THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 3                                       Issue 9                                               11/28/03

A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY DEDICATED TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, THE NEXT GENERATION, AND THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE.  READER DIALOG ENCOURAGED.

Unafraid to say what others only dare think.  If you commie/Libs have a problem with George W, Bush, I’ll drive you absolutely crazy.             Produced occasionally when I decide to do it.                                                                             J. E. Sohmer, P. O. Box 129, Jefferson, CO 80456

Flyover country, 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."                             (It's not about hunting ducks.)

www.operationac.com                                    IF U REALLY WANT TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS, CHECK THIS OUT

www.republicanmarket.com               2004 campaign gears up

www.re-electbush.com                                    2004 campaign gears up

www.saudiacademy.net                                  Saudi Arabian education in America

www.alsaha.com                                             Saudi Wahhabi                       

www.worldnetdaily.com                                 Credentialed by Congress in September 2002

www.iraqwatch.org                             WMD search, etc.        

“Moderates” are Liberals in slow motion.            ---Unknown.          

Blowing off steam:

The pressures of the War on Terror on our defense organizations, our intelligence organizations, and the Foreign Service are highlighting long standing political cracks within and among these organizations, as well as the cracks of longstanding, and perhaps deliberate neglect and starvation.  None of this surprises those of us who have followed the fortunes of these functions, closely, for a number of years.  The Commander-in Chief cannot do his job properly, defending our shores and the American people from attacks upon us, without a comprehensive correction of most of these problems, which will require the diligent involvement of Congress, and the support, and a greater understanding, of and by the American people.  To fully sort out our priorities, the American people must ultimately choose between a country as envisioned by our forefathers, or a mirror image of modern Europe.  Are we Men or mice?   Meanwhile, I would recall the advice that Margaret Thatcher gave the elder President Bush at a time of great stress, also involving Iraq; “George, don’t go wobbly”.   As for the rest of us Right thinking Americans, irrespective of differences on ways and means, we need to stand behind this President, who is a good man, because what is at stake is the very survival of this Republic.  The recent memos that document politicization of intelligence issues by Senate Democrats, apparently more interested in re-achieving political power than the security of the country, is regarded by the Mountain Observer as evidence of actionable treachery.   The Mountain Observer anticipates that Republicans do not have the guts to react as they should.  Meanwhile, fundamental to public confusion over Iraq is that today’s J-school grads think their job consists of running press releases from the fax machine directly to the presses.  Many do not know how to investigate, double check sources or engage in critical thought.  In Iraq they are afraid of getting shot.  Bill Mauldin they aren’t.   

Many Americans alive today do not understand that during WWII men were drafted into service “for the duration”, and there were few complaints.   Republicans did not beat on FDR to declare a time-line, or complain about the costs, there were 44 months during which over 300 Americans died in combat per day, and nobody ever forgot about Pearl Harbor.  Are Americans today really going to respond positively to Democrat calls to cut and run in Iraq?  Democrats choose not to remember what their own illustrious leader, OJ Billyboy, had to say about all this in 1998.  It was one of the few times he was actually right about something, but then he failed to act, too distracted, apparently, by Monica, or fundamentally gutless.   We are at a crossroads.

Contrary to the wishful thinking of creeping conventional wisdom, the country continues to be at a growing risk of further significant terrorist attacks.   They will happen, and when they do, there will be those who will blame George W. Bush (in or out of office) in particular, and patriotic Conservatives more generally, for the fact.   The general thrust of this “thinking” will be that the War against Terror is all wrong, and that foreign hatred of America is fully justified; that all of this is really America’s fault in the first place, yaddah yaddah yaddah.   What will be missing will be an understanding of moral leadership in the face of evil, and that the “exit strategy” is victory, which will be self apparent when it happens.   Liberal white hot hatred today of George W. Bush is fueled by an increasingly successful Conservative challenge of the Liberal project of re-making America into the House of Secular Rationalism where individuals are reduced to the lowest common denominator as measured  by outcome based EQUALITY, and God is replaced by the STATE, preferably HILLARY.  Everything about this Liberal project defies the laws of nature and common sense, and is laughable, except that it invites the visitation of terrorism upon us.  Failed ideologues abroad, and domestic subversives within, cannot tolerate the unique American premise of individual freedom, and respect for innocent life, under God.  Under fire, real Americans have a responsibility to act.

