Sunday Food For Thought:

LEFT-WING BUTT KISSERS: “Liberals underestimate what can be accomplished by courage and resolve because they do not possess these qualities. Liberalism is a can’t cant. Every task is too difficult. Every danger too great. Liberals don’t oppose dictators until they’re deposed by the likes of Reagan and Bush. While tyrants are in power, liberals lips are firmly glued to their backsides.” - Columnist Jack Kelly

DEMOCRACY DOMINOES KEEP FALLING: “Could it be, after all, that President Bush is going to succeed in doing what no other president, including Dick Nixon and Ronald Reagan, to say nothing (which is about all there is that’s worth saying) of Bill Clinton, which is to bring peace and some sort of democracy to the nations of the Middle East? . . . Of course, the Middle East being the Middle East everything could blow up overnight. But I doubt that it will. Sometimes there is no turning back the clock. One wonders if Osama bin Laden would have run those planes into the World Trade Center if he could have foreseen the long term and totally unintended consequences of the attack.” - Lyn Nofziger’s “Musings,” 3/3/05

SMELLS LIKE...VICTORY: “The Democratic dominoes clearly are beginning to fall when Jon Stewart, the host of ‘The Daily Show,’ says, ‘I haven't seen results like this ever in [the Middle East].’ As anyone who watches the Comedy Central ‘news’ show knows, Mr. Stewart isn't a serious political pundit, but he is unabashedly liberal both on and off air. And since he commands a fairly large audience of mostly younger adults, he is perhaps as much an indicator of the liberal mindset as the New York Times.

“...Mr. Stewart is indeed ‘smelling something.’ He's smelling the birth of democracy in the Middle East. Regrettably, too many Democrats refuse to stop and smell the sweet scent of freedom.” - Washington Times editorial, 3/3/05

UNDER SIEGE: “The southern border is literally under siege, and there is a real possibility that terrorists -- particularly al Qaeda forces -- could exploit this series of holes in our law-enforcement system along the southern border." - Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas Democrat

SLEEPER ISSUE OF THE YEAR: “Runaway illegal immigration is the sleeper issue of this year, and years to come, but the Bush administration seems oddly out to a late lunch. . . . (President Bush’s) proposed amnesty for illegals already here -- carefully and stubbornly not called an amnesty -- was dead on arrival when he presented it nearly a year ago. But, like Count Dracula, amnesty won't stay dead.”- Wes Pruden, Pruden On Politics, 3/4/05

SOUND ADVICE...BUT IS GOP LISTENING?: “The U.S. economy is growing at a ‘reasonably good pace,’ Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday, but he warned dangerous budget deficits must be fixed, preferably through spending cuts.” - Reuters, 3/2/05

TRAIN WRECK: “Right after the November 1994 election, I wrote that ‘the way to tell how serious Republicans are about cutting federal spending is to watch...the Big Four programs: farm subsidies, Amtrak, public television, and arts funding.’ The four are big, not in dollars, but in symbolic value: ‘It's impossible for a party that professes to believe in limited government to justify the use of taxpayer dollars for any of the Big Four, yet each has a powerful constituency.’ A decade later, the record is not encouraging.

“...I'm as sentimental about trains as the next guy, but Amtrak is tiny and creaky. While management crows about a ridership record, Amtrak carried just 24 million people nationwide--fewer than boarded planes at the Seattle airport alone. California is the No. 1 Amtrak state, with 4 million riders--compared with 87 million air passengers. The irony is that, while the United States preaches free-market economics, it runs a retrograde socialist-style rail system while the rest of the world--Argentina, Poland, South Korea, Germany are just a few of the nations--is privatizing.

“...It’s time for “Amtrak’s subsidies to end.” - James Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute

HUG A GANG MEMBER: “First Lady Laura Bush is leading a new initiative ‘to help America's youth overcome the danger of gang influence and involvement.’ With all due respect, this is a job best left to law enforcement professionals willing to get tough, get dirty and crack heads. From the suburbs to our national forests, savage criminal alien gangs infiltrate America and lure young recruits. Compassionate conservatism ain't gonna stop them.” - Columnist Michelle Malkin

PROMOTING RELIGION WITH TAX DOLLARS: “(President) Bush's justification for Faith-Based Initiatives reveals their actual purpose: ‘Welfare policy,’ he explains, ‘will not solve the deepest problems of the spirit. … No government policy can put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is done when someone, some good soul, puts an arm around a neighbor and says, 'God loves you, and I love you, and you can count on us both.' ’

“In other words, the government is bankrolling religious organizations because they ‘help the needy’ not only materially but also spiritually--by exposing them to religion. Thus, we can expect that Bush's taxpayer-funded ‘armies of compassion’ will not only supervise Midnight Basketball games for ‘at risk youth,’ but also exhort the youngsters to save their souls by adopting the teachings of Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, or (depending on the government's commitment to ‘inclusiveness’) David Koresh.” - Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute

PUSHIN’ THE ENVELOPE: “Chuck: The post office has been forcing both new and old housing developments to switch to Neighborhood Box Units (NBUs) for years. Meanwhile, UPS, FedEx, and DHL trucks make their way down the streets, the rural driveways, and get out to come to our door and leave the packages, with a smile and courtesy. The USPS is nothing more than a bloated, inefficient, and outdated monopoly that makes money for a few government contractors, a lot of union employees, and lords it over the rest. It is time to put it in the history books…” - News & Views reader Nathan

GOIN’ POSTAL: “If USPS were a competitive company -- as opposed to a bloated federal bureaucracy -- stamp prices would be falling, not rising. It's time to privatize this $69 billion government behemoth. Breaking up the USPS monopoly and selling the organization to investors would go a long way toward lowering costs and improving service.” - Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute [EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan’s entire column has now been posted on our postal reform website. Catch it at: www.postalreform.com]

The above from Chuck Muth's News and Views an email I subscribe to. Find more at Citizen Outreach.