The Foundation

“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.” –Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33

Editorial Exegesis

“The turmoil in the Middle East has pushed oil above $100 per barrel again, and gasoline prices are following suit. … Unfortunately, at the same time foreign supplies are falling, domestic production is being curtailed by policies of President Barack Obama’s administration. The Interior Department continues to defy a federal court order that lifted a ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, put in place during last spring’s oil spill. Rather than complying with the judge’s order, federal regulators have stalled the issuing of permits so that almost no new drilling has occurred in the Gulf in more than six months. In addition, the administration is standing firm on a seven-year ban on new drilling in the eastern Gulf and off the East Coast, and has expanded by 100 miles the no-drill zone off the coast of Florida. Vast areas in the nation’s interior have been placed off-limits to drilling, as has the oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Additional impact on consumers will come if Obama succeeds in his bid to raise taxes on oil companies. … Democrats in Congress are urging the president to ease prices with releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But that oil serves the purpose of protecting the country against a more serious contraction of imported oil. A better strategy would be to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf, and consider exploring other domestic reserves. … The only sure way to offset the decrease in foreign production is to increase domestic production, which has fallen to 5 million barrels a day from a high of 10 million. … The risk that higher oil prices will send the economy back into recession is too great to ignore. Easing restrictions on domestic production is a necessary safeguard.” –The Detroit News

Upright

“It appears that the Obama administration is more interested in kowtowing to environmental donors in advance of the 2012 election than it is in controlling energy prices. Even with a federal court order to decide on new drilling in the Gulf by March 20, the Obama administration remains obdurate. By refusing to grant a single deep-water permit in the Gulf, Obama has shut down access to one third of America’s oil supply. With Libyan oil fields now closed indefinitely and with uncertainty about future production elsewhere in the Middle East, it is a dreadful time to be shutting down America’s oil fields as well. Turmoil in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, or Iraq would drive the price of oil up above $150 a barrel, at the very least. A prudent policy would be to increase domestic production in light of uncertainty abroad.” –columnist Jeffrey Folks

“Obama has long been ambivalent about American leadership in the world – a doubt reflected during the Arab upheavals by his repeated references to universal human rights, rather than American values of freedom. Yet when we have the power to protect our citizens, we cannot be ambivalent about using it. That is why we have a military in the first place: so that the tyrants of Tripoli will fear us, not the other way around.” –columnist Joel Pollak

“There’s good reason to believe that Obama has always been lying – yes, lying – about opposing gay marriage. For example, in 1996, he told The Windy City Times, ‘I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.’ But by 2004, Obama very much wanted to be president, and he understood that supporting gay marriage would be a political liability. So he opted for something other than honesty. And in a 2004 interview with a gay publication, Obama strongly hinted his opposition was strategic, not philosophical. … President Obama says DOMA is unconstitutional, and yet the ‘law professor’ says he will continue to enforce it. In a properly ordered constitutional republic, this would be a scandal. But in America today, it’s cause for eye-rolling, shrugs and platitudes about the demands of politics.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg

“Americans will learn two very important things about their government this week: 1) are Democrats, including the President, willing to make real cuts; and, 2) will Republicans stand their ground on the first round of cuts. I fear for America’s future if the answer to either question is ‘no.’” –columnist Mike Needham

Insight

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.” –Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961)

“If a thousand [citizens] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.” –American author Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

The Demo-gogues

Fighting for the little guy? “I recently froze the salaries of federal employees for two years. … [I] believe that everybody should be prepared to give up something in order to solve our budget challenges, and I think most public servants agree with that. Democrats and Republicans agree with that. In fact, many public employees in your respective states have already agreed to cuts. … [But] I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon.” –Barack Obama

Invalid comparison: “Collective bargaining is something that is so close to slavery in terms of abolishing it, that it is not an American concept to tell people that they cannot discuss their economic position.” –Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Race bait: “It’s really especially poignant that this year during Black History Month, the Republican leadership has proposed a budget for fiscal year 2011 that will fall most heavily, mind you, on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society: African-Americans, Latinos and poor – those who have been shut of the American dream. At a time when we should be remembering and uplifting the accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans, to the history, culture, civil rights and economy of America, we are literally during this month debating steps that will severely undercut and undermine that legacy.” –Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

The BIG Lie: “It is undeniable that the Recovery Act helped every single state represented in this room manage your budgets, whether you admit it or not.” –Barack Obama

“The Obama administration’s decision [not to defend DOMA] is a victory for civil rights, fairness and equality for the LGBT community and all Americans. Since its inception, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] has long been viewed as a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Today, the president made clear that he agrees – and I commend him for taking this bold step forward to ensure the federal government is no longer in the business of defending an indefensible statute. The fight for marriage equality is far from over, and we will continue to work towards the day when all American families are treated with respect and viewed equally in the eyes of the law.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Dezinformatsia

