THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 2                                       Issue 2                   08/31/02                                                        

A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY DEDICATED  TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM AND THE NEXT GENERATION.                READER DIALOG ENCOURAGED.

Produced occasionally when I decide to do it.

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

Fly over country, where the air is thin and the hunting and fishing are good

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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."               (It's not about hunting ducks)

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Blowing off steam:

I really started to write this letter back in March and then had second thoughts about doing so in the rapidly evolving context of the Israeli situation. Then because of additional concerns I made excuses to myself about waiting until after the fall elections. Now I am beside myself with all the pre-election crap coming from Democrats and their various house organs in the mainstream press and media, and the generic inability of Republicans to make a case, which in any event is frequently indistinguishable from that of the Democrats anyway.  The Republican Party today is in many respects to the left of Harry Truman, which leaves Democrats out swinging on the end of a port side stick.  The country is under the control of left wing crackpots.  There are limits to what I can tolerate.

Ariel Sharon continues to vindicate Israel, except that they remain too kind to the Palestinians. The West Bank and Gaza are conquered territories, not occupied territories.  Resident Palestinians who cannot accept that fact should simply be evicted.  Benjamin Netanyahu has the right idea about these territories and the security issue. There already is a Palestinian state, it is called Jordan.  Every informed person with a stake in this matter knows all of this to be true, and those who pose other "solutions" are either engaging in intellectual fraud for the purpose of eliminating Israel, or self deception for the purpose of soliciting Liberal (Socialist/Statist/European) approval for their own personal reasons.

The U.N. could give every Palestinian 40 acres and a camel, in Jordan.

American Christians and Jews are in a leaky boat together, and why does that matter?  It matters because in the absence of an acceptance of the moral and legal premise of a Judeo-Christian foundation, western civilization, and the American manifestation of it in particular, are toast.  Secularists, including homosexual priests, Libertarian CEO's, commielibs, one worlders, tree huggers, Kyoto worshippers, certain Yale graduates and other assorted human debris of western culture, who constantly attempt to substitute themselves for God, are the corrosion on our heritage.  The American Founding was not secular and cannot function as if it were.  It is from this perspective that one can gauge the definition of real Americans.  Others, posing as Americans, are welcome to go elsewhere.  If you really want to understand the challenge confronting America and Israel, go to www.MEMRI.org.  I would only add, that in my opinion, the Islamic world is also functioning as the stalking horse for China and the rest of the Third World as well, perhaps even including certain domestic residents of our own country.  Sadly, it may take additional 09/11 events for the general American public to actually wake up.

The time is now to come to grips with Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.  Subsequently, Israel will be free to complete the Six Day War.  America needs to pump more of its own oil and purge itself of Liberal/Socialist cultural toxins.  If Congress has a problem now with the authority they gave the President on 09/14/01 then let them cancel that authority.   Then let the do-nothing crowd explain themselves after Saddam strikes first.  But they better hurry because I suspect that the United States will initiate pre-emptive strikes fairly soon.  However the appeasers won't do anything because by their very nature they are incapable of exposing themselves to personal responsibility for anything, and in general are intellectually bankrupt.

Bush Score Card:

            Good Job:

            If I understand correctly your strategy for managing domestic opposition opinion concerning the pending conflict with Saddam Hussein, and I think I do, I have to admit that you are doing a brilliant job.  Who taught you how to fish?   There are members of the mainstream press who absolutely have no clue.

You are gradually refocusing on the right priorities in the Middle East.  Ariel Sharon has been the most consistent and reliable foreign supporter of your original position on dealing with terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalism is our real problem.  I suppose there is some public relations utility in keeping Colin Powell around, but it is counterproductive to let the striped pants bunch from the State Department just run loose.  Actually that whole crowd should be shipped off to Europe where they would fit right in.  Why don't we just close all our embassies except Brussels Belgium and have anyone else who has any business with us just check in with Donald Rumsfeld?

            You finally vetoed a spending bill. Better late than never.

            I think you've handled this corporate scandal business very well.

The Waco "economic summit" was an excellent affair, as have been a number of your recent stopovers around the country.  No play-time with the rich and famous at Martha's Vineyard!

The time is ripe for a continuing offensive on the tax issue. This should be coupled with educating the public about the Laffer curve as the best weapon, coupled with absolute spending reductions, to get the deficit back under control.

