HALF-FULL REPORT 07/01/11

We have a lot of ground to cover in this HFR, but there’s no resisting starting off with a celebration:  Hugo Chavez is dying of cancer.

The "pelvic abscess" he had removed in Cuba was a malignant tumor that has metastasized.  He’s only 56, and everyone thought his curse upon his country would last as long as Castro’s.  This is a great stroke of luck for the world.

Chavez is one of those one-man-band dictators whose death presages the end of the dictatorship.  If the leader of a tyrannical system is bumped off or dies – say, Ahmadinejad in Iran or Assad in Syria – the system simply replaces him and carries on.  The entire system has to be replaced through wholesale and often violent regime change.

But knock off a Mugabe or Gaddafi or Chavez and their regime implodes.  What happens next will be nightmarish, as the Chavistas get out the guns in desperation to keep their power – but the power is gone, utter chaos will ensue, and in the end the Chavistas will be swept away.

Also swept away will be those commie megalomaniacal regimes Chavez’s oil billions pays for:  Rafael Correa’s in Ecuador, Evo Morales’ in Bolivia, Danny Ortega’s in Nicaragua, and of course, the Castro brothers’ in Cuba.

Further, Chavez money will no longer be there to support the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, to prop up Cristina Kirchner’s fascism in Argentina, or establish the budding dictatorship of Ollanta Humala in Peru.  Nor will it be to support Manuel Zelaya’s attempt to seize power again in Honduras (Hillary Clinton forced the Honduran government to allow his return from exile on June 10).

Chavez is not simply the principal supporter of drug-running narco-terrorism, such as in Colombia.  He has been fervently supporting all the scum of the Moslem terrorist world – holding, for example, a secret summit of the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran’s Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) last August.  Their foothold in Venezuela is now gone.

Yes, there is so much to celebrate with the impending demise of this horrifically evil man.

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Now we get to talk about Palin in Pella.  She was in the Iowa town on Tuesday (6/28) for the premiere of The Undefeated.  Pella was the birthplace of my mentor in philosophy, John Hospers, Chairman of the Philosophy Department at the University of Southern California  where I got my Ph.D. under him, as well as the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1972.

John was a rational, pro-defense, pro-American libertarian – a species of libertarian virtually extinct these days.  He had a cartoon taped to the door of his office.  It was of a man changing a flat tire in a rainstorm in the middle of nowhere with the kids in the car yelling at him.  The caption is his saying, "Look, kids, this is reality – we can’t change the channel."

Last month on June 12, John passed away at age 93.  He was an avid reader of TTP.  I gave him his TTP password of "Pella" not only because he was born there, but of the history. 

It was named by the Dutch settlers who founded it in the 1840s (of whom John’s ancestor was one) for Pella in present-day Jordan, the city to where early Church historian Eusebius (c. 263-339) says Christians fled during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.  Over three centuries before in 332 BC, Alexander the Great renamed the ancient Bronze Age settlement Pihil after his birthplace in Macedon:  Pella.  Macedonian Pella is where John’s and my favorite philosopher, Aristotle (387-322), taught young Alexander.

Aristotle is history’s ultimate philosopher of reality and common sense – just as Sarah Palin is America’s ultimate politician of reality and common sense today.  So let’s go from Pella to Wasilla. 

The scuttlebutt I’ve heard from several sources now is that Sarah intends to declare her candidacy for president in Wasilla on July 4^th.

Before you start jumping up and down screaming in joy and pouring a bottle of champagne over your head, calm down and realize this is not confirmed.  All I can say is when I made a discrete inquiry to someone who would definitely know, that person suggested I read this, written yesterday (6/30).

OMG, what a Happy Fourth of July this could be.

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No matter who the GOP nominee will be, there’s growing certainty that her or his running mate will be Marco Rubio.  His denouncement of Zero as a "left-wing strongman" clinches it for many. 

Rubio has an awful lot of company among his colleagues in being disgusted with Zero’s class-warfare kids-vs.-corporate jets demagoguery.  Yet Zero’s ridiculous press conference Wednesday (6/29 – here’s the transcript) had the salubrious effect of hardening Hill GOPers’ determination to shove Zero’s tax hike demands up his nose.

Once again as always, the game is vicious Democrat demagoguery vs. wimp-out Republican cowardice.  It may be, might be, almost a tiny bit possible, however, that just this once over the debt ceiling battle, the Pubs will stand their ground.

They did in Wisconsin under new GOP governor Scott Walker – and look what’s happened.  The restrictions on public union collective bargaining took effect this week (6/29) – and suddenly school budgets are in the black.  The Kaukauna School District budget was $400K in the hole – now it will have a $1.5 million surplus.

They’ve stood up in Minnesota to Zero wannabe, new Dem gov Mark Dayton, whose demagoguery is exactly that of DC Dems.  Just look at the photo of public union protestors and their signs in this story about the Minnesota government shutdown that starts today (7/01). 

It’s wonderful that Minnesotans will get a taste of freedom from government for a while.  It’s what we all need across all America.  We’ll know in the next couple of weeks whether the DC Pubs have the stones for it.