In spite of the best efforts of Democrats to convince the country of the similarities between our situation in Iraq and our experience in Vietnam, there are vast differences.  One such difference is the leadership style of George W. Bush as opposed to that of Lyndon Johnson.  Johnson was a bit of a control freak who courted “yes” men.  George W. Bush determines broad policy and has faith in the ability of his commanders to execute the details, which breeds respect and support.

Democrats continue to mis-represent the facts as reported by David Kay in the September Interim Report of the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) on the subject of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction).  The next report update is due after the first of the year.  There is too much detail to get into it here, but of 130 known ammo depots, up to 50 square miles each, only 10 have been examined.   The only reasonable conclusion is that the Democrats cannot be entrusted with responsibility for national security.  Meanwhile, an in depth Gallup poll in Iraq shows 67% of Iraqis believe they will be better off in 5 years than they were before the war.

We are wrong to continue to stand in the way of the removal of Yasser Arafat, permanently, and in public.  This would be the fastest and most cost effective way of clarifying the right message to terrorists and terrorist states.   Our own State Department can go straight to hell, and so can the United Nation.  While Yasser Arafat is no longer welcome in the Oval Office as he once was under a certain President from Arkansas, his time, shall we say, has come.

If I understand correctly what has actually been said, then I do not share the President’s Wilsonian vision of an American Mission to spread democracy around the world.    I believe the intent of such a vision is better and more effectively served by the example of ourselves being the best that we can be.  The Wilsonian vision led to the logic of the League of Nations, and the United Nations.  The War on Terrorism is properly an issue of national security.  While I understand the argument, though not necessarily agree with it, that democracy is consistent with maintaining security, I do not think democracy can be successfully force fed.   Even today, in this country, too many do not understand that the only way democracy can work is in the context of a republican format, and that’s an issue that is still an open issue, even in the United States.    The reason I am a nationalist is that I believe the cultural base of a successful nation state is the practical limit of a democratically enabled republican government.   It’s the tribal thing in human nature that the left wing progressive vision cannot wash away.  The Wilsonian internationalist vision is wishful thinking.  Just as good fences make good neighbors, so do gunboats.

Bush Score Card:

            Excellent:

With your encouragement and support, Congress put on your desk legislation banning infanticide, aka partial birth abortion.  On November 5^th you signed it, perhaps the most important signature you will ever make.   Thank you.  Now it will be necessary to put the Courts in their place.

Congratulations on the 8.2% annual rate for the 3^rd quarter GNP.   The tax cut strategy is taking hold as we knew it would.  I anticipate healthy holiday retail spending, but anticipate that some business spending, and hiring, may be deferred into next year’s first quarter to help the profit numbers for the end of this year.  In any event, you are going into 2004 looking good on the economy.

Your move to fix the time line on Iraqi responsibility for themselves was the absolutely correct move at the right time to motivate all the right people in the right direction.   I have understood the need to allow time for a natural sorting out of assets and liabilities, but the time had come to preempt the accumulation of the comfort of dependency.  That is leadership.   The obvious qualification is that we keep our troops there, under your command, as long as is necessary to secure the result, and as long as they are welcome.  We cannot change Iraq.   Our actions in Iraq can, and I believe will, enable the Iraqi people to change themselves.   The chipmunks in the peanut gallery simply need to be ignored.  What we do need to do is find Saddam Hussein, and kill him.  That is the greatest gift we could give the Iraqi people, and civilization.

Your directness in London was excellent.   Texas, and America, at its best.  No quibble. 

Your surprise visit to the troops in Baghdad on Thanksgiving was magnificent.

