The Foundation

“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.” –Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

“The headlines say the representatives at the United Nations climate conference in South Africa reached an agreement. But the real story is that the meeting only produced an agreement to start more talks on a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2015 with emissions limits that won’t be in effect until 2020. Despite the uncertainty of such a proposition, one official, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s foreign minister, nevertheless had the nerve to claim ‘We have saved planet Earth for the future of our children and our great-grandchildren.’ Apparently she’s forgotten that the alarmists have said that global warming must be solved now – that Prince Charles traveled to Rio de Janeiro 33 months ago and lamented that the world had ‘less than 100 months’ to save itself. … So why bother with framing a treaty that won’t start until 2020? Won’t that be too late? It’s never too late, though, to continue scaring the public in hopes it will eventually give in and follow the alarmists and their asinine ideas. … In the absence of such a deal, some conference representatives proposed a global climate court of justice that would let climate change ‘victims’ force the rich, top carbon dioxide-producing countries to pay up. Jonathan Verschuuren, a professor of international and European environmental law writing for Radio Netherlands, assures us that ‘a climate court will certainly not materialize’ because ‘the world’s industrialized countries have more sense than that.’ Yes, the industrialized nations should have more sense than that. But do they? … What if, for instance, voters re-elect President Obama and turn Congress back to the Democrats, and the British bring back the Labor Party? If so, an international climate court isn’t so unlikely, is it? With the science incomplete, corrupt scientists, the alarmists exaggerating the case and the socialists itching to collect from all, a climate court could do more damage to the U.S. than the Axis powers ever could.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Essential Liberty

“The United States possesses 1.4 trillion barrels of recoverable oil, more than the oil the entire world has consumed during the past 150 years, according to an Institute for Energy Research report released last week. Add in an estimated 2.7 quadrillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and 486.1 billion short tons of recoverable coal, and our energy reserves exceed those of any other nation on Earth. The American economy will not prosper until we get government out of the way and let the private sector power our future using the most efficient sources available. For that to happen, the next administration must reject any redistributionist U.N. treaty designed to soak billions from U.S. taxpayers based on bogus climate claims.” –The Washington Times

Upright

“[Last] Wednesday, Politico ran a story about the International Association of Machinists Union at Boeing agreeing to approve a contract extension…. Democrats, including Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder … abhor the idea of making voters bring some form of photo identification to the polls. Yet the IAM … required a photo ID of all who wished to vote in a contract ratification election. … [T]he photo-ID requirement in the union’s elections would appear to be far from an isolated instance. Gosh, I wonder why? At some point during all these years of covering the voter-ID issue, you would think that someone in the press, much of which is unionized … would have noted that unions at least occasionally and likely far more than occasionally require that members present a photo ID to be able to cast their ballots. Nope. How typically irresponsible.” –NewsBusters contributing editor Tom Blumer

“In the end, last week’s meeting of Eurozone leaders produced nothing more than an agreement to produce an agreement. … Yet amidst the general ineptitude, there was one defining moment: British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected the deal. Apparently one leader in Europe still believes in the idea of national sovereignty. … Yet who is kidding whom? Despite all the pie-in-the-sky pronouncements, coupled with threats of ‘isolation’ aimed at Britain for daring to resist the ‘superior wisdom’ of EU elitists, nothing has been done to address the immediate liquidity crisis affecting both European banks and governments. The ultimate arbiter of this latest agreement will be the worldwide markets, specifically the bond markets. They will ultimately reveal whether investors, as they were last Friday, can be sold yet another pig in a poke masquerading itself as yet another grand bargain.” –columnist Arnold Ahlert

“Some politicians claim that politicians create jobs. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says, ‘My job is to create jobs.’ What hubris! Government has no money of its own. All it does is take from some people and give to others. That may create some jobs, but only by leaving less money in the private sector for job creation. Actually, it’s worse than that. Since government commandeers scarce resources by force and doesn’t have to peddle its so-called services on the market to consenting buyers, there’s no feedback mechanism to indicate if those services are worth more to people than what they were forced to go without. The only people who create real, sustainable jobs are in private businesses – if they’re unsubsidized.” –columnist John Stossel

Insight

“There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” –American author and poet Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” –Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

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The Demo-gogues

A sad case for re-election: “The reason they still support me is because they understand what an incredible mess had been made as I was coming into office, and we’ve been spending the last three years cleaning it up. The good news is that the economy is starting to strengthen. We’ve seen some positive signs. The unemployment rate has ticked down.” –Barack Obama

