http://patriotpost.us America's most widely read Internet-based publication, The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed e-journal of hard-hitting rebuttal to contemporary political, social and mainstream media protagonists on the Left. The Patriot's advocacy for individual liberty, the restoration of Constitutionally-constrained limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values, is crafted by a national editorial team headed by Mark Alexander. It is written for those who seek a brief, informative and entertaining analysis of the week's most significant news, policy and opinion. en 0 foundation feature{THE FOUNDATION} "Forbid it, Almighty God!" ---BUSTED:href{Patrick Henry}{http://PatriotPost.US/fqd/} BUSTED:endfoundation feature{PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE} BUSTED:topicnotoc{The Audacity of Deception} By Mark Alexander If you are perplexed, even bewildered, by the number of Americans who normally make logical and rational decisions but now support BUSTED:href{Barack Obama}{http://PatriotPost.US/papers/#anchor31}, I refer you to a lucid explanation for this phenomenon in the opening pages of the candidate's political autobiography, The Audacity of Hope. He writes, "I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views... I am bound to disappoint some... of them." Beyond the projection and deception, however, elections have consequences. Some of Obama's supporters, the formerly logical and rational, will be first in the soup line of deceived disappointees expressing buyer's remorse. They will awaken from the stupor of all the BUSTED:href{good feelings}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=602} that attracted them to Obama and face the hard realities of the Socialist agenda they enabled. In this, the final week of the '08 presidential campaign, Obama bought 30 minutes of prime time on several networks to air an infomercial in which he endeavored to pass as something other than the ideological Socialist he is. Feigning the fiscal conservatism of BUSTED:href{Ronald Reagan}{http://Reagan2020.US/}, Obama claimed he would review the budget, line by line, and cut waste. He even made taxing and spending, a.k.a. "the collectivist redistribution of wealth," sound like a noble democratic gesture. At one point he said, "Just because I want to spread the wealth around, they call me a socialist. The next thing you know, they will call me a communist because I shared my peanut butter sandwich in kindergarten!" Cute. Of course, Barack Obama isn't proposing to "share" his sandwich. Instead, he's proposing to take your sandwich and share it with someone else. He's assuming that you aren't charitable enough to share it yourself. Truth is, it is unlikely Obama ever shared a sandwich with anyone. With an average annual income of more than $500,000 between 2000 and 2006, Barack and Michelle only gave two percent---two percent---of their income to charity. Obama's running mate is even more miserly. The Bidens' income averaged $260,000 over the last 10 years, but they averaged just $650 a year in charitable giving. So much for "spreading the wealth around." Meanwhile, BUSTED:href{Sen. John McCain}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=578} centered his soapbox message on Obama's penchant to redistribute wealth, even uttering the word "socialist" in several interviews---and not a minute too soon. Of course, Socialist policies are now the centerpiece of the BUSTED:href{once great Democratic Party}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=617}, packaged under the aegis of "fairness and equality" or "investments in our infrastructure and people." Obama uses code words such as "political and economic justice" and "coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change." In the last two months, however, given the BUSTED:href{crisis of confidence}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=610} in our economy, Obama's Socialist rhetoric has become bolder. Perhaps he's heeding the counsel of his mentors' mentor, Karl Marx, who wrote, "A new revolution is possible only in consequence of a new crisis." The fingerprints of Obama's BUSTED:href{radical Socialist mentors}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=592} are all over his "vision for America" ---from his early childhood tutor, Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis, to his black radical spiritual advisor, Jeremiah Wright, to the benefactors who launched his political career, radical terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. These are BUSTED:href{the Leftists}{http://PatriotPost.US/news/baracks_leftist_roots.asp} who fed Obama's BUSTED:href{unmitigated narcissism}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=590} and shaped his BUSTED:href{warped worldview}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=591}, which he now seeks to inflict upon the entire nation. Even his BUSTED:href{campaign icon}{http://PatriotPost.US/news/obama_over_america.asp} implies "Obama over America." Of course, when asked about his relationship with these radicals, Obama responds, "[These people] are not advisors or donors to my campaign," at which point an adoring press corps dutifully moves on to the next question. Despite having spent 20 years as a disciple of Wright, the man who officiated at Obama's marriage and baptized his children, the man whom Obama describes as "a father figure," he claims he never inhaled any of his spiritual