Dr. Jack Wheeler
TURKEY’S PHONY INVASION OF IRAQ
Turkey Invades Northern Iraq blared headlines around the world last weekend (2/23-24). Thousands of Turkish troops had crossed several miles into Iraq to "root out" PKK Kurdish guerrillas from their "mountain strongholds." Here is a map of the Turkey-Iraq border. It runs west-to-east or left-to-right from Syria (the triangle that Highway 6 runs through is Syria) to Iran. [See map in main article.] Note the Turkish town of Cukurca. This is the Turkish Army's staging point, where the invasion was launched, and from where, as CNN announced yesterday (2/27), Turkey Sends More Troops Into Iraq. The farthest penetration of Turkish troops has been about 24 kilometers or 15 miles into Iraq in the area of the Iraqi village of Al Amadiyah. Anyone who sees this map and knows where the PKK is based is instantly LOL - laughing out loud. The PKK "stronghold" is in the Qandil mountains where Turkey, Iraq, and Iran come together - almost 100 miles by road or jeep track from Cukurca. This is a phony invasion. Check out this story in the Washington Post, whose eyewitness reporter states the Turkish troops can "go no farther" than 15 miles into Iraq, that the Turkish military has "targeted Kurdish civilians in villages that are often far from the bases of the [PKK] guerrilla group," and quotes an Iraqi Kurdish soldier: The Turks "say there are PKK in this area, but actually the PKK are very far from here." Why would the Turkish Army stage a Potemkin invasion of Iraq and pretend to attack the PKK? To ramp up anti-Kurdish Turkish jingoistic nationalism while preserving the business deal the Turkish Army has with the PKK to run drugs.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND HIGHER TAXES
Why do individuals and countries engage in self-destructive behavior? Many books have been written on the topic, but given the U.S. election campaign, it is worth examining why some politicians and other opinion leaders advocate policies contrary to both good theory and empirical evidence. Despite this evidence of success, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to increase the top tax rates, though there is no evidence that raising the top rates will result in any more revenue but there is evidence it will result in slower growth. They can get away with it because voters have had their brains mangled by public education. Since education in almost all countries these days is chiefly in public institutions, except for relatively small numbers of students educated in U.S. private schools and universities, it should come as no surprise that the government employees doing the "educating" are biased toward the public sector and are anti-business.
HALF-FULL REPORT: 2/22/08
I have been saving a very special bottle of wine - a 1992 Chateau Vieux French Bordeaux - for a very specific occasion: to celebrate the death of Fidel Castro. Looks like I'll be opening it soon - for the best news of the week is Castro's announcing he has one foot in the grave by ending his 49-year run as Cuba's El Jefe Maximo. I chose the vintage not just because 1992 was a great year for French reds, but because I went to Cuba that year. I told the story a couple of years ago in Cuba Libré. A meeting with Castro had been set up, at which I intended to tell him the Cuban people would some day urinate on his grave. He got wind of it and canceled the meeting. My wife was very relieved. Dagny D'Anconia explained the dictator's slow and awful descent towards demise some time ago in The Partial Assassination of Fidel Castro. Drawn-out lingering nightmare agony - just the sort of hell a piece of murderous human garbage deserves. What's hilarious is the lib media's portrayal of Raul Castro as a Cuban Mikhail Gorbachev reformer. Raul is a 76-year old alcoholic who hasn't much longer to go himself. The army and secret police still run everything, but with Fidel gone the regime has no legitimacy. Odds will increase for a really bloody revolution.
MCCAIN LEMONADE
Aren't you just so surprised? The infamous article I authored three weeks ago that went viral on the Internet and got McCainiacs in a total tizzy, How the Clintons Will Destroy John McCain, warned of the wardrobe full of McCain skeletons nicely arranged on hangars just waiting for the lib media to take out and display to the world. I warned, for example, of "media disclosures of the lady lobbyists in Washington having adulterous affairs with McCain - there are at least three of them." I didn't, however, think that the New York Times and the Washington Post would jump the gun so soon and wait a little longer - but they decided Michelle Obama's incredible not-proud-of-her-country admission was so damaging to her husband's campaign that attention had to be re-directed to a juicy McCain adultery scandal, replete with color pics of the hot blonde lobbyist involved. This morning (2/21), the photo of Vicki Iseman is up on Drudge for millions to see. In response, McCain did exactly the right thing: he attacked. He didn't simply denounce the story as a "smear," but he had his campaign manager, Charlie Black, announce that McCain would now "declare war on the New York Times." Perfect. When you've got lemons, make lemonade. And that's just what conservatives must do now with the lemon of John McCain.
