Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc, May 2005

1. Treachery. Well, seven grandstanding RINOs in the US Senate derailed for the time being the attempt to shut down democrat filibusters on judicial nominations. The deal, which was made with another seven grandstanding senate democrats and announced last Monday night put off the impending rules change. The seven RINOs – John McCain, (RINO, AZ), John Warner, (RINO, VA), Lindsay Graham, (RINO, SC), Mike Dewine, (RINO, OH), Lincoln Chaffee, (RINO, RI), Olympia Snowe, (RINO, ME) and Susan Collins, (RINO, ME). The agreement offers to support cloture for the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen, who was confirmed late last week. The status of the other seven is undetermined, though there are credible rumors that at least four of the rest of them are toast, including Haines, Myers, Kavanaugh and Saad. Perhaps they all are toast, for there appears to be an unwritten side agreement that the RINOs will agree to support a filibuster on these judges or vote with the democrats against their nominations to seal the deal. What did the democrats get out of the deal? How about everything they wanted previously: no limit on future use of the filibuster, and an agreement not to use it unless there are extraordinary circumstances in some future nomination. There are no written definitions on what would constitute extraordinary circumstances, so it is all in the eye of the beholder, or perhaps your favorite democrat. Political observers on the right believe that the nomination of any conservative to anything will by definition constitute extraordinary circumstances. These seven thought they were kicking the can down the road a bit, and perhaps they were. However, they also managed to snatch defeat smartly from the jaws of victory, and ensured the next judicial fight will be nastier, louder, and substantially uglier than they have been up to now. You may ask how that might be possible. It is. Political fallout to this treacherous, self-serving grandstanding has been predictable. Republican activists went thermonuclear, blasting the offices of the seven with phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails. The vehemence of the response reportedly surprised Collins, Graham and Dewine. Dewine’s participation may also have doomed the political aspirations of his son, who is running for an open Congressional seat in Ohio, mostly on the basis that his last name is Dewine. He may not make it through the primary. McCain spent the rest of the week basking in the glory of friendly, laudatory and supportive media coverage, which also included am A&E show Memorial Day about his time as a POW. Majority Leader Bill Frist, (R, TN) told Limbaugh Tuesday that all judges were going to be brought up for a vote – regardless of any side agreements. Finally, Limbaugh suggested a plan of attack for the President:
- The deal does not apply to the 48 remaining Republicans in the Senate. They were neither consulted nor asked to approve it. As such, they are not bound by it.
- Frist needs to bring every single Bush nominee up for a vote and let the chips fall where they may. He needs to force a filibuster that will destroy this bogus deal and lead immediately to a vote on the filibuster ban for nominations.
- President Bush needs to give Brown and Myers recess appointments, as a message to the Senate to not muck around with his constitutional ability to nominate people to the Federal bench.
We will see how this all plays out. I believe that by publicly sorting out the non-players, the weak-kneed and faint of heart among senate Republicans, it very well may be a good thing. It also fired up the Republican activists who will take appropriate action to keep the heat on the remaining 48, and to do something about open senate seats in the run-up to 2006. If it takes 66 Republicans in the US Senate – all of them reliable conservatives – to get something done, so be it. President Bush will get his judicial nominations on the Federal Bench. We will solve the problem of the judiciary.

2. Compromised. One of things that drove a number of us crazy a decade ago was the failure of new House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R, GA) to take a sufficiently conservative hard line in the House. Shortly after he resigned, democrats were publicly chortling about their hole card against him – the knowledge that he had a mistress used as blackmail against him. In other words, the democrats claimed to have compromised Gingrich and used that knowledge as leverage against him (and the rest of us) in the House. The same sort of thing may be going on with McCain. Up until the runup to the 2000 election, McCain was a mostly reliable conservative. As he cranked up his campaign, he was hit hard with two personal punches – cancer in his wife and investigations into her involvement with her father’s liquor wholesaler business. The media attacks cranked up nicely and were set to really go after the lady while her life was at risk. A very good acquaintance of mine believes that as a result of this, McCain also was compromised, not unlike Gingrich, and made a deal with the media to stop those investigations, stories and attacks, for shortly after a trip to the West Coast, the investigations and stories stopped. After that, McCain became the darling of the media, spearheaded McCain-Feingold, which put the media firmly in charge of political speech during elections. The media was completely opposed to the nuclear option on filibusters in the Senate and McCain helped derail it for a bit. Over the weekend, we got the A&E story about his time as a POW. For our purposes, it doesn’t much matter whether or not he was compromised by the media, selling his soul or if he is still angry at Bush for the primary defeats leading up to the 2000 nomination. Either way, he behaves the same way, and as long as he does what the media wants him to do, he is predictable. And once he becomes predictable, he can be defeated.