Not So Good:

I confess to having serious doubts about your proposal for a new Department of Homeland Security.  My reluctance to sound critical under the immediate circumstances of national security concerns has been a cause for my delaying these letters.  But here I go.

It would appear that there are three reasons for the massive intelligence lapses leading up to the circumstances of 09/11.   In addition to the FBI and the CIA, the entire intelligence gathering and analysis community needs re-examination.

1.) It is clear that there are too many layers of bureaucracy, and critical decision making is done too far up the food chain.

2.) Inter-agency rivalries and attendant communications problems, some perhaps deliberate, have had serious consequences.  We used to call it personal empire building.

3. Congressional meddling, traceable back at least as far as the 1970's and Senator Frank Church, have effectively castrated the American intelligence community and its ability to do the job.   Congressional micro-management has compromised the ability of the agencies to establish, develop and maintain critical sources and relationships with operatives in the field, both foreign and domestic.  Just as journalists need to protect their sources, intelligence operatives need to protect theirs.  Raw data collection, and counter-intelligence operations, is impossible when iron clad guarantees of sanctuary cannot be persuasively made to contacts.   Nobody in his right mind will ever trust a Congressman or Senator to keep his mouth shut when lives are at stake.  Loose lips sink ships.  However a similar problem arises within the agencies themselves as bureaucracies bloat and a top down centralized culture of decision making is imposed.  Then there is the issue of political correctness, and the corporate style of making decisions by committee, which further serves to remove any traceable individual responsibility.  Finally dependence on satellites and the absence of linguistically and culturally competent friendly assets on the ground all added together are a formula for disaster.

I know you know all this.  I would suppose that you also know that there are a lot of people out there who also ought to know, and either don't or who would prefer to place a premium on their own political careers, congressional or bureaucratic.  All this is to attempt to explain my confusion about how you expect to solve these problems with an ever-larger bureaucracy.  I just don't get it.  We need shrinkage, not bloatage, and so it is going with the federalization of airport security too.  The only bright light in all of this is your insistence on a suspension of the traditional civil service rules, at least until you cave in to the Democrats.         But I would have suggested an entirely different approach to the whole matter.  Why not just cut the existing functions back to their bear bones, imposing your own ideas concerning the civil service rules and appoint Paul Wolfallfits the job of firing the first sonofabitch who screws up.  We need performers, not bureaucrats.  I am also concerned about the idea of 250000 federal cops possibly reporting to someone like Hillary O J Billyboy sometime in the future.

Actually, a national concealed carry weapons law would be a lot more cost effective and productive on the domestic side teamed with a stripped down FBI.   The federal government needs to be able to trust its own citizens, which in fact was a fundamental premise at the time of the founding, even within the context of Federalist thought. 

To the extent that there is a problem domestically with compromised loyalties, and I think there is, we need to sort things out.   But the majority of Americans are good people and need to be engaged in the process of homeland defense, not be put under automatic suspicion.  That has to include, on a voluntary basis, the legal ability to possess and deploy firearms as guaranteed individuals under the 2nd Amendment.  This is a founding principle of the Republic.

Terrible, or, even worse

Going into this fall's elections, how come you don't have a plan in front of Congress to accomplish tort reform and castrate the trial lawyers?  We both know that is the first necessary step to reform, among other things, of the medical services delivery sector which is a disaster.  The only way we are ever going to get the costs of medical services under control is to put a noose on the lawyers and to eliminate all the laws and rules that are barriers to a free market relationship between doctors and patients.   We need to get all the politicians, lawyers, accountants, regulators and insurance company clerks out of the discussion and off the cost chain.

Your "solutions" to domestic problems generally are to support further expansions of the federal government into people's lives, which is something we expect of Democrats.  When you Republicans stop playing kiss-ass             with Liberal/Socialists I will resume supporting the party.              My prediction is that this will never happen.  In the meantime I will continue to support qualified candidates.

Wall Street & Main Street:

Perhaps the market is hunting for the bottom, and perhaps not.

Last year a lot of folks got wiped out because as the market fell they got caught short on margin calls.  Currently, while the press won't talk much about it, I suspect we are on a knife-edge balancing act with respect to real estate valuations.  There is a lot of highly leveraged real estate, commercial and personal, the payments for which are dependent upon both jobs and business cash flow, perhaps a bubble waiting to burst.  If the continuing layoffs aren't stabilized pretty soon, then we could see a real crash. 

