Doug Patton

Congress Has Become an Institution of the Useless

President John Adams once said, "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace, two are a law firm, and three or more become a Congress." With the approval rating of the current congressional gaggle hovering somewhere in the single digits, one has to ask: Can't we do better than this for $174,000 a year and the best benefits package in America?

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Obama-Reid-Pelosi-Care is now the law of the land. Most people hate it. Clearly Americans are frightened and angry about this socialist nightmare Congress and the president have forced upon the nation in the name of “health care reform.” All Congressional Republicans voted against it. Unlike any other entitlement ever passed by the United States Congress, it is entirely partisan. Barack Obama and the Democrats own it.

Leadership for a New Generation

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend out sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” — Ronald Reagan

The Corrosive Effects of Illegal Immigration

Most Americans realize that our federal government’s deliberate refusal to control the influx of illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico, has had a deleterious effect on our nation’s economy. Scores of California hospitals have had to close their doors because of a tsunami of illegals seeking “free” health care — and receiving it.

Buying Insurance in Fantasyland

“We agree philosophically that we want to end the prohibition on preexisting conditions.” - President Barack Obama, White House Health Care Summit, February 25, 2010 Which of the following scenarios seems the most ludicrous?

Bold Colors or Pale Pastels

“Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pastels, but bold colors, which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?” - Ronald Reagan Speech to CPAC, March 1, 1975

FDR, BHO and the Audacity of Arrogance

Barack Obama loves to be compared to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Abraham Lincoln he definitely is not, but the FDR analogy is apt. In her superb book about the Great Depression, “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Schlaes describes the almost schizophrenic way in which our 32nd president governed the nation for the first eight of his twelve long years in office.

‘Choice’ Means Allowing Women to Make a Different One

University of Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother are about to learn the same lesson Todd and Sarah Palin and their family learned during the 2008 campaign. That lesson is that you had better not bring your pro-life message into the public square — especially if you have lived it. That, of course, is what pro-abortion advocates fear most. Anyone willing to make the sacrifice to give life to someone society would just as soon discard threatens the order of things for them.

Obama Thinks He’s President of the World

Care to know why a community organizer posing as a president is so dangerous to the future of the Republic? Simply contrast the demeanor of Barack Obama when the subject is national security with his behavior when he speaks of tinkering with our domestic life or of coming to the aid of the victims of the recent catastrophe in Haiti.

Being a Democrat Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry…and Mean It

George W. Bush was said to be a walking gaffe machine. Late night comedians had eight years of fertile ground for material about the former president’s fumbling vocabulary. Indeed, books, calendars and other materials were published touting “Bushisms.” But if loose lips sink ships, Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could take down a carrier division. Like Biden, Reid has a penchant for uttering inanities and not even realizing how stupid he sounds.

2010, Our Most Dangerous Year Ever

Official and unofficial calls for the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, following the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner, miss the point. Napolitano is merely a symptom of a far greater problem.

Ben Nelson Makes Us Ashamed to be Nebraskans

Political humorist P.J. O’Rourke wrote a book about Congress entitled “Parliament of #.” As one of U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson’s constituents, I think his actions regarding the so-called health care reform bill make O’Rourke’s title an insult to prostitutes everywhere.

Christmas, A Time For Real Hope

There will be plenty of time in the New Year to discuss health care, global warming, the development of nuclear weapons by our enemies, and so many other topics concerning the fight for freedom in 21st Century America. With so many people disillusioned with the “hope and change” proffered recently as a substitute for true faith, this might be the best of times to examine the only true hope of humanity.

If Truman Had Taken WWII as Seriously as BHO Takes War on Terror

Imagine for a moment President Harry Truman addressing cadets at West Point on his strategy for finishing World War II:

Are These the Actions of a President Who Loves His Country?

I have grown weary of pretending that Barack Obama has anything but disdain for the United States of America. So let us ask the question on all of our minds: Are the actions of this president those of a man committed to what is best for his country?

Give Me Character Over IQ Any Day

Oftentimes, I draw political lessons from one of my favorite movies, Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart.” In one particularly poignant scene, the protagonist, Scottish hero William Wallace, is exhausted from fighting the forces of England’s brutal monarch, Edward the Longshanks, which continue to occupy and oppress Scotland. Wallace has distinguished himself time and again on the battlefield as fearless, honorable and zealous for the cause of freedom, and he is ready to deploy with his men for another attack, this time against the northern English city of York. He is talking to the Scottish nobles, who are trying to convince him to compromise with their enemy.

The Rise of the Conservative Woman

One of the most annoying things about liberals is their insistence that only they can define a “real” minority or a “real” woman. In the eyes of the left, Clarence Thomas, Ken Blackwell and J.C. Watts will never be “real” black men. Likewise, Michelle Bachmann, the smiling firebrand conservative congresswoman from Minnesota, and Sarah Palin, the popular former governor of Alaska, will never be “real” women.

It’s the Same War, Mr. President!

The first words out of a person’s mouth, especially in a stressful or crisis situation, are often quite telling. Barack Obama, America’s first openly Marxist president, is no exception. Even though his handlers had plenty of time to craft a message about the terrorist shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, this president’s first reaction was to describe what he sees as the distinction between the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and this latest terrorist attack inside our borders.

Are You Ready for a Political Earthquake?

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” – Mark 8:36 (KJV)

Scratch Another GOP Candidate off the List for 2012

Newt Gingrich has often shown himself to be one of the great political and social visionaries of our time. A historian with a PhD and the ability to author a couple of books a year (he’s written nineteen so far), the former Speaker of the House was first elected to Congress in 1978, in the middle of the hapless Jimmy Carter administration and from Carter’s home state of Georgia. It was an indication of things to come.