THE HALF-FULL REPORT
You know the old glass half-empty/half-full perspective. Whenever it's mentioned I always think of Dennis Turner. Many years ago, we were having a discussion whether the future of freedom was bright or bleak. Arguing for the former, I mentioned Reason Magazine's "Trends" feature, which itemized recent pro-freedom developments. Dennis instantly responded, "Yes, but it's mis-named. It should be called "Anomalies." But we are not eternal pessimists here at To The Point. We aren't naïvely Pollyannic either, but are instead rationally optimistic, always on the look out for opportunities and solutions instead of being bummed out on dangers and problems. And we'd like you to participate in the hunt. So we are instituting the TTP Half-Full Report.
THE FOUR GOVERNMENT-CAUSED REASONS FOR OUR ECONOMIC MESS
How much money would the government have to give you and every other American to avoid a recession? You cannot answer because the question contains a false conclusion, and when political arguments are about false conclusions, the wrong policies are pursued. To try to reverse the current economic slowdown, one first must understand the real causes and then try to correct those causes. Many in Congress, the administration, and the Fed have misdiagnosed the problem and then given the wrong medicine -AKA "the stimulus package." There are four government-caused reasons why Washington remains "stuck on stupid" regarding the economy.
BACK IN THE USSR
If Yogi Berra happens to be in Moscow this coming May 9, we know what he'd say: "Looks like déjà vu all over again." On that day, heavy military equipment will once again roll down Moscow's Red Square for the Victory Day military parade. Tanks, missiles, and 6,000 troops will be joined overhead by fighter aircraft and military helicopters. The last time Moscow saw such a display of military hardware was November 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The parade is designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal the U.S., NATO members and Russia's neighbors that Russia's power is back. It also illustrates President Vladimir Putin's emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic institutions.
THE CAUCUS – A LAST BASTION OF SELF-DETERMINATION
Unless you live in one of the 17 states that still use the caucus as part of the political nominating process, your knowledge of that institution is likely limited to Iowa caucus reports on the news. Yet the caucus plays a broader, important role in our presidential nominating process. In states that have retained or returned to the caucus - such as my state of Colorado - every election year sees a spirited debate over the merits and demerits of the caucus system. The young lady who cuts my hair, a staunch conservative Republican, expresses the negative viewpoint as well as anyone. She doesn't like the caucus system because it excludes too many people. To prove her point, I suppose, she self-excluded herself by not attending the caucus in our precinct, despite my strong encouragement to do so! Our local Republican Party treasurer, on the other hand, champions the caucuses because they're the only place the average voter can actually participate in debates on issues and candidates and have those debates translate into meaningful action. I myself like the caucus system for an entirely different reason.
WHAT A BEACH PARTY!
Sunset on the beach at Sarasota, Florida, with good friends and an adult beverage. Can't beat that, especially when those friends are fellow TTPers. All of us sure did have a good time. Here's a synopsis of what we did and what we learned.
MCCAIN AS THE ANTI-REAGAN
It's going to take a while for conservatives to become fully resigned to John McCain's securing the Republican presidential nomination. They may never be if he does some incredibly dumb thing like picking a Preacher Socialist - Mike Huckabee - as his running mate, or his supporters continue to demonize conservative heroes like Rush Limbaugh for not genuflecting at the saintly image of Sir Galahad McCain. No Knight of King Arthur's Round Table, like Sir Galahad who McCain pretends to be, possessed "a strutting self-righteousness... that goes hand in hand with a nitroglycerin temper." That memorably accurate description of John McCain by Mona Charen explains why McCain is the Anti-Reagan. Aside from Ronald Reagan the politician, statesman, or political conservative, Ronald Reagan the human being was someone of great-hearted likeability. It was almost impossible to dislike him. The contrast is stark. It is almost impossible to actually like, to be genuinely fond of John McCain because at the bottom of his character he is an insufferable jerk. Because of his essential unlikeableness, McCain cannot create conservative passion for him. This truth will outrage the McCainiacs, who will thus angrily blame his loss in November upon conservatives. But as anyone should know on this Valentine's Day, you can't force someone to love you. You've got to entice them instead. You don't angrily stomp your feet and call them deranged if they don't love you. There's no bigger turn-off than that.