The immediate antidote for this malady is some serious tax cuts in support of investment at all levels. Eliminate capital gain taxes and the double taxation of corporate earnings now and this economy will rise like a rocket.  Longer range we should examine the premises of fractional reserve banking, the FDIC and the 16th Amendment.  

Which lever are you going to pull this fall?

When you think the time has come to consider rebuilding your investment in equities, and if you are 45 or younger, I would urge you to consider starting with an S & P 500 Index fund, possibly as a Roth IRA, and "dollar average" steady deposits.   Because by the very nature of index funds brokers aren't involved, there is no broker load and the risk is reduced to your own assessment of the broader market.  Historically, over a 15-20 year period, the S & P 500 has done as well, and frequently better, than the brokers.  So why pay for (trust?) the brokers anyway?  You will certainly do better than your "investment" in Social Security.

Throughout the Nineties, I could never understand the constantly inflating equity prices and valuations on tech stocks, and for that matter, the broader market.  The contributions to productivity by tech advances made some sense, but I always figured there was more to it than that.  Now it is all quite clear that the business ethics of an earlier era have given way to unchecked boomer greed and hypocrisy.   Self is God.    And so it is that the Federal Government has become a substitute for Mother.  There is a subtle distinction between self-interest and raw greed that has become lost. How many people today recognize the fact that if the deal between you and your supplier, or your customer, is not mutually recognized as good for both of you, that it's a bad deal?  The problem here is not capitalism as Liberal/Socialists would have it.  The problem is the secular destruction of morality, and I predict that the destruction which has already occurred to the nuclear family will prove to be fatal to this Republic.  My parents (a man and a woman) taught me the difference between right and wrong.  Today mothers kill their babies, born and un-born, and sometimes even consider excuses to do so.  It is only under such conditions that there can even be a debate about the morality of writing off the costs of stock options while at the same time not straightforwardly reporting the effect on profits. This is not capitalism, but moral fraud.  That this is legal, and cute, and defended as a matter of course, makes my point.  If company's want to do well by their employees, they can write bigger paychecks, not engage in the mutual self deception of stock options designed to distort corporate health.  Stock options have provided corporate managers with a priority incentive to creatively puff the company stock values for personal gain as opposed to executing the fiduciary responsibilities traditionally associated with their positions, the opposite of the originally advertised intention.  This fiasco got touched off by O J Billyboy and congressional Democrats capping tax deductibility on executive compensation in 1993, i.e. backdoor price fixing designed to promote "fairness". 

The truth of the honest relationship between employers and employees occurs at lay-off time when both are forced to acknowledge that it is a week-to-week affair.  That is simply the reality of the relationship.   However the problem with the AA (Arthur Anderson) culture is only a reflection of the larger public culture, and the secular dominance of public life by the political left with their grip on the levers of government and their actual belief that they think that they know what they're doing.  Some years ago the Dutch had a similar problem with Tulips.

If you are one of those who are unable, or unwilling, to understand this [point], then you need to take a good long hard look at yourself in the mirror.  Remember that in the end we will all check in with the Big Auditor in the sky.

Meanwhile, the real problem with the Market is the bloated valuations that accumulated throughout the nineties.  I am all in favor of putting corporate crooks in jail, but my real concern is with individual investors, and voters.  One theoretically can fix ignorance, but one cannot fix stupid.

In my opinion, one major factor in the tech market meltdown is that technical ability and capacity ran way ahead of the market's need to employ it.  The ability to process a jillion gigs of data in .0000000 nanoseconds for 5 cents does not necessarily mean there is a meaningful market for this wondrous accomplishment.  At least today.  A recovery of the tech sector must, I believe, reconcile this fact of their own success.

Meanwhile, on Main Street, I think congratulations are in order to Hewlett-Packard under the leadership of that very gutsy CEO Carly Fiorina.  She never blinked throughout the bitter battle over the purchase of Compaq Computer and now the results of the post merger first quarter say her team is successfully executing the combination.  I should take this opportunity to reveal that a new HP/Compaq system is currently on order equipped with Windows XP on which to create and produce the Mountain Observer, an upgrade from my "old" Win 95.  New opportunities present themselves.

