Dr. Jack Wheeler
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/14/10
Need another example of what's at stake in November? How about your 401(k) retirement savings? Via something called the Employee Benefits Security Administration, a group of fascisti within the Labor Department, the Dems are planning to seize your and everyone else's savings a lá Argentina to fund public union worker pensions. The way to prevent this is a Republican majority in the 112th Congress. If the Dems keep their majority, you will see millions of folks pulling all their money out of their 401(k)s, taking the penalty haircut, and putting it where government goons can't steal it. All those millions need to remember this in November. *** Now, how about something that will really tick you off? This week, plans were announced to build a gigantic 13-story Moslem mosque near Ground Zero, the site of Islam's 9/11 attack on America. Note it will be called "the Cordoba House." What a telegraphic punch. Cordoba was the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Al-Andalus (Andalusia) in Spain, seized by Moslem invaders from Africa in 711 and recaptured by Spanish Christians under Ferdinand III of Castille in 1236. What better indication could there be of the Islamic intent to make America a Moslem Al-Andalus Emirate?
BEAUCOUP DEEP KIMCHEE IN AFGHANISTAN
The Afghan room has more than its share of corners, and we've painted ourselves into every single one of them. Setting aside the Taliban, we're suffering from plenty of self-inflicted wounds. To start, there's the continuing denial that Islam has anything to do with the Taliban's persistence or Afghan resistance to our goodwill gestures: This mullah's corrupt; that suicide bomber wasn't very religious(!); that local uprising's just a neighborhood feud. Religion has nothing to do with it. Next, Afghans aren't interested in fighting for a foreign-backed government or for ethnic groups other than their own. If you want to succeed in a tribal society, you exploit tribal identities. Our officials insist that would undercut our goals. Well, perhaps our goals should be more realistic. So we wind up supporting yet another disdained "president" because we insist that a tribal society must subject itself to a strong central government defended by an American-model army that refuses to be built. This is not a formula for success. Another sign that Afghanistan's in "beaucoup deep kimchee" (as a former NCO of mine used to say) is that the pundits are already assigning blame -- even on Obama.
THE FATE OF THE WORLD
San Diego, California. The view from my Westin hotel room overlooks San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean beyond. The bay is filled with Navy warships, huge cruise ships, and small sail boats. The weather is perfect, 69°, the skies cloudless and smog-free. California! The Golden State. I grew up here, in the halcyon 1950s portrayed in the Happy Days television series and the Surf City ode to it by the Beach Boys. So as I look out at the gorgeous view, I can't help wonder: How is it possible that Californians screwed their state up so badly? Because they ignored the warning of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) after traveling through America in 1832, that the greatest danger to America was no external enemy but would come from within, when "the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." You've all heard the Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. Hinges of history are always interesting. They are forks in the road, where the world or an important part of it must choose between freedom and cowardice. We have arrived at such a fork, such a historical hinge. Prominent economist Robert Samuelson has proclaimed the debt crisis from Greece to California as "The welfare state's death spiral." But what sort of phoenix will arise from the ashes of Western welfare states? Will it be Western at all? Or will it be Chinese?
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/07/10
William F. Buckley's most famous quote is: "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." A corollary to this is that we'd all be far safer if we entrusted our national security to NASCAR fans than to Democrats in Washington - as evidenced by the truck of one such fan: 
*** There is such a cornucopia of happenings this week from which to choose the most important - and here it is. Let me redirect your attention away from the Gulf Oil Spill and the financial meltdown of Europe to focus on the Republican Study Committee. Yes, the most significant event in America this week was the announcement that the 115 Members of Congress comprising the RSC have formed a Tenth Amendment Task Force to formulate a legislative program that will "usher in a new era of federalism and disperse power from Washington back to regions, states and local governments" under a GOP majority next year. This dwarfs the Gulf Oil Spill or anything else, folks. The reason was made clear in the British elections yesterday (5/06).
COWARDICE DOESN’T APPEASE TERRORISTS
Appeasement doesn't work. It doesn't work with dictators, and it doesn't work with terrorists. The attempted Times Square bombing on May 1st was yet more proof. We've allowed Islamist extremists to dictate what we can say, print or portray. We don't want to offend them. The First Amendment bows before Islam. The Obama administration has ducked all unwelcome evidence that such appeasement doesn't work. Instead, it goes to absurd lengths to convince Moslem radicals that we respect their views. Since the Obama administration deepened our submissive attitude toward Islam -- banning all references to "Islamist terror" or "Moslem radicalism" from government documents and statements -- the number of terror attacks on our soil has gone up. Do any of you believe this is just a coincidence?
