The Foundation
"[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them." --Candidus
Editorial Exegesis"Legal arguments for Obamacare's individual mandate fail the 'Alice in Wonderland' test and the duck test. In two court challenges to the law in the past 11 days and a court hearing today on a third, the Obama administration's legal position is fading faster than the Cheshire Cat. Democrats took some solace from the first case, a challenge in Michigan, because Judge George C. Steeh ultimately ruled in favor of Obamacare. Yet even though that Clinton-appointed judge refused to declare the mandate unconstitutional, he undercut the administration's key argument that the penalty for failing to buy insurance is a 'tax,' and that the mandate it enforces is allowable within the broad taxing power provided by the Constitution. 'The provisions of the Health Care Reform Act at issue here, for the most part, have nothing to do with the assessment or collection of taxes,' Judge Steeh ruled. This is so important that the federal district judge in Florida, in Thursday's preliminary ruling in the second case, spent 22 pages analyzing it. If the fine is a penalty rather than a tax, Congress' power is far less extensive. Judge Roger Vinson noted Congress repeatedly called the fine a 'penalty,' explicitly changing its description from a 'tax' that earlier versions of the bill assessed by name. Citing Alice's admonition to Humpty Dumpty that words can't 'mean so many different things' as Humpty intended, Judge Vinson concluded, 'Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing ... [only to] argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely.' Judge Vinson explained that no matter what Congress called it, the assessment was designed to act as a punishment, not a revenue measure. Hence, it's not a tax. His 22-page analysis is an exposition of the logic that if something is called a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck -- and the same goes for a penalty. The tax issue is vital because it's the Obama administration's fallback position if it loses on the first and biggest dispute, which is whether Congress has the power under the Commerce Clause not only to regulate commerce, but to force individuals to engage in specific commerce." --The Washington Times
Upright
"ObamaCare is an unmitigated disaster-in-the-making. If people can be forced to buy health insurance and states can be forced to blow gigantic, federally-mandated holes in their budgets, this country will never recover. Our wannabe socialists in Congress and the White House are already, as Margaret Thatcher put it, 'out of other people's money.' The election in November may do much to blunt their odious ambitions, but they will never give up trying to turn America into a socialist nation." --columnist Arnold Ahlert
"The question here is in one crucial sense about health care, but it is in fact about much more than that. It concerns the federal government's claimed entitlement to instruct us concerning the decisions we make about caring for our health. It is possible, no doubt, to claim that ObamaCare, as enacted last spring by Congress, is so wonderful a thing no one should miss out on it. It is another matter entirely to suggest that the end here justifies the means. That's to say because ObamaCare is wonderful/marvelous/you name it, you and you and you should be made to buy into it. That kind of assertion gives off the odor of tyranny -- a prospect worse, I hope we can agree, than gaps in health insurance coverage." --columnist William Murchison
"A nirvana 'Star Trek' world without money, without sickness, and without envy ignores reality. Yet not only do the Left pretend this is possible, but they sell the idea by using envy and government checks like candy from their pocket. They sell this idea to those in need, taking power in exchange for promises they cannot possibly keep. They have merely shifted the burden, first to 'the rich,' and then always expanding according to ever-increasing needs to the entire producing half of the country. This is not fairness. This is lust for power. This is the face of tyranny in disguise. This, then, is the liberal Democrat message of Hope and Change." --columnist Richard Pecore
"The problem is, and always has been, that once government programs and agencies are created, they quickly become sacrosanct and virtually impossible to destroy. As Ronald Reagan said, 'Government programs, once launched, never disappear ... a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!' So it doesn't matter that the Department of Education doesn't educate, or that the Department of Energy doesn't produce energy. It's government and, thus, by definition good in the minds of the Washington establishment." --columnist Cal Thomas
"All indications coming out of the White House suggest that if Democrats suffer major losses, the president and his top aides will resolutely refuse to reconsider the policies -- national health care, stimulus, runaway spending -- that led to their defeat. Instead, they will point fingers in virtually every direction other than their own. Come November, it's likely the D-for-Democrat that the president refers to so often will actually stand for denial.'" --Washington Examiner political correspondent Byron York
At Stake This Election
This powerful ad, perhaps better than any other ad we've seen, reminds conservatives of what's at stake, and why we need to get out and vote. See it and comment here.
Tea Party Primer
Our quintessential field guide for the Tea Party movement, Tea Party Primer, is immediately available individually, in small quantity or as a bulk purchase. Inexpensively priced for wide distribution, the Tea Party Primer's purpose is to be a catalyst for the restoration of our Constitution's integrity and mandate for Rule of Law! All purchases at The Patriot Shop support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Forces.
Dezinformatsia
Belly Laugh of the Week: "One of [Barack] Obama's greatest political weaknesses has been his stubborn -- and unrequited -- love for bipartisanship. ... The expected Republican gains in the coming mid-term elections may solve one of Obama's problems: his misplaced faith in logic, persuasion and cooperation in the national interest." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker
Belly Laugh II: "Unlike Ronald Reagan, whose poll ratings were slightly lower than Obama's just before the 1982 mid-term elections, Obama didn't take every possible opportunity to pin the economic mess on his predecessor." --Cynthia Tucker, missing the fact that Obama takes every opportunity -- and then some -- to blame Bush
Sympathy for the devil: "Nancy Pelosi is considered one of the most effective speakers in congressional history. But now she's faced with the fact that Democrats could lose the House in November. You get indignant when you hear that." --CBS's Rita Braver to Pelosi, who responded, "I don't get indignant. I just don't believe it."