3. Reid. All was not sweetness and light for the other side of the aisle in the senate last week. Harry Reid, (D, NV) also lost control of the minority toward the end of the week. Apparently he had promised Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that democrats would vote in sufficient numbers to confirm UN Ambassador Nominee John Bolton. When the time came to actually get up and vote, Chris Dodd, (D, CN) continued to talk, demand more documents from the administration, and make unsubstantiated charges against Bolton. It’s going to be an interesting session of Congress if neither party is in control. Maybe Limbaugh ought to reconsider his new nickname for Detroit – New Fallujah (based on the fight in December) – and transfer that name to the US Senate, which may be just as chaotic in the months to come.

4. Bolton. John Bolton’s nomination also triggered some interesting reactions by supposedly conservative US Senators. One was John Thune’s (R, SD) announcement that he was going to vote against Bolton. This took everyone by surprise, as Thune supported the failed attempt at a cloture vote at the end of the week. The announcement seems to be directly tied to Ellsworth AFB showing up on the Pentagon’s newly announced base closure list. The new guys learn the game very, very quickly it appears. The other Bolton story came out of observers from Ohio, who believe that George Voinovich’s (R, OH) blubbering display on the floor of the senate against Bolton was based on anger at anti-Voinovich ads in Ohio run after he skipped all the Foreign Relations Committee meetings and decided to believe the screaming democrats opposing Bolton. The reports hold that the ads so angered Voinovich that he vowed to get Bolton at all costs. Apparently anger at people is only appropriate for bloviating US Senators and not for Presidential appointees. It remains to be seen if the Senate will ever vote for Bolton or not. Perhaps it is time for President Bush to do a recess appointment and put Bolton into the UN for the remainder of his term in office and poke a sharp stick in the eyes of senate obstructionists.

5. Special Session. The Alaska Legislature ended its special session with positive action on all Bills requested by the Governor. We got a revision to the workers compensation laws here in Alaska. This was a long-needed revision and fought tooth and nail by the unions statewide. We got a new version of the state retirement system for new hires. This one will convert the current defined compensation system into one structured like a 401K. This one was also fought by the local unions who all want to control the maximum number of dollars. If retirement accounts are controlled by the employees / union members, then the unions will not be able to get their hand on that money, and will in turn lose their leverage in Juneau. The revision is not scheduled to go into effect until June 2006. There will be another special session called late this year when negotiations on the natural gas pipeline are complete. That special session will approve the routing, the compensation, the cost, and distribution of natural gas from the Alaska North Slope. The unions did a good job defending their turf this last session. They managed to corrupt a number of former conservatives in the House. Those people are all up for election every two years. I predict an interesting primary campaign fight on the Republican side next August.

