The Foundation

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.” –George Washington

Editorial Exegesis

“With less than two months to go before the big Copenhagen Conference on global warming, two major nations have said ‘no thanks’ to the no-growth agenda. For that reason alone, so should we. Following a deal signed late Thursday between China and India, anything we might agree to do in Copenhagen is likely moot anyway. The two mega-nations – which together account for nearly a third of the world’s population – said they won’t go along with a new climate treaty being drafted in Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. They’re basically saying no to anything that forces them to impose mandatory limits on their output of greenhouse gas emissions. Other developing nations, including Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, will likely reject any proposals as well. The deal was already in trouble. Three weeks ago, the Group of 77 developing nations met in Thailand to discuss what they wanted to do about global warming. Their answer: nothing. William Hawkins, writing in the American Thinker, quotes a piece in China’s Science Times journal that sums up how China – and other developing nations – feel: ‘Why do the developed countries put an arguable scientific problem on the international negotiations table?’ the article’s author, Wang Jin, asks. ‘The real intention is not for the global temperature increase, but for the restriction of the economic development of the developing countries.’ They see clearly what the rest of us seem to miss – that, for all its bad science, the Copenhagen Conference is about the world’s Lilliputians tying down its Gullivers, not about global warming at all. So, thanks to China and India, Copenhagen is dead – just as Kyoto was when it was signed in 1992, though no one knew it at the time. Without them, no global treaty on climate change will be workable.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Upright

“Much of what government does is based on the premise that people can’t do things for themselves. So government must do it for them. More often than not, the result is a ham-handed, bumbling, one-size-fits-all approach that leaves the intended beneficiaries worse off. Of course, this resulting failure is never blamed on the political approach – on the contrary, failure is taken to mean the government solution was not extravagant enough.” –columnist John Stossel

“What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“Under every plausible analysis, it seems, ObamaCare will deliver lower-quality care at higher prices, increasing the federal debt while reducing Americans’ freedom. Why are they so determined to do this to us?” –Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

“Amendment X: ‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.’ … New York Times: ‘The Senate health care legislation will include a government-run insurance plan, but states would be allowed to "opt out” of it, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, announced Monday afternoon.’ … If the American press corps were as concerned about the Tenth Amendment as it has been protecting the First and trying to get rid of the Second, this would be a far different country.“ –political analyst Rich Galen

"Communism is nothing more than Nazism with better PR. Its track record of atrocities dwarf those of Hitler, and its core philosophy is every bit as repugnant, if not more so. That anyone in America would even attempt to put ‘lipstick on this pig’ is an unmitigated disgrace. That they can do it with such relative ease – under the banner of ‘social justice,’ no less – is truly frightening.” –columnist Arnold Ahlert

Insight

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care, and so on. The only thing lacking … is freedom.” –5-Star General and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

“If you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!” –British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Dezinformatsia

Pollaganda: “Polls show public sentiment increasing for a public option. A Washington Post-ABC poll found nearly six out of 10 favor a public option; 73 percent of doctors want it, too. … A public option is the right thing to do morally…” –Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift

Don Bush: “People in administrations make short-term decisions, and I think the one to sort of go on the offensive publicly against Fox was not too bright. Now, the Bush White House did that, it just cut people dead, it froze them out, you know it froze whole institutions out, didn’t talk about it. It was much more like the Mob. When you talk about it, you diminish your influence.” –NPR’s Nina Totenberg

Bush Derangement Syndrome: “Next to the other hoaxes and fantasies that have been abetted by the news media in recent years, both the ‘balloon boy’ and Chamber of Commerce ruses are benign. The Colorado balloon may have led to the rerouting of flights and the wasteful deployment of law enforcement resources, but at least it didn’t lead the country into fiasco the way George W. Bush’s flyboy spectacle on an aircraft carrier helped beguile most of the Beltway press and too much of the public into believing that the mission had been accomplished in Iraq.” –New York Times columnist Frank Rich

Cheney Derangement Syndrome: “The benefits for the White House of having Dick Cheney come out and [accuse the Obama of] ‘dithering’ [on Afghanistan] is … it puts Cheney out there as a kind of boogieman the administration can point to. He’s not terribly popular outside of conservative circles. And also, it allows the administration to talk about the situation they inherited, and the neglect of the Bush-Cheney years. … So in some ways, Dick Cheney is a gift for the White House.” –CBS’s John Dickerson

“I’ve had Republicans from across the spectrum today say that Cheney shouldn’t have weighed in, should have butted out too. One Republican even suggested it was so bizarre for Cheney to be the one making this argument and noted that Cheney didn’t look well, that maybe there’s something medically wrong with the vice president or his emotional state.” –MSNBC’s David Shuster (An incredible statement without naming any of the “Republicans from across the spectrum.”)

