The Foundation

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again.” –George Washington

Editorial Exegesis

“President Obama, Welcome to Chattanooga, one of hundreds of cities throughout this great nation struggling to succeed in spite of your foolish policies that limit job creation, stifle economic growth and suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit. Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself. That’s because your jobs creation plans so far have included a ridiculous government spending spree and punitive tax increase on job creators that were passed, as well as a minimum wage increase that, thankfully, was not. Economists – and regular folks with a basic understanding of math – understand that these are three of the most damaging policies imaginable when a country is mired in unemployment and starving for job growth. … So excuse us, Mr. President, for our lack of enthusiasm for your new jobs program. Here in Chattanooga we’re still reeling from your old one.” –Chattanooga Free Press

Upright

“Have you noticed that the Internal Revenue Service scandal seems to be getting ever closer to the White House? The IRS originally tried to set up ‘rogue employees in Cincinnati’ as fall guys. But in congressional testimony, they revealed that the targeting of dissenting groups was directed from Washington. … As this column has argued before, the higher this scandal goes, the better it is for the country. We say that … but because the president can be held accountable if it turns out he or his top aides essentially instructed the IRS to steal the 2012 election. A corrupt administration can be dealt with, as Richard Nixon’s was 40 years ago. By contrast, if career IRS employees acted on their own, it means the integrity of American democracy itself is threatened by an out-of-control administrative state. In that case, how to solve the problem is not at all clear.” –The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto

“[Ben Bernanke] and everyone else knows that flooding the economy with market-distorting money can’t go on forever and that interest rates must rise. Inflation is like the Huns and Vandals. It appears quickly and is very hard to get rid of once it appears. But it’s keeping the stock market up … artificially. So they can’t keep pouring in the money forever and they can’t stop without consequences. It’s the same old story. Short term sugar high at the expense of a healthy diet … and, in this case, getting past the midterm elections.” –former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson

“Disgustingly, black politicians, civil rights leaders, liberals and the president are talking nonsense about ‘having a conversation about race.’ That’s beyond useless. Tell me how a conversation with white people is going to stop black predators from preying on blacks. How is such a conversation going to eliminate the 75 percent illegitimacy rate? What will such a conversation do about the breakdown of the black family (though ‘breakdown’ is not the correct word, as the family doesn’t form in the first place)? Only black people can solve our problems.” –economist Walter E. Williams

“The family is a broken mess nationwide. Why should it remain intact among the politicians who championed its destruction? … Shame depends on peer pressure. And peer pressure requires standards. When the standards only exist on television, then shame is an illusion, a mask that politicians can take off and put on again. And it’s not as if we believe in shame anymore. Not when the media and a legion of gullible idiots celebrated the defeat of the Defense of Marriage Act. And if DOMA’s death sparked some fireworks, why should we expect marriage to be sacred? … In a society without moral values, shame is theater.” –columnist Daniel Greenfield

Essential Liberty

“The triumph of liberty is not inevitable, though. And empires do crumble. Rome’s lasted the longest. The Ottoman Empire lasted 623 years. China’s Song, Qing and Ming dynasties each lasted about 300 years. We’ve lasted just 237 years so far…. In that time, we’ve accomplished amazing things, but we shouldn’t take our continued success for granted. Freedom and prosperity are not natural. In human history, they’re rare.” –columnist John Stossel

Insight

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” –Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 B.C.)

“The right of resisting oppression is a natural right.” –President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

Demo-gogues

The BIG Lie: “If [Republicans have] got a better plan to create jobs rebuilding our infrastructure or to help workers earn the high-tech skills that they need, then they should offer up these ideas. But I’ve got to tell you, just gutting our environmental protection – that’s not a jobs plan. Gutting investments in education – that’s not a jobs plan. They keep on talking about this – an oil pipeline coming down from Canada that’s estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs – that’s not a jobs plan. Wasting the country’s time by taking something like 40 meaningless votes to repeal ObamaCare is not a jobs plan – that’s not a jobs plan.” –Barack Obama

If only government were bigger: “If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5. Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue.” –Barack Obama

