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                                    ISSUES, PEOPLE, OBJECTS & POLICIES- CLOSE UP

                         "The power to tax involves the power to destroy" Chief Justice John Marshall

                MO Letter 2008-02                 Vol. 08 Issue 02                      Start Mar 01, 2008

Serious Considerations:

04/30/08  Gasoline & diesel costs.  By choice, I live in a western county that has 3 traffic lights and is larger than the state of Delaware, and in Colorado there are at least 6 counties that are even larger.  The cost of gasoline & diesel matters.  Now the problem is not where I, and a few others live, nor is it a shortage of recoverable hydrocarbon fuels within the jurisdiction of the United States, for there is no such shortage.  The problem here is the myth of such a shortage, useful to the political agendas of such as Charlie Upchuck Schumer, D-NY, and his Liberal socialist friends running the government, for years now advancing the hoax of man-made global warming.  The Statists among us who are compelled to run our lives, in violation of all values fundamentally American since the collapse of the great Soviet experiment with state ownership of the means of production, have embraced the "environment" as the new avenue of control through taxes and regulation.  From the Statist perspective, if communism won't work, then they will just have to make do with a fascist economic format.  The pretext of the myth of man-made global warming wrapped in non-existent science has been successful in stampeding an education starved general population into a panic over the fate of polar bears.  Government direction and regulation, by those who presume to know better than us rednecks in fly-over country, is the answer offered by Left Wing Fascists, aka Liberals; most commonly at home as Democrats.

Aside from mis-management of the dollar (a separate discussion), the runnaway prices at the pump of both gasoline and diesel fuel are directly tracable to defiance of the laws of supply and demand interrupted by a multitude of Democrat Statist doctrines imposed upon us by nut cases like Charlie Upchuck Schumer, D-NY, and his fellow apparatchics of the Left.  And so it will remain until folks wake up and understand that none of this is necessary.  We have the energy resources within our own jurisdiction, to last for decades, if not centuries, if we would just allow the free market to work, and get the politicians, lawyers and professors off our backs.  Al Gore, go home; you are a complete fraud.  Yes, folks, hydrocarbon fuels will be around for a long time, and that is the reality of things.  I generate my own power by solar energy, backed up by propane, because I believe it makes sense for me to do so.  It also makes sense for me to burn lots of coal and wood.  Missing is gasoline and diesel priced through the free market; it doesn't need to be that way.  We just need the government to get the hell out of the way.  I remember these things on election day.  JES

04/25/08  American politics today is in the midst of epical change.  Both national parties are cracking up alone fault lines long discussed in these letters.  The house of cards has held together as long as it has because of the saccharin of a false prosperty framed on well greased government printing presses and the dysfunctional intellectual, moral and material tendancies of many of the "boomer" generation, perhaps the most self-indulgent generation in history. Precurser human experiments of this sort have never before succeeded, and neither will this.  It is only reasonable to expect riots this summer in Denver, and an empty handed GOP this fall in November.  The fact of the matter is that the entire body politic is now leaderless, and that is a very dangerous situation, for ourselves, and the world.  As with other things in nature, politics abhors a vacuum.  Beware of those on white horses.

For the American Left, it is possible that, one day in the future, the tipping point could prove to have been the results of the Democrat Primary 04/22/08, in Pennsylvania, in which Joe 6-pak, with some Republican assistance, handed Barack Hussein Obama his head on a platter, long overdue.  Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Rodham, aka nurse Ratchet, and alleged enabler of one sexual predator of women in particular, survives politically to live and fight another day.  No prediction is made here as to which of these two, or neither, will prevail in August, or November.

Meanwhile, later this past week, Senator John McCain manages once again to insult not only Conservatives everywhere, but also the ordinary GOP in North Carolina with gratuitous and uninvited advice on a campaign advertisement that linked together the intellectual axis of the Democrat candidate for the NC Governorship with Barack Hussein Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, not an unreasonable political assertion by the tarheel GOP.  Expressing outrage and asserting racism, utterly non-existent, the Senator from Arizona has now cast aside any figment of a reason for any of the Conservative base to support him this fall in his quixotic presidential bid to represent "all Americans" legal or otherwise, parasites or producers, patriotic or subversive.  What has been advanced here overall is the best case yet for Conservatives to simple stand aside and let the whole train crash.   I refer you back to my comments dated 02/06/08 (MO letter 2008 01).  A GOP presidential candidate more interested in defending the Left against his own party is not worth my time, money, vote, patience or support of any kind. The Bill of Particulars against the Senator is too long. For the moment, for Conservatives, it's all over.  JES

