THE FOUNDATION

“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

“President Obama claimed a triumph for spending rectitude [Tuesday] after the Senate stripped out funding for the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fighter. Credit $1.75 billion in savings, or a third of a percentage point of the overall 2010 defense request. Only a couple of trillion more, and Mr. Obama will have a balanced budget. The Senate vote defers to an Administration’s assessment of defense priorities. In the budget sent up to the Hill in April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made hard choices. Among them was his decision to kill the stealthy F-22, bar none the best fighter jet in the skies, and instead to focus resources on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We happen to think the U.S. needs this program to keep its superiority in the air for the next three or so decades. Designed for air-to-air combat and to fly at supersonic speeds without being detected by radar, the F-22 gets dismissed as a ‘relic’ of the Cold War. But not all conflicts are likely to be against inferior, unconventional enemies. China and Russia are building up their conventional forces, for example. Congress might have challenged Mr. Obama’s choices on such strategic grounds. Aside from the F-22, the Administration wants to cut missile defenses, shrink the Navy and over the long-run reduce spending on defense, when the demands on American forces are greater than ever. … One thing for sure is that the F-22 vote isn’t a sign of new fiscal discipline. Congress continues to bust the budget on everything except defense, most especially with its push for government health care for all. Meanwhile, the Air Force will have to live with 187 F-22s when the next adversary arrives.” –The Wall Street Journal

INSIGHT

“Be extremely subtle, to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” –Sun-Tzu (c. 544-496 BC)

“The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most necessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.” –economist Adam Smith (1723-1790)

UPRIGHT

“Halfway into 2009, Americans have turned more control of their lives over to government and politicians than ever before in history. This proposed health care reform, through subsidies and expansion of Medicaid, would put tens of millions of new Americans on welfare. The result is predictable. Many more citizens with incentives to stay poor and dependent. The rest of us will transfer a major part of our freedom to manage our own private lives over to bureaucrats.” –columnist Star Parker

“The most important thing to understand about the Democrats’ domestic agenda is that they care more about establishing government control over our lives than they do about the stated policy goals of their proposals. It’s true of their fraudulently named stimulus packages, their cap-and-tax scheme and especially their universal health care plans. With all of these programs and more, their driving aim is not only to acquire power for the sake of acquiring it but also to use government to impose their values on us and, effectively, destroy our personal liberties. The subject of liberty – the very impetus for the founding of this nation – is rarely mentioned in the public debate.” –columnist David Limbaugh

“[S]ome members of Congress … intend, as the New York Times puts it, ‘to reinvent the nation’s health care system.’ Let that sink in. A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system.” –columnist John Stossel

“Because 32 ‘czars’ isn’t enough, the Democratic plan would add another overlord to the Obama administration. The new ‘Health Choices Commissioner’ would helm the new ‘Health Choices Administration’ (section 141 of the bill) – separate from the already existing Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration), the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

“Both Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Ronald W. Reagan implemented the same solution to the recessions they faced. Note that both the Democrat and Republican chose exactly the opposite action that the current administration seems determined to fulfill. Kennedy and Reagan lowered the top marginal tax rates. When they did, small businesses hired more people, expanded the middle class, and brought the U.S. Treasury record revenues the years following the implementation. If President Obama wishes to genuinely solve the joblessness problem, all he has to do is embrace the historically proven solution.” –columnist Kevin McCullough

THE DEMO-GOGUES

The BIG Lie: “[T]he [health care] reforms we make will help bring our deficits under control in the long term. Those who oppose reform will also tell you that under our plan you won’t get to choose your doctor, that some bureaucrat will choose for you. That’s also not true. Michelle and I don’t want anyone telling us who our family doctor should be, and no one should decide that for you, either. Under our proposal if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your current insurance, you keep that insurance. Period. End of story.” –President Barack Obama

The LIE gets BIGGER: "Opponents of health reform warn that this is all some big plot for socialized medicine or government-run health care with long lines and rationed care. That’s not true, either. I don’t believe that government can or should run health care, but I also don’t think insurance companies should have free rein to do as they please.“ –Barack Marx Obama

If only he really meant it: ”[H]ealth insurance reform cannot add to our deficit over the next decade and I mean it.“ –Barack Obama

Deficit disorder: "This is legislation that will not increase the deficit. Half of the funds for the bill will come from savings, others from the revenue stream. I hope that we can change that percentage, that we have much more coming from savings. That I believe that all the costs of the health care reform bill can come from squeezing more savings out of the system.” –House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on health care

Paying for “choice”: “I think we handled the issue well. We like the idea that people have choices and, indeed, the law of the land permits people to make those choices, and we respect that, and we are going to pursue that. Again, we do not want to discriminate when people have – they have convictions, moral convictions and religious convictions.” –Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) on requiring abortion services to be part of health insurance

Unbelievable arrogance: “What you haven’t seen [in the financial sector] is a change in culture, a certain humility where they kind of step back and say, ‘Gosh, you know, we really messed things up.’” –Barack Obama, who could use a bit of humility himself

Now that’s empathy: “[The] hard truth is, is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back. They are casualties of a changing economy.” –President Barack Obama

