KATHY’S DREAM, KATHY’S CLOWN
It was in 1983 in Paris that I met my first Russian dissidents. They were rabidly Anti-Communist and passionately argued for freedom and democracy for Russia. Impressed, I nonetheless put them to the test. “What about the other internal colonies of the Soviet Union?” I asked. “I take it that you all advocate freedom and democracy for, say, Ukraine, as well, right?” My inquiry went through them like a jolt of angry electricity. “Ukraine is a part of Russia!” they exploded. “Ukraine has been a part of Russia for centuries! Ukraine will always be a part of Russia!” I couldn’t resist smiling and informing them: “Not for long…” I subsequently made a number of trips into Soviet Ukraine in the 1980s to meet with the leaders of Rukh, the emerging democracy-resistance movement -- Mykhailo Horyn in Lviv and Vyacheslav Chornovil in Kiev. These meetings were arranged by a dynamic young Ukrainian-American lady in the Human Rights section of the State Department named Kathy Chumachenko.
CHAVEZ IN CHILE?
This picture of Teddy Roosevelt is a family heirloom. The reason is that the man standing in front of TR is the Chief of the Secret Service Presidential Bodyguard - my grandfather Lucien C. Wheeler.Lucien was with the Secret Service guarding the lives of four presidents (TR, Taft, Wilson, and Harding). He admired and revered TR above all. While he passed on many years ago, I feel quite sure he would feel the same towards GW. George W. Bush is a man’s president, just like Teddy Roosevelt.Lucien would also have been extremely alarmed at what happened regarding the president in Chile last Saturday, November 20. However much Lucien would have delighted in GW’s rescuing his Secret Service counterpart from the Chilean police, and laughed over the Chilean newspapers denouncing GW for “behaving like John Wayne” (“Don’t those fools understand that John Wayne is a hero to Americans?” I can hear him asking), he would also have immediately suspected something far more sinister than the puffed-up egos of Chilean security officials.His suspicion would have quickly zeroed in on Hugo Chavez, dictator of Venezuela.
GOODBYE TO COLIN
”John X” is a very recently retired FSO (Foreign Service Officer) of many years at the State Department. It’s important to know that there are a good many conservatives sprinkled throughout the Foreign Service - and even on the Seventh Floor of Foggy Bottom itself. Most of them have to stay politically hidden, but with Condi they may start coming out of their closets. Here is “John’s” assessment, as a State Department professional, of Colin Powell. -JWPowell had made no secret that he would resign after the election. We had been hearing rumors all last week that Powell had submitted his resignation letter; on Friday, November 12, a 7th floor source told me that Powell had sent his letter to the President. On Monday, of course, it was all over the media.I was in the Department the day that Powell arrived. He was a breath of fresh air after a string of very bad Secretaries of State, starting with Jim Baker, continuing with the comatose Warren Christopher, and then the vile Madeleine Albright. The State Department was in disarray, morale was at rock bottom, literally hundreds of officers had quit or taken early retirement. Our Embassies in many countries were barely functional, and very exposed to terrorist attack. Department employees were constantly being lectured on the need "to do more with less" but no reform of the bureaucracy was undertaken to make it leaner and more efficient; everything was pretty much left as it was, but just given less money -- except of course for Albright's travels, in my office she was known as the "Empress" for her lavish demands on the budget.[Clinton’s Secretary of State was also nicknamed “Secretary Half-Bright” by virtually the entire Foreign Service. She was astoundingly stupid. - JW.]So Powell was a relief.
BROWSER HELP OBJECTS, continued
After you download and unzip BHODemon, navigate to the download folder. You’ll see the help file and the icon for installing the program. 
Double-click the icon and the program will install in a second. I also suggest you separately double-click the short help file and read it before you start using BHODemon. Once installed BHOD will immediately scan your registry for browser help objects. In my case, Norton and Spy Sweeper notwithstanding, I had seven. Seven, notwithstanding that only a week before I had reformatted my hard disks, reinstalled Windows XP Pro, Norton and Spy Sweeper, configured my internet account, and then installed Microsoft Office 2003, my development tools, and a number of other programs.
BLOOD IN THE POTOMAC
If you think the fighting has been rough in Fallujah, wait until you see Washington in the springtime. President Bush's early personnel decisions for the second term suggest that he is preparing, unilaterally, to take on not only our foreign enemies, but also the Democrats and Washington's most cunning and vicious bureaucracies-all at the same time. With the nominations of Condoleezza Rice at State, Porter Goss at CIA, Donald Rumsfeld (or an equally tough replacement) at Defense and Stephen Hadley at NSC, the president has created an all-Patton foreign and defense team. Moreover, he has a team that understands that among the necessary targets of their firepower must be, not only our foreign enemies, but also the slouching, sly, insubordinate bureaucrats under their chain of command.