REAGAN VS. CLINTON BY THE NUMBERS
Under which recent president do you think the U.S. economy performed best? The policies of Presidents Bush, father and son, and Jimmy Carter clearly did not work as well as Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's. So let's compare their economic performance. For the numbers show that Democrats can continue "the-Clinton-economy-was-best" ploy only if the Republicans and the news media let them get away with the factual misrepresentation.
THE ACCIDENT OF MCCAIN
Assuming John McCain gets the Republican nomination, it will show how whimsical history can be. It would be the first time in living memory that a Republican presidential nomination went to a candidate who was not merely opposed by a majority of the party, but was actively despised by about a half of its rank-and-file voters across the country -and by many if not most of its congressional officeholders. After all, the McCain electoral surge was barely able to deliver a plurality of one-third of the Republican vote in a three-, four- or five-way split field. He has won fair and square - but he has driven the nomination process askew. This result reminds me of the nursery rhyme:
TTP AND HISTORY
At the Winter Rendezvous this weekend in Sarasota, one topic of discussion will be how to make improvements in To The Point, making it even better. We're jumping the gun this week, and making one many of you have been requesting for a while. That is to provide a side bar for categories of articles. Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding categories with links to all the TTP articles on say, Islam, or Mexico, Russia, China, Democrat Fascism, Global Warming, Science, Health, etc. The first one, however, is history. In the TTP Article Category side bar will be a link to all the articles on the history of various countries and regions of the world. It's the one many of you have wanted most of all. Here's the list. There will be more lists to come.
WARS ON THE WAY
While attention is fixated on Iraq and Afghanistan, the possibility of a number of other wars clearly emerged in the past few days, three in particular. Starting January 30, a total of five undersea telecom cables have been mysteriously cut in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East area. This is no accident, comrades. Someone has been slicing them. Someone with submarines to do the slicing. Who could that be? And what would be their target? That's a prelude to war in the Middle East. How about a war in Europe? One being promoted by Condi Rice and our State Department in support of Moslem narco-terrorists taking over a Christian country? That would be a region of Serbia called Kosovo. Close to home is a third war on the horizon, between Venezuela and Colombia.
DOUBTING MCCAIN
Whoa... what a firestorm. At the insistence of many TTPers, last week's How the Clintons Will Destroy John McCain was made a free access article and promptly went viral over the Internet, becoming explosively controversial. As you can see from the comments on the Member User Forum (201, a TTP record), the response from TTPers was overwhelmingly positive. I also received a number of responses from personal friends. Most were very supportive, a few were vehemently upset, with most of the latter assuring me that I remained their friend nonetheless. I cannot adequately express how much this meant to me. Then there were those among the latter whose friendship I have lost. I am most regretful of losing that of Jim Warner's. Jim had been a dear friend of many years. I know of no finer man than Jim Warner, a man of unquestionable character and integrity. As a captured POW held by the Communist Vietnamese for over five years, and a cell mate in the Hanoi Hilton of John McCain's for over a year, Jim felt it necessary to write a rebuttal to my article - without mentioning either my name or the article - in FrontPage Magazine.com. It is easy to understand Jim's desire to defend his cellmate with whom he suffered indescribable horrors at the hand of the communists. Thus the excruciating irony of Jim's article - for John McCain possesses a fraction of the integrity and decency of character of Jim Warner. I would trust my life to Jim Warner without a moment's hesitation. I would not trust my life to John McCain for a moment.
