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Title: THE FEDERALIST
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24 September 2003
Federalist No.
03-39/40 Combined Edition
Wednesday Chronicle
CONTENTS:
The
Foundation
Insight
Upright
Editorial Exegesis
Dezinformatsia
Sociocrats
Village Idiots
Short Cuts
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THE FOUNDATION
"The tumult of the people is very properly compared to
the raging of the sea. When the passions of a multitude become headstrong,
they
generally will have their course...." --Samuel Adams
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INSIGHT
"The greatest glory is not in never falling but in
rising up every time we fall." --Confucius
"It is better by noble
boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than
to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen." --Herodotus
"Beware the fury of the patient man." --John Dryden
"Our life
is what our thoughts make it." --Marcus Aurelius
"I do not feel
obliged
to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and
intellect has intended us to forgo their use." --Galileo Galilei
"I
love to see politicians pray. It keeps their hands out where you can see what
they're doing." --Bob Hope ++ "Most
people
and actors appearing on the stage have some writers to write their material --
but I don't do that. Congress is good enough for me. They have been
writing my
material for years and I am not ashamed of the material I have had. I am going
to stick to them." --Will Rogers
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UPRIGHT
"The deadly combination of outlaw regimes, terror
networks and weapons of mass murder is a peril that cannot be ignored or wished
away." --President George W. Bush
"Americans are a brave and
courageous
people who rise to meet most challenges. But when the battle is over and the
challenge has been dealt with they tend to become maudlin." --Lyn Nofziger
"Al-Qa'ida is still out there." --Morton Kondrake
"Instead of the liberating
force it
can be, public education is treated as a prize in a tug of war, one more
monopoly to be protected against competition, just another source of political
patronage." --Paul Greenberg ++ "It's
time
to put the teaching of American history and civics back into school, so
students
can understand what it means to be an American." --Sen. Lamar Alexander
"Democrats [with their filibuster of judicial nominee Miguel Estrada]
have shown they do not care about the advancement of Hispanics, but rather only
with the advancement of Democrats who happen to be Hispanic." --Rep. Mario
Diaz-Balart
"The two best anti-poverty programs are work and marriage,
and the government withdrew its assistance from any poor person who openly
engaged in either of these activities." --Sen. Jim Talent
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EDITORIAL EXEGESIS
"...[T]he record will show that September 11 is the
true
legacy of the Clinton administration. ...In 'Losing Bin Laden, Mr. [Richard]
Miniter, an investigative reporter, carefully dissects Clinton administration
policies that not only failed to capture Osama bin Laden and prevent
catastrophe, but allowed his al-Qa'ida organization to grow in strength. ...
From front cover to back, Mr. Miniter's book is the story of how Bill
Clinton's
conscious policy decisions to not stop bin Laden made his tragic work possible
-- and how the president's weakness allowed bin Laden to surge to global
prominence. Every failure to retaliate made bin Laden look invincible in the
Arab world, allowing him to win more recruits and raise money. Nearly every
year
of the Clinton presidency, bin Laden's attacks were more lethal than the year
before. The trail of blood culminated in the stunning reality of a burning
Pentagon and the haunting images of the Twin Towers collapsing with thousands
inside. It is frightening to contemplate what additional carnage will occur
because the Clinton administration chose not to get bin Laden when it had the
chance." --The Washington
Times
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DEZINFORMATSIA
This week's "Hyper-Hypocrisy" Awards: "[M]ass
disenfranchisement in the counties stuck with punch cards are far more likely
than other Californians to have their ballots thrown out." --NY Times defending
the 9th Circuit Court suspension of the California recall. Apparently the Gray
Lady has become a bit senile, as she clearly forgot about her own chart showing
the punch card system as the most efficient of all voting systems available:
"Optical scanners have an error rate of 3.3% ... Touch screen systems have an
error rate of 3.0% ... Data Vote systems have an error rate of 3.2% ... Punch
Cards...have an error rate of 2.5%"
"A reminder that television sometimes has trouble with
perspective, so you may want to note that in some areas of Iraq, things are
peaceful." --CBS talkinghead Dan Rather correcting an earlier story that
conditions in Iraq are utter chaos
"I don't think anybody who looks
carefully at us thinks that we are a left-wing or a right-wing organization."
