Shortage of Labor Day

The Foundation

"Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow." --Benjamin Franklin

For the Record

"Eight years ago, when John Kerry tried to defeat the incumbent George W. Bush, he accused Bush of leading a 'jobless recovery.' When the economy started creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, Kerry and the Democrats then claimed that Bush was creating mostly 'McJobs,' low-wage positions rather than higher-paying jobs for people with significant skills. ... Today, the Obama administration keeps claiming to have added 4.3 million jobs by choosing to start from February 2010 rather than the start of the recovery in June 2009 or the passage of Barack Obama's stimulus package in February 2009. The Obama recovery in full has only added less than 65,000 jobs per month, far below the level needed to keep up with population growth (125K-150K per month), and the civilian population participation rate has fallen to a 30-year low this spring. A new study now shows that even those jobs that have been added are the 'McJobs' that Kerry inaccurately accused Bush's recovery of generating. ... We're not even keeping up with population growth in this recovery. The average jobs added per month since January has been 83,286 according to the BLS ... still a long way from keeping up with population growth. That's not a recovery in jobs at all, which anyone looking at the participation rate (63.7%) would instantly recognize. The data shows that even the paltry job creation of the Obama recovery has done little to advance the economy. Businesses won't invest in job-creating activities that require more expensive labor until they can reliably calculate future costs, which in this regulatory and tax environment, they cannot do. That's why companies are sitting on their capital, and why we won't get anything but McJobs in significant numbers until those policies change." --columnist Ed Morrissey

Opinion in Brief

"Both the offensive and defensive segments of [Mitt Romney's] speech [Thursday night] -- as of this convention as a whole -- strike us as a success. Romney's remarks about his own agenda were sketchier but promising, and conservative. In the past Romney has described conservatism as a three-legged stool resting on free markets, moral truth, and national strength. He mentioned all three elements [Thursday]: promising to protect the sanctity of life, to guard against unwise cuts to the defense budget, and above all to remove governmental impediments to economic growth. The economic policies he suggested -- energy development, school choice, new trade agreements, spending restraint, reductions in taxes on business, regulatory simplification, and the replacement of Obamacare -- impress us as sensible if incomplete. (We also need a monetary policy, for example, that reduces uncertainty rather than adds to it.) We would not be surprised if the president delivers a finer literary production in his speech next week. What he cannot talk away is a high unemployment rate, a legislative record most Americans dislike, and a philosophy they do not share. [Thursday] night may be remembered as when the Obama tide began to recede." --National Review

Political Futures

"[Paul] Ryan's speech made an understated bow towards Reagan's political message with a signature passage. 'The right that makes all the difference now is the right to choose our own leaders. You are entitled to the clearest possible choice because the time for choosing is drawing near,' Ryan told the Tampa convention crowd. There is no doubt that he was reaching back to Reagan's classic political debut speech endorsing the 1964 candidacy of Barry Goldwater. Reagan burst onto the national scene with a speech he called 'A Time for Choosing.' He told his audience back then, 'The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.' ... Liberals are already throwing spitballs at Ryan. They recognize that his candidacy has energized Mitt Romney and the conservative base to run a campaign on bold ideas that calls on voters to make a fundamental choice about the country's future. ... Now we'll see how much the country likes the newly unveiled Romney-Ryan team. So far the signs are favorable." --columnist John Fund

Re: The Left

"In the run-up to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., Democrats and their fellow travelers in the so-called mainstream media claimed that the GOP was waging a 'war against women,' depicted Mitt Romney as a heartless felon responsible for the death of a woman who lost her health insurance and blasted Romney for choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate. They then tried to define Ryan as a heartless ideologue who would eliminate Medicare and throw grandmothers off a cliff. ... That wasn't good enough for the potentates of the press. The GOP was castigated for going ahead with its convention while 'a terrible storm' was 'causing so much death and destruction.' We were reminded repeatedly that Isaac had hit the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines on 'the seventh anniversary of Katrina.' One commentator, a former ABC and PBS political director, reporting for Yahoo News from the convention hall, said Republicans 'are happy to have a party with black people drowning.' It was a perfect storm of media hostility coupled with breathless live reports of wind, rain and flooding, all timed to disrupt and distract attention from the events in Tampa. Yet when it was all said and done, the Republicans provided a remarkably effective introduction of the GOP candidates for the tens of millions of Americans who tuned in." --columnist Oliver North

The Gipper

"Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, 'Well done'? Can anyone compare the state of our economy when [this] administration took office with where we are today and say, 'Keep up the good work'? Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, 'Let's have four more years of this'? I believe the American people are going to answer these questions ... and their answer will be, 'No, we've had enough!'" --Ronald Reagan

