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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (25792)	4/25/2002 7:09:43 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

Bush hasn't left the right April 25, 2002 BY GEORGE WILL suntimes.com WASHINGTON--Reports of tensions between George W. Bush and conservatives are appearing in media that are often uncomprehending of, unsympathetic to and fond of finding conflicts among conservatives. The reports concern something real, but by focusing on conservative activists in this city, the reports ignore Jonathan Swift's warning that it is folly ''to mistake the echo of a London coffeehouse for the voice of the kingdom.'' Some conservatives are caught in a time warp. Bush is--second only to Ronald Reagan and not second by much--the most conservative president in living memory. And Bush is--as successful leaders tend to be--lucky. Lucky? Three Bush decisions, all contradicting long-standing Bush positions, dismayed conservatives who care deeply about free speech (he signed campaign finance reform legislation), free trade (he imposed steel tariffs) and Israel's freedom (he began speaking the way the State Department thinks). Then Al Gore gave a speech. At a Democratic confabulation in Florida, Gore reprised his paint-by-numbers populism of 2000 (''We stand with the little guy.'') and said nothing about today's largest issue, Israel's peril. Suddenly, conservatives remembered. They remembered what Bush never forgets: that the country is tied, politically. That in 2000, half the country favored Gore. That three consecutive elections have produced merely plurality presidents, that at the end of the 19th century, five consecutive elections did that and that the 2004 election might. Gore was nonsensical in saying ''the differences between our parties have never been sharper.'' Sharper than in 1860? 1964? 1980? In 2000, Bush sealed the Republican Party's acknowledgement that the government is, because a vast majority insists on it, involved in assuaging the two great fears of life--illness and old age. He and Gore agreed that the emblematic achievement of the New Deal, Social Security, must be strengthened, and that the emblematic achievement of the Great Society, Medicare, should be enriched with a prescription drug entitlement. The conservatism that defined itself in reaction against the New Deal--minimal government conservatism--is dead. However, Bush has positioned his party as pro-choice where it will matter most to most Americans in coming years--regarding education (freedom to choose among public and private schools), Social Security (freedom to invest part of Social Security taxes in private retirement plans) and medicine (government assistance that fosters freedom to shop for care). Of the three Bush decisions that conservatives rightly abhorred, two--imposing tariffs and refusing to veto the campaign finance legislation (he has vetoed nothing in 15 months)--are not likely to establish patterns. Campaign finance reform is finished for now, and Bush cannot have enjoyed the reaction, here or abroad, to his protectionism. The most important of his three mistakes--his ''even-handedness'' regarding Israel and the terrorist Yasser Arafat--probably is self-correcting. He knows which advisers mistakenly assured him that if he issued commands to all parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he would be obeyed. And regarding his first 15 months: Judging by his nominees so far, Bush will splendidly staff the federal judiciary (half of it, if he serves two terms), but not until Republicans control the Senate. They will be more apt to do that if he campaigns on the issue of judicial activism. His tax cuts will do more than Republican congressional majorities would do to limit government activism. His education bill deeply disappointed only those conservatives who mistakenly want education reform driven by Washington. And concerning the most momentous policy problem, conservatives cannot fault either the substance of Bush's decisions on biomedical matters (cloning, stem cells) or the seriousness with which he has arrived at that substance. Which is why conservatives in the capital should be more like conservatives across the country--on balance, quite pleased.

To: calgal who wrote (25792)	4/25/2002 9:51:52 PM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Respond to of 59480

Egypt ready to wage war on Israel ... for $US100 billion April 25 2002 Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said his country would go to war with Israel if Arab countries stumped up $US100 billion ($A186.32 billion) to pay for the confrontation, in an interview published yesterday. "If you want to undertake an action and be ready to face up to challenges, you need at least $100 billion," he told the Abu Dhabi Government's Al-Ittihad newspaper when asked why Egypt had taken no measures against Israel's military offensive against the Palestinians. "I told you we want $100 billion," he repeated in response to a question why Cairo had not expelled Israel's ambassador to Egypt. "Let the Arab world give $100 billion from Arab funds deposited around the world. Let it say to Egypt: 'This is a budget for confrontation. This budget is at your disposal. Undertake confrontation,' " he said. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel yesterday of going "beyond all limits" with its military actions in the West Bank, particularly in Bethlehem and Jenin. Egypt became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel and signed a treaty in 1979. Protesters in Egypt have frequently called for cutting diplomatic ties with Israel and expelling the Israeli ambassador. AFP smh.com.au