Newspulper Headlines:

What Were His Numbers in 1959?: “Barack Obama Sees Worst Poll Rating Drop in 50 Years” –Daily Telegraph (London)

And He Definitely Can’t Walk on Water: “Obama Not Expected to Stop Traffic” –Advocate (Stamford, CT)

Keep ‘Fighting Back,’ Mr. President: “Endangered Fox Lives for Another Day” –Daily News (New York)

He’s Not Satisfied With a Sweetheart Mortgage Deal?: “Dodd Wants Immediate Rate Freeze on Credit Cards” –Associated Press

We Blame Global Warming: “Polar Bear Flocke to Move to France” –MSNBC.com

Nothing Gets Past the FDA: “Sugar Cereals Are ‘Smart Choices’? FDA Not So Sure” –Associated Press

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “Kerry Becomes All-Around Adviser to Obama” –Associated Press

News You Can Use: “Bernanke: U.S. Should Cut Budget Deficit” –Associated Press

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Obama Expresses Frustration at Criticism” –Washington Examiner

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

The Demo-gogues

Pretty much sums it up: “[Democrats] are trying on every front to increase the role of government…” –Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

That’ll fool ‘em: “You’ll hear everyone say, 'There’s got to be a better name for this.’ When people think of the public option, public is being misrepresented, that this is being paid for with their public dollars.” –House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who now wants to con Americans into believing the “public option” would sell better if re-named “the consumer option”

The Big Lie: “As people learn more about what this insurance exchange is and the public option, they begin to realize that this is not an all-encompassing government plan.” –Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Community organizer in the White House: “What I reject is when some people sit on the sidelines and root for failure on health care, or they root for failure on reforming our energy system, or they root for failure on getting the Olympics. … I mean, who’s against the Olympics? What’s up with that? You know it’s a sad thing, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you know, it’s the Olympics, come on!” –Barack Obama

So easily proven wrong: “Democrats are an opinionated bunch. You know, the other side, they just kinda sometimes do what they’re told. Democrats, ya’ll thinkin’ for yourselves.” –Barack Obama (“Some of the most prominent names in national Republican Party politics are lining up against the GOP nominee in a key upstate New York House special election.” –Politico.com)

Alpha Jackass: “I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way.” –Barack Obama to servicemen – two months after the request was made for more troops by the general in the field (Servicemen already in harm’s way can wait. Obama’s got a tee time to make.)

Broken record: “Lately I feel like somebody made a big mess and I’ve got my mop and I’m mopping the floor and the folks who made the mess are there (saying) ‘you’re not mopping fast enough. You’re not mopping the right way. It’s a socialist mop.’” –janitor in chief Barack Obama

The Alinsky rules for governance: “The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that [global warming] is not an issue, they are being marginalized.” –Barack Obama

Village Idiots

Can’t we all just get along? “President [Barack] Obama is marginalizing not just his enemies but those of the American people. He is attacking organizations standing in the way of progress toward reforming health care or cleaning up the conditions that led to the financial crisis. He is putting on notice advocates of greed – instead of the greater good – that they no longer have public legitimacy.” –Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School, likening ObamaCare dissenters to America’s real enemies

He’s the smartest man alive: “And the president is asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side, and the strategic side.” –White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on Afghanistan

Talk about spin: “What Vice President Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public.” –White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Not the brightest bulb: “It’s no surprise the Glenn Becks of the world have been attacking Obama since the moment he stepped into the Oval Office. Beck and his blathering buddies on the right – you know, the stinky kids in the coatroom who eat their own boogers.” –Joy Behar of ABC’s “The View” with enlightening commentary on the substantive issues at hand

Stuff a sock (or a steak) in it: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” –British climate chief Lord Stern, who says he’s not a “strict” vegetarian himself, advocating a vegetarian diet to “save” the planet

Short Cuts

“If Obama’s ‘smart diplomacy’ is so smart that even Hamid Karzai ignores it with impunity, why should anyone else pay attention? The strange disparity between the heavy-handed community organization at home and the ever cockier untouchables abroad risks making the commander in chief look like a weenie – like ‘President Pantywaist,’ as Britain’s Daily Telegraph has taken to calling him. The Chicago way? Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight? In Iran, this administration won’t bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won’t bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won’t bring a knife to a machete fight. But, if you’re doing the overnight show on WZZZ-AM, Mister Tough Guy’s got your number.” –columnist Mark Steyn

“The strangest thing about all the invective against Fox is that it is happening in a world that contains MSNBC. At least Fox News primetime hosts, and many of their guests, know something about politics. MSNBC’s primetime lineup presents an array of people who sound like earnest college kids who just walked up to a Common Cause table, and the sum-total of what they know about politics is what they read in the brochures.” –columnist Ann Coulter

“Throwing rotten eggs at ‘them lyin’ newspapers’ has always been great sport in America, and sometimes even effective politics. But it has to be done with wit and humor, which may be above Barack Obama’s pay grade.” –Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

“The University of Chicago disclosed it would someday like to be home to Barack Obama’s future presidential library. The president was a professor at the Chicago Law School for a dozen years. He taught the How to Get Around Constitutional Law class.” –comedian Argus Hamilton