THE FEDERALIST DIGEST
The Conservative e-Journal of Record
* Veritas Vos Liberabit *
25 April 2003
Federalist No. 03-17
Friday Digest
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THE FOUNDATION
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations --
entangling alliances with none." --Thomas Jefferson
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FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE
Top of the fold...
The stabilization phase of the war in Iraq has begun faster and
sooner than projected. Jay Garner, in charge as U.S. administrator
for postwar reconstruction, concluded Thursday, "I think you'll
begin to see the governmental process start next week, by the
end of next week. It will have Iraqi faces on it. It will be
governed by the Iraqis." Of the great difficulty encouraging
democracy and self-government where the people have been subject
to tyranny for generations, Gen. Garner noted: "It is difficult
for people to come out of darkness into the light. But their eyes
will adjust in time."
Gen. Tommy Franks has just demonstrated that "speed kills" in war,
and Gen. Garner seems ready to show that speed rebuilds as well --
and none too soon for the sake of the long-suffering Iraqi people.
The Iraqi regime's indebtedness is deep and wide, estimated to
run as high as $200 billion, with interest and penalties atop a
principal balance of $26 billion.
Signs of freedom and fractiousness are breaking out all over
Iraq. The lights are coming back on in significant portions
of Baghdad. Oil is flowing again from pipelines in southern
Iraq. And Shi'ite Muslims embarked on a pilgrimage one million
strong to their shrines at Karbala and Najaf -- an exercise of
religious liberty and freedom of movement not permitted under
Saddam Hussein's repressive regime.
Meanwhile, the hunt for Saddam's henchmen continued, netting a
few more of the tyrants sycophants this week, like his deputy
prime minister Tariq Aziz. Authorities are optimistic that
information obtained from Aziz may lead to the arrest of other
regime fugitives.
And additional evidence of Saddam's WMD programs and his regime's
brutalities, continued to accumulate. Torture chambers and
reams of documentation of prisoners' torture and murder have been
uncovered, and the weapons of mass destruction hunt is offering up
some tantalizing trails that suggest Saddam's deceptions during
the UN inspections included burying elements of prohibited WMD
development programs so as to facilitate quick reconstitution of
the banned weapons as soon as possible.
Regarding the utter failure of UN "oversight" in Iraq since 1991,
including the corrupt "food for oil" program, President George
Bush has made it clear that coalition forces will conduct weapons
inspections without UN assistance or oversight, setting the stage
for the first postwar controversy with the UN, France, Germany
and Russia. In a related issue, France, Germany and Russia
are refusing to lift the UNSC-imposed sanctions on Iraqi oil
now that the country is under Anglo-American control. Prior to
the war -- when Saddam Hussein used Iraqi oil to construct WMD
and fund terrorism -- Russia and France repeatedly demanded
an end to the sanctions, which allowed Saddam's regime to sell
oil, ostensibly for food and medicine through a UN-administered
program. That program itself paid enormous "administrative fees"
to Secretary General Kofi Annan's UN cronies, and now some $2
billion is missing. (Perhaps that is why Gen. Franks called this
the "oil for palaces" program!)
One of the Bush administration's top priorities is a reevaluation
of U.S. allies who stood in opposition to the war, especially
France. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice met this week to discuss the consequences
of France's obstruction. When asked whether the U.S. would take
action against France, Sec. Powell answered, "Yes." Retribution
may include circumventing France at NATO, excluding France from
trans-Atlantic forums and developing future U.S.-European policy
without French input. France was bypassed in NATO in February in
order for Turkey to receive protection against possible attack
from neighboring Iraq, and the Defense Department has indicated
most of its usual attendees at the Paris Air Show will be "too
busy" this year.
In other news...
On the subject of UN inadequacies, PatriotPetitions.US, the
nation's leading public-opinion advocate for U.S. national
security and sovereignty, has released its newest campaign
entreating President George Bush, Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist "...to terminate
all participation by the United States in the United Nations,
terminate any and all U.S. taxpayer-funded support for the UN, and
prohibit American Armed Forces from serving under the command of
the United Nations anywhere in the world." The U.S. should remove
itself from this "mother of all" -- "entangling alliances."
