The Patriot Post® · Chronicle
The Foundation
“No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.” –George Washington
Editorial Exegesis
“The Republicans running for president could learn a lesson from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. If, as the GOP candidates say, we really have gone miles down the wrong fiscal and economic road, and we surely have, then we require something bold and substantive to take us in the right direction. … Ryan’s plan is a bold stroke. He would cut the top marginal tax rate from its current 35% to 25%. … Instead of the six brackets under our current punitive tax code, Ryan gives us just two: 25% and 10%. And America’s corporate tax – at 35% the highest rate in the world, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa’s one-party socialist state of Cameroon – is cut to 25%, and it largely eliminates the taxation of U.S. companies’ overseas profits. Individuals and businesses would be taxed $2 trillion less over 10 years under Ryan’s plan than under President Obama’s budget, while the federal government would spend more than $5 trillion less. Ryan also scraps something politicians have been promising to get rid of for years, but haven’t: the infamous Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was passed over 40 years ago to punish a tiny handful of tax-sheltering ‘super rich,’ but – surprise, surprise – soon started slamming the middle-class. … Ryan’s tax reform would help bring America back to what it could, and should, be. It may just be the best weapon in the GOP arsenal.” –Investor’s Business Daily
ost your opinion on Ryan’s plan.
Upright
“As of 5:25 am, AP has fully called 16 of the 18 congressional districts [in Illinois], and Santorum carried only three of them, for a total of 10 delegates. …So the current total is Romney 41, Santorum 10, with 3 too close to call. If the current numbers hold up … Santorum gets 2 of the remaining 3, leaving a final score of 42-12 Romney. … The non-Romneys now would have to win about 56% of remaining delegates in order to control a majority of delegates among them. So far, they’ve won about 42 percent of delegates. That means, by my quick math, that they would need to improve by more than 33 percent over past performance. I don’t see any reason to suspect this might happen.” –columnist Timothy P. Carney
“There is no reasonable expectation that Santorum can get the delegates necessary to win the nomination. … Santorum had a good run; an extraordinary run. … In the run-up to the Iowa Caucuses on January 3, Rick Santorum was a bit player in the back of the chorus line. In the early debates Rick Santorum was at one end showing his lack of support in the polls. … He will do well in Louisiana on Saturday but there are no election activities after that until April 3; then nothing until the Northeast primary on April 24. It is time. Over the next 30 days this will become blindingly clear. Santorum and Gingrich should bow out and get in behind the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.” –columnist Rich Galen
“[W]hat we see is that Romney won big in metro Chicago, carried the counties with small cities (Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign-Urbana) Downstate and ran even in the two counties just east of St. Louis, for a solid victory. Romney essentially carried the areas that Barack Obama carried against John McCain in November 2008.” –political analyst Michael Barone
“In the general election, President Obama will have all the advantages against Romney that Romney currently has against his Republican rivals. … And the mainstream media will give Obama more publicity than Romney can buy. How does anyone ever defeat a sitting president then? They do it because they have a message that rings and resonates. … The question is not which Republican looks better against Barack Obama in the polls today, before the general election campaign begins. The question is which Republican can take the fight to Barack Obama, as Reagan took the fight to Carter, and win the poll that ultimately matters, the vote on Election Day.” –economist Thomas Sowell
Insight
“Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living lose what makes life worth living.” –Roman poet Decimus Juvenal (c. 1st - 2nd century)
“Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn’t grow up can be vice president.” –American comedian Johnny Carson (1925-2005)
The Demo-gogues
Petulance on display: “[D]o not tell me that we’re not drilling. We’re drilling all over this country. I mean, I guess there’s some – there are a few spots where we’re not drilling. We’re not drilling in the national mall. We’re not drilling at your house. I guess we could try to have like, you know, 200 oil rigs in the middle of Chesapeake Bay.” –Barack Obama, the great orator
Patting himself on the back: “Change is the decisions we made to stop waiting for a Congress to do something about our oil addiction and finally raised fuel efficiency standards on our cars and on our trucks so that by next decade we will be driving American-made cars that get 55 miles per gallon.” –Barack Obama
Tone deaf: “Actually we’re not hearing a lot about gas prices right now from constituents. And I think that reflects a growing understanding on the part of the public, that there really is very little that the government and politicians can do.” –Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)
Politics of personal insulting: “If some of these [Republican] folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the ‘flat earth society.’ They would not believe that the world was round.” –Barack Obama
It’s still about him: “[It’s] not as trendy to be an Obama supporter, because it’s not as fresh. Those [HOPE] posters are kind of rolled up in some closet somewhere. But my determination, my determination is unwavering. My passion to bring about change is undiminished. The need is still great.” –BO
Left theology: “Jesus did not help just the sick who could afford to pay for it.” –Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on why Christians should support the top-down government takeover of health care known as ObamaCare
Non Compos Mentis: “You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan.” –Joe Biden on Obama’s decision to take out bin Laden
Dezinformatsia
Out of touch: “Encouraging news on gas prices. New indications this morning that they may have peaked. … So far high gas prices haven’t hurt consumers but a fear if they continue to go up they will.” –ABC’s George Stephanopoulos (Right. People have hardly noticed!)