THE BIGOTRY OF THE LEFT
American and European leftists share the conviction that the immigrant, legal or illegal, is always right -- and the native-born citizen is always wrong. This bigotry toward the law-abiding American, Brit, Frenchman or Italian doesn't help the immigrant in the end. Instead, it's a powerful engine driving divisiveness. There are deep differences between Europe's experience with legal immigrants intent on importing intolerant lifestyles and our problem with illegals responsible for social friction and violent criminality. But the left's blame-game is identical: Anyone who doesn't elevate the "rights" of the immigrant over the rights, safety and desires of the citizen is a bigot. No exceptions. Could there be a formula better designed to excite anti-immigrant sentiment? As the left's blame-the-citizen demands for special privileges for all immigrants only intensify an anti-immigrant backlash, let's apply some commonsense maxims:
CINCO DE REALITY
Today is May 5th - celebrated by American gringos as an excuse to drink cheap tequila margaritas and eat bad Mexican food by calling this day "Cinco de Mayo." Nobody in Mexico cares about May 5th. Only we, us gringos, pretend to. For if you ask just about any reveler at the nearest Pancho Villa's Cantina or some such Mexican-themed bar anywhere in the US, just what is being celebrated today you'll get either a blank stare or "It's their July 4th " ignorance. So first the real history. Then the reality - the horrific reality of how the fascists of the American Left are using Mexico to destroy their own country.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/30/10
We've a lot of ground to cover for this week's HFR, but first let's ask - who knew Connie Mack (R-FL) has gone senile at 42 years old? Of course the Fascist Democrats of the Anti-American Left are hysterically demagoguing Arizona's anti-illegal alien law. But Connie? What kind of bizarre mental dysfunction caused him to compare Arizona to Nazi Germany? You'd expect RINOs like Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, and Lindsey Graham to wimp out. And now we can see that for Lincoln Diaz-Barlart (R-FL), his Hispanic blood is thicker than patriotism. But again, Connie? Maybe the open-borders/cheap-labor-for-business folks at the Wall Street Journal got to him. Whatever. Let's now go back to the HFR of January 23, 2009, which said:
What could be more appropriate, on the eve of the TTP Carefree Rendezvous, than to hoist a pint of Four Peaks Ale brewed here in Arizona to an inspiring woman Republican governor who drives liberals out of their minds because she is a pro-family, pro-life, pro-Christian, anti-tax, anti-government spending, anti-illegal immigration Reagan conservative. Nope, we're not talking about Sarah Palin - however much the HFR is happy to hoist a glass in admiration of her at any time. We're talking about another fine lady who, in addition to all the great qualities above, has the greatest name for drinking to one could ever ask: Jan Drinkwine Brewer...
CALIFORNIA’S CROOKED CORRUPT COURTS
A distinguished 70-year-old attorney in poor health has been sitting in solitary confinement in "coercive incarceration" in the notorious Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail without being charged, tried, or convicted of anything since March 4, 2009. In effect, he was thrown in jail for an indefinite period with no bail or hearing set for blowing the whistle on judicial corruption in California. The chain of events that led to his incarceration was set in motion in 2000, when Richard Fine became aware that L.A. superior court judges were receiving illegal "judicial benefits" payments from Los Angeles County, despite the fact that lawsuits against that county were often adjudicated by these same judges, thus creating clear conflict of interest problems. In other words, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, with taxpayer funds, was bribing superior court judges to decide cases in favor of the county. This is "the greatest judicial scandal in American history," as Mr. Fine says, and he has become an American political prisoner because of it.
THE BARBERS OF DUSSELDORF
One of Margaret Thatcher's more trenchant observations is: "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." The purpose in life for most politicians anywhere in the world is to, by whatever sleight-of-hand shell game they think they can get away with, make that run-out-of-other-people's-money moment forever later. The world's spotlight is currently on politicians in Europe who are frantically, hysterically, desperately engaging in this shell game. The question of the immediate moment is: will the barbers of Dusseldorf let them get away it - or at last and for once, put an end to it? For if they opt for the latter, they could precipitate an end to Washington's shell game here in America. First, the background, starting with the Greek Limbo Dance.