Please join fellow Patriots on the frontlines in defense
of our liberty and national sovereignty. Link to --
patriotpetitions.us
If you don't have Web access, please send a blank e-mail to:
<sign-TerminateUN@PatriotPetitions.US>
Each e-mail sent to this address will be counted as one signature
for the petition.
(You will receive a separate e-mail on this campaign later.)
And for the record, despite all the Clinton-Kennedy anti-American
rhetoric and condemnation of Operation Iraqi Freedom, we would like
to point out that it took far less time for the U.S. to find the
WMD evidence trail in Iraq than it took Hillary Clinton to find her
Rose Law Firm billing records. And it took Teddy Kennedy longer to
notify police after driving drunk off Chappaquiddick bridge and
killing Mary Jo Kopechne than it took the 3rd Infantry Division
and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard. Heck,
we took Iraq in less time than it took to re-count presidential
votes in Florida back in 2000.
Quote of the week...
"Iraq needs only four people to achieve post-Saddam success.
Unfortunately, they are George Washington, James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton and John Marshall." --George Will
On cross-examination...
"If the U.S. were permanently to detach from the United Nations,
the effect would be something like the Pope defecting from Rome. If
he did, he would take the Vatican with him." --William F. Buckley,
Jr.
Open query...
"While there are notable exceptions, many foreign policy mandarins
are clearly entrenched in calcified habits and outmoded ways
of thinking. ... Newt Gingrich has taken note of all this --
and sounded an alarm. ... Gingrich recently delivered a speech
calling for nothing less than the 'transformation' of the State
Department in light of what he calls 'the last seven months
of diplomatic failure.' ... Among other things, Gingrich is
referring to the State Department's inability to persuasively
communicate America's policies and intentions to key audiences
overseas.... With U.S. troops still cleaning up in Iraq, Gingrich
warned, State is pursuing policies that 'will clearly throw away
all the fruits of hard-won victory.' ... America can now deploy
the most fearsome warriors the world has ever seen. Why should
we not also have the most resourceful diplomats, the most
strategic communicators and the most ingenious aid practitioners?
Without that, the United States will not become the leader the
world requires in the 21st Century." --Clifford D. May
News from the Swamp...
In the Executive Branch, President Bush continued his efforts
to get the central government off the back of the economy.
He is fighting for his tax-cut package. The administration's
proposal of a modest 10-year, $726-billion "jobs for growth"
package was sliced to a maximum $550-billion by the House and
again to $350-billion by the Senate. In response, the President is
anticipated to propose another separate series of tax cuts later
this year, namely portions taken out of the original bill that
have a chance of passing Congress on their own. Among these are
the "marriage penalty" tax and an expansion of child credits.
The White House hopes to retain at least the $550-billion in cuts
accepted by the House in the original tax bill. To that end,
the President queried Thursday, "Some in Congress say the plan
is too big. It seems like to me they might have some explaining
to do. If they agree that tax relief creates jobs, then why are
they for a little bitty tax-relief package?"
And a major gauntlet in the Démocrates' arsenal against tax cuts
-- the deficit figures for the first half of FY 2003 -- came in
at $252.6-billion, almost double the red ink spending of the same
months last year. Of course, any supply-sider knows that is all
the more reason to cut spending and taxes -- if only the White
House and Congress could get the first half of that equation....
In the Senate, with former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's
leadership head trophied on their walls, Leftist agitators have
their crosshairs trained on obtaining Pennsylvania Sen. Rick
Santorum's resignation from the third highest Senate position as
Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Straightforward
remarks from Sen. Santorum have been ballyhooed this week as
"bigoted," "hateful" and "intolerant." His offense? He dared
speak forthrightly about the consequences, should the Supreme
Court strike down the anti-sodomy law of Texas, offending one of
the Left's most ardent constituencies -- homosexuals.
Mr. Santorum observed: "If the Supreme Court says that you have
the right to [homosexual] sex within your home, then you have
the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have
the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have
the right to anything. All of those things are antithetical to
a healthy, stable, traditional family."
Of course, this is not about "big brother" in the bedroom, as
the Left is portraying it, but about federalism, and the several
states Constitutional authority to set such standards where the
Constitution is silent. And, as with the "right to privacy"
as construed in Roe v Wade, the Constitution is, indeed, silent.
