THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 2                                       Issue 3                                                         09/30/02                                            

 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:

It is instructive to recognize that on December 8, 1941, the lines in front of recruiting stations were very long, the public with rare exception was prepared to accept severe rationing as a patriotic duty and Republicans stood "four square" behind a Democratic President with whom they otherwise had enormous differences including the subsequently documented Communist affiliations of several in his Administration.  Compare that to today, a year after a direct attack on American civilians resulting in a higher casualty toll.  The mainstream Liberal press, along with many in the academic and theological "communities", work overtime to press blame on Americans, especially evil white straight Christian guys, past and present.  Democrats seem to be working overtime to avoid supporting our Republican President.  Much of the public, if the Democrat "leadership" is to be believed, is more interested in free prescriptions and guaranteed annual incomes than preparing for the sacrifices that inevitably lie ahead.  A premium seems to be placed on the approval of the United Nations and the "international community", not what is the correct course of action in terms of American national interest and security.  Democrat Foreign Policy Advisor Barbara Trysand and Domestic Policy Advisor Rob (Meathead) Whiner instruct Tom Dashabout (Sen. United Nations) and Al Gorbachev (Lobbyist Germany) on how best to defeat the Evil Right Wing Conservatives.  Meanwhile, after bailing out Europe 3 times over the course of the last century, and providing the military and political muscle to re-unify Germany, German voters and their government are comparing our president to Adolph Hitler with the apparent endorsement of Al Gorbachev and many Democrats.  Not encouraging. God help America.

In the context of all of this, I am compelled to explain my absolute anger and personal outrage, and the driving passion behind The Mountain Observer in the first place.  I was born in February of 1940, in this country, by American born parents who knew and spoke English.   My father's ethnic background was German, but he has 110% American.  He was determined to leave no one confused, including his son, about his genuine patriotism and love for his country.  As a toddler I was drilled on real American values.  Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.   Coming in on a wing and a prayer. The impressions, at that early age, of my ethnic forbearers inflicting themselves on the world and a helpless Jewish minority forged a personal outlook on life that drives me to this day, and I was raised as a Christian to appreciate the link.  And so it is with utter outrage that I witness today the behavior of a Germany that was purged of Nazism and rescued from Communism by America.  Never again.  To hell with the United Nations. To hell with Europe, and Germany in particular.  And to hell with Democrats who are working overtime to politicize an attempt by our President to do his first Constitutional duty which is to defend this country and its national security interests.  There are words in the Constitution about "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" and I would ask you as to who among us is getting close to that line?  And if you are persuaded by Democrats that the biggest problem this country has today is the economy, then my advice to you is to go get a job and quit your bitching.   God bless America and God bless George W. Bush.  It is time for Democrats, individually, to either sign up or sign off.

Since the end of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, there has been a strategic policy discussion going on about the proper American role in the world subsequent to that conflict.  Central to the discussion is the issue of the appropriateness of America's role as a "world policeman".  It has occurred to me recently that this question is somewhat out of focus, and I need to attempt to deal with it here.

As an American Nationalist Conservative, I am adamantly against the notion of an American role as a subcontracted world policeman to the "international community".  What I am for is the unapologetic application of American power internationally as is minimally necessary to defend our national interests and ourselves.   Indeed, it is the One Worlder Liberal/Socialist Left that is attempting to co-opt American power for the purpose of serving their internationalist agenda.  So it was that O J Billyboy did not hesitate to deploy our forces on a wide range of "nation building" meals-on-wheels international adventures that frequently had little to do with the issue of American national security.  His primary criteria for these deployments were more generally the pursuit of international acceptance of applause for himself, his domestic and international socialist agenda and distraction from unseemly activities in the oval office.  The Haitian fiasco, the misadventures in Bosnia, the bombing of an aspirin factory in the Sudan, ad nausium, while failing to confront a legitimate and growing terrorist threat, illustrate my point.

Much of the current domestic and international criticism being directed at the Bush Administration arises from the re-direction of American foreign policy away from subcontracting ourselves to the whims of the One Worlders back to the traditional focus and priority of American national security, including pre-emptive action if necessary.  For this major shift in direction, our President is to be praised, although he hasn't quite caught on yet with respect to immigration and the requirements of the actual physical defense of our borders.  So it is that rolling over to the United Nations types and the European Union to serve as their World Policeman is not consistent with the defense of our National Sovereignty, which is to say ourselves, our nation and our way of life.  Real Americans, especially in the Heartland, understand exactly what I am saying.   We propose that other peoples and nations look out for themselves, and upon that framework international peace, trade and co-operation is more likely to succeed on a bi-lateral basis. Our own international affairs should be carefully calibrated to our own security concerns, narrowly defined. Our policies need to be re-examined with the objective of gradually peeling away inherited involvements accumulated over the years that are inconsistent with our current security needs, including our dependence on foreign oil.  Meanwhile, pacifists will never be satisfied with the pubic evidence against Iraq and they will continue to dismiss the unreleased evidence as a right wing plot. These are the same folks who choose not to recognize that the disclosure of certain information can compromise sources.  However the real purposes of the left-wing pacifists is the subversion of conservative ideals, and the real America, not the "evidence".

