The Foundation

“States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.” –Alexander Hamilton

Editorial Exegesis

“Regarding the latest WikiLeaks dump of U.S. secrets … [it] does less immediate harm than the previous leaks did to the lives of Afghans and Iraqis who have cooperated with us on the battlefield, but it certainly will damage U.S. foreign policy. In most cases, of course, the leaks merely pull back the curtain on disputes and the character of global leaders that are already widely known. That the Turkish government of the AK Party is an unreliable ally, or is chock full of Islamists, will not surprise anyone who’s been paying attention. The private rage of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak against Iraqi democracy is also no shocker; a modern Pharaoh doesn’t like the voter precedent. Yet in some cases the damage will be real because effective policy often requires secrecy about detail. Foreign officials will only speak candidly to U.S. emissaries if they believe their words won’t be splashed all over the world’s front pages. … One lesson is that it is much harder to keep secrets in the Internet age, so our government is going to have to learn to keep fewer secrets and confine them to fewer people. It is amazing to discover that so many thousands of cables might have been accessible by Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is suspected of being the main source for the Wikileaks documents. The bureaucratic excuse is that the government was trying to encourage more cross-agency cooperation post-9/11, but why does an Army private need access to the details of a conversation between Yemen’s dictator and General David Petraeus? … If [Julian Assange] were exposing Chinese or Russian secrets, he would already have died at the hands of some unknown assailant. As a foreigner (Australian citizen) engaged in hostile acts against the U.S., Mr. Assange is certainly not protected from U.S. reprisal under the laws of war. … For all of his self-justification as an agent of ‘pure’ transparency, Mr. Assange is not serving the interest of free societies. His mass, indiscriminate exposure of anything labeled secret that he can lay his hands on is a hostile act against a democracy that is fighting a war against forces bent on killing innocents. Surely, the U.S. government can do more to stop him than send a stiff letter.” –The Wall Street Journal

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Upright

“The latest WikiLeak may ultimately amount to no more than a colossal headache for U.S. diplomats. By contrast, the previous leak exposed U.S. sources and methods on the battlefield. … Still, every fiasco must have its silver lining, and this one is no exception. For starters, it has belatedly prompted at least some liberals to grow up on the topic of government secrecy and its connection to national security, international stability and, not least, human rights.” –columnist Bret Stephens

“We Americans have given federal, state and local governments the right to interfere with any aspect of our lives when it comes to issues of health. So should we be surprised when an emboldened Congress enacts Obamacare, even though most American were against it, that not only mandates that we purchase health insurance but will eventually control virtually every aspect of our health care? Should we be surprised when government tells us what food to give our children … taxes soft drinks in the name of fighting obesity … orders restaurants not to serve foie gras or cook with trans fats? If you think government has the right to look after our health, how far would you have it go?” –economist Walter E. Williams

“Republicans have allowed the Left to categorize the argument as 'extending the Bush Era Tax Cuts.’ That’s flat wrong. What President Obama and most of the remaining Democrats in Congress want to do is to RAISE TAXES. If all of the Bush Era Tax Cuts are extended, no one, not one single person of the more than 310 million in the United States will have their taxes cut. Their tax rates will remain the same. If, on the other hand, Nancy Pelosi and her Liberal colleagues in the House want to change those rates, they will not be reversing a tax cut. They will be RAISING TAXES.” –political analyst Rich Galen

“What the midterm elections proved is that the American people do not trust Barack Obama to lead them. And trust, that magic five-letter word, is the most important element in the relationship between a nation and its government. … The scars from the financial crisis are still raw and unhealed; unemployment is a cruel scourge; and there are terrible threats to the country’s internal and external security, with the future overshadowed by emerging superpowers and competitors. And there is no one to trust. The U.S. has all kinds of problems. But its biggest over the course of the next two years is how to find a leader who will inspire through character and integrity, vision and resolution, courage and judgment the belief, faith and confidence that Americans have always warmly given to the right person – someone they can trust.” –historian Paul Johnson

Dezinformatsia

False compassion: “We have a political party demanding that we borrow money to pay for tax cuts on household income above a quarter million, while it is at the same time refusing to borrow a lot less money so that middle class Americans who can’t find work can keep their homes and just barely keep their heads above water. … They don’t live in this world. They don’t live in this country. And I think we’d be better off if they didn’t live in this country.” –MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who wants to take from the “rich” simply because they can “afford it”

If they want to pay more, they’re free to do so: “Warren Buffett has been practically begging the country, begging Congress to tax him more. In fact, many of the richest Americans like Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates and Ted Turner say that they should pay higher tax. … You said that you would be willing to have your taxes higher. Many Americans, particularly those who are successful, say hang on, I did this work. This is a capitalist society. This is my just reward. You disagree with that notion. … It’s emotional for you….” –ABC’s Christiane Amanpour setting up the “sympathy” for Leftist gazillionaires adamant that government ought to seize other people’s money against their will