Always more government: “If we don’t do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Income inequality will continue to rise. Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot.” –Barack Obama

Belly laugh of the week: “[Barack Obama is] one of the most practically non-partisans I have seen in the White House.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Too bad he doesn’t mean pro-growth: “We need tax reform … under the total understanding that it can’t be revenue-neutral. It can’t be even close to revenue-neutral. There has to be significant new revenues.” –Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) essentially torpedoing tax reform with a demand for $1 trillion in revenue above the $600 million Democrats got on Jan. 1

Hot air: “I think it’s no exaggeration at all to say that millions will die. And in fact there’s pretty good evidence that millions already have died because of climate change. … [E]ither we take real action, or millions will die. The answer is a carbon tax, and I’m going to fight for it.” –Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)

Dezinformatsia

Nothing to see here: “There are influential people out there who would like you to believe that Detroit’s demise is fundamentally a tale of fiscal irresponsibility and/or greedy public employees. It isn’t. For the most part, it’s just one of those things that happens now and then in an ever-changing economy.” –Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

The BIG Lie: “Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell want to brainwash voters into thinking Social Security is broken and contributes to the deficit. It doesn’t. … Social Security has never contributed one penny to the deficit.” –MSNBC’s Ed Schultz

Race bait: “If conservatives are so concerned about black-on-black crime, it’s a little concerning the only time I hear them talking about it is when they want to stick it to the black community.” –Daily Beast’s Kristen Powers, who evidently doesn’t listen the rest of the time

Circling the wagons around the Clintons: “This [Weiner scandal] is terribly painful. From people close to the Clintons, friends of both, they care deeply about Huma [Abedin], but this is getting to the point where it is really splashing up against the Clintons because it’s almost unavoidable that people are making comparisons to the way Hillary Clinton handled Bill Clinton’s difficulties in the 1992 campaign. And it’s just only going to reach a further point if [Anthony Weiner] stays in this race.” –NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Weinergate

Village Idiots

It’s bad but it’s good: “The truth is the core of the economy is strong, it’s resilient, and we’ve been growing. We’ve been growing for 40 months. We’ve seen job growth for 40 months, GDP growth, economy growth for four years. It’s not fast enough. We want to do everything we can to speed the pace of economic growth and job creation. That means we need to address the issues that the president laid out this week. We need to do things to help build the foundation for better jobs.” –Treasury Secretary Jack Lew

“Can we stop talking about environmental regulations killing jobs, please?” –new EPA chief Gina McCarthy (Sure, then stop killing jobs with environmental regulations!)

Race bait II: “We have a long history in this country of some people exploiting differences between us for their own advantage. It’s a cynical appeal to the worst instincts in our great country. And in the time since George Zimmerman’s acquittal, some right-wingers have gone into overdrive to push the most negative stereotypes of the African-American community for their own gain.” –master exploiter and race hustler Al Sharpton

“Trayvon [Martin]‘s death – and the subsequent trial – have reopened the deep and unresolved wound of racism in our country. Nearly 50 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, we have made tremendous progress, but we still have a long way to go. Racism remains deeply rooted in American society.” –AFL-CIO Executive Council statement

Short Cuts

“Anthony Weiner has been caught in yet another sexting scandal. At the beginning of this campaign he said that other texts and photos were likely to come out. Well, they have. Finally, a politician who keeps his promises! … Anthony Weiner said yesterday that he wants closure. If he wants closure, he should start with his zipper.” —comedian Jay Leno

“It takes a fair bit of gall to accuse the media of lying about a sex scandal. It takes even more gall to then admit to the sex scandal, resign, claim you’ve redeemed yourself and decide to run again. And it takes the most gall to do all of those things, even as you’re engaged in a continuation of that sex scandal. But when your name is Anthony Weiner, gall is your middle name. Or perhaps Danger is.” –columnist Ben Shapiro

“Instead of having an NSA, why don’t we all just keep an eye out for terrorists. It’s easy; they have turbans and yell, 'Allahu akbar!’ ” –humorist Frank J. Fleming

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