THE END OF DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE
Democracy died in Europe at the end of 2007. Last December, governments leaders of the 27 European Union member states convened in Lisbon to sign the EU Reform Treaty. This treaty of 76,250 words is a rewrite of the EU Constitutional Treaty, which was rejected in 2005 by referendums in major European countries. European leaders carefully avoid to call the reform treaty a "constitution," however, because they do not want to submit it to their peoples in a referendum. French President Nicolas Sarkozy conceded in November that the treaty would be rejected "in all member states if they have a referendum." Politicians like Mr. Sarkozy and Germany's Mrs. Merkel are the driving forces of this process because it enhances their powers. Today's EU's governmental bodies - the European Commission and the European Council - are unelected; they are appointed by the national governments. As the British author John Laughland explains: "The EU is a cartel of governments, engaged in a permanent conspiracy against their own electorates and parliaments."
AFTER FLORIDA, ON THE EVE OF SUPER TUESDAY
This is an endless a campaign of "what ifs." That is, a campaign prepares a strategy that presupposes a scenario which apparently will occur with 100 percent probability. Then, when things don't quite go as planned, the campaign strategists have an alibi. Somehow, externalities undercut a supposedly thoughtful and well conceived plan. The only problem with all this self-serving Monday morning quarter-backing? Events with a reasonable probability were assigned zero probability, because the strategy was ineptly created. It often assumed an optimum or best case scenario. Or it sharply or entirely discounted reasonably foreseeable events. Let's go through the what-ifs of the candidates in the wake of Florida and on the eve of Super Tuesday.
A SIGHT THAT WOULD MAKE MARTIN LUTHER KING CRY
Martin Luther King Day parade, Monday January 21, 2008, Corpus Christi, Texas, Channel 3 News: 
Brought to you by the National Education Association and America's Teacher Unions
HOW THE CLINTONS WILL DESTROY JOHN MCCAIN
The number of fellow Senators who think John McCain is psychologically unstable is large. Some will admit it publicly, like Thad Cochran who says, "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine." Others relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their faces in the Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum, or Jim Inhofe. "The man is unhinged," one Senator told me. "He is frighteningly unfit to be Commander-in-Chief." That John McCain is clinically nuts is scary enough. What worries a small group of GOP Senators and Congressmen even more is a deep and dark skeletal secret in McCain's glorified past to which they are privy, and which the Clintons will use to blackmail him. They have been having discussions with a Russian whom we'll call "T" for Translator. T's father was the Soviet military intelligence officer who ran the "Hanoi Hilton" prison holding captured Americans during the Vietnam War. One of those prisoners was John McCain.
DEM DISASTER IN DENVER
All the smart talk seems to be about a "brokered" Republican convention, with the GOP in a confused mess all through the summer until somebody is finally chosen in Minneapolis in early September. Yet the odds for that are decreasing, and may drastically do so if Romney takes Florida away from McCain next Tuesday. Huckabee will be history, Giuliani wounded perhaps mortally, all the big conservative guns like Limbaugh will put McCain in the crosshairs, and Mitt Is It for the GOP. The big difference between the GOP and Dem primaries, particularly those of Super Tuesday (2/5) is that most of the former's are winner-take-all, while the latter's are proportional. Thus Hillary could "win" all the primaries from now to June and still not get a majority of delegates. In fact, with the vicious catfight going on between her and Obama Hussein, that's the likely outcome. It's the Dems who face a brokered convention, and it is going to be a disaster.
THE GOP RACE BEFORE FLORIDA
A good man has withdrawn from the campaign. Fred Thompson, as I predicted, withdrew from the campaign after his predictably disappointing performance in South Carolina. But he has surprised me by not endorsing John McCain...yet. Thompson hinted days earlier that South Carolina would be conclusive for him, but it was emotionally taxing on his wife. One thing at a time. He may yet endorse, although in a conference call to his maxed-out donors yesterday (1/24), he said he would not. Perhaps he is waiting to see whether McCain or Romney wins the very competitive Florida primary on Tuesday. Indeed, the winner of that primary has a real leg up on Super Tuesday. And for one candidate, Rudy Giuliani, it could be a life line, or the last gasp.
