THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

                             Vol. 4                                       Issue 1                                    01/02/04                     

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 Republicans, I’ll drive you absolutely crazy.   

 Produced occasionally when I decide to do it, but at least 6 times a year.              

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

Flyover 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.)

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

“Moderates” are Liberals in slow motion.            __Unknown.  

“The candidacy of Howard Dean is convincing evidence that the Lord supports George W. Bush.” -Dick Morris, sometime advisor to Hillary Rodham OJ Billyboy and reformed toe-sucker.

“What this country needs is a twitch on the nose of socialism and a scotch hobble on Liberal lawyers and judges.  I hold them all in utter contempt”.  –Jim Sohmer, truck driver and Colorado goat roper.

Blowing off steam:

Following the Supreme Court decision in December on last year’s campaign “reform” act, which essentially disables the First Amendment, I was so enraged with the President and Congress and the Court that I came close to releasing an emergency edition of The Mountain Observer just to Scream and Holler.  This was followed within a day by an announcement that the Administration was preparing to propose legalization of millions of illegal immigrants.  This comes on top of an out-of-control Medicare commitment.   What in the hell is going on?  But the wisdom that comes with age finally prevailed and counseled for further considered reflection.  At this point I must say that I am still very much enraged by the significance of these developments, and more generally, with the leftist direction of the Republican party and the President’s domestic agenda.  The reality is that for principled Conservatives, as during the ‘90’s, we have no organized national political party that represents our perspective.  Certainly, with a handful of struggling individual exceptions, it is not the Republican Party that stands for reduced and Constitutional central government.  The Republican Party is not likely to ever take up the issue of eliminating an income tax system that has led to the corruption of our entire republican system of government since 1913.   What to do?  All I know at this point is that sufficient numbers need to coalesce about  a common detailed Conservative agenda, and all I can do is attempt to lay out what I think that is in this newsletter, and other formats to follow.  Actually this letter has been about what I consider to be proper Conservative substance from the beginning, so there is no change in direction, only a collapse of any hope of working through the Republican Party and this President.  Conservatives don’t change direction, we stand on time tested principles.  The reality is that there is a Republcrat elite that is running this country from the political center left, drifting further left, and we have been captured by Statists.  It is very painful for me to say, but it is a fact, that policy wise this President has more in common with Ted Kennedy than he does with many of those who voted for him.  Perhaps I am alone, but I think not.  It does not matter.  My message remains, unaffected, and I believe that the day will come when I will be vindicated.   It is not with pleasure that I find it necessary to make these comments immediately subsequent to the capture of Saddam Hussein.   With the sole exception of the issue of the Palestinians, the President gets an  A+ from the Mountain Observer for the War on Terror, and George W. Bush deserves great credit for his perseverance in Iraq.  The Administration’s Iraq policy overall has been hugely correct, and it is [in] this context painful to point out the huge errors of domestic policy that have accelerated spending and that have further eroded the Constitutional limits on the government.

What the President appears to be doing, on the domestic side, is engineering the destruction of the Democrat (marxist) Party, a very worthy goal which I applaud.  His particular methodology has had the consequence of moving the Republican Party into a Center Left position with, I believe, unnecessary concessions to Statism.  Implicit in this strategy is the premise that Conservative principles cannot prevail in the political rough and tumble with the electorate, which I believe is both insulting and mistaken.  The President will succeed at what he is attempting to do, but at the cost of disabling Conservative leadership within the Republican Party.  I will vote for this President in 2004 because he is mostly correct with his foreign policy, and excellent on defense, which  are his primary responsibilities, and what the Democrats have to offer is national suicide, which we cannot risk.  However, on the domestic side we have a different discussion that needs to take place.  The tax cuts are great, and now need to be made permanent, but they are only a temporary band-aid.  The size of government needs to be reversed.   That the opposite continues to occur is not entirely the fault of this President, or even Congress.  The American people will get what they deserve, and the truth is that the politicians ultimately are a reflection of the people.  We have some truly huge problems, and the fact of the matter is that we are in the midst of a huge Cultural War.  Pat Buchanan, in Houston, in 1992, was right.  What is a Conservative to do?  This one intends to talk straight, and pray for God’s guidance, daily.  The correction of our problems, a sorting out process, if you will, has to start from the bottom.  I suspect the need for a new organized Conservative political instrument to the right of the Republican Party, and let Republicans continue to inherit the legacy of FDR.  This old SOB won’t budge.

Bush Score Card:

Excellent:

The capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13^th by the 4^th Infantry Division, United States Army, was a proud and magnificent moment for these soldiers, yourself, and the people of Iraq.  The patience and support must continue.   Americans should understand, and reflect upon, our own struggles following the surrender of the British at Yorktown, and the first years of stumbling with the Articles of Confederation.  

But we did it on our own. 

Thumbs up with the economy and the tax cuts.