1. Islam. Wahabbists in several nations across the Muslim part of the world used Newsweek’s fraudulent claim that American interrogators at Guantanamo flushed the Koran down the toilet as an excuse to riot, maim, and murder people. The excuse holds that the Koran is so Holy, such a sacred text that this insult simply cannot be tolerated and must be punished by immediate death to the infidel who perpetrated the deed. More about that part later.
- We need to discuss what Newsweek tried to do to the war effort first. The story was purposely written and printed to undermine America in the eyes of the rest of the world. It was written to undermine confidence in the US Military and their handling of the enemy combatants. It was written to undermine success in this war, and the fraudulent story did that task well. If the (formerly) mainstream media were doing something – anything – other than doing everything humanly possible to ensure we lose this war, they would be printing excerpts of the Al Qaida training manual the Brits put on the web a few years ago. In that manual, Al Qaida who are captured are trained to claim abuse by their captors, abuse against Islam by their captors, claim torture, and other unpleasantries. This is what they do. They are superb at playing the (formerly) mainstream media against their enemies – the people and government of the US. They understand implicitly that this war will not only be won on the battlefield, in the streets of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Gaza, but it must also be won inside the news pages of the American media. They are playing our leftist media like a Stradivarius.
- The second part of the story concerned the riots themselves. They appeared to be preplanned, with nicely printed and lettered anti-American English language signs ready for use. The rioters also used the excuse of the Newsweek Koran story as a vehicle to commit mayhem, murder and remove some opposition. It also was used by political leaders and clerics unfriendly to the US as a vehicle to undermine support for the war effort against Al Qaida and the nations that support it.
- Third was the disgusting American response, with the Bush administration falling all over themselves apologizing for the claim. We are spending entirely too much time tippy-toeing around the tender sensibilities of Muslims and their Holy symbols, objects and practices. The Pentagon and State Department went to great lengths to describe the intricate care taken of Korans at Guantanamo. While I understand the sensitivities involved and the effort to remove everything that our enemies can grab onto and use, once, just once I would like to see someone in the administration stand up and tell our Islamist enemies that they bloody well ought not to dish it out if they are unable to take it.
- Finally, by week’s’ end we saw a few columns that got to the crux of the matter: the notion that we are not treating Muslims equally, and the Muslims are not treating other religions equally. Radical Islam has no problem trashing the religious symbols of other people. This includes the Taliban destroying thousand year old Buddhist statues in Afghanistan; Palestinians occupying the Church of the Nativity in 2002 for 39 days; and Saudis routinely raiding, breaking up Christian worship in Saudi Arabia, seizing religious artifacts including Bibles and Crosses and burning them. A couple writers noted that Islam deserves no respect from anyone else in the world if it refuses to respect the religious beliefs of others. This is a variation on the Christian Golden Rule, or the American “don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.” Radical Islam has routinely trashed and destroyed religious symbols, artifacts and non-Muslim believers for centuries. Why should anyone possible believe Muslim religious symbols, artifacts and beliefs deserve any better treatment? It is long past time for us to hold Radical Islam to the same high standards of conduct we hold one another and ourselves. Better yet, it long past time to enforce that good behavior.

2. Murkowski. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has taken some heat on her effort to reach some sort of compromise on judicial nominations and the upcoming change in Senate filibuster rules for nominees. I believe that heat is not justified. Murkowski believes that her job is to get a couple things for Alaska – the Natural Gas Pipeline and ANWR opened for oil production. Nothing is going to get in the way of those two goals. Those of us politically active up here in Alaska are gently and plainly making the case that the fight over judicial nominations means everything – not only to us, who are cultural conservatives, but to her in her effort to get the Senate to approve those two projects. Here’s the logic: If you assume that putting conservatives, originalists on the Federal Bench is the top priority for conservatives, then everything else becomes of secondary importance. This is the Big Deal, and the largest fight we must win this next four years (and longer). If we lose this fight, we lose everything else of importance for the rest of Bush’s second term in office. If the democrats can defeat the judicial nominees and retain their control of leftists on the Federal Bench, it doesn’t matter what congress passes, for a sufficiently creative leftist on the Bench will rule it unconstitutional. You want a gas pipeline or ANWR? Confirm the judges.