A STRANGE AND ORDINARY WASHINGTON DINNER PARTY
A couple of nights ago, I attended a dinner party at the Capitol Hill home of a friend of mine. There was good wine, good food, and good conversation. Every night there are dinners like this held all over Washington, the normal rationale for which is a guest of honor. In this case, the guest of honor was the leader of a political party in Pakistan, Imran Khan. This resulted in a quite strange yet equally ordinary evening in DC. The charismatic and strikingly handsome Imran Khan is one of Pakistan's greatest celebrities. While other countries go crazy over soccer, Pakistan's sport is cricket - so the entire country went delirious with joy when its national team won the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Imran Khan captained the team and almost singlehandedly won the final game. The Oxford-educated cricketer then married, in 1995, the daughter of one of England's richest men, billionaire Sir James Goldsmith - Jemima Goldsmith converting to Islam beforehand. The following year, with $8 million of Sir James' money, he founded his own political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice). As he spoke to us and fielded questions, attired in a Saville Row suit and with an accent of impeccable Oxbridge English, he was urbane, witty, charming, and articulate. He is also an airhead.
THE RON PAUL MOVIE CONTEST
I had my say about Ron Paul in No Paulista. Yet the good gynecologist from Lake Jackson, Texas, has a devoted following among TTPers, and it is in their honor that To The Point is holding a contest. And that is for the greatest Libertarian Motion Picture. What movie ever made, in your opinion, best celebrates individual freedom, private property, the loathing and ridicule of government tyranny, the glory of the individual human being, and which has the most fun doing so? There are a lot of choices. We think of Hollywood as an anti-American cesspool of liberal lunacy. But once you begin to look around, there's a wealth of pro-freedom entertainment.
THE GRAVE SCANDAL OF ISLAMIST INFLUENCE IN THE PENTAGON
A scandal is emerging in the Pentagon that may be the most strategically ominous case of official misconduct since the Clinton administration's China-gate. It began with the firing last month of Stephen Coughlin, a major in the Army Reserves working as a civilian contractor for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he ran afoul of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England's point-man on Moslem community outreach, Hashem Islam. Mr. Islam is an admirer of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization designated by the Justice Department as a front for the Moslem Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslimi).
TIMEOUT FOR STORYTIME
It's time to take a break from the wearisome incessancy of politics and presidential campaigns 24/7. So gather around, boys n' girls, and let me tell you a story about moral debauchery during the greatest age of intellectuality mankind has ever known, about kings and concubines, dukes and adulterers, heroism and war, with an ending that will change the way you look at the most mundane everyday thing.
RED HERRING SCAPEGOAT?
Topping my personal list of mondo bizarro stories this week was the headline in papers all over the country, Ex-Congressman Charged in Terror Case. The story reveals that:
Former congressman from Michigan Mark Siljander was indicted Wednesday (1/16) as being part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaeda and Taliban supporter. He's accused of lying about lobbying on behalf of an Islamic charity (The Islamic American Relief Agency or IARA) that was accused of sending funds to terrorists... The government accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist..I knew Mark quite well when he was in Congress (1981-86), and know he despised Gulbuddin. Although I haven't seen him in some time, for Mark to be caught in a scam not just with a terrorist fundraising ring, but the terrorist being Gulbuddin, is just off the wall. So one question to ask is: where did the IARA get the $130,000 to send to Gulbuddin? Turns out the Islamic charity got the money from the US government: USAID, the US Agency for International Development.
THE GOP RACE BEFORE SOUTH CAROLINA
I've done perhaps 1700 surveys and focus groups. Generally, I've maintained that published polls affect pundits, insiders, and donors - not voters. But I've been saying for awhile that this year (the way the primaries are clustered and with the hyper-media coverage) would be different, and it is. What happens in each primary is affecting national numbers. And national numbers are affecting what happens in each primary. There is a momentum effect, and people are looking for validation. That's why I have long predicted Rudy's collapse, and how national polling numbers would change, and even when they would change. Yet I find it easier, at this point, to count out winner Huckabee than no-show Rudy. Anything is possible in this volatile environment, including a brokered convention. So here are a few thoughts on where the main candidates are on the eve of the South Carolina primary (1/19), and where I am, and why I continue my view from last year that McCain has the inside track.