Not So Good:                       

On the matter of insurgency in Iraq, perhaps what has been missing from your otherwise well qualified staff of security advisors are a couple of old squirrel hunters.  Andrew Jackson never would have missed anticipating the completely obvious strategy of melting into the woods and hollers when faced with superior conventional firepower.  Saddam’s forces did exactly that, and hoodwinked our intelligence people into false notions of friendly surrender, bait and switch.  Is there anyone in charge who knows how to skin a rabbit?  Of course, and of course we can overcome this problem, because we have to, but a review of the mistakes made by General Custer might be worthwhile.  Meanwhile, let’s get off this kick about getting help from the UN and redouble our focus on helping friendly Iraqis develop the capacity to recover their own country.  They are motivated.  I know you are working on that, and meeting with some success, but please get off the UN kick.  You also need to get all those Democrat weenies out of the CIA, starting at the top.  George Tenet can go give advice to Wesley Clark.

Terrible--or even worse:

When are we going to stop the social spending?   You consider this new Medicare legislation a victory.  In the tactical sense that is arguable, but in the strategic sense it is a disaster.  I will get into this in depth in the next letter.  

With respect to the ultimate resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians it seems to me that an attempt to erect a co-equal Palestinian state on the west bank smacks a bit of the failed policy of détente against the old Soviet Union.  What is the point of conceding legal authority and moral legitimacy when, in fact, none exists?  To mis-represent, mis-lead and over-promise is, by itself, an avenue of questionable ultimate wisdom.  In our own country we have a system of Indian reservations so managed as to make my point.  In the Middle East, we have a territorial muddle largely the consequence of decades of British and French squabbling over the bones of previous empires, which is to say, roving bands of Bedouins who are wherever they happen to be.  The reality of the situation is that a resolution of these matters can only be realized by letting the parties directly involved settle their differences by force of arms.  Peace follows victory.  The Soviet Union no longer exists because Ronald Reagan forced their hand with a military buildup they could not match.  Israel can force sobriety on Palestinian “nationalists” by causing them to recognize that their best interests are east of the Jordan River.  In that context, the issue of Jerusalem can be reasonably accommodated for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and peaceful Palestinians, whom, I’m sure, will be welcome residents in a peaceful and secure Israel.   Sir, your well intended “roadmap” is a dead initiative, as it ought to be. 

It’s your business who you give awards to, but Ted Kennedy?  I do not understand.

Wall Street & Main Street:

The 8.2% annual rate (re-stated) for the 3^rd quarter GNP is huge, and it comes off a healthy 3.3% for the 2^nd quarter.  The tax cut strategy, together with low rates, thanks to the Fed, clearly is giving us lift.  Tuck up the landing gear and the flaps, we’re underway.   Job numbers are already improving dramatically, and consumer confidence is up

Perhaps there should be a law that requires a warning label to be affixed to everything Larry Kudlow says.  It is not that he is necessarily wrong with some of his projections, but that he is dangerous, largely through the sin of omission.  It seems that he is again at it, stating that the market is undersold and projecting a Dow of over 16000 soon.  He was making similar statements in 1998-1999.  One should understand that Larry, although he calls himself a Conservative, is, in fact, a Libertarian and a supply sider.  It is necessary to understand this to understand the premises from which he speaks.  As a real Conservative, I too subscribe to supply side theory, but recognize the need to understand the assumptions and qualify the application.  The basic assumption is that, given the existing tax system, if you cut taxes up to a certain point, you will enhance a climate of increased total tax revenue (The Laffer curve).  That this works is beyond doubt.  Coupled with this is the distinction between static analysis and dynamic analysis in understanding the consequences of changes in tax policy.  The government for years has always proceeded on the basis of static analysis, a product of Democrat investment in

