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

web posted September 23, 2013

: "Fresh from terrorizing the Russians and bringing everlasting peace to a war-torn Middle East, Barack Obama undertook Monday to work on the Republicans the same tactics that worked so resoundingly on the trembling Vladimir Putin. He made a speech. ... A week ago, getting ready to bomb the Syrians (or so he said), the president was wondering how many Republicans he could round up to compensate for all the left-wing Democrats he couldn't hold in line. That was of course last week. Bailed out of a serious foreign policy jam by his old friend Vladimir Putin ... Obama decided he didn't need the Republicans after all. Therefore he could attack them with his patented blend of patronizing language and sarcasm. ... With Obama, the point, perhaps, is that he has Putin and Assad out of the way momentarily. Not so the Republican House he faces, with its tea party constituency, as time draws near to deal with the budget and the debt ceiling. The Rose Garden speech, to be sure, contained one high-minded exhortation: 'Let's stop the political posturing.' That was just before the Republican-bashing commenced anew." -- William Murchison

"[G]overnment bureaucrats create the official definition of poverty, and they do so in ways that provide a political rationale for the welfare state -- and, not incidentally, for the bureaucrats' own jobs. ... There is nothing mysterious about the fact that most people start off in entry level jobs that pay much less than they will earn after they get some work experience. But, when minimum wage levels are set without regard to their initial productivity, young people are disproportionately unemployed -- priced out of jobs. ... Minorities, like young people, can also be priced out of jobs. In the United States, the last year in which the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate -- 1930 -- was also the last year when there was no federal minimum wage law. ... In 1948 the unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent. This was a fraction of what it would become in even the most prosperous years from 1958 on, as the minimum wage was raised repeatedly to keep up with inflation. Some 'compassion' for 'the poor'!" -- Thomas Sowell

"[W]hat has allowed our Constitution to endure for centuries while its counterparts elsewhere are continually replaced? One key is that our Constitution is simple. It's small enough to fit in a pocket. It's written in clear language anyone can understand. It's also limited in that it doesn't attempt to do too much. ... [I]t recognizes that human beings are not angels. Members of each branch will inevitably try to expand their power and influence, and members of the other two branches should then press back, leading to an ever-shifting balance of power that prevents any one branch from becoming too influential. Unfortunately, lawmakers have become increasingly comfortable handing over their powers to unelected bureaucrats. Laws such as Dodd-Frank and Obamacare are intentionally vague, leaving presidential appointees or career 'civil servants' to fill in the blanks. ... A solution would be for lawmakers to reassert their constitutional authority to make law. ... Meanwhile, members of each branch should interpret the Constitution by attempting to discern the original meaning of the text as it was written and publicly understood at the time of ratification, a method commonly referred to as originalism." -- Former Heritage president Ed Feulner

"[A]re some of these folks [Republicans] really so beholden to one extreme wing of their party that they're willing to tank the entire economy just because they can't get their way on this issue? Are they really willing to hurt people just to score political points? I hope not." -- Barack Obama

"Who cares how it came up?" -- Bill Clinton on the Russian plan for Syria's chemical weapons

"We will continue to work to take action to improve gun safety, reduce gun violence in this country through executive action, and hopefully Congress will take action to reduce gun violence as well." -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"This seems so unusual to me that a gunman could create this kind of havoc at a U.S. military facility. Have you ever heard of it happening before?" -- CNN's Carol Costello, who apparently hadn't heard of Fort Hood

: "We're continuing this investigation. But certainly, as I look at, for example, sequestration, which is about saving money in the federal government being spent, that we somehow skimped on what would be available for projects like this, and then we put people at risk. Obviously, 12 people have paid the ultimate price for whatever -- you know, whatever was done to have this man on the base." -- DC Mayor Vincent Gray

"I don't expect a train wreck. I think the train's going to keep running -- not maybe totally on time -- but it's going to be pretty efficient." -- Sen. Max Baucus once infamously referred to ObamaCare as a "train wreck." Last week, however, he changed his tune

"[T]here's no serious evidence that [ObamaCare], which has helped to keep down the rise in health care costs to their lowest level in 50 years, is holding back economic growth." -- Barack Obama

"USA Today had a big front-page feature on the new health care law, and said that the opposition to ObamaCare is at an all-time high. In fact, it's gotten so bad the president's now calling it BidenCare." -- Jay Leno

web posted September 16, 2013

"By seeking transformational change, Obama does not mean that he wants to return unemployment and economic growth to their traditional levels. He doesn't mean that he wants to ensure that America remains the world's lone superpower, committed to defending itself and its allies and to opposing radical jihadis in the war on terror. ... He means moving toward equality of outcomes to achieve 'fairness.' ... Obama has been not only preaching 'fairness' but deliberately lowering Americans' expectations for future growth. ... What is going on in this nation is breathtaking to those who love America as founded and as embodying the greatest principles of self-governance in world history. If we are to have any hope of rolling some of this insanity back in the short term and ultimately preventing Obama's goal of fundamental change, we must, at the very least, call Obama out on exactly what he's doing and do our best to re-establish the traditional yardsticks against which to measure his failures." -- David Limbaugh