Government

"On Tuesday, the [Obama] administration announced that it had finalized 'historic' new fuel efficiency standards. (Everything's 'historic' with these narcissists, isn't it?) President Obama took a break from his historic fundraising drives to proclaim that '(by) the middle of the next decade, our cars will get nearly 55 miles per gallon, almost double what they get today. It'll strengthen our nation's energy security, it's good for middle-class families, and it will help create an economy built to last.' Jon Carson, director of Obama's Office of Public Engagement, took to Twitter to hype how 'auto companies support the higher fuel-efficiency standards' and how the rules crafted behind closed doors will 'save consumers $8,000' per vehicle. His source for these claims? The New York Times, America's Fishwrap of Record, which has acknowledged it allows the Obama campaign to have 'veto power' over reporters' quotes from campaign officials. ... Given this crony government's abysmal track record in 'investing' in new technologies (cough -- Solyndra -- cough), we can safely dismiss that fantasy math. What is real for consumers is the $2,000 per vehicle added cost that the new fuel standards will impose now." --columnist Michelle Malkin

Essential Liberty

"When Thomas Paine wrote the influential Common Sense in 1776, he took dead aim at the legitimacy of King George III, which rested on the divine right of England's kings as descended from William the Conqueror in 1066: 'A French bastard landing with an armed banditti, and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it.' So the new republic rested on a different basis of legitimacy: The consent of the governed. ... In general, the Founders feared capture of government by 'faction,' including a faction composed of a majority. ... They especially feared 'systemic corruption,' whereby the political system would pass class legislation and the recipients would recycle some of the booty back into support for the politicians. ... Over time ... all the political barriers to class legislation have fallen, following the legal checks into oblivion. ... The political culture has evolved to the point where anyone who declines to push for special favors is regarded as a fool, and systemic corruption is accepted as the normal and inevitable way of doing political business. ... We have the heritage of the debate over the nation's origins, and we have the intellectual tools to understand and analyze the reality that we have a legitimacy crisis. ... So we should all stand up and say 'I am the United States, and I have a crisis of political legitimacy.'" --Competitive Enterprise Institute's James V. DeLong

Insight

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them." --American writer H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Faith and Family

"The words chosen by teachers and administrators to describe sensitive cultural issues shape students' perceptions of those issues. Teachers know that. They have tremendous power to influence the children -- your children -- who are under their care. Teachers who buy into the liberal agenda eagerly foist the liberal world view on their students by modeling politically correct language. When necessary, they will correct a student's choice of non-politically correct words, all in the name of sensitivity and tolerance. Even good teachers, who believe in Biblical morality or perhaps lean conservative, may fall into the politically palatable word trap. ... Encourage your children to use charitable, respectful language in all circumstances. But urge them to be strong and clear about the truth. Use the language of reality -- God's reality -- to describe culturally sensitive issues. ... Ask your children to explain their understanding of politically correct words and phrases. Correct their perceptions as necessary. ... Politically correct language can't change reality, no matter how hard liberals try. Help your child distinguish 'truth' from liberal talking points." --columnist Rebecca Hagelin

Reader Comments

"Mark Alexander wrote about Dinesh D'Souza's new movie about Obama. I recently saw '2016' with my elderly father (WWII Vet) and it was enlightening to say the least. My assumptions of Obama were clarified and new information gave me a better understanding of what his motivations are and where he (and those who support him) want to take America. This is a very dangerous time -- perilous in fact and we cannot allow this to happen as Americans. I firmly believe that everyone should see this movie if for nothing else other than education." --agilebulletdodger in Texas

"My wife and I saw '2016' Sunday afternoon, and although we'd arrived nearly half an hour before show time the theater was nearly full. A very well done film that did NOT attack the Glorious Leader, but showed the vast differences in his ideas and those of the majority of thinking Americans who value their freedoms." --Larry in Montana

"Please remember that when the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected in November the battle is NOT won. We must still redouble our efforts to teach our children to love and defend all truth. And with that they will learn about America's divine beginnings and they will learn to love and defend America." --Bill in Chicago

"After the Republican National Convention, I finally feel energized and glad to vote for Romney. Before, I was just voting against Obama." --Debra in Cumming, Georgia

"I was more pleased with the words I heard from the podium at this RNC than I have been since the days of Reagan. But I still have to say I yearn for the day when a majority of the elite Republican politicians are clamoring for a return to the constitutional pillars of the separation of powers and checks and balances. The mere fact that ANY president still talks about how many jobs he or she will create tells me that we have a way to go before we restore real liberty." --Brett in Tulsa

The Last Word

Here was our favorite line from Mitt Romney's convention speech: 'President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.' ... [W]e enjoyed ... the deft way in which Romney punctured Obama's self-aggrandizement -- by quoting his most immodest promise ever, pausing for effect, then making an almost comically modest promise of his own. Previewing Romney's speech last week, Peggy Noonan advised him to use humor: 'President Obama can't stand to be made fun of. His pride won't allow it, his amour propre cannot countenance a joke at his own expense. If Mr. Romney lands a few very funny lines about the president's leadership, Mr. Obama will freak out. That would be fun, wouldn't it?' Romney managed to do so at least once. In a somewhat similar vein was the more-in-sorrow-than-anger condescension of his assertion that 'I wish President Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed.' No doubt journalism's fearless 'fact checkers' will be on the case. FACT: Romney is GLAD Obama failed! PANTS ON FIRE!!!! If Romney can strike a similar tone face to face with the president, the debates ought to be a blast." --Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

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