the political need for high taxes.   Supply siders, such as myself, and Larry, prefer a dynamic analysis which recognizes that in the real world, when tax policy changes people react with changed decision making, all of which impacts the revenue stream.  (A far greater discussion of this matter, and the impact on private investment decisions, is in order at another time.)  So far Larry and I are on the same page, so what is the problem?  Without saying so, Larry carries the dynamic analysis logic over into personal investment decision making in the private sector, certainly by implication.  It is one thing, at a macro level, to employ dynamic analysis to think through government tax policy, or to study a general effect on the private sector.  It is an entirely separate matter to encourage Suzie Pickles or Joe Workman to make personal investment decisions without some qualification.  Presumably, the intention is to encourage investment with an eye on the long haul, and to stay married.  There is, in fact, a broad universe of private sector risk factors, poorly analyzed, in my opinion, even by “experts”, and I think my point was proven by the most recent market collapse.  The fact of the matter is that Larry’s analysis that the market is “currently undersold” assumes a growth in profits over a certain period of time that may or may not happen.  The fact of the matter is that according to time tested fundamental analysis the market is currently still oversold.  I am not making a prediction on how this will all work out over the next ten years, except that I would defer to the experience of the last 100 years.  If I had lots of money to lose, I would probably deploy a little of it on the basis of Larry’s assumptions.  However, if you are a young couple, anticipating a family, I would recommend some caution and old fashioned fundamental analysis.   Those who did so in 2000 are still afloat.  Don’t sell your chickens before they hatch, and don’t try to build your 401k at the crap tables in Vegas.  Now the business cycle is rebuilding, but it will do so, at least initially, on Main Street, not Wall Street, and be a function of actual business profits, not stock price inflation.  What we need for the long haul is investment, not speculation, as a dominate intellectual habit.  Now let’s get to work.

The national deficit, a political football in the year to come, is a legitimate concern, but it must be kept in perspective.  The current deficit, as a percentage of the GNP (Gross National Product), is well below that of the late ‘80’s.   Those truly concerned would acknowledge that the solution to the problem would be a reduction in spending, of which there is a very considerable unnecessary amount, much of it constitutionally unauthorized, in Washington D.C.  How else can one explain Medicare hiring a blimp to advertise its services?  The true agenda of Liberals is revealed by their focusing blame for the deficits on the tax cuts.   Their real concern has never been deficits, but protection of their hallowed programs through which they bribe their constituencies into political conformity and allegiance.  This is the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The true hatred that Liberals have for Conservatives, in the economic arena, is that Conservatives are gradually succeeding in calling the Liberal bluff on this matter.  What Liberals do best is spend other people’s money and co-opt people’s freedom.   Conservatives believe that people have a fundamental right to keeping the proceeds of their own labor in their own pockets, and otherwise look out for one another at a local level, without the “help” of third party politicians, and corporate institutions, public or private.  So it is that the very notion of Freedom scares the hell out of Liberal apparatchiks, and the vehicle of their control, the Democrat Party.  That is their real issue; they don’t give a damn about deficits, and never have.  Part of the problem for Conservatives is that the same virus has, over many years, infected Republicans and the culture of major corporations and that is the arena in which the battle will be won or lost.   As a Conservative who puts a priority on spending reduction and the paring back of a big central government, I actually fear the success in growing revenue that is inevitable as a result of the recent tax cuts. The annual deficit projections are likely to disappear, and so will the discipline to cut spending.  I am not arguing against the tax cuts.  I am arguing for the complete elimination of a system that feeds politicians, and lawyers.  The only fool-proof discipline requires that we remove the candy and snap our wallets shut.

One of the worst kept secrets behind the problem of employing Americans is the dreadful quality of secondary and college graduates, including those with advanced degrees.  It has gotten so bad that diplomas and degrees are virtually useless for documenting actual qualification anymore, even the ability to read, or to think.  The downhill spiral will be hard to reverse, given that we are probably into the third generation of this product instructing and giving birth to the next. The Mountain Observer today is in the position to provide materials and direction to anyone seriously interested in a genuine liberal arts education far superior to anything offered at any big name university in the United States, but candidates do need to be able to read and speak, in English.  That I can even correctly make this claim, and I can, only speaks to the depth of the problem.   Meanwhile, American cultural deterioration continues, and the Mountain Observer will continue to focus on the strategic vectors of history, coming and going.

