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The good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal

web posted August 23, 2010

"The obvious fact about the stimulus bill is that the money didn't go, as the administration claimed it would, towards creating shovel-ready jobs. Obama promised that if the bill were passed, unemployment wouldn't reach eight percent. So [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid did what they do best, which is to give their congressional colleagues the choice of taking a bribe or getting a beating, and managed to get the bill passed. Then, as anyone who's not a liberal could have told you, two things happened. One, the unemployment rate hit 10%; two, Obama blamed Bush." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"We're seeing a re-emergence of constitutional principles and federalism across the country. ... Given the overreach of Washington and public disgust with politicians' disregard for the people's will, a healthy dose of state sovereignty and a reaffirmation of federalism is a good thing. ... People of all races, ethnicities, religions and creeds are concerned about the direction of the republic. Missouri's and Arizona's reassertions of the idea of state sovereignty and of federalist principles may be a sign of a new and long overdue American revolution." --Gregory L. Schneider, associate professor of history at Emporia State University

"Which is to be master, indeed? That is the question facing the people of the United States of America today. Will they be ruled by a constitution whose words have objective, propositional meaning or will they be ruled by judicial despots who strip the words of their meaning and twist them to accomplish a social agenda never envisioned by the Founding Fathers and not sanctioned by the American people?" --columnist Ken Connor

"It would be hard to think how Obama could have done a worse job on the Ground Zero mosque controversy. He took a position objectionable to the vast majority of Americans, within 24 hours chickened out, and then sent his press minions forward to assure his base and the Muslim World and its American community (over which he fawns incessantly) that he really does think we must accept a mosque that will produce nothing but pain for his countrymen and a sense of vindication to those who incinerated 3,000 Americans. It's bad policy, bad politics, and bad execution, with a side order of political cowardice." --columnist Jennifer Rubin

"You don't need to have been a lecturer in constitutional law like Obama to know that the mosque's backers have a right to build at Ground Zero. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly acknowledge that right. But unlike the president, when his fellow Americans think of the construction of a mosque on Ground Zero, their view doesn't begin and end with the First Amendment and local zoning ordinances. ... That Obama, as the leader of the nation, fails to recognize that the situation calls for more than a sophomoric analysis that could be rendered by any first-year law student is disquieting." --columnist Peter Kirsanow

"Let me be clear: As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. ... This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." --Barack Obama offering support for the nose-thumbing mosque near Ground Zero that no one is claiming they don't have the right to build

"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there." --Obama backtracking on Saturday after his original comments didn't poll well

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay? Do I need to say more?" --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

"I've always tried to play by the rules." --Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

"I think a lot of the House seats we're going to lose are those who have been the toughest for the Democrats to pull into line -- the Democrats that have been the most difficult." --Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), not making any friends on his side of the aisle

"[T]o say actually we believe sufficiently strongly in diversity, in private property rights for our Muslim citizens, I think that's a great global message." --Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large for Reuters, on Obama's support for the mosque near Ground Zero

"The roughly 70 percent of Americans who oppose the Ground Zero mosque are ignorant." --MSNBC's Cenk Uygur

"You know, politically, [the Obamas' trip to Spain] was not a smart move. But in the grand scheme of things, what real difference does it make? I would guess that Sasha is probably learning some Spanish. Maybe she learned a little more Spanish on her trip. You know, the fact is, Spain could use some help, too. And we need Spain to be stronger economically than it is in the Euro zone. I mean, you can make the case if you really need to." --ABC's Cokie Roberts on Michelle and Sasha Obama's lavish trip to Spain

"When it comes to Congress, the voters are tough graders. Almost no Americans give this Congress an 'A' or a 'B' despite the passage of landmark legislation." --Democrat pollster Mark Penn (Maybe Congress doesn't get and "A" or "B" BECAUSE of the landmark legislation they have passed.)

"I hear these people saying [Obama's] like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested. I mean, it's crazy. ... The professional left ... will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality." --Robert Gibbs, criticizing the White House's own base

"I will put my urine up against Gibbs's any day, and in fact, will travel to Washington to give him a fresh and warm sample. I actually think supporters of Obama should be tested for 'Hopium' in their urine, myself. Since Gibbs is a liar and a jerk, I will challenge him to a pee-off." --crazed professional anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan

"I didn't try to get him out of the race. In fact, I wasn't even accused of that." --Bill Clinton on asking Rep. Joe Sestak to bow out of the Democrat senate primary in Pennsylvania on request of the Obama administration

"Democratic candidates from those running for Congress to those running for Governor would rather be caught swimming nude on a beach in the Bahamas than be seen with President Obama by their constituents." --political analyst Rich Galen

"White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ripped liberal Democrats who compare Barack Obama to George W. Bush Tuesday. He said they should be drug-tested. You know how Democrats are, the first thing they want to know is whether you brought enough for everybody." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Obama's slogan, were he to have been honest during the 2008 presidential campaign: 'I've got what it takes to take what you've got.'" --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

"The White House is defending President Obama's sports activities over the past week, saying that everyone needs leisure time. Thanks to these economic policies, 9.5 percent of Americans have all the leisure time they need." --comedian Jay Leno

"Nine years after 9/11, the fight over the mosque near Ground Zero shows how obsessed we remain with an enemy that may no longer exist." --Time Magazine

web posted August 9, 2010

"When I look back on what we've accomplished in the last 18 months -- preventing the country sinking into a great depression, stabilizing the financial markets, saving the U.S. auto industry, oh, and, by the way, passing health care -- I'd say that's a pretty good track record. But until the unemployment rate is down and the economy is where it needs to be, I'm not going to be satisfied." --Barack Obama

"I don't see any reason why we should renew a tax cut that only gives a tax cut to the wealthiest people in America, increases the deficit and doesn't create jobs. That doesn't make any sense." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"I think that there are very few constitutional limits that would prevent the federal government from rules that could affect your private life. ... The federal government, uh, yes, can do most anything in this country." --Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), who will no doubt be re-elected by the lemmings in his district

"How one answers these questions depends, fundamentally, on one's belief about the role of government and its relationship to and impact on the economy. Is government the greatest engine of economic growth and prosperity or should the fate of America's financial future be determined by the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people?" --columnist Ken Connor

"Democrats are preparing to let the George W. Bush tax cuts on high earners -- on investors and job creators -- expire. They want more revenue to feed the government beast. Most voters take a different view. They want to put government on a diet. To slim it down, make it more lithe and limber, and stop it from choking off the recovery of the private sector economy." --political analyst Michael Barone

"These are truly extraordinary times. With every passing day, we are witnessing what can only be called the People versus the Government. The distrust and disdain Americans of all political persuasions feel toward the White House and Congress is extraordinary." --columnist Alan Caruba

"Both recent and future budget deficits have been blamed largely on the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and to a lesser extent on the war on terrorism, but the data contradict these myths. In reality, spending is almost exclusively the problem." --Heritage Foundation's Brian Riedl

"Our liberties depend on our preserving the integrity of the Constitution and the mechanisms it established to deter tyranny. To the extent we dismantle those safeguards, we imperil our freedoms. When the political class is filled with those who are ideologically committed to certain political ends irrespective of the legality of the means used to achieve them, our system of checks and balances breaks down, which is one reason John Adams warned, 'Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.' November's elections cannot come fast enough." --columnist David Limbaugh

"At this moment, two of their [Democrat] leaders from a supposedly disadvantaged minority are about to be tried for ethical transgressions (read: thievery) even Congress couldn't sweep under the rug. Never mind that these transgressions mostly exploit the very minority these people purport to represent. It's part of the game. Convince minorities they should act like victims. Extort guilt payments from the majority and keep the change. Meanwhile, nothing improves for the minority because it would interrupt the system." --columnist Roger Simon

"When some black Obama voters exclaim that they wish to have a dialogue with whites, it means they want an open opportunity to accuse their fellow Americans of being prejudiced." --columnist Marie Jon

"The idea that the average American is overtaxed is a nice piece of populist pandering. In fact, federal taxes as a percentage of the economy are at their lowest level since the Truman administration. ... The simple facts are these: All of the Bush tax cuts were unaffordable. They were an irresponsible act of hubris enacted during an economic boom." --CNN host Fareed Zakaria, also an editor at Newsweek, which just sold for $1 -- far more than it was worth

"Our own polling shows that voters are preferring Democratic ideas, generically, to Republican ideas on a lot of big issues like the economy." --ABC's George Stephanopoulos

"Do you feel sometimes like your administration is not given the credit it deserves?" --CBS's Harry Smith to Barack Obama

"Now, the investigation of such powerful people, like Rangel and Maxine Waters, have a lot of people talking. The reaction in Washington seems to be centered on whether the two House members are guilty or not, but back home, in their respective districts, some of their constituents aren't so sure justice is being done, and some are openly questioning why two high profile African-American House members are coming under such tough scrutiny. Do you think that black members are being targeted unfairly by the Ethics Committee?" --CNN's Don Lemon to Al Sharpton

"[A]re black lawmakers being singled out by the ethics watchdogs on Capitol Hill? New charges of racial bias." --MSNBC'S Andrea Mitchell

"What the president believes is the best strategy for the country is to extend the tax cuts that go to more than 95 percent of Americans, more than 95 percent of small business." --Treasury Secretary Timothy "Tax Cheat" Geithner, while advocating that the top 5 percent -- that would include many small business owners -- face a major tax hike

"1965, lot of good things came out that year, like Medicare. This year, like always, we'll have our guaranteed benefits. And with the new health care law, more good things are coming ... free check-ups, lower prescription costs and better ways to protect us and Medicare from fraud." --actor Andy Griffith in a TV ad for ObamaCare

"I'll tell you what we have to do about [Arizona's] SB 1070: We have to be active. We have to actively protest. I will yell and I will scream louder and I will hold you and we will hold each other and we will peaceably protest this state. Because if it wasn't for all of you immigrants this country wouldn't have [expletive]." --Lady Gaga before her concert in Phoenix

"You expect Republican politicians to criticize Democratic administrations and vice versa. But when Democrats start criticizing Democratic administrations, that is news. Someone once said that the headline 'Dog bites Man' is not news, but 'Man bites Dog' is. We are now starting to get 'Democrat bites Democrat' news." --economist Thomas Sowell

"In these tough and turbulent economic times, we need to look for small things we can be thankful for. For example, I am thankful President Obama is not a lifeguard, as I believe he would toss concrete blocks to drowning swimmers instead of life preservers. Why do I believe that? His economic policies are drowning our economy, leaving many Americans unemployed or underemployed, and he knows it." --rocker Ted Nugent

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the world's worst cleaning lady. How has she fulfilled her vaunted promise to 'drain the swamp' and preside over the 'most ethical Congress in history'? By shrugging her shoulders, downplaying the gravity of myriad ethics charges against corruptocrat Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel and waiting for the 'political chips' to 'fall where they may.' Imagine a custodial service that fixed toilet clogs by letting the overflowing waste and polluted waters 'fall where they may.'" --columnist Michelle Malkin

"Nancy Pelosi said that when it comes to cleaning up government, the Democrats have drained the swamp. The only problem with that is what's left after you drain the swamp: snakes everywhere." --comedian Jay Leno

"Headline of the story: 'Democrats scatter Monday as Obama comes to town.' You know, I really wish we could all get away from this president as easily as the Democrats apparently can." --radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

web posted August 2, 2010

"In case Al Qaeda, its cohorts, and their sponsors lack for summer reading, WikiLeaks ... has just tipped out onto the web a trove of classified U.S. military documents on the war in Afghanistan. As far as there's an upside to this, some of the concerns described in the documents may help focus attention on the problem of nuclear-armed Pakistan's double-dealing in fostering Islamist terrorism, while receiving huge handouts from the U.S. in its role as an ally. ... But in the larger picture, such leaks are routinely cherry-picked by the U.S. media, and in turn by the world media, for anything damning to the U.S. ... Not only will America's enemies now enjoy a chance to cull the leaked documents for any useful intelligence, but odds are that this huge data dump will become the latest ammo in the hands of the Blame-America-First contingent." --columnist Claudia Rosett

"The next time you hear a liberal scoffing at the idea that the American left has a set of 'talking points,' or that they're 'reading from the same script,' tell him to google 'JournoList.' Frankly, it is completely unsurprising that 400, invitation-only, members of leftist media, academia, think tanks and political activist associations would be attempting to coordinate their political strategy. When your ideology is bankrupt, the only thing left is strength in numbers. And when you revere the collectivist aspirations of Marxist/socialist all-encompassing government, 'group-think' becomes as natural as breathing." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"From Karl Marx to today, the Left has always hated people on the Right, not merely differed or been angry with them. The question is: why? Here are three possible answers. First, the left thinks the right is evil. ... Second, when you don't confront real evil, you hate those who do. ... Third, the left's utopian vision is prevented only by the right. ... Hatred of conservatives is so much part of the left that the day the left stops hating conservatives will mark the beginning of the end of the left as we know it." --columnist Dennis Prager

"The more the president appeals to his base in racial terms, the more his appointees identify themselves as members of a particular tribe, and the more political issues are framed by racial divisions, so all the more such racial obsession creates a backlash among the racially diverse American people. America has largely moved beyond race. Tragically, our president and a host of his supportive special interests have not." --historian Victor Davis Hanson

"Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they pre-empt. The education and intellects of the elites may lead them to have more sweeping presumptions, but that just makes them more dangerous to the freedom, as well as the well-being, of the people as a whole." --economist Thomas Sowell

"What is similar about Fox News' extensive coverage of some of the stories that most in the other media didn't give much attention to? And I'll take them to you right now. I'll spell them out for you: Van Jones, the New Black Panther story, ACORN, Shirley Sherrod. What's similar about those stories?" --CNN's Rick Sanchez