3. Retirement. The Alaska State Legislature is in a Special Session. It was called by the governor following inaction on several pieces of legislation. Chief among them is another revision of the State of Alaska’s public employee retirement system. The revision is supposed to apply to new employees, converting the current guaranteed benefit program into a 401K, matching contribution program. State funded health care for retirees also will be converted into a Medical Savings Account (MSA) structure. We believe today that Alaska has an unfunded obligation of just under $6 billion. The revisions were intended to address those problems. Politics of this food fight have been fascinating. The unions have fought this hard throughout the session, for if the pension money ends up under the personal control of their members, they no longer have the power to wield in the legislature. The unions went so far as to purchase support from a couple conservatives this session. Last election, they gave over $16,000 to Bob Lynn (R) of Anchorage and Nancy Dhalstrom (R) of Anchorage. Both representatives have fought the new public retirement system. We will see how they do in their primaries during the run-up to the 2006 elections. As of this weekend, the Legislature passed a compromise, details of which have not been released. This fight nicely mirrors that now being faced by supporters of Social Security reform. Most surprising was the play of the unions, who saw this coming a long time before local conservative activists did. Local newspapers spent all their time reporting on how angry the unions were, how state employees were going to be hurt, and how evil members of the State Senate (the most conservative house of the Legislature) were. The Legislature chose not to press their case with the general public via talk radio or the alternative media, making this entire fiasco much more difficult than it needed to be.

4. Ronnie Earle. Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle (D) is the elected official behind legal action against Tom DeLay (R, TX). He has used his position as a prosecutor to indict a number of elected Republicans on all manner of charges. One of those targets was Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R, TX) in 1993. Earle declined to proceed with the case and charges were dismissed. Earle is back at it again, abusing his office for partisan political gain. His latest target is DeLay, with Earle indicting three aides on campaign finance charges last year. Well, Earle has also been busy becoming a rock star among democrats, and a hot item at democrat fundraisers, raising over $100,000 at his last appearance. Of course, Earle claims that he is simply investigating lawbreakers when he goes after DeLay. I believe that. Don’t you?

1. CBS. It appears that the departure of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes didn’t do a lot to change the corporate culture at CBS (which has nicely morphed into “See BS” over the course of the last several years). This time around, they selectively edited 20 minutes of taped interview with Ken Starr and turned it into an attack on the Republican effort to restore senate traditions regarding votes for appellate nominees to federal courts. Starr has consistently made the point that judicial appointments belong to the president, and that it is up to the senate to confirm those nominees. He believes the change in senate confirmation hearings focus from judicial competence to ideology has been a disaster which will undermine the independence of the judiciary. He said so during the interview. CBS cut that video segment in such a way as to have him answering the question of whether or not to limit filibusters on judicial nominees in support of senate democrats – another patently false report, made up news, coming from See BS. Why does anyone watch them any more? NRO, Weds.

2. CFR. Using the CBS story as a lead-in, I want to talk a bit about Campaign Finance Reform (CFR). McCain-Feingold was one of the great disasters of Bush’s first term in office. It was based on the false assumption, carefully orchestrated by the Pew Charitable Trust and related Foundations, George Soros, and the (formerly) mainstream media, that free political speech only belonged to the (formerly) mainstream media, and that there was a groundswell of public support for making that change. Well, there wasn’t. CFR basically shut down all advocate ads within 60 days of an election, defunded the political parties, and put the 527’s in business. The media took their opening and responded throughout the 2004 campaign with a series of thinly disguised attacks ads (anti-Bush books) that bashed the president for months on end. The media reported these books as news, yet they were little more than leftist campaign tools. The combination of media, control on soft money, and elimination of attack ads almost worked – for the election was a lot closer than it had any right being. Today, congress has the opportunity to correct their mistake. Sadly, they are choosing to exacerbate it. Legislation introduced a couple weeks ago in the House proposes to “fix” the problem of 527s. It does not remove spending limits. It does not remove the 60-day ad ban. It does not reinvigorate the political parties. Solution? As always, the solution to this mess is not more of the same. Rather, it is freedom. Eliminate all spending limits. Eliminate all differences between hard and soft money. Eliminate all advertising bans. Eliminate Congressional selection of the (formerly) mainstream media as the selected Truth Sayers in the political realm. The only requirement should be near instantaneous disclosure of donations (within 24 hours). McCain-Feingold was a disaster, for it trashed the First Amendment, empowered the mainstream media, and put the 527s, funded by a few billionaires in business. More of the same won’t fix the problem.