Apparently Walmart not only imports boat-loads of cheap Chinese product, but sells it with the help of cheap illegal imported labor.  This, of course, sets up a dynamic that leaves many in a position where they can’t afford to shop anywhere else.  But then again, there is little that is necessary available at Walmart that could not be made at home, and once upon a time was.

I understand natural gas inventories are back in line.  Once again, free market prices perform.

Thank God for the failure of the trade talks in Cancun.  Providence is correctly steering us back to dealing with these issues on a regional, and more preferably, bilateral basis.  Real “free trade” discussions, to be worthwhile from a national perspective, should include recognition of the utility of an assertive national foreign policy agenda in behalf of American interests.  I am totally fed up with dissipating our sovereignty to the whims of international organizations and “agreements’.  They can all go milk their own cows.  Real men come to terms with each other one on one, and respect each other’s legitimate interests.   This is not to denigrate international trade.  My favorite grapes come from Chile.  The point is that real free trade must be based on national agreements, respecting national sovereignty among freely elected governments.  Today there is not a single international organization or entity that derives legitimacy from direct elections, and I don’t see how there ever will be.   The Europeans can attempt to defy political gravity, but we are Americans, and our Constitution, taken seriously, will not permit the nonsense of a WTO (World Trade Organization) giving us instructions.

Common sense and Constitutional issues aside, one of the problems with a WTO is that it is a two edged sword that sometimes works against us.  If there is an issue that is harmful to ourselves, then we should fix it, not weasel around with a dependency on foreigners.  Why should the American taxpayer fund an international organization that works against us?   But the same is true of the United Nations.

The SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) is one of the agencies that actually have a legitimate (Constitutional) function at the federal level of government.  Be that as it may, the SEC needs to be poked with a stick to wake it up from time to time.   It is sad that this task has most recently fallen to politically ambitious state attorneys general who, out of the habit of their craft and in lieu of SEC attention, tend to create “solutions” to discovered matters that demand the oversight of judges, rather than the market.  The political ambition of elected officials is to compete for higher office.  The political ambition of appointed bureaucrats and civil servants is to hide anonymously in the safety of their sinecures, and manufacture reasons and constituencies to expand their empires and secure their pensions.    All of this happens at taxpayer expense with questionable results.  So it goes with BIGNESS, public or private.

Ad Nausium:

Liberal touchy-feely has found its way onto the battlefield in Iraq.  Army Lt. Col. Alan West is facing possible Courts Martial for looking out for the best interests (saving lives) of his own men.  Seems our man discharged his service piece a couple of times close to the ear of an Iraqi detainee so as to give the detainee an attitude adjustment.   The detainee then spilled the beans about a particular plan to ambush our guys, most likely saving additional American casualties.   But this was too much for certain Pentagon desk jockeys, no doubt ‘90’s era metrosexuals in uniform, so Army Lt. Col. Alan West is in trouble for being “unprofessional”.   Hell, the guy should be made a full Colonel.   Small wonder that Baathists, who whacked off people’s heads for looking crosswise, think we can be chased out of Iraq.   Donald Rumsfeld, where are you?    Meanwhile, Jessica Lynch  is put on a pedestal as a “hero”, the press gets concerned about the “rights” of Gitmo detainees and Democrat presidential aspirants argue that we should cut and run.  God bless our troops, and protect them from Democrats.

Afghanistan has become a tough call.  Has Afghanistan been overwhelmed by Heroin?  We must be realistic about this.   However, continued pursuit and destruction of Al Qaeda types is a matter of our own national interest.  The focus has to be the denial of state sponsorship and funding, which probably makes the problem in Columbia look easy.  Resolution in the end will be likely related to the Pakistani-Indian conflict, which we cannot settle.  The hard truth is that we have a national interest in conserving the option of pipeline routes.