OUR #1 NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT IS MEXICO
South of the border, down Mexico way, a new and savage revolution rages just beyond our inspection lanes. After less than five years of fighting, estimates of the dead have reached 22,000. The rate of killing accelerates each month. And Washington covers its eyes like a kid at a scary movie. Well, the Mexican narco-insurgency, in which well-armed guerrilla forces confront the authority and presence of the state, is our No. 1 security challenge. The chaos in northern Mexico has far deeper implications for our country than Islamist terror or even an Iranian nuclear capability (as grim as those threats are). The rule of law has collapsed from Tijuana (across from San Diego, California) on the Pacific's edge to Matamoros (across from Brownsville, Texas) on the Gulf of Mexico. Major cities are now "ungoverned spaces," as our diplomats refer tidily to distant trouble spots. And Arizona's "discriminatory" new state law empowering police to pursue criminal aliens? Should Phoenix let the rule of law collapse because Washington prefers political correctness to public safety? In DC, it's about politics. In Arizona, it's about survival.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/23/10
Jack Kelly asked this week: Are there no limits to Democrat corruption? The corollary question is: Is there no end to Democrat fascism? Day by day, the evidence mounts: the answers are: no limits, no end. Prominent political analyst Michael Barone's term for fascism is Gangster Government, and accuses Zero and the Democrats of instituting it. The Dodd Bailout Bill of "financial reform" is a perfect example. He notes: "Republicans have been accurately attacking the Dodd bill for authorizing bailouts of big Wall Street firms and giving them unfair advantages over small competitors. They might want to add that it authorizes Gangster Government -- the channeling of vast sums from the politically unprotected to the politically connected." The extent of this can be seen in this five page list of exemptions or "carve-outs" in the 1,400 page Bailout Bill. As TTPer "Rockymount" observes on the Forum, the Bailout Bill will place "the President and his Czars in complete control of this nation's financial system." Can't get a lot more fascist than that. The Dems, though, disagree. They think they're just getting started.
THE MUSEUM OF BARBARISM IN THE ISLAND OF LOVE
Paphos, Cyprus. There are 45 countries in Europe -- and when I got the chance to take a look at the only one I hadn't yet been to, I couldn't pass it up. So here I am in Cyprus. Let's begin our story with Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love, who was born here. Then we'll talk about Audrey Hepburn, Lazarus, Richard the Lion-Heart, Snow White, and Othello before we get to the Museum of Barbarism. We'll wrap it up with what I would recommend regarding Cyprus to President Palin.
DON’T WORRY AMERICA – ISRAEL IS BEHIND YOU
Israel's status as the US's most vital ally in the Middle East has been so widely recognized for so long that over the years, Israeli and American leaders alike have felt it unnecessary to explain what it is about the alliance that makes it so important for the US. This week - April 19 - we celebrate Israel's 62nd Independence Day. As the Obama administration is openly distancing the US from Israel while giving the impression that Israel is a strategic impediment to the administration's attempts to strengthen its relations with the Arab world, recalling why Israel is the US's most important ally in the Middle East has become a matter of some urgency. Much is made of the fact that Israel is a democracy. But we seldom consider why the fact that Israel is a representative democracy matters. The fact that Israel is a democracy means that its alliance with America reflects the will of the Israeli people. As such, it remains constant regardless of who is power in Jerusalem. All of the US's other alliances in the Middle East are with authoritarian regimes whose people do not share the pro-American views of their leaders. The death of leaders or other political developments are liable to bring about rapid and dramatic changes in their relations with the US.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/16/10
Remember the Republicans' Contract With America they promised to implement should they win control of Congress in 1994? A lot of it was penny-ante inside baseball, like promising to ban committee proxy votes. At Tea Parties all over America yesterday (4/15), a new Contract was unveiled - a Contract From America - that tells folks in Congress what to do if they expect to be elected in November. It is sunlight-to-moonlight better than that wimpy thing of Gingrich's 16 years ago. It demands politicians, to get the Patriotic American vote, pledge to scrap the entire IRS tax code and replace it with one no longer than 4,543 words - the length of the Constitution - scrap Cap & Trade, scrap all earmarks... and my favorite, defund Obamacare. Yes, the Defund Strategy, first propounded right here in TTP, then moved forward by TTPer Mitch Rapp with the Defund & Disobey website, has now been adopted by the entire Tea Party movement. Congratulations, Mitch! Congratulations to all TTPers who helped bring this about.