3. FBI File. Harry Reid (D, NV) moved smartly into the realm of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy last week with comments on the senate floor about yet another one of Bush’s appellate court nominees – Judge Henry Saad. Reid noted that Saad wasn’t worthy of a vote on the floor of the senate because he had some disturbing things in his secret FBI file. Making unsubstantiated charges against someone that is unable to respond to defend himself is the very essence of McCarthyism. It appears that once again, the left has turned into the thing they claim to hate the most. FBI files contain everything discovered during an investigation – every rumor, allegation, rant, and nasty story. The FBI then investigates all those things and determines whether they are true or not. FBI files are available, under strict controls to the two senators from the nominee’s home state and to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. They are not available to Reid. A conservative group reportedly filed an ethics complaint against Reid in the senate. We will see if ethics complaints against democrats in the senate go anywhere. Fred Barnes noted over the weekend on FNC that Reid’s little foray into character assassination has backfired in the senate and strengthened Bill Frist’s (R, TN) hand, bringing him closer to breaking judicial filibusters.

4. Bolton. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported out John Bolton as Ambassador to the UN via 10-8 vote (victory for the Good Guys). The committee did not recommend senate approval of the nomination (victory for the Bad Guys). George Voinovich (R, OH) did some self-serving grandstanding during the vote and blasted Bolton’s competence for the job – mainly for his management style. This little speech will get Voinovich invited to lots of parties and get him significant fawning media coverage within the Beltway. It will probably not help his reelection chances in Ohio any. Once the nomination reached the floor of the senate, Barbara Boxer (D, CA) said that she was going to put a hold on the nomination to keep it from coming to a vote. Other democrats are darkly threatening a filibuster on Bolton’s nomination. The thought of an endless debate, with senate democrats strongly in support of not cleaning up the cesspool at the UN is almost too funny to contemplate. The other thing possible if the democrats continue to obstruct Bolton is a recess appointment the next time congress leaves for vacation.

5. United. A federal judge allowed United Airlines to abrogate pension arrangements with four primary unions last week. United requested this change as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. Responsibility for the pensions will be transferred to the taxpayers via the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. If United successfully makes this transition, expect other major corporations in trouble – like Ford and General Motors – to also attempt to hand off responsibility for their bloated pensions to the taxpayers over the course of the next several years. Nothing in this story could demonstrate any stronger the importance of personal and personally held retirement accounts. If you rely on anything else or anybody else for your retirement, you are playing without a net. United was not the first. It will certainly not be the last.

6. Nebraska. Finally, a leftist federal judge tossed out Nebraska’s constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. The amendment was passed in response to actions by Vermont and Massachusetts state court actions requiring the legislatures of those states to pass legislation approving homosexual marriage. The amendment was passed by a majority of over 70% of the voters. The federal judge tossed it out in an opinion purposely written as broad as possible. The opinion chained off the outrageous SCOTUS Lawrence vs. Texas opinion from 2003. This stunning bit of judicial activism is nicely timed right at the start of the senate debate on changing the filibuster rule so federal judicial nominees cannot be filibustered. It is yet another reminder of what we have lost and must win again.

1. IRS
2. NY Firefighter
3. Clear Skies
4. Roadless Rule
5. Blair
6. Bears
7. Utah Oil
8. UN

1. IRS. Looks like House conferees stripped the Dorgan amendment from HR 1268, the supplemental appropriation for Iraq and Afghanistan last week. Democrats are now reportedly fully supportive of the investigation and letting the report see the light of day. Congratulations to Tony Snow and Robert Novak for this small win. We will be able to turn over the rock and see what tries to slither out of the light of day. Limbaugh, Thurs.

2. NY Firefighter. A Buffalo firefighter that had been in and out of a persistent vegetative state for nearly nine and a half years woke up and started talking last week. He was injured while fighting a fire, crushed by burning debris which kinked his oxygen line, depriving him of oxygen for around 10 minutes. He was brain damaged due to the lack of oxygen to the brain and doctors held out little hope for his recovery. He started talking out of the blue and spoke with his wife on the phone for several hours. Medical commentators caution that this sort of recovery for severely brain damaged people is rare, but none of them claim it can never happen. This was one of the arguments in support of keeping Terri Schiavo alive, as nobody knew if she could have been rehabilitated with proper care, and her parents and the Christians wanted to try and give her that care. This also demonstrates once again that the medical experts do not have the last word when they predict ultimate health or recovery of brain damaged people – especially those who were healthy before their injury. When we see a wonderful story like this, we should consider once again the horrific end the courts, the euthanasia crowd and the secular left visited on Terri Schiavo and once again ask why.

