THE FOUNDATION: NATIONAL DEFENSE

“How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?” —James Madison

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn’t fit the media’s neat story line that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003. It’s a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad. In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel—thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region. This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, as the AP reported, this marks a ‘significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy.’ Seems to us this should be big news. After all, much of the early opposition to the war in Iraq involved claims that President Bush ‘lied’ about weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam posed little if any nuclear threat to the U.S. This more or less proves Saddam in 2003 had a program on hold for building WMD and that he planned to boot it up again soon…Saddam acquired most of his uranium before 1991, but still had it in 2003, when invading U.S. troops found the stuff… That means Saddam held onto it for more than a decade. Why? He hoped to wait out U.N. sanctions on Iraq and start his WMD program anew. This would seem to vindicate Bush’s decision to invade.” —Investor’s Business Daily

UPRIGHT

“It’s one thing to fight a war and lose it. It’s quite another to willingly surrender without a struggle.” —Cal Thomas

“The Congress should look to increase exploration inside the United States. It is strange to ask what I should produce. It’s an issue of sovereignty.” —Qatar Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah in response to Democrats’ plans to sue OPEC

“How do we define competency and leadership when a war veteran is set against an anti-war idealist, when one who has seen it all is challenged by one who still wants to see it all, when experience and deliberation are set against hope and change?” —Victor Davis Hanson

“Obama’s seasonally adjusted principles are beginning to pile up: NAFTA, campaign finance reform, warrantless wiretaps, flag pins, gun control. What’s left? Iraq. The reversal is coming, and soon.” —Charles Krauthammer ++ “Obama’s constant policy adjustments tend to be admired for their alleged deftness rather than condemned for their obvious cynicism, while his liberal primary positions are presumed to be sincere—the shifts being carried out just to trick the foolish old people who wouldn’t vote for such an obvious liberal.” —Tony Blankley

“When we go to the polls in November, we should beware of any candidate promising that government will solve all our problems. We need to work to keep government doing its right roles and no more, because if we do not, it will eventually cease to function at all.” —Chuck Colson

“While the media may treat the elections as being about Democrats and Republicans… elections were not set up by the Constitution of the United States in order to enable party politicians to get jobs. Nor were elections set up in order to enable voters to vent their emotions or indulge their fantasies. Voting is a right but it is also… a duty not just to show up on election day, but a duty to give serious thought to the alternatives on the table and what those alternatives mean for the future of the nation.” —Thomas Sowell

INSIGHT

“Nothing just happens in politics. If something happens you can be sure it was planned that way.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt ++ “Politics, and the fate of mankind, are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness.” —Albert Camus

“If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics.” —Will Rogers

“The problem isn’t a shortage of fuel; it’s a surplus of government.” —Ronald Reagan

DEZINFORMATSIA

Because Democrats never play the race card: “Senator Obama will shine a light on [racially tinged appeals] all the time, call out Republicans whenever he senses they’re playing the race card.” —ABC’s George Stephanopoulos

Over the top: “Obama talked in almost achingly intimate terms about the impact service had on him, as a boy who ‘spent much of my childhood adrift’ and often had little idea ‘who I was or where I was going’ because of his father’s absence.” —Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven fawning over a B.O. speech

Hitting on something: “It’s hard to fathom why Obama should be mau-maued into paying off the debt that Hillary and Bill accrued attacking and undermining him, while mismanaging the campaign and their nearly quarter-billion-dollar war chest so horribly that one Hillaryland insider told The New Republic that it bordered on fraud.” —Maureen Dowd

Sticking up for a… Republican?: “[I] understand what you’re saying, general, but someone who’s had the experience that Senator McCain has had, if you’re commander in chief and you’re sending soldiers into war, having that kind of experience, isn’t it better than having no experience at all in the military?… General Clark, do you feel like you owe Senator McCain an apology?” —ABC’s Robin Roberts to Wesley Clark

Sign language: “Coming up next, are penguins sending us warning signs about global warming?” —CBS’s Maggie Rodriguez No, it’s just mating season.

Belly Laugh of the Week: “While I would not dispute the longstanding assertions that there are more political liberals in newsrooms than conservatives, our political staff, as best I can tell, represents all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs, and because we all work so closely and in such a fishbowl, we all tend to keep one another on the straight and narrow.” —New York Times Political Editor Richard Stevenson

Newspulper Headlines: Dude, USA Is No. 1!: “Report: U.S. Has Highest Rates of Cocaine, Marijuana Use” —USA Today Web site

Breaking News From 2003: “Canadians Oppose Iraq War: Poll” —Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control”—Associated Press, June 21 ++ “Fuel Costs May Force Some Kids to Walk” —The Washington Post ++ “Pets Are Suffering Too in Downward Economy” —State (Columbia, SC) ++ “Plasma, LCDs Blamed for Accelerating Global Warming” —ABC News Web site (Australia) ++ “Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling” —DailyTech.com ++ “Earth Begins to Kill People for Changing Its Climate” —Pravda ++ “Scientists Warn U.S. Is Unprepared if Asteroid Strikes” —Seattle Times ++ “35,310 Lego Star Wars Clone Trooper Army Invades Earth” —Gizmodo.com ++ “Many Dutch Prepare for 2012 Apocalypse” —United Press International ++ “Report: The End of the Internet Is Near” —FoxNews.com ++ “French Man With Two Asses Surprises Swedish Officials” —Local (Stockholm)

