The Foundation

“For it is a truth which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are always most in danger, when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.” –Alexander Hamilton

NeoCom SOTU Address

Last night, Barack Obama delivered his latest NeoCom State of the Union Address. Below are the lowlights from his speech:

“Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. … Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. … Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. … [F]or the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late. … But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy. … Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. … Today, the organization [al-Qa'ida] that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. … As long as I’m commander in chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military in the world. We will invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat. … [T]onight, I’m announcing a non-partisan commission to improve the voting experience in America. … Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned. Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that’s your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun.” –Barack Obama

Editorial Exegesis

“[Obama’s] speech gave every indication that he remains a hostage to the superstition that we can spend our way to national prosperity – or that we can pass laws that will force employers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other businesses to spend our way to prosperity for us. … In reality, the state of our union is this: The United States is today $6 trillion deeper in debt than it was before Barack Obama was first sworn in as president. That represents an increase of 57 percent in just four years. Put another way: Out of every dollar the country owes in government debt, 36 cents was acquired under the Obama administration. The state of our union is this: Today there are more than 4 million fewer Americans working than there were when Barack Obama was first sworn in as president – not including those who have retired. … The state of our union is this: Economic growth is weaker than it has been during any recovery in recent memory; in fact, the economy shrank in the last quarter. … The state of our union is this: Incomes are lower today than they were when Barack Obama was first sworn in as president. … The president boasted that a decade of war is coming to an end. It is, and a new decade of war is beginning. He boasted that al-Qaeda is decimated, but that news has not reached Benghazi or most of North Africa. So the state of our union also is this: North Korea sets off nuclear weapons with impunity. Iran seeks them without fear. Islamists slaughter our diplomatic personnel while the president’s national-defense team keeps bankers’ hours. … The president’s confrontational, hectoring, and highly ideological speech ought to be a wake-up call to the country. The Republican majority in the House is the only real check on his power. Supplementing that check with a Republican majority in the Senate is imperative. Even through all of President Obama’s obfuscations, that much is clear.” –National Review

Upright

“I think the mindset of this administration was revealed in one particular line that, I must confess, almost escaped my attention. Quote: ‘I’m also issuing a new goal for America.’ The particular goal in question was to reduce energy-waste in homes and businesses. Think, however, about the quoted statement. Leaving aside the fact that it sounded like a decree issued from on high, the president’s words are emblematic of the top-down approach to the economy and society that’s characteristic of all instinctual dirigistes. In political terms, it also reflects a failure to grasp that America was never supposed to be about the government decreeing goals that we’re all obliged to get behind.” –Action Institute research director Samuel Gregg

“In sum, we must ‘protect our children’ and therefore have left them another $5 trillion in new debt. After five years of these soaring hope-and-change speeches, there are the same three themes I think will keep reverberating: Obama’s soaring rhetoric bears not much resemblance to the reality of the present tough times here and abroad; no one in the administration or the media will go back to see whether last year’s similar utopian ideas ever worked or even saw implementation; and the majority of listeners to the speech either probably believed every word – or were angry at anybody who did not.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson

“As supporters of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and free markets, too often our candidates and elected leaders rail against the corrosive influence of expansive government without thoroughly explaining why our ‘sensible’ limited-government approach will actually make people’s lives tangibly better – lifting them from poverty, providing them better education options, and preserving the programs they rely on…. When the president says he wants to ‘invest’ and we say we want to ‘cut,’ he is wrong on the substance but right on the politics. We need to take back the terminology, and in doing so, the perception of who’s on the high ground.” –Pete Hegseth, former Executive Director of Vets For Freedom

“The central unacknowledged problem the Republican party faces … is the failure of its economic message to connect with voters’ economic suffering. President Obama gave what I think was a politically effective speech. Voters would come away remembering several new ideas that connect – like the idea of getting a community-college degree alongside a high-school diploma for free, a federal effort to reduce tuition costs, and of course raising the minimum wage…. The GOP’s job is to make President Obama own the economy he created by explaining in a persuasive way why we have no real recovery after four years of Obamanomics – and then offer a choice, not an echo.” –commentator Maggie Gallagher

Demo-gogues

“Non Compos Mentis” Award: “We avow the First Amendment. We stand with that and say that people have a right to have a gun to protect themselves in their homes and their jobs, where ever, and … for recreation for hunting and the rest.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (Memo to Nan: That would be the Second Amendment and the protection in question would be against a government which no longer comports to constitutional restraints.)

Calling all sycophants: “The president and I are going to continue to travel the country, so that [the gun control] we’re proposing can’t be misrepresented. To be very blunt with you, we’re counting on you – the legitimate news media – to cover these discussions because the truth is that times have changed.” –Joe Biden

The BIG Lie: “There’s some information that suggests that some of these [gun] manufacturers build their sales models on an assumption that at least 20 percent of the weapons will get sold illegally.” –Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD)

Gun grabbers: “It’s clear that we need to look at handguns also.” –Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) on further gun control – because it’s worked so well in Chicago

Denying the problem: “The fact is, we’ve had plenty of spending cuts. … [I]t is almost a false argument to say that we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem.” –Nancy Pelosi (We’re on pace to increase the national debt by $7 trillion over 10 years.)