Ad Nausium:

Since the previous letter we have suffered "Election Reform", exactly as I feared last year after the Florida Fiasco.  Congress passes legislation inserting the Federal government into the State and local mechanics of election administration, another hit on the Tenth Amendment.  A new Federal bureaucracy is created and a new stream of money (control) emanates from the center.  None of this fixes the real problem: dense voters, or those posing as dense voters (professional "victims"), or corpses and family pets posing as voters, or the willful exclusion of military votes.  I've looked at the Florida "butterfly" ballot at the heart of the discussion and I fail to see what the "problem" with it was.  There is also the issue of State Supreme Court justices who cannot, or will not, uphold their own state laws.  It all dribbles back to the voters themselves.  Perhaps what is really needed is a return to voter literacy laws, in English.

There is little to be done about corporate crooks except to pursue prosecution under existing law for fraud and corruption.  However in the current frenzy by politicians to cover their butts, and probably do more damage than good in the long run, one item that I like a lot is the new requirement for CEO's and CFO's to annually sign a certification of their books.  If they are doing their jobs properly, this should not be difficult and should redirect their focus back to their fiduciary responsibilities.  One can be sure that a Bush Administration, with John Ashcroft in charge of Justice, will be far less tolerant of lawbreakers than any Administration under the Democrats.  O J Billyboy, with the complicity of Janet Reno, spent 8 years trying to keep his friends, and himself, out of jail.  Conservatives will do the opposite.

One of the worst kept dirty little secrets of Wall Street is that a concise definition of "insider trading" does not exist, so that prosecutions of this nature tend to be political.  But there is such a thing as illegal "insider trading", in its gross manifestation, which in the current array of investigations is likely to be evident.   However, with all of the Wall Street and corporate executive moral and legal lapses, the truth of the matter is that government malfeasance is infinitely worse, from the tax system to social security to the latest farm bill ad nausium.    That the public tolerates government legal, intellectual and moral corruption as it does speaks to the success of the Left from the 1930's on of demonizing the private sector and deifying Big Government.

Watch Democrat Robert Torricelli win again in New Jersey this fall.  Watch Grayout Davis continue as Governor of California.   Meanwhile notice that it is only the State of California that seems to have had a serious problem with Enron, and that that great pillar of virtue Democrat Joseph Lieberman refuses any interest in talking to Democrat Robert Rubin, certainly not before the elections this Fall.  The jails aren't big enough, but we could build "stocks" in the town square.  Meanwhile, the markets remain open, as they should be, to the next generation of hedonistic hot dogs who refuse to believe that the laws of market gravity apply to them.  And so it goes.

Notice that the lefties who will automatically "have a cow" about individual rights to keep and bear arms under the 2nd Amendment are generally the same folks who find a right to defend subversive speech and activity under the 1st Amendment.  The Founders envisioned the 1st Amendment as protecting political speech and protecting freedom of religion by barring the establishment of an official national religion on the model of the Church of England, or the Atheism of Karl Marx.    And so it was that freedom of religion was protected and political speech and the right to assemble was protected.   This is a long distance from the "right" to hang the Christian Cross in urine or to "guarantee" a "Constitutional" defense of those who openly advocate the overthrow of the United States.  Free speech is protected, subversion is not.  Jefferson advocated occasionally overthrowing governments, not the country. The mindset of Liberals/Socialists is betrayed by their equating the government with the country.  Furthermore, remember that it was the Union that attacked the Confederacy at Fort Sumter.

History will record that the Cold War against the Soviet Union was accomplished by the leadership of three individuals:

Ronald Reagan, Lady Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II

Will events combine in such a way as to tag Senator Robert Byrd as the Neville Chamberlain of this decade?

I am overwhelmed with admiration for Pat Tillman, ex-Arizona Cardinals safety and U.S. Army Ranger in the making. With more people like Pat, maybe we can turn this country around.   God bless Pat Tillman, and a few others like him. 

History will record the passing of Great Britain with the passing of the "Queen Mum".  We have witnessed the passing of their golden age.

True Conservatives believe the Constitution means exactly what it says, and said, in the context of 1789.

Liberals subscribe to the notion of a "living constitution", which is to say the Constitution means whatever the current nine members of the Supreme Court and the New York Times want it to mean.  My friends, that is not a Constitution, that is the willful destruction of the Republic.