"Where is the celebration over what has been done and accomplished [by Barack Obama] in the face of all this anger and vitriol in Washington?" --MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski
Whose money is it? "Why are we letting the top 2 percent of the population win over the other 98?" --MSNBC's Ed Schultz on taxes
Non Compos Mentis: "[The Tea Party's philosophy is] every man for himself. ... No more taxes, no more government, no more everything. No more safety net. You know these people, if they were every man for himself down in that mine [in Chile], they wouldn't have gotten out. ... They would have been killing each other after about two days." --MSNBC host Chris Matthews
Newspulper Headlines:
He's Deep in a Hole, and Only the Ingenuity of Risk-Taking Capitalists Can Save Him: "Harry Reid: Obama 'Like the Chilean Miners'" --video title, RealClearPolitics.com
The Cost Was Revised Upward to $862B: "'Jackass' Gang Pulls Biggest Stunt With $50M Debut" --Associated Press
Waste Trillions and Wreck Health Care, for Starters: "What Would the Nobel Winners Do About the Jobs Crisis?" --USA Today
Yes, but Only for Democrats: "The Fast Fix: Is Nancy Pelosi a Political Liability in the Midterm Elections?" --Yahoo! News
Out on a Limb: "My Take: Islam Is a Religion of Peace, or It Isn't" --CNN.com
(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)
No ObamaNation
The Demo-gogues
It's all about me ... except when that's inconvenient: "It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republicans] feel more responsible, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipated, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn't work for them, or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way." --Barack Obama
Psychotherapy for voters: "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared." --Barack Obama
Doesn't say much: "The single best decision I have made was selecting Joe Biden as my running mate." --Barack Obama
If only he understood his own claims: "I think families, as well as the federal government, have understood that you can't just operate on the basis of debt." --BO
Blame Bush, check; bash the Chamber, check: "We have lost millions of jobs to outsourcing under President Bush. We don't intend to repeat that policy -- no matter how much money the Chamber of Commerce dumps into our elections." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) getting in all her talking points
When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging: "When Barack Obama was elected president, he found himself in a hole so deep that he couldn't see the outside world. It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man that he is, rolled up his sleeves and said, 'I'm gonna get us out of this hole.'" --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
The BIG Lie: "In the course of this year we will have created more jobs this year, 2010, than in the entire Bush administration of eight years." --Nancy Pelosi, who also once infamously claimed, "Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs." (To say the least, she's not very good at math.)
Yeah, fewer of them: "The health care bill is about jobs, the energy bill is about jobs, the education bill is about jobs, and the recovery act is about jobs." --Nancy Pelosi
Village Idiots
Spiritualist: "We got this man in office. I think we're all proud of Barack and his accomplishments. Everybody I know in our communities are praying for us, every day. It means all the world to us to know that there are prayer circles out there and people who are keeping the spirits clean around us." --Michelle Obama (And Democrats make fun of Christine O'Donnell for being a witch.)
Predictions: "There's no question it is a tough and challenging political environment. Come election night, I think we will retain control of the House and Senate." --White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, reversing his earlier position that the House was likely lost
Arrogance: "I don't think we should be making the case right now. Elections are not the time to educate people. You win the election, then you educate people afterwards. But the president's doing what he should be doing. This is a bare-knuckle fight. It's between the far right, which has taken over the Republican Party, and the rest of us." --former DNC chief Howard Dean
World's Smallest Violin: "I think we miscalculated. We had the idea that, particularly in a time of national crisis, there would be more of an inclination to work together." --White House adviser David Axelrod, who did his part to push policy as far left as possible and then cry when conservatives objected
Cheer up: "We are destroying life on earth." --UN Environment Program head Achim Steiner
Short Cuts
"In interviews, job summits and press conferences, it was shovel-ready this, shovel-ready that. Search the White House website for the term 'shovel-ready' and you'll drown in press releases about all the shovels ready to shove shovel-ready projects into the 21st century, where no shovel is left behind. Only now it turns out that the president was shoveling something all right when he was talking about shovel-ready jobs -- a whole pile of steaming something." --columnist Jonah Goldberg
"I may not know everything about politics but I know this: With two weeks to go it's better for the other guys to be desperate, dispirited, and crumbling." --political analyst Rich Galen
"Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday she will travel to Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and New Guinea in late October. She won't be in America on Election Day. She'll be holed up ten thousand miles away in New Guinea's capital city of Itole Jouso." --comedian Argus Hamilton
"Vice President Joe Biden told The New York Times that President Obama has asked him to run again in 2012. The bad news? Nobody is asking Obama yet." --comedian Jay Leno
"The beauty of our system isn't that we have the right to vote. After all, Russians got to vote for Joseph Stalin and Iraqis got to vote for Saddam Hussein. No, the nice thing is that people who are too dumb or lazy or uninformed to bother casting a ballot aren't compelled to vote. And no apologies are required. In fact, in my opinion, thanks are in order. Far too many people are voting, as it is." --columnist Burt Prelutsky
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