SATURDAY, July 31, 2004

• For anyone interested in public education in general and regarding their own children,  today's Perspective section in The Day (Section C) has a good series of articles and editorials dealing with the problem and specifically with the "No Child Left Behind" law.   The bottom line for all those who are critical of this legislation is the "bottom line"...they want more money.  That tired and old excuse for education profession negligence is given the lie in an editorial in the WSJ, Friday, July 30, 2004, replete with supporting facts: "What Money Can't Buy" (Opinion, pA10).
• An earlier offering in this section referred to the recent declaration of Daniel Okrent, the Public Editor of the NYTimes, that the Times is a liberal newspaper!  Predictably, Mr. Okrent received many letters in reply, some of which are published in today's Times (Week in Review, Section 4, p2).  Anyway, the secret is out.
• I was hoping to take a break from this next topic, but the baloney is being offered up too fast by John Kerry and his group.  He continues with double-talk and evasion (like the meaning of "mis-led").  He attacks, and then tries to hide behind protestations against "going negative".   He totally ignores an over 20 year career as the most liberal U.S.Senator, running away from his record.  He emphasizes a short - but important - period in his life as a war veteran.  Even taking his story as told, what are the rest of us veterans...chopped meat?  As I said in this section a long time ago, having served our country in the Military should not be subject to grading.  And who is the "uniter" and who is the ''divider" here?  In a nation united "under God", a nation of hetero-sexual couples responsible for raising children with a father and a mother, a nation of values ridiculed or at least ignored by the ultra-liberal left, a nation where the first of the guaranteed rights is the right to "life...", and a nation that was correctly warned by its first President to avoid "entangling alliances", John Kerry's positions are contrary to all of these uniting principles.  Is this a "Manchurian Candidate"?   Or is this simply Jimmy Carter redux? Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks and months, until the Democrats either Put Up or Shut Up.

FRIDAY, July 30, 2004

Well, it's finally over; and Senator Kerry gave "the most important speech of his political career".  For his sake, I hope not.  By all accounts, he seems to be a good man and a patriot.  But it simply takes some people longer to establish their bed-rock principles, what makes them who they are.  He is not there yet; and thus, he is not ready for prime time.  However impressive the baritone voice, there still was precious little beef.  He talked about too many losers and job losses in this new global economy.  But he did not say how he would fix it.  He took every opportunity to preach in favor of cooperation with our "allies".  But who are these allies, besides Great Britain and the other current coalition members?  Certainly not France, and its lap-dog Germany.  (See "Why The French Act Isn't Funny Anymore", by Charles Krauthammer, Time Magazine, July 12, 2004, Essay, p94).  He promised to expand health care and to improve education...but not how he would do it, and at what cost, and from what income source.  He intoned: "I know what to do in Iraq".  Well, tell us, or at least tell President Bush before too many more Americans lose their lives there.  Worst of all, he perpetuated the defamation of the President and the entire administration by saying that he would be a commander-in-chief "who will never mislead us into war."   Senator Kerry, that would be an impeachable offense.  PUT UP OR SHUT UP.   Ultimately, as I offered some days ago in this section, he is "John Kerry, The Great Straddler" (by William Safire, The Day, Friday, July 30, 2004, Commentary, pA7).   Not ready for prime time.