3. Clear Skies. The big environmental news of the last week was the announcement that global dimming – the ability of the atmosphere to pass sunlight unimpeded – had reversed. Global dimming was one of the chronic low-level environmental scares, founded in an actual bit of scientific observation that measured the amount of light getting through the atmosphere. If the atmosphere is not clear, if it carries dust, soot, volcanic ash and other particulates, incoming sunlight will either be absorbed by the atmosphere itself, reflected off, or otherwise not make it to the surface where it can heat things up. Observations suggested that the amount of sunlight reaching the ground was decreasing slowly from the mid 1960s to the late 1990s had decreased 4-6%. Greens and their sycophants instantly blamed the decrease on the action on man and used it to predict global warming. Of course, this assumes solar output is also constant time – which it is not. Reasons for the decrease in particulates over that time would be the decrease in forest fires, no substantial volcanic eruption since Pinatubo blew in the early 1990s which allowed the atmosphere to remove those particulates, and a change in emissions over Russia and China (Russia seemed to decrease and China increased). Bottom line is that there seems to be more sunlight reaching the ground. The reaction of environmentalists was to instantly blast the report, blame the change on human action, and issue another round of dire predictions of more global warming. Even when we attempt to do the right things according to the greens (Clean Air laws in the US for instance), we can’t win, for clean air now causes global warming. Apparently everything causes global warming – a causality not unlike cancer testing where everything causes cancer in lab rats. Pacific Northwest Labs, Weds.

4. Roadless Rule. The Bush administration Friday announced that it would be revising Clinton’s last-minute Roadless Forests rule to allow the states to opt out or modify its application to forests in their states. This shoves the decision-making out of Washington DC and the environmentalist think tanks back out to the western states where it belongs. States have 18 months to decide to retain the Clinton rule or adopt road construction / logging goals of their own. The Clinton rule, signed as he was leaving office in 2001, shuts down road construction in over 90,000 square miles of National Forests. The greens love it, for it keeps the rabble out of the forests. Marijuana growers love it also and for the same reason. Firefighters hate it, for it ensures some terrible forest fires when the heavy undergrowth burns. The locals tend to hate it also, for it is yet another way to shut down natural resource use in the forests. At least the decision will be made closer to those that live on and use the land.

5. Blair. British Prime Minister Tony Blair won reelection to a third term last week. Although his party lost seats, they did retain control of Parliament. The (formerly) mainstream media falsely painted this victory as a victory for the anti-war movement. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you total votes for the pro-war candidates in Labor and among the Tories (conservatives), you find over 60% of the voters and the candidates they supported also supported the war. The real issue raised during the campaign was immigration, which pumped up turnout for the Tories. Unfortunately, they did little except rail against the problem, and did not (to the best of my knowledge) propose any solution, which is why they didn’t close the deal. The (formerly) mainstream media did everything in their power to underreport the immigration issue, mis-report (and lie about) actual support for the war, and discuss either the campaign or the underlying issues driving it. Blair continues to be an awful leftist regarding domestic policy in Great Britain, yet his support for the war on terror (World War III) has been unwavering.

6. Bears. Its springtime here in Anchorage and the local bears are up and hungry. We don’t have many in town, a few black bears and a few brown bears, but they are hungry after sleeping all winter. Favorite food source this time of year is garbage cans left out for pickup overnight. We started our yearly argument of what to do about the bears early this year with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) announcing a $75 fine for trash left out overnight. The Municipality of Anchorage chimed in and upped the ante with a threat of a $100 ticket for overnight trash. To date, nobody has been cited, but the threats have nicely stoked the argument. There are people in this town who believe bears are large, dangerous animals, which are at the top of their particular food chain, and have no business wandering the streets of the largest town in the state among women, children and handicappers. Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt and somebody will blow a bear away defending his property and family. At that point, we will have a really interesting discussion on whether to control people or the bears. I think I know who will win that discussion (hint: it won’t be the bears).