--ABC talkinghead Peter Jennings **Memo to
Peter: The
most careful analyses of media content and attitudes, such as from the Media
Research Center and the Center for Media and Public Affairs, conclude they
really are the Leftmedia.
Serving up a softball: "Last
night, do you feel the President began to level with the American people?"
--Diane Sawyer to Democrat candidate Howard Dean after President Bush's speech
to the nation about progress to date in Iraq
++ This week's "News Nonsensica" Award:
"It's an argument that seems likely to become louder in the months ahead: Is
this truly a continuation of the war against terrorism, or is it possibly
another drawn-out, inconclusive Vietnam War in the making?" --CNN's Brian
Cabell, with a false dichotomy including yet another miscast "Iraq as Vietnam"
analogy
This week's "Commercial Nuisance Network" Award: "Striking new
evidence that President Bush may be beatable in 2004." --CNN's Judy Woodruff,
introducing pollster-analyst Bill Schneider, who crowed back, "Judy, President
Bush is sinking! Last month the President's job approval rating was at 60
percent. Now it's dropped to 50, his lowest rating ever."
This week's
"Leftmedia Busters" Award: "In short, anchors are acting like they are the ones
who run this country and could prosecute this war better than the Bush
administration." --Brent Bozell
This week's "Sagacity" Award: Barbara
Walters on Enron: "And the government helped to catch them." John Stossel (in
a stroke of genius) responded to Walters: "The private sector dropped the
stock.
That's what really caught them. When government loses money, they don't go to
jail. They don't get hauled up and punished for it, they just get more
money."
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SOCIOCRATS
Winning the "Democrisy" Sweepstakes: "I would have been
a Republican, if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." --Wesley Clark, newly
entered into the Demos' "Thundering Herd of Jackasses" vying for the
presidential mantle
From the "Democrats Are From Uranus" Department:
"...[W]e...we have people from every planet on the earth in this state. We have
the sons and daughters of every ... of people from every planet ... every
country on earth in this state." --California's Gov. and recall target Gray
Davis, finally admitting that he's not quite one of us
"It is an inappropriate and
unfortunate time for this debate to be occurring." --Sen. Ms. Hillary
Rodham-Clinton-Rodham on her vote to sustain the practice of partial-birth
abortions. **So, Ms. C, when would it be a "good
time"
to not support killing children?
From the "Clinton Presidue"
Files: "I never had a nickel 'till I left the White House." --Former President
Bill Clinton, conveniently forgetting all nickels and dimes paid on his behalf,
as he stripmined the perks of public office
++ "I am tired of Democrats walking away
from Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who led the greatest period of economic
growth in
our country's history." --Senator John Edwards, who has patterned his campaign
after Clinton's 1992 race ++ "When I'm
the nominee, I'm going to have Bill Clinton out on the road with me." --Dick
Gephardt **Perhaps Mrs. Gephardt might have something
to say about that!
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VILLAGE IDIOTS
This week's "Magnum Opus Ignorati" Award: "Osama was
born into wealth and never had to support himself. But even without that good
luck, the man could have made an easy living for himself by working as a Jesus
model. With his handsome Semitic good looks and his dreamy, faraway smile, he
was a natural for the job. When bin Laden made his move, there was no way he
could have predicted that his greatest ally would be the current American
president, the Honorable George W. Bush." --Columnist Harley Sorenson
This week's "Consummate Village-Celeb" Award: "Government support for
the arts is not a frivolous giveaway that some believe. It's a good investment
and sound economic development." --Robert Redford on how the central government
should confiscate and spend your money.