SHARIA LAW AND MAFIA RULE IN FRANCE
Last May, French voters elected Mr. Sarkozy as president because he had promised to restore the authority of the Republic over France's 751 no-go areas, the so-called zones urbaines sensibles (ZUS, sensitive urban areas), where 5 million people live - 8 percent of the population, almost all Moslem immigrants or their children. Eight months later, the situation in the ZUS has remained as "sensitive" as before. People get mugged, even murdered, in the ZUS, but the media prefer not to write about it. When large-scale rioting erupts and officers and firemen are attacked, the behavior of the thugs is condoned with references to their "poverty" and to the "racism" of the indigenous French. The French media never devote their attention to the bleak situation of intimidation and lawlessness in which 8 percent of the population, including many poor indigenous French, are forced to live. Moslem racism towards the "infidels" is never mentioned. Xavier Raufer, a former French intelligence officer who heads the department on organized crime and terrorism at the Institute of Criminology of the University of Paris, thinks that bribes from organized crime has a lot to do with the indifference of the French establishment.
WANT A REAL FREE LUNCH FROM THE GOVERNMENT?
Have you ever had a "free lunch?" A "free lunch" means the benefit you receive has no direct or indirect costs and is not a payment for a past act or a future obligation. When Hillary, in her Christmas video, showed all of the "gifts" she was going to give us (e.g., "national health insurance," "kiddy care," etc.), she was promising to saddle us with future tax obligations, which are only "gifts" in Washington political-speak - and certainly not a free lunch for the nation. The administration, members of Congress, and the presidential candidates are in the process of coming out with their "economic stimulus" plans to help avoid a recession or to mitigate the pain if one occurs. Rather than take this opportunity to offer a real "free lunch" by removing government obstacles to a proper functioning economy, some will propose more spending and regulation because they are more interested in power than doing what is best for the citizenry. Wouldn't you prefer to get a real free lunch from the government?
Chapter Thirty-Three: REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
[With a final chapter 34 and an Epilogue to go, The Jade Steps is nearing completion. So it's worth re-emphasizing again that The Jade Steps is a true story. Every principal event described actually happened, every named person really lived and had that name. It all happened almost 500 years ago, but it still remains the cause of the civil war within Mexico's soul. Mexico will never rise out of the Third World until this spiritual wound is healed. That is the purpose of this book.] The Jade Steps Chapter Thirty-Three: Reaping The Whirlwind "Doña Marina! Doña Marina!" Someone was screaming at her, shaking her violently. It was Doña Luisa. Dazed from fainting, Malinali stared at the woman in confusion. "You must not stay here! The Aztecs are attacking!" She heard the words with no understanding. She felt herself being pulled roughly to her feet and pushed into a run. They reached a set of trees. She looked around in bewilderment. There was this incredible noise, but it seemed so far away. She looked in the direction of the noise and saw the Tacuba causeway. It was filled with screaming Aztec warriors swinging their macuahuitl obsidian-edged wooden swords and racing towards Pedro de Alvarado and his men. Somehow the sight of it seemed as distant as the noise. Suddenly, like the wave of a storm, the full sight and the sound of the battle crashed upon her. She heard claps of thunder, but the sky was clear. Then she saw the brigantines in the lake on either side of the causeway, firing their canons into the Aztec mass. She recognized the captain of one of the ships, Juan Jaramillo, the officer who had protected her during La Noche Triste. She saw Pedro de Alvarado lead his horsemen into a charge straight into the Aztecs, as the musketmen and crossbowmen formed positions on the edges of the causeway to fire into them. So many Aztec warriors had filled the causeway in their fury and rage to get at the Spaniards that they couldn't move. They just became targets for the cannons and muskets and arrows and the hooves of war horses. They died in the hundreds, and still more hundreds, until they gave up the assault, retreating back into the city shouting insults and taunts that they had killed... Then the terrible sight that had caused her to faint appeared before her eyes, the bloody head of Cortez bouncing and rolling in the dust, and she screamed in horror. Doña Luisa embraced her and she clung to the Tlaxcalan princess, sobbing uncontrollably for "My Captain, my Captain..." She finally let go, and, whispering her thanks, she walked alone along the shoreline to stare vacantly out upon the waters of Lake Texcoco.
ROOTING FOR BLOOMIE
What is it with little guys with egos as big as their billionaire bank accounts who think they can get elected President of the United States as a third party independent? Beats me. But while it was horrifically destructive the last time - in 1992 - it may be marvelous today. Right now, I'm rootin' for Bloomie. Ross Perot was five-foot-six. Michael Bloomberg is maybe a half-inch taller. We owe the Clinton Presidency to Perot - the 19% of the vote he gained was mostly a protest against George H. W. Bush. If Perot had not run, Clinton would have lost. Thanks, Ross. Now Little Mikey thinks it's his turn to come to America's rescue. I can see the ad now, Bloomie strolling along a sun-kissed beach, looking straight into the camera, and saying: "Hi, America! I know what you're suffering from, causing you so much frustration and anxiety. You're a victim of Electile Dysfunction - the inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year. You want a cure for this terrible malady, America? Well, you're looking at it - me, Mike Bloomberg for President."
THE ILLEGAL ELEPHANT IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM
The Washington Post, flagship of the liberal elite in our nation's capital, ran the most marvelously revealing story this week (1/15). In typical heart-tugging WaPo style, Emergency Care Waits Found To Be On Rise described the growing nationwide "deadly" crisis of hyper-crowded hospital emergency rooms. After providing examples and stats showing how much longer it takes to see a physician in an emergency room, the article listed the causes of this "frightening trend." Guess what they don't mention. The idiom "elephant in the room" refers to ignoring something overwhelmingly obvious, pretending it doesn't exist. Liberals take this one step further - they really don't see the elephant, they willfully blind themselves to the elephant's existence, in this case taking up most of the space in the emergency room of most of the hospitals in the country. Any of you who have been in an ER recently know exactly what I am talking about: they are overflowing with illegal aliens speaking a torrent of Spanish demanding free medical care. It's another example of why the issue of illegal immigration is such an Achilles Heel for Democrats in November.
A YEAR OF THRILLING SUCCESS, A YEAR OF DEMOCRAT HATRED OF IT
As you read these lines on January 11, 2008, our troops are in the midst of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a "mini-surge" to squeeze al Qaeda and its fast-dwindling band of allies out of their few remaining safe havens in Iraq. Iraqi troops fight beside us against a common enemy. Vast swaths of the country enjoy a newborn peace. Commerce thrives again. At the provincial and local levels, the political progress has been remarkable. As for Operation Phantom Phoenix, our commanders expected terrorist dead-enders to put up a fight. Instead, they ran, leaving behind only booby traps and disgust among the Iraqis they tormented far too long. The headlines at home? "Nine American Soldiers Killed." No mention of progress or a fleeing enemy on the front pages. Just dead soldiers. Determined to elect a Democrat president, the "mainstream" media simply won't accept our success.
NO PAULISTA
I might as well confess upfront - I have misgivings about writing this. It's because a good number of TTPers, several of whom I've come to know and like personally via our Rendezvous, are passionate "Paulistas," or advocates of Ron Paul (R-TX) and his campaign for the presidency. My misgivings come not from fear of offending them but my regard and respect for them. They are decent, sincere folks who truly love their country. They are also smart and not easily conned, politically or otherwise. So there has to be a lot in Paul's message that's worth their passion. That said, I'm no Paulista, and it's about time I explained why.
HOW WOULD YOU ANSWER?
Which presidential contenders would be best for the economy and which ones worse? Unfortunately, much of the campaign has revolved around a series of largely meaningless sound bites and words like "change." Some candidates find they can get away with policy prescriptions totally disconnected from their stated goals and empty platitudes, because many in the press demand nothing more, even in the "debates." I suspect that there are millions of other such voters who haven't a clue about various candidates' positions, let alone understand the actual implications of their declared policies. So let's discuss them, one by one, and see if that helps us answer the question.