GS

THURSDAY, July 29, 2004

• Leave it to the Democrats to prescribe an instant new bureaucracy to "fix" the nation's intelligence - gathering issues; "extend the life of the 9/11 Commission by eighteen months".  Not so fast.  This real problem, festering for decades with the active participation of Democratic legislators,  requires a carefully thought-out treatment.  Otherwise, the seriously ill patient may die on the operating table.
• Tim Russert had it just right in one of his interviews this week: "Candidates...don't get into costumes!"  Shades of Michael Dukakis...Senator Kerry looked like the Easter Bunny getting out of that capsule at Cape Canaveral.
• More evidence that this part of the 21st century is going to be taken up with various types of conflict between the Muslim world and everybody else.  As the U.N.and the U.S. try to pressure the Muslim Sudanese government to stop enabling yet another ethnic cleansing in that long-suffering continent, Egypt and the Arab League are throwing up road-blocks to any effective action.  However potent the siren song of denial, especially among Democrats, we are at war; and we had better mobilize...diplomatically, militarily, domestically and psychically.
• The Tuesday, July 27 edition of the WSJ, Opinion section, pA16, is filled with  relevant facts to correct the boatload of distortions emanating from the Democratic Convention this week.   Especially revealing in the same section is the piece by Scott Simon, a usually liberal - leaning editor of National Public Radio, entitled "'Gonzo Demogoguery' Writ Large"...a detailed and stinging indictment of Michael Moore's fantasy.
• And then there was Al Sharpton 's tirade at the Convention.  Commenting on the voting tendencies of his Black brothers and sisters, he shouted: "Read my lips...our black votes are not for sale".  True.  They have long ago been sold and delivered to the folks who gave them the welfare mentality, the anchor of victimization, the abject failure of public education to give them basic tools, and persistent obstructionism regarding their having any choice in their kids' education.  Consequently, the only things too many of them can read are his lips.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, July 26 through 28, 2004

Before we get to the Democratic Convention...

• Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste.  Once again some Americans want iron-clad guarantees where none exist.   Is the vast amount of nuclear waste throughout the country safer in interim storage facilities like our nearby Millstone complex?  It's been nearly a decade, folks, that this issue has been debated.  Somebody in Federal government...just do it!  The U.S.Supreme Court has long ago decided that "waste" must be allowed to pass in "Interstate Commerce" without veto by individual states.
• Viva l'Lance.  His victory, on French soil, is especially sweet this year.  You may want to visit the offering on French Military Prowess on this web site under "A Bit of Whimsy."
• And now...The Democratic Party Convention.   The box is there.  But so far...no beef (and "a chicken in every pot" does not count).  Meanwhile, everyone who takes to the podium seems to be up-staging John Kerry, especially State Senator Obama.  In fact, seeing former President Jimmy Carter the other night, I had a vision of a President Kerry as a repeat of the feckless President Carter.  Right now, in a two way race, I would vote for Terese Kerry.  But let's wait and see what he does tomorrow night.

SUNDAY, July 25, 2004

• Here come the Democrats.  If you believe the planning goals of Senators Kerry and Edwards for their Convention, the Democrats are going to refrain from using the only issue that unites them: "Anybody but Bush". Right.  That wil be about as easy as putting an alcoholic in a bar at Happy Hour...in Boston, no less... and telling him not to drink.  The results of this effort should be sobering.
• Truth be told, Winston Churchill had it right when he observed: "Democracy is the worst of all forms of governments...except for all the rest".  In addition to the 9/11 Commission Report, we have had for so long so many examples of decades-long governmental ineptitude, venality, fraud and corruption at all levels that we Americans have become numbed to more news of new military planes that can't be used for intended purpose, Home-Land Security funds being converted into business-as-usual pork, government whistle-blowers getting their whistles jammed down their throats,  white-washes of the prisoner abuse scandals...  So what do some of us do when faced with the new Nuclear Age of the 21st century - world-wide terrorism?  We demand a simple fix, a new level of bureaucracy headed by some Superman that will make it all right.   Some of us are telling the patient with meningitis: "take two aspirin, and call me in the morning".   And then there are the celebrities, most recently Meryl Streep, who have all the answers...and atitude to boot.  Add another category to political correctness: the common sensically challenged.   If, for convenience, you want a one-stop source for all this nonsense, go no further than the NYTimes, as verified by its own "Public Editor" or ombudsman Daniel Okrent, in today's edition (Wk, p2).

SATURDAY, July 24, 2004

• More about the 9/11 Commission Report (still depending on the reports of others).  Two articles in yesterday's WSJ provide quotations and insights: 1) "The Pre-emption Commission", Opinion, pA12; 2) "Commissionism", by Charles Hill, Opinion, pA12).  And the Editorial in The Day, also yesterday, offers an excellent summary of the attitude in which we Americans should take the challenge posed ("They'd Better Listen This Time", Opinion, pA6).  Add to that the new book, excerpted in Time Magazine, July 26, 2004, p38 ("America The Vulnerable", by Stephen Flynn), and the magnitude of the problem becomes all too clear.  In fact, we cannot defend our shores and our people from our shores.  We must engage the enemy wherever they live and breathe, pre-emptively.  In this task, we will seek help from and provide leadership for friends.  But we will do it alone, if necessary.  Meanwhile, we Americans will have to get used to The Patriot Act and its progeny in order to protect ourselves from within.   Knee-jerk reactions and head-in-the -sand postures will not do.  So, ACLU, be a help, not a hindrance.

THURSDAY and FRIDAY, July 22 and 23, 2004

• As is true for most, if not all, of the commentators on the 9/11 Commission Report,  I certainly have not read all of it.  But, having heard and read a number of representations from Commission members, the following appear evident: 1) the Commission found abundant fault with both the Clinton and G.W.Bush administrations and with their legislative branches with regard to oversight, analysis and response to numerous terror threats before 9/11; 2) that the proper response to the current amorphous threat of terrorism world -wide is to hit and kill terrorists where they live, pre-emptively, rather than waiting to respond to other attacks on us; 3) no decision was or could be made regarding whether 9/11 could in fact have been avoided, given the state of mal-function of our governmental intelligence enterprises for many years; 4) structural change and coordination are needed ASAP; 5) the partisan membership of the Commission considered it sufficiently important to sublimate partisanship for the sake of the country and to issue a bi-partisan report.  We sincerely hope that all parties to this coming election can do the same on this subject, and on the identically related subject of Iraq.  That would really be statesmanship.
• A lot is being reported about the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the fact that...election after election...blacks vote democratic 9:1.  Now we read that polling statistics on Hispanics indicate that they support the democratic ticket 2:1.  I suggest that Hispanics do three things before following that example: 1) read "Freedom vs. Dependency, by Myron Magnet (WSJ Tuesday July 20, 2004, Opinion, pA10); 2) look around them and see what the hand-out, victimization and plantation mentality has done for...and to...black people; 3) get to know or know about immigrant families who came to America from throughout the world...and who are still coming from Asia - their secret of success is no secret.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, July 19 through 21, 2004

• Regarding churches and politics: where have critical commentators been during the last few decades when Black Churches of any and every denomination were essentially polling places for the Democratic party for many months before elections?  That's how over 90% of blacks vote Democratic, often against their own self-interest.
• Would you want to know that you have early Alzheimer's Disease?   Knowing, and starting medication now, would delay progress of the disease for about six months.  It would also devastate such an individual, thereby impairing hope and the immune system's defense mechanisms.  It would make the person immediately uninsurable, and might cause him or her to lose or give up his job.  Bad move.  Live well and prudently; protect your future; arrange for the well-being of your loved-ones; say a prayer once in a while; and be prepared for that errant bus at any time.  Personally, I do not want to know my future; and I would not want to re-live my past, however great it has been.  Let's hold on to a little adventure here!
• Sandy Berger...you devil, you.  Not nice to stuff papers into you pants - unless you need Depends.  Democrats, ultra-liberals and their fellow travelers are spinning this story like tops, worried about the fall-out.  Well, worry you should; this story is important...and we're not swallowing any of you blather.
• "Sept. 11 Panel To Tone Down Report" by Hope Yen (The Day, today, pA1).  All the leakers either hyped their earlier comments well beyond the available facts; or the evidence cuts against all players, past and present, including themselves...or both.  But that won't stop the Talking Heads from making it up.
• Continued bad news from Iraq, the fruits of our failure to impose security there at the outset with enough forces and force.  From what I read, Foggy Bottom had too much to do with the war's aftermath.  Not your greatest hour, fellas.
• And what about Iran, starting with their having permitted the al Qaida airliner terrorists to pass through and out of Iran without marking their passports, thereby removing an important clue to their journey to NYC?   They are also bankrolling many insurgents in Iraq and sending many there.  We can't ignore all that and more forever.
• National Public Radio is a good resource for news and top-level opinion...if you can stomach the pervasive liberal spin.  Today, the morning show participants discussed the minimum wage,  in appropriately depressing tones.  Folks, you're right: the minimum wage should be raised nationally to $7 or $8...if the worker can read, speak and write English, can fill out an employment application, can make change and do other relevant arithmetic, and otherwise can show that he or she graduated from a highschool better than the many Potemkin Villages that blight our major cities, thanks in large part to the teachers' unions.  Choice, anyone?

SUNDAY, July 18, 2004

• The Bush Administration is being bruised, probably rightly, on two fronts: its conduct of environmental protection; and the highly vaunted Medicare drug benefit plan...which turns out to be much more expensive to the nation than announced, ridiculously complicated for the average senior to traverse, unfair in allowing drug providers to change offerings at will while locking seniors into a once-a-year choice, and whose promised price benefits are being wiped out by unconscionable price increases by the pharmaceutical industry.  Gentlemen, in spite of the rantings of some Democrats, as noted above and below in this section, you can still lose the coming election on the merits.   Anybody home?
• Robert Byrd, the aged and long-tenured Senator from the prime pork-barrel State of West Virginia,  has written a book: "Losing America".  In today's interview with Tim Russert, he describes America's situation under the current leadership as "exceedingly dangerous"; "I've never felt as afraid"; "Our own Congress lost its backbone".  Senator, calm down.  Or at least move your seat if it is anywhere near Senator Kennedy's.

SATURDAY, July 17, 2004

Seen and Heard:
         Senator John McCain introducing Vice President Dick Cheney:"...not just another pretty face".
         Dennis Miller commenting on one of several photos of Senators Kerry and Edwards: "They are sure touchy-feely...Get a room, guys".

• A report on page A4 of The Day today should have been page A1 material.  "Kerry Would Make Pre-emptive Military Strikes Against Terrorists", by Ken Guggenheim, AP.  "Am I prepared as president to go get them before they get us if we locate them and have the sufficient intelligence?  You bet I am."  At the same Washington headquarters news conference yesterday he said: "I will never allow any other country to veto what we need to do and I will never allow any other institution to veto what we need to do to protect our nation."   Wow!  Now I'm impressed.  The man may be educable.  Let's see how long he holds this position after the ultra-liberals get to him.
• Some things never change.  Efforts by employers to transfer (at long last) more of the costs of health care to patients are meeting stiff resistance.  Long ago, if the health care insurance companies had not had its way, employees would have been paid more and would have been required to create Health Savings Accounts, with back-up "catastrophic" or high -deductible insurance.  They would have been making their own cost-benefit analyses all these years about going to doctors.  Health care costs would not have reached over 14% of the GDP; and we would not have over 40 million uninsured people in this country.  Add to that another current effort, after that of the State of Oregon years ago, to apply rationing of health care only to the welfare poor of the State of Tennessee,  and you see the state of our leaders' problem solving prowess.  These have never been insoluble problems. only recalcitrant problem-solvers.  And whatever you do, don't blame the doctors.  They have been trying to get the word out.  But they have no political clout.
• More on immigration.  An editorial in the WSJ this week has many interesting facts on the subject ("Give Us Your Nerds").  Just a sample: "More than half of the engineers with Ph.D.s working in the U.S., and 45% of the nation's computer science doctorates, are foreign-born".  The piece concludes: "If we had listened to the anti-immigration crowd over the past 20 years, says Mr. Anderson in an interview, we would have wiped out two-thirds of the top future scientist and mathematicians in the United States becaose we would have barred their parents from ever entering America."      From the beginning of this nation, immigrants have been the life-blood of the country.  We certainly cannot afford to close the gate behind us now.

FRIDAY, July 16, 2004

Here are some little-known facts of vital importance about Social Security.  Contrasting these Democratic actions with the Bush administration's effort to allow voluntary privatization of a small part of a worker's social security contributions into the stock market - with the likelihood of much higher returns on that portion - "who loves ya, baby?"

SOCIAL SECURITY OVERVIEW:

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be
completely voluntary,

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the
first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the
Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to put
into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax
purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the General
operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to
fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no
other Government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would
never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now
receiving a Social Security check every month --
and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
the money we paid to the Federal government to "put
away," you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the
independent "Trust" fund and put it into the General
fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the
Democratically-controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
"tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving
annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic
Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65,
began to receive SSI Social Security payments! The Democratic
Party gave these payments to them,
even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after doing all this lying and thieving and
violation of the original contract (FICA), the
Democrats turn around and tell you that the
Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

• We may have candidate Kerry all wrong.  He's not a "waffler"; he's a "straddler", sitting on many policy fences and dangling on both sides.  He is promoting "values" while having voted against the prohibition of partial birth abortion, against fetal protection from assault and wrongful death, and for uncontrolled stem cell research.  He claims to be a "Catholic" while continuing to be pro-abortion.  He voted for the Iraq war, but later voted to deny our forces the necessary tangible support.  He is constantly playing the class and race card...but clains to be a "uniter". Will the real candidate Kerry please stand up!
• Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must be held accountable for trying to "do" Iraq on the cheap, specifically with too few troops, as I have been saying for over one year in this section.  That is a worse complaint than relates to the prisoner scandal, which itself is a consequence of the same faulted policy.  Whether these errors will trump his other contributions or Bush loyalty for his team-mates remains to be seen.  But he is the most vulnerable member of the team, now that George Tenet is gone.
• The columnist Cal Thomas has it right in today's The Day (theday.com - Commentary, pA7): "Blacks Should Turn To Bill Cosby, Not The NAACP."
• Coming free elections in three countries are jeopardized in three countries: Afganistan, Iraq...and AMERICA??   What's going on here?  Whether it's more chads in Florida, or faulty or undocumented electronic voting - we had better get this right in November.
•  Another day, more proof that the Wall Street Journal should henceforth be considered "The Newspaper of Record".  Yesterday's edition had a bunch of excellent factual articles on its Opinion page (pA10): about "Naked Partisans", the NAACP; about "Saddam, Uranium and Africa", direct quotations from the British Intelligence review; and about the now uncovered distortions and untruths publicized by former Ambassador Joe Wilson.  However, there is one caveat.  Beware the ruminations of Albert R. Hunt.  Whether in the WSJ or on The Capitol Gang, he has lost any semblance of objectivity.  "Wide-eyed Liberal you say?  Much too mild.

MONDAY through THURSDAY, July 12 through 15, 2004

It's catch-up time.  (Work keeps getting in the way).

• "The rabid, reactionary religious right has never looked more ridiculous."  This is a direct quote from a statement made by Senator Edward Kennedy this week during debate on a Constitutional Amendment to define and safeguard the civil and religious institution of Marriage.  Whether we agree or disagree with the need at this time for an amendment to the U.S.Constitution, all but a tiny minority in this country support the protection of Marriage as the union between a man and a woman as a foundation-stone of our society and as the primary protection for its children.  Toward this end, the government - whether State or Federal - has an obligation to act, under the principle of "In Loco Parentis".  Meanwhile, Senator Kennedy should have his thyroid function checked, should take screening exam for clinical depression, and should stay off all alcohol.
• A related issue is the continuing effort by all the leading Democrats to divide this country by alleging that there are two Americas.  This is true only in their fevered brains and in those of their unthinking followers.  High among this latter group have to be listed the leaders of the NAACP like Julian Bond, to their continuing shame.  They continue to use speeches written in and for the 1960's, divisive speeches, race-baiting speeches, victimizing speeches that mis-inform, delude and generally hold down their people.  Shameful.  The vast majority of Americans know that this is one great  country, of which we have the privilege of being member, and that we all have the right of "pursuit of happiness", with no guarantees and with results of those pursuits depending largely on our own efforts, our own responsibility.  To try to create a divided America with half-truths and inuendo is un-American.   Democrats: Take Note.
• "La belle France" has problems.  With the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Western Europe, with rising anti-semitism, with the rotting fruits of decades of Socialism, America should be the least of their problems and should be their most dependable ally.  No more.  Their duplicity, cynicism and self-service to the detriment of America has gotten to be a bit much.  Maybe with a change in their government we may have a change of heart...maybe.  So, how about the bumper sticker that's out there: "Kerry for President...of France".
• The Intelligence reports of the U.S. Senate and of the British Parliament continue to be spun and distorted, more here than in England.  Our report includes the following quote: "The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq's weapons of mass desetruction capabilities."  And the British Commission's chairman, Lord Butler, is quoted as follows: "No one lied, no one made up the intelligence...We have no reason, found no evidence, to question the prime minister's good faith...This was a collective operation in which there were the failures we've identified, but no deliberate attempt on the part of the government to mislead."  IS THAT CLEAR?
• Ron Reagan, son of a great Republican President, is now the darling of the Democrats.  Whatever else he may have to say, who cares what a self-proclaimed atheist has to say about the morality of stem cell research?  It's out of your league, sonny.
• So anarchists from around the world a preparing to disrupt the Republican National Convention in New York City.  That will test the mettle of Mayor Blumberg and his 40,000-strong police force.  After a suitable warning, I know of a nice island where all such law-breakers can be brought to "summer camp" for a few uncomfortable days: Randall's Island.  The plan would have a nice symmetry to it.
• Three cheers for Mike Ditka.  His prowess on the field would replace the former candidate's "prowess off the field."  And he would win, too.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, July 10 and 11, 2004