Should the Supremes conclude that all sexual conduct falls under
this extra-constitutional rubric for "privacy," then pedophilia,
incest, polygamy, bestiality -- indeed, all manner of sexual and
other deviancy -- cannot be restrained under state laws either,
by the same "reasoning."
Construing that sexual deviancy is protected under our
Constitution's legitimate assurance of the right to privacy
is tantamount to suggesting pornography is protected under the
Constitution's legitimate assurance of the right to free speech --
and that is precisely the argument pornographers use.
Typical of the Left's response is that of Démocrate presidential
candidate Howard Dean: "Gay-bashing is not a legitimate
public-policy discussion; it is immoral. Rick Santorum's failure
to recognize that attacking people because of who they are is
morally wrong makes him unfit for a leadership position in the
United States Senate." Of course, left-leaning Republicans were
singing the same chorus, including Senate RINO's Sue Collins
and Lincoln Chafee. Notably, RNC Chairman Marc Racicot, who met
secretly with leaders of a Republican homosexual lobby last week,
has yet to utter a syllable in public in support of Sen. Santorum.
(And not a word either from Leftist anti-war politicos and
celebrities in defense of Santorum's right to express his
opinion...)
Démocrates are desperate after our success on the Iraqi front of
the war against Jihadistan, which has bolstered President Bush's
job approval rating. The Left's principal political strategy is
"divide and conquer," and thus they are attempting to split the
differing social-issue constituencies Mr. Bush has assembled in
uneasy coalition. Those who believe -- as we and other Christians
like Sen. Santorum do -- that homosexuality is sin (though we are
still commanded to love the sinner) are subject to condemnation.
And a footnote on the Senate: It convened for the first time
on this day, April 25, 1789, and every session has opened with
prayer.
On the Homeland Security front...
More on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome this week: The World
Health Organization reports more than 4,000 cases have been
recorded in 30 countries, resulting in more than 250 deaths --
but this is likely only the tip of the iceberg since accurate
diagnosis is only now coming on-line. No SARS-related deaths
have been reported in the U.S., and the case concentrations are
in California, New York, and Washington state. President Bush
added SARS to the list of diseases necessitating quarantine, and,
as we have previously noted, the SARS threat is a good practice
template for bio-terror responders -- which if not contained may
become a major epidemic.
The ACLU sued the FBI this week over a recent post 9-11 security
measure, the so-called "no fly" list, which records the roughly
300 persons deemed so dangerous as to be prevented from taking
flights on U.S. airliners. Unfortunately, this is a typical
government list with typical errors in implementation, scooping
up many innocents and catching few true terrorist threats among
air passengers. Similar names, for example, are flagged by some
airlines' name-matching systems for checking passenger manifests
against the "no fly" list, because Arabic names can be rendered
with various English spellings. However, the ACLU lawsuit was
brought on behalf of two San Francisco "peace" activists who
suspected they were temporarily detained from flying for their
Leftist politicking. But, hey, at least a few of the Leftists
really are linked to terrorist activities and deserve to be on
such lists!
Judicial Benchmarks...
As we noted last week, all the chattering-class talkingheads are
standing down their mostly inane and mindless coverage of Iraq
and getting back to their mostly inane and mindless coverage of
sensational crimes -- competing for market share and advertising
dollars on the blood of innocents -- like the discovery of the
remains of Laci Peterson and her infant child washed up on a
Leftcoast beach. While The Federalist never -- NEVER -- enters the
feeding frenzy of speculation about such things, or the conviction
by 24-hour news cycles of those suspected of committing such
crimes, the Peterson case is notable in that it has thrust the
question of the value of unborn children back into open debate.
The discovery of their remains (Mrs. Peterson was eight months
pregnant with her son, Conner, at the time of her disappearance
last Christmas) led to charges against her husband for double
homicide. Typical of the Leftist outrage that the death of an
unborn child could be considered a "homicide" is the response
from NOW's Mavra Stark: "If this is murder, well, then any time
a late-term fetus is aborted, they could call it murder. Was it
born or unborn? If it was unborn, then I can't see charging
...[Scott Peterson] with a double murder."
California, like many states, has a fetal-homicide law that
allows murder charges to be brought when an assailant either
intends to kill an unborn baby or knows his actions would lead to
the baby's death. Of course, it was the Supremes' discovery of a
"right to privacy" (the one that Sen. Rick Santorum rejected above)
which protects abortionists nationwide from being convicted under
these state laws.