THE GOP RACE AFTER NEW HAMPSHIRE
As I edited this column while watching the South Carolina debate last night (1/10), I was struck by the sparse coverage of President Bush traveling abroad. It is surreal that an American President can visit Israel and coverage is relegated beyond the first page. Yet if we can escape a recession, foreign policy and defense could be back in the national debate. Regardless, we remain in a situation where results in states like Iowa and New Hampshire set in motion events that can profoundly affect Super Tuesday (2/5). This is such a volatile year that the unthinkable could happen: a virtual two-way race among Democrats could end up divisively, and a multi-candidate Republican primary could end up unified. In my last column two weeks ago, The GOP Race One Week Before Iowa, I explained why a win by Huckabee in Iowa would help assure, via downward momentum for Romney, a McCain victory in New Hampshire. Further, I predicted the media spin off New Hampshire would enable McCain to pass Rudy in the national polls, and I still feel that way. Let's quickly summarize the candidates, from the beginning to now.
THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE
"Right on track, Jack." That's what one of the main campaign managers of The Man Who Wasn't There told me today. He and his colleagues are happy, happy guys n' gals. "This is going exactly as expected," they exude. "And it's a strategy that has never been tried before. If it works like we think it's going to, the world will think we're bloody geniuses." Pause, after a bemused glance is directed at them. "Yeah, well, right, it's the boss's strategy, so, okay, he's actually the genius." "The boss," the man who wasn't there in Iowa, Wyoming, and New Hampshire, the man who won't be there in Michigan, Nevada, or South Carolina, is, of course...
DID NEW HAMPSHIRE SAVE OBAMA’S LIFE?
If you Google "Obama" and "assassination" you will get 384,000 hits. All over the world, the media is speculating on the possibility. Typical is the January 8 (the day of the New Hampshire primary) headline in one of Australia's major newspapers, The Australian: Obama Must Be Wary of the Assassin's Gun. The "news angle" of thousands of such stories is the same. The first line of The Australian story is: "Barrack Obama is crazy brave. His victory in Iowa puts him in the crosshairs of many a gun-toting racist for whom the thought of a black president is an abomination." It's the drumbeat theme echoing around the globe: evil racist-fascist right-wing war-mongering child-eating nazi conservatives will always destroy America's hopes of being a peaceful humanitarian nation. After all, it was just such a fascist-nazi right-winger that murdered JFK and killed Camelot, right? What's that? Lee Harvey Oswald was a Communist? Oh... Please ignore that impossibly embarrassing fact. Especially since it brings up the real question that no liberal dares to think, much less ask: Will Hillary find an Oswald of her own to take out Obama?
CELEBRATING BLUE, CO2, AND THE RENDEZVOUS
Hear that wonderfully melodious sound? It's the crack-up of Global Warming, the Left's crazed attempt to seize global power after the failure of Marxism crashing and burning. 2008 is starting off just right. A tip off that it's over for the eco-wackos was the announcement of the Pantone color mavens that green is passé for 2008, that the hip color is blue - as in blue skies, no clouds, no rain, just sunshine and deep blue sky. Then on New Years Day, the liberal bastion itself, the New York Times, scandalously ridiculed glowarmers, calling them "availability entrepreneurs," sneering at them as "the activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels." When the New York Times laughs at glowarmers - well, it's like Global Warming is so over. So it's time to start celebrating CO2. I have a really good suggestion on how to do so.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM MEN IN BLACK ABOUT 2008
Nope, this is not an alien joke like Alien Al, much less one regarding the PIAPS, who was born only 3½ months after Roswell. It is about the history lesson taught so arrestingly by Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K in Men In Black. 2008 is going to be a stressful year for a lot of folks. The fate of America, the fate of Western Civilization, the fate of mankind, will be decided this year - as far as folks who enjoy being Drama Queens are concerned. As we plunge forward into the fateful unknown of 2008, let us, then, take a deep, calming breath and listen to the soothing words of Agent K. His partner, Agent J played by Will Smith, is freaking out as a newbie man-in-black, unglued over the alien threat that will destroy the Earth in the next half-hour. Agent J: Man, we ain't got time for this... I don't know whether or not you've forgotten, but there's an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that's about to... Agent K: Kid, there's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they... do... not... know about it! Welcome to the history of the world.