Chronicle

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Foundation

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson

"I've been saving a ton of jobs under this TARP here..."

Editorial Exegesis

"The reaction of Congress and the president to the good news on TARP has been revealing. Here we face a decade of unprecedented red ink, yet they think they're still not spending enough. Let's get this straight: The economy is on the mend, the recession is technically over, budget deficits still run well over $1 trillion a year, and unemployment actually ticked down in the latest report. Yet here's our President Obama declaring on Tuesday the nation must 'spend our way out of this recession.' And congressional leaders are hatching plans to declare a surprise $200 billion 'savings' in the government's bank bailout program. Hint: Given their druthers, the $200 billion will be gone before you know it. Outside of small-business lending, funds in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) are legally off-limits for most of the spending that the president, Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats want. TARP was designed narrowly to restore confidence in the banking system. Money for public works projects, subsidized jobs and most other stimulus items has to come from somewhere else. But never underestimate the power of mental accounting. Though they can't spend actual TARP funds on a new stimulus bill, they now can tell themselves they have an extra $200 billion to spend from other pockets. Plans are already afoot. The president's plans would cost an estimated $50 billion, while the spending discussed in Congress on transportation and infrastructure would total about $70 billion. And that's just in the early going. Thus TARP's virtual 'windfall' is already becoming a virtual slush fund for vote-buying projects. Absent a hard requirement that the budget deficit be cut, the president and Congress will spend whatever TARP, or any other program, happens to save. As Obama said Tuesday, we must 'spend our way out' of recession." --Investor's Business Daily

Insight

"Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving." --American industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker." --American writer Helen Keller (1880-1968)

"All history is one long story to this effect: men have struggled for power over their fellow men in order that they might win the joys of earth at the expense of others, might shift the burdens of life from their own shoulders upon those of others." --American professor William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)

Upright

"After last week's White House 'jobs summit,' the President claimed that he is 'open to every demonstrably good idea' that might create jobs, yet noted that 'we also though have to face the fact that our resources are limited.' Barack Obama may be surprised by what a tremendous 'resource' the American people can be -- if he could only get out of our way." --columnist Austin Hill

"Democrats have defined success as dragging any [health care] bill into law as quickly as possible, no matter how damaging, while leaving the mess it creates to be cleaned up in the future once the entitlement is entrenched and higher taxes are inevitable. The only way to prevent that outcome is to force them to start over." --The Wall Street Journal

"There's no difference in this global warming hoax, and the health care reform hoax. They are born of the same ideology, they're born of the same tactics, and they are born with the same objectives. Radical leftists claim that man-made global warming destroys lives. Radical leftists also claim that private sector medical care destroys lives. The president himself has indicted the medical community for this." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"One of the ostensible reasons for reforming our health insurance system is the need to halt the growth of spending on medical treatment. So it may be a surprise to learn that in its first major vote on the health care overhaul, the U.S. Senate took a clear and simple position: Cost is no object." --columnist Steve Chapman

Dezinformatsia

Prophets of Doom: "Facing a clock some say has ticked down to zero, [Monday] 192 nations came together to take on a potential global catastrophe." --ABC reporter Bob Woodruff

Still pushing the agenda: "Despite growing scientific evidence that humans are to blame for warming the planet -- rising sea level, melting glaciers, more intense droughts -- polls show the number of Americans who believe global warming is happening is at its lowest point in 12 years." --ABC reporter Clayton Sandell, who mentioned the Climategate emails without giving specifics

Ignore the scandal: "Now, also under discussion here [at Copenhagen] are those stolen e-mails from a British University that have made this scandal called Climategate. And, essentially, in those e-mails, some climate scientists seem to be suggesting that perhaps they're massaging the data." --NBC's Anne Thompson (Wow, is that all? Then why the uproar?)

"I mean is someone using differences in semantics to try and play up a controversy that's not really there?" --MSNBC's Contessa Brewer dismissing Climategate

The BIG Lie: "If things go well in Copenhagen, the usual suspects will go wild. We'll hear cries that the whole notion of global warming is a hoax perpetrated by a vast scientific conspiracy, as demonstrated by stolen e-mail messages that show -- well, actually all they show is that scientists are human, but never mind. We'll also, however, hear cries that climate-change policies will destroy jobs and growth. The truth, however, is that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is affordable as well as essential. Serious studies say that we can achieve sharp reductions in emissions with only a small impact on the economy's growth. And the depressed economy is no reason to wait -- on the contrary, an agreement in Copenhagen would probably help the economy recover." --New York Times columnist and former Enron adviser Paul Krugman

"As we approach this Christmas season it doesn't look like there's going to be very much under the tree for this administration. I mean, you saw this jobs fair [last week]. But as the president talked to people during this jobs fair, he was saying, you know, in the end, it's going to be up to private enterprise to find the jobs to get us out of this. That's another way of saying there just isn't anymore money that the government has, even to try to stimulate this economy." --CBS's Bob Schieffer (Memo to Schieffer: The government NEVER has money of its own. The money comes from "we the people/taxpayers.")