From the "Court Jesters" File, did they get it backward here
or what? Two Texas men petitioned for a divorce, on the
basis of desiring dissolution of the Vermont civil union they
had entered into last year. The initial court to hear their
petition granted it last month -- but then the Texas attorney
general rightly pointed out that there could be no "divorce"
for this pair because they had not entered a legal marriage.
The judge granting the original decree has ordered a rehearing.
Regarding the redistribution of your income...
Citizens Against Government Waste has been riffling through the
pages of the $78.5-billion War Supplemental Appropriations bill
passed out of Congress -- finding a total $348-million in 29
late additions that nobody could with a straight face claim as
war related. A sampler of CAGW's objectionable pork larding up
the bill: $110-million for the National Animal Disease Center
in Ames, Iowa; $5-million for state and tribal wildlife grants;
$3.3-million for something called "the European Communities
music listening dispute"; $513,000 for wastewater improvements in
Princeton, West Virginia; and $437,000 for the sanitary board of
Huntington, West Virginia. "Wastewater" sounds about right for
describing all the added bucks spent here....
From the "Regulatory Commissars" File...
A HomSec footnote: We reported last year on House Aviation
Subcommittee Chairman John Mica's protests that federalization of
airport-security workers would create "the biggest bureaucracy in
the history of a generation." Well, the original number of 28,000
federalized employees has now blossomed into 54,000 screeners.
TSA Administrator James Loy claims his $3.3-billion budget buys
"a highly trained and motivated corps that has helped restore
confidence of air travelers and earned their praise for delivering
world-class service, as well as world-class security." Oh, that
explains why the only airlines that have not already declared
bankruptcy are now on the verge of such declarations, even in
light of $3-billion in federal relief just authorized by Congress.
On the Left...
This week's "Braying Jacque-ass" award: "We don't know that
yet. We still have a country whose city is mostly without
electricity. We have tumultuous occasions in the south where
there is no clear governance. We have a major city without
clear governance." --Démocrate presidential candidate Howard
Dean questioning whether the Iraqis are better off now than under
Saddam's dictatorial regime.
And speaking of Démocrate presidential candidates, we are shocked
-- SHOCKED -- to report that Federal Election Commission records
indicate that ambulance-chasing Démo Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) led
his cadre of nine Leftist presidential wannabes in fund-raising,
pulling in $7.4 million in graft in the first quarter of this year.
Two-thirds came from, you guessed it, class-action lawyers,
their families and staff.
Meanwhile, Démo contender Al "$hy$ter" $harpton, when confronted
over his failure to file a quarterly financial statement by the
required April 15th deadline, demurred that he hadn't become an
"official" candidate for the presidency, even though he has been
out campaigning with the rest of the crop. His campaign then
released this explanation to cover the Rev.'s tracks: "The Reverend
Al Sharpton has made the decision to seek the Democratic nomination
for the office of president of the United States. As a result,
a statement of candidacy and the supporting financial-disclosure
documents will be filed with the Federal Election Commission on
Monday, April 28th, 2003."
Perhaps "$hy$ter's only donor was Tawana Brawley?
And what about Carol Moseley Braun's presidential campaign? Friend
of The Federalist James Taranto tells us: "The defeated one-term
Illinois senator who later became ambassador to New Zealand held
a rally in Iowa, and her audience was Tom Hanson. No, that's
not a typo. Hanson, a law-school classmate of Moseley Braun,
was the only person to show up, the Des Moines Register reports."
For his part, Sen. John "Ketchup" Kerry, who can finance his
own campaign, was hot on President Bush's trail, telling a
Leftcoast crowd, "Al Gore proved that you can win the election
without a single Southern state, if he'd only won New Hampshire."
Well there you go!
Speaking of gas, Tuesday was Earth Day, in case you missed it,
and has it ever occurred to you how much "hot air" sounds
like "hauteur"? The Ketchup Kid was talking to a crowd of
eco-adolescents, criticizing President Bush for compromises that
fell short of immediate and full compliance with (Algore's) Kyoto
protocols on restricting carbon-dioxide emissions. A Bush campaign
political adviser fired back simply, "Kerry looks French." Seems
the man who married into the Heinz fortune had to confess on
St. Patrick's Day that his ethnic background is not Boston Irish,
as had been assumed.