"There is no question that the credibility of the presidency -- regardless of who holds that office -- is a major asset of this country. Another way of saying the same thing is that Barack Obama has recklessly risked the credibility of future presidents, and the future safety of this country, by his glib words and weak actions. ... When a weak and vacillating leader, Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, belatedly saw Hitler for what he was, after years of trying to appease him, he issued a public ultimatum that if Germany carried out its impending invasion of Poland, Britain would declare war. By this time, Hitler had only contempt for Chamberlain, as Putin today has only contempt for Obama. Hitler went ahead with his invasion of Poland. Chamberlain then felt he had to declare war. That is how World War II began. Britain's action did not save Poland, but only jeopardized its own survival. Unintended consequences are at least as common in military actions on the world stage as they are in domestic policies that start out with lofty words and end with sordid and even catastrophic consequences." -- Thomas Sowell

"When we last checked in on Barack Obama discussing Benghazi on the network news, he was reassuring Brian Williams on the Oct. 25 'Rock Center' that 'we're going to do a full investigation.' It's a year later, and it's still 'we are going to.' Last fall, Williams and Obama posed as curious for answers on how this disaster happened. Neither of them has demonstrated any noticeable curiosity since. ... One year has elapsed, and the administration has failed to bring any of the Benghazi murderers to justice. The families of the lost Americans and the survivors of the attack have been completely ignored by the TV bookers, no matter how much they are demonized or silenced by Team Obama. This jaw-dropping journalistic failure underscores why the press deserves an approval rating in the single digits." -- L. Brent Bozell

: "Anyone who has spent time in the Middle East knows things are not always what they seem. Alliances and loyalties shift depending on who is most likely to win a power struggle. The secular West doesn't fully comprehend the religious motivations of extremists who claim to love death more than life. Getting killed by missiles launched by people they regard as 'infidels,' they say, transports them to paradise. ... Learning from history, listening to what they say and watching what they do and confronting this evil, rather than trying to pacify it, is America's best option." -- Cal Thomas

"Does anyone truly believe that if Mitt Romney had been elected president and had asked House Republicans for exactly what President Obama is asking, that House Republicans would oppose it to the extent that they're opposed to what President Obama wants? The level of hypocrisy is what amazes me." -- Rep. Steve Israel

"This is Democratic foreign policy at its finest, I guess. ... If President Obama had jumped the gun and hit Syria without delay, this deal would have never happened. ... President Obama played this perfectly. ... This is going to be productive and this may forge a new relationship between President Obama and 'Ole Putey.' You never know, they might go fishing at Big Eddie's North Country Lodge." -- MNSBC's Ed Schultz

"We're not trusting Assad. We're trusting the Russians." -- Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

"I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike. ... That's my judgment as commander in chief. But I'm also the president of the world's oldest constitutional democracy. So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress." -- Barack Obama

"Thanks to Pres. Obama's strength, we have a Russian proposal. We hope that it is credible and real, and therefore progress." -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi

"We remain committed to bringing the perpetrators of the Benghazi attacks to justice and to ensuring the safety of our brave personnel serving overseas." -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"President Obama says the lack of response to Syria so far does not threaten his credibility. And you know something, he's right. The economy, Benghazi, the spying scandal -- that threatens his credibility." -- Jay Leno

"Because America is so much mightier than Russia, the American presidency is a much stronger position than the Russian presidency. But a strong man in a position of weakness, if he is ruthless about taking advantage of his adversary's vulnerabilities, can get the better of weak man in a position of strength. Saul Alinsky understood that, and so does Vladimir Putin." -- Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

"[Republicans are] not going to impeach the president. They're not that crazy. ... If [Obama] launched an attack on Syria without the endorsement of Congress, it would be vastly more complicated if Congress had already acted. If he acted without the agreement of Congress, you could make the argument before the resolution was passed ... that he is acting as other presidents have." -- Sen. John McCain (R-Az)

"I'd like to suggest a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines the right NOT to be shot/killed by a gun." -- CNN's Piers Morgan

"[T]he anarchists have taken over. ... We're in a position here where people who don't believe in government -- and that's what the Tea Party is all about -- are winning, and that's a shame." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

"[B]ased on past experience, there was not a lot of optimism about resolving this [Syrian conflict] diplomatically with Russia's help, given the role Russia had played in the past." -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

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