GEPHARDT: SERIOUS ABOUT HEALTH CARE?

Democrat presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt is on the campaign trail with his health care plan. He is hoping this will be the issue that helps him beat President Bush should he get the party's nomination. Little Dick Gephardt has said that he will push for his legislation as soon as he is elected president. Gephardt is a current member of Congress. He can push for and submit his health care legislation right now! Why doesn't he? It seems he cares less about actually trying to get his health care plan enacted than he does about trying to use it as a campaign tactic. He is not serious about his health care plan. He is searching for anything to try and use against a very popular President Bush. Reporters should ask Little Dick why he isn't drafting legislation for his health care plan right now and submitting it to the House. But don't expect the lapdog liberal press to ever ask such questions of him.

TAX CUT POLLS ARE MEANINGLESS

Now that the war in Iraq is essentially over and an overwhelming success for the United States and the people of Iraq, the media have turned their attention toward domestic issues. Particularly President Bush’s tax cut proposal. You have seen and will continue to see polls on the issue. And all of them show that a large percentage of Americans are against an income tax rate reduction. And why wouldn’t they be? Nearly 100% of income taxes paid in the U.S. are paid by less than 50% of wage earners. And the large majority of those taxes, 80%, are paid by 30% of wage earners. The remaining 70% are basically getting a free or reduced-fee ride.

Now ask yourself, if 50% of the population pays no income taxes why would they be in support of an income tax cut? They already don’t pay any income taxes! The other problem with these polls is the questions that are asked. Leading questions such as, “Do you favor the Presidents tax cut proposals which would mostly benefit the wealthiest Americans?” Or the ever popular, “Do you think the Congress should refuse to pass the President’s tax cut and spend that money on shoring up Social Security and Medicare instead?” These questions are worded with the express purpose of getting the desired result. Keep these facts in mind next time you see a talking head proclaim “the American people do not favor tax cuts.”

OMAR RODRIGUEZ SALUDES
PRÓSPERO GAINZA

Don't expect Tim Robbins ("Woody" in Mission to Mars) to hyperventilate over the recent Cuban political prisoner roundup, but above are just two of the names of people who have just been ushered off to the Cuban pokey for exercising their God-given right to free speech and oppose the Castro-communist occupation of their country. Many many more names are at Hoystory.

LIKE GETTING CAPONE ON TAX EVASION

Winnie Mandela, darling of the Left who popularized "necklacing" in the 1980s, has been convicted of theft and fraud in South Africa. Could get 15 years in jail.

SANTORUM IS NOT A BAROMETER

A number of web pundits (here, here, here) are getting rather long-winded fretting over Sen. Rick Santorum's statements on a Texas sodomy law. First, folks were shocked that he would make such an anti-gay statement and the gay lobby wanted him ousted from any leadership position (I assume Tim Robbins wouldn't want any such repercussions because that would be a chill wind blowing down the constitutional right to free speech). Then, folks realized that what Santorum said wasn't an attack on homosexuality, but on certain "immoral" practices. Andrew Sullivan nails the real meaning of the words spoken by the Senator -- support for federal government action to restrict what consenting adults may do in their own bedrooms, regardless of orientation or preference.

But while Sullivan nails the real meaning of the words, I don't think he gets Santorum's real meaning. Yes, we should judge the words he spoke and it is dangerous to try to "look into [his] heart and know whether he is animated by hate or not", but I'm going to look into his heart anyway and I find he is not animated by much. I suspect that the tortured reasoning, the disjointed phrasing, the incoherence of what Santorum said is just evidence that he hasn't put nearly as much work into the construction of his position as the analysts have put into its interpretation. Santorum was trying to dress up a basic anti-gay attitude with statements about Griswold v. Connecticut, the right to privacy, historic Constitutional law, polygamy, pedophilia and morality. I think he really wanted to sound opposed to a "gay-favorable" policy without sounding anti-gay, in an effort (at least a subconcious one) to impress his constituents by appearing anti-gay yet not bigoted. A tough task, thus the incoherence. Santorum doesn't know what he thinks about these issues, he is only concerned about what he appears to think, so let's not indict the Republican party as a whole for some incoherent and uninformed rambling by a Pennsylvania senator.

A FIRST!

You heard it here first, folks - Winston suggests that the government "may be competent in these matters". He's never suggested the government could do anything right.

I think the clearest measure of whether the administration had seen to the post-war plans adequately is the post-war situation itself. And just as critics were too quick to start criticizing the war plan ( "it's days 3 already, why aren't we in Baghdad yet?") it is too soon to say how this will turn out. I do think it's fair to say that the power-vacuum is an indicator of an early, though correctable stumble. Having clerics networking the populace and people appointing themselves mayor before Gen. Garner arrived was less than optimum. I hope critics and supporters of the administration will ALL take a wait-and-see approach before pronouncing success or failure as to the "winning of the peace". We know we have the best military in the world, but in the new world of globally televised warfare, a nation must be prepared to quickly transition to the very non-military nation-building it was so recently in vogue to bash.

SANTORUM'S HAVING A GAY OL' TIME

Come on, someone has got to have something to say about Rick Santorum. Is he anti-gay? Is he anti-fun? Brian, Jeff, Hank? Where are the Federal Review "all stars"?

COLD HARD OPTIMISM

John, you said that: "We took the country and now the problems are ours until/unless we find a way to extricate ourselves." Indeed you are right and we owe it to the people of Iraq, and, more importantly, to the world, to leave Iraq in better shape than we found it. It seems we agree and we also agree that it may be more difficult than the average joe believes, but I'm not sure that the Bush Administration sees this as an easy task, or takes it any less seriously than you would like.

Just as we in the "American street" over-estimated the ability and will of Iraq to defend itself, thinking that there would certainly be chemical weapons attacks and missile launches on Israel, not to mention a Turkish invasion from the North, the Bush Administration had prepared for such negative results by working the diplomatic back channels (i.e., threatening) and sending special forces in to disable missile launching capability. While I think the "American street" has overestimated the welcome we would receive from the newly freed, I don't think the Bush Administration did. If they really believed that people would run wild in the streets in celebration over the fall of Saddam, then the Coalition might have been better prepared for their crowd control mission and the Baghdad Museum might still contain its treasures.

It is just possible that the US Government is competent in these matters.

PESSIMIST'S LAMENT . . .

I don' t think the seed of Jeffersonian democracy will flourish in the middle east for a couple of decades. Democracy in its infancy is fragile. Expect rampant corruption and periodic assassinations. Before I go further, let me say that this is all preferable to Saddam. I supported the war, with or without UN blessing, and was frustrated as hell that they let pointless inspectors in again - I think we in the US over-estimate how our Iraqi friends will recieve us in liberation. The frustration on the street will be exploited into political power by clerics soon/now. There are also moderate, trade-minded Iraqi's who may get trampled here.

In the long term I whole-hearTedly agree about freedoms not being easy to put away once ignited. I just want to see the US set more realisitc expectations about what it will take (time/$$/blood) to make Iraq "look good" internationally over time, and develop a broader US consensus/political will to accept the inevitable criticism that will arise from seeing this through. It isn't that it's easy to be the superpower - its just that we ARE the superpower; there's no one else to enforce the rules. Just don't expect to be loved - the attempts to portray Iraqis as primarily just grateful to America for getting Saddam out is naive and contains an element of wishful thinking. We took the country and now the problems are ours until/unless we find a way to extricate ourselves.

SCOWCROFT CYA

If Scowcroft warned about how Ay Rabs are incapable of democratic, pluralistic government, it was only to provide cover for his team's failure to finish the job in 1991. While there may have been good arguments for not pushing ahead to Baghdad in Round 1, the Iraqis' lack of capicity for enlightened government isn't one of them. I suspect that a few months of the freedoms (including the freedom to speak and to protest) that the Iraqis are already enjoying under Governor-General Pro Tem Garner will be difficult for them to reliquish by electing a Iranian-style theocracy.

HISTORICALLY WRONG

Well, it looks like history, in the form of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, is about to record the words of Lieutenant General William Wallace in a manner a bit different than what he actually said, but in line with the quagmire-crowing prognosticators of the war's second week. I would expect that Oxford will get it right before publication. We'll see.