7. Utah Oil. A small oil exploration company announced last week the discovery of an oil field somewhere in Utah. The discovery was a surprise, as is the projected size of the field – reportedly capable of producing up to a billion barrels of oil. Compare this reservoir size with the original 9.6 billion barrel producible size of Prudhoe Bay. The Prudhoe Bay fields have produced over 13 billion barrels since production began 25 – 30 years ago. If the Utah field is real and size anywhere near the announced estimate, it represents a huge find. Congratulations to all those involved.

8. UN. A senior UN official took a paid leave of absence to work on John Kerry’s presidential campaign last year. He was Kerry’s political director in Maine. Interesting people these UN employees, they all seem to be friends and supporters of Kofi Annan, and they all seem to be friendly and supportive of the democrat party here in the US – which is yet another reason to withdraw from the UN and kick them out of NYC. Limbaugh, Thurs.

1. IRS. Tony Snow returned to his show last Monday after two months off battling colon cancer. We will keep him and Laura Ingraham (breast cancer) in our prayers. Snow started the week off nicely with a story about an investigation into IRS abuses during the Clinton administration. Conservatives, conservative groups, literally anyone who publicly opposed Bill Clinton were audited by the IRS during his eight years in office. We always thought that those audits were politically inspired. Now we have proof. The proof comes from the special prosecutor investigating Henry Cisneros. Cisneros did not report money received for favors as income and the special prosecutor investigated why. He has questioned IRS investigators under oath and uncovered an incredibly corrupt, secret and dangerous organization. Apparently IRS agents and supervisors, in an effort to curry favor with the Clintonoids were falling over themselves with offers to audit conservatives and conservative organizations that publicly opposed Clinton. Some of the agents are honorable and blew the whistle on the corrupt activities if their brethren and supervisors. The special prosecutor has compiled a report over 400 pages long detailing his investigation. This is good news, because this means that the truth will come, right? Not if you are a senate democrat. Byron Dorgan, (D, ND) slipped an amendment into a bill making its way through the Senate. The amendment was supported by John Kerry (D, MA) and Richard Durbin (D, IL). It was intended to defund the investigation and bury the report completely – banning it from publication. Someone tipped the WSJ, which wrote an editorial on the subject more than a week ago. Someone also tipped Tony Show, who took it up as a cause on his show. Snow promised to get the report out in public – regardless what congress does with the legislation. He also had Senators Bill Frist (R, TN) and Mitch McConnell (R, KY) on the show during the week and bought up the subject to them. Neither had heard of the amendment. Both were marginally aware of the investigation. Neither knew the report was ready for release. Both promised that the report would be released to the public. If this hits the fan (which Tony Snow is trying to ensure), it will remove yet another weapon from the hands of leftists once they return to power. This demonstrates yet again that Kerry doesn’t have the common sense God gave a tree stump, for if he did, Kerry would call for the immediate public release of the report, destroying Bill and Hillary Clinton, their entire machine and perhaps even algore politically for all time in the eyes of the general public. Kerry got the opportunity to do the same thing that algore got to do eight years ago during the Clinton impeachment – which was to turn on the Clintons and take them out. Like algore who gave up the opportunity to be the 43 rd president of the United States in his disgusting support of Bill Clinton in 1998, Kerry – who still wants to be president – blinked.

2. Payback. The House leadership decided to get the House Ethics Committee process started last week. They announced that they would accede to democrat demands that the old investigations rules would be reinstated. Democrat leader Pelosi instantly dismissed the offer and started complaining about staffing to the media. The old rules would have let charges filed sit with the committee endlessly unless the committee voted to investigate. With a 5-5 split between Republican and democrat members, the tie vote on starting investigations has allowed numerous charges – some real, most not – to hang in the air against majority leader Ton DeLay. The new rules would have adopted the same rules as a grand jury – a tie vote means no indictment. This would have removed yet another political weapon from the minority – and they didn’t like that a lot. By returning to the same rules, it appears that the house leadership is going to start playing hardball with the democrats. We have several democrats with ethics problems. They include Jim McDermott (D, WA), who was convicted of felony illegal wiretapping by releasing a cell phone transcript to the NYT; Nancy Peolosi (D, CA), who paid a FEC fine of $21,000 for essentially buying her Minority leader position with her PAC; Stenny Hoyer (D, MD), who “forgot” to file papers on several trips he took. If the democrats want to play the use thousands of ethics charges against DeLay as a way to destroy him, it sounds like the Republican leadership is going to return the favor – with real charges against the democrat leadership. Democrats know what is coming and they don’t know what to do about it. It is long past time for our side to start fighting back. Congratulations to Speaker Hastert and the leadership for getting the game off dead center.

