Brief

The Foundation

"In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example ... of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness." --James Madison

Opinion in Brief

"Finding herself with a bit of time on her hands, Justice Ginsburg swung by Cairo last month to help out the lads from the Muslim Brotherhood building the new Egypt: 'I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,' she advised them. Instead, she recommended the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the European Convention on Human Rights. That's why the fate of the republic will come down to a 5-4 vote. Because four-ninths of the constitutional court think the American constitutional order is as déclassé as a 2006 BlackBerry. ... [I]f the establishment wants to invent a new 'right' -- i.e., yet another intrusion by government -- it goes ahead and does so. If it happens to conflict with this year's constitution, they rewrite it. The United States is the only Western nation in which our rulers invoke the Constitution for the purpose of overriding it -- or, at any rate, torturing its language beyond repair. Thus, in [the] debate on whether Obamacare is merely the latest harmless evolution of the interstate-commerce clause, the most learned and highly remunerated jurists in the land chewed over the matter of whether a person, simply by virtue of being born, was participating in a 'market.' Had George III shown up at the Constitutional Convention to advance that argument with a straight face, the framers would have tossed aside the quill feathers and reached for their muskets." --columnist Mark Steyn

Share your thoughts on the importance of the Constitution.

Essential Liberty

"Liberal commentators were shocked this past week when in three days of oral argument in the lawsuits challenging Obamacare, five Supreme Court justices -- a majority -- asked questions strongly suggesting they think the legislation is unconstitutional. ... [T]he justices are not the only federal officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution. So do the president and vice president, Cabinet members and other appointees, and every member of Congress. ... That means that every federal official has an obligation to act in line with the Constitution as he or she understands it. And that doesn't necessarily mean obeying Supreme Court decisions. ... Clearly the two parties are divided on the constitutionality of the Obamacare mandate. Polls have shown large majorities of voters think the provision is unconstitutional, though one can wonder whether many have given the matter much thought. But they're certainly giving it more thought after this week and will likely give it more when the decision comes down. Voters can reasonably ask candidates for Congress their views on this and other constitutional issues and call on them to vote against measures they consider beyond Congress' constitutional powers." --political analyst Michael Barone

Government

"'I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared,' Thomas Jefferson once wrote. 'To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.' ... Remember the clash on Capitol Hill last year over raising the debt ceiling? It may have seemed like a huge battle at the time, but it was merely a holding action -- a rear-guard maneuver to buy a little time. Because which direction has federal spending gone since then? Up, of course, soaring toward new record levels and endangering our economic future. ... [M]any lawmakers seem content to make meaningless trims, not serious cuts. They act as if we can allow Social Security and Medicare spending to continue growing -- and growing -- on autopilot. They seriously think we can slash defense spending, yet continue fielding a world-class military. ... No, you and I aren't paying enough, that's the problem -- or so we're told. As if past tax hikes haven't proved, time and again, that government will quickly consume any additional funds, and then some. ... 'We must make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude,' Jefferson writes. 'If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.' Lawmakers should heed the words of our third president -- and have the courage to steer us off the path of financial misery." --Heritage Foundation president Ed Fuelner

The Gipper

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

Re: The Left

"Once again [last] week, the president was out on the campaign trail bashing and oil and gas companies. And he continued to spread major falsehoods about this industry, which I guess is the polite way to put it. Obama is obsessed with oil and gas. He is a prisoner of the left-wing environmental groups. And really, he's extending his leftist class-warfare attack from rich people to successful oil and gas producers. What seems to have Obama especially steamed is the fact that the conventional-energy companies are profitable. Especially the five largest. So he wants to tax them. He then wants to redistribute their income to his favorite green-energy firms. Sound familiar? I don't know which is more important to the president -- the fact that he hates fossil fuel or the fact that he hates success. ... But President Obama is too busy spewing falsehoods to support his ideological agenda than to take account of the facts. And while he's at it, one of the greatest, pro-growth revolutions ever is taking place right under his nose. It's the oil and gas shale miracle, which if left unfettered will turn America and Canada into an energy-independent New Middle East inside of 10 years. ... Obama should quit the demagoguery, stop bashing oil and gas, stop taxing success and let our ingenious, creative, free-enterprise private economy spur America to a new generation of prosperity." --economist Larry Kudlow