04/25/08  The Mountain Observer has been distracted for about a week setting up a whole new system running on Vista. I shall say that there have been moments of frustration in the process, and it is not yet complete, that is moving software and files from the XP laptop over to our new desktop.  However with the release of Vista service pack 1, I could no longer hold myself back.  JES

04/16/08   The Holy Father arrives in the United States of America, in Washington D.C., at the White House, not a moment too late for spiritually starved American Catholics, and Christians in general.   Reportedly, the White House welcome was the largest in history.  The enthusiasm was infectious for believers and American patriots alike: American exceptionalism and God together, in Washington D.C., exactly as President George Washington encouraged and advised.  May God bless the United States of America, and Pope Benedict XVI.  Welcome to America; we are most thirsty for your message.  JES

04/12/08   American Airlines v. The Federal Bureaucracy.       I could be off base on this, but the question at hand is how best to bundle certain wiring and cables in the wheel wells of MD-80s.   I doubt we are actually looking at a safety issue, but rather a bureaucracy playing politics with a Congress that feeds it money and career opportunities, Congress itself somewhat desperate to sell itself as useful to the taxpayers.  Bureaucrats, not themselves accomplished designers or mechanics, have the authority to originate any objection they can imagine to justify their own worth, as can congressmen and senators.  I should point out that this same bureaucracy accepted the designs in question many years ago when the MD-80 was originally qualified, and each unit accepted as it rolled off the line. 

So what we have now, in a social climate hostile to big business, and airlines in particular, is a self-righteous crusade by big government (never big enough) bureaucrats to advance their own imperial agenda.  Folks, that’s what I really think is going on here.  JES

04/12/08 The 2008 Olympics. Back when the IOC awarded the ChiComs the privilege of holding these events the Mountain Observer said "No". The notion that these games are all about sports and not about politics is utter nonsense. Originating in ancient Greece the purpose was political; promoting the idea that competition on the field of sport could come to substitute for city-state competition on the field of battle. Yes, the daisy pickers have been around for a long time.

With the collapse of moral guidance and the ascendancy of Secularism in the 19th Century, despots leading ideologically driven secular states rose to power, especially in the 20th Century. The Olympic games of 1936 in Germany was perceived as very useful to himself and the Nazi Party by Adolf Hitler, politically useful to be sure. Moscow had similar motives in 1980. Now the ChiComs. Now the daisy pickers can wish otherwise all they want, but they are forever being used by others with less than elegant motives.

So it is that the President, at this late date, should not be going to the opening ceremonies in 2008. In the name of "civil rights" and "internal affairs" Tibetans are being slaughtered and their culture crushed. Similar pogroms continue against an array of other minorities and religious groups and orders. Mr. President, whatever the trade and currency issues are, they are secondary. In any event, in that regard, it is far from clear as to who has who by the ying-yang. But that is irrelevant; trade issues should not trump what is the right thing to do, which is to confront the ChiComs right now on this issue of human rights. Yes, sometimes it is very right to kick a man when he is down. For a moment, American Libertarians need to step aside. JES

04/10/08  General David Petraeus, real Americans honor you, the forces under your command, and the cause in which you are engaged.  We thank you for your service to our country.  General David Petraeus, carry on.  JES

04/06/08  Yesterday, real Americans lost a champion, with the passing of Charlton Heston, at age 84.  He was the model of what Hollywood always should have been, and frequently was, and what it ought to be today, and clearly isn't.   He connected with the American Heartland, and understood that the most important words in the Constitution of the United States were those of the 2nd Amendment.  He understood American freedom, and that it wasn't free.  May the Lord have mercy on his soul, and grant him his final peace.  JES

03/29/08  As the Mountain Observer has previously pointed out, Conservatives have already lost the Presidential race for 2008.  Among the 3 remaining candidates, we have one totally incompetent race baiter, one over-the-top makeover of Nurse Ratchet, and one typical Republican suck-up to the Left.  Little wonder that the electorate is confused, and will remain so.  John McCain's foreign policy speech March 26 to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council clearly documents the Conservative concern that he is embracing Internationalism at the expense of our own national security interests, and national sovereignty, out of all proportion of the need to do so.   Read it yourself.  JES