Newspulper Headlines:

We Blame Global Warming: "Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge Into Sudden Ice Age" --LiveScience.com

How Poor Could They Be if They Had $100,000?: "Thieves in Calif. Steal $100,000 in Toys, Food From Poor" --Associated Press

Questions Nobody Is Asking: "Can Chris Dodd Climb Out of His Hole?" --Politico.com

Have They Tried Inhaling Helium?: "Atheists Need a Different Voice" --USA Today

Too Much Information: "Baucus: Girlfriend Was 'Highly Qualified'" --Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "'Elf' Jailed After Threat to Blow Up Santa at Georgia Mall" --FoxNews.com

News You Can Use: "Avoid Christmas Pudding but Eat Sprouts if You Want to Help Planet" --Daily Telegraph (London)

Bottom Stories of the Day: "Scientists Maintain That Evidence Shows Earth Is Warming" --NationalJournal.com

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

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Managing Editor

The Demo-gogues

This week's "Alpha Jackass" Award: "Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said 'slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough.'" --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), of the party of slavery -- then and now

Nothing more than feelings: "We have to talk about how to put the final pieces [of the health care bill] together. It's good to hear from the president now, because it's getting to that stage where you have to come to a decision with your heart as well as your head." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) (What about the Constitution?)

All about jobs: "I noticed the press yesterday, because we had this jobs forum at the White House, they said 'Obama's finally pivoting to jobs.' As if what we haven't been doing for the whole nine months from the day I was sworn in and we start talking about the recovery was all about jobs." --Barack Obama

Tax 'em all: "I believe that the transaction tax still has a great deal of merit. The concern that many of us or others have had is that it will send, it will send transactions overseas. ... The fact is, what we are talking about is a global transaction [tax], something that we would do in conjunction with other G nations, whether it is G8, G20, whatever the current G number is. Because it is really a source of revenue that has really minimal impact on the transaction, but a tremendous impact on helping us meet our needs. I think there would be a market for it among the American people to say that we are all participating in the economic prosperity of our country, and we are all pitching in to continue that prosperity." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) touting a tax on stocks, bonds and other financial transactions

Pot and kettle: "We will be clear about what we expect from those who receive our assistance.... We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable." --Barack Obama referencing Afghanistan, but the same comment could well describe his own Chicago mob administration

Village Idiots

Denial: "Nothing that has come out in the public as a result of the recent email hackings has cast doubt on the basic scientific message on climate change and that message is quite clear -- that climate change is happening much, much faster than we realized and we human beings are the primary cause." --UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

"I think the e-mail scandal is being used as a political side show to deflect interest in actually dealing with climate change. I think, in that regard, it will fail." --Princeton University's Professor Michael Oppenheimer

"There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based." --EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asserting the farcical government stance that carbon dioxide is harmful to humans

It'll never be enough: "Are we doing enough? The answer is obviously no -- [restricting world emissions of carbon dioxide at or below 450 parts per million] is not the right target. But it is presently seen as beyond the capacity of governments around the world. We are stretching the capacity of governments even to hit a 450 target. We are gambling with the future of human civilization in accepting odds that by any definition make our present course reckless.... But it's still the most likely path to success." --Algore

It's already too late: "Even a final treaty will have to set the stage for other tougher [emissions] reductions at a later date. We have already overshot the safe levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere." --Algore

Left-theology: "Don't let anybody tell you that religious people don't support choice. You not only have a constitutional right for abortion, but you have a God-given right." --Rev. Carlton Veazy, president and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." --Jeremiah 1:5)

Short Cuts

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Imagine an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where all the members showed up drunk and with extra cases of wine, beer, and booze to keep them happy. Now imagine that that same group of drunks was empowered to make trillions of dollars worth of economic decisions for everybody in the world. This absurd scenario swiftly summarizes the United Nations Climate Change Conference beginning today, and lasting through December 18, in Copenhagen." --The Heritage Foundation's "Morning Bell"

"Congress voted Thursday to impose a 45 percent tax on all estates over $3 million. It just never ends. The only difference between death and taxes is that Congress can't think of a way to make death any worse than it already is." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"It's fitting that the first day of the Copenhagen climate hoax summit happens on December 7th, a day, FDR said, 'that will live in infamy.' We're being attacked again." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh