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

web posted June 24, 2013

"The same pre-planned chaos that attends the healthcare bill ... is built into this [immigration] legislation as well. Consider just one aspect of it, namely family reunification. Does anyone seriously believe that once this bill passes, whatever the current definition of 'family' is won't be vastly expanded? Furthermore, an integral part of that reunification is based on the so-called conventional wisdom that America is home to '11 million' illegal aliens. What if it's 25 million? Or 30 million? How can we be certain it's not? Yet far more importantly, how is it that not a single attempt has been made to determine exactly how many illegals are in the country before any legislation is passed? The answer is simple. If the 11 million number is a sham, then the family reunification totals that could reach double that number or more, are equally fraudulent, which brings us to another unpleasant reality for the American public: Are you ready to see a level of legalization that would fundamentally and irrevocably alter the character of the nation?" --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"In the context of a war [in Syria] that has killed some 93,000 people so far, it is not clear why the 150 or so casualties the White House attributes to chemical weapons should make a decisive difference, except that the president threatened 'enormous consequences' in response to any use of such weapons. ... This perceived need to preserve credibility is a key ingredient in any foreign policy quagmire because it discourages second thoughts and dictates stubborn persistence in the face of failure. No matter how misguided in theory or disastrous in practice an intervention is, changing course is always a threat to credibility, a threat that looms larger the farther a president goes down the wrong path. All the more reason to resist what Obama used to call 'a war of choice.'" --columnist Jacob Sullum

"Arab and Muslim peoples have been at war with other nations and each other for centuries. The two major factions of Islam -- Sunni and Shia -- are in constant conflict over which one is Prophet Mohammed's legitimate heir. The 'infidel' West can't help settle any of this and is more likely to unite the warring factions against us, as it has in the past. ... The president wants credit for withdrawing American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, but with Syria he is involving the U.S. in another war that can't be 'won,' at least not in a way that will advance American interests." --columnist Cal Thomas

"President Obama is preparing bilateral negotiations with the Taliban. This the same Taliban that chopped the heads off two young boys, aged 10 and 16, for supposedly accepting food from police in exchange for information. This is the same Taliban that still embraces shariah, and still holds an American soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, captive. ... [T]he U.S.' decision to get involved by backing the very people who slaughtered thousands of Americans on Sept. 11 is more than shortsighted. It is a ground shift in the American government's mentality with regard to the war on terror. For a dozen years, American troops fought to remove the Taliban from power and to cripple al-Qaida. They fought to create safe ground for American allies and hostile ground for American enemies. Thanks to the Obama administration's morally relativistic, ignorant and confused policies with regard to the Middle East, it appears that their blood may have been spilled in vain." --columnist Ben Shapiro

"Across the board, people are feeling like ... America is moving and it's moving in the right direction. ... I'm very proud of the record that we've been able to put together over the last four and half years." --Barack Obama

"When people say the whole problem is government, they don't understand. Government can help ... by making smart choices -- by investing in American manufacturing so we're bringing more of our jobs back from overseas; investing in our roads and our bridges and our ports to make sure that we are staying competitive all around the world; educating our children from the earliest years, keeping them safe from gun violence; rethinking our high schools; making college more affordable; making sure we stay at the cutting edge in science and technology; securing our energy future; addressing climate change." --Barack Obama with a list of leftist dreams

"I'm not going to waste taxpayer money on a dumb fence and that's what [Sen. John Thune's] amendment would be. ... A smart fence, which is what Senator [John] McCain and I want to build -- since he's from Arizona, I think he knows more about this than the senator from South Dakota, who only has a border with Canada that is quite different." --Sen. Mary Mary Landrieu (D-LA) (South Dakota does not border Canada, Senator.)

"As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about [abortion]. I don't think it should have anything to do with politics." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), despicably hiding behind "faith" to defend the murder of innocents

"Here we go again. Every single year we have to go through the same [abortion debate] nonsense with the same morally presumptuous and morally arrogant attitude that we know better. 'We know better than women and their doctors. We know better about their health care. We know better about their moral choices in very personal decisions.' It is morally outrageous, frankly." --Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)

"I'm of the opinion now ... that if you really were to question all [Republicans], that there is a sort of continuity of thought that rape is really not so bad." --Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

"[T]he fact that Chicago has quite tough gun control is utterly meaningless, because they all just get in their cars and go outside of the state to neighboring states which don't have strong gun controls. So until you have a federal gun control that stops that happening, this will keep happening in places like Chicago, until they can enforce it properly." --CNN's Piers Morgan

"Was anyone else bothered by the Father's Day picture released by the White House yesterday? The one with the President holding a water gun? I agree with the President's stance on SENSIBLE gun control. But we must also destroy gun culture. President Obama made a mistake this time. Gun culture is promoted through the normalization of violent behavior, language, and imagery. Military style water guns are part of that." --political commentator Marc Lamont Hill

"[Newly elected Iranian president Hassan Rowhani] was seen as the most reform-minded of all the candidates who ran this time. That being said, they were all very conservative. In U.S. terms, it was as if all the candidates for the presidency came from the Tea Party." --CBS's Elizabeth Palmer

"Hey, you remember evil dictator of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? ... Ahmadinejad is retiring. He's going to spend all of his time on his ranch in Crawford, Texas." --CBS's David Letterman

"What's going on is that these organized special interest groups don't want anything done because it's a big source of their money to terrify people living out in the country that there's this big, conspiratorial federal government trying to take their guns away. I think if you could get a clear-headed vote on the issue standing alone, the overwhelming majority of Americans in every state would be for it." --Bill Clinton

"I think that there's a kind of moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness that we've been seeing a long time in that I think, you know, Obama's ascension as president kind of symbolizes to a certain degree. And so I think this is one response to that sense that there's a decreasing white majority in the country and that women's bodies and white women's bodies in particular are obviously a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege." --University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor Salamisha Tillet

"Frankly, there will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa, because when you travel to regions like Africa that don't get a lot of presidential attention, you can have very long-standing and long-running impact from the visit." --Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes on Obama's upcoming $100 million trip to Africa

"[ObamaCare is] a term, by the way, that I coined and used proudly long before the administration decided it was a good idea." --disgraced New York City mayor hopeful Anthony Weiner

"Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old guy behind this NSA spy scandal, said in an interview that he is not in hiding. Which would have carried a lot more weight if he hadn't made the announcement from an undisclosed secret location." --comedian Jay Leno

"Senator Chuck Schumer said if Immigration Reform passes that illegal immigration will be a thing of the past. It's a contentious bill. Republicans want to put border security first, but they can't think of a polite way to tell construction workers building a two-thousand-mile-long wall to stand on the south side of the wall while they're building it." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"President Obama wants to assure you he is not Dick Cheney ... if anyone was operating under that assumption. You know, they accuse Cheney of a lot of things -- being evil, going to war to increase his profits at Halliburton, being more machine than man, biting the heads off kittens -- but what no one accuses Cheney of is being incompetent. So I think Obama has a long way to go until anyone would realistically mistake him for Dick Cheney." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"Anyone know if President Obama intends to perform background checks on the Syrian rebels before providing them weapons?" --Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

web posted June 17, 2013

"According to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, a total of 642,831 people were approved for Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret clearances in FY 2010 alone. ... Even more amazing are the words immediately preceding that: 'The number of clearances approved could not be obtained for FY 2009.' So the same government that presumes the right to know my phone calls, my emails and my MasterCard purchases doesn't know how many security clearances it issued in a given year. The rationale given by defenders of this system over the last few days ... would seem to apply here: When 4 million people have security clearances, and another 1,800 people are getting new security clearances every day, the government doesn't even have time to comb through them before it lets them comb through you. ... One reason for the citizenry not to entrust its personal information to the government is that the big, bloated, blundering government is stupid enough to entrust it to Edward Snowden, as it was previously stupid enough to entrust it to Bradley Manning (the Wikileaks leaker)." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Barack Obama wasn't an average citizen before moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He was a senator. He was on the Foreign Relations Committee and had access to classified information -- all the more reason to believe that he knew that the terror threat was not cynical 'fear mongering' by President Bush. ... [W]hen Bush engaged in data mining, he was 'undermining our constitution and our freedoms.' When Obama does it, he is 'striking the right balance' between security and freedom. ... The president assures us that 'no one is listening to our phone calls,' and that may be true. But this administration also assured us that no sweeping data collection on American citizens was going on, that the IRS was not unfairly singling out conservatives, that the Justice Department had not attempted to prosecute journalists, and that the Benghazi attack was the response to a video." --columnist Mona Charen

"Despite the massive amount of information the government is capable of gathering, the Tsarnaev brothers were still able to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Boston, even as the intelligence community had Russian intel on Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Terrorists were able to kill four Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of September 11. Maj. Nidal Hasan was able to kill 13 and wound 32 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, despite the fact that military officials were aware of his increasing radicalization and his exchanges with Anwar Awlaki. The common thread? Political correctness and willful blindness. ... [W]hat is needed is the balance that must be found between protecting American lives and protecting their rights. Part of that balance could be achieved by taking the Islamic nature of the threat far more seriously than the Obama administration does now." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"Whenever an administration is caught, as it were, with its hand in the cookie jar, the chief executive wants to have plausible deniability. That's why he doesn't make it a habit to write a memo that reads: 'Dear IRS: I'm in the middle of a re-election campaign. Please do everything in your power to shut down the ability of conservative groups to raise money ... at least until November 7th. Much appreciated. Regards from Michelle and the kids. See you at the Easter egg hunt. Sincerely, President Barack H. Obama.' Instead, what these guys do is have a trusted lieutenant like Valerie Jarrett or David Axelrod let it be known in the appropriate circles that the boss would like to see certain things take place, and then, with the cooperation of stooges like Attorney General Eric Holder or IRS attack dogs Doug Shulman and Lois Lerner, those things just miraculously happen. And not even the FBI can find an Obama fingerprint anywhere, not that they're likely to look too hard." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"[I]f people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust Congress and don't trust federal judges to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution, due process and Rule of Law, then we're going to have some problems here." --Barack Obama

"[I]f you talk to us [Democrats], it turns out we're pretty common-sense folks. We don't think government can do everything. We don't think that top-down solutions are the right way to go. We believe in the free market. We believe in a light touch when it comes to regulations. We don't want to tax all businesses out of business. But we do think that there's a role to play for government." --Barack Obama

"I don't remember saying that everybody in the country would have a lower premium, because everybody in the country doesn't have health insurance. So how could it be lower?" --Nancy Pelosi, rebutting reports of rising premiums thanks to ObamaCare

"[E]verybody will have lower rates." --Nancy Pelosi, July 1, 2012

"Based on everything I've seen, the [IRS] case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on to be frank with you." --Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

"The difference between this [NSA] program and the Bush program [is that] the Bush program was not sanctioned by law; this is pursuant to law. I think that's a very important distinction that some people don't draw, but they ought to draw." --Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

"I opposed [the Patriot Act] when Bush was president, I oppose it with President Obama being there. I trust President Obama, but it's a bad precedent 'cause he won't be president forever. I am opposed to government overreach and government infringing upon the privacy of citizens." --MSNBC's Al Sharpton

"The IRS is being used in exactly the same way as they tried to used the president's birth certificate. You see, for Republicans like Darrell Issa, who knows something about arson, the IRS now stands for something inflammatory. Those three letters are now on fire with political corruption and malfeasance, burning hot. ... And, despite the complete lack of any evidence linking the president to the targeting of tea party groups, Republicans are using it as their latest weapon in the war against the black man in the White House." --MSNBC's Martin Bashir

"[Rudy] Giuliani attacked POTUS last night for Benghazi so I am forced to remind Giuliani how many firefighters were killed on 9/11 because of him." --MSNBC's blowhard Lawrence O'Donnell

"We actually don't have a problem with government debt, not yet. But, you know, people are worried about the rise. And of course, you can throw around big numbers. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. is a $16 trillion a year economy and the numbers are not that overwhelming as they sound if you just give the raw numbers." --New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

"[L]ook at the glass half full for a minute. If Romney and Ryan had been elected, things would be so much worse. The president has the veto pen. ... [H]e's going to stop anything bad from happening." --MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter

"I'm a little concerned that things have gotten a little -- a little out of whack. I think we can do a better job than we have. We can reform those regulations, reform those guidelines to better reflect that balance." --Attorney General Eric Holder

"I'm proud of the work that I've done." --Eric Holder

"I'm a Christian. But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them. They make sense, especially with their children. There is no other group like the Black Muslims, who put so much effort into teaching children the right things, they don't smoke, they don't drink or overindulge in alcohol, they protect their women, they command respect. And what do these other people do? They complain about them, they criticize them. We'd be a better world if we emulated them." --Bill Cosby

"We're going to have a few more bankruptcies. Sometimes it'll be like Solyndra where you get 3 cents on the dollar. Others, it'll be 80 cents, or something like that. If you look at what got started and what became bankable, was it successful? Yes. We were more successful than Wall Street. So come on, guys." --former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

"That fundamental American promise that so many of us grew up with -- that no matter where you start out, with hard work, you can build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids -- that promise unfortunately is no longer within reach for too many families in our country." --Michelle Obama

"At this point the only way to prevent people from hearing your conversations is to have them on MSNBC." --Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX)

"We wanted a president that listens to all Americans -- now we have one. ... If Obama wants to put this snooping thing to good use, how about spying on the IRS next time they throw a $4 million party." --comedian Jay Leno

"Anyway, I'm putting 'NSA: Do not read this email' at the top of all my emails, because I assume there is some sort of opt out on this thing." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"Congress heard testimony from real people who'd been targeted by the IRS because they'd sought exemption for their conservative groups. The IRS questions were so intrusive. The only organizations they didn't red flag were the ones that have a red flag." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"A new report just came out. It says someone close to the president knew about the IRS scandal and kept his mouth shut. In other words, we can rule out Joe Biden." --comedian Conan O'Brien

"Generally, when it comes to White House scandals such as Watergate and Iran-Contra, the relevant questions are what the president knew and when he knew it. However, when it comes to Obama ... the questions appear to be what did Obama not know and when did he not know it?" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Addressing Ohio State University's 2013 graduates last month, Obama mocked people who 'warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.' As he explained in another speech a month earlier, 'suspicion about government' makes no sense because 'the government is us.' If so, the government should be replaced, because none of us knows what we're doing." --columnist Jacob Sullum

web posted June 10, 2013

"This NSA scandal is so bad they'll have to find someone who was going to retire next Friday and make him retire this Friday." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"If someone wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document -- through library books they've read and phone calls they've made -- this legislation [the Patriot Act] gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. ... This is just plain wrong." -- Barack Obama in 2005

web posted June 3, 2013

"Our Founding Fathers feared the emergence of an agency such as the IRS and its potential for abuse. That's why they gave us Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, which reads: 'No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.' A capitation is a tax placed directly on an individual. That's what an income tax is. The founders feared the abuse and the government power inherent in a direct tax. In Section 8 of Article 1, they added, 'But all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.' These protections the founders gave us were undone by the Progressive era's 16th Amendment, which reads, 'The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.' ... The bottom line is that members of Congress need such a ruthless tax collection agency as the IRS because of the charge we Americans have given them." --economist Walter E. Williams

"[A] Fox poll asked people which of the recent scandals concerned them the most. IRS topped the list with 32%; followed by Benghazi with 27%; the monitoring of AP reporters scored 21%; and 10% went for none of the above, claiming that all of them were of grave concern. ... [T]he truly shocking number was 8%. That represented the percentage of Americans who were not the least bit concerned about any of these matters. And I will remind you that these ignoramuses are allowed, even encouraged, to go out and vote every Election Day." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"From around 1630 to 1966, immigrants sank or swam. About a third of them couldn't make it in America and went home -- and those are the ones who weren't rejected right off the boat for being sick, crippled or idiots. That's why corny stories of someone's ancestors coming here a half-century ago are completely irrelevant. If their ancestors hadn't succeeded, their great-grandchildren wouldn't be here to tell the story because no one was given food stamps, free medical care and housing to stay. (And vote Democrat.) Now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel by holding ourselves out as the welfare ward of the world and specifically rejecting skilled immigrants. As Milton Friedman said, you cannot have open borders and a welfare state. The reason a country's average immigrant matters is that the losers never go home -- they go on welfare. (Maybe if they had to work, immigrants wouldn't have as much time to build bombs.)" --columnist Ann Coulter

"We have truly entered the world of 'Alice in Wonderland' when the CEO of a company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a Congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not paying more. Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to 'a worrisome federal deficit,' according to Senator Carl Levin -- one of the big-spending liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that deficit than any private citizen has. ... The real danger to us all is when government not only exercises the powers that we have voted to give it, but exercises additional powers that we have never voted to give it. That is when 'public servants' become public masters. That is when government itself has stepped over the line. Government's power to bully people who have broken no law is dangerous to all of us. ... No American government can take away all our freedoms at one time. But a slow and steady erosion of freedom can accomplish the same thing on the installment plan." --economist Thomas Sowell

"It's no secret that in recent decades many Americans have lost confidence in many of the institutions that helped shape our society and our democracy. ... And we've seen how the actions of a few can undermine the integrity of those institutions." --Barack Obama

"Every day, elected officials ... devote themselves to improving our communities and our country. But all too often we've seen a politics where compromise is rejected as a dirty word, and policies are driven by special interests rather than the national interest. And that breeds a cynicism that threatens our democracy." --Barack Obama

"[T]he best way to prevent violent extremism inspired by violent jihadists is to work with the Muslim American community -- which has consistently rejected terrorism -- to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence." --Barack Obama

"So after I took office, we stepped up the war against al-Qa'ida but we also sought to change its course. We relentlessly targeted al-Qa'ida's leadership. ... Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants. There have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure. ... Our alliances are strong, and so is our standing in the world. In sum, we are safer because of our efforts." --Barack Obama

"Well, you said [the IRS scandal] happened under [Obama's] watch. It happened under the appointment of the head of the IRS, who was appointed by President Bush. His length of stay extended into President Obama's stay. But I think that that points to the fact -- why is this a politicized issue? ... The Inspector General has said over and over it is not illegal. ... The president doesn't know about everything that is going in every agency of government." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"[H]ere is the bottom line -- the media shield law, which I am prepared to support ... still leaves an unanswered question, which I have raised many times: What is a journalist today in 2013? We know it's someone that works for Fox or AP, but does it include a blogger? Does it include someone who is tweeting? Are these people journalists and entitled to constitutional protection? We need to ask 21st century questions about a provision that was written over 200 years ago." --Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

"[Barack Obama] says ... we cannot allow any group of thugs that calls itself al-Qa'ida to bait us into an endless war. And the point is, the Tsarnaev brothers, who the vice president called knockoff jihadis, these two suspects, I mean, hard to say suspects when you see them killing someone on camera, in London, they may say that they're some affiliate of something. These are just murderers. These are murderers." --MSNBC's Chris Hayes

"Everybody knew about this [IRS] investigation long before the election. So if they were that freaked out about it, why didn't Romney make more of a big deal of it during the election?" --MSNBC's Karen Finney

"All [Senator Ted] Cruz wants to do is prove that self-government is evil or impossible or whatever else will justify his existence as a hard-right political bomb thrower." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

"A White House official tells me that the president feels strongly about showing how standing together during a time of crises is what makes this country strong. He has become the consoler-in-chief." --ABC's Reena Ninan

"At one Tea Party rally this week, mobs chanted 'Waterboard Obama, Waterboard Hillary!' At another, radicals waved signs with Nazi symbols. ... [T]he Democratic Senate is the only thing holding back the right-wing House from implementing their radical agenda." --Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraising appeal

"If anything, we are overachieving on deficit reduction right now, given where we are in terms of the current year and immediate economic needs." --Treasury Secretary Jack Lew

"Collapse of bridge in WA underscores urgent need for infrastructure investments. Will latest falling structure prod Rs in Congress to act?" --tweet from Obama adviser David Axelrod

"I love the Clintons and they know it. Bill and I are friends for 22 years, 23 years. He's creating the greatest post-presidency in the history of the presidency. ... [I]f [Hillary] decides to run [for president again], I would walk across the country to get her into office." --singer Michael Bolton

"The ratings are out, and MSNBC has hit a 7-year low with their coverage of the scandals swirling around the White House. Well, when the emperor has no clothes, it's hard to take his tailor seriously." --Fred Thompson

"President Obama called in the Marines to hold an umbrella over his head during his Rose Garden press conference. Let's face it. We just don't have the military capability to protect our Middle East diplomats and the president's suits at the same time." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Jesus was merciful to tax collectors -- but the ones who repented, not those who invoked the 5th." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Time magazine found a picture of President Obama at his high school prom back in 1979. Let me tell you how long ago that was. Back then, Obama had to ask a girl for her phone number. He couldn't illegally obtain it through the Justice Department." --comedian Jay Leno

"Nothing in the [health care law] will require you to change your coverage." --Barack Obama, still peddling the same false story

"The biggest scandal of all, the biggest question of all is what was the president doing in those eight hours [of the attack in Benghazi]. He had a routine meeting at five o'clock. He never after, during the eight hours when our guys have their lives in danger, he never calls the secretary of defense, he never calls the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he never calls the CIA director. Who does he call? About five hours in he calls the secretary of state, and after the phone call she releases a statement essentially about the video and how we denounce any intolerance. It looks as if the only phone call was to construct a cover story at a time when the last two Americans who died were still alive and fighting for their lives. There's the scandal and that, I think, has got to be uncovered." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

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