03/29/08  Pope Benedict XVI welcomes into the Church a high profile Egyptian Muslim convert, great bravery on the part of both.  The significance of the event in its symbolism of the true threat to what's left of the western world cannot be overstated.   God Bless them both.   There are thousands yet to go, an issue bubbling just below the surface, and not necessarily confined to the Muslim world.  You see, with respect to the subject of religious freedom, China is also fertile territory. We can only wish that the same was true of Europe, and New York.  JES

Recommended Reading:

DEMOCRACY WITHOUT BORDERS: Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy

Marc F. Plattner                               Sensible discussions

Rowman & Littlefield                 176 pgs               $24.95

Serious Considerations:

03/19/08 The Messiah Barack Hussein Obama, running for President of the Planet, pleads ignorance to the words of his long time friend and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of their church, the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Unless you live on another planet, you must be familiar with the passionate garbage and racist hatred that flows from the mouth of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago directed at the "United States of WHITE America" ad nausium.

This is not a new story only recently discovered by the Liberal mainstream media, itself so full of rage and hatred for Republicans, but a story resting there all along. Now having been finally caught up in an issue of substance, and unwilling to let go of this cretin from Chicago, Barack's political future is on the line, and he is acting like a politician in his fight for continued viability. Barack, you plead ignorance of the thoughts of your cretin friend, your own self described mentor for 20 years, and expect the country to believe you?

Let us stipulate that your own self confessed ignorance is correct. How can you then present yourself to the American people as so insightful about other men that you are prepared to be the commander in chief of this nation, surrounded as it is by tyrants, dictators, thugs, hooligans and predators all attempting to tear us down. Your own wife is clearly ambivalent in her love of this country. Given your performance regarding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, what exactly is your purpose? What, Messiah Barack Hussein Obama, are you really up to? The American people deserve an answer. JES

03/16/08 Again, Eliot Spitzer, now otherwise known as Client #9. The public discussion of this matter again reveals the wide open split within the Republican Party of the "Fusion" of the conservative movement under Ronald Reagan between actual Conservatives and Libertarians. In the context of the discussion concerning Spitzer, actual Conservatives accuse Spitzer of pretended moralism in his reign of terror as a prosecutor, now proven hypocritical, while Libertarians posing as conservatives accuse Spitzer of actually being a moralist, proving, they believe, Libertarian contentions about the “dangers” of moralist medaling in the public forum.

(If this sounds confusing to some, I understand, and a visit to another outline of the point might prove helpful. Go to Politics 101, and read the whole thing.)

To try to make the Libertarian case that Eliot Spitzer, aka Client #9, was actually a moralist gone south is counterintuitive to the facts, and more self serving to, and revealing of, those making the argument than helpful in understanding the social pathologies of full strength Liberalism. Libertarians have always been caught up in the irreconcilable contradiction between their insistence on an economic (and conservative) focus on free market capitalism, on the one hand, and their rejection (pure modern Liberalism) of the Conservative insistence of an actual moral presence in the public square  on social issues. I have tried to warn my GOP friends about the implications of this contradiction for years, but have been waved off by the “benefits” of collaboration on the economic issues, sometimes, even then, to the discredit of actual Conservative values in the economic arena.

The general failure within the GOP to understand this point is directly responsible for the collapse of support from the so-called “Reagan Democrats” in recent years, and will surely contribute to a failure to understand, and correct, the pathologies of modern Liberalism, most valuably illustrated by Eliot Spitzer, aka Client #9.

The time is long since past due for a close re-examination of the practical premises of the fusionist coalition that never really was. JES

03/11/08 Eliot Spitzer and New York State. Out-of-control prosecutorial activism has become a serious problem in the United States in recent years, and to any objective observer, Eliot Spitzer has clearly filled the bill since his days of attacks on Wall Streeter’s and certain corporate interests during the early days of the current decade.

Contrary to the dreams of Progressives, generally consumed with hatred of capitalism, God, morality of any sort, and the United States of America, Eliot Spitzer’s Robin Hood attacks were never about defending “the little guy”, but about advancing himself. Fascistic use of the law is a political art form so common to Liberals that it is second nature to them, so much so that they do not even recognize what they are doing absent the guard rails of any recognizable moral code.

