THE FOUNDATION: NATIONAL DEFENSE

“The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.” —Alexander Hamilton

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“This time it was John F. Kennedy International Airport. Nothing new about big-city airports—seven years ago, Los Angeles International Airport was targeted. Nothing new about New York City, either. The World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, and finally destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. The United Nations complex, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the FBI’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal—they’ve all been on the hit list. Big Western cities, in fact, are the hit list. New York, L.A., Chicago, Washington, London, Paris, Madrid... on it goes. And, of course, there is nothing new about the culprit. The story is always the same: radical Islamic terror. The storyline is the same, too. But an element of Western opinion always wants to obscure it, turning a blind eye to the ideology of hate that motivates these would-be murderers. The root-causes crowd has little interest in that root cause. No, it must be poverty (even when the terrorists turn out to be comfortable, well-educated, and fully employed); or the Palestinian issue (even though organizations like al Qaeda have barely mentioned the Israeli Palestinian dispute, and some terror targets, like Bali, had no rational connection to it); or, it goes without saying, George W. Bush and ‘his’ war in Iraq (no matter how many attacks occurred before his presidency). ... But even if the grand design was beyond the cell’s competence, an attempt could well have killed hundreds of people. As with the recent thwarting of a jihadist plot on Fort Dix, this intended atrocity appears to have been prevented by the cooperation of federal and local law enforcement, who managed to infiltrate the conspiracy with an informant—proving, yet again, that if we are to stop terror attacks rather than react to them, there is no substitute for human intelligence. The deepest lesson here, though, is that we are at war with an enemy that hates us, that will stop at nothing—even death—to harm us, and that we must understand in order to defeat. That is the first step in the real battle of ideas.” —National Review

UPRIGHT

“You know that minor deal about catching those guys who wanted to blow up JFK Airport? The New York Times decided it was not worthy of front page coverage in its Sunday editions. Nor the second page, nor the third. The NY Times, in what can only be described as editorializing by placement, put it on page THIRTY, the page after the obituaries and the page before the chess column.” —Rich Galen

“When Democrats say they will bring the troops home, what they are really saying is that they will bring the war home.” —Alan Keyes

“Beware legislative behemoths. Beware ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’ Any bill that is 380 pages long is bound to have nooks and crannies reflecting private deals, quiet paybacks and ad hoc arrangements that you often don’t learn about until it’s too late.” —Charles Krauthammer ++ “How many of the 12-20 million illegal aliens will decide it’s better to keep the status quo than go through the hassles of getting a Z Visa? It will likely be millions.” —Bobby Eberle

“[P]references vividly demonstrate liberalism’s core conviction that government’s duty is not to allow social change but to drive change in the direction the government chooses. Conservatism argues that the essence of constitutional government involves constraining the state in order to allow society ample scope to spontaneously take unplanned paths.” —George Will

“It’s like the American people are waiting for [the GOP]. They’re waiting for us to remember why we’re doing what we’re doing, about the ideas that inspired us, to remember who the leaders were that inspired us.” —Fred Thompson

DEZINFORMATSIA

Conspiracy theories: “The so-called [JFK airport] plot happens to be revealed the day before the second Democratic presidential debate [and was announced] by the police chief of New York City, the father of a correspondent for Fox News Channel...[I]t underscores the need for questions to be asked, and asked continually in this country, questions about what is prudence and what is just fearmongering.” —so-called journalist for MSNBC Keith Olbermann ++ Indignant: “It has been nearly six years since 9/11. Since that time, we have not suffered any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Just yesterday, the FBI arrested three men for a terror plot at JFK Airport. Could it be that the Bush administration’s effort to thwart terror at home has been a success?” —CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

From the “See B.S. ” Department: “U.S. military officers tell CBS News the troop surge, which has now reached full strength, stands no chance of succeeding by September.” —CBS reporter David Martin

Propagandum Magnum: “Socialized medicine is a right-wing scare trope. None of the Democrats is proposing that. None of them is even proposing a ‘single-payer’ plan, like Canada, where the government collects the premiums and people get to choose private providers. And now that we’re at a point where much of corporate America is hoping for some relief from the burden of providing health insurance, ain’t this kind of red-baiting getting a little old?” —Time magazine’s Joe Klein ++ “A recent ABC News poll showed that 80 percent of Democrats and, get this, two thirds of independent voters, that’s a critical voting block, think universal [healthcare] coverage is more important than keeping taxes down. It’s the issue of the day for Democrats.” —Good Morning America’s Claire Shipman

Newspulper Headlines: Breaking News From 1861: “Bull Run Faces Test” —CNNMoney.com ++ Breaking News From 1898: “US and Spain Clash Over Cuba” —Financial Times ++ Breaking News From 1963: “Informant Plays Key Role in JFK Plot” —Associated Press

‘How He Got Into My Underwear I’ll Never Know’: “Man Wrestles Leopard in His Underwear” —Arutz Sheva (Israel)

Help Wanted: “Police Looking for Bogus ‘Faith Healer”’ —San Francisco Chronicle

Adding Insult to Injury: “Death Camps May Charge Entrance Fee” —Jerusalem Post

Et Leest She Cud Spele ‘Potatoe’: “Clinton Girl Eliminated at National [Spelling] Bee” —Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) ++ “New Jobs for Tommorrow” —Hillary Clinton campaign slogan (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

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