THE FOUNDATION: PATRIOTISM

“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.” —George Washington

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Still rooting for American defeat: “The surge hasn’t accomplished its goals… We’re involved, still, in an intractable civil war.” —Sen. Harry Reid ++ “We’re going to continue to try to see if we can’t get in place a timetable for the removal of most of the troops that we have [in Iraq]. Congress should be able to state a goal for the removal of most of the American troops without a veto threat.” —Sen. Carl Levin ++ Somebody’s changed his tune… a little: “I think the ‘surge’ is working…[But the Iraqis] have got to take care of themselves.” —Rep. John Murtha

Belly laugh of the week: “[Democrats] are the party of real national security. We are the party of real economic opportunity and a brighter future for our children.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is still trying to defeat the U.S. in Iraq ++ “It’s Republicans in Congress, not Democrats, blocking funding for our troops while promoting a failed strategy in Iraq. Our troops have done their jobs honorably but Iraq has failed to make the necessary political progress on the ground.” —DNC chief Howard “The Scream” Dean with the Demos latest talking point

It’s called “projection”: “So you decide which makes more sense: Entrust our country to someone who is ready on day one… or to put America in the hands of someone with little national or international experience, who started running for president the day he arrived in the U.S. Senate.” —Hillary on Obama **Patriot readers will note she actually is describing herself. ++ “It’s silly season. I understand she’s been quoting my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia.” —Barack Obama re Hillary’s criticism of his writing in kindergarten that he wanted to be President (presumably when he grew up)

On the Democrat nomination process: “Sixty-seven percent of the coverage is pure politics. That stuff has a half-life of about 15 seconds. It won’t matter tomorrow. It is very vulnerable to being slanted and rude. And it won’t affect your life.” —Bill Clinton

DEZINFORMATSIA

Thanks, Webster: “[M]y definition of a defeat is you can’t leave. If we can’t leave [Iraq] in the foreseeable future, we are losing. The purpose of the American Army is to get home and be ready to defend this country against possible threats to this country. As long as we’re stuck over there, it seems we’re losing.” —MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, still backwards

But we’re sure he supports the troops: “The United States is hosting a Middle East summit meeting aimed at kick-starting the peace process… But the only country currently at war in the Middle East is us, the United States, prosecuting two separate wars there, count them two, one of them an unprovoked act of naked aggression. That would be the war in Iraq…” —CNN’s Jack Cafferty ++ “Priorities don’t get much more twisted. A country that can’t find the money to provide health coverage for its children, or to rebuild the city of New Orleans, or to create a first-class public school system, is flushing whole generations worth of cash into the bottomless pit of a failed and endless war.” —New York Times columnist Bob Herbert

Doesn’t pass the giggle test: “I always tried to be the one person… that would give a fair representation of what was happening, and then I hoped a reasonable and intelligent analysis or insight into why it was happening. And I’ve been comforted over the years that people on the far left and people on the far right have said to me, ‘What party are you in, anyway? I have never been able to figure it out.’ And I’d say, ‘That’s exactly the reaction I want you to have’.” —former NBC News leftist anchor Tom Brokaw

Clueless: “Why immigration? I mean, we’ve got a war going on in Iraq, Americans are dying there, it costs what, about $10 billion a month, is that right?… And yet, every Republican debate it seems to come down to a shouting match over immigration.” —CBS’s Bob Schieffer

This week’s “Sociocrat Sycophant” Award: “When the hostages had been released and their alleged captor arrested, a regal-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis. The image, broadcast just as the network news began, conveyed the message a thousand town hall meetings and campaign commercials strive for—namely, that the Democratic presidential contender can face disorder in a most orderly manner.” —Associated Press

Newspulper Headlines: For Today, It’s ‘Every Man for Himself’: “’Law & Order’ Returns Wednesday” —Associated Press

Where’s John Kerry When You Need Him?: “U.S. 4th-Graders Slip in Global Test” —USA Today

What Did We Ever Do to Him?: “Edwards Supports Striking Writers” —Associated Press

No, but Global Warming Can!: “Can Iran and Hamas Sink Annapolis?” —Time.com

World’s Smallest Wildfire: “Flea’s Home Destroyed by Wildfire” —KXAS-TV Web site (Dallas)

News of the Tautological: “After All-Time Low, Crime Goes Up” —Miami Herald

Life Imitates the Onion: “World’s Top Scientists Ponder: What if the Whole Universe Is, Like, One Huge Atom?” —The Onion ++ “Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists With Theory of Everything” —Daily Telegraph (London)

Bottom Story of the Day: “Man Clad in Swim Trunks Rides Bike Through Motel” —WCCO-TV Web site (Minneapolis) (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

LEGACY OF THE REAGAN REVOLUTION

Syndicated Radio Host Michael Reagan reads The Patriot Post: “The vision and legacy of the Reagan Revolution flourish on the pages of The Patriot.”

Our favorite Founding Patriot Samuel Adams noted, “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” That describes YOU!

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I thank you for the honor and privilege of serving you as editor and publisher of The Patriot. On behalf of your Patriot staff and National Advisory Committee, thank you and God bless you and your family!

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander

Publisher

(The Patriot is not sustained by any political, special-interest or parent organization, nor do we accept any online or e-mail advertising. Our mission and operations budgets are funded by—and depend entirely upon—the voluntary financial support of American Patriots like YOU!)

“Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions.” —George Washington

INSIGHT

“Our moment in history is marked by a mortal conflict between a culture of life and a culture of death. God put us in the world to do noble things, to love and to cherish our fellow human beings, not to destroy them. Today we must choose sides.” —the late Rep. Henry Hyde

“Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another.” —Oscar Wilde

“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“The people know the difference between pretense and reality. They want to be told the truth. They want to be trusted… The people want a government of common sense.” —Calvin Coolidge

“The trouble with Democrats is that they all want to run for President.” —Will Rogers

UPRIGHT

“When President Bush was grappling with embryonic stem cell research in 2001, Newsweek’s science correspondent, Sharon Begley, warned in a cover story that this might be ‘a cruel blow to millions of patients for whom embryonic stem cells might offer the last chance for health and life.’ In the current issue of Newsweek, Begley now tells us that the technology was always oversold. The notion that stem cells will lead to quick cures and transplants is ‘more fiction than fact,’ Begley tells us—now.” —Jonah Goldberg

“[T]he Democratic Party has so blatantly offended the values, lifestyles, sensibilities and traditions of America that they have driven a vast number of voters into the Republican column. This abrasive hostility to family, faith and tradition by the national Democratic Party… added to the sense of moral decay that most Americans were feeling and thereby benefited the GOP.” —Tony Blankley

“Dishonesty defines Clinton’s campaign… Layered upon the wholesale dishonesty that defines Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign is a projected arrogance that it doesn’t matter. That somehow this nomination and this election belong to her, regardless of what she says or does. Voters, of course, will have the final say on this.” —Star Parker

“It is not true that the world hates America. It is the world’s left that hates America. However, because the left dominates the world’s news media and because most people, understandably, believe what the news media report, many people, including Americans, believe that the world hates America.” —Dennis Prager

“For individual freedom to be viable, it must be a part of the shared values of a society and there must be an institutional framework to preserve it against encroachments by majoritarian or government will.” —Walter Williams

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“Sudan’s President yesterday pardoned Gillian Gibbons, jailed last Sunday for insulting Islam—an offense so arbitrarily constructed these days, it’s getting hard to avoid. The British teacher incurred the wrath of the Islamic regime, otherwise busy slaughtering fellow Muslims in Darfur, by allowing her mostly Muslim students at an English school in Khartoum to name a teddy bear ‘Muhammad.’ In a rally on Friday, thousands of protesters, many armed with clubs and swords, called for Ms. Gibbons’s death. The faithful were angry that she was sentenced to ‘only’ 15 days after being threatened with 40 lashes and six months. Her early release and the fact that Europe has been spared similar demonstrations of Muslim piety as during the 2005-2006 Danish Muhammad-cartoon riots, is probably the best one can say about this affair.” —The Wall Street Journal

VILLAGE IDIOTS

From the Glitterati: “Go through the history of time. During the Salem witch hunt, the liberals thought there was no such thing as witches, and the conservative view was ‘They’re witches and they all have to die.’ I don’t argue with conservatives over morality. I don’t preach morality, certainly, but I won’t be told that liberal is immoral.” —actor and noted historian George Clooney

If it’s about hair, shouldn’t they vote for Edwards?: “We talk politics. We talk about men. We talk about everything. But, you know, there’s a lot of conversations had in hair salons, serious political conversations and decisions are made there.” —Kelly Adams, South Carolina State director of the Hillary Clinton Organization on the “hair salon vote”

From the Village Academic Curriculum File: “Despite all this country has gone through, anything can happen next November. Why should we believe that 2008 will not produce a president as incompetent and lawless as 2004 did, or as unelected as 2000 did?” —USC professor Marty Kaplan

Sometimes they get it right: “I’m hearing that Hillary is ready to kill Bill. But it has nothing to do with his roving eye… By claiming that he had ‘opposed Iraq from the beginning’ —when the record clearly shows otherwise—the former president served voters a piping hot reminder that the Clintons have frequently had an on-and-off relationship with the truth.” —Arianna Huffington

From the global village: “From this moment on, let’s be calm. There is no dictatorship here.” —Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez on the 49-51 percent election defeat of his bid to be socialist dictator for life

SHORT CUTS

“The holiday season is here, so it’s time to engage in the time-honored Christmas tradition of objecting to every time-honored Christmas tradition.” —Mark Steyn

“The best way to look at the U.S. tax code is like it’s a three legged mule. It’s ugly, deformed, and doesn’t do much good for anybody.” —Dick Armey

“Rodney King was shot and slightly wounded twice on Thursday while he was bicycling home drunk in Southern California. He serves an important function in the ecosystem. If Los Angeles isn’t burned down every fifteen years there is no room for new growth.” —Argus Hamilton

“Mrs. Clinton is acting as if she’s scared. She insists to Katie Couric that she’s the next president—’It will be me’ —and she’s back to using the language of aggression—there’s been a lot of ‘beat,’ as in they’ve been trying to ‘beat me.’ In the first 60 seconds of her Couric interview she used some variation on the word ‘attack’ five times. If Mitt Romney talked like this, they’d be asking who put the Red Bull in his milkshake.” —Peggy Noonan

“Last week, in an article titled ‘Walking a Tightrope on Immigration,’ The New York Times made the fact-defying claim that the illegal immigration issue poses a risk for Republicans who appeal to voters ‘angry’ about illegal immigration. (This is as opposed to voters ‘angry’ that they spent good money buying a copy of The New York Times.)” —Ann Coulter

“Now we’re up to our hips in alligators and global-warming fanatics. We can’t predict a hurricane next week, but Al Gore can predict doom 40 years from next Christmas, and a lot of people take him seriously.” —Wesley Pruden

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.)