"You see, I think a lot of Americans think that, well gosh no, we don't want the tax cuts to expire. Ninety-eight percent of you, it doesn't even affect you." --MSNBC's Ed Schultz

"[W]hat I don't quite get is a lot of the people who are shouting about letting these tax cuts expire, they don't want it to happen, are the same people who are shouting about the deficit, and how troubling it is that the national debt is skyrocketing. And you can't have it both ways." --MSNBC's economics mastermind Contessa Brewer

"Should George Steinbrenner's heirs pony up a voluntary contribution to the government from their estimated $500 million windfall because the federal estate tax has temporarily lapsed? 'It's an excellent question,' a smiling Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said Thursday. At a breakfast with reporters, Geithner also was asked how he felt about The Boss' heirs cleaning up because of Steinbrenner's July 13 death -- an extremely timely demise in the tax sense. Geithner ducked, but did say he's upset Congress hasn't fixed a situation that denies the Treasury billions in unpaid taxes from wealthy Americans who die this year." --New York Daily News columnist Thomas DeFrank (The tax rate is 0 percent, meaning nobody is leaving taxes "unpaid.")

"Will the Democrats running for the House re-election, they're all running for re-election under the Constitution, and the Senate candidates, will they run away from President O'Carter? I mean, will they run away." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews, with a Freudian slip

"I know that sometimes people don't remember how bad it was, and how bad it could have been." --Barack Obama on the stump in Wisconsin

"Now that the heavy lifting is over, we can go out and make our case. ... We stabilized the financial system. ... We avoided a total economic meltdown. There are 3 million [more] Americans working today than there were before we took office. Barack and I are realists. Government is not the answer. But we also know we can plant seeds. These seeds that have been planted have generated whole new industries." --Vice President Joe Biden, whose sole purpose in life is to prove that government is the answer

"Isn't it a good thing today in America that we have an automobile manufacturing sector? If it had been up to [Republicans], General Motors would be gone. If it were up to them, Ford Motor Company would probably be gone. Chrysler definitely would be gone." --Harry Reid (Memo to Sen. Reid: Ford didn't take your bailout money.)

"Let's not get silly here. ... We pay enormous taxes to the state of Massachusetts, and there is nothing illegal here." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) when asked about his new $7 million yacht, Isabel, which is docked in Rhode Island instead of Massachusetts -- the move saves Kerry about $500,000 a year in taxes

"We think [letting the tax cuts on those earning $250,000 or more a year is] the responsible thing to do because we need to make sure we can show the world that [we're] willing as a country now to start to make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits. ... Just letting those tax cuts that only go to 2 percent to 3 percent of Americans, the highest-earning Americans in the country, expire -- I do not believe it will have a negative effect on growth." --Treasury Secretary Timothy "Tax Cheat" Geithner

"I know I've gotten past black versus white. [Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart is] probably the person who's never gotten past it and never attempted to get past it. I think he would like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery. That's where I think he'd like to see all black people end up again." --the "post-racial" Shirley Sherrod

All in the family: "We must stop the white man and his Uncle Tom from stealing our elections. We must not be afraid to vote black. We must not be afraid to turn a black out who votes against our interests." --Charles Sherrod, husband of Shirley

"Fox News did something that was absolutely racist. They took a -- they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff. ... We've got to stop being afraid of [Fox News host] Glenn Beck and the racist fringe of the Republican Party." --former DNC Chief Howard "The Scream" Dean

"The revelation that tax increases could hurt the economy has recently been heard from Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and, most surprising, even from Kent Conrad of North Dakota. On a scale of unlikely events, this is like the Pope coming out against celibacy." --The Wall Street Journal

"DISCLOSE is the acronym for: the 'Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections' Act. And here you thought Members of Congress and their staffs sat around all day wasting time. That should be the DISBCLOSIE Act, but they didn't ask for my help." --political analyst Rich Galen

"According to Sheriff Joe Biden, the Democrats are done ramming through legislation for the year. I don't know about you, but I'm as relieved as the victim of a union beatdown who just heard somebody yell 'coffee break!'" --blogger Doug Powers

"Al Gore was accused of sexually assaulting a massage therapist in his Beverly Hills hotel room before the Academy Awards ceremony three years ago. He must be mortified. When Al threw off his towel she gave him the Oscar for Best Animated Short." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Even in the gloomiest of times, I like to find something that will lift my spirits and make my soul sing. So it is that between now and November 2nd, no matter how bleak things may look, I know that I'll get through it by reminding myself that a Portland masseuse got to call Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore 'a crazed sex poodle.'" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

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