Chutzpah: “On behalf of Americans everywhere, Michelle and I wish to extend our appreciation and prayers to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Michelle and I warmly remember our meeting with the Holy Father in 2009, and I have appreciated our work together over these last four years.” –Barack Obama (Someone should tell him that being sued by the Catholic Church doesn’t constitute “working together.”)

The Democrat Motto: “Don’t confuse me with any facts.” –Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) at a townhall meeting

Dezinformatsia

Speaking truth to power: “I think that the president really feels that the state of the union is stronger for several reasons. One is that he’s been winning ever since the election. And he seems to have a working majority now, even in the House. But, also, I think that despite the last quarter of GDP non-growth, that things are looking pretty good for the economy.” –Time Magazine’s Joe Klein

Sympathy for the devil: “Are there people in your newsroom, editors who are saying, ‘We have to be careful here. It’s not simple. This man may have a complaint’?” –MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to Los Angeles Times journalist Andrew Blankstein during a live feed as police closed in on rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner

Peacenik: “What, people ask, is the alternative to small war, if not big war? And the answer no one ever seems to consider is no war. … We could be a nation that declares its war over, that declares itself at peace, and goes about rigorously and energetically intelligence and diplomacy and well-resourced police work to protect us from future attacks.” –MSNBC’s Chris Hayes

Hot air: “Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?” –CNN anchor Deb Feyerick

Newspulper Headlines:

That’s When He Isn’t Busy Doing Skeet Shooting: “Obama: ‘I Often Search Scripture to Figure Out How I Can Be a Better Man as Well as Better President’” –CNSNews.com

Taxes Aren’t the Only Thing That’s High: “Police Say People Smoking Pot, Doing Taxes at Clay H&R Block” –Daily Mail (Charleston, WV)

News You Can Use: “Don’t Take Medical Advice From the New York Times Magazine” –Slate.com

That’s Why He Married a Ketchup Heiress: “Mayo Too Strong for Kerry” –Setanta.com

Bottom Story of the Day: “Michelle Obama’s Posterior Again the Subject of a Public Rant” –The Washington Post

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

Village Idiots

Unhinged: “Whether by [Obama] executive order or thru a bi-partisan congress an assault weapons ban needs to be re-instituted. Period!!! Mr. Vice President, do your due diligence when formulating a concise and permanent national AWB plan. … Gun control is no longer debatable, it’s not a conversation, its a moral mandate. Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB. The time is now to reinstitute a ban. … I want you to know that I agree with you 100% on enacting stricter firearm laws.” –from rogue ex-LA cop Christopher Dorner’s manifesto (Dorner was apparently killed yesterday in a standoff with police.)

Snake oil: “The Affordable Healthcare Act is going to be implemented in stages and these things, just like Social Security when it started, Medicare when it started, Medicaid when it started, they all have some difficulty when they started.” –Fox News’ Juan Williams attempting to explain recent revelations about ObamaCare – most notably 1. Obama sold it at costing less than $900 billion and the most recent CBO estimate is now $2.8 trillion 2. The cheapest family plan will cost almost $20,000 by 2016 3. Compliance will take 127 million man hours. So, when Juan compares ObamaCare to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he may, inadvertently, be on to something!

Nothing to see here: “One of the things that I would like to again try to clear up, and I ask you to please stop adopting the rhetoric of the gun advocates. Chicago does not have strict gun laws.” –Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy

We support, but… “We support the Second Amendment. We aren’t trying to take anyone’s guns away necessarily. We’re just trying to get something that’s common sense, a logical reaction to the tragedies that have happened in the past few years.” –actor Adam Scott

Submission: “[The] president of the United States is our boss, but he is also – you know, the president and the first lady are kinda like the mom and the dad of the country. And when your dad says something you listen, and when you don’t it will usually bite you on the a$$ later on.” –comedian Chris Rock

Short Cuts

“I can’t get excited by the question of whether Senator Robert Menendez had sex with a prostitute in Central America. It is her word against his – and when it comes to a prostitute’s word against a politician’s word, that is too close to call.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“The financially struggling US Postal Service announced it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays. Can’t wait to find out how many days per week you’ll be able to get treatment under Obamacare.” –Fred Thompson

“Reportedly, President Obama’s speech will focus on jobs. Hopefully he’ll explain to us why anybody in Congress still has one.” –comedian Jay Leno

“President Obama allowed his Jobs Council to expire without renewing its charter despite high unemployment and a contracting economy. The members never met anyway. The Jobs Council was only intended to save one job, and now its work is done.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

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