Did You Hear What They Said?

Welcome back, True Believers!

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It's time for another edition of The Perspective's Signature Series:

Remember, it's not media mis-reporting. . . they actually said it!!!

OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY...

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"I am not an infidel or a fugitive. I am a Christian. If they want to sentence me to death, I accept that."--Abdul Rahman, Afghan and former Muslim, who converted to Christianity 16 years ago, after being arrested for his conversion.

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A WORD FROM THE FOUNDERS

"Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and theaid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animateand encourage us to great and noble Actions. "
-- George Washington (General Orders, 2 July 1776)

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MEMO TO JOHN MURTHA

"America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." —James Madison

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"To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others,involves an inconsistency not to be excused."
-- John Jay (letter to R. Lushington, 15 March 1786)

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GOVERNMENT

"A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, simply to swell its ranks." —Ronald Reagan

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" What Americans need is not a new federal education program but the absence of all federal education programs... If Americans are to take our Constitution and the education of our children seriously, we need to wake up, reclaim our power, and 'Just Say No' to federal control of education." —Michael Ostrolenk

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"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." —James Madison

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" If we are still on the wrong course, it is because we choose to be... The conservative movement is at a crossroads. Are we committed to the ideals of limited government, fiscal discipline and traditional moral values or not?" —Rep. Mike Pence

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"Once born, a government program is nearly impossible to kill. That's mostly because politicians are spending our money and not their own." —Cal Thomas

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"While the creation of wealth may be more effective for enabling millions of people to rise out of poverty, it provides no special role for the political left, no puffed up importance, no moral superiority, no power for them to wield over others... Things that work for millions of people offer little to the left, and ultimately the left is about the left, not about the people they claim to want to lift out of poverty." —Thomas Sowell

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UAE PORT DEAL

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"Congress is up in arms. The Democrats, in particular, are in full cry, gleeful to at last get to the right of George Bush on an issue of national security. Gleeful, and shamelessly hypocritical. If a citizen of the UAE walked into an airport in full burnoose and flowing robes, speaking only Arabic, Democrats would be deeply offended, and might even sue, if the security people were to give him any more scrutiny than they would to my sweet 84-year-old mother. Democrats loudly denounce any thought of racial profiling. But when that same Arab, attired in business suit and MBA, and with a good record running ports in 15 countries, buys P&O, Democrats howl at the very idea of allowing Arabs to run our ports. (Republicans are howling too, but they don't grandstand on the issue of racial profiling.) On this, the Democrats are rank hypocrites." —Charles Krauthammer

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"The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred,or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is aslave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which issufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest."
-- George Washington (letter to Alexander Hamilton, 8 May 1796)

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CLUELESSNESS, LIBERAL STYLE

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"We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it is probably a good thing... I'm proud to be out of touch."--George Clooney

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"Simply put, Democrats believe they can ask voters to give them control of the legislative branch [in November] without revealing any sort of policy or plan to deal with the most pressing issue before the country today: the war in Iraq... Not only do Democrats not have a plan, they're proud of not having a plan." —Byron York

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"In front of a crowd in Florida this past weekend, Al Gore said that, "The people of the United States are going to stand up and take our country back." And then the manager of the karaoke bar took the microphone away and said, "Either sing or sit down buddy."--Jay Leno

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"I'm tired of being accused of bias and being liberal. I have been covering all sides of every argument in politics for a quarter century, and I think I am as fair and neutral as it is humanly possible to be—which is not perfect. How about some unbiased readers for a change?" —Newsweek's Howard Fineman

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FREEDOM

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"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every onewho approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserveit but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you areinevitably ruined."
-- Patrick Henry (speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention,5 June 1778)

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"The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." —John Adams

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ABORTION

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"If South Dakota has led the way toward a democratic eruption, it also has shaken up the political marketplace by rejecting the popular rape-and-incest exception. The loophole doesn't make moral sense. If life begins at conception, children conceived through rape and incest are human beings. They are innocent of crimes, even if they are the byproduct of horrendous violence against women. So on what basis should we permit their destruction?" —Tony Snow

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MULTIPLE CHOICE

Who said the following:

"America does not have to choose between being a welcoming society and being a lawful society. We can be both at the same time."

A) George W. Bush

B) John Cornyn

C) Tom Tancredo

D) Hillary Clinton

Scroll down for the answer (no cheating!!)

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A) George W. Bush

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Have a great day!