EXPOSING MILITARY PHONIES
Ever heard of Richard Armitage? Assistant Secretary of Defense for President Ronald Reagan. Deputy Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. An impressive résumé as long as your arm. Why would such a man lie about being a Navy SEAL? SEAL is an acronym for SEa, Air, and Land for the comprehensive training required to be a member of the most elite special operations force in the US military. It was my great privilege to serve my country as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam, and ultimately to be the Commandant of the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California, where graduates of the BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) course earn the right to be a SEAL. I had heard Armitage's claim before and knew it was false, because I had researched the student personnel files at the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, and there was no record of an Armitage ever having been enrolled in BUD/S (much less graduated). This got me to thinking - how many others are there who lie about their being a SEAL? I decided to look into it, and got a number of retired SEALs to help me. What we discovered astounded us.
PUTIN AND PRESIDENT PUTTY
A few years back, I wrote that Russia's Vladimir Putin was the most impressive major leader on today's world stage. Since then, he's gotten better. Back then, he was eating President George W. Bush for breakfast. Now he's snacking on President Obama as sushi -- eating him raw, in happy little bites. Mr. Obama is so naïvely pliable in the Russian leader's hands Putin should nickname him President Putty. Putin is ruthless, unforgiving, and murderous. He is the Evil Empire's belated answer to President Ronald Reagan. Where the Gipper focused uncompromisingly on bringing down the Soviet imperium, Putin focuses uncompromisingly on restoring imperial Russia. Putin doesn't seem like a man much given to hilarity, but he must be laughing his butt off at our incompetence. Consider his strategic achievements in just the last few months:
WHAT OBAMA REALLY IS
Tomorrow - April 15th - is the most Un-American day of the year. It is the day when American taxpayers, the producers who support the moochers, are forced at the point of a gun to obey a law which violates their most basic constitutional rights - such as "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." So what could be more appropriate for the spirit of America than to turn this day of evil into a day of hope and regeneration? Tomorrow, millions of producing Americans will hold Tea Party Rallies in hundreds of cities and town across the country with the common goal of "getting the government off our backs and out of our wallets" (to quote Ronald Reagan). For a complete list (with time, place, and contact info) of all the Tea Parties tomorrow - 642 as of this writing - see the Tea Party Patriots site. Many of you are actively participating in the Tea Party Movement and will be at a rally tomorrow - which may be a good time to start initiating a Reagan Doctrine "psy-ops" strategy effectively used against the Soviets to help win the Cold War. This strategy can be used against the Obamacrats today. It can be used to identify what Obama really is.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/09/10
Let's start the HFR this week by my asking you to stop reading it. What I suggest you do right now, this very moment is to pick up the phone and call the local offices of both US Senators in your state. Ask to speak to the staffer who handles foreign policy/national security issues for the Senator. Tell him or her that as a voting constituent, you respectfully request that the Senator vote NO on Senate Ratification on the nuclear arms control treaty - mislabeled "START II" as that was a treaty back in January 1993 - with Russia signed by Mr. Obama in Prague on April 8th. Explain that you consider this treaty to be dangerous to America in the extreme, as it requires the US to freeze its nuclear weapons technology, but not Russia. This is, as critics are putting it, an open invitation to Russia to modernize its way to nuclear dominance. Do not get into a discussion with the staffer and avoid a debate with him. Make it quick and polite. Simply state your request, the reason for your request, and conclude with saying that how the Senator votes on this critical issue of US national security will determine how you vote when he or she is up for re-election. OK - make the calls (that's plural for you have two Senators) and I'll wait ‘till you get back....
THE DUTY TO DISOBEY
The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States of America 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: For more than seventeen years, I have had the privilege of serving my country as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces, including overseas assignments in imminent danger/combat areas in Bosnia and Afghanistan. The United States is an example to the rest of the world of a stable, civilized democratic government where all men are created equal and the rule of law is cherished and obeyed. The U.S. military teaches and promotes the rule of law and civilian control of the military to many other nations and militaries around the world. Every soldier learns what constitutes a lawful order and is encouraged to stand up and object to unlawful orders. This is called "the duty to disobey."
THE EXPONENTIAL CURVE OF FASCIST UNCONSTITUTIONALITY
Reading the morning's news now can be impossibly depressing. Every single day brings yet another assault on our freedom or threat to our security from the Federal Government. Not only that, the pace of these assaults is accelerating. They are accumulating ever more quickly. We are losing our freedom at an exponential rate. You may have heard the ancient tale of the Sultan and the Chessboard. The most skilled artisan in the sultanate presented the Sultan with a fabulously beautiful chessboard, intricately made with carved ivory, rare woods, and precious stones. It was so exquisite the Sultan offered the Artisan whatever price he named. The Artisan asked for one grain of rice. The Sultan was shocked. The Artisan continued - one grain of rice for the first square on the chessboard; one day later, two grains for the second square; two days later, four grains for the third, and the same simple doubling for the remainder of the 64 squares on the chessboard. Laughing, the Sultan agreed. "So I am to pay you a few grains of rice for all your wondrous work?" he asked. "It is sufficient for me, Your Majesty," was the Artisan's reply.
THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CRISIS WITH ISRAEL
Last month, President Barack Obama opened a diplomatic war on Israel. The proximate cause of his offensive was the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Board's decision to approve the future construction of 1,600 housing units in northern Jerusalem. The goal of the assault is twofold. First, it seeks to undermine the legitimacy of Israel's control over Jerusalem in order to weaken Israel's standing among the American public. As Obama advisor Martin Indyk mocked, Obama's onslaught against Israel has made the Netanyahu government "supersensitive," about Jerusalem. Second, through his unprecedented attacks on Israel's right to sovereignty over its capital city, Obama is working to topple Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government in the hopes of replacing it with a leftist government led by Tzipi Livni and Kadima. In other words, the "crisis" between the US and Israel -- so named by Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama -- was a set up, created by a conspiracy between the Kadima and Democrat Parties.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/02/10
Today is Good Friday, when Christians commemorate the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus. It should be of solace to the millions doing so in America that there are so many millions more sharing this commemoration with them all over the world. It should be of solace to them all that Christianity has more adherents and is more widespread across the planet than any other religion on earth today or in history. 33% of all people on earth say they are Christians. Islam is a distant second, accounting for 21%. Further, Christianity, in terms of absolute numbers, is the fastest growing religion in the world. The World Christian Database, which compiles the most respected research on world religions, reports that from 2000-2005, Christianity experienced an annual world-wide growth in adherents of 1.38%, while Islam had a growth rate of 1.84%. At that rate of 0.46% more a year, it would take over 200 years for there to be as many Moslems as Christians. However... the WCD reports that from 1970 to 1985, the Moslem growth rate was 2.74%, and from 1990-2000 it was 2.13%. The Moslem growth rate over the past 25 years is falling, while the Christian rate is rising (up from 1.36% 1990-2000). And there's more.
GOOD NEWS IN PAKISTAN BAD NEWS IN AFGHANISTAN
As an intelligence officer or journalist, you've got to know which sources you can trust. And a source who's never let me down told me this week (3/30) that the terrorist multinational based in Pakistan is coming apart. According to this insider's insider, the Pakistan-headquartered Afghan Taliban is furious at the Taliban's Pakistani wing because its assaults on the Islamabad government triggered a stunning backlash. Unleashed at last, Pakistan's military launched a series of offensives aimed at smacking down the domestic Taliban. Good news at last. If only there were the same in Afghanistan, where our president made a furtive six-hours-in-the-night visit Sunday (3/28). The Taliban laughed at Obama, saying he was afraid to come during the daytime and calling him a thief in the night.
PUTIN’S SEWER STRATEGY
The mass murder of innocent civilians in the Moscow Metro suicide bombings on Monday (3/29) has again brought into focus the evil of radical Islamism and the imperative of civilized people everywhere to stop it. As clear-cut a case of Islamist barbarism as it is, however, it is difficult to make sense of the spiraling violence in Russia without reference to Vladimir Putin's disastrous anti-terrorism policies. A Moslem terrorist group from Chechnia - a province in a region of southern Russia called the North Caucasus - has claimed responsibility for the attack. It is the latest incident in a long struggle between the Chechens and their Russian overlords. Unlike his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, President Putin from the very beginning of his tenure in the Kremlin ten years ago showed himself completely unwilling to consider any negotiated settlement with the Chechens. He pursued a strictly military solution, and set up a puppet regime in the Chechen capital of Grozny instead. Putin's attitude is characterized by his vulgar promise to the resistance to "rub them out in the latrine." He made that promise in 1999. This week he slightly rephrased it, promising the resistance will be "scrapped from the sewers." Thus we could call his anti-terrorism policy Putin's Sewer Strategy. Unfortunately for him, it is his strategy that is in the toilet, not the terrorists.