Regarding Eliot Spitzer, this was all straight out there in front of anyone to see, including the electorate of New York State, from the beginning of his career of prosecutorial extortion. Rather, the electorate of New York State, saw him as a hero, and made him their Governor, getting exactly what New York State deserves. It has finally caught up with him, and the people of New York, and their junior Senator has lost a “Super Delegate” in her bid to derail her opponent in the race for the Democrat (read “Progressive”) nomination for president of the United States.

I speak with direct personal knowledge and authority. I grew up in this moral and intellectual cesspool, and left it all behind me in 1979, re-finding America in Colorado. New York, you have harvested exactly what you deserve, and frankly, you make me puke.

JES 03/17/08 The Bush presidency, and how best for GOP candidates to deal with it this Fall. The Mountain Observer highly recommends an article, "The Politics of a Failed Presidency", in the current issue of The Weekly Standard, March 17, 2008 Vol 13, #26, by Jeffrey Bell, on page 20.

A useful effort for all GOP candidates, at every level, and voters of every persuasion. www.weeklystandard.com Mr. Bell provides us with an excellent comprehensive review and analysis of Bush's achievements and failures with honest appraisals, and the implications overall. (Attention John McCain). JES

03/06/08 The city of Denver Colorado is all atwit with the idea of hosting the Democrat convention this year. It seems that there is a chance that this could prove to be the worst mistake of its kind since Chicago in 1968. While it is premature to predict such an extent of social and political division, Conservatives can only hope that such will be the case.

In an age of feline fury, and “victimization”, one can already see Hillary Rodham Rodham up against the much abused Michelle Obama in the greatest cat fight, so far at least, of the 21st Century. (Rumor has it that Michelle actually wears the pants in the family).

In a lengthening list of possible outcomes, the Mountain Observer makes no predictions, however we confess to pleasure at watching Democrats eating each other up. The GOP has its own problems, and at least immediately, can enjoy the media distraction. JES

Wall Street & Main Street:

03/06/08 Lest anyone needed to be further convinced, political leadership in Washington D.C. is at zero. The hard economic facts of life are that the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, the President, and the Congress (both Houses and both parties) are collectively inspired to cut interest rates and flash cash to the crowds in this very political year when such actions are exactly the wrong thing to do for the economy.

I would dare say that many of them, perhaps even most of them, know better, but you see, once again, it is the political season. Once again, the free market is defied, and the day of reckoning deferred to a succeeding batch of gutless wonders who will only repeat the cycle, until------------.

The truth is that, for some decades now, politicians, and lawyers, have thrived on their investment in the economic ignorance and moral bankruptcy of the general electorate. The free lunch has become a “right”, the drunk has become a “victim”, and the currency has been destroyed. All the wrong lessons have been taught, and the cost eventually will be catastrophic. Remember, someday, that I told you so.

None of this has been necessary, even today. The right palliative for the current “credit crisis” is simply to let the discipline of free markets sort it all out. Government intervention, of any kind, only buys time to set up an eventual worse result and, in any case, is both fraudulent and immoral. Voters can do one thing: identify socialists, in either party, and send them packing. JES

Serious Considerations:

03/01/08 My favorite William F. Buckley quotation goes as follows: “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” There is little doubt that Buckley's observation remains true, however, the question remains as to how much the entire demographic has been frog marched to the Left by the same professorial component. JES

03/01/08 Regarding the sensibilities of the American electorate, I was baffled in 1992. It was not America as I understood it and assumed it to be. In 2008, I get it, and it is not the America that ought to be. The country is running off its own tracks, and a brick wall looms ahead.

The age of common sense, when folks worked for an honest living, absent the big government nanny, absent victimology, moral relativism, multiculturalism and anti-Americanism, and absent the rhetoric of marxism dressed up as Democrats, that age of common sense seems to be gone.

That a Barack Hussein Obama can even, for a moment, be taken seriously as a candidate for president of the United States is the proof of what I say. We used to value leadership based on demonstrated substance, competence, and productive achievement. Today we are seduced by a cult

leader bearing poisoned lemonade. JES

                      Jim

                                   American Nationalist Conservative

                                            Jefferson, CO 80456