THE REAL QUAGMIRE
The headline of the Associated Press story was predictable. As the US Army and Marines win an extraordinary victory in Fallujah, the AP’s response is: “Insurgents Not Giving Up!” Once again, all the liberal media know how to do is root for America’s enemies and endlessly predict “Quagmire!” whenever those enemies are fought.The truth is that the Iraqi terrorists - the press insists on ennobling them as “insurgents” - have been devastated in Fallujah. Upwards of 2,000 have been killed and over 1,000 taken prisoner. Some of their key leaders like al-Zarqawi escaped, but it’s hard to lead when so many of your followers have been wiped out. Bombings and sporadic attacks will continue in various places - most all of them Sunni - but the bottom line is that the Battle of Fallujah has broken the back of the Iraqi “resistance.”The Battle of Fallujah didn’t just decimate the ranks of the terrorists physically - it has devastated them psychologically. The completely mind-blowing synergy of the US military’s professional competence, humanitarian ruthlessness (“no better friend, no worse enemy”), unimaginably overwhelming firepower, and technology so advanced it seems straight out of science fiction has shattered their will.It is the US’ total willingness to use all its force and technology that has turned the terrorists into mental zombies. War - especially guerrilla war - is always a battle to break your opponent’s spirit. That’s what the liberal media is trying to do to us, break America’s spirit with Abu Ghraib or a Marine killing an “unarmed insurgent” in Fallujah or the AP bleating how the enemy will never give up. That’s what the press did - on purpose - in Vietnam, that’s what they are trying to do in Iraq, that’s how and why they are the terrorists’ partners. But this time it is working the other way around. This time, we are breaking the enemies’ spirit. This time, our enemies are in a quagmire, not us.
THE GODS AND HEROES TRIATHLON
As most of you know, I have an expedition company called Wheeler Expeditions. The expeditions I run myself are mostly for private clients. I am very proud to say that my son, Brandon, has joined me in the business - and he has conceived and organized an amazing adventure which he calls The Gods and Heroes Triathlon.Next June, Brandon will lead 16 young and young-at-heart adventurers to: Swim the Hellespont like legendary Leander in Greek mythology (the Hellespont, now in Turkey, is the straits separating Europe from Asia and is where the Trojan War was fought)…Climb Mount Olympus to the home of the Greek gods…Run the original Marathon of 490 BC in the footsteps of Pheidippides.You’ve got to admit that is seriously cool. Brandon has also included visits to Meteora, where Christian monks in the Middle Ages built monasteries atop giant rock spires, Delphi, the center of the Greek spiritual world, and of course Athens, to explore the Acropolis and party at the Plaka.Brandon wants this to be a Fun Triathlon - not a competitive one. The object is to have as much fun as possible experiencing and recreating the most legendary athletic achievements in history.Yes, you have to be in good shape. But this is a personal challenge, a personal adventure. The goal is to participate in history, not compete against it. It is not to compete against one’s fellow adventurers, but to share legendary experiences together that everyone will never forget for the rest of their lives.If you (or anyone you know) would like to make these epic feats and legends of history a part of your (or their) life, the full itinerary is on the Wheeler Expeditions website.
SAVING THE HEATHEN
The deepest and darkest joke I’ve heard in a long time goes like this. Osama bin Laden prays to the spirit of Yasser Arafat who then appears before him. “Yasser, please help me understand something,” requests Osama. “We’re both fellow terrorists. You’ve even killed more infidels than I have. Yet you get the Nobel Peace Prize, your funeral is attended by heads of state from around the world, and European newspapers compare you to Moses - while I am the world’s most hunted and hated man, reduced to hiding in inaccessible mountain caves. How did you do it? What is your secret?” Yasser breaks into a ghostly smile. “That’s easy,” he explains. “I only killed Jews.” A deep joke always reveals a black truth. European hatred of Jews is an ancient hate, and periodically erupts from the darkness of men’s souls into the light of history. Today in Europe -- particularly France -- another eruption has begun. It will get worse unless it is fought and opposed. It is getting worse because Jews are the Europeans’ perennial scapegoat for cultural failure. Old Europe now faces demographic doom because its native inhabitants refuse to have children, and economic doom because they would rather go on vacation than work. You know how bad it is when Consumer Reports currently ranks Mercedes and BMW as the most poorly made of the world’s luxury cars. To rescue Old Europe economically and demographically, to exorcize its Jew-hatred, it needs to be rescued culturally. There is only one way to do that, and only one group of folks to do it: American Christians.
AN EXODUS OF WEASELS
“The Sheriff,” as new CIA Director Porter Goss is becoming known, is getting rave reviews from the agency’s rank and file for serving notice to the Rogue Weasels that their left-wing views and attempts to sabotage the Bush Administration will receive zero tolerance. “Watch for a lot of road kill on 123 (Route 123, the highway in McLean, Virginia that goes past the CIA main entrance) as the weasels scurry away,” I’m told.Found lying on the roadside yesterday (11/11) was weasel leader Mike Scheuer, who wrote the Bush-trashing “Imperial Hubris” book under the pseudonym “Anonymous.” While a lot of what Scheuer wrote was right on the mark, namely his withering criticism of the FBI and of senior agency guys (like Tenet) doing the CYA dance over 9/11, he twisted it all into bashing Bush and making an argument for John Kerry-type terrorism-is-a-nuisance-and-law-enforcement problem. That the CIA Review Office allowed him to write this book is a scandal never to be repeated under Sheriff Goss’s watch.But even better news than the departure of the CIA weasels is the departure of their counterparts on the National Security Council of the White House. Bob Blackwill’s sudden resignation from the NSC, where he was Bush’s key advisor on Iraq and Iran, is a cause for real celebration.
BROWSER HELP OBJECTS: The New Bad Guy on the Block
A BHO is an add-on program, usually very small, that is supposed to enhance your computing experience. Most of the legitimate helpers are designed to work with web browsers such as Internet Explorer. But there are some really vicious BHOs out there. These reach deep into your PC, so deep that their digital fingers reach your pockets. Recently, a BHO was uncovered that monitors when you surf to one of 50 or so major personal banking Web sites, in order to steal your private information.