Not So Good:

            Federal domestic spending growth.

Terrible--or even worse:

            Immigration and the continuing growth of government.

Wall Street & Main Street:

The President has lifted the steel tariffs.  If you care to check back through previous issues of this letter, you might notice the absence of comment by me on this matter.  That’s because I think everyone, on both sides of a needlessly polarized issue, has got it all wrong.  As it is now, nothing better illustrates the capture of the Republican Party on economic issues by Libertarians, posing as Conservatives, than the rhetoric of “free trade” that isn’t free at all.  On the other side nothing feeds the demagoguery of Democrat politicians better than the rhetoric of union job protectionism.  As it is, I have no personal stake in the outcome of this “debate” other than as an American citizen.  There is, objectively, a serious problem with the loss of certain manufacturing skills and capacity to certain overseas interests, not always dependably friendly to us on the issue of our own national security.  Defense sensitive equipment, materials, processes and software are becoming increasingly dependant upon, and exposed to, foreign penetration and manipulation.  Loose immigration rules are used to subvert the American labor market here at home, with implications for national security that are frightening.  The entire discussion about “free trade” has become politicized over a period of time for a combination of reasons that all have in common specific parochial agendas as opposed to what might be right for American national security.  Contrary to what most of my “Conservative” colleagues think, I think the President’s instincts were right, in a non-political sense, when he imposed the steel tariffs in the first place.  I do not deny a political calculation on his part, but there is a larger legitimate issue.   The problem with his tariff (constrained by congressional mandate) was that the rationale was wrong; a 30% slap on imported steel.  While domestic producers, and labor, need to understand that they must compete in an international market, the one complaint that is valid has to do with competition against foreign government (taxpayer) subsidies.  Those who prefer to ignore this issue cannot intellectually claim to be promoting “free trade”, whether the issue is steel, airplanes or railroad locomotives.  To continue with the example of steel, it is first necessary to recognize that every national authority has the ability to fashion specific forms of subsidy.  That is why it is necessary to address the issue on a bi-lateral basis.  What is actually necessary, on a bi-lateral basis, is a fee at the gate, reviewed on a regular basis administratively, that is designed to offset the calculated piece unit foreign subsidy content of the producer country.  This can be done, and can be a powerful tool over a period of time to discipline economies, including our own, toward a more genuine free market.  The arbitrary 30% tariff, directed at everyone, was a set-up for political demagoguery and shotgun economic retaliation.  We do not need instruction or interference from a WTO, a fake substitute for world government.  We do not need the WTO.  We need to grow up and think as Americans, for America, and we should slam the door on those issues that bear on national security, narrowly defined.   We should be promoting genuine free trade, and this is how to do it.  Good results don’t come easy.  As for the American steel industry, it faces the reality of a worldwide production capacity glut.  Over the last 40 years, around the world, it has been the sexy fashion of socialist governments to build steel mills as symbols of national “greatness”.  Insofar as foreign government subsidies are an issue, I think a fee at the gate is entirely appropriate, tailored on a bi-lateral basis, to off-set socialist production subsidies.  I am not enthusiastic about the idea of American aircraft carriers, including the new Ronald Reagan, being built out of government subsidized Russian or Chinese steel.  I have my own national prejudices.  Take the socialist content out of the “value” foreign product, and I have complete faith in the ability of American labor to compete.  It has become too easy for “Conservatives” to demonize tariffs without qualification, and too easy for the Left to whine about legitimate free market competition.  A true Conservative will stand up and defend a strong dollar based on legitimate free trade and residents of legal citizenship.  This was exactly the rationale of the Constitution in the first place.

We know that the last great 20 year period of economic growth was built on the early Reagan tax cuts.  (Sorry, Dems, but that is objective reality.)  While the effort is not yet complete in all the necessary details, G.W. Bush has set up the framework for the next expansion.  However, I would point out that a 20 year time frame is a generation, and a learning (and forgetting) cycle goes with it.   One problem with a prolonged period of prosperity is that a lot of businesses can begin to look good when, in fact, all they learn how to do is to write orders.  Furthermore, marketing and customer service can get sloppy.  I would suggest to a new generation of young managers on the make that they should give this some thought.  Don’t get too cocky with success, because others will find out what you’re really made of, at some point, when things begin to slide, which will happen in the ordinary course of the business cycle.  And yes, in a free market, there will always be a cycle.  That’s when we’ll find out if you actually know what you are doing.