Political Futures

"Obama is telling the Russians not to worry, that once past 'my last election' and no longer subject to any electoral accountability, he'll show 'more flexibility' on missile defense. It's yet another accommodation to advance his cherished Russia 'reset' policy. Why? Hasn't reset been failure enough? Let's do the accounting. In addition to canceling the Polish/Czech missile defense system, Obama gave the Russians accession to the World Trade Organization, a START treaty that they need and we don't ... and a scandalously blind eye to their violations of human rights and dismantling of democracy. Obama even gave Putin a congratulatory call for winning his phony election. In return? Russia consistently watered down or obstructed sanctions on Iran, completed Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr, provides to this day Bashar al-Assad with huge arms shipments used to massacre his own people..., conducted a virulently anti-American presidential campaign on behalf of Putin, pressured Eastern Europe and threatened Georgia. On which of 'all these issues' -- Syria, Iran, Eastern Europe, Georgia, human rights -- is Obama ready to offer Putin yet more flexibility as soon as he gets past his last election? Where else will he show U.S. adversaries more flexibility?" --columnist Charles Krauthammer

Insight

"It is a dangerous concept that men of the armed forces must owe their primary allegiance to these temporary occupants of The White House, instead of to the country and the Constitution to which they have sworn to defend." --General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)

Faith & Family

"Abortion is a feminist sacrament. The movie 'October Baby' just debuted on 390 screens and registered in eighth place [last] weekend, with an estimated $1.7 million gross. ... Naturally, the critics just couldn't judge this movie by artistic standards. It had to be savaged because it is so politically incorrect. New York Times film critic Jeannette Catsoulis bared her ideological fangs at this improbable movie: 'Not even a dewy heroine and a youth-friendly vibe can disguise the essential ugliness at its core: like the bloodied placards brandished by demonstrators outside women's health clinics, the film communicates in the language of guilt and fear.' Ouch. A celebration of life is 'essential ugliness.' ... Notice how the Times couldn't focus on the movie without imagining the horror of conservative state legislators reducing a 'woman's dominion' over the termination of unborn children, no matter how advanced the pregnancy. ... But if you do consider abortion a crime -- against God -- isn't that the kind of compassionate message Hollywood preaches regularly? Such is the militancy of this issue in Hollywood." --columnist L. Brent Bozell

Culture

"The former Charleston, S.C., black chief of police, Reuben Greenberg, said the problem facing black America is not racial profiling. He said, 'The greatest problem in the black community is the tolerance for high levels of criminality.' Former Los Angeles black police Chief Bernard Parks, defending racial profiling, said: 'It's not the fault of the police when they stop minority males or put them in jail. It's the fault of the minority males for committing the crime. In my mind, it is not a great revelation that if officers are looking for criminal activity, they're going to look at the kind of people who are listed on crime reports.' Are former police Chiefs Greenberg and Parks racist? According to the Uniform Crime Report for 2009, among people 18 or younger, blacks were charged with 58 percent of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, 67 percent of robberies, 42 percent of aggravated assaults and 43 percent of auto thefts. As for murder, more than 90 percent of the time, their victims were black. These statistics, showing a strong interconnection among race, youth and crime, are a far better explanation for racial profiling and suspicion than simple racism." --economist Walter E. Williams

Reader Comments

"I just wanted to say thank you Mark Alexander for such a well-written essay, Race-Bait Political Hustlers. I think you are absolutely right. I knew the minute Al Sharpton showed up this entire incident would be completely blown out of proportion with race rhetoric. He does know how to ignite a fire. I think there are a lot of similarities between him and our current POTUS. I will sure be glad when people quit falling for the act that both of these men put on so well." --J Tatum

"Trayvon Martin's shooting will not affect Obama's campaign. The issues are the economy, federal budget, and ObamaCare. By November this story will be forgotten and something else will be the media's focus. This story knocked Sandra Fluke off the talk shows and the front page." --Chris

"If our country is to be salvaged from the wreckage reeked upon it by Obama, this atrocity of a health care law will be struck down. If the conservative justices stay true to their beliefs, that the U.S. Constitution is the law of the land, ObamaCare will be nullified." --Jill

"Whether or not the Supreme Court 'kills' ObamaCare, Republicans had better get off their rumps and get very serious about constructing a viable and fiscally responsible health care program or we will still have BHO for another four years!" --Dick

"We will eventually have some form of socialized medicine, ObamaCare or not. The general public -- which includes the lamestream media -- likes 'free stuff' and they have no clue that 'free stuff' is not free. And when it is made 'free' its quality and availability will suffer -- and so will we." --Grant

The Last Word

"[I]t sure would be intellectually honest if more people started framing their arguments in the terms, 'I don't like freedom on this issue and here is why...' You pretty much never see that. I mean, gun control is an anti-freedom stance, but they never argue it that way. I think maybe that's why they don't understand how unpopular their stance is. The same thing with the health care debate. The mandate is an anti-freedom stance, but they try to say they're for more freedom by ending worries about health care, which is BS. One thing is freedom and one thing isn't; it's not debatable. Putting a gun to someone's head and saying,'You must buy health insurance!' isn't freedom and no one should pretend it is. It's okay to take an anti-freedom stance, you just should frame it [in] terms of why you think your ideas are better than liberty. And that will probably also help you understand why so many people don't like your views, as the left always seems to get caught off guard by that." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

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