Media race bait: “Black folks don’t have the luxury of focusing on just one thing at the moment. The thing that is obviously important in Black America right now is jobs. We’re being left behind in this economy and I have been very vocal in the fact that I don’t believe the president is doing enough to focus on the poor, to focus on the weak working class and to focus on African-Americans that are triple and in some cases quadruple the national unemployment average. So the first thing is full employment.” –PBS’s Tavis Smiley

Seeing everything in black and white: “The Republican Party is saying that the president of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this president around, the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are trying to consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course, of course a black man can’t be the real boss?” –MSNBC’s Lawrence O'Donnell

World’s smallest violin: “The public school teachers in Wisconsin are not responsible for the credit collapse, the national unemployment rate, the fall of the industrial sector or the fiscal crisis. Allowing them to bargain collectively has not bankrupted Wisconsin. Its declining tax revenues have nothing to do with the fact that highly educated and trained professionals are earning a decent wage, albeit less than they would in the private sector. So why are they being blamed and scapegoated? Why are they in the center of the storm over our fiscal future? Where are the Wall Street banks for whom there was no limit to greed? And most important: Why should our children pay for this?” –commentator Susan Estrich

Misplaced sympathy: “You really came on hard against the teachers’ union. I think everybody in this country on all sides of this thinks we need education reform, that we got to do something to make our educational system better. Do you worry that the stance you have taken has somehow demonized teachers and will raise questions in young people’s minds as to whether they want to go into the profession?” –CBS’s Bob Schieffer to NJ Gov. Chris Christie

Newspulper Headlines:

Sensitive Gay Troops to Get Combat Training – Now That Would Be News: “Combat Troops to Get Gay Sensitivity Training” –The Washington Times

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “John McCain Ranked Most Conservative Senator in 2010” –CBSNews.com

News You Can Use: “How Not to Win Arab Hearts and Minds” –Commentary website

Mr. Potato Head Hits the Slopes: “Snow Tuber Injured at Woodbury Ski Area” –Republican-American (Waterbury, CT)

Questions Nobody Is Asking: “What’s the Point of Protecting Cornish Pasties?” –Daily Telegraph (London)

That Does It, We’re Giving Up Cocaine and Air Pollution: “Sex, Cocaine, Air Pollution, Anger, Caffeine and Alcohol Among Top Causes of Heart Attacks: Study” –Daily News (New York)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “New Report Exonerates Climate Researchers” –Associated Press

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

Village Idiots

Class warfare: “These are everyday people. And when you think about the wage disparity, the income disparity in this nation, this growing chasm where the middle class used to be, I think it’s no wonder why everyday citizens are supporting the right of these workers to band together. … [I]t sounds again like the Republicans are standing on the side of the billionaires, rather than the everyday citizen.” –former Democrat Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Re-education: “In an average person’s mind, who does not know anybody that’s Muslim, it’s like you see Muslim, you think terrorist. You hear terrorist, you think Muslim, and what we’re trying to do with this film [‘Mooz-lum’] is separate the two, and get people to realize there are Muslims and there are terrorists. There are extremists. There are people that do horrible things, and then there are Muslims. … [With] the amount of ignorance surrounding Muslims and Islam, I feel it’s necessary for people to see this, and for people to say, like, you know, I’ve never looked at it that way before. … [T]his ignorance is what creates fear, and fear, there’s so much more that happens when that is in the picture. So, we’re just trying to erase, clear up some of this ignorance.” –film director Qasim Basir on his new movie, “Mooz-lum”

Warning: “What you are looking at in Tunisia, in Egypt … Libya, in Bahrain … what you see happening there … you’d better prepare because it will be coming to your door. … L. Ron Hubbard is so exceedingly valuable to every Caucasian person on this earth. … L. Ron Hubbard himself was and is trying to civilize white people and make them better human beings and take away from them their reactive minds. … [He] recognized that [white] people have to be civilized.” –Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan

Short Cuts

“Democrats are acting as if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s demand that public sector employees give up collective bargaining would have George Washington rolling in his grave (a clear violation of Gravediggers’ Local 803 regulations concerning the rolling of the dead).” –columnist Ann Coulter

“White House former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago by a huge margin. It was the usual coalition. Emanuel carried sixty percent of the black vote, sixty-five percent of the women’s vote and one hundred percent of the deceased vote.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Speaker Boehner stated that there are 200,000 more federal employees than two years ago and that this number has to be cut back. Nancy Pelosi was on the floor of the House faster than the speed of light saying that those are real people with real jobs. Somehow, she forgot to mention that they are being paid for with Monopoly money.” –columnist Bruce Bialosky

“One of the runaway Wisconsin Democrats told the New York Post that hiding out in hotels in Illinois was ‘a financial hardship.’ Well, it could be worse. He could be stuck in Wisconsin paying for public union salaries & benefits.” –former Senator Fred Thompson