mentor's racial hatred---never even heard any of it. Obama claims that Bill Ayers was "just a guy in my neighborhood," and "I was just eight years old when he was a terrorist." However, Obama was 34 when Ayers used his radical celebrity to launch Obama's political career, and he was 40 when this unrepentant terrorist was featured in a New York Times article (on the morning of September 11, 2001) and quoted in the opening paragraph proclaiming, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Ayers added, "America makes me want to puke." Obama was working on his second major "philanthropic" project with Ayers at that time. In addition, there are Obama's ties to the Socialist New Party, the ACORN crowd, Father Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Kwame Kilpatrick, Louis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko, Rashid Khalidi, Raila Odinga and other haters, hard Leftists and convicted felons. George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." All committed Socialists understand this principle. For example, when Obama asserts, "We'll ensure that economic justice is served---that's what this election is about... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody," that is tantamount to buying votes. Michelle Obama echoes her husband's redistributionist philosophy: "The truth is, in order to get things like universal healthcare and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more." In 1916, a minister and outspoken advocate for liberty, William J. H. Boetcker, published a pamphlet entitled BUSTED:href{The Ten Cannots}{http://PatriotPost.US/news/the_ten_cannots.asp}. "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves." A century later, Democrats are utterly ignorant of these principles. In fact, Barack Obama's campaign is built around their antithesis---"The Ten Cans." I was speaking with a friend recently, a man who lived most of his life under the Communist regime in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. He has spent several years and continues to incur many legal expenses in his endeavor to become a U.S. citizen, but he has since lost his enthusiasm. "The prospect of an Obama presidency is like deja vu for me," he explained. "The socialist goal back home was that everyone had equal wealth. They met that goal---eventually no one had anything. Any attempt to work harder to achieve a better standard of living for your family was considered contrary to the welfare of the state, and dutifully discouraged. Socialism is a big hole, easy to fall into and hard to climb out of." He lamented, "The American dream is not something I want to wake up from---but too many Americans have no idea what they have, and are about to lose it. Socialism seems an appealing ideal, collective ownership, equal society, 'sharing the wealth,' et cetera. But it has a downside: It doesn't work." Indeed it doesn't work. It creates wards of the state---slaves, if you will. In the 1980s, I spent enough time in Socialist countries, including the old USSR, to know that we want to avoid, at all costs, a USSA. If we could gather up all Americans who, knowingly or unknowingly, support collectivist policies like those espoused by Barack Obama and transport them to the old USSR for a week, they could see the terminus of such policies---the walking dead---and the wisest among them would rethink their support for statist concepts such as "sharing the wealth." It is no small irony that as the younger generations of former Communist countries around the world are moving rapidly toward liberty and free enterprise, our nation is moving rapidly toward Socialism and a tyranny of the few. Barack Obama recently said, "I don't find myself particularly scary or particularly risky." It was a weak attempt at self-effacing humor, but make no mistake: Barack Hussein Obama's Socialist policies are both scary and risky. "Hope" and "change" may be pleasant catchall bromides, but as Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard's Almanac, "He that lives upon Hope will die fasting." On change, John Adams wrote, "A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." To that end, in 1787, the year our Constitution was adopted, Thomas Jefferson, wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." Let's not go there---yet. (For more information on the BUSTED:href{character of the presidential candidates}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=615}, see BUSTED:href{The McCain record}{http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=578} and BUSTED:href{The Obama record}{http://PatriotPost.US/papers/#anchor31}.) BUSTED:topicnotoc{Quote of the week} "We've gone astray from first principles. We've lost sight of the rule that individual freedom and ingenuity are at the very core of everything that we've accomplished. Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." ---BUSTED:href{Ronald Reagan}{http://Reagan2020.US/} (PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Please join our staff and their families and pray for our nation. Pray for our uniformed Patriots defending our nation in accordance with their oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States... so help me God." Pray that our civilian leadership would honor their oaths accordingly, especially our next president. Pray that he would uphold, without reservation, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Pray for all the families who are suffering fear and adversity as a result of the current economic decline. And finally, thank God for all His provision.) BUSTED:topicnotoc{On cross-examination} "You have to pinch yourself---a Marxist radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising of black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it's considered impolite to say so." ---columnist Melanie Phillips (EDITOR'S NOTE: Should Barack Obama succeed in deceiving a majority of voters next Tuesday, our readers have suggested two methods of protest: Either displaying your flag upside down [a sign of distress] or flying it at half mast -- or both, for seven days, and doing the same on inauguration day, 20 January 2009.) feature{GOVERNMENT & POLITICS} BUSTED:topic{Campaign watch: Fundraising shenanigans continue} The Obama campaign has shattered records by raising more than $600 million this election cycle, an effort that will certainly change the way future presidential candidates run their campaigns. Then again, Obama's is not a shining example to emulate. A provision of federal election law that has been craftily exploited by the Obama campaign states that it is not necessary to collect vital information from donors who contribute $200 or less to a political campaign. The Obama campaign has bragged endlessly about how a large portion of its donations come from these low-dollar donors, average Americans who are supposedly so passionate about change that they are giving money to a political cause for the first time in their lives. New donors to the change train even include Doodad Pro, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. Obama's campaign refuses to make public their low-dollar donor list, though rival John McCain has done so. If their practices are legal and ethical, why not prove it by releasing the questionable information? The Obama campaign maintains that they are doing their best to alleviate problems with fraudulent donations, but, like most of his campaign, that too is a lie. Intrepid bloggers at BUSTED:href{Gateway Pundit}{http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-camp-continues-mega-million.html} have tested Obama's donor site by submitting obviously fake names that any Address Verification System (AVS) would flag, but these donations invariably go through, and the fake donors receive heartfelt electronic thank-you messages from the Obama team. As Gateway Pundit pointed out, AVS is a fully automated system that any novice Webmaster could operate, yet the Obama technical team can't seem to get its own working. Or, more likely, it has deliberately disabled the system (it's not easily done by accident) in order to keep the money machine rolling. Donations are no doubt coming in over the legal individual limits, not to mention from foreign nationals. Since the Leftmedia won't report on the Obama fundraising machine's widespread fraud, and the Federal Elections Commission won't investigate the complaints filed by the Republican NationalBUSTED:pdfbr Committee---at least not until it's too late---the burden on bringing the issue to America's attention has fallen to the blogosphere. Unfortunately, the Obama campaign has already cashed in on its thievery. BUSTED:topic{Biden doesn't like tough questions} Democrat vice-presidential Candidate Joe Biden sat down for an interview with WFTV-Orlando news anchor Barbara West this week with the expectation of fielding some of the same softball questions he and running mate Barack Obama have grown so accustomed to getting from Leftmedia talkers. Instead, what Biden got was a dose of what "hardball" used to mean before MSNBC's Chris Matthews diluted the term. West jumped right in with tough questions about Obama's plan to "spread the wealth around" being Marxism, the campaign's ties to ACORN, and Biden's own comment that Obama will be tested by a foreign policy crisis within his first six months in office. Biden tried to laugh off the questions, falling back to the Democrats' well-trodden script. West was not rattled, however, and pressed on. As a result, the Obama campaign blackballed the Orlando station for engaging in the sort of old-fashioned investigative journalism that just won't work if Obama is to be elected president. West and the station's news director stand by their work, and, for the record, they didn't give John McCain an easier time during his interview. (McCain began his interview by joking, "Now don't say anything mean or I am going to be angry.") The Ministry of Truth at Obama headquarters still claims that the station is part of the fabled right-wing conspiracy. BUSTED:topicnotoc{LA Times of Obama} Speaking of the Leftmedia, The Los Angeles Times is aiding the Obama campaign this week by refusing to release a 2003 video of then-Illinois state senator Obama at a farewell banquet for Rashid Khalidi, whom the Times calls "an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights." Khalidi, also a former Palestine Liberation Organization spokesman, was leaving Chicago for New York. He had been a neighbor, friend and dinner guest of the Obamas in Chicago's upscale and ultra-liberal Hyde Park neighborhood. In April, the Times ran an article titled, "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama." It mentioned the banquet and the video, which the Times will not release---unless Obama loses Tuesday. One of many anti-Israel moments that voters might just be interested in hearing was a young Palestinian's recitation of a poem accusing Israel of terrorism and criticizing the U.S. for allying with Israel. Obama has publicly declared his support for Israel, but many Palestinians think he's really on their side based on things he has said in private. In light of his relationship with Khalidi, that's a safe bet. No doubt the events of the evening would hurt Obama's case, providing the Times more than enough cause to withhold the evidence. John McCain, however, didn't let the opportunity slip by, saying, "I'm not in the business of talking about media bias, but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet? I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different." Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has ousted three major newspapers---The Washington Times, Dallas Morning News and The New York Post---from its campaign plane. What do all three have in common? They endorsed John McCain. BUSTED:pulladv BUSTED:advObamaThree BUSTED:endpulladv BUSTED:topic{Court Jesters: Berg's suit thrown out} Last Friday, Judge R. Barclay Surrick dismissed Philadelphia attorney Philip Berg's lawsuit, which had challenged Barack Obama's eligibility for the presidency. Berg contended Obama was born into his father's Kenyan citizenship and thus was not a natural-born citizen of the United States, within the meaning of the Constitution's Article II, section 1 requirement, and he requested full disclosure of pertinent documents by the Obama campaign. The objectionable aspect of the court's decision is not so much its result as its reasoning. Berg's claim seems weak; even if Obama had been born abroad, he could still be a natural-born citizen based on his mother's U.S. citizenship. (8 U.S. Code, sec. 1401.) But the dismissal rested not on the suit's weakness but a citizen/voter's lack of standing to object. The court found a citizen's interest "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any [voter]." In other words, although a citizen has standing to challenge the government any time she is "disturbed" by the sight of a public park accommodating a Christmas tree or a Boy Scouts picnic, no such standing exists where a voter objects to a man's assuming the presidency of the United States in violation of the Constitution. BUSTED:topicnotoc{Other campaign tidbits} Several weeks ago we reported that Barack Obama's half brother George is currently living in a hut in Kenya. This week, it was discovered that Obama's beloved aunt Zeituni is living in a rundown public housing project in Boston. Obama has not shared his peanut butter sandwich with George or Zeituni yet. In Hollywood, a homeowner displayed an effigy of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin hung by a noose from his house for Halloween. The Secret Service determined there was no threat, and the homeowner later removed the display. At the University of Kentucky, however, a student and another man were arrested Thursday for hanging an effigy of Barack Obama from a tree on campus. BUSTED:topicnotoc{Another Obama crony on his way to the Big House} Government does not get much more corrupt than in Obama's home state of Illinois. Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich, a close ally of Obama, was elected on a promise to clean up the corruption, but how does one get rid of corruption when Democrats have control of the Illinois House, Senate and all but one statewide office? Blagojevich is under investigation for a number of, shall we say, suspect campaign and business dealings. The most notable of these is Blagojevich's close association with one Antonin "Tony" Rezko, who has been indicted for his part in a scheme to obtain kickbacks from the state. Blagojevich's wife, Patricia, was a real estate business partner with Rezko for more than a decade. In Rezko's trial, it was revealed that 75 percent of those who gave more than $25,000 to Blagojevich's campaign received state contracts or appointments to state boards. Rezko was also indicted in January on charges of money laundering for an Iraqi billionaire, Nadhmi Auchi, whom military analysts describe as one of Saddam's bagmen. Rezko's fingerprints are all over Obama's political campaigns. He was Obama's Chicago fundraising patriarch, a "fixer." Rezko and his bagmen donated more than $225,000 to Obama's campaigns. Rezko's fingerprints also adorn Obama's 2005 purchase of his swanky Georgian mansion on Chicago's south side---right down the street from where Obama's new neighbor, terrorist William Ayers, launched Obama's political career. (We know, given Obama's rhetoric, he must have lived in a government housing project and commuted by mass transit.) That mansion and the adjacent lot were originally one parcel, but the owner divided it into two, and the adjacent lot was purchased by Rezko for the full $625,000 asking price---far above market value. On the same day, Obama purchased his mansion on the first lot for well under market value. One might conclude that Rezko subsidized Obama's discount with the purchase of the adjacent lot but Rezko conveniently holds a receipt for a "loan" from his Iraqi friend, Auchi. BUSTED:topicnotoc{Sen. Stevens found guilty on all counts} Sen. Ted Stevens (RINO-AK) was found guilty for violating federal ethics laws this week with a District of Columbia jury convicting him on all seven counts. Stevens had been charged with failing to report over $250,000 in gifts and services, much of which was used to renovate his Alaska home. Though he has claimed he is innocent and fully intends to remain a candidate in Tuesday's election, it is likely that Stevens' four-decade career has reached the end of the road. Stevens always has boasted about bringing as much taxpayer pork into his state as he possibly could, and he had the dubious distinction of being the largest purveyor of earmarks of any sitting U.S. senator. He was also the state's most respected politician, and his work over the decades played a major role in turning Alaska from a backwater to a major energy producer and pivotal economic player. Those good deeds, however, will now be forever tainted by his crimes. Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Sarah Palin have all called upon Stevens to step down. Stevens for the moment has chosen otherwise. In fact, he is so sure of his innocence that his attorney Brendan Sullivan wrote a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting a federal investigation into the conduct of the prosecutors in Stevens' case. While Stevens had hoped to wrap up his trial before the election, this investigation could drag out the whole affair for months. The one bright spot for Stevens is that he will be permitted to vote in Alaska, despite now being a convicted felon. What a country. BUSTED:topicnotoc{Congressional campaign watch} Even if one ignores the strategists, the polls, and the polls about polls, 4 November is not looking good for the GOP. Republicans are likely to lose seats in both the House and Senate, with Senate Democrats expecting to boost their majority to 60, the number of seats needed to defeat a Republican filibuster. The GOP is staring down Senate losses around the country, including New Hampshire, Minnesota and Oregon. Democrats are also reportedly favored in Senate races in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado (but then again, if we really believed everything the Leftmedia reported, Obama won the presidential race long ago). However, there is some good news---even if Democrats were to take those six GOP seats, they would still have to pick up three more for a 60-seat majority. With that in mind, we're expecting some heavy Demo artillery to be rolling into the close races here in the South. Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi are in tough fights to keep their seats. Possible GOP House losses could occur in Alaska, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. For undecided voters still not convinced how fiscally irresponsible Democrats are, especially when it comes to seeking more power, roughly $1 million has reportedly been poured into pursuit of a single House Republican seat in Maryland that is up for grabs. We hope that actual voter turnout next week tells a much different story and that we can send the strategists and their Leftmedia accomplices packing. feature{NATIONAL SECURITY} BUSTED:topic{Warfront with Jihadistan: Syrian target} Better late than never... Fully four years after the Iraq-Syria border was identified as the primary conduit for foreign fighters going to Iraq, U.S. forces finally mounted an operation on the Syrian side of the border. Last weekend, a force of two dozen Special Operations troops were flown by helicopter to a location approximately four miles inside Syria to apprehend or kill a leading facilitator of foreign fighters. A U.S. official confirmed that Badran Turki Hishan al-Mazidih, an Iraqi national, was killed during the raid. While we applaud the decision to go into Syria and eliminate al-Mazidih, we wonder why this step was not taken in 2005 or 2006, when the Iraqi insurgency was at its peak and the prospect of al-Qa'ida's success in Iraq was still very real. Syria, of course, trotted out the usual story line: U.S. forces killed a family of four, a guard and a fisherman, not a terrorist and his bodyguards. No one leapt to Syria's defense, although the French expressed "concern" over the raid. As of this writing, the UN has remained silent on the matter, which speaks volumes concerning Syria's place in the world and its very short list of friends. On the other side of the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility, U.S. forces continue to target terrorists inside Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and missiles. Two Taliban leaders were killed this past weekend by a Hellfire missile while they were meeting in the lawless Waziristan area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The use of Predator UAVs and Hellfire missiles has been one of the most innovative success stories of the last five years, reflecting both U.S. technological capability and operational ingenuity. More important, our enemies know that no hut or hovel, however remote, is safe from a precision U.S. strike, and that their own turn could come at any time. BUSTED:pulladv BUSTED:advMilitaryBibles BUSTED:endpulladv BUSTED:topic{Judicial Benchmarks: On enemy combatants} Yet another from the "Keen Sense of the Obvious" Department. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that al-Qa'ida or Taliban members who directly assisted in hostile acts against the United States or its allies can be held without charge as enemy combatants. This ruling specifically pertains to the fate of some of the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Judge Leon noted a 2004 government definition that said an enemy combatant is essentially any individual who is engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or its allies and/or who directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy forces. "Happily, happily, there is a definition that was crafted by the executive and blessed by the Congress," Judge Leon said, no doubt wondering what other definition of "enemy combatant" there could possibly be. Of course, what led to the need for this decision in the first place was the landmark Supreme Court case last summer that granted foreign enemy combatants the right to challenge their detention in federal court. That decision now requires lower courts to define what an "enemy combatant" is and who qualifies, as if more than 230 years of American military and legal history was insufficient. And naturally, given what the American legal system has devolved to, Judge Leon's definition applies only to some two dozen cases under his jurisdiction. Other judges, especially those nominated by leftist presidents, are free to create their own definition of an enemy combatant. Still, this decision is a step in the right direction. BUSTED:topic{Profiles of valor: USMC Capt. Glover} United States Marine Corps Captain Joshua Glover was serving as 81mm Mortar Platoon Commander with Weapons Company and Quick Reaction Force Platoon Commander, 1st Marine Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004---the second of three deployments. On one particular mission, Glover led his platoon to recover classified material from a downed MH-53J Pave Low helicopter. Thirty or 40 insurgents engaged the Marines with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. Minutes into the fight, three insurgents sped away in a pickup truck, and the Marines gave chase but quickly realized they were being led into an ambush. Glover got them to a nearby town, but there too they were attacked. "Glover skillfully maneuvered his force and assaulted through the ambush to friendly lines, inflicting numerous enemy casualties," his citation reads. Later that day, Glover received orders to go behind enemy lines one more time in order to rescue a Marine platoon and recover a destroyed Amphibious Assault Vehicle with the body of a Marine killed in the first attack. A company-sized insurgent force awaited them, but Glover navigated the Marines through their mission, succeeding in both goals. His medal citation states that Glover "repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire as he engaged enemy targets at point-blank range while directing the rifle platoon's relief and coordinating recovery operations." In two successful missions behind enemy lines, one Marine was killed and six wounded. For his courage and leadership under fire, Captain Glover was awarded the Silver Star. feature{BUSINESS & ECONOMY} BUSTED:topic{Regulatory Commissars: Spending $700 billion} The Treasury Department has announced plans to transfer billions of dollars directly into several large regional banks, in addition to $125 billion given to the nine largest American banks, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase. Another $100 billion will now be given to banks such as SunTrust of Atlanta and Capital One of McLean, Virginia. The money comes "with almost no restrictions on how the banks can use the money," according to The Washington Post, but there are still strings attached. The Post reports, "Banks that accept government investments must agree in return to issue the government shares of preferred stock, which pay annual interest of 5 percent, and warrants for shares of common stock, which allow the government to profit as the company's share price rises. Banks also must accept limits on executive compensation and cannot raise dividends without permission." Additionally, the bailout may now extend to large insurance companies such as The Hartford, Prudential and MetLife. And AIG has behaved so responsibly with its $123 billion---with executives taking $400,000 retreats---that the Fed has granted yet another $21 billion to the insurance giant. We're still searching our copy of the Constitution for the power to hand out all this money. In other economic news this week, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.3 percent in the third quarter---again, a number that was better than expected. Naturally, recession fears abound, but we have yet to have two consecutive quarters of GDP decline, which is the definition of a recession. BUSTED:pulladv BUSTED:advTervis BUSTED:endpulladv BUSTED:topicnotoc{This week's 'Alpha Jackass' awards} "If Senator McCain wants a debate about taxes in this campaign, then it is a debate I am happy to have, because if you're a family making less than $250,000 a year, my plan will not raise your taxes." ---Barack Obama in July "If you have a job, pay taxes, and make less than $200,000 a year, you'll get a tax cut." ---Barack Obama changing his tune over the weekend "It should go like it used to. It should go to middle-class people, people making under $150,000 a year." ---Joe Biden this week By February, Obama and Biden might drop the number to include cashiers at Wal-Mart. Furthermore, any tax increases, no matter at what income level, will affect small businesses and that cost will come back around to consumers. In essence, it will be a tax hike on everyone. BUSTED:topic{Income Redistribution: Obama will tax and spend} Those who praise Barack Obama as America's economic savior haven't done their math. According to estimates by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution's Tax Policy Center and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Obama's tax and spending proposals---which include