American Socialists Declare War

Brendan Miniter has a great article on how Wal-Mart has come under attack by the Left:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110008023

Always High Taxes

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The war on Wal-Mart is really about expanding government.

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BY BRENDAN MINITER

Tuesday, February 28, 2006 12:01 a.m.

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With the war on Wal-Mart now heating up in nearly three dozen state legislatures, I put a call in to someone who was in on the ground floor in pushing to force the retailer to spend more on health care for its employees. What Maryland's Delegate James Hubbard, a Democrat from Prince George's County, had to say was revealing of both why he backed his state's "Wal-Mart bill" and what this fight is really about: expanding Medicaid and other taxpayer-funded health-care entitlements.

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Let's first understand that the drive to enact anti-Wal-Mart legislation has very little to do with the retail giant except in two respects: dipping into its very deep pockets, and using the controversy surrounding the company to mask the larger agenda of expanding already-bankrupt entitlement programs. Of course, in this war legislators have a ready made ally in the AFL-CIO, which has its own reasons for going after the nonunionized company.

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With that, let's turn to Mr. Hubbard. He began our conversation by pointing out that the Wal-Mart bill--which forces companies with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8% of their payroll on health care or pay the state the difference--was always intended to be just the first step. Four years ago, he made his intentions clear by introducing legislation to increase cigarette taxes and to use the tax code to compel employers to provide health insurance. Under his legislation the revenue from these taxes would be dumped into a new state fund that would then be used to expand Medicaid eligibility to families with incomes up to 300% of the poverty line (up from 200% now). But even in a legislature with large Democratic majorities, his bill stalled.

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So Mr. Hubbard and others settled on a new approach--pushing through smaller, bite-sized pieces. The first piece was the Wal-Mart bill. It passed last year and was enacted last month, when the Legislature overrode Gov. Robert Ehrlich's veto. Two weeks ago Mr. Hubbard was at it again, this time introducing a new bill to mandate that companies with at least 1,000 employees spend 4.5% of their payroll on health care or pay the state the difference. Once this piece is in place, Mr. Hubbard told me, the next step will be to create a similar mandate--perhaps 2% or 3%--for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. Each year, Mr. Hubbard hopes to expand the mandate to include ever smaller companies with the ultimate goal of "health coverage for all Marylanders."

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Mr. Hubbard noted how effective splitting the difference can be in moving legislation toward a larger goal. "If you give up 80% of what you want to get 20%," he said, "after five years you will have nothing left to give up." Mr. Hubbard also noted a quirk in the system that made raising taxes and expanding the Medicaid rolls attractive. With the federal government paying half or more of every dollar spent on Medicaid, states were essentially leaving federal dollars on the table by not expanding the program.

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It is within this context that we should view the National Governors Association's meeting in Washington this week. Like all interest groups, the states' chief executives are determined not to leave town empty-handed; and every year a top agenda item for them is getting more federal dollars to cover the ever-expanding cost of Medicaid. And who could blame them? After all, the federal government created Medicaid as a tiny program in the 1960s.

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Today it eats up, on average, about a quarter of each state's budget and grows every year at a rate that outstrips inflation and threatens to gobble up dollars needed for education and other priorities. Yet Mr. Hubbard isn't the only state lawmaker who has figured out that he can leverage the federal Treasury to his advantage by expanding Medicaid eligibility. New York is well ahead on this learning curve. According to a recent study published by State Policy Reports, the Empire State receives more federal dollars per capita than any other state and more than twice the national average.

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What's now dawning on Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is that his company is a middleman in this exchange. So on Sunday he spoke directly to the governors and said there was "too much politics" in state bills taking aim at his company. Of course, that's exactly why more states will target Wal-Mart and other employers in order to raise revenue to expand Medicaid, unless someone in Washington puts a stop to it.
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So then Wal-Mart, and eventually all employers, will not be in the retail business, but in the health-care business.

I'll permit Mr. Limbaugh to do my light-work this time:

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"Wal-Mart is doing more for low-income people than politicians can. That makes the politicians mad, and it threatens them. The Democratic Party, the American left ought to be embracing Wal-Mart. If the Democratic Party really meant what it says about compassion for the less fortunate, for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, and the whoever, then it ought to be riding Wal-Mart to the bank, they ought to be praising it, trying to make Wal-Mart their friends.

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"Wal-Mart is a big illustration to low-income people that capitalism will accommodate their needs.

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"They are using the power of the state to try to force this private company to support Democrats and Democrat special interests. Universal health care is a Democrat objective. And they are going about it piece meal, bit by bit, small chunks at a time."