Objectivity: “This is Christmas in March if you’re a Democrat because this is sort of silly season, this is not going anywhere fast.” –MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner on Paul Ryan’s budget proposal
Take a look in the mirror: “[A]s poor as the economy is in Mississippi and in Alabama, for them to vote for the richest guy who endorses the policies that reinforces their economic problems is absolutely throwing reason out the window. But if you’re driven by hate and bias, and that is peppered by these talk-radio, hate-radio guys, then you don’t even think about the fact that you’re suffering under these policies. You vote for the policies that caused your suffering.” –MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, who routinely supports the policies that reinforce economic problems
Tact and tolerance: “[The Republicans have] got three RCs, or two RCs – two Roman Catholics – running and a Mormon, so three cultists running, and they gotta pick one of the three cultists, as they see them.” –MSNBC’s Chris Matthews
Civility: “I think [Republicans] should test the alleged laws of gravity by jumping out of a plane without a parachute.” –Stephanie Miller show sidekick Jim Ward
Stretching: “[Barack Obama] is the most Jewish president we’ve ever had (except for Rutherford B. Hayes). No president, not even Bill Clinton, has traveled so widely in Jewish circles, been taught by so many Jewish law professors, and had so many Jewish mentors, colleagues, and friends, and advisers as Barack Obama.” –The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg
Newspulper Headlines:
Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Is Elvis a Mormon?” –The New York Times
Longest Books Ever Written: “The Problem With Obama’s Documentary” –Commentary website
Shortest Books Ever Written: “I Was a Virgin on Birth Control” –Huffington Post
Answers to Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Sandra Fluke: I Will Not Be Silenced” –HotAir.com
The Left Is Really Obsessed With Contraception: “What Is Plan B in Afghanistan?” –The New Yorker website
Bottom Story of the Day: “A.F.L.-C.I.O. Endorses Obama” –New York Times website
(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)
Village Idiots
Laughable: “[I] think the president’s quite comfortable being the underdog. I think he’s happy to run this race from – as if he were behind the whole time.” –former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
That’s racist! “Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?” –actor Robert DeNiro
Some apology: “My remarks, although spoken with satirical jest, were not meant to offend or embarrass anyone – especially the First Lady.” –DeNiro, apologizing to Michelle Obama for offensive remarks about the Republican candidates’ wives
Completely incomprehensible: “How can you have in our country that is based upon liberality and liberation, be so anti-liberal. That’s toxic waste to our consciousness. It’s hard to be an American conservative because that’s a contradiction in terms. Now if you take away freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of protest, and lock people out based upon their race, their language and their religion, that’s conservative and fascist. America is a liberal idea.” –“The Reverend” Jesse Jackson
He’s pressed the “reset button” all right: “There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority, and wisdom. … [H]e has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world.” –British PM David Cameron
Twisted: “I love abortion. I don’t accept it. I don’t view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. … I love abortion. … No woman benefits from even the vaguest insinuation that abortion is an immoral or objectionable option. That’s the weak argument made by misogynistic, forced-birth advocates, and it has no place in a dialogue about reproductive freedom. … Rather than trying to cozy up to the forced-birth camp, women who value their freedom should be proud to say that they like abortion. In fact, they should venerate it whole-heartedly. … What’s not to love?” –abortion activist Jessica DelBalzo
Goose and gander: “The First Amendment was specifically designed for citizens to insult politicians. Libel laws were written to protect law students speaking out on political issues from getting called whores by Oxycontin addicts.” –HBO’s Bill Maher on why it’s ok for him to personally attack Sarah Palin but condemn Rush Limbaugh on Sandra Fluke
Short Cuts
“Congratulations to Obama! He’s now increased the debt more in three years than George W. Bush did his entire eight year presidency. But all that spending was worth it because just look at the great results! So what exactly is the argument that Obama isn’t a hugely incompetent failure? So far it’s ‘Look! Over there! A war on women!’” –humorist Frank J. Fleming
“British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Washington last week and, as expected, President Obama apologized to Cameron for the Revolutionary War.” –Jodi Miller
“President Obama hosted a state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. The president and the British are getting along a lot better lately. They love to compare notes on ways the Tea Party’s always trying to overthrow their rule in America.” –comedian Argus Hamilton
“White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the reporters at his morning briefing that he hoped they would watch the new movie about Obama’s first term ‘many times.’ They might. Look how well ‘Titanic’ did at the box office.” –Fred Thompson
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team