Rather than re-build and re-place the United Nations headquarters in New York for 1.5 billion dollars (guess who will get the bill) as is currently being pushed by the "leadership" of that august gang, we should tell them to get out of Dodge.  No constructive purpose is being served by their continued residence on our soil.   It would make more sense for the United Nations to re-locate to Brussels Belgium.  It would be more appropriate to move it to Johannesburg.

Major league baseball has dodged a bullet and failed to solve their problem.  Watch fan attendance continue to slide

The corporate scandals make my point that there are a lot of people running around calling themselves "conservatives" who are, in fact, libertarians first.  I have tried to make the point for years that the conservative (and Republican) tendency to let libertarians run with the ball on economic issues is erroneous and counter-productive.  There is a necessary values issue.

This fall you will no doubt hear people state that they "vote for the best candidate, not the party".  This high sounding moral tone in fact reflects an intellectual copout and political ignorance, and also identifies the speaker as a liar.  Informed voting is about supporting or defeating ideas and substance, not who sounds cute and subcontracting your brain.  The only way to select the "best candidate" is to understand the substance of what he supports, which in politics is frequently something other than what he says.  That's life in the real world, and it requires real effort on your part, something other than just soaking up the popular culture on television or from USA Today. 

There is a wildly popular myth abroad in the land that "united we stand".  We are not united; there is a major split down the middle, left and right, Statism and Big Government vs. American individual responsibility and freedom.  Go figure it out for yourself.  If you can't follow this discussion, please don't vote.  You need to shut up and listen.

It has been interesting to get acquainted with Condoleezza Rice.  I wonder if it is entirely coincidental that the young woman with a hardscrabble Mississippi beginning, and who has had to scramble hard, appears to be more hawkish in her advice to the President, as compared to Colin Powell, a relatively privileged product of New Jersey.  Perhaps Condoleezza is better connected with the realities of human nature?

Perhaps a new question should be added as the final question on MBA certification examinations.  "Do you understand the difference between right and wrong, and if so, how so?"  Thusly structured, an essay answer would be required, necessitating the applicant to think.  Tests corrected by Mother Teresa.

Most older citizens will remember Mark Twain and the story about the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  A frog jumping contest has been sponsored by the County for years.  You guessed it.  It is now under attack by Peta.

From what I understand, California Governor Grayout Davis is about to sign legislation that will have the effect of enabling resident Siberian Americans (Indians to you Democrats) the authority to veto any new development in the state.  The Republic continues to unravel.

Prediction

We are close to war in the Middle East and the near term price of oil will be the joker in the deck for the economy.  This could be the combination that touches off the problem with real estate that I referred to above.  However, I emphasize the "could be".  As a matter of national security we have no choice but to re-arrange the Middle East.  Exactly how that goes will determine the rest of the story. 

Heartland rebellion update:

Out west we have been through hell this year with wildfires. I am sick and tired of environmentalist wacko know-it-alls, instructing those who actually know, about the proper methods of forest management.  Yes large trees, taking into consideration other on-site issues, sometimes should be cut down.  Good lumber should not be wasted.   Trees have a life cycle, and if they are not cut they will just grow old and die, perhaps diseased, and become fuel for the next fire.   What a waste.   Yes, trees left alone do die, not to be confused with God.  The motives of professional tree huggers are political control, not forest management.  They should take their plastic trash bags elsewhere.  I love the woods and trees, and the right to cut trees down.  One of the personal skills I developed years ago, and about which I am very proud, is the ability to cut down a tree and have it fall exactly where I want it to go.  Thank you Dad.  God bless loggers.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATION:

1.) ON TWO WINGS: HUMBLE FAITH AND COMMON SENSE AT THE AMERICAN FOUNDING             MICHAEL NOVAK

            ENCOUNTER                            235 PGS                       $23.95

2.) UNCIVIL WARS: THE CONTROVERSY OVER REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY                                              DAVID HOROWITZ

            ENCOUNTER BOOKS                120 PGS                       $21.95

3.) THE SKEPTICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST: MEASURING THE REAL STATE OF THE WORLD             BJORN LOMBORG

            CAMBRIDGE UNIV. PRESS       496 PGS                       $27.95

.           God Bless America

JIM

            JIM SOHMER      AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

            JEFFERSON, CO 80456

                                                   IN GOD WE TRUST