• The Sudan: another human tragedy...and another abject failure for the U.N.  And we in America are supposed to predicate our actions, that go to the heart of our national interests and our security, on these people?  Is that what Senator Kerry means  when he talks about his all-important "internationalism"?  Thanks...but no, thanks!
• "Mr. Sharon, Tear Down This Wall".  However difficult the Israel-Palestine situation is, you have substantially contributed to it by your support during the last two decades for all the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian soil.  "He who seeks equity must do equity".  And now you have Israeli Jihadists promising to rebel and calling for a death sentence on anyone who does the right thing.  Wonderful.
• The Catholic Church is in the news again, relating to a diocese declaring bankruptcy and relating to efforts by victims' advocates to bring the Vatican directly into the swamp some American Bishops created for themselves.  The issues are related by what are called "deep pockets", always the Holy Grail of plaintiffs' attorneys.  Any regular reader of this section will know what I have been saying since the beginning about the scandalous and illegal behavior of the likes of Cardinal Law.  But the Church is all the laity, and not only the Clergy.  (Perhaps The Lord was telling us something relevant here when, in today's Gospel reading about the Good Samaritan, the first to leave the beaten stranger lying in the dust was a "priest").  It is also group of corporations...with both moral and legal rights and responsibilities to all its members.  It has an obligation to protect itself, both through due process for all its members and through invocation of legal means like Bankruptcy Court.
• God Bless Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq.  He seems to be the man of the hour for that beset part of the world.

FRIDAY, July 9, 2004

• Suicide.  Whether or not it is the "unpardonable sin", it is always a terrible waste.  And for parents left behind, the loss of a child under any circumstances is a great, unhealing wound.  If the U.S. Senate wishes to draft legislation to reduce suicide, as is now the case through the latest parent of such a tragedy (Senator Gordon Smith),  it must be prepared to address problems of this society including hopelessness, cynicism, faithlessness, absence and ineffectiveness of many parents, and a quest for a mission in life other than "me".  A tall order, but it could give the process a good start.
• Talk about "hopelessness".  An article in today's WSJ is on point ("John Kerry, John Edwards - Ditto, Ditto", by Daniel Henninger, Opinion, pA10): "For many Democrats, the vision of a city sliding down a hill is the continuing reality of America.  In the version being tried for this election, economic growth is possible in a globalized world only if the middle class gets shafted.  'We're moving backwards' - John Kerry, April 2004.  But the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll finds 64% of Americans optimistic about the economy's next 12 months, and more than half still optimistic about Iraq.  Somebody here is on the wrong page.  The Kerry-Edwards ethos of never-ending urgency and impending disaster is a weirdly European kind of politics, rooted more in the sadness of inevitable social tragedy than the largely uncontested American idea of individual  possibility."
• The latest report on U.S. intelligence failures is already being spun like a top by the likes of Senator Carl Levin, long a spinner of tales.  Can't anyone stick to the evidence?  And even worse than the conspiracy theorists are those who say that we should not be in the spy business at all.  I kid you not!  Do you know where we would be now were it not for the OSS and MI-6 in WW II?  Speaking German as our first language.  This whole anti-war and anti-Bush diatribe reminds me of what we went through during much of the last century regarding race relations, especially in the South.  My term for that infirmity, then and now, is "Focal Idiopathic Idiocy".

WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, July 7 and 8, 2004

• Maybe Lady Justice is not blind-folded after all, or at least not all the time.  Kenneth Lay and his colleagues at Enron; the Adelphia family; Martha Stewart and her friends the Waksals.  All have had a bad hair day today.
• But all these indictments and convictions that continue to be obtained by this administration's arms of Justice do nothing to thwart the half-truths, inuendos and outright lies that are being circulated by the likes of Senator Kerry, his spokesmen in the Democratic Party, and Michael Moore.  All the more reason to get your information from multiple sources. Cross-read!   This is going to be a dirty compaign, headed by the two John's.
• Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is proving to be too rigid a leader of our military efforts and needs.  As one observer noted, we are now beginning to eat our seed-corn rather than face up to the military personnel requirements of this country, present and future.  As noted earlier in this section, a fair draft of two or three years (depending on whether the inductees need an initial year of remedial education) would be a win-win situation for hundreds of thousands of our young men and women who currently "graduate" highschool thoroughly lacking the tools needed for their future.
• Our Submarine Service may be one other vital force, like that of the CIA in the 1990's, whose meaningful survival depends on the results of the coming election.  Only Republicans, and a few enlightened Democrats, are willing to admit to and to support America's military needs in the coming decades.  Remember that when you go to the polls.
• Finally, a very important report from Reuters Wire Service on Monday, July 5 received none of the coverage it deserves in the Eastern press. "Musharraf Sees Iron Curtain Between West, Muslims", by Peter Starck, Stockholm. "A new iron curtain seems to be falling", he said.  "This iron curtain somehow is dividing the Muslim world on one side and the West on the other side.  This is very dangerous."   The speech should be found and read in its entirety.  It may be another seminal insight, like that of Winston Churchill in 1946 that was derided as extremist and fear-mongering by liberals.  As documented so many times in Mona Charen's book ("Useful Idiots"), the liberal left is not to be trusted with America's security.  Another related article appeared in Parade Magazine on Sunday, July 4, by Elie Wiesel:  "Why I Am An American".

TUESDAY, July 6, 2004

Well, there it is.  John Kerry went for the box instead of the beef.  Senator Edwards will add to the theatre of the campaign.  But he has no public record that would suggest that he is presidential material.  After all, is that not the only real job of a vice-president?  Dick Gephardt would have been a much better choice for the country.  So now we have another measure by means of which to assess Senator Kerry.

GS

MONDAY, July 5, 2004

Several news articles today prompt a response.

• Marlon Brando.  Here may be yet another example of "the meaning of life": happiness cannot be achieved within self, but rather with others...and ultimately only through a created and in-born need for God.
• Submarines.  The main reason why we are not all reading the Heavenly News at this moment.  And their utility is even greater in the world that we entered on 9/11.  Don't let that right arm of the Military be weakened, as the CIA was weakened in the last decades.
• The Draft.  Of course we need it.  But don't expect anything but politics in this election year.
• Teacher tenure.  Desireable and necessary, so long as it guarantees due process and does not also protect professional incompetence.
• The NBA.  Couldn't the owners strive a little harder toward ethical goals and example...than to have 40% of their players with criminal records?  (See Jeff Benedict's recent book).
• Ralph Nader may have hit a nerve when he said yesterday that the Democratic Party, and many of its black supporters, are afraid of the democratic process.  Sounds like he's in for the duration.  Good.
• Have you tuned in to the Dennis Miller show? (CNBC, weeknights at 9 PM).  He does a good job of both entertaining and informing, with the help of a politically balanced group of guests.  Of course, his opinions come out loud and clear.
• Michael Moore.  Now, there's a subject.  His previous work retained a degree of truth, balance and restraint.  But his rage at George Bush (similar to that of the "anybody but Bush" ultra-liberals) seems to have consumed him.  See "Under The Hot Lights", by Michael Isikoff, (Newsweek, June 28, 2004, p29), wherein he provides "a run-down of some of Moore's most provocative allegations, and how they stack up against the record".  They don't.  And then there are some direct quotes from interviews he gave to European newspapers ("A Strange Philosopher For A Strange Era", by David Brooks, The Day, Sunday, July 4, 2004, Perspective, p1): Referring to Americans..."they are possibly the dumbest people on the planet...in thrall to conniving, thieving smug (pieces of the human anatomy)"; and "We Americans suffer from an enforcerd ignorance.  We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country.  Our stupidity is embarrassing."  And there's more.  After that, what can I say?

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, July 3 and 4, 2004

Happy Independence Day.  And happy it is that we should be, as citizens of the greatest and most altruistic nation on earth...ever.  A vast amount of ink is being spilled today to "explain" the meaning of this day and the meaning of the Declaration of Independence (In Congress, July 4, 1776).  But let's go back to the exact words of that monumental document.

• "...necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them to another."
• "...Laws of Nature and Nature's God."
• "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
• ...consent of the governed".
• "...long train of abuses and usurpations...absolute Tyranny over these States". (listed).
• "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyranny, is unfit to be a ruler of a free people".
• "We...appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World...."
• "...as Free and Independent States...."
• "---And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor".

1) That America, founded in a traumatic birth that separated us from the "Old World", must never allow that umbilical cord to be re-grafted onto us.  For the "Old World" is still old and designing, whatever its newer designations.

2)That this is a nation "under God", a generic God of all religions; and that only an athiest cannot be a true American...or even a rational person.

3)That we have been given Freedom, as a priceless gift; but that such freedom, in the words of an American sage, is only "the freedom to discipline ourselves".  With that freedom come responsibilities, a strange word to many members of the last two generations.  Who among us have been obliged to "pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor"?

4) That, armed with that birthright, where is there room for the "malaise" of the Carter - Democratic attitude of the late 1970's or for the "apathy" and negativism of the current Democratic preachings.  Rather, listen to the words of the current President, serving in another period of national distress, "a message brimming with confidence and optimism about America's current role on the world stage", and "America's values about our leadership role when it comes to defending and advancing liberty".  ("Bush To Extol American 'Values' In West Virginia", by David Morgan, Reuters today.)

GS

THURSDAY and FRIDAY, July 1 and 2, 2004

• There are times when a newspaper report has it just right.  No response needed.  The following are two of those times.  1) "Rage Review from Cosby - He Has More Harsh Words For Black Men"  (by Corky Siemaszko, The Daily News, National, today, p4); 2) "A Curse On Liberals Who Blast Cheney", by Charles Krauthammer, The Daily News, National, today, Opinion, p21).
• "Got E-Mail?"  So does everybody else...and its yours.  That's the thrust of the decision this week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the Socialist Republic of Massachusetts.  Now see what I have been writing in this section about a product that is "defective and unreasonably dangerous", thus fulfilling the criteria for Product Liability; namely, computer software?   See the editorial today in the NY Times entitled "Intercepting E-Mail".
• The dangers to us posed by North Korea, and now being demonstrated by Iran, do not phase "liberals" one bit.  They can always be counted on to be "the first to leave the room when the fight starts", as the old saying goes.  The old saying happens to be based on a vast amount of evidence going back to the early 1900's, as carefully chronicled by Mona Charen in her 2003 book entitled: "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong In The Cold War And Still Blame America First" (Regnery Publishing, Inc.).  Read it and learn.  They are not educable...but the rest of us are.