3. SSAN. President Bush upped the ante on Social Security reform during his news conference Tuesday night. In it, he made the first attempt to turn social security into a real live, honest to God welfare program. He proposed a plan that would limit cost of living increases to the inflation rate for everyone except the lowest one third of wage earners. Higher income earners would be tied to the inflation rate and everyone would have individual investment accounts to make up the difference. Economically, this is a winner that would instantly solve the shortfall in social security. It would also step smartly off the dime and lay the foundation for individual savings accounts. Finally, it steps over the line and starts treating Social Security like a universal welfare program rather than a government- sponsored savings, investment and retirement account. Democrats were understandably apoplectic, immediately blasting it as a benefit cut on the middle class. Bush’s proposal lays the gauntlet down for the democrats, as it adopts a proposal from a leftist academic, adds privatization and ownership to the mix, and proposes to take care of the lower income Americans first – strategically undercutting everything the democrats claim to be about for the last 70 years. Mr. Bush is not backing off. He has upped the ante. We will see if the democrats want to play or want to obstruct.

4. Judges. It appears that we are about 10 days away from a vote to change senate rules on filibustering judicial nominations. Early last week, democrats floated a compromise proposal that would allow them to pick off 2-5 of the most conservative nominees, allowing the other 2-5 to get a vote on the floor of the senate. In return, the want Bush to completely relinquish his ability to do recess appointments. They did not promise to stop the filibuster on any other Bush judicial nominees – including the expected epic battles over SCOTUS nominations starting this summer. There is a reason that democrats are opposing the current round of Bush judicial nominees. They represent the farm team for Supreme Court nominees in the next couple of years. They already ran off the first one with the slow-rolling of Miguel Estrada over the last four years. They are trying to do the same thing with Janice Brown and Priscilla Owens. The game seems to be for democrats to destroy all female and minority nominees that are rock-solid conservatives. This opens the doors for more David Souters, people who have no principles and can easily fall prey to glad-handing and seduction by the inside the Beltway crowd. Republicans want activist judges – activists who believe in the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. These folks are called Originalists, and are perfectly willing to overturn idiotic opinions. People like Souter will simply decline to change established opinion (special note: I did not refer to SCOTUS opinions as law, for it represents no action of elected representatives of the people), leaving idiotic opinions remaining as settled law. Well, idiotic opinions aren’t law. They are brain farts, demanding precisely the same sort of respect as any brain fart from anyone else inside these borders. The democrats and their allies know what is coming and are pulling out all the stops to ensure it doesn’t happen. We will hope the Republicans retain the backbone they reportedly have, for this fight is not about appellate judges. It is about the Supreme Court. Limbaugh, Tues.

5. Gun Bill. Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed a Bill that allows Florida citizens to defend themselves against deadly force with deadly force. The so-called Force on Force Bill clarified state law that had been interpreted by unscrupulous prosecutors and judges to mean that people being attacked must simply turn and run rather than defend themselves on the spot. That question is no longer unclear in Florida. Democrats, anti-gunners and related leftists are understandably upset with the notion that Americans can defend themselves from assault.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
Debate USA, http://www.debateusa.com/
MatSu Valley News, http://www.matsuvalleynews.com/
Archives prior to Aug 1999 are located at www.theVanguard.org/gimarc
Rod D. Martin's Vanguard of the Revolution was a proud host of
Interesting Items, and we encourage you to visit them as well.

If you would like to join II's mailing list, have comments or suggestions, please contact me at: agimarc@ak.net