Racial nonsense: “That’s part of the African American experience. You are, in some ways, connected to this distant land, but on the other end, you’re about as American as it gets in some ways. African Americans are more fundamentally rooted in the American experience because they don’t have a recent immigrant experience to draw on. It’s that unique African American culture that has existed in North America for hundreds of years long before we actually founded the nation.” –Barack Obama

DEZINFORMATSIA

Not exactly: “We do actually have people in the White House who understand [the economy]. I think they’re not forceful enough, but these are not stupid people. These are not crazy people. … They understand what the problems of the economy are. You know, as I say, they’re not stupid, they’re not crazy, which is a big improvement on previous management.” –New York Times columnist and former Enron advisor Paul Krugman

Nothing to fear: “Also tonight, a warning from the president: If we don’t get health care reform done now, then no one’s health insurance is going to be secure.” –CBS’s Katie Couric

Look in the mirror: “Well, six months after President Obama took office, a lot of sociologists and analysts believe that harsh political discourse against him really amped up and people started to push the boundaries of what might be considered decency. From talk radio to those tea parties that we saw with some pretty offensive signs folks were holding, even in the presence of children. The anger has certainly intensified.” –MSNBC’s Tamron Hall, who apparently missed the Left’s frothing hatred for the Bush administration

Clueless: “You know, for a Democrat, [Sonia Sotomayor] has a pretty conservative record. Very much in the mainstream. In fact, on a lot of criminal law issues, you could say that she’s more conservative than some members of the Supreme Court, including Justice Scalia, perhaps.” –NPR’s Nina Totenberg ++ “Sotomayor – calmly, persistently, repeatedly – described herself differently, sounding almost conservative.” –ABC’s Jan Crawford Greenberg

Cronkite – the father of media bias: “Walter’s instructions to us in the field were always, you know, ‘Tell it straight without fear or favoritism. Pull no punches. Say it like it is, insofar as is humanly possible. Keep your own prejudices and biases and feelings and emotions out of it.’ To a very large degree he did that. Yes there were some exceptions. The time he spoke about the Vietnam War, just after the Tet offensive, being the best known example. But Walter was, what he stood for, the beacon he sent out was, ‘Straight news reporting. Whatever your political persuasions are, however anyone wants to label you, get to the story, tell the story as straight as you can and the American public will understand.’” –former CBS anchor Dan Rather on Walter Cronkite

Newspulper Headlines:

Pyramid Scheme Collapses: “IRS Fails to Collect $1.2 Billion From Those Owing $1 Million” –Bloomberg

First Same-Sex Marriage, Now This: “Kelly Hildebrandt to Marry Kelly Hildebrandt” –Houston Chronicle

How Many Arms Does He Have?: “Man’s Arm Severed, 3 Others Critically Injured in Crash Near Midway” –Chicago Sun-Times

News of the Tautological: “Costly Gas Pushes Up Consumer Prices” –The New York Times

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “Big Blobs of Mystery Goo Floating Off Alaska Coast” –McClatchy Newspapers

News You Can Use: “Durham Mayor Proclaims Friday a Day of Happiness” –News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Sotomayor, Franken Both ‘Perry Mason’ Fans” –Associated Press

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Joseph Story, call your office: “When I was in law school … the idea that you had a Second Amendment right to a gun was considered preposterous…. But the Supreme Court [in Heller] … said that … individuals have a personal right to bear arms.” –CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin

Non compos mentis: “[T]he media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing.” –former Air America talk-show host Janeane Garofalo

Some explanation: “We pledged at the time the Recovery Act became law that some of the spending and tax effects would begin almost immediately. We also noted that the impact of the Recovery Act would build up over time, peaking during 2010 with about 70 percent of the total stimulus provided in the first 18 months. Now, five months after the passage, we are on track to meet that timeline.” –White House economic adviser Larry Summers

Heartless: “Yet [Ted Kennedy’s] achievements as a Senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne." –Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer

Conspiracy theories: "But there are also questions to be answered … whether the moon walk actually did happen.” –co-host of “The View” Whoopi Goldberg on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing

SHORT CUTS

“Today, we’re spending like we’re Paris Hilton, regulating like we’re Ralph Nader, nationalizing like we’re Hugo Chavez, printing money like we’re the Weimar Republic and taxing like we’re, well, the Democratic Congress.” –former Georgia Democrat Sen. Zell Miller

“Judged against the standard of the U.S. Senate, maybe Sonia Sotomayor has a point. ‘A wise Latina’ certainly came across smarter than most of those white men on the Judiciary Committee.” –Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

“[Joe] Biden reminds me of what Churchill once said about our Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles: He is a bull who carries his own china shop with him.” –columnist Ken Blackwell

“The president’s good friend, Al Gore, who stands to clean up, thanks to the Cap and Trade bill, has long campaigned for the greening of America. How long will it take people to wake up to the fact that his major concern is the greening of Al Gore? For good measure, the greedy oaf recently compared the battle over global warming to the war against the Nazis. And, to think, some folks thought PETA was over the top when they compared a chicken farm to Auschwitz.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky

“Hillary Clinton flew to India and Thailand and Indonesia Saturday. It’s labeled a state visit but it’s more like a scavenger hunt. She’s quietly offering a $25 million reward for a certified copy of the president’s birth certificate.” –comedian Argus Hamilton