increased spending on more than 175 programs---carry a price tag of at least $4.3 trillion. The best economic minds are unable to explain how he intends to fund this extraordinary increase, and even the Obama camp itself has yet to give details. Of course, massive tax hikes will be required. According to The Wall Street Journal, whereas McCain's plan would keep the tax rates on income, capital gains, dividends and payroll at their current levels, Obama's plan would hike each of these. Even this, however, wouldn't raise nearly enough to foot a $4.3-trillion bill. If Americans making under $250,000---or $150,000, or whatever the number will be next spring---think their wallets are safe under an Obama administration, they had better think again. With the Obamessiah promising salvation from economic trials and tribulation, however, it seems one area of the economy is actually doing just fine: As it turns out, gun sales this year are at historic highs. We'll let readers draw their own conclusions. BUSTED:topicnotoc{This week's 'Braying Jackass' award} "If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I'd be okay. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties---says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn't shifted, and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that." ---Barack Obama advocating socialism in 2001 BUSTED:topicnotoc{ExxonMobil's record profit... or record taxes?} Headlines abounded this week trumpeting that ExxonMobil, that most evil member of the Big Oil coalition, recorded a record profit in the third quarter of $14.8 billion. Left unsaid was how much of Exxon's revenue was confiscated by Big Government. The number will astonish even the hardest socialist---Exxon's third quarter taxes were $11.3 billion. Talk about windfall profits. BUSTED:topic{OPEC scrambles over falling prices} Americans have enjoyed the recent respite at the gas pump, as crude oil prices have dropped by 50 percent over the last four months. While we are far from the halcyon days of 1998 when gas dropped to $0.75 per gallon, $2.30 is much more tolerable than the $4.00 we paid in July. However, this is not happy news for all parties; Hugo Chavez is running out of income to redistribute. In an emergency meeting in Vienna last Friday, OPEC agreed to cut production by five percent to reverse the current price trend. Given the inelasticity of worldwide demand for oil, any interruption in the supply of oil---whether actual or perceived---will cause dramatic increases in the spot price for crude as well as the consumer price for the refined product. One bright spot for consumers is that cutting production to achieve a price point has not been a successful strategy for OPEC in the past, as acknowledged by Chakib Khelil, its president. As the investment bankers like to say, "Past performance is no guarantee of future results" and Mr. Khelil may yet be successful. The eight-fold increase in oil prices since 1998 ($17.00 to 145.50) was driven by demand, not by a curtailment in production. While the United States is experiencing a temporary relief from the burden of higher oil prices, the cost of that relief (reduced economic activity, increased unemployment, tightened credit markets and destabilized housing and 401-K valuations) cannot be supported over the long term. The need to break the grip of OPEC upon the United States' economy is not mitigated by this temporary price reduction. Demand for oil will recover, just as it did over the last 10 years. In the interim, it is up to the electorate to remind Congress that this is a temporary respite, and that now is the time to boost domestic production and increase our refining capacity. feature{CULTURE} BUSTED:topic{The incredible, edible, expensive egg} On Election Day, in addition to voting for the next president, Californians will be voting on rights for farm animals. Proposition 2 requires that "calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens, and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely." This is a first-in-the-nation proposal. Because veal and pork are not major industries in California, the battle over Proposition 2 is focused almost exclusively on the state's henhouses. Opponents say the Proposition would wipe out the California egg farmers and raise food costs for consumers. Proponents reject those arguments, calling the measure an act of kindness for animals. Both sides agree that the ballot issue is the most expensive animal rights campaign ever. The campaign has hit the national stage, with Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to the issue of food-animal care and Proposition 2, and The New York Times editorializing in support of the proposition. If passed, Proposition 2 will likely foster comparable legislative activity in other states. It reminds us of a children's book about a group of cows that steal their farmer's typewriter in order to type him a letter demanding electric blankets because they're cold. Eventually, the farmer caves, so the local ducks follow suit, demanding a diving board for their pond. Once again, life imitates barnyard fiction. BUSTED:pulladv BUSTED:advGuns BUSTED:endpulladv BUSTED:topic{Climate change this week: Snowed} Oddly enough, the British public seems to be more in tune with reality on global warming than their American counterparts. While many, if not most, Americans still consider global warming to be an urgent man-made problem that must be addressed by government