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The funniest and dumbest kerfuffle of the week is enemedia star Mark Halperin calling Zero "a dick" on national television (phony-pretend conservative Joe Scarborough’s "Morning Joe" show on MSNBC).

Of course Zero is a dick – meaning a jerk, a horse’s ass, an inconsiderate schmuck who couldn’t care less who he hurts as long as he gets his way.  This is a news flash?

Yes, it’s fun to see a member of the enemedia inner circle grovel and abase himself in apologizing to Zero for telling the most obvious truth about him.  And it’s fun for the hypocrisy of the most left-wing moonbat news channel to be on full display, firing Halperin after encouraging an endless stream of the most vicious invective directed at George Bush by their other pundits like Keith Olberman.

What would be refreshing is some talking newshead telling the real truth about Zero – that, for example, he’s a crook – at least as crooked as Bill Clinton.

Check out the revelation this week (6/29) that Zero has been "favoring the clean-technology companies of his financial supporters through rewards of federal money."  How is this, along with so much else, not impeachable for bribery and high crimes?

Other impeachable offenses should include failure to protect our southern border from invasion.  It turns out that these terrible fires in Arizona are being set by Mexican illegals, with attention being drawn to the fires thus away from a border area they can sneak through.

Add to this Zero’s attempt to enact the illegal amnesty bill called the DREAM Act, rejected by Congress, by executive fiat via a memo issued on June 17 by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton (full text here).

What the memo calls "prosecutorial discretion" is in fact full amnesty exactly as in the DREAM Act.

In response, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith (R-TX), will be offering legislation to block Zero’s amnesty attempt.  Backing Smith up, the 7,000-member ICE union on June 28 condemned Morton, voting they had no confidence in his leadership.

This impeachable flouting of the law by the current occupants of the White House is going to become ever more egregious in the coming months.  On Wednesday (6/29), I wrote Greece in America, warning you about how a Greece-like societal breakdown is coming to America under Zero.

The next day (6/30), my friend John Fund wrote an eloquent accusation that Zero is conducting a Rule of Lawlessness, embarking on a Saul Alinsky-inspired "Era of Thuggery by his left-wing supporters."  John is right. 

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Here’s a confession.  Guess what’s my favorite part of TTP?  It’s the Forum.  The knowledge and insight TTPers bring to bear on my and our other writers’ articles is extraordinary.

You don’t have to participate to benefit.  Of course you’re welcome to jump in any time and toss in your two cents – no worries, you’re among friends – but you’ll learn so much simply lurking.

Here’s an example that is simply inspiring.  In a comment on Political Energy (6/15), Brian Kelly wrote:

We just visited Wyoming for a few days and the scuttlebutt there is that the EPA is trying to force the ranchers off of their land. The EPA is trying to buy up as much land as possible so they can keep the evil ranchers from "destroying" the land. I can’t think of any entity more destructive to the land then the EPA.

"Skye" responded, as he raises cattle in rural Nevada:

The EPA was proposing to tax ranchers $175 per year for each cow for its methane containing farts and belches. I filed public comments – a necessity if one wants access to the Federalie courts – on this matter, pointing out that it was arbitrary and capricious and hence illegal under the Administrative Procedures Act because:

*it did nothing to tax and regulate the vastly greater methane emissions from wetlands and hence would have no effect on greenhouse gas concentrations,

*that very few ranchers made $175 per year per cow,

*that the greenhouse gas models were provably incorrect [note that Skye is a physicist and can very clearly explain this],

*and that if their position was correct, people should be given tax credits for draining and paving over wetlands to reduce methane and CO2 emissions.

The EPA has since dropped this part of their advanced notice of proposed regulations.

How cool is that?  One single TTPer took on the EPA and kicked it in the rear.  Just imagine what could happen if a lot more of us decided to do the same to other fascist federalies trying to ruin our lives?  Congratulations to Skye, the HFR Hero of the Week!

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OK, folks, I’ve got to start heading back home from gorgeous Albania in time for America’s Birthday.  I had lunch with Prime Minster Sali Berisha while here, who wants you to know how much he and his countrymen love America, and how much you’re welcome to visit.  He wishes you all a Happy 4^th!

It’s hard to tear yourself away from this:

Especially when your wife is so happy:
 

But off we go – into the Adriatic sunset.  Have a marvelous Fourth of July weekend!

Ps:  Last Sunday (6/26), Dr. Dave Janda made his Operation Freedom radio show into a TTP Special, interviewing me, Alex Alexiev, and Paul Rosenberg.  Here are the podcasts.  I think you’ll enjoy them.

Dr. Jack Wheeler Interview:
{mp3remote}http://www.davejanda.com/audio/JackWheeler062611.mp3{/mp3remote}

Alex Alexiev Interview:
{mp3remote}http://www.davejanda.com/audio/AlexAlexiev062611.mp3{/mp3remote}

Paul Rosenberg Interview:
{mp3remote}http://www.davejanda.com/audio/PaulRosenberg062611.mp3{/mp3remote}