CAPE VERDE
This is an experiment. The insanity engulfing Washington now is so overwhelming that I had to get far away from it. I wanted a place I had never been to and knew nothing about. Then a challenge occurred to me. What could I learn about such a lost unknown place that TTPers would find interesting? Could I possibly write something that would intrigue them? So here we go - let me know how this experiment works. The place I picked is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean 400 miles off Africa called... Cape Verde. There are nine islands. Hordes of Germans escape from their winter to lie on the beaches of one of them, Sal (non-stop flights from Frankfurt) and turn their skins bright pink. That's all they do. They don't go anywhere else or explore any other islands. Their only movement all day is to turn over back to belly so both sides get equally roasted. There are non-stop flights from Europe and the US to Praia (the capital on Santiago island) now - but that's brought a business, not a tourist, boom. You only see the occasional tourist on any island except Sal. Remember all those Germans. The businessmen are here because Cape Verde has reinvented itself once again. It has gone from being a Communist dictatorship to being one of only two countries ever to escape off the UN Least Developed Country List to a free democracy and the best place to do business in Africa. Yet the place has no natural resources whatever -- only unique human resources. And that's the key.
WHY SHOULD OUR SOLDIERS RISK THEIR LIVES FOR KARZAI?
It's wretched enough that our "friend" Ahmed Chalabi has become Iran's point man in Iraq. Now "our man in Kabul," President Hamid Karzai, is quietly shifting his loyalty to Tehran. Beyond Iranian President Mahmud Ahmedinejad's recent chummy visit to Karzai -- reported by the media but downplayed by Washington -- Iran's been training Taliban forces to kill our troops more efficiently. Karzai hasn't complained. Nor has he objected to Tehran's expansion of its support for its clients in western Afghanistan. He wants that support for himself. Far from being a gleaming apostle of democracy, Karzai's just another hustler from the lands that perfected the con. Like Chalabi, he knew the magic words to say to Americans, then did whatever he wanted for himself, his fantastically corrupt family and his cronies. Karzai's people despise him; his allies distrust him; his enemies mock him. And our troops keep him in power. Does that sound like a formula for success? One that we should ask our soldiers to risk their lives for?
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/26/10
It was seven years ago this week that I launched To The Point. Sure seems like a long time ago. In late March of 2003, President Bush launched a military invasion to liberate Iraq. In late March of 2010, President Zero launched a fascist invasion to enslave America. It's easy to be nostalgic about those days, so it's little wonder that Miss Me Yet? billboards are showing up. But we can't afford nostalgia now. We have to start protecting our future. There are folks in Missouri who understand this. The forerunner of Kansas City was Independence, Missouri, founded in 1827 as the starting point of the Oregon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, and the trails that led to California. Just east of Independence, where explorers set off to create a civilization out of a wilderness, anonymous American patriots have erected this billboard on I-70: 
Note the sequence of the steps.
ARE AMERICANS STILL AMERICANS?
That's the question and the bet of our day. Conservatives and TeaPartyers bet yes, Democrats and moonbat moochers bet no. The Republican Party establishment wants to bet yes but hasn't got the guts to go all in. Understand this and you understand American politics today. Who wins the bet determines America's future. What made Americans Americans was their commitment - unrivaled in human history - to individual liberty. This commitment was enshrined as the founding principle of America in the Declaration of Independence. The truth of America's founding principles were "self-evident" to the Americans who created our country. They are no longer to an increasingly large fraction of Americans today. The stated purpose and clear goal of Democrats is to increase that fraction. The claimed purpose and alleged goal of Republicans is to reduce it. For decades upon decades now, Americans on the whole have been slowly and progressively becoming less American, less independent and responsible for their own lives, more dependent on government programs and demanding of others to be responsible for them. We have now reached the point where between 40 to 50% of people in this country are so unwilling to be responsible for their lives and freedom, so demanding of their supposed right to mooch off taxpayers, that they still maintain a firm support of a president who believes that God should damn America. We have reached the point with the passage of ObamaCare that we are justified in terming those who continue to support President Zero and the Pelosi-Reid Democrat Party AINOs - Americans In Name Only.
THE CRISIS
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), one of America's great founding patriots, wrote this on December 23, 1776, when America was less than six months old. Substitute Democrats for Britain, RINOs for Tories, Obama for King George III, Pelosi for Howe, Reid for Gage - Sarah Palin for the "Jersey maid" - and he is speaking to us today. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/19/10
There's so much cool stuff to talk about this week - but first I've got to clear up a confusion. We normally have two Rendezvous a year, winter and summer. This year, we're adding a third, the San Diego Spring Rendezvous, May 14-16. A number of folks are hesitating about this as they think there'll still be another in the summer. Obviously, I should have explained this earlier: There will not be a Summer Rendezvous this year. I will be traveling - South America, Asia, and Europe - August through October. The next Rendezvous after San Diego in May will be The Victory Celebration Rendezvous in Washington DC, November 5-7. That's the weekend after the November 2 elections, and we should have a lot to celebrate. But there's a long meantime between now and then - even longer if you consider the total gap between the San Antonio Rendezvous last January and next November. So - the only way to see your fellow TTPers, and get a deep grasp of what's happening to our country and in the world, without waiting all the way to late next fall, is to join us in sunny San Diego in May. Capiche? OK, here we go. There's no doubt who the HFR Hero of the Week is:
WHY IS OBAMA ON THE SIDE OF OUR ENEMIES AND NOT OUR ALLIES?