Ad Nausium:

Al Gor(bachev) can now take credit for pulling the plug on the DLC (Democrat Leadership Council), and, perhaps, the Hillary/Billary team as well.  He certainly had his motives for doing so.  The logic of the DLC was always flawed, i.e., that there ever could be a politically sustainable unit of “centrist” Democrats.  The whole idea arose years ago in response to the final crushing defeat of the Vietnam era lefties at the hands of Ronald Reagan.  The only tangible product of this effort was the election of the Hillary/Billary team, which, since 1993 forward has worked to co-opt and consume the entire Democrat party to advance their own very personal leftist agenda.  The logic of the DLC effort attempted to defy a political rule learned at the cost of many lives, at least from 1917 forward: You cannot “reform” statist ideologues, especially if you remain a statist yourself.  Mikhail Gorbachev himself made that discovery.   That is the dilemma facing American Democrats today.  The party has imploded into an ideologically left-wing statist marxist fringe group, and the Republican party, filling in the void, has moved rapidly to a center-left position.  Conservatives, politically, have been hung out to dry.  Howard Dean, now with Al Gor(bachevs) help, is a perfect fit for what the Democrat base has become.  The American electorate has a choice to make.

Now that the big court in Massachusetts has decided to wreck traditional marriage, it is time to expect some leadership out of the White House, and Congress with respect to a Constitutional Amendment.   Concerned citizens have already done the necessary intellectual spade work.  However, I expect Republican “leadership” to duck and run.

The obsession in certain quarters over what others think of our War on Terrorism is another manifestation of the claimed right “not to be offended”.   Political correctness applied to the proper determination of national security issues is a formula for disaster.  Poling the opinions of foreigners to determine the proper course of American policy is a set-up for defeat.  The foundation of true leadership is principled objective analysis of American national interests, which occasionally must cross swords with populist sentiment, foreign and domestic.  That is why the United States was founded as a Republic and not a Democracy.  The proper task of American citizens is to elect to office qualified leadership.  The task of qualified leadership is to lead, and not be driven by polls, in executing their specifically assigned Constitutional roles.  Accordingly, it is inconsistent to allow American foreign policy to be determined by Frenchmen, Russians, Chinese, Israelis or Saudis.  If you want to criticize the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, fine, but don’t bring crap to the table about how we are “offending others”.  That is the poison of deferring to international opinion and organizations of any strip, and the legacy of OJ Billyboy who, in the spirit of such tripe, let Osama get away.

Michael Howard, newly elected leader of the British Tory party, has an enormous task before him.  Since the days of Margaret Thatcher, he is the first credible Tory leader to appear on the scene, and from that time to this, save for Tony Blair’s support of our War on Terror, Britain has gone all to hell.   Without illusions, I wish Michael Howard well, but I think it may be too late.

It is essential that the War on Terror not succumb to mission drift; it is about national security and the defense of our borders, or so it ought to be.   That our activities in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, may have otherwise constructive results is most welcome, and should be encouraged.  However, the siren song of progressive Wilsonianism must be purged from the calculations.  The lesson is in the ungratefulness of Europeans for our saving them from themselves in three worldwide conflicts during the 20^th century.  Human nature is human nature, and it is common that the need to confess the need for help from others is ultimately resented by the recipients.  Today, Europe needs to account for itself. In Iraq the best we can do is to support Iraqi determination and initiative, and I see some reason for optimism.  They are an intelligent people, and have had a sufficient exposure to the West to engage in a mutual dialog.  If you are tempted to listen to the advice of naysayers on Iraq, recommending the UN and “help” from Europe, then get re-acquainted with Kosovo.   Kosovo today is a standing demonstration of everything that is wrong with the UN and Eurothink.  It is a collapsed farce, and a very dangerous place to visit.  I believe it was Lt. Col. (Collin Powell’s term) Wesley Clark, coming no closer than 10,000 above the target, who was the military mastermind behind this debacle, and his boss, OJ Billyboy, who assured you that we would be out in a year.  Today, the UN bureaucrats running Kosovo apparently have lifelong tenure, are overpaid, and at a loss as to how to implement this far left-wing experiment in diversity.

Meanwhile, I think that sometimes God needs a little help, like from the 4^th Infantry Division.

The temple of the Euro fascist (EU) manifestation of Statism is the new International Criminal Court (ICC) that claims total jurisdiction over your life.  Get acquainted with these claims and agenda because they think that they’re coming after you, and if Democrats have their way, they will.

The Israeli fence project is an obstacle to terrorists, not peace.  My only suggestion is that it ought to be running down the middle of the Jordan River.

As a fundamental reference on the issue of connections between Saddam’s Iraq and Osama bin Laden, the most comprehensive item yet is a top secret U.S. government memorandum, dated 10/27/03 , from Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller, chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, obtained by The Weekly Standard, details reported  in the November 24, 2003 issue.  It is explosive.

Prediction:

The economy will do well in 2004, but how well will depend on profits, about which there is some question.

Heartland rebellion update:

In the current context, best measured by the continued support for this President in the face of the domestic Liberal left and foreign terrorist threats.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATIONS

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                                                God Bless America

                                   JIM

                                               JIM SOHMER                      

                                               AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

                                                 JEFFERSON, CO 80456

                                                            IN GOD WE TRUST