THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 1                               Issue 1                                                   01/20/01

 A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY.              READER DIALOG ENCOURAGED.                                       

Produced occasionally when I'm good and ready, but probably at least 10 times a year.

 J.E. Sohmer P O Box 129,  Jefferson, CO 80456

                          Where the air is thin and the hunting and fishing are good

            ***********************************************************************************

SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES:  "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

            ***********************************************************************************

INAUGURATION COMMENTS

            God bless this day.   "OJ" Billy Boy is OUT.

Downside: Aside from the character issue, in terms of policy don't expect much fundamental change except for a tax cut and restructuring national defense. Consider anything beyond that a bonus.

The first order of business is to flush and scrub the White House.  Lots of hot water and Clorox.

My fellow Conservatives:

Many of us are concerned that "W" may be more Republican than Conservative, Connecticut than Texas.  The challenge before us is to come to the defense of this Administration, as appropriate, against the left while at the same time documenting unambiguous constructive critique as necessary.  Now is the time to be direct and clear. Our most effective weapon will always be the truth.

My concern about "W" is his effort to engage in coalition politics with the left (consorting with the enemy).  While this strategy may very well be initially productive, I     predict the evolution of a "Tar Baby" scenario.  It is not possible, ultimately, to separate the true thuggish criminal behavior of the far-left opposition from their internationalist anti-American orientation.  There is no such thing as a "nice" Statist.  There is always a "check valve" (ask your plumber) built into political compromises with the left. Every deal that is cut is an incremental leftward shift, a fundamental dynamic that has worked against Conservatives for decades. This is the fundamental flaw with the generic "Northeastern (coastal) Republican" nice guy, e.g. Rick Lazio.  There is a new generation of hardnosed thinking that is rising in the American Heartland that simply will not allow the country to be stolen by international anti-American forces. This thrust is what I call American Nationalist Conservative, not a game and not to be confused with "Neo-Cons" who, however effectively they contributed to the end of the cold war also tended to be compromised by big government and internationalist thinking. This is real, and the power brokers on the East Coast need to understand this.  The explosion of this new partisanship is not coincidental with the end of the Cold War but a consequence of it. The big media mantra about "bi-partisanship" is wishful thinking, and only people on the left promote that silly notion.  Most American Nationalist Conservatives voted for "W" to get rid of "OJ" Billy Boy and without allusions about Bush himself.   Now the debate among Conservatives can be focused on policy and substance.  So it remains to be seen which side of this fence "W" will really come down on.

Secondly, and in a somewhat related way, is the failure to address head-on the core issues of Federalism specifically, for example, in the matter of education. I cannot support any formulation that draws the Federal level further into the business. We don't need any more B.F. Skinner stuff.  I contend that everything possible needs to be done to get the Federal level entirely out of what ought to be a strictly State and local matter.  Aside from the Constitutional issue, there is not a shred of evidence that all the Federal spending and involvement since Sputnik in 1957 has produced a constructive result. Quite the contrary, and we don't need more of the same Federal meddling.  Nothing better illustrates the division between American Nationalist Conservatives and Republicans, or what could be described as Trent Lott/Hastertism.  I want some hard line Conservatives and a lot of broken china.

Of greatest concern is the razor thin margin of victory.  This needs to further energize us.  In a healthy America  Al Gor(bachev) and the Democratic Politburo should never have received more than 5% of the vote, at least from legal citizens without criminal records who were alive and only voted once. Now is not the time to go to sleep with this infection loose in the land.  

Hopefully in an early issue of this letter I will have some breakdown data to put this all in perspective.  Preliminary indications tend to re-enforce the theory of a growing major civil division.

MYTH BUSTING WISDOM                                          

The future lays with the "NEW ECONOMY" not the "OLD ECONOMY".  B. S.  There is only one economy, and the rules have not changed and never will.  This economy runs on oil, not the internet, and will continue to do so until people rediscover horses (which they might).

Currently the smart money is selling into sucker rallies.   Market conditions could return to positive on fundamentals depending on the degree of success of certain Bush Administration initiatives. I question whether the Liberal majority in Congress understands the discussion, on second thought perhaps it's better that they don't. 

How is it that a so-called free market capitalist economy is so in need of the wisdom of one man for guidance on interest rates?  Answer:  It isn't. The real problem here is the myth that monetary policy can be used exclusively to compensate for the absence of fiscal policy and responsibility.  Consequently the country has been run by the Federal Reserve and the Federal Courts, not the President and Congress. Continued uncorrected this is a formula guaranteed to eventually produce twin disasters, one economic and one legal/Constitutional.  Interest rates should be determined by the market. The price fixing of money, and it has been going on for a long time, eventually will destroy the system.  The Charter of the Federal Reserve needs to be reviewed, the Congress needs lots of discipline, the Treasury Department needs to wake up and newly minted MBA's need to scrub floors as a start.