As we enter into another critical election year in our attempt to rescue the Republic, Americans need to continue to ask whether we will face the future from the perspective of objective reality and singular truth, or from the perspective of truth “deconstructed”. The problem with progressive education is that it is, itself, “deconstructed”.  

On the subject of Cuba, I look forward someday to the return of the Havana Sugar Kings to baseball.

Really sad to say, but California has now taken a real whack from the fires.  That does not change the fundamental problem; broad based spending must be slashed, only now, more so.  Arnold, I wish you the best, but already I hear you speaking of new programs.   To the rest of you: I told you so.

On the issue of immigration, it is interesting that John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, is so desperate for new members that he has sold out his own domestic membership in support of loose immigration policy.   For years the American union worker has labored under the illusion that professional union leadership is looking out for member interests, rather than for themselves.  Another nail in that coffin.

Those impressed with O J Billyboy’s alleged political “smarts” not only have to contend with the loss of both the House and the Senate over his 8 year tenure, but more recently his active political support of Grayout Dufus in California and Lt. Col. (Collin Powell’s term) Wesley Clark.  Hillary’s plans, of course, are inscrutable, but which ever way she darts, it will not be a function of Cartesian logic, but hormonal, and not likely in the best interests of her own party.  Her problem at the moment is how to deal with Howard Dean.

Hollywood is at it again, fomenting genuine hatred and division between Left and Right, this time over the history and legacy of the Reagan presidency.  In their typical form and style, the Left has gotten totally creative and delusional about a man who today is sick and unable to defend himself.  These people are totally disgusting slime, so bad that even Liberal mouth piece CBS was been persuaded to pull the plug on this project.  CBS, like any business, has customers, including viewers.

Meanwhile, the mainstream national press, determined to purge Washington DC of Conservatives, plays up big   time a new novel The Da  Vinci Code, which, I understand, focuses the full authority of political correctness in a polemic against Christianity, a popular activity these days in Liberal circles.  Curiously, it would seem, Liberals seem to be conceding that God is not on “their side”, a claim not even advanced by most Christians.  All of  this  is another strange byproduct of intellectual relativism which proposes, among other things, that Truth and History are in the eye of the beholder.

How long will Paul Krugman last with the New York Times?  Given the Liberal Paper of Record’s propensity for fantasy, perhaps forever, but Krugman puts OJ Billyboy to shame.  He is a great source of amusement.  What is curious is that there are adults who take him seriously.

The Mountain Observer, once again, has to emphasize its endorsement of the Reverend Al Sharpton for the Democrat candidacy for president in 2004.  For a Democrat, he is the most honest, and insightful, of this sorry bunch, and would best represent the constituency.  Tawana Brawley as V.P.?  However, I must concede that the best opportunity for Conservatives to beat up on Liberals big time would be the candidacy of Howard Dean.

Now here it is, October 19, 2003, in the USA Today, a popular national Liberal mouthpiece.  I stumble across the following account of contemporary slavery, political correctness, corrected by myself, in italics:

“74 child laborers (slaves) rescued in Nigeria”

“Seventy four children from Benin were rescued after their parents (slave traders) sold them to labor traffickers (slave traders) who put them to work in granite quarries (slave owners) in Nigeria.  (One presumes that all parties to these transactions were black, otherwise there would be hell-to-pay.)  They were returned to their West African home country.  UNICEF was caring for them ( UN daycare, for how long?).  The United Nations said the children, ages 4 to 15, were handed over by Nigerian authorities after they were found working (for free) in the quarries.    Some of the boys told rescuers that at least 13 boys died in the three months they were there.  ( Jesse Jackson, where is the outrage?)

It was the second time in a month that trafficked (i.e. sold into slavery) children have been repatriated from Nigeria to Benin (to whom?).  In September, Nigerian police handed over 116 children.  Nigeria and Benin signed an accord in August to cooperate on stopping cross-border child trafficking (slavery).”  (But it continues to happen).