From the "Non Compos Mentis" Files...
So, how do you prop-up sagging record and concert sales after
your lead singer badmouths her country on stage in Europe --
while America's finest are preparing for battle? Well, last week
we noted that the Ditsy Tricks would be making all the Leftmedia
rounds in an effort to salvage their upcoming American concert
tour. Indeed, the sangin' chickens appeared on all the network
magazine shows, but that did not restore their reputation with
all-American country-western patriots. So now -- well, they are
appearing on the cover of a print pop-culture magazine -- wearing
nothing but stenciled graffiti. Among the words and phrases
inked on their birthday suits: "traitor," "Saddam's angels" and
"big mouth." (We can think of a few more!) If this doesn't work,
there's always rap!
What most egomaniacal celebrities, like too many political class
narcissists (RINOs at the top of the list), fail to remember,
is who "brung them to the dance."
Around the nation...
In business/economic news, in an effort to remove one element of
uncertainty from the financial markets, President Bush this week
announced his intention to nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan to a fifth four-year term, a full 14 months before the
chairman's current term is set to expire. Greenspan, 77, expressed
his willingness to continue in the position he has held since 1987:
"If President Bush nominates me and the Senate confirms me, I would
have every intention of serving." There had been growing concern
of a rift between the nation's chief monetary-policy creator
and the White House after Greenspan criticized the President's
proposed 10-year, $726-billion tax cuts for not including enough
spending cuts -- the same criticism we have lodged.
And on the subject of removing things, viewers of one news report
had to wonder about Greenspan's recovery during hospitalization
and surgery this week -- when the closed captioning noted that the
Fed chairman was treated for "removal of an enlarged prostitute."
Faith matters...
News surfaced last week that Sen. Tom Daschle's bishop has
instructed the South Dakota politico to remove from his campaign
biography any statement about his being a Catholic, as his
political stands contradict church doctrines. The bishop --
correctly, in our view -- has refused public comment over a matter
of religious discipline within his diocese.
Around the world...
Talks in Peking concluded this week, where U.S., North Korean
and Red Chinese diplomats have met to discuss the nuclear dispute
between Washington and Pyongyang, which began last October after
North Korea's admission that it had initiated a uranium-based
nuclear weapons program. The North subsequently became the
first country to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty and restarted its plutonium-based nuclear program,
as well. No progress appears to have come from the talks, where
U.S. diplomats aimed to achieve a "verifiable, irreversible end
to North Korea's nuclear program." North Korea has now admitted
to possessing nuclear weapons and has reportedly threatened to
begin testing unless the U.S. meets its demands for increased
aid and an assurance of non-aggression.
Yesterday, Pyongyang accused the U.S. of taking the region to the
brink of war, with the state-controlled KCNA news agency saying,
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a war may
break out any moment due to the U.S. moves." At the same time,
an official government statement claimed, "We are successfully
completing the final phase, to the point of the reprocessing
operation, for some 8,000 spent-fuel rods." The fuel rods are
intended for nuclear-weapons production -- material supposed to
remain in permanent storage under the terms of a 1994 nuclear
treaty with the U.S. Intelligence, however, does not support
Pyongyang's claim to have begun the weaponizing process.
Such rhetoric and threats are likely to become the norm as the
communist North, named as a part of President Bush's Axis of
Evil, again attempts to apply pressure for economic aid and a
non-aggression assurance from the U.S. in return for nuclear
concessions.
And last...
A tale of two ratings: Last Sunday night's television fare
featured a cultural contest. Voluble anti-American Leftist Susan
Sarandon appeared in the made-for-TV movie "Ice Bound" on SeeBS,
which garnered a Nielsen rating of 5.5 (9 share). Opposite Sarandon
on ABC was National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston's
starring role as Moses in the 1956 classic "The Ten Commandments,"
which beat her handily (8.9 rating, 14 share). Comeuppances are
wonderful to behold, aren't they?
Lex et Libertas -- Semper Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher,
for the editors and staff.
(Please pray, every day, for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in
harm's way, and their families waiting for their safe return. For a
list of those killed on the Iraqi front in our war with Jihadistan,
link to -- federalist.com )
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