News You Can Use: “Nuclear Explosions Could Be Key to Spotting Fake Paintings” —CBC.ca

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Barbra Streisand Backs Obama” —Reuters (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Surrender strategy: “Let me be as clear as I can be, I intend to end this war. My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission and that is to end this war—responsibly, deliberately, but decisively.” —Barack Obama “There is a word for ending a war responsibly. It’s called ‘winning’.” —James Taranto

This week’s “Yellow Ribbon” Award: “I think for the short-term, [the surge] has certainly reduced incidents. I’m not sure whether it’s because of the Iraqis just being worn out, but certainly the way they’re doing it today makes a big difference. It used to be we broke down doors, we went in and we killed people inadvertently. Now they’re much more careful about that.” —Rep. John Murtha

On qualifications: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” —former presidential candidate Wesley Clark

The pot and the kettle: “John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting…John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about.” —John “Flip-Flop” Kerry Wait a minute. No one ever accused Kerry of thinking about the issues.

You’re no Jack Kennedy: “[L]oving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it.” —Barack Obama on his presidential plan for government-mandated “service”

Gun grabbers: “If they think that’s the answer, then they’re greatly mistaken. Then why don’t we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West? You have a gun and I have a gun, and we’ll settle in the streets.” —Chicago Mayor Richard Daley protesting the legal challenge to Chicago’s gun ban after the Supreme Court’s Heller ruling

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Rewrite history: “Barack knows that we are gonna have to make sacrifices, we are gonna have to change our conversation, we are gonna have to change our traditions, our history—we’re gonna have to move into a different place as a nation to provide the kind of future that we all want desperately for our children. And he is the man to do it.” —Michelle Obama

From the Glitterati: “Barack has awakened in many of us the notion that we can again be hopeful, enabling us to believe that we are capable of lifting our brothers and sisters out of poverty, of providing quality education for all our children, of ending this unjust war in Iraq and bringing our troops home safely. He’s reminded us ‘yes we can’.” —entertainer Barbra Streisand

Quid pro homo: “[T]he federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples—whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. And that is why he opposes all divisive and discriminatory constitutional amendments—whether it’s a proposed amendment to the California and Florida constitutions or the U.S. Constitution.” —Michelle Obama, who by “states” means “courts”

Misunderstanding the Constitution: “The [Supreme] Court was careful to note that the right to bear arms is not absolute and can be subject to reasonable regulation. Yet, by concluding that D. C.’s gun control law was unreasonable and thus invalid, the Court placed a constitutional limit on gun control legislation that had not existed prior to its decision in Heller. It is too early to know how much of a constitutional straitjacket the new rule will create.” —ACLU press release after Heller As far as we know, the Second Amendment pre-exists the Court’s ruling.

SHORT CUTS

“When he comes to a fork in the road, Barack Obama continues to take it.” —Wesley Pruden

“What makes Obama’s ‘textbook’ dash to the center so extraordinary is not just its speed, but how it falsifies the very essence of his candidacy… When it comes to triangulating, he’s Hillary Clinton without the baggage.” —Rich Lowry

“Back in the days of ‘The Lone Ranger’ program, someone would ask, ‘Who is that masked man?’ People need to start asking that question about Barack Obama.” —Thomas Sowell

“The Obamans insist that mentioning any of the man’s disreputable friends and religious mentors is a no-no that smacks of McCarthyism. This is an odd complaint because, one, McCarthy was right when he pointed out that the folks who associated with other people at Communist cell meetings were in fact Communists, and, two, every child is told that he’s going to be judged by the company he keeps. So, let’s face facts—John Dillinger ran with a nicer crowd than this guy.” —Burt Prelutsky

“Time magazine’s columnist Joe Kline… recently called for—get this—a reduction or elimination of the use of air conditioning in America. (This is a measure that would be wildly popular in Arizona, Texas, and Florida I’m sure). Air conditioning, you see, consumes 4% of the energy used in this country, and thus by his lights has become a serious threat to national security.” —David Strom

David Letterman: “Top Ten Dumb Guy Ways to Save Gas”: Put it on the endangered species list (Kokomo, IN); Push your car to work (Houston, TX); Drive only at night (Bethany, OK); Drive in reverse until tank is refilled (Blaine, WA); Stop showing up for work every day (Rock Falls, IL); Only drive downhill (Mounds View, MN); Take the wife’s car (Hoffman, Estates, IL); Fill the car with helium gas to make it lighter on the road (Camp Hill, PA); Try to be in Oprah’s audience every day—she’s gotta be giving gas away soon (Ridgefield, CT); Take your wife and mistress out to dinner at the same time (Nashville, TN).

Jay Leno: Big scare [Monday] for Barack Obama. His airplane had to make an unscheduled landing because of mechanical problems. While the pilot was steering to the left the plane was apparently drifting to the right. Nobody could really quite figure out what was happening. … Obama’s wife Michelle was pretty distraught when she first heard the news that his plane had problems, although not nearly as distraught as Hillary Clinton when she heard everything was okay. … Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton met last week in Unity, New Hampshire, to campaign together and to show their unity, that’s why they went to Unity, New Hampshire. Bill Clinton could not be there—he was in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. … Only in America could a woman who married a man from Hope go to a town called Unity and fake something called Sincerity.

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.)