The Foundation

“Newspapers … serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.” –Thomas Jefferson

Dezinformatsia

The death of a “journalist”: “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it’s their land and it’s not Germany and it’s not Poland. … They should go home. … [To] Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else.” –former White House press corpse reporter Helen Thomas, who retired from Hearse Newspapers in the wake of her unbelievably idiotic comments were caught on video during a Jewish Heritage Celebration held at the White House on May 27

Too late for fake apologies: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” –the now-retired Helen Thomas

The backup singers: “Helen Thomas has broken down many barriers for women…. She has a lifelong achievement … in journalism. Should that count for anything?” –CNN’s Don Lemon

“I think you cut her slack at 89. … Her career shouldn’t be defined at what she said at 89. I would hate for this to be the lead in her obituary 10 years from now.” –MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough

Blame Bush: “[T]he truth is, that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they’re supposed to be overseeing the industry. … It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney’s fault.” –Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington on the oil spill

Female chauvinism: “And it is men – not to be too gender specific here – but there, there is a male factor here. I’ve we seen it in our own recent history. What is it about testosterone that gets us into war?” –NBC’s Andrea Mitchell

Newspulper Headlines:

Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Did You Plug the Hole With a Blue Dress Yet, Daddy?” –Human Events

Oh No, Another Beer Summit: “Obama, Brewer to Discuss Immigration” –Press TV (Iran)

We Blame Global Warming: “Snow Cover Sets New Winter Record” –Local (Sweden)

Breaking News From Stardate 1514.0: “Kirk Didn’t Tell the Whole Story” –Chicago Sun-Times

Too Much Information: “Butt Test Shows U.S. Cigarettes High in Chemicals” –Reuters

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Carter Condemns Israeli Raid on Gaza-Bound Ships” –Associated Press

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

Upright

“[Helen Thomas’s] tone was nasty, and her ‘questions’ usually meant more as insults than as requests for information. Still, presidents and journalists alike bowed and scraped before her, as if she were the Queen of All Media. Her reign ended with an implosion.” –Media Research Center president Brent Bozell

“A generous person might forgive a one-off ‘slip of the tongue,’ but Helen Thomas has a long history of questioning and opposing anything Israel does in its own defense. While not all criticism of Israel should be translated as anti-Semitism, Thomas’ rhetoric over the years seems to betray a deep-seated hatred of Jews.” –columnist Cal Thomas

“The effort to destroy the Jewish state has many fronts. One front is in Iran, where the maniacal regime that has repeatedly promised to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ marches inexorably toward a nuclear bomb. Another is in Gaza, from which Hamas has lobbed 10,000 missiles into Israeli cities. Yet another front, the most insidious, is comprised of the propaganda arm of the Palestinian movement. And this front thrives for only one reason – the complicity of the world press and the so-called ‘international community.’ It was the propaganda arm that staged the ‘Freedom Flotilla.’” –columnist Mona Charen

“In modern America, everything is so complicated that we can’t get simple things done. When you look at government – the criminal justice system, the courts, the federal budget – engines that used to work smoothly now are sputtering. They’re all cog, no machine. That’s why so many Americans are angry at the system – it’s all check, no balance.” –columnist Debra Saunders

“In Chicago politics, there’s an old term for the publicly subsidized pay-offs and positions meted out to the corruptocrats’ friends and special interests: boodle. In the age of Obama, Hope and Change is all about the boodle. So it was with the stimulus. And the massive national service expansion. And the health care bill. And the financial reform bill. And the blossoming job-trading scandals engulfing the White House. There’s always been an ageless, interdependent relationship between Windy City politicos and ‘goo-goos’ (the cynical Chicago term for good government reformers). Chicago-style ‘reform’ has always entailed the redistribution of wealth and power under the guise of public service.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

Editorial Exegesis

“National Security: A Mexican cartel plots to blow up a dam – in Texas! Another pack of Mexican terrorists takes cash from Hugo Chavez. And what is Washington wringing its hands about? Why, racism in Arizona. If still more proof is needed that the border needs to be secured, the latest threats emerging from Mexico should do the trick. Together, they signal that the country’s war could advance to a more savage stage. … These blood-chilling scenarios aren’t fantasies. They are signs of an emerging threat that gets little attention from U.S. lawmakers. Instead of focusing on making the border secure, they play partisan political games, pandering to potential voting blocs by dangling amnesty in front of illegal immigrants, grandstanding against Arizona’s effort to enforce federal law and coming up with one excuse after another for not erecting a border fence. As illegal armed groups plot to blow up infrastructure even in this country, Democrats in Congress are more concerned about an illegal immigrant getting his feelings hurt if a police officer in Arizona asks him to show some ID.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Insight

“Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.” –author G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

“Your silence gives consent.” –Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 BC)

“The republic was not established by cowards, and cowards will not preserve it.” –American writer Elmer Davis (1890-1958)

“I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him ‘father.’” –American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

The Demo-gogues

Very presidential: “I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose a$$ to kick.” –Barack Obama

What do you mean, “we”? “Even if we are successful in containing some or much of this oil, we are not going to get this problem completely solved until we actually have the relief well completed. And that is going to take a couple more months. We also know that there’s already a lot of oil that’s been released, and that there’s going to be more oil released no matter how successful this containment effort is. … [The Gulf residents are] going to need help from the entire country. They’re going to need constant, vigilant attention from this administration. That’s what they’re going to get.” –Barack Obama, with what sounds like a prelude to a new tax

Belly Laugh of the Week: “I don’t want us to do something just for the sake of politics that doesn’t solve the problem.” –BO

Chiming in: “Here’s what’s important. Not to be throwing the blame around, but to put America on the course to true energy independence and self-reliance and to begin to wean ourselves from our addiction to oil.” –Sen. John Francois Kerry (D-MA)

He could take a few lessons, too: “I think that America has a lot to learn from Kalamazoo Central about what makes for a successful school in this new century. You could have made excuses – our kids have fewer advantages, our schools have fewer resources, so how can we compete? You could have spent years pointing fingers – blaming parents, blaming teachers, blaming the principal or the superintendent or the government [or George W. Bush]. But instead, you came together. You were honest with yourselves about where you were falling short. And you resolved to do better.” –master finger-pointer Barack Obama in his commencement address to Michigan’s Kalamazoo Central High School (He didn’t really say “or George W. Bush,” but we thought it would make the point.)

More Clinton class warfare: “Despite progress in some places, tax and budget systems are ineffective and inefficient in much of the hemisphere. This is partly due to how taxes are structured, with the burden falling too heavily on the lower classes and often hurting productivity. But in many places, including often in my own country, the simple fact is that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. … Acknowledging this is not class warfare; it is not even us-versus-them rhetoric. It is a matter of recognizing that this cannot be a zero-sum game. We cannot take a winner-takes-all approach to our economic future.” –Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Village Idiots

Non Compos Mentis: “Criminals have far more access to guns today than in the history of this country and that is frightening to America. We have to do something about it. You cannot live in America as the Wild West. … But if you firmly believe that people should have access to guns at all times, then you have a totally different society. … Access to guns will destroy America faster than any other war.” –Chicago Demo Mayor Richard M. Daley, who missed the recent crime statistics showing that more guns equal less crime

Let it be: “It’s a fantastic honor for the Gershwin family to give me this incredible award and for me to be awarded it by the Library of Congress. In fact, after the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.” –“Sir” Paul McCartney with a lame joke about President Bush

Completely unlimited government: “I think a government that tries, systematically, to relieve what causes lasting misery and emphasize what gives lasting happiness will eventually win the support of the people.” –former president of Harvard University Derek Bok

Deep thoughts: “What we really have is a choice whether we want to do the right things from an energy standpoint or the wrong thing. And if enough of us choose to do the wrong thing and we don’t prepare for global warming and we don’t make the changes that we know we should make, then we’ll be extinct.” –CNN founder Ted Turner

Short Cuts

“BP is saying that the campaign to clean up the oil could last until fall. You know why they call it a campaign? Because it’s like an election – it’s dirty, it’s slimy, and it never seems to end.” –comedian Jay Leno

“Spike Lee, the moviemaker, says it’s time for the president to ‘go off,’ to start jumping up and down and show some entertaining fury and frenzy. The rage should be directed at somebody at British Petroleum. Spike knows drama. ‘If there’s any one time to go off,’ he says, ‘this is it, because this is a disaster.’ Well, thanks for that, Spike. Now we know it’s a disaster.” –Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

“President Obama took responsibility for his part in the Gulf spill Thursday. He said his mistake was trusting the oil companies. He then requisitioned three jumbo jets, two limousines and one helicopter to take the family to Chicago for the weekend.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“While I’m not a golfer, I do like the idea of mulligans. For instance, who hasn’t made a mistake or misspoken and immediately wished he could call for a do-over? Right about now, I’d like to take a mulligan on the 2008 election.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky