Countering Pop-Culture

As a conservative and uncle of four, I tend to wonder if our society is heading towards a fiery crash if we don't get a hand of what we deem as "pop-culture". No matter where you go, whether on the Internet, television, radio, or the movie industry, we're bombarded with trivial things like Anna Nicole Smith, Donald Trump vs Rosie, Girls Gone Wild, teachers sleeping with their students, crude rappers, Jerry Springer, exhibitions of gore and mayhem and Lord knows whatever else there is to peddle to the massive viewing audience. What I see when I turn on my TV just makes me pretty scared what kind of future awaits my three nieces and lone nephew as they near their teenage years and they become more and more exposed to these media avenues. One thing I do know is that there are a lot of people in this country who completely understand what a negative impact such a degradation of our culture will have on future generations. Thankfully the good folks at Walden Media have established a family friendly outlet from the everyday "pop-culture" by offering up such great movies like The Chronicles of Narnia, Because of Winn-Dixie, Charlotte's Web, How To Eat Fried Worms, Holes, I Am David and many others to come. If you want to learn more on the success story of Walden Media and its future offering then I suggest you read this column by Brent Bozell III.

Above all, our children and the survivability of our culture will only be solved by the parents who need to take control of the remote and find ways of limiting their kids from the mess that is being splashed on the screens of our TVs, computer screens and in the movie theater. An even better way to ensure this is through these same parents using their feet and pocketbooks to guide the movie industry(At least the ones directed towards kids) towards a market that is family friendly and in the case of Walden Media a very handsome chunk of cash.

Defeat Isn't Worth It

I have to say that Cliff May has written a great column which points out that while a small majority of the Iraqi population is causing the problems in Iraq, it is still out duty to make sure that the respectable people in Iraq are not left on the lurch and left to their own devices to settle the mess. All in all, the Democrats in Congress might think that they're doing the will of the voters by pushing forward "non-binding resolutions" and talking about eventually putting Vietnam era restrictions on our soldiers but in reality they're ripping victory from the jaws of defeat. I just don't think that the soldiers who have fallen, the American people, and our friends in Iraq were booking on what the members of Congress are pushing through.

Be Careful With What You Wish For

Now while the supporters of the minimum wage bill call the passage of this bill as a victory for "working families", they fail to realize that more often than not the individuals working these jobs are teenagers, folks just entering the workforce waiting for a better job, individuals supplementing their spouses income but very seldom do you find a family of four living on minimum wage. One only has to look at this piece from the Arizona Central to realize that a minimum wage hike much like anything in economics has a significant economic trade-off thus for the employer to continue to pay at this new wage they are either going to have raise prices on goods or services or cut costs which in most cases means cutting their work staff by getting rid of the least experienced and younger workers. It might not mean much to these politicians that raising the minimum wage costs young teenagers jobs but they fail to realize that by killing such jobs they rob these teenagers of part-time or even summer jobs which provide them with a sense of earning their way in the world and gaining much needed work experience that in turn helps them out when they venture into the real world after they graduate from high school or college. So even though the Republicans in the Senate got tax breaks installed in the bill to ease such burdens on small employers, I think that before Speaker Pelosi and her band of merry Democrats get to excited about pushing through a hike in the minimum wage (Everything is done but a conference to pound out the difference between the House and Senate as well as the President's signature) they should take a good look at what harm such legislation can cause. They should remember that these teens and new workers who will lose their jobs from this hike will eventually be eligible to vote and might aid others in casting out the whole lot of Democrats who pushed through such legislation.

A Republic, Not A Democracy

It seems that about every election time they're are a group of individuals or academics who push a wacky idea to end the electoral college in an effort to make it more than likely that their candidate for president can win an election. Thankfully Mike Rosen, radio host and Rocky Mountain News columnist, has penned a great piece that shoots down this whole wacky notion and demonstrates once again how our Founding Fathers were true geniuses when they had the foresight to object to pure democracy and embrace a constitutional republic that has lasted these 200 plus years. Here's a sample of Rosen's column:

The supporters of this goofy idea are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats. Their first goal, obviously, is to win the presidency for their party. They believe this will be easier if they can circumvent the Electoral College, which leverages the voice of less populous states, like Colorado, that have tended to vote Republican in recent years. SB 46 contrives to tip the scales in favor of northeastern states and California with large Democratic majorities in heavily populated cities.

Additionally, liberal populists like Gordon have an ideological bias against the Electoral College, preferring a national popular vote for president. They say that's the way it's supposed to be in a democracy. But we are not a democracy, never have been and most definitely never should be. The Founders abhorred pure democracy and purposefully created a constitutional republic, an ingenious combination of democratic institutions and anti-democratic safeguards: a Bill of Rights to protect individuals from the tyranny of the majority; representative government, filtering majoritarian passions; a Senate with two seats for each state, regardless of population; federalism; the separation of powers; judicial review; the presidential veto; and, yes, the Electoral College.

We're not a collective, amorphous blob, but a confederation of individual states, each retaining some sovereign powers, unique qualities, values and agendas. The Electoral College is a constant reminder of that. We do not have - nor have we ever had - a national popular vote for president. We have 51 separate elections in each of the states and the District of Columbia to determine how Electoral College votes will be cast. It's only out of curiosity, devoid of legal status, that we aggregate those 51 election results to produce a national total.

SB 46 would render Colorado irrelevant. Why would a candidate waste time and resources, here, to pick up a relatively small differential when 25 million votes are at stake in New York and California?

Thank G-d our founding fathers had the knowledge of history when they formed this great nation and its constitutional system.

Sage Advice From Across the Pond

If I were sitting on the staff of any of the Democrats in Congress or those aspiring for a higher office then I'd be trying my best to make sure that this column by Gerard Baker made its way into their boss's daily readings. Here's a sample:

Posturing — as the party did this week in the Senate, trying to pass nonbinding resolutions that condemn the war but offer no alternatives — will end up only reminding voters what they distrusted about Democrats. You can see the temptation, of course. Antiwar sentiment is now so strong in the country that all the Democrat contenders for the presidency are being pushed farther towards outright opposition. Hillary Clinton is busy modifying her previous modifications to position herself closer to the clearer antiwar stances of Barack Obama and John Edwards. On current trends, the three will soon be wearing bandanas, camping out in front of the White House, and openly considering signing Jane Fonda on to the ticket in 2008.

But there is a real opportunity for Democrats if they handle the next year or so correctly. Serious-minded foreign policy specialists in the party are trying to craft an approach that will not simply exploit antiwar sentiment but will align it behind a new strategic vision for the US. They say that Washington needs to relearn the lessons of the Cold War. The War on Terror will only be won, they say, in the same way — partly by military action when necessary, but even more so by victory in an ideological struggle. That requires demonstrating to the world, in this struggle for civilisation, that America’s way — what we used to think of as the West’s way — is the superior way, not simply by military means, but by winning the famous “battle for hearts and minds”.

These Democrats argue that the US is losing that struggle. And, glancing at the esteem in which America is held in the world, it is hard to dispute that. Of course that would matter less if America were not losing the military struggles, too — but it is. This is a view that resonates with many Americans, including Republicans, and could easily be a winning message.

The question is whether enough Democrats are willing to go down this difficult route of seeking engagement and compromise, or whether the instant satisfaction of indulging noisy antiwar sentiment will win out once again.

My guess is that they're so filled with a spirit of "stickin' it" to the GOP and George Bush that they'll be unable to focus their mind on doing the right and smart thing. At the current rate, it won't be long before the Blue-Dogs and the Pelosi wing start fighting with each other.

Could Rudy be the One?

I have to say that after reading this piece in the NY Sun by columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., I'm becoming more impressed about Rudy Giuliani's ability to be the next POTUS, especially when I see the results he had in turning around New York(Crime and Revitalizing the Town) not to mention his depth and understanding of "supply-side" economics and the threats the Islamic extremism pose to this nation. Now while he's off to a great start on being an ideal pick for the GOP, it would be very wise for Rudy to be a little more open towards attending more conservative events while also being more open to the American people about his social views. Here's hoping Rudy great luck in 08 but as with all presidential races someone better might emerge in a years time.

*Here's my top four:
1.Newt Gingrich
2.Rudy
3.Romney
4.McCain

Eco-Madness Documentary

As a conservative, I'm all gung-ho for individuals fighting to preserve their traditions, culture, history and way of life which includes the managing of one's property and surroundings but at the same time I believe that such should be approached in a more restrained manner that doesn't exclude growth and economic prosperity. Now while a lot of people in "the heartland" know what what I'm talking about, they're are a lot of individuals within the Green/environmental left camp that will go to great extremes to push their agenda on people who are just trying to make a living or doing what they want to do on their own property. Whether it's the folks who protest and fill all kinds of lawsuits to prevent the building of new homes, activists against the use of DDT to control if not eliminate malaria in Africa, rich celebrities/politicians calling for the building of massive wind-turbine farms or other alternative energy sources but then go all NIMBY(not in my back yard) when alternative energy companies propose the placing of such technology in their neighborhood, environmentalists getting injunctions to prevent farmers/foresters from clearing dead or ageing trees from our forests who are doing so in an effort to minimize the threat of fires to the human population, or individuals who are so devoted to preventing further global warming(I'm leery of believing that the UN and Gore know everything about the true causes of this phenomenon) that they are willing to impose onerous regulations and restrictions on industries that they will dry up our industrial base(China and India are excluded from Kyoto), the extreme environmentalists are proposing ideas and enacting solutions that cause more harm than good to the community or the people in general. The extent of such eco-madness seems to reach its greatest height of absurdity in instances in which various environmental groups target various international mining companies who are trying to start up some mines that bring jobs to remote and poverty stricken areas of the world, which is documented in a fine new file called Mine Your Own Business. Though the critics will scoff at the film and claim that this is free market propaganda and an insult to environmentalism, the film still serves a purpose in demonstrating what ends the eco-extremists will go to ensure their will is done while denying the will and well-being of others.

*Here's a good review of Mine Your Own Business over at National Review Online by Peter Suderman.

Building Better Bonds With India

I have to say that if the US is going to assure that the fight of freedom against the Islamic extremists continues in the region of Afghanistan and surrounding countries then we've got to make sure that we have India on our side in the fight. One way to make this happen is by inking some defense contracts with with the largest democracy in this year's Aero India air show. According to this piece in the Financial Times it seems the US is trying their best to make such deals are formed.

Budget Battle 08

I found it rather amusing yesterday how the Democrats in Congress were falling all over each other to get before the cameras to call the President's budget, which calls for the extension of his tax cuts and the slowing of spending to reduce, "dead on arrival" by pointing out how the bill is too expensive and will only raise the deficits even more. Even more interesting is how theDems are real quick to say that they're for the troops and giving them all supplies and arms they need but become apoplectic when the President submits a request for increasing the Pentagon's budget. Now I know that the Democrats are just posturing before the cameras to show their base that they're "sticking it" to George W. Bush but I'd think that they'd a least read some of the budget before the jump to any conclusions. Thankfully, the WSJ editorial board has taken some time out of their day to look into the President's budget and have found some interesting information that shows the budget in far better light than what the press and the Democrats are trying to do. Here's a look at what the WSJ had to say about the President's budget:

The news Mr. Conrad won't broadcast is that over the past three years the federal deficit has shrunk by 58%. The Congressional Budget Office -- not the White House -- is estimating that the current year's deficit (for fiscal 2007) will fall to $172 billion. That's not bad given continuing Katrina relief spending, $30 billion for homeland security, and a couple hundred billion or so to fight the war on terror.

The White House is projecting that its new budget will eliminate the deficit by 2012 assuming Mr. Bush's tax cuts are extended after 2010. We don't put much stock in future budget forecasts because they depend on so many variables. But even CBO predicts the deficit should remain near or below 1% of GDP for the rest of the Bush Presidency. That's well below the 40-year average of 2.4% of GDP.

This also means that the federal debt burden will continue to fall. Alarmists point to the $1.4 trillion rise in total federal debt from 2003-2006, but that amount is dwarfed by the $14 trillion in new household wealth created over the same period. And for all the international scolding of an allegedly profligate America, U.S. federal debt as a share of GDP is falling again (see the top chart nearby). At 37% in 2006 and heading south, the U.S. figure compares to 52% in Germany, 43% in France, and 79% in Japan. Once again rising total "debt" is a scare word used to justify higher taxes.

The real game to watch isn't debt or deficits but spending. Here, too, Mr. Bush has an improved track record in his second term. From 2001-2005, outlays ballooned by $609 billion, or 33%, and Mr. Bush never did veto a spending bill. By contrast, on current pace his second term outlays will grow by 21% -- hardly tightfisted, but a third slower.

The other news you won't often hear concerns the soaring tax revenues in the wake of the 2003 supply-side tax cuts. Tax collections have risen by $757 billion, among the largest revenue gushers in history. Receipts, especially from high-income individuals and corporations, have been growing for some two years at nearly twice the rate of spending, which explains the falling deficit. Economic growth is always the key to eliminating red ink, which is why keeping this 63-month expansion rolling needs to be the main domestic priority. This requires making those lower 2003 tax rates permanent, rather than letting them expire in 2010 and socking the economy with the biggest tax increase in history.

The more immediate budget brawl between Mr. Bush and Democrats will be how to divide that mere $2.9 trillion between guns and butter. Mr. Bush wants $245 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan for 2007 and 2008. His overall Pentagon request of $606 billion in 2008 has been lambasted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a "huge number" and Democrats are moaning that their cherished social programs will suffer.

In fact, Mr. Bush's request would only bring defense outlays to 4.2% of GDP, or about 20% of total federal spending. That compares to 4.7% of GDP even under Jimmy Carter, and 6.2% of GDP in 1986 at the peak of the Reagan defense buildup (see bottom chart). Budgets are about setting priorities, and if Democrats agree that defeating terrorism is vital they will put it ahead of funding the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Democrats might think that the can bad mouth the President's fiscal policy is they want but a least he's willing to keep spending at a modest to lower level than what they're offering up to the American people. It'll be fun watching the Democrats try to explain to the American people why they're so willing to do away growth enhancing tax cuts and a much needed boost to the Pentagon being pushed forward by the President. For politicos like me, the upcoming budget fight will be very interesting.

School Choice: A GOP Winner in 2008

If the Republicans are going to have a chance of winning the Presidency in 2008 then they've got to return to what got them to the top in the first place which is a philosophy of individual freedom, limited government, personal responsibility and a continuation of a strong national security policy that keeps America and its allies safe from the dangers that threaten our way of life. One area that would serve the GOP well would be the greater advocacy of "school choice" that returns the decisions of a child's education back to the parents and the local school system and out off the hands of a D.C. bureaucrat. I'm betting that a lot more of this nation would stand up and applaud a GOP candidate(Some Dems if they dare to brave the teacher unions) who actually called for greater educational freedom that allows them greater access to vouchers that provide them the ability to take their kids out of failing schools and enroll them in parochial schools or charter schools that actually teaches their children to read, write, and learn in general. All in all, our students are best served by an education system in which various schools in a district are actually competing for each and every student(and the cash voucher) by offering greater educational standards and having a bevy of teachers who get their students to learn. As a typical political junkie I've been taking note of the fact that GOP hopefuls like Governor Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani giving speeches in which they point out that if we are going to remain economically competitive with the education minded countries of China and India then we've got to find a way to ensure that our education standards in science and math continue to improve. It is true that Iraq and national security will be on the top of the list but after reading this piece on "school choice" by George Will one can understand how a potential candidate could go far in 2008 by promising greater educational choices for children and their parents then they have a real chance of getting the nod for the GOP in 2008. most recent column to see how the "school choice" movement could be pretty big if the right person presents the right message.

Multiculturalism Run Amuck

Here's further proof that the devotion to multiculturalism in the United Kingdom has allowed the Islamic extremists to flourish under the guise of religious freedom.

Heat in The Kitchen

Lee Harris has a good piece over at TCS Daily which offers some sage advice to Senator Clinton and others who keep appearing before the cameras and complaining that it is a disservice to them for President Bush to place the current fight in Iraq on their plate. As Harris notes, the job of the Presidency does not become a blank slate free from previous office holders actions or the messes that result from such actions on January 21st but is a continuing story but with different actors who have to find their own way. Harris puts it best when he noted the following:

It is the Constitution, after all, that forces us to consider swapping horses on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years; it is the same document that, after FDR, forbids us to keep any horse for more than eight years. It is the Constitution that requires that our elections come like clockwork, despite the fact that sweeping and traumatic historical events, such as wars foreign and civil, seldom re-arrange their schedule to fit in with ours. It is, in short, the Constitution that makes it utterly inevitable that Presidents will often be forced to pass on their own messes to their successors and that these successors will be compelled to handle them as best they can—and to do so with the best grace they can manage.

No one is under any obligation to run as a candidate for the Presidency; but those who elect to do so are under a high and serious obligation to understand the nature of the office to which they are aspiring. If, like Lincoln, a future President Clinton finds herself confronted with a mess made by her predecessor in office, it will not be enough for her to blame Mr. Bush for his incompetence and mismanagement. It will avail her naught to continue to declare that Iraq is Bush's responsibility. By then, whether she likes it or not, Iraq will be her responsibility, and no one else's. If she refuses to recognize this unpleasant truth now, while still a candidate, how prepared will she be to recognize it when she is President and it is too late to throw the responsibility on someone else?

"We cannot escape history," Lincoln once said sadly and solemnly. We cannot undo what has been done; we cannot wish it away or blame it into oblivion; we cannot arbitrarily decide which parts of the past shall influence our future. We are stuck with what has been, and are constrained to make the best of it. History may or may not agree in blaming the mess in Iraq entirely on George Bush, as Senator Clinton has done; but history will not absolve his successor for refusing to take his—or her--responsibility for cleaning up the mess, regardless of who made it, or how it came about.

Is this fair? No, of course not. But then, history isn't fair, and those who resent this fact, as Senator Clinton appears to do, are well advised to steer clear of it.

Aside from Harris' reference to Lincoln, I'm reminded of when Eisenhower taking over the Korean War from Truman, Vietnam being passed by LBJ to Nixon, or Reagan received a weakened military and beleaguered national spirit from Jimmy Carter. While these individuals could have complained that laying all this on their plate as being "unfair" but most other presidents they tried their very best to make do with what they had at hand. To me, If you can't handle all the problems that comes your way with regards to the office of the President of the United States then you probably shouldn't seek the office.

Sleepless in Paris

According to this piece in The Australian, the Health Ministry of France is becoming so concerned about the fact that people in France are coming to work tired that they are suggesting that all workers should have 15 minute siestas. In fact if you think about it, France, a welfare state at its highest, with high unemployment, low economic growth, low worker productivity, 35 hour work week(by law), the whole month of August vacations, as well as a penchant for staying up all night visiting bars and cafes should be the last ones to even think about complaining about sleep. Its all good to be concerned about the sleep habits of your nation but I'm guessing that France should be more concerned about more pressing issues like the Muslim youths who seem to burn cars and assault everyday citizens, a sclerotic economy, Iran, Afghanistan, Islamic terrorism.

Meddling Mullahs

After reading this article in USA Today, one can truly understand why the US is turning up the heat on the various Iranian military and intelligence agents(some of them posing as diplomats or religious pilgrims) who are roaming in the cities and countryside of Iraq. Here's hoping we have some good hunting in the near future. Such would be helpful in our current and upcoming efforts in securing Baghdad and the other danger zones in Iraq.

Things Are Turning In Iraq

Maybe before the typical gaggle of politicians start falling all over themselves to appear before a TV camera or microphone to declare that the President's new Iraq counter-terrorism policy dead on arrival, they should take a look at the Jack Kelly's recent column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. According to Kelly, it looks like the situation is becoming more fluid and the enemy is getting antsy because they're not so sure that they can stand the onslaught that is coming. Though this could be wishful thinking, it is far optimistic to give this thing a try than settling on defeat and letting the Iraqis duke it out.

Faux Populism

I would say if John Edwards is going to run as an economic populist and preaching about standing up the "little man" then maybe he should live in more humble surroundings that what he's currently building.

Government Should Stay Out of Energy Biz

I think the Wall Street Journal aptly notes that the President's proposal to lessen us from the dependency of foreign sources of petroleum by reducing our consumption by 20% in ten years is bound to be an enormous boondoggle or end in failure as long as the federal government continues to imposing things from the top down like raising CAFE standards on cars and its promoting the adoption of alternative fuels via subsidies rather than letting the free market and the people decide. Probably the most costly of these top down ventures is the current love for ethanol in D.C. In fact, here's what the WSJ has to say about President Bush's tauting of ethanol in his energy proposal:

Ostensibly, the great virtue of ethanol is that it represents a "sustainable," environmentally friendly source of energy--a source that is literally homegrown rather than imported from such unstable places as Nigeria or Iran.

That's one reason why, as Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren note in the Milken Institute Review, federal and state subsidies for ethanol ran to about $6 billion last year, equivalent to roughly half its wholesale market price. Ethanol gets a 51-cent a gallon domestic subsidy, and there's another 54-cent a gallon tariff applied at the border against imported ethanol. Without those subsidies, hardly anyone would make the stuff, much less buy it--despite recent high oil prices.

That's also why the percentage of the U.S. corn crop devoted to ethanol has risen to 20% from 3% in just five years, or about 8.6 million acres of farmland. Reaching the President's target of 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 would, at present corn yields, require the entire U.S. corn harvest.

No wonder, then, that the price of corn rose nearly 80% in 2006 alone. Corn growers and their Congressmen love this, and naturally they are planting as much as they can. Look for a cornfield in your neighborhood soon. Yet for those of us who like our corn flakes in the morning, the higher price isn't such good news. It's even worse for cattle, poultry and hog farmers trying to adjust to suddenly exorbitant prices for feed corn--to pick just one industry example. The price of corn is making America's meat-packing industries, which are major exporters, less competitive.

In Mexico, the price of corn tortillas--the dietary staple of the country's poorest--has risen by about 30% in recent months, leading to widespread protests and price controls. In China, the government has put a halt to ethanol-plant construction for the threat it poses to the country's food security. Thus is a Beltway fad translated into Third World woes.

As for the environmental impact, well, where do we begin? As an oxygenate, ethanol increases the level of nitrous oxides in the atmosphere and thus causes smog. The scientific literature is also divided about whether the energy inputs required to produce ethanol actually exceed its energy output. It takes fertilizer to grow the corn, and fuel to ship and process it, and so forth. Even the most optimistic estimate says ethanol's net energy output is a marginal improvement of only 1.3 to one. For purposes of comparison, energy outputs from gasoline exceed inputs by an estimated 10 to one.

And because corn-based ethanol is less efficient than ordinary gasoline, using it to fuel cars means you need more gas to drive the same number of miles. This is not exactly a route to "independence" from Mideast, Venezuelan or any other tainted source of oil. Ethanol also cannot be shipped using existing pipelines (being alcohol, it eats the seals), so it must be trucked or sent by barge or train to its thousand-and-one destinations, at least until separate pipelines are built.

Time and time again, this nation has always discovered that while the government is great at passing laws(Some not as good as others), collecting taxes, and fighting wars, they fail miserably at creating innovative technologies or products that the American people are willing to purchase(That they can afford) or use. So instead of offering up subsidies and placing onerous standards on industries that have already taken turns towards fuel efficiency due to market forces-see Toyota, Honda and more and more of the Big Three, the government should reduce the tons of regulations and taxes that they have on these industries and thus allow Adam Smith's famous "animal spirits" to take flight and bring about cheaper and more efficient products that free us a good bit from foreign sources of oil. Even more, this nation would also find it in its best short-run interests it the government made it much easier for our domestic industries to drill, pump and refine our own domestic sources of petroleum. All in all, the solution to our energy problems are not found in the wood paneled offices of D.C. politicians and bureaucrats but in the board rooms and R&D labs of the private industries of America.

Veiled Radicalism

If you want to truly understand what kind of problem that the UK faces in trying to deal with Islamic extremists who use the freedoms of the West and take full advantage of the policies of multiculturalism to shield themselves and their hostile activity from the authorities, then I recommend you watch the following episodes from the UK's Channel 4 documentary show Dispatches. Here's the following links to the six part series over at YouTube:

Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFQWuk4nuo

Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuCLC8kjWCI

Part 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5t5EqWX92k

Part 4: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMztM0Z7BYE

Part 5: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Zv3BUmwqs

Part 6: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvjvNScmTQA

I have to say that these episodes of Dispatches as well as Melanie Phillips's Londonistan provides one with an eye opening look at how a full embrace of multiculturalism out of a fear of offending can have a horrific impact on a society and its well being.

Undermining the UK's fight on Islamic Terrorism

This story over at the BBC just further demonstrates that the UK is continuing to undermine its security and rule of law out of the fear of offending the Muslim community. While its all good and well to get the community involved in enforcing the law, I believe that the police are cutting their throats(no slight intended) by sharing information on your suspects to the various leaders of the predominately Muslim community. These individuals might be law abiding citizens who respect the UK and want to keep their country safe from such individuals but you also run the risk of tipping off the bad guys thus allowing them to get the heck out of Dodge. All in all, the proposal being pushed by the leaders of the Metropolitan Police is just another way of breaking the UK's effectiveness in fighting Islamic extremism. It'd be nice if these individuals setting up such feel good policies would take a moment to look at Melanie Phillips' wonderful book Londonistan which provides in great detail how the destructive in nature that this embrace of multiculturalism and moral relativism with regards to the Muslim community has on the British society as a whole. Until they do so and really take a deep hard look at these policies, they will continue to pull the country down and endanger millions of lives in the process.

Is Something Burning?

Now this is what I'd refer to as a "hot" new weapon in our arsenal. I'd be nice if the military could up the release date and have such a weapon available to our soldiers out in the combat zone.

Far From Being the Next Iron Lady

This past week I was browsing The Times (London) and found an article in which Senator Clinton's advisers and friends are trying their best to sell the junior Senator from New York as being a liberal embodiment of Margaret Thatcher. Now try as they might, I pretty much doubt that they will ever convince the American people(Even if they raise or spend $500 million for 08) that Senator Clinton-an individual trained on "political triangulation" and a fanatic with poll numbers- is another Margaret Thatcher. Even more, with her steady change of course with regards to Iraq, Senator Clinton is miles away from the lady who proudly proclaimed "the lady is not for turning." Thankfully, Peter Cuthbertson has a piece over at TCS Daily which pretty much erases all doubts about Hillary becoming the second coming of the "Iron Lady."

Widom of Our Founders

I hope that all the Senators and others who are pushing forward resolutions to handcuff the President's hands and limiting his ability to effectively conduct a war as Commander-in-Chief will take a gander at this editorial in The Wall Street Journal and realize that such actions are far and beyond the powers that the Founding Fathers intended for them to have. Even more important is that the ones squawking before the cameras about limiting the President and his commander's actions when it comes to fighting a war are some of the same individuals who are bidding for a chance to become the next Commander-in-Chief. They might think that they can win the Battle of Iraq by committee but as with all other wars the ultimate victor is one who is commanded by a single but resolute commander who is oriented to a task of winning rather than trying to conform to a myriad of voices sitting at a table. Thank God for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers.

Backing Up Somalia

In an earlier post I noted- with great joy- the great success that the combined Ethiopian and Somali military forces(Along with some help from US forces stationed in Djibouti) achieved in the routing the Islamic Courts Union from their perch this last month. I also noted that in order for this victory to be lasting and remain a no-go for al Qaeda, the United States has got to muster up all the resources it has at its disposal to ensure that the fledgling Somali government continues to stay intact and prevents the area from reverting back to chaos. Now I know that I have preached at the top of my lungs that the US should be wary of sending tons of cash outright to nations because it removes any incentive to the receiving nation but with Somalia I feel that we've got to throw out our apprehensions about blanket aid. The main reason for my avoiding my usual caution is that the current government is flat broke and is being held together by mere strings that are slowly fraying with Ethiopia's current troop draw down. One individual that seems to have a brain around the situation and understands the necessity of providing help to our friends who are willing to step up to the plate and fight Islamic extremists is Daveed Gartenstein-Ross who has penned a good article over at the Weekly Standard that calls on the US to break through all the roadblocks and turf wars between the Pentagon and State and help or friends in need before we suffer a strategic blunder in the Horn of Africa and chalk up a victory for al Qaeda much like we did when we booked out of Somalia like we did in the early 1990's. We've just got to return to JFK's(And many other foreign policy hawks) Cold War mentality in which we'll "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty," if we're going to push the Islamic extremists onto the ash heap of history.

*If we do take this route with regards to Africa then we've got to work on putting the region under a military umbrella with teeth much like David Silverstein noted in this piece over at National Review Online.

Economic Dynamism

I realize that the President's SOTU address was intended to push forward a bi-partisan spirit with feel good policies while at the same time conveying a sense of strength and determination to the nation and our enemies that we are prepared to push onward to victory in Iraq. While this talk is necessary, I think he would have had a better time and gained more traction with a large national audience if he had spent more time talking up our dynamic economy rather than just offering mere generalities. I guess since the President has a modest streak on touting the robust economy(Much like his Dad), it comes down to bloggers and others to point out the booming economy. One place that seems to lack the timidity of talking up our good economy is the good folks at the WSJ editorial board who made the following observation in today's paper:

The big economic story going into this New Year is that growth is accelerating. Jobless claims have dipped, as the labor market stays tight amid a low 4.5% unemployment rate and rapidly rising real wages. Corporate profits continue to defy gravity, growing at nearly double-digit rates some five years into this expansion. Economist Ed Hyman's ISI Group reports that as of last Friday some 57% of companies had beat profit expectations for the fourth quarter.

Then there's the "trade deficit," which was supposed to have produced a crisis any day now but is instead contributing to faster growth as American exports soar. Peppier growth abroad is helping, especially in Europe, assuming Germany's big increase in value-added taxes this month doesn't get in the way. Oil prices have come down, and even the housing slump seems to have stabilized in some parts of the country.

This might be seen as pure "happy-talk" by a lot of the populists but the simple fact is that Republicans are in a win-win position with the American people when they point out the economic dynamism that they have set off by promoting policies that lead to the unleashing of the powers of the free-market and getting the government off our backs. It worked for Reagan and would be a sure winner for the current President.

*John O'Sullivan has a good piece in the Chicago Sun-Times which sums up my whole argument on leaders touting their free-market principles and the results such policies. He sites three of my favorite leaders whole espoused such positive thoughts.

CA Fruit Frost Can Be Prevented

I found this interesting piece by Dr. Henry I Miller over at TCS Daily which notes that the fruit growers of California could have saved some $1 billion in fruit had they been allowed to spray a bacterium that prevented the formulation of ice particles. While I could wax on and on about this marvel in agricultural science, I figured I'd let an expert like Dr. Miller, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, fill you in. Here's a look:

In the early 1980's scientists at the University of California and in industry devised a new approach to limiting frost damage. They knew that a harmless bacterium which normally lives on many plants contains an "ice nucleation" protein that promotes frost damage. Therefore, they sought to produce a variant of the bacterium that lacked the ice-nucleation protein, reasoning that spraying this variant bacterium (dubbed "ice-minus") on plants might prevent frost damage by displacing the common, ice-promoting kind. Using very precise biotechnology techniques called "gene splicing," the researchers removed the gene for the ice nucleation protein and planned field tests with ice-minus bacteria.

Then the government stepped in, and that was the beginning of the end.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified as a pesticide the obviously innocuous ice-minus bacterium, which was to be tested in northern California on small, fenced-off plots of potatoes and strawberries. The regulators reasoned that the naturally-occurring, ubiquitous, "ice-plus" bacterium is a "pest" because its ice-nucleation protein promotes ice crystal formation. Therefore, other bacteria intended to displace it would be a "pesticide." This is the kind of absurd, convoluted reasoning that could lead EPA to regulate outdoor trash cans as a pesticide because litter is an environmental "pest."

At the time, scientists inside and outside the EPA were unanimous that the test posed negligible risk. (I wrote the opinion provided by the Food and Drug Administration.) No new genetic material had been added, only a single gene whose function was well known had been removed, and the organism was obviously harmless. Nonetheless, the field trial was subjected to an extraordinarily long and burdensome review just because the organism was gene-spliced.

If the government would only find its way out of private sector more often I believe the farmers in CA would still have $1 billion in crops, consumers would have to pay higher prices on fruit as well as the double whammy of having to foot the emergency subsidies that will be given to the farmers. Folks are better off heeding Ronald Reagan's old adage "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," when the government starts to drift into the realm of the private sector.

Good News On the Iraq Front

I know that we are far from getting out of the woods with Iraq but this most recent news on the Iraqi government putting pressure and allowing the US to conduct more aggressive actions against Sadr and his Mahdi Army gives me a little more confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqis stepping up to the plate. Hopefully, these most recent events are just the tip of a much larger iceberg thus ensuring the chances of beating back the insurgency.

One Piece At a Time

Max Boot has a good column in the Los Angeles Times that notes how a large portion of America(I'm guessing more Americans prefer victory over defeat) and Congress should be very wary of calling President Bush's Iraq policy "dead on arrival" and offering retreat as the only alternative. I think Boot sums up the need to give the President and our military a fighting chance in Iraq when he notes the following:

Perhaps the objection now is that 21,500 troops won't make much difference. It's true that, according to the new Army-Marine Counterinsurgency Manual, effective operations generally require at least one soldier or police officer per 40 or 50 inhabitants. That would suggest doubling our current force of 132,000 to secure Baghdad and the entire Sunni Triangle (population 13 million). But it would be difficult to find that many soldiers in the overstretched and undersized U.S. armed forces.

That doesn't mean, however, that the reinforcements Bush is sending are useless. As called for under a plan formulated by military historian Frederick Kagan and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, the five newly arriving brigades should be deployed alongside Iraqi units to live in Sunni and mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad. This is a classic counterinsurgency approach focused on securing the populace, and it has never really been tried before in the capital. It could work, especially if the surge is long lasting and if it's coupled with other vital steps — such as increasing the number of American advisors in the Iraqi security forces, instituting a biometric identity card to make it easier to detain terrorism suspects and enhancing the capacity of the Iraqi legal system to incarcerate more violent offenders.

If everything goes right, large swathes of Baghdad could gradually be brought under control. Then American and Iraqi units could pursue a "spreading inkblot" strategy — another classic counterinsurgency concept — to increase the pacified zone outward.

Of course that's a big if. It may be that we still don't have enough troops to successfully carry out this strategy. It may be that we don't have the will to see it through. It may be that we don't have enough reliable Iraqi partners. But considering the massive investment we have already made in Iraq, and the lack of good alternatives, it seems worth one final effort to see if we can salvage something from this dire situation.

For a long time I've been calling on the White House and the Pentagon to start fighting a classical counterinsurgency much like the British did in Malaya in the 50's or what Gen. Creighton Abrams was pushing in the later half of Vietnam(Until Congress cut off the funds). If we can stick to the techniques of Small War fighting while injecting a myriad of soft power into the mix, I think we have a shot of achieving our goals.

Congress Should Re-read the Constitution

Now while Senator Clinton and other Democrats(Even some Republicans) on Capitol Hill are creating a fuss about the Iraq War by laying various restrictions on the President to boost their image for mere politics or assuage the left-of-center voters in America, they are in reality crossing their constitutional boundaries by calling for measures that handcuff the President in his duties as Commander-in-Chief. Take for instance Senator Clinton's most recent plan, which echoes Senator Clinton, in which she notes that the size of our troops in Iraq has to be capped and if the President wants more troops and money for Iraq then he has to have another resolution. It's true that the President needs the Senate and its power of the purse with regards to the funding of the war and to get an OK in initiating major combat but once they give the go ahead - like the did prior to the war - the conduct of the war(baring spending) falls into the purview of the President. Once the fighting gets going the Congress has to allow the President to have unilateral control over all the aspects of fighting a war, which includes increasing, moving or decreasing the size and location of these forces.

I can truly understand appealing to your base in the upcoming elections but what the Democrats are doing is going against the Constitution and endangering our standing in the world. I would advise the Democrats and others who are taking this position towards our operation in Iraq to take a second look at the Constitution and statutes that reveal that the ability to conduct war without any handcuffs is an absolute necessity for the Commander-in-Chief. One place I would recommend that they should look at the following Op/Ed by David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey in yesterday's Washington Post. In fact, they should pay close attention to the following paragraphs:

The precise line between congressional and presidential authority is sometimes unclear, and no court has jurisdiction to rule on the issue. The analysis, however, is straightforward. When the two political branches exercise their respective constitutional powers in a way that brings them into conflict -- a scenario clearly envisioned by the Framers -- the relevant constitutional principle is that neither branch can vitiate the ability of the other to discharge its core constitutional responsibilities. Just as the president cannot raise his own funds (by obtaining loans unauthorized by Congress, for example), the legislature cannot attach conditions to federal spending that would destroy the president's authority to direct the military's tactical and strategic operations. This balance makes perfect sense; if Congress could closely direct how the executive branch spends appropriated funds, it would vitiate the president's core responsibilities as chief executive and commander in chief, transforming him into a cipher. This outcome would fundamentally warp the Framers' entire constitutional fabric.

To maintain the integrity of this original design, the Supreme Court has long ruled, in such cases as United States v. Klein (1872) and United States v. Lovett (1946), that Congress cannot attach unconstitutional conditions to otherwise proper legislation, including spending bills. As explained by Professor Walter Dellinger -- President Bill Clinton's chief constitutional lawyer at the Justice Department -- "[b]road as Congress' spending power undoubtedly is, it is clear that Congress may not deploy it to accomplish unconstitutional ends." This includes restricting the president's authority as commander in chief to direct the movement of U.S. armed forces. In that regard, Dellinger quoted Justice Robert Jackson -- who said while serving as President Franklin Roosevelt's attorney general: "The President's responsibility as Commander-in-Chief embraces the authority to command and direct the armed forces in their immediate movements and operations, designed to protect the security and effectuate the defense of the United States."

Although this system may seem unsatisfactory to those who disagree with President Bush's Iraq policy, it has two great virtues. First, it bolsters the Constitution's fundamental design -- the separation of powers between the coequal branches of government. The Framers vested executive authority in a president for a reason. As Alexander Hamilton explained in the Federalist Papers: "Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks." Second, requiring Congress to exercise its power in dramatic ways ensures political accountability. If Congress believes the war is lost, or not worth winning, it must take responsibility for the consequences of forcing a U.S. withdrawal. Otherwise, it must leave the president to direct the war and to bear responsibility for the decisions he has made and will make.

I'm just hoping that the folks calling for this policy change and supporting the upcoming non-binding "sense of Congress" resolution is doing this for mere theatrics and are fully aware of what an actual cutting of funds brought about during the later years of the Vietnam War.

Poppy Farming in Afghanistan

Out of all the various pro and con arguments on how NATO's can effectively deal with the abundance of poppies being grown in Afghanistan, I have to say that Anne Applebaum has a pretty good answer on what is needed to effectively cut down illegal activity while keeping the local population happy. Here's what she noted in her most recent column over at Slate:

Yet by far the most depressing aspect of the Afghan poppy crisis is the fact that it exists at all—because it doesn't have to. To see what I mean, look at the history of Turkey, where once upon a time the drug trade also threatened the country's political and economic stability. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey had a long tradition of poppy cultivation. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey worried that poppy eradication could bring down the government. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey—this was the era of Midnight Express—was identified as the main source of the heroin sold in the West. Just like in Afghanistan, a ban was tried, and it failed.

As a result, in 1974, the Turks, with U.S. and U.N. support, tried a different tactic. They began licensing poppy cultivation for the purpose of producing morphine, codeine, and other legal opiates. Legal factories were built to replace the illegal ones. Farmers registered to grow poppies, and they paid taxes. You wouldn't necessarily know this from the latest White House drug strategy report—which devotes several pages to Afghanistan but doesn't mention Turkey—but the U.S. government still supports the Turkish program, even requiring U.S. drug companies to purchase 80 percent of what the legal documents euphemistically refer to as "narcotic raw materials" from the two traditional producers, Turkey and India.

Why not add Afghanistan to this list? The only good arguments against doing so—as opposed to the silly, politically correct, "just say no" arguments—are technical: that the weak or nonexistent bureaucracy will be no better at licensing poppy fields than at destroying them, or that some of the raw material will still fall into the hands of the drug cartels. Yet some of these problems can be solved by building processing factories at the local level and working within local power structures. And even if the program only succeeds in stopping half the drug trade, then a huge chunk of Afghanistan's economy will still emerge from the gray market, the power of the drug barons will be reduced, and, most of all, Western money will have been visibly spent helping Afghan farmers survive instead of destroying their livelihoods. The director of the Senlis Council, a group that studies the drug problem in Afghanistan, told me he reckons that the best way to "ensure more Western soldiers get killed" is to expand poppy eradication further.

While I'm generally a fan of eliminating all aspects of the illegal drug trade, I have to say that I'm all for the policy of making the cultivation of poppies legal. Now the reason why I support this is the fact that the cultivation of these products actually provide legitimate medicines and painkillers which if conducted in a proper method could also provide a healthy living for the impoverished people of Afghanistan(If they can wrestle this away from the nefarious elements of the country). It might go against the principles and policies that we have established in fighting the "War on Drugs" in Central and Southern America but I'm guessing that fighting terrorists and keeping or turning Afghans in our favor far outweighs what we can achieve in destroying such an abundant cash crop. Legalizing poppy grow and making a living out of the production sure beats having more smack on the streets of America and Europe. Maybe someone in NATO, the Pentagon, the NSC, or White House is paying attention to Applebaum's work.

Happenings At the Pentagon

I have to say that this is interesting piece by Robert Haddick over at TCS Daily on Secretary Gates' proposals on the future buildup of the Army and Marines provides just another example of why this nation will truly to miss the keen mind and forward thinking of Donald Rumsfeld.

Populism's Downside

Last week I posted my disgust at the Democrats sliding towards economic populism with regards to the nation's energy policy. While I was aghast at the House pushing through a bill that would punish the oil companies with an onerous tax if the market price of oil goes above a certain price, it pales in comparison to the ire I've developed(After reading the proposed legislation) after reading more details from this most recent review and outlook piece in the WSJ. Now while folks will argue that this bill has good intentions(At least that's what they want people to think) because it goes after "big oil" but in return it creates greater problems for the American people in the long run. All and all, the WSJ points out many factors of the bill that should be large blinking warning lights to the American people and members of the US Senate that this is a bad bill. Here's two components of the bill that caught my attention:

This bill is said to promote America's energy independence, but the biggest winner may be OPEC. This is a lengthy, complicated bill, but the central idea is simple: Raise taxes on domestic oil producers and then spend the money to subsidize ethanol, solar energy, windmills (so long as they're not on Cape Cod), and so on. But if you increase the cost of domestic oil production by $10 billion, you are ensuring that U.S. imports of OPEC oil will rise and domestic production will fall.

The bill also includes a "Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve" fund for alternative fuels. That sounds a lot like the Carter-era Synthetic Fuels Corporation -- one of the more notorious Washington boondoggles of all time, having spent $2.1 billion of tax dollars on alternative fuels before declaring bankruptcy. Today there is no under-investment by the private sector in alternative energy. The research firm New Energy Finance has found that between 2004 and 2006 investment in alternative energy doubled to $63 billion. Venture capital funding of green-energy technologies has quadrupled since 1998.

I'm all for helping the everyday person with lower energy prices but feel that passing the burden on the American people via higher taxes, restraints on domestic drilling, more red tape and driving us further into the arms of foreign producers(Less than friendly nations at that) isn't the way forward for greater energy independence.

Economic Populism On The March in Congress

After looking over this article on the energy bill that is being push through the Democrat controlled Congress, I've become convinced that the Dems are filled with a bunch of economic populists who seem to have failed to learn a lick of economics. Now what has convinced me of this is that these members of Congress are willing to push through a measure in the bill that would force energy producers to pay a "resource conservation" tax $9 on a barrel of oil and a $1.25 per million Btu on natural as long as the market prices remained above $34.47 per barrel and $4.35 per million Btu of natural gas. The Democrats might think the oil companies are greedy and sticking it to the American people thus they feel this measure would punish energy producers and force them to lower their prices but in reality they fail to realize the key word in the whole passage which is "market prices." I would be all good if such a measure would make the energy companies jump and lower such prices but they are held hostage to the market which is a function of supply and demand. As long as the demand is high and supply is low you'll have high prices and lower prices when the opposite occurs. So you can threaten to punish the energy companies for higher prices(something they have no control over) by imposing this onerous tax but in reality these measure will only be passed on to the buyer of the raw petroleum and gas which eventually will be passed on everyday Americans who end up consuming these products. If the folks weren't so busy trying to push through this economic populism on energy companies, they'd realize that the markets are doing their thing and are responding to lowering of demand which in return is resulting in falling oil and natural gas prices. For me, I'll take the free market over an interfering populist Congress each and every time.

Bureaucratic Wrestling Over the Trophy

This NBC Nightly News report by Lisa Myers on the fight between the US Army and the Pentagon over the fielding of the Israeli designed anti-RPG weapon known as the "Trophy" is just another example of the bureaucratic fight that sprouts up between the different branches of our armed forces and their bosses in the Pentagon. I'm all for our military going to US based contractors like Raytheon to develop such weapons but we need to be willing to go around the bureaucracy rules and use a system that is already on the shelf and is being fielded by the Israelis. I guess the US Army is still a little miffed at the Pentagon after Secretary Rumsfeld and the rest of the Pentagon brass canceled their much loved Crusader(a self propelled long-range howitzer) and other weapon platforms. Here's hoping that the Pentagon wins this one and can rush some of these "Trophy's" to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It'll at least give our soldiers one less thing to worry about, If only the Israelis had some new technology on the shelf to ward off IEDs.

Update

Here's the second part of Lisa Myers report on the turf fight between the Army and Pentagon over the "Trophy."

Factors of Ten

Here's Andrew Ferguson's take on the "100 hrs." agenda that Pelosi and company keep on raving about every single time they appear before the media. Take a look:

Some of the agenda is being overtaken by events already; the case for government funding for embryonic stem-cell research has been badly hurt by new advances, reported this weekend, in non- embryonic research.

Almost every item on the agenda, meanwhile, will be second- guessed by the Senate and president. And few of the items that make it into law are likely to inspire lasting gratitude in the public mind.

By the end of next week, the 100 hours of frenetic legislative activity will be over. Then, like Gingrich before her, Pelosi will be staring at several hundred days with little definite to do. And before too long she may find herself, metaphorically at least, reaching for the ice buckets.

There's Some Hope

While Washington Post columnist David Ignatius is a chummy with the foreign policy "realists" of D.C.(Powell, Armitage, Hagel, Biden, Baker, and others) and has been a little leary about the US achieving victory in Iraq, he has penned a good piece on Lt. General David Petraeus. As Ignatius notes in his column, Petraeus might save the day because he is a walking field manual(He wrote it) for fighting an effective counterinsurgency thus more suited in executing a proper fight against our enemies. Now Ignatius does make a good point in noting our tardiness in initiating an effective counterinsurgency but much like life, war is very unpredictable and one can't anticipate what will happen next.(Just look at The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, WWII, Vietnam or other wars in our past.) The best we can do is push this policy forward and hope that a wise American commander schooled in the art of counterinsurgency can achieve with the Iraqis something that is lasting or we'll feel safe in leaving. So if David Ignatius, who is not considered a great fan of GWB's foreign policy, can at least see a tiny ray of sunlight in this counterinsurgency fight then we have a chance.

The last full measure of devotion

Since the conclusion of the 2004 election I've been reading and hearing a cavalcade of Democrats and talking heads mouthing complaints that the White House is still "staying the course" with Iraq and stubbornly refuses to make any change in policy with regards to the land of the two rivers. Well after some two years of seeing things go a little rough in and Iraq and a realization that things aren't going as we wished, the Commander-in-Chief has finally stepped up to the plate and is offering a hearty defense and national security policy change that folks have demanded. After the 2006 election in November, we've seen Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld replaced by Robert Gates, the movement of John Negroponte from the Department of National Intelligence to become the new Deputy Secretary of State(with the Iraq portfolio), Ryan Crocker from the Pakistani Ambassadorship to the Iraq post, the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad to head our delegation at the UN as well as tasking Mike McConnell(A vice-admiral who has 25 years of intelligence experience under his belt) to head the DNI. Aside from these Washington centric posts, President Bush is making a systematic change in his Iraq and regional military command (under the recommendations of DoD chief Gates) by calling General Casey home from Iraq to become the new chief of staff of the Army and replacing him with a counterinsurgency minded David Petraeus as well as moving Admiral William Fallon from Pacific Command to Central Command to take up spot of that is left open due to the retirement of General John Abizaid.

Added to this Licolnian/Trumanesque shake up of his national security/defense shakeup, the President is in the process of putting together an Iraq policy that moves away from the status quo and introduces policies that are bold and designed to bring about success. Even with such important and decisive decisions, we still have politicians rumbling about how President Bush refuses to change course and is flat out wrong on Iraq. Now I know that moving folks around and introducing more troops might not be a golden ticket to a clear victory in the near future but at least the President is doing his job as Commander-in-Chief and is making moves that he clearly sees as being in our best interests in ensuring a secure Iraq and thus making it possible for us to eventually draw down our forces from Iraq in a future date and time.

All I can hope for is that the President lays out a good Iraq policy before the American people tonight and such a policy brings about some good results. While people might deny it, the US has got to hold the gap in Iraq and achieve a lasting victory or we'll see a far darker future with an embolden enemy ready to take us on our shores. So here's praying for a great success in Iraq.

*As a student of history, I feel it's fitting as this pivotal time in our history to remember the following words from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Down but not Out

While Rick Santorum was slayed by Bob Casey Jr in the 2006 election, it seems that he has arisen from his death-knell and will become a more independent, yet bigger voice on the issues of that threatens of this nation by taking a senior fellowship at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in D.C. According to this wonderful piece by John J. Miller over at National Review Online, the former PA senator will not only become a senior fellow but will also be the director of a new program known as America's Enemies, thus giving him a greater platform to educate the American people, government leaders and parts of the media on the continued and growing threats that al Qaeda and Iran pose towards this nation and Western Civilization as a whole. So here's wishing Rick Santorum great luck in his new venture.

Tightening The Screws on Tehran

Well it looks like the White House is deciding to step up its efforts in taming the wild Persian cat of Iran by putting a freeze on all US based major assets/holdings of the Tehran based Bank Sephra due to the fact that the bank is the main conduit for the regime's missile procurement program. Now while this pales in comparison to the financial squeeze on the mullahs, it's definitely a start in something that should have been in effect a whole lot earlier. Here's hoping that this is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to Iran.

Standing Side by Side With Somalia's Fight Against Islamic Fascism

Here's an interesting commentary in the The Times by Rosemary Righter on the Ethiopian/Somalia government ousting the Union of Islamic Courts from the Somali countryside and the hard choices that await the government in the near future. Hopefully some folks in The White House, State Department, Pentagon and Congress have read this piece of commentary and are finding ways to help this fledgling government. After reading these articles here and here, I think someone is paying attention.

Compassionate Conservatism

As you know, I'm a big fan of small government and truly believe in the power and ability of the private sector to deliver far greater results to a myriad of problems. One are that seems to have a better track record in the private sector that in the government purview which is elevating poverty. I have to say that had it not been for the scholarly work of Marvin Olasky and Charles Murray and their respective books The Tragedy of American Compassion and Losing Ground, , I doubt we would have seen such a monumental gleaming of the welfare and the further tearing away of a good bit of the "war on poverty" out of the hands of the government(Uncle Sam has spent $6.6 trillion since 1964 on a failed policy) and placing it in the portfolio of the the private sector charity, church and the individual. While the above mentioned books and individuals have had a lasting impact on showing how the federal government had failed miserably in fighting poverty and how the private sector was much more efficient and successful at this job, the fight over who delivers the goods are still being debated between the right and the left. Thankfully this debate seems to be falling further on the side of the private sector and its devotees with the most recent publication of Arthur C. Brooks' Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism. In this wonderfully researched book, Brooks, an economist from Syracuse University, lays out a detailed study which shows that individuals who believe in the power of private sector, are more politically conservative and attend church regularly are more likely to donate a larger amount of their income or time towards a private charity than folks who cleft to the big government ideals found most prominently amongst the left-of- center. I believe Jonah Goldberg aptly summed up the whole argument in Who Really Cares when he made the following point in his syndicated column:

The further to the left you are — particularly to the secular left — the less likely you are to donate your time or money to charity. Imagine two demographically identical people, except that Joe goes to church regularly and rejects the idea that the government should redistribute wealth to lessen inequality, while Sam never goes to church and favors state-driven income redistribution. Brooks says the data indicate that not only is Joe Churchgoer nearly twice as likely as Sam Secularist to give money to charities in a given year, he will also give 100 times more money per year to charities (and 50 times more to non-religious ones).

Because Brooks is using vast pools of data, and because he’s talking about averages rather than individuals, there is no end of exceptions to prove the rule. No doubt there are pious Scrooges and Santa-like atheists. But, basically, if you are religiously observant, a married parent, and skeptical toward the role of government, you are much more likely to be generous with your time and money.

You’re also more likely to be a political conservative, but it’s a mistake to find causation in that correlation. Certain types of people are likely to be conservative and to be charitable. But being a conservative doesn't make you charitable.

Still, the partisan ammo is what has interested the Bill O’Reilly types the most — and it is interesting, since it so directly contradicts the generations-old propaganda of the left, which depicts the rich right as stingy, unfeeling and selfish. “Blue state” America spends a lot of time talking about how much more caring and enlightened it is. But that’s with somebody else’s money. When it’s their own money, that’s a different story.

While America has a long way to go before it can change the minds and powerful interests that still cling to the various vestiges of FDR's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society, the debate and public at large will gain a greater perspective on the debate on the fight on poverty. Above all, Brooks' Who Really Cares should be a great blinking sign to populists like John Edwards that this dream world of greater involvement of government in our lives is something of the past and will always be done in by the private sector and individual initiative. I recall that Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan have got a lot of mileage out of such ideas.

*Also, check out Andrew Ferguson's column over at Bloomberg.com on Arthur C. Brooks' Who Really Cares.

WIN

Victor Davis Hanson(VDH) has a good piece out today which takes an overarching look at our fight on Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and points out that even though the sacrifices that we have made or are going to make with regards to Iraq far outweighs the fate that awaits us if we lose this war. Here's a look at what VDH has to say about the crossroads we face with regards to Iraq:

One, we can withdraw ground troops and return to punitive and conventional bombing — tit-for-tat retaliation for each attack in the future. That way, the United States stays distant and smacks the jihadists on their home bases below. Few Americans die; terrorists sometimes do. The bored media stay more concentrated on the terrorists' provocations, not on our standoff response from 30,000 feet in the clouds.

Or American forces, at great danger, can continue to change the political and economic structure of the Middle East in hopes of fostering constitutional governments that might curb terrorism for generations. This current engagement demands our soldiers fight jihadists on their vicious turf, but by our humanitarian rules. For this, we must pay the ensuing human and materiel price — all broadcast live on the evening news.

The first choice, a return to what was practiced throughout the 1980s and 1990s, is easy and offers short-term relief with little controversy. But the second path, which we have taken to prevent another 9/11, is hard, lengthy and thus unpopular. Yet it holds out the promise of long-term solutions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Presidents Reagan, Bush senior and Clinton, who respectively skedaddled out of Beirut, skipped Baghdad and fled from Mogadishu, didn't risk, lose or solve much against the terrorists.

In contrast, George W. Bush wagered everything by going into Afghanistan and Iraq. And he will either make things much worse or much better for millions — depending on how successfully the United States can endure the messy type of war that jihadists welcome and the American military usually seeks to avoid.

Military success on the ground now demands that we expand the rules of engagement to allow our troops to shoot more of the jihadists, disarm the militias, train even more Iraqis troops to take over security more quickly, and seal the Syrian and Iranian borders.

This solution, of course, is easier said than done. The military must use more force against those who are destroying Iraqi democracy at precisely the time the American public has become exasperated with both the length and human cost of the war.

Imagine this war as a sort of grotesque race. The jihadists and sectarians win if they can kill enough Americans to demoralize us enough that we flee before Iraqis and Afghans stabilize their new found freedom. They lose if they can't. Prosperity, security and liberty are the death knell to radical Islam. It's that elemental.

It would be nice if a lot of the folks in D.C. would take VDH's ideas and adopt a warrior ethos to winning the the battle for Western Civilization rather than offering "hot-air" or bombast that does nothing but catch headlines or helping advance themselves to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2008. With the nostalgia of Ford floating around the ether, I believe we need can reformulate the 38th President's WIN(Whip Inflation Now) slogan into a a 2007 foreign policy centric slogan of Win Iraq Now. It might be corny but it sounds like a winner compared to some of the ideas coming out of the Capitol Hill or from the Iraq Study Group(which had a lot of Ford realist foreign policy acolytes.)

The Hangman's Noose

While a small pocket of folks in the Middle East marched in protest of the death of Saddam and the world government found an opportunity to lodge their disapproval of the death penalty, there was a large subsection of Iraq that was relieved that justice had been served and the Butcher of Baghdad" could never rise again. Amongst the many pieces of read on the death of this tyrant, I have to say that Amity Shlaes has penned a great column over at Bloomberg.com that pretty much sums up why folks are relieved on seeing the end of Saddam and how this meting of justice provides us an important message. Here's a sample:

Nobody was willing to stand up for the Kurds. By the mid- 1970s, C.L. Sulzberger of the New York Times invoked Voltaire's phrase about hanging. Sulzberger titled a column ``To Be Obscurely Hanged'' about the unnoticed fate of the Kurds.

The message from the rest of the world -- Nixon, Kissinger, Ford, Jimmy Carter and other leaders -- was the same: No one will stand up for the Kurds. In the 1980s, Saddam killed Kurds by the tens of thousands at another moment of U.S. preoccupation. For decades, Saddam remained sure he could get away with it.

My own view is that this story doesn't reflect on Ford, a thoroughly decent man who lacked -- along with all other American presidents -- the ability to police every injustice in every country on the globe. But it does remind us of the cynical killings that happen when the rest of us are looking away.

Realpolitik, the policy of getting along with other nations, rather than righting injustices within them, is newly fashionable. That's all right, but we should remember its negative consequences.

Most importantly, all this history reminds us of why Saddam had to go on trial in the first place. When you hang a hangman in a most public way, you give future murderers pause -- at least some of them. And you step a bit more confidently into the light of the new year.

I know that future or aspiring tyrants are not much into reading Bloomberg.com columns or Fire of Liberty but if they are smart they should think twice about what a fate awaits them if the become another Saddam. For me, the fate of Saddam is more in accord with justice than the fate that awaited the likes of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Franco or awaits Castro.

*For some further commentary on Saddam see here, here, and here.

A Small War of Peace

It looks like the US backed Somali government and the Ethiopian military are making a final push against the Union of Islamic Courts. I just hope that the US sends in some military advisers, USAID, various aid agencies and some much needed cash to the Somalia government in order to prevent Somalia from falling into chaos or into the hands of Al Qaeda's allies much like it did in from the mid 90's to today. Folks might scoff at us getting mixed up with the "crazies" in Somalia yet again after what happened in 1993 but in the long run some it sure beats having a haven for Al Qaeda terrorists. I you remember Cold War history, then you know that the fight against Islamic terrorism will be mostly fought in Third World countries in the far reaches of the World. Now call me silly but I truly believe the adage of "fighting them there rather than here" is spot on with regards to our fight against Islamic terrorism. See here, here, and here for more on the current fighting in Somalia.

*For more on how the US can fight these small wars on Islamic terrorism, check out Robert Kaplan's book Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground.


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I found an interesting post over at the Claremont Institute's blog The Remedy that gives some great praise to the Ethiopian military routing the Union of Islamic Courts out of their strongholds in Somalia. Take a look:

Since about June of this year, the West has been wringing its hands over what to do about the bin Ladenist take-over of Somalia. Ethiopia knew what to do and had its own six-day war. Here's how the Washington Post puts it today:

Islamic fighters who for six months had enforced a rigid moral code in Mogadishu disappeared, some simply shaving their long beards and vanishing into neighborhoods, witnesses said. "We have been defeated. I have removed my uniform. Most of my comrades have also changed into civilian clothes," one former Islamic fighter told the Reuters news agency. "Most of our leaders have fled."

One more 'graph from the Post: It was clear Thursday night that the complex political dynamics in Mogadishu, and Somalia in general, had been completely reordered by the swift, potent military action by Ethiopia. Its tanks, jets and attack helicopters routed loosely organized Islamic militia units that were armed with little more than rifles and pickup trucks with mounted machine guns.

Of those Islamist leaders now fleeing, Ethiopian leaders say, according to the New York Times report: "the government plans to hunt them down."

Michael Ledeen said on Bill Bennett's radio show this a.m. that this proves yet again, when you fight hard against Islamists, they will crumble--you've just got to allow the fight. Our side is often prepared (we know our military is, obviously the Ethiopians were), Ledeen says, they just trust in Allah and don't think they need to prepare. A version of Semper Fi versus Semper Allah.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned here. But in the meantime, bring in the Prime Minister of Ethiopia (Meles Zenawi), give him a medal of freedom. Then send the Ethiopians to Iraq and Afghanistan. Send 'em to Thailand and Iran. And then anywhere else Osama bin Laden calls his fighters to take over.

Now while the Ethiopian army and the Somali government are a long way in completely wiping the Islamists in Somalia but it looks a heck of all lot better than what the UN or other nations in the region have offered up in dealing with Somalia. So I applaud the Ethiopians for a good weeks work and hope Somalia's government does something positive with this helping hand. Expect some movement on behalf of the US.

Holding Back the Barbarians

Here's a great piece by Toronto Sun columnist Salim Mansur which aptly describes the enemy we face in our current global War on Islamic Terror and how this is truly a fight for Western Civilization. I think he hits the nail dead on the head when wrote the following passage:

The current enemy is the outcrop of a broken civilization of the past, spewing forth from its rotting bowels an endless horde of militants and fellow-travellers, carrying with them the most atavistic ideas about faith and politics that modern civilization, which Bush represents, hesitates to name for what it is.

We have to go back to the declining years of the Roman Empire to find a parallel with our times. Rome had spread civilization far and wide around the Mediterranean basin, but over time it became besieged by barbarians from outside its frontiers and then from within.

Civilization is more supple, hence fragile, than the iron and steel from which it is built. It might be likened to a garden, delicately laid out and carefully maintained.

When ignored or unattended, weeds destroy what human artifice builds with much labour.

Over time, people take their civilization for granted, become careless and unwilling to bear the burden of protecting it. Then its defences are breached, as Rome was, and the city is overrun by those who envy or loathe civilization, bringing ruin in their wake.

Radical Islamism and Islamist terrorism have already made a wasteland of the greater Middle East. Where once a great Islamic civilization prevailed, now, in its place, there so often thrives a culture of bigotry and tribal violence, with their effects spreading outwards across land and sea.

Rome did not know how to defeat the barbarians before they overran her. Those who endlessly fault Bush for the shape of the world visible since 9/11, will one day cry a river if he and his successors fail to save civilization from its present-day enemies.

Michael Novak, a Catholic theologian and philosopher, named Bush "the bravest president" for staying firm in confronting the contemporary barbarians, despite the venom of his peers.

In the dark winter nights, some of us will have prayers for Bush, knowing the difference between what he represents and those who would prey upon civilization.

I think if a lot more of our politicians, pundits, and academics would present or war on Islamic terrorism as straight forward as Mansur has written rather than political speak that we hear on TV and read in the newspaper, then we wouldn't have so many people scratching their heads over what we're up against.

Economic Populism on the Campaign Trail

As of late, I've noted that a lot of the folks vying for the Democrat's nomination for President(The same for the GOP's Duncan Hunter) seem to be falling into a populist mindset by pushing things like national healthcare, attacking free trade, large corporations(Wal-Mart), oil companies. What's even worse is the fact that the incoming Congress is talking pretty big on taking on and punishing various Fortune 500 CEOs who make whopping salaries. Now while I couldn't imagine what to do with $10 million or more a year salary, I have to say that it is really wrong for Congress to poke its nose in the tent of public enterprise just because these CEOs had a banner year by doing what they do good in which is making money. When politicians like Edwards and others start talking this populist talk and are able to make these policies law thus punishing folks for being good at their job or corporations making great profits(Remember the "little man" benefits from corporate profits in the form of their 401(k)s, bonuses, opportunity to make overtime and job security) we are in effect setting us up for political suicide. Thankfully, James K. Glassman, senior fellow at AEI and editor-in-chief of The American, has penned a good piece over at USA Today that pretty much sums up why the pay of the CEOs is something to bar or restrict but is on par with what they do and achieve for their employer. Populism might be appealing to the "little man" but in the long run it's disastrous to the American enterprise system and the economy as a whole.

RIP President Gerald Ford

While I was no great fan of the "pastel colors" of moderation and the continued policy of detente with the Soviet Union, I still have to give it up to President Ford's service to this country during such a trying time. Though Ford was not a movement conservative like Ronald Reagan, I can applaud the 38th President for his steadfast determination to cut run-away spending via the veto pen and his devotion to continue funding the South Vietnamese government and providing air support to the military even when the doves in Congress were hell-bent on pulling the plug. Aside from that, I would have to say that the congenial personality of Gerald R. Ford's made him a far greater man and father than what he could have ever achieve as the President of the United States.

*Here's a piece by Gleaves Whitney from National Review Online that is a bit more complimentary to the former Michigan Center/Linebacker.

A Winning Strategy

While the MSM and the talking heads in D.C. are fawning all over the ISG report and whether or not Hillary supports sending more troops to Iraq, there are individuals within the military and various think tanks formulating sound policies that will provide us a lasting victory in the "land of two rivers." One individual who has hacked through the beltway buzz is Jack Kelly, a foreign policy columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who notes in his most recent column about the most promising solution to Iraq is a policy laid out by General Jack Keane and Frederick Kagan which calls for the US to send a larger contingent of soldiers into Iraq in an effort to take control of the security situation(while being supplemented with economic and political tools) thus creating an environment more conducive towards order. In fact, out of all the plans being tossed around the salons and amongst the people in power in D.C., the Kean/Kagan proposal seems to be one that will create a more viable solution to achieving victory in Iraq than what the blue-ribbon ISG has submitted. Here's hoping the White House leans more in the direction of Keane and Kagan rather than the ISG. After reading several pieces about how the President is seriously thinking about sending more troops to Iraq, I think Keane and Kagan's policy recommendations seem to be gaining some wind in its sails.