All about communication? “If GM had gone bankrupt and large portions of it had been closed down, we could have lost several hundred thousand jobs. … The administration’s communications effort on this has been absolutely abysmal. It’s quite extraordinary to me how they haven’t put this forward more forcefully and how the public still doesn’t see just how different a kind of bailout this was than the Wall Street bailouts, which remain deservedly unpopular.” –Financial Times columnist Ed Luce

Bush bashing: “Bush’s was an exhausting presidency that will, I suspect, be remembered more for its waste – of time, lives, money, moral standing and economic strength – than for anything else. … Far too much testosterone was spent kicking irrelevant butts and landing, breathless with self-regard, on carrier decks to celebrate victories that were Pyrrhic at best. We struggle to recover from the thoughtless carnage of his tenure.” –Time’s Joe Klein

Newspulper Headlines:

Shortest Speeches Ever Delivered: “Obama Touts Economic Successes to a Tough Crowd” –Time.com

We Blame Global Warming: “Steele on Thin Ice at Helm of Republican Party” –Associated Press

Out on a Limb: “Deliberate or Accidental, a New Korean War Would Be Devastating” –PoliticsDaily.com

It Was Between Newsweek and People: “Gun Magazine Found on Southwest Plane From Burbank” –Los Angeles Times website

Now He’s a Poor Sap: “SAP Ordered to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion” –The New York Times

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Police: Willie Nelson Had Pot on Tour Bus” –Bryan College Station (Texas) Eagle

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

The Demo-gogues

Yeah, right: “From the earliest days of my administration, we’ve worked to eliminate wasteful spending and streamline government. I promise to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that have outlived their usefulness. And in each of the budgets I’ve put forward so far we proposed approximately $20 billion in savings through shrinking or ending more than a hundred and twenty of such programs.” –Barack “Big Spender” Obama

A crock from Barack: “Everybody is going to have to cooperate. We can’t afford to fall back onto the same old ideologies or the same set of stale soundbites. We’re going to have to budge on some deeply held positions and compromise for the good of the country. We’re going to have to set aside politics of the moment to make progress for the long term. And as I’ve often said, we’re going to have to think not just about the next election but about the next generation. Because if there is anything the American people said [last] month it is that they want their leaders to have one single focus; making sure their work is rewarded so that the American dream remains within their reach. It would be unwise to assume they prefer one way of thinking over another. That wasn’t the lesson I took when I entered into office and it’s not the lesson today. So while our ideas may be different, our ideals must be the same.” –Barack Obama

Disgruntled ranks: “There’s nothing about – because it’s all rigged. I mean, the whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck – is just rigged. This stuff’s rigged.” –Colorado Demo Sen. Michael Bennet on the entire Senate process

RINO on the loose: “I have to confess I think the Senate will be a much poorer place without Russ Feingold in it.” –Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who apparently missed the irony of this particular praise on his defeated Senate co-author of campaign finance regulations, which were supposed to “get the money out of politics” – in other words, make campaigns poorer

Village Idiots

Tough talk: “We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information. President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal. By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals.” –White House statement on WikiLeaks (Wow. There’s a statement that should have all the bad guys trembling and doing a duck and cover for fear.)

Getting her jollies: “Yeah, they did [touch my body parts] and it was the first time anybody touched them in a long time and frankly, I liked it.” –attorney Gloria Allred in an answer to a question by radio talk-show host Sean Hannity

Cat out of the bag: “Basically it’s a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalization. The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War. … First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.” –Ottmar Edenhofer, global warmist extraordinaire, deputy director and chief economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Short Cuts

“Whether through ignorance or intent, the White House, Harry Pelosi and Nancy Reid … are again setting their sails against public opinion. Damn the voters, full speed backwards. … The whole world wants a new economic approach from Washington, but Democratic leaders see the lame-duck session as another chance to impose their wrong-headed will. The voters spoke … and the Dems respond by becoming the Party of No.” –columnist Michael Goodwin

“The White House was evacuated Tuesday when a small plane accidentally wandered over the mansion. It was just a student pilot in a Cessna. The kid was flying directly over the United States so President Obama was never in any danger of being struck by the plane.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Politicians are torn between two legitimate impulses: to protect us from very real dangers as best they can, and to be liked by us. Unfortunately, these impulses often conflict. If we weren’t in danger, we wouldn’t need airport screening, electronic or otherwise. The black forest cake deliveryman on his way to grandma’s for Oktoberfest in Orlando would have neither his cake nor his Schwarzwälderkirschtortenlieferantenhut searched, never mind the inseam of his lederhosen.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg

“WikiLeaks has released thousands of classified documents that could be detrimental to the United States. Usually, when something this embarrassing about the United States is revealed, it’s because Joe Biden said it.” –comedian Jay Leno