On corporations and the alleged need to fix some problems with more legislation.  Corporations are sending jobs and investment overseas because they are taxed and regulated to death.  They take up social "do-gooder" projects because they are harassed by Liberal trial lawyers and Statist (Liberal) politicians.   They insert themselves into the political process with their campaign contributions in an attempt to fend off the political wolves.  Campaign "reform", capping payments or forbidding "soft" money at the expense of the First Amendment, is the functional equivalent of shooting the messenger, not to mention the Constitution.  This is where John McCain is wrong. Real campaign reform can only be accomplished with the abolition of the income tax and a massive Federal Government.  In the meantime require full disclosure and take off all the domestic caps. One needs to distinguish between symptoms and the real problems, such as am out-of-control LIBERAL PRESS.  It would also help to send all the Liberal trial lawyers to France, where the guillotine was invented, and they hate Americans anyway.

            Capitalist entrepreneurs are just run out of business.

I nominate "OJ" Billy Boy, well known national shake down artist, as spiritual advisor to the "Reverend" Jesse Jackson, well known national shake down artist.

There is a fundamental difference between corporate business organization (privatized socialism) and entrepreneurial capitalism. The original purpose of the corporation was to provide a mechanism for raising large amounts of capital and pooling risk. Over the course of the 20th Century there has been a tendency for Statist political vultures to latch on to these private power centers, primarily through the tax system and political regulation, to advance Statist political purposes. Thus, for example, the absurdity of a phone company promoting gun control, etc., etc.  It works because most people refuse to plant their own gardens. More time should be spent on the study of fascist economics, and we will in future editions of this newsletter.  Now Hillary is running around loose with nothing better to do than to re-invent Evita.  Her time would be better spent teaching "OJ" Billy Boy how to bake cookies.

Many people haven't the slightest clue about the function of prices in a free market economy, or how prices are determined.  Little do most people understand that, in the end, they pay for everything.  Business passes on the costs of taxes and regulation, one way or another.  Government soaks up a large percentage of the tax dollar to support "free" services.  All costs, including progressive taxes on the "rich", sooner or later are paid by the consumer, and all prices reflect relative scarcity, including brains.

I am absolutely amused by the power shortage "crisis" in California, and I have zero sympathy for this left coast circus.  If you de-regulate at the wholesale level and fail to do so at the retail level while at the same time you prevent addition to capacity as the demand doubles, trouble will sooner or later ensue. To make it even worse the utilities are forced by law to buy, at daily spot prices, a product that requires heavy capital investment and long term resource planning to produce. This is nuts and nobody smarter than a frog is going risk expanded investment on those terms.  Again, I am referring to power producers, not the utilities.  THINK LONG TERM CONTRACTS. Thus in California we see another example of failed top down SOVIET CENTRAL PLANNING.   Only LIBERAL STATISTS (who are frequently less smart than frogs) could suggest that the "fix" is for the State to further take over the system.  De-regulation didn't fail; it didn't go far enough.  The real circus will begin this summer when the air conditioning clicks on.

Clue: Let a private utility build a power plant, and charge the consumers as much as possible.  Keep the government off its back.  The west is full of coal, gas and uranium.  Deal with it, and let the environmental extremists eat chad.  When supply meets demand, the prices will settle down without any political "help", especially if 2 or more utilities build 2 or more new plants.  Works every time.  In the short run the west is also full of firewood, and we could all use more exercise.  Quit whining and buy your own generator. What a bargain. The taxpayers will be stuck with the bill for this failed Soviet style farce until free markets are allowed to supply real correction.

Lesson: Politicians cannot "drop prices".   Only physical capacity to generate relative to demand can "drop prices".  Political price regulation of any kind only masks the truth and defers the day of reckoning, as the land of fruits and nuts is now in the process of discovering. For the consumer, the only utility regulation that is appropriate should be restricted to the mechanics of consumer market access.  Let the politicians and lawyers muck out goat pens.

As this is written, we are in the midst of an old fashioned cold winter, except there is not enough snow yet. I am waiting for a Liberal to endorse global warming.   We need to support a return to genuine science.  Turn a Liberal loose with a computer and a government grant and anything is possible, except good science.  The real danger is that they take themselves seriously.

We have certainly drifted afar since the days when recognition of 3/5ths of a person was widely recognized as a stunning reform.  Freedom, however, seems to be a tough concept to grasp.  In the year 2000, apparently 90% of this crowd still prefers the plantation.  At this point the only rational response is benign neglect.  Liberals should end the pandering and be ashamed, but then they would no longer be "Masta".

It is critical to understand the fundamental importance to modern Liberals and Libertarians of the need to see atheism prevail as a general worldview. The Judeo-Christian concept gets in the way of the hedonistic notion that "I" am the most important thing that there is and the center of the Universe.  God is a nuisance and should go sit in the corner.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATION:

1.) THE CHINA THREAT: HOW THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC TARGETS AMERICA

            BILL GERTZ

            REGNERY PUBLISHING            280 PGS           $27.95

2.) THE TEN THINGS YOU CAN'T SAY IN AMERICA

            LARRY ELDER

            ST. MARTIN'S PRESS              354 PGS           $23.95

3.) BLACK & RIGHT: THE BOLD NEW VOICE OF BLACK CONSERVATIVES IN AMERICA

            STAN FARYNA, BRAD STETSON, JOSEPH CONTI, ED

            PRAEGER                                 193 PGS           XXX

 God Bless America

                        JIM     

 JIM SOHMER

            AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

            JEFFERSON, CO 80456