Just plain silly... "Are they
going to call a civil rights group silly, or a veterans group, or a labor
union,
for making an endorsement they don't agree with? We know they wouldn't use that
language with any group of men." --Kim Gandy, presidentress of NOW, returning
fire at the NY Times for calling the NOW's
endorsement of Carol Moseley Braun "silly" ++
"We have become a target. There is a movement coming from a
number of
different places to marginalize and discredit the feminist movement." --Roselyn
O'Connell, president of National Women's Political Caucus
**Memo to the NAGS: You're already marginal, so it's
quite fitting that you'd endorse a marginal candidate
From
the "Disgruntled Villagers" Department: "It's time to impeach the President and
get a man in there to get us out of this mess." --Bruce Springsteen
This week's "Commissars of Correctness" Awards: "If his father wasn't a
Nazi, he wouldn't have any credibility with conservatives at all." --Bill Maher
on Arnold Schwarzenegger, comparing conservatives to Nazis
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SHORT CUTS
"I had thought that electile dysfunction was a problem
of aging democracies, but it seems young ones get it too: Them as figure they
got nothing to vote for, don't." --Fred Reed
"One federal judge has
placed the Ten Commandments in a closet. That came after the United States
Supreme Court recently welcomed everything else out of the closet." -- Tony
Perkins, new president of the Family Research Council
"...[T]he best
things in life are not free. At the top of the list of un-free things, we find
freedom." --Kathleen Parker
"Apparently, the [New York]
Times' stylebook now requires all reports
of violence anyplace within 1,000 miles of Iraq to be dated from Bush's speech
declaring an end to 'major combat' operations." --Ann Coulter
"It's
amazing, isn't it, that Democrats never worry about federal spending unless it
is for defense." --Mona Charen
"The feminist women's organization NOW
has endorsed Carol Moseley Braun for president. Once again NOW has shown it is
so far behind the times it should change its name to THEN." --Lyn Nofziger
"It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make
their experiments on journalists and politicians." --Henrik Ibsen
"I
don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where
I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." --Grover
Norquist
"If you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of
typewriters, would they eventually write a speech for Howard Dean?" --James
Taranto
Jay Leno.... This is
democracy. As I look out and see everyone, I can't tell you how proud I am --
to be from Massachusetts. ....
California is
the only state where you can have more candidates than registered voters.
.... The city of L.A. has put a ban on all
lap dancing in the city. Looks like we'll never get to host the Democrats'
convention in this city again. .... There
are reports that France may agree to train Iraqi soldiers. Don't the Iraqis
already know how to surrender? .... And of
course Saddam Hussein has released another tape. Have you heard this latest
tape? It's the same thing. 'Bush is a demon. Bush is an evil
aggressor. Bush
is Satan.' Let me tell you something, if this guy wants to insult our
president
and call him evil, he can just join the Democratic Party and run for president
like everybody else."
David
Letterman.... Top Arnold Schwarzenegger Debate Conditions: Questions
may be answered in English, German, or a combination of both; Long breaks to
allow screenwriters to craft candidates' responses; Debate ends when gasoline
truck plows through wall and Arnold gets everyone out just before the whole
place blows up; Candidates may use their time to show 90-second clip from
"Terminator"; No tricky words like "budget" or "Sacramento"; Attire -- bathing
suit and baby oil; Candidate receives standard 30-million dollar fee, plus 10%
of box office gross; Moderator -- Lou Ferrigno; No questions that can't be
answered "I'll be back"; Arnold must win.
Argus
Hamilton.... Hurricane Isabel approached the Eastern Seaboard [last]
Wednesday causing the White House to close the federal government on Thursday.
It worked out great. No one came to work in Washington yesterday and by the
next
morning the budget was balanced. .... The
Dixie Chicks were safe Friday after a crash at Glasgow Airport. The wing of
their private jet clipped the terminal as it taxied after landing. Somehow you
knew with their political views they would eventually ram a plane into a
building. .... The Baltimore Sun said
Monday
al-Qa'ida suspects at Guantanamo are confessing when given McDonald's Happy
Meals and Twinkies. Forget bamboo slits under fingernails and Chinese water
torture. No prisoner can withstand the American Way of Life.
.... Ronald Reagan is revealed to be a
great
letter writer in the new book Reagan's Letters. It includes touching love
letters he wrote to his wife. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton will publish a
book of fund-raising letters her husband wrote to her.
Lex et Libertas
-- Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the
editors and staff. (Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot
Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty,
and for the families awaiting their safe return.)
-- PUBLIUS --
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