Corrections:      

I finished up the last letter late at night and I was tired, but that is no excuse.

-My real whopper was to reverse the matter of whom fired first at Fort Sumter.  Of course I know better.  However, the point I intended to make about the War of Northern Aggression still stands.

-Condoleezza Rice got her start in Birmingham, Alabama, not Mississippi.

-I gave the President credit for vetoing a bill he had only threatened to veto at the time of publication.  I was referring to the Homeland Defense legislation and the tussle between the Administration and Senate Democrats over civil service rules and the President's ability to discipline poor performance in the new agency.

Bush Score Card:

            Good Job:

            On 09/12 you went to the United Nations, not to seek their approval or engage in debate, but to explain to them the facts of life and the way things are going to be.

Our people, with the determined assistance of friendly Pakistani police, captured Bin al-Shibh, a big fish Yemeni in the War on Terrorism.   Hillary O J Billyboy loses constituents as 5 registered Yemeni Democrats are arrested in Lackawanna, NY, for apparent ties to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, according to The Buffalo News.  So much for "diversity" and multicultural slobber.  My point in previous letters concerning these issues of domestic loyalties has been well made.

Well you finally did it! You sprung the trap on the Democrats in the Senate and called Tom Dashabout on his obstructionist "leadership".  Yes, Tom, in the war on terrorism, whose side are you on?  Whine on and continue to make an absolute fool of yourself and your party you sniveling little twit.  Under the Constitution you are free to make yourself out to be as big a jerk as you wish, but not at the price of national security, and not by hiding behind Democrats who have served honorably in the armed forces.

Not So Good:

You keep letting your judicial nominations go south without a fight.

Why are there any negotiations going on at all with the European Union with respect to the International Criminal Court?   The Constitution and sovereignty of the United States are not negotiable.  We should be telling them all to go straight to hell.

How come 19 months after you took office we are still tolerating actual armed incursions, both civilian and military, of our southern border in Arizona and New Mexico with Mexico?  Why aren't we building some big steel and electric fences and allowing border ranchers to shoot back?  How much of this crap are we supposed to take? What price does this country have to pay for your buddy buddy kiss-ass with Vicente Fox, and how many south Texas farmers have to go under because Mexico is stealing water that rightfully belongs to our farmers?

Terrible, or, even worse

            Where are the new tax reform proposals? 

How come that useless Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neal, is still on the payroll?

Wall Street & Main Street:

One should remember that in the short term the fastest and cheapest way for a company to raise productivity numbers is to lay off its workforce.  Discussion of productivity number increases under the current economic conditions should recognize this fact.

Don' be surprised if the Dow slides to about 3600 before it gets realigned properly with actual valuations.

The necessary discipline of bankruptcy to the health of a free market economy has been no where better illustrated than with the ongoing fiasco in Japan.  One can only hope that their turmoil eventually does only minimum damage to ourselves.  The next time you hear a politician suggest a government bailout of a failing corporation, get the guy out of office quick. That Chrysler deal back in the '70's set a terrible precedent.  It is just as bad with the airlines, and the insurance industry, today, 09/11 notwithstanding.  There is nothing in the Constitution conferring a right to fly much less exposing taxpayers to the liability of supporting union confiscation of above market compensation.  Managements unable to manage themselves or their own workforces should not be allowed to become another taxpayer liability.  Failure to get this under control is to grease the skids of fascist economics.

For you day-trader hot dogs I hear on the news today (09/25) that the Dow is headed back up on the strength of a report that Ford will be increasing production again soon due to increased sales, which is good news, at least, for the employees.  What you dunderheads can't seem to understand is that Ford is giving the product away to get the sales up.  When are you going to understand the function of profits?  I expect the Dow will be down tomorrow.  (It did- 09/28).

After the fact discussions about what the Federal Reserve System might have done differently during the '90's to "deflate the bubble" before it became dangerous is, I believe, wrongly focused on interest rates.  There were monetary measures that could have been exercised.  While I agree that there is a great danger with the Fed improperly tinkering with the market, I do not think it is wrong to consider the adoption of certain guidelines for the future, for certain Fed actions.  I do not agree with certain Libertarian commentators that it is simply the duty of the Fed to just stand by and watch the house burn down.  What I think needs to be considered, for example, is some kind of structured monitoring and review of cash reserve criteria for banks and margin requirements for mutual funds.  There are various yardsticks that measure market behavior by which, from experience, the Fed should be able to differentiate between the prevalence of healthy market trades on the one hand and casino gambling behavior on the other. I know this potentially opens up a can of worms, but even the NHL has rules and officials on the ice.  What is clear is that interest rate manipulation is like the tail wagging the dog.  Interest rates should be left to the free market.