SIGNS THAT SCOWCROFT WAS RIGHT

We should not underestimate the importance of the liberation of the Iraqi people in our look at the situation, but let's not get carried away in the red, white and blue euphoria just yet. The quick draining of the jubilation of liberation in Iraq has about concluded and the beginning of the hard part has begun. Iraqi's are already resentful of our presence and want us out. Who really thinks that Iraq - even long after water, electricity, police forces etc are provided - will be electing pro-American governments? Brent Scowcroft was excoriated by the neo-conservatives when he suggested that this was the case before the war. Just as we planned for potential use of chem/bio/nuke weapons in planning for the Iraq operation, we need to be planning to have in the future a democratically elected "friend" in Iraq that makes the current Saudi regime look like our best buddies.

REALLY REALLY USEFUL IDIOTS

I'm shocked -- shocked to find out that a liberal anti-war politician was on Saddam's payroll. See Andrew Sullivan on this issue and the story from The Independent and the actual documents and communications between a Member of Parliament (Labour Party, of course) and the Iraqi government, including Tariq Aziz. This sort of thing happened all the time during the cold war, so it's no surprise that Saddam learned a little something from history.

DEFINING THE LEFT

John Derbyshire provides a good summary of what the Right thinks of the Left:

The essence of the modern Left, from Lenin to the Clintons, is a contempt for ordinary people - for their blindness to their own interests, for their inability to see that society needs radically reorganizing, for their reluctance to let themselves be shoveled around like truckloads of concrete in order to accomplish that reorganization, for their degraded tastes in everything from food to mode of transportation, for their selfish determination to hold on to the rewards of their own labor rather than hand over those rewards to people who believe themselves wiser, for their absurd attachment to outmoded prehistoric concepts like "family," "nation," and "liberty."

Lenin: "It is true that liberty is precious - so precious that it must be rationed." And who is to do the rationing? Why, we, the enlightened ones, the anointed ones - the elite! Mrs. Clinton: "It takes a village to raise a child." God forbid the task should be left to - ugh! - a family. You need a community... with leaders... And who will those leaders be? Guess who.

Most of the article deals with the Left's approach to religious Americans.

BLACKLISTS, NOW AND THEN

Unless you think being honored in Cooperstown for a movie you did 15 years ago is a "job," then don't call it "blacklisting" when people don't want to associate with you because you utter indefensible idiocies. Really, do you think the Baseball Hall of Fame should honor Al Campanis for his years of contributions to baseball or should he be "blacklisted" for exercising his first amendment right to express his views on race? Al shouldn't be honored and neither should Tim Robbins ("Larry 'Mother' Tucker" in Fraternity Vacation). It's not a "blacklist" to express disapproval of someone's views by refusing to socialize with them.

I'm not even sure it's a bad thing to actually deny someone a job because you disagree with their views. Really, would you want to work with Al Campanis, Pat Buchanan or Noam Chomsky? I'll stop beating around the bush. I expect Tim Robbins ("Phil Blumburtt" in Howard the Duck) tp do everything he could to keep some Nazi-sympathizer from working in Hollywood, and he would be correct in doing so.

And I don't remember Tim Robbins ("Larry" in Cadillac Man) standing up to defend Eliz Kazan when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences gave him a lifetime achievement award. Other Hollywood leftists were loud in their outrage because Kazan had stood up against the Communist insurgency in Hollywood (an insurgency documented by Soviet and East German files).

Now, Tim Robbins ("Meat" in Bull Durham) is complaining that the First Amendment is suffering.

"A chill wind is blowing in this nation," Robbins told a National Press Club luncheon Tuesday. "Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent."

And spewed invective and hatred are directed in the other direction too, from the Janeane Garofalos and Sheryl Crows of the world, yet, the Republic continues. It's called the marketplace of ideas and it is especially tough when most everyone in the marketplace disagrees with you. It's not the end of the world or 1933. Grow a backbone.

But the blacklist continues and you see nary a movie about it. While our "institutions of higher learning" are preaching diversity, they are systematically excluding conservative viewpoints from the academy. Tim and Susan need to make a movie about that. It would show real courage.