If the Obama administration continues to betray Israel, will any ally ever trust us again? We've been viewed as a fickle (if mighty) partner at least since the 1970s, when we abruptly dumped allies from Saigon to Tehran. Now the White House not only delights in insulting our closest traditional ally, Britain, but has intensified its diplomatic pogrom against Israel -- our only respectable ally in the Middle East. President George W. Bush was mocked for shooting from the hip, but this administration fires with its eyes closed. Obama's unbalanced actions shrivel confidence among allies around the globe -- partners we need. Policy differences are one thing, but gratuitous attacks by the White House are quite another. Consistently, it seems, he is on the side our enemies and not our allies.
EVIL NEVER SLEEPS
Was Nancy Pelosi always evil? Was Harry Reid? Was Barack Hussein Obama? No, they didn't start out in life as bad people. Somewhere along the line, most likely not as kids, teenagers, or young adults, but as they aged and acquired political power, something inside them metastasized into a monstrosity of their former selves. And in the process, they became evil. Yet it is not true that power corrupts necessarily. Power did not corrupt Ronald Reagan. It's not power in itself that is the avenue to evil, it's one's values and principles. Valuing the founding American principle that every individual has a moral right to his or her own life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own personal happiness enables a politician to resist the temptation to use power to control other's lives. It is disregarding that founding principle that provides the path to evil - which we could define as the compulsion to control the lives of others, the willingness to sacrifice the lives and happiness of others in order to achieve your own goals. And yes, Democrats have a word for this evil. They call it "compassion." They have other words for their moral cannibalism, such as "fairness" and "social justice." There are many lessons to be drawn from this, but the one to focus on right now is that the evil currently personified by Pelosi-Reid-Obama is compulsive. It is relentless. Liberals will never ever give up and leave us alone. It is the purpose of their lives to control ours. Evil never sleeps.
THE SUNNY SPRING SAN DIEGO RENDEZVOUS
Do political and geopolitical events seem to you to be moving at warp speed? Do you feel you need a fix of sanity or else you might lose your mind with all the craziness swamping our country? Then you totally and truly need to come to the To The Point Spring Rendezvous in sunny San Diego this May 14-16. We're staying at the Westin San Diego, minutes from the airport, minutes from Sea World, Coronado Island, the Gaslamp District, Mission Bay, and so much more - with every room overlooking San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, and in perfect springtime California weather. So mark it down - Friday May 14 to Sunday May16 - gas up the family buggy if you live in CA, or book your flights right now. Your sanity requires that you bask in the Oasis for Rational Conservatives for this May weekend. We're going to start the Rendezvous right on Friday night with a special guest, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. You've seen Dana numerous times on Fox and other news channels, and he'll be giving you the inside scoop on just how evil the Pelosicrats are, and how the Republicans in Congress are going to reverse that evil.
THE RED-GREEN ALLIANCE
An alliance between the Marxist Left and Jihad Islam - known as the Red-Green Alliance - is on the march. Israel is not the only target of the Red-Green alliance. Its operations span the globe. In Nigeria on Sunday night (3/07), the Jihadists led the charge. With the apparent collaboration of the Moslem-dominated Nigerian army, Moslem gangs entered three predominantly Christian villages around the city of Jos and killed innocent civilians, including children with machetes, axes, and daggers. The worldwide leftist media ignored the atrocity - or said it had nothing to do with religion. And while this was going on, Joe Biden was in Israel -- and promptly showed where the Obama administration's true sympathies lay: with the Red-Green Alliance.