intervention---or at least drastic lifestyle changes---a vast majority of Brits no longer think global warming is either man-made or an urgent problem. The British government, of course, is another matter. "In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature," reports The Register, "the Climate Change Bill [under consideration in the House of Commons] pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050." But there was one hiccup as Parliament held hearings on the subject. "Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming [Tuesday]---the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922." We can't figure this out. The Register said nothing of an appearance by Al Gore, so why the snowfall? Perhaps he was traveling in Switzerland, where the largest October snowfall since records began caused massive travel delays. BUSTED:topic{From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File} The Leftmedia can never be accused of fair reporting, and this election has been no exception. We ran across a series of questions for Barack Obama, however, that are such adoring softballs that we had to file them under Non Compos Mentis. Leisa Zigman, a reporter for KSDK-TV in St. Louis, interviewed Obama and asked these questions: 1.) "Your presidential campaign may go down as the most organized in history. Yet the polls remain tight in Missouri. In the last seven days what else can you say to sway undecided and McCain-leaning Missouri voters?" 2.) "Today, Bob Clark, founder of Clayco Construction, sent a letter to his employees. In part it read, 'Sometimes, but rarely, a person appears at the right time and the right place to transform ordinary people into thinkers and doers who can accomplish more than they ever thought they could. That truly is the definition of inspiration. Barack Obama has this quality. I have witnessed it personally many times.' In 2004, Mr. Clark raised thousands for the Bush campaign, but for the past two years, he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for your campaign. Please respond." 3.) "Who has helped your campaign more: Missouri U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill or Oprah?" 4.) "What was it like when you were in St. Louis in front of 100,000 people? What were you thinking as you looked out from the Arch to the Old Court House and beyond?" 5.) "Many people are worried about your safety. What are your thoughts in light of the alleged skinhead plot?" (That's a plot, we might add, that the Secret Service says never actually existed.) BUSTED:href{The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto}{http://online.wsj.com/article/best_of_the_web_today.html} summarized it best: "Sen. Obama, is America worthy of being led by somebody so awesome?" BUSTED:pullinfo BUSTED:infoSupportLevels BUSTED:endpullinfo BUSTED:topicnotoc{And last...} Barack Obama tries so hard to be a man of the people, he really does. The problem is, he's not. And sometimes the act falls apart like it did this week in Virginia. Speaking about Social Security, Obama said, "If Senator McCain is elected, we'll have another president who wants to privatize part of your Social Security. Could you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks, these last two months? You wouldn't need Social Security. You'd be having a [heart attack]." He then tried to connect with the little guy by BUSTED:href{drawing from 70s black comedy television}{http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=e46U6USU2G}: "[L]ike, what was it, 'Sanford and Son.' [grabbing his heart and imitating Redd Foxx's Fred Sanford character] 'I'm coming Weezie!"' Trouble is, Weezie was on "The Jeffersons." Come Tuesday, let's just hope Obama's not "movin' on up." Veritas vos Liberabit---Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families---especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) footer http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-44_Chronicle/index.php Don't miss the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's take on where the election is headed in today's Patriot Chronicle. http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-44_Brief/index.php Read Thomas Sowell and Jonah Goldberg on the Obama campaign's emphasis on race in today's Patriot Brief, plus our other columnists on this week's hottest topics! http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-43_Digest/index.php Read Alexander's essay, "The once-great Democratic Party," on how the Party of Jefferson is now unrecognizable in today's Democrat candidates. Plus Joe Biden's latest loony comments, Iran doesn't make the UN Security Council, the bailout fallout continues and Cindy Sheehan makes the news again---all that and more in today's Patriot Post! http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-43_Chronicle/index.php Don't miss Joe Biden's latest gaffe in today's Patriot Chronicle. http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-43_Brief/index.php Read more about Obama's character in today's Patriot Brief, plus our other columnists on this week's hottest topics! http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/08-42_Digest/index.php Mark Alexander issues a special request in "How many Obama supporters do you know?". Plus the third presidential debate, the next step in the bailout, Connecticut's Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage and a suit against God thrown out of court---all that and more in today's Patriot Post!