Quotes of the Day

"Scholarly debate about its various clauses has been non-stop since the document became the law of the land. But one aspect of the Constitution is beyond debate: it is a document entirely constructed to limit the power of the government, not the people." --Arnold Ahlert

"The bottom line is that the idea that government bureaucrats have enough knowledge to manage an economy well is the height of conceit -- what Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek called the 'fatal conceit.'" --economist Walter E. Williams

"[A]ny time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always 'against,' never 'for' anything." --Ronald Reagan

hat tip www.patriotpost.us

Notable Quotables

The First Question of a Free Press - Where is your Constitutional Authority?

From patriotpost.us

Last week, however, three leading Democrats in Congress were asked during news conferences to cite the constitutional authority for their healthcare proposals. To a one, they responded with answers that betrayed unmitigated arrogance and a disdain for our Constitution second to none in our nation's noble history.
"Are you serious? Are you serious?" replied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when asked specifically about the constitutional authority for Obama's health care proposal. Pelosi's spokesman later clarified, "You can put this on the record: That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question." (Apparently, there was an echo in the chamber.)

Democrat House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer attempted to answer the question by demonstrating his illimitable ignorance on the subject: "Well, in promoting the general welfare the Constitution obviously gives broad authority to Congress to effect [a mandate that individuals must buy health insurance]. The end that we're trying to effect is to make health care affordable, so I think clearly this is within our constitutional responsibility."

Perhaps Hoyer should take a basic civics course on the "General Welfare" clause in Article 1, Section 8, as written by James Madison. On the limitations of the Constitution, Madison wrote: "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents..."

Finally, Democrat Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (where Rule of Law once prevailed), responded to the question of constitutional authority by insisting, "We have plenty of authority. ... I mean, there's no question there's authority. Nobody questions that. Where do we have the authority to set speed limits on an interstate highway? The federal government does that on federal highways." (No, actually, the states set speed limits, and only misinterpretation of the Commerce Clause by judicial activists could be construed to give the federal government such authority.)

As for Obama, his publicist, Robert Gibbs, claimed, "I won't be confused as a constitutional scholar, but I don't believe there's a lot of -- I don't believe there's a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity of [questions about constitutional authority]."

For sure, nobody will confuse Gibbs with a scholar of any stripe. And, we would remind Gibbs that when the Clintonistas attempted to nationalize healthcare (18 percent of the U.S. economy) back in 1994, the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office issued this piece of analysis: "The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. An individual mandate ... would impose a duty on individuals as members of society [and] require people to purchase a specific service that would be heavily regulated by the federal government."

Lackeys for the White House

It appears the fix is in and the useful idiots in the news media have been identified:

On Monday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were among several people who attended an off-the-record briefing with Pres. Obama at the White House. Sources tell us other attendees at the two-and-a-half hour chat included Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Gloria Borger of CNN. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one from Fox News was in the room.

So today, Oblermann attacks the Tea Parties. Coincidence? I don't think so.

White House Final Admits that Major News Networks Work for Them

From the Patriot Post: Director Anita Dunn recently accused FOX News of being "a wing of the Republican Party." She added that from here forward, "We're going to treat [Fox News] the way we would treat an opponent. ... We don't need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."

So the corollary to this is since FOX is viewed as the opponent, the other networks aren't. Just let that sink in for a minute. The White House doesn't view the other networks as an opponent i.e. able to ask tough questions of the White House policies.

This is a shocking admission by the White House and should give pause to everyone who believes a free press should be challenging the administration's policies rather than rolling over and accepting everything the White House says at face value.

In other words, in the opinion of the White House Director Anita Dunn, FOX News is the only network that is fulfilling its responsibilities under the US Constitution.

News Flash - Payments to US Government not a tax

The Saint is so happy, his taxes just went down. You see, not all money that is paid to the US Government because of a law passed by Congress is a tax.

Now we know how Obama could say that he will not increase taxes, he just denies that a tax is a tax. He even disagrees with the dictionaries definition of a tax. What a great idea. Just change the meaning of a word to fit your own definition.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

(sarcasm on)That's a lot of Racist White People (sarcasm off)