SOBER OPTIMISM IN IRAQ – THANKS TO GEORGE BUSH
Threats, bombs and at least 36 dead didn't stop Iraqis from voting on Sunday, March 7. But the harder part -- forming a new, more inclusive national government -- lies ahead. Formal results won't come for a few days. We'll learn how many votes, authentic and fraudulent, went to each of the big five parties and fringe elements. But the news looks good, so far. There are solid grounds for sober optimism and the expectation of slowly improving government in Baghdad. The elections happened. And they were genuinely contested -- not merely on ethnic or religious lines but on national issues, as well. For all its tragic missteps, the Bush administration may have done a great thing in the end: Democracy in Iraq may work to a serviceable degree. That would, indeed, change the Middle East for the better over time. History may owe President Bush a great debt of gratitude.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/12/10
Isn't it supposed to be just about springtime now? In Florida last week, I heard no end to grousing about how it's been the coldest winter in memory. Back in Washington where there are still piles of snow left over from last month's Snowmageddon, everyone is looking forward to three inches of cold rain and flooding this weekend. Enough already. Enough of crazy cold weather - and enough of crazy Democrat politics. The political climate on Capitol Hill is so bad now that certain GOP Senators and Congressmen are privately (although not publicly) expressing a genuine worry about the sanity of the President of the United States. Zero's obsession with "health care reform" is being likened to the deranged Captain Ahab's obsession with harpooning the White Whale in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. That didn't turn out so well for Ahab. To compound their concern, Zero began yet again this week (3/10) demanding "climate change legislation" that would "cap greenhouse gas emissions" - acting as if the unending exposure of ClimateGate frauds never happened. The common image the Capitol Hill GOP invokes is to joke about the Democrats' "circular firing squad." Yet there is real concern behind the jokes. "Neither Obama nor Reid nor Pelosi is playing with a full deck anymore," one Senator tells me.
AMERICAN AWAKENING
One of the main functions of To The Point is to counter Conservative Pessimism. There is an old and unfortunate tradition in conservative thought that asserts everything is always going to hell in a handbasket - morals, culture, kids, society, crime, national security, government, you name it, it's worse now than before and getting worser. It would seem that if ever there was an appropriate time for Conservative Pessimism, it would be now, with a fascist president and party in power who are determined to destroy our country. So it was an exceedingly pleasant, and perhaps ironic, surprise to discover an optimism among conservative leaders now that I have never seen before. I have been attending meetings of the Council for National Party for 26 years, since 1984. (You read the speech I delivered at the meeting on Friday, March 5.) "CNP" is the elite conservative organization, composed of most every major conservative activist, politician, pundit, et al. I have never seen these folks more energized and forward-looking as now. The private CNP meetings are closed to the press and remarks of the speakers or members are not for attribution so everyone can speak openly and frankly. Thus I can relay what was said on a broad-brush basis and nothing that was in confidence. But that's enough to open your eyes.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/05/10
Naples, Florida. I had to skedaddle back from the Persian Gulf to speak to a conservative organization meeting here today. I'll be on the podium soon, so let's get started. Richard Rahn this week discusses the economics of raising cigarette taxes in New York, and parenthetically mentions New York's "enormous cigarette smuggling problem." One thing I learned while in the Middle East is that our military intel guys there believe that much of the cigarette smuggling operation on the US East Coast is run by Moslems working for Al Qaeda. Someone needs to tell New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg his cigarette taxes are resulting in scores of millions of dollars funding Al Qaeda terrorism. Someone needs to tell the DHS lady, Janet Napolitano, to do something about this. You wonder why nobody has. Or maybe they just don't care to listen.
WHY LIBERALS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN TERRORISTS
[This is a speech I am delivering today to the members of the Council for National Policy, leaders of conservative organizations across America, meeting in Naples, Florida.] There's no time to waste here, so I'm going to skip the obligatory warm-up joke and get to the root of the problem. First, Moslems are not really the problem, neither Moslem terrorists nor Moslem imperialists insisting on their medieval Sharia laws. Christendom has been fighting Islam for almost fifteen centuries. The Spaniards fought 800 years to get rid of the Moslem invaders of their Christian lands. 800 years! That's how long the Reconquista took. How long have we in America been at it - two decades? Islam is a self-identified religion of the sword. It cannot be anything else but. "Islam" is an Arabic word. It means submission. Moslems claim this means submit to Allah. What it really means is submit to them or die. Just the same as it was for the Communists of the Soviet Union. Thus there can be no peace between Jihadi or Sharia Moslems and us, anymore than there could be with Soviet Communists. "Peace" for us means the absence of violence. "Peace" for Jihadis and Communists means the absence of disobedience. So there can be no peace, there can only be victory or submission. We achieved victory over the Communists of the Soviet Union. How may we achieve victory over the Moslems of Jihad and Sharia? Let's go to Africa to find out.