Of course the problem with this whole line of thinking is that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between the interests of private bankers and the public interest (and federal constitutional responsibility) of maintaining and defending a stable currency.  The dilemma is in the relationship between private bankers (Federal Reserve) and politicians (U S Treasury).  I really do not pretend to have the right answers, but I do know that in my lifetime the value of the dollar has evaporated.  We are all slaves to the IRS, the Federal Reserve and the Court system.  Private property rights have been virtually destroyed and the relationship between honest work and wealth creation is a joke.  If I ever got a chance to run the country the American Trial Lawyers Assoc. and the IRS would be in a lot of trouble.

People continue to bellyache about the loss of "wealth" in the stock market.  They don't seem to understand that it never was real in the first place, by definition, in an oversold bubble market.  Educated investing sorts that fluff out.  Nothing beats education and acceptance of personal responsibility.  Sue your broker if you feel you must, but remember that you picked him in the first place and chose to subcontract your brain to a stranger.  .

I understand that the Japanese motorist is now paying about $3.00 a gallon for gasoline, and consequently the Japanese Government is supporting an aggressive R & D effort to develop alternative fuels.  Sounds like Jimmy Carter.  Aside from the Government vs. private enterprise issue, let them spend their money while we sit back and watch.  I am reminded how in the '70's IBM sat back and watched Burroughs Corp. shoulder the R & D burden in the computer industry at that time, and eventually co-opted much of Burroughs really good effort. 

Burroughs, of course, disappeared into Honeywell, which has pretty much disappeared itself.  The American free market sorted that one out.  The Japanese Statist system will crash and burn, as did Jimmy Carter's experiment in Statist Socialism.

Ad Nausium:

Charlton Heston, who we missed our chance to draft as President of the United States, has announced that he has some unfortunate health symptoms.  My prayers are with him.

The growing public emergence of black conservatives belies the premise of white liberals (massas) that black Americans are incapable on their own of removing themselves from the plantation of dependency on Liberal programs and legal shields.   Black American conservative men today are among the bravest of the brave.

I love medium rare steak, baked potatoes, buttered corn on the cob, cold beer, good looking women and an occasional cigar.  Real Americans are welcome to stop by anytime they come through Jefferson.  The big American flag says "I'm home".

If you are confused about how a state like South Dakota could produce a Marxist Senator like Tom Dashabout, consider the history of Prairie Populism.  Prairie farmers in the 1870's and '80's got caught in a market squeeze by their own increased productivity coupled with the new "extra" expenses of grain elevators, railroad distribution costs and an increased dependence on banks for operating credit, over which they had little control, to compete in the new world of national competition.  It was from this political incubator that Prairie Populism and the Grainger movement was born.  Over a century later, Tom Dashabout is a living breathing philosophical child of the Grainger movement, the homegrown version of collectivist "agrarian reform".  This illustrates the depth to which political dysfunction can become embedded.

With respect to the War on Terrorism, and the clear need to examine in every detail the multiple issues of homeland security, I think we are facing a dilemma of serious proportions.  Clearly there is a new urgency for various federal agencies and police functions to get on with their assigned tasks within our borders.  They could start by waking up and going to work in the morning.  The centerpiece of the President's response to this problem is his proposal before Congress for a Homeland Security Agency, details of which are widely published.  While under the immediate pressures of the present security threats to the country I see no practical immediate options, I do have serious concerns about the longer-range implications.  The central problem here is that those who wish America ill are already inside the gate, both foreign and domestic.  The problem is how to sort out and isolate these folks without damaging the fundamental principles of the Constitution.  I think the process starts with an understanding of the ancient American debate over strict construction of original intent vs. the view of a "living constitution" subject to constant political activist revision.

It is this extremely divergent approach that most fundamentally divides Conservatives from Liberals today.

Heartland rebellion update:

Watch the election results.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATION:

1.) SLANDER: LIBERAL LIES ABOUT THE AMERICAN RIGHT

            ANN COULTER            

            CROWN                                    XXX                             XXX

2.) SACRED SECRETS: HOW SOVIET INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS CHANGED AMERICAN HISTORY                        JERROLD % LEONA SCHECTER

            BRASSEY'S                              402 PGS                       $26.95

3.) .SUPREME COMMAND: SOLDIERS, STATESMEN AND LEADERSHIP IN WARTIME                      

            ELIOT A. COHEN

            FREE PRESS                            272 PGS                       $25.00

God Bless America

JIM

            JIM SOHMER    jes@outdrs.net

            AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

            JEFFERSON, CO 80456

                                                IN GOD WE TRUST