WhatFinger


Doug Patton

(Editor’s note: Doug Patton passed away on February 27, 2014. He will be greatly missed.) RIP Doug Patton – beloved husband, father and columnist Doug Patton was s a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor to conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations.

Most Recent Articles by Doug Patton:

Petraeus’ Testimony Will Make Little Difference

The fall of retired Army General David Petraeus is a story as old as the Garden of Eden. Sin has consequences. It does not undo a lifetime of service, nor does it negate every good deed ever performed, but it leaves a mark, a scar, like nails driven into a fine table top. The nails can be removed, just as transgressions can be forgiven, but the scars will remain.
- Thursday, November 15, 2012

John Galt Calling: Had Enough?

“They believe in free stuff. We believe in free people.” - U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, 2012 vice presidential nominee
- Thursday, November 8, 2012

Meanwhile, Back in Benghazi…

The national media must be breathing a collective sigh of relief at having Hurricane Sandy come along to help them avoid covering Benghazigate, the biggest scandal of the most corrupt presidential administration in the last one hundred years — perhaps in American history.
- Friday, November 2, 2012

Campaign Commercials Romney Should Run

Because he is now the only person standing between the American people and four more disastrous years of you-know-who, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is unquestionably my pick for President of the United States. However, like millions of other American conservatives, my first, second or third choices during the Republican presidential primary season were, in fact, someone else — and the last couple of weeks have reminded me why that was the case.
- Monday, July 9, 2012

Roberts Rules, now it’s the People’s Turn

Even as more qualified legal scholars than I could ever hope to be analyze the ramifications of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ convoluted ruling on the so-called Affordable Care Act (more appropriately dubbed “Obamacare”), a new sport has arisen among pundits, talking heads, court watchers and other members of the chattering classes — a game of attempting to determine Roberts’ motive for upholding the president’s signature legislative achievement.
- Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Obama Team’s Leaks Are, Indeed, ‘Offensive’

The spectacle of the elite media — CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times, etc. — hiding their collective eyes to the increasingly outrageous scandals coming out of the Obama administration, must remind Vladimir Putin of the good old days when he was a KGB thug and his fellow Russians got their information from a small handful sources such as the official Soviet newspaper, Pravda (Russian for "Truth").
- Monday, June 18, 2012

Government Does Very Few Things Well

It is almost axiomatic that if something can be done efficiently by the private sector, local government will try to restrict it, tax it, regulate it or take it over. If local government somehow manages to do something well, state officials will do their best to make sure responsibility for that thing is transferred to them. And if, by some miracle, state government is in charge of a thing that is functioning properly and economically, you can rest assured the feds will conclude that, against all logic and historical evidence, they are the entity that can best serve the public in that area.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Liberals Are Waging the Real War on Women

I’m trying to figure out how to explain to my grandchildren that they are growing up in a society, mostly of my own generation’s making, which has put its stamp of approval on some of the vilest practices ever known to civilized man.
- Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Memorial Day 2012 Was a Solemn Occasion

On Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend, my family and I gather at a small rural cemetery on a windswept hillside, surrounded by rich Iowa farmland, as the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars honors the men buried there who served in all of America's wars, from the War of 1812 to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
- Tuesday, May 29, 2012

For the Left, Their Ends Always Justify Their Means

In the 1984 U. S. Senate race in Iowa, incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Jepsen was facing his first re-election bid. His General Election opponent was a congressman named Tom Harkin, one of the most underhanded Democrats ever to lie through his teeth in the pursuit of higher office.
- Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Weapons of Mass Distraction: Barack Obama Has No Clothes

Each week, the Obama administration (which has become indistinguishable from the Obama campaign) becomes more reminiscent of the old children’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” with the national media elites playing the members of the king’s fawning court, pretending that the president is not naked, that he is, in fact, resplendent in the best finery, and that his ever more absurd pronouncements are somehow credible. The latest issue is same-sex marriage.
- Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Entitlement Mentality on Display in Nebraska

Gretna, Nebraska — A revealing scene in the Depression-era film “Cinderella Man” presents a very different worldview from the entitlement mentality of today. Heavyweight fighter Jim Braddock is so embarrassed about having to take help from the government in order to feed his family that when he subsequently earns the money, his first inclination is go to the agency dispensing “relief” and pay back every cent he received. Can you imagine that happening today?
- Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Soros or ALEC: Whom Would the Founders Support?

Who would the Founding Fathers have trusted with the future of the nation they created, George Soros or ALEC? And just who (or what), you may be asking yourself, is ALEC? Well, I’m glad you asked. And don’t feel ill informed, because until a few months ago, ALEC was not on my radar screen, either.
- Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Dems’ War on Motherhood a Surefire Loser

Rush Limbaugh made one provocative remark about a woman whom Nancy Pelosi had used as a prop to spread propaganda in favor of "free" contraceptives, and the press immediately lapped up the DNC line that the conservative talk show host’s comments somehow reflected the view of the entire Republican Party. This, along with Catholic clerics attempting to defend the First Amendment, was supposedly the opening salvo of a "war on women."
- Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Now More Than Ever, We Need the Fair Tax

It's that time of year again. Dig out those receipts showing every possible legal deduction. Find all those canceled checks proving that you paid all those doctor bills last year.
- Monday, April 9, 2012

Pandering to the Ignorant

Omaha, Nebraska — Every election year, politicians and the media decry the low voter participation in our elections. Indeed, it is a pathetic record, with any turnout greater than 50 percent generally considered high. However, contrary to popular opinion, not everyone should vote. In fact, most people should not vote.
- Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Obama Just Can’t Resist Injecting Race into Any Situation

“If I had son, he'd look like Trayvon.” — Barack Obama, When members of the New Black Panther Party stood menacingly with night sticks, intimidating white voters at polling places in Philadelphia, Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, turned a blind eye. Nothing to see; nothing to investigate.
- Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Obama’s Policies Returning America to Slavery

Longtime readers of my columns know that my favorite movie is “Braveheart,” Mel Gibson’s 1995 tale of Scottish leader William Wallace. One of my favorite lines from that film is Wallace’s rebellious reply to a statement uttered by the English princess regarding compromise with a tyrant — in this case Edward Longshanks, the ruthless King of England.
- Tuesday, March 20, 2012

When Common Sense Becomes Controversial

Someone asked me at church last Sunday whom my "dream ticket" for president and vice president would include. (Yes, believe it or not, Americans can and do discuss politics at church — and it’s actually legal!) My answer was immediate: "Rick Santorum and Marco Rubio." Think of it. Pennsylvania and Florida. The Rust Belt meets the Sun Belt. A second generation Italian-American and a first generation Cuban-American. And both of them committed conservatives.
- Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Just a Taste of a Second Obama Term

First, he came for the General Motors bondholders, but the religious leaders were not GM bondholders, so they did not speak up. Then he came for the oil companies, but they were not oil company executives, and again they did not speak up. Next, he came for control of the nation’s health care system, and again they saw no threat — in fact, many of them supported his plan.
- Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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