HALF-FULL REPORT 02/06/09

The HFR can only raise a truly half-full glass to the Daschle Disaster this week. 

Exposing the former Democrat Senate Majority Leader as a tax cheat  and millionaire political fixer was good enough.  What compounds the benefits is that Zero’s attempt to take over and destroy health care in America has been seriously damaged.

The number of appointees in Zero’s White House who owe their political lives to Daschle is very large.  He was the guy who could shepherd and coordinate the health care takeover, and now he’s gone.  This is a fantastic two-fer.

It’s countervailed by the Dems not approving another tax cheat – one more blatant and disgusting to taxpayers than Timmy Geithner.

For if Daschle had not withdrawn and had been approved with Zero saying he "absolutely" supported his tax cheating and making millions from influence peddling – and with every comic from Jay Leno on down making fun of him – then the one thing America most needs would have been greatly accelerated.

A tax revolt.

It’s like those scenes in movies where the bad guy is holding a crowd at bay, someone calls out, "He can’t stop all of us," they rush him, he shoots one or two, and then the crowd engulfs him.

Or like the thrilling news from a fascist regulatory agency (sorry for the redundancy) called the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  It now has a backlog of over 47,000 cases and is overwhelmed – so much so that a bureaucrat whined:

"The EEOC is in a state of crisis and is systematically being weakened from within to justify its elimination."

What are the chances that hordes of California taxpayers won’t be filing this April because the state is refusing to send them their tax refunds?

Or that hordes of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages yet still have sky-high property tax bills won’t pay the bill?

In the wake of the Daschle debacle, the leftie media trotted out all these polls showing how Americans hate "tax cheats."  What they really hate is  different rules for the elite who can get away from doing what "the little people" are forced to do at the point of a gun.

For every movie scene described above, there are many more where the crowd backs down, where one lonely guy holds them at bay, as no one wants to take the chance that he’ll be one of those taken out if the crowd goes for it.

The difference is the moment when anger overcomes fear, the crowd snaps, and the bad guy’s a goner.  Secretary Daschle would have helped the crowd reach that moment.  Now he’s just a joke. 

***

We can raise a full glass this week, however, to Michael Steele, the new voice of the Republican Party.

The very first thing he did as the new chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) was to get this collection of political invertebrates to unanimously pass a resolution denouncing both Bush’s bank bailouts and Zero’s stimulus as "socialism" that will fail.

The second thing he did was fire the entire administrative staff of the RNC and every contractor, lobbyist, vendor, and pollster the RNC hires.  Anyone who wants his job back must re-apply.  A thorough housecleaning of the deadwood.

Steele – who is six-foot-four, by the way, and towers over Zero who is actually only 5’11" – never backs down, and never apologizes for his conservative principles – which he can articulate on any issue in 15 seconds.

Expect Steele to be on the air fast responding to every gaffe and blunder Zero or the Pelosicrats make.  And expect him to be the spokesman for the conservative movement now, arguing for conservative solutions.

You can also expect him to show up at NAACP meetings to bring his case.  After all, he says, the NAACP was founded 100 years ago on the 100^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth (Feb. 12, 1809) – by Republicans.

He has the principles, the charisma, and the chops.  Steele is definite progress in revitalizing Republican conservatives and getting on the path to victory in 2010/12.

***

Surely, though, the best news in the world for this week is the staggeringly successful elections in Iraq.  Unbelievably peaceful is what many couldn’t get over.  But even more important – as the HFR predicted last week – is that Mookie and the Iranians lost big time, and both the Sunnis and the Shias voted overwhelmingly to keep Iraq intact.

It is a huge victory for the vision of George W. Bush, and a major step forward towards a democratic Middle East.  Iraq is the only country in the region with lots of oil, lots of water, lots of agricultural land, lots of educated people. 

Add a stable peaceful democracy with a good amount of economic and political freedom, and you have a powerhouse that anchors stability and prosperity in the Middle East, and makes dictatorships from Iran to Egypt to Saudi Arabia obsolete.  Thanks, George.

***

Speaking of dictatorships, we can wallow in joy regarding Chavez going broke in Venezuela – but let’s not forget we can do the same for all the other dictatorships he’s supporting.

Venezuelans are agog at the report by a member of parliament, Julio Borges, which details the $53 billion Chavez has spent in the last few years propping up the governments of Castro’s Cuba ($20 billion), Danny Ortega’s Nicaragua ($5 billion), Rafael Correra’s Ecuador ($6 billion), Evo Morales’ Bolivia ($7 billion), Christina Kirchner’s Argentina ($8 billion) and others.

The money spigot to these despots has run dry.  So just as Chavez’s days are numbered, so are theirs’.  The HFR can raise a full glass to that.

***

Now the HFR takes time to draw a large cardboard cup of draft beer from the keg in the HFR Saloon – just like your HFR author did all too often in his Sigma Nu fraternity days back at UCLA.

The frat house next to Sigma Nu was the Fiji House, Phi Gamma Delta, which was the wild and crazy prototype for Animal House – one of the absolute comedy classic movies of all time.  The wildman character of Blotto, played by John Belushi, was based on a Fiji guy everyone called Red Fox.  But the other memorable character of Otter, played by Tim Matheson, wasn’t Fiji at all.

Otter – totally smooth, suave, handsome, smart, and the ultimate seductionist with a fraternity room like a Playboy Penthouse – wasn’t based on any Fiji.  He was a Sigma Nu fraternity brother of mine named Steve Deming.

No sorority chickadee stood a chance once "The Demer" had enticed her into his basement lair known as "The Grotto."  He was the ideal to which we all aspired.

Those fraternity days were long ago.  With his brains, Steve quickly outgrew them, established a successful real estate business in LA, married the UCLA Prom Queen and raised a family.  Now for fun, Steve, with two buddies, has the California Cowboys Band.

And recently with his son Ryan, he formed an investment company, Monterosso Investments.

It’s small, only a few million under management, but it produced a 40.18% profit in 2008, and is already off to an 8% jump start for the first month of 2009.

Be cautious, do the due diligence, talk to Ryan and Steve with any question you might have.  I have known Steve for several decades, and I think that, especially in today’s economic context, this is something you might want to consider.

You can reach Ryan or Steve at 310-544-4374, [email protected], or Steve’s direct email, [email protected].

But when you call, just don’t ask for Otter.

***

We close the HFR with a toast to the greatest American since the Founding Fathers, who was born on this day, February 6, 1911 – Ronald Reagan.  It was the toast that all the Reaganauts during the glory days of the Reagan White House gave an every opportunity.

Even though he is physically gone, he remains alive in the hearts of all true Americans.  The toast was:

"To Ronald Reagan.  To his health, to his success, and to the confusion of his enemies, foreign and domestic."

Here’s to the memory of this great and noble man inspiring conservatives to create a party of Reagan Republicans who truly live up to his name, his principles, and his gracious humanity.

Happy Birthday, Gipper!