To me, this all seems pretty nonchalant, by the Nigerians and USA Today.  Imagine what would be said if white Americans had been party to this trading, provided free transportation to South Carolina, and put them to work picking cotton.   My bet is the kids would have been better off.  In any event, in 400 years Africa has not changed much, but somehow American whites are still all to blame, for something.  What Jesse Jackson prefers not to

acknowledge is that had his own ancestors not sold his own ancestors to European and American traders, he, today, might still be living in the jungle.  Imagine that for a moment!  God bless America.    In 2003, it is time to recognize that nobody has the moral right to the ownership of anyone else, including Africans.  Let freedom ring.   All of this comes at a time when Saudis explicitly are lecturing us on the indivisible link between Islam and slavery, which somehow fails to dissuade eager Black American recruits.  Fascinating.

The American and European Left chose this 09/11 to try to make a big deal about the coup in Chile in 1973, finding great fault with Augusto Pinochet’s rescue of the country from Communism.   These are the same folks who travel to Cuba to share lobster with Fidel Castro, and who, it would seem, find Saddam Hussein less noxious than George W. Bush.  Do the American people really want these folks back in 2004?

A man of principle, Judge Roy Moore, of Alabama, is right.  Eventually, this will be widely realized.

It’s time to shut off immigration for awhile.  I offer as evidence the example of George Soros.  Who in the hell does this pig think he is?

Tongue in cheek, the Mountain Observer has endorsed the Reverend Al Sharpton as the most qualified candidate for Democrats to run against President Bush, and in a sense he is.   However, in terms of electability within the Democrat pantheon, perhaps Howard Dean is the best bet for Conservatives to ultimately confront.  One has to credit the President’s political strategy of co-opting the middle with being so successful that it has driven the left wing voter base into a paroxysm of irrationality.  This is the basis of voter support for Dean.  His most viable opponents within the Democrat party all recognize the dangers, and in various ways are trying to slide Dean off the tracks.  Conservatives should prefer that they fail, and let the President do it.  Bush/Cheney funds could be more usefully deployed in support of Conservative Senatorial candidates, and more GOP Representatives from Texas.  The key to how this will work out is that Howard Dean has a problem with panic attacks, which is what happens when one has no constructive ideas and is consumed with hate.  The President only needs to be himself.

It seems that the ACLU is harassing the Naval Academy concerning its ancient practice of prayer before lunch.  Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-NC has introduced legislation that would give “deference” to military authority with respect to such matters.  The problem with this sort of selectivity is that it signals, by implication, that ACLU harassment of other institutional and cultural venues is OK.  The real answer is that both Congress and the Courts need to tell the ACLU to buzz off, entirely.  Again, Congress has been lax in its oversight of judicial jurisdiction.  For years we have piled band-aids on top of band-aids.   The time has come for some radical surgery.

Perhaps Jefferson and Franklin spent too much time in Paris.  Time is long overdue for a serious consideration of Jonathan Edwards and his American perspective on the Enlightenment and the role of the Christian Trinity in the public polis, for starters.  A forgotten American founder, we celebrated his 300^th birthday this past October.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATIONS

1.)  BIAS: A CBS INSIDER EXPOSES HOW THE MEDIA DISTORT THE NEWS

            BERNARD GOLDBERG                                                            

            REGNERY PUBLISHING                                    232 PGS                                   $27.95

2.)  RULES OF CIVILITY: THE 110 PRECEPTS THAT GUIDED OUR FIRST PRESIDENT IN WAR AND PEACE

            GEORGE WASHINGTON, ed by RICHARD BROOKHISER                     

            UNIV. OF VIRGINIA                                          90 PGS                                     $17.95

3.)  LOSING BIN LADEN: HOW BILL CLINTON’S FAILURES UNLEASHED GLOBAL TERROR      

RICHARD MINITER

            REGNERY                                                         317 PGS                                   $27.95

                                                               God Bless America

                                              JIM

                                                              JIM SOHMER                      

                                                              AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

                                                              JEFFERSON, CO 80456

                                                                            IN GOD WE TRUST