Fairy tales: “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns: They’re impossible to find and don’t exist.” –Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Government as Santa: “Christmas is coming. … We’ve got to put money into the pockets of the American people – the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits extending – and we cannot go home unless we do. … It’s not about where we have our Christmas dinner. It’s about if the American people are going to have a Christmas dinner that they can pay for with some level of comfort.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Left-theology: “I want to be judged as a good and faithful servant, and therefore, I will stand with my Democratic colleagues on these issues and stay here until we do take care of those who are considered the least of these. And I can’t believe as we are in the season of advent, the celebration of the birth of our Savior. He came, yes to bring salvation, but also to bring equity and justice into the world, that we would be so heartless and unChristian. It goes against the precepts of all religions and even every human value that we would end unemployment insurance.” –Rep. Donna Christenson (D-Virgin Islands), arguing that Christian tenants of individuals caring for the poor are actually government responsibilities

Propaganda: “The message I have for climate deniers is this: you are endangering humankind. It is time for climate deniers to face reality, because the body of evidence is overwhelming and the world’s leading scientists agree. … Problems do not go away by pretending they do not exist. And the longer that vocal minority insists on keeping their heads in the sand, the more it endangers billions of people around the globe and threatens to dramatically and negatively reshape the world as we know it.” –Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Over the top: “They have attached a poison pill – literally, colleagues – because it will kill 8,100 more people more than would have otherwise been killed from pollution. So have that for a Christmas gift.” –Barbara Boxer on Republicans trying to roll back a Clean Air Act provision

Fast and loose with statistics: “That is simply not true [that unemployment has risen since Obama took office]. In fact, unemployment has now dropped below 9 percent. It’s continuing to drop.” –DNC chief and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) (Unemployment was under 8 percent when Obama took office.)

Dezinformatsia

Belly Laugh of the Week: “You gave up a lot. You said you wanted a balanced approach. You didn’t get it. You cut a trillion dollars and set up the framework to cut another trillion plus, and the Republicans gave up nothing. … It seems to be all the compromising is being done by you.” –CBS’s Steve Kroft to Barack Obama

Defending class warfare by denying it exists: “People are accusing [Barack Obama] now of class warfare. It seems a bit trite to say that, because in any kind of society where you have this kind of financial meltdown, isn’t it instinctively the right thing to do that the rich should contribute a little bit more to the recovery than those with no money?” –CNN’s Piers Morgan

Newspulper Headlines:

If Only Herman Cain Were There to Remind Him: “Rick Perry Forgot How Many Supreme Court Justices There Are” –TheAtlanticWire.com

Breaking News From 1962, 1981, 2000: “Newt Takes No-Adultery Pledge” –Politico.com

Answers to Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Why Mitt Romney Is Like Jan From 'The Brady Bunch’” –FoxNews.com

Too Much Information: “Bill Clinton Says Wife Hillary ‘Just Wants a Good Night’s Sleep’” –New York Post

Free Kool-Aid!: “Crusade for Fewer People on the Earth Seeks Volunteers” –HumanEvents.com

Bottom Story of the Day: “Obama Raises Money for Re-Election Bid” –Associated Press

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

Village Idiots

The BIG Lie, Part I: “Nobody in the Justice Department has lied.” –Attorney General Eric Holder on the botched “Fast & Furious” scandal

The BIG Lie, Part II: “[Lying] all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that can be considered perjury or a lie.” –Eric Holder when asked about the difference between “lying” and “misleading”

The BIG Lie, Part III: “As we work to avoid future losses and further mistakes, it is unfortunate that some used inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric about one particular tragedy that occurred near the Southwest Border in an effort to score political points.” –Eric Holder on the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry

More class warfare: “There are people who can afford to give a little bit more. And you know what? In the end, we’ll get it back. It’s certainly better to do that than finance – than be secretive billionaires financing the Tea Party because you have untold needs for untold wealth. For what reason?” –Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein

The 1 Percent: “I think that we will end up taxing the rich, and that’s just fine by me. … [A]ll the rich people I know, like Ted Turner and Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, they’re all saying, ‘Tax us.’” –Hanoi Jane Fonda

Short Cuts

“Joe Biden visited Greece last week on the debt crisis. I don’t want to say the vice president doesn’t know much, but he kept asking for John Travolta.” –comedian Jay Leno

“Vladimir Putin slammed the U.S. government for noting how his United Russia Party stuffed ballot boxes and cheated to win on Tuesday. He misunderstood. When the U.S. president and the Secretary of State are both from Chicago there’s a real chance it was a compliment.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Citing budget cuts, the Obama administration will reduce the number of National Guard troops protecting the US-Mexico border. The remaining troops will be tasked with holding up ‘Welcome to America’ signs.” –Fred Thompson

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team