America, subjugating our Constitution and entangling us in an unenforceable web of global bureaucratic hegemony. Colonel North, you Sir are a Patriot. Semper Fidelis!”—Bridgewater, Vermont

“Without a doubt, should Congress and the President approve ‘LOST’ and sign on, the United States will be permanently LOST. We can forget about any security on the home front with this action.”—Rome, Georgia

“’LOST’ is an absurd idea that is just one more way for liberals, the UN and our enemies (but I repeat myself) to further tear down our country. We can’t let this happen. Too many of our citizens are simply not aware of the disastrous ramifications of this treaty. The word must continue to be publicized about this, and I thank The Patriot for taking initiative in educating us about this newest ploy of the UN and others.”—Mansfield, Texas

“The Nobel Peace Prize committee has once again demonstrated their irrelevance in world opinion concerning truth, honor, and peace. I think Alfred Nobel would be appalled at the reprehensible selections for his perennial award. The latest peace prize winner, Algore, is just another in their long list of phonies.”—McAlpin, Florida

THE LAST WORD

“On illegal immigration, [Mike] Huckabee makes George Bush sound like Tom Tancredo. He has compared illegal aliens to slaves brought here in chains from Africa, saying, ‘I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before.’ Toward that end, when an Arkansas legislator introduced a bill that would prevent illegal aliens from voting and receiving state benefits, Huckabee denounced the bill, saying it would rile up ‘those who are racist and bigots.’ He also made the insane point that companies like Toyota would not invest in Arkansas if the state didn’t allow non-citizens to vote because it would ‘send the message that, essentially, ‘If you don’t look like us, talk like us and speak like us, we don’t want you.’ Like all the (other) Democratic candidates for president, he supports a federal law to ban smoking—unless you’re an illegal alien smoking at a Toyota plant. (I just realized why Mike Huckabee can’t run for president as a Democrat—they’ve already got Mike Gravel.) Huckabee also joined with impeached president Bill Clinton in a campaign against childhood obesity. What, O.J. wasn’t available?”—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.)