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Dr. Jack Wheeler

THE BOTTOMLESS VICIOUS DISHONESTY OF DEMOCRATS

It's not widely recognized that the Wall Street Journal is a left-wing rag, a propaganda organ for the Democrat Party no less than the New York Times. That's because people compare the editorials, not the news coverage.  The WSJ is a schizophrenic, split-personality paper with a pro-America editorial page (yes, except for their open-borders nonsense), while that of the NYT's is so anti-American it is often outright treasonous. But if you focus on the front section news coverage, you'll see little difference between the two.  A perfect example is this "news" story of April 7 in the WSJ:  Democrats' Hopes for Seat Rise. The opening line of the story is: "A conservative firebrand with a connection to a former Ku Klux Klan leader will run for a Louisiana seat in the (U.S.) House of Representatives, raising Democrats' hopes they can pick up what has been a reliably conservative district for more than three decades." The "conservative firebrand" in question is Woody Jenkins, the Republican candidate.  That description of him is accurate - he's a passionate pro-life, pro-Christian, pro-capitalist, pro-America, pro-Western Civilization guy.  He's stand-up honest, integrity personified, born and raised in the Louisiana district (Baton Rouge) he represented in the state legislature for 28 years. I should know, for he's been a good friend of mine for a quarter-century.  And that's how I know the WSJ's smear alleging he has "a connection to a former Ku Klux Klan leader" is a complete willful fabrication.  The author of the WSJ article, Susan Davis, is not a journalist, she's a professional left-wing smear artist.

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THE OLYMPICS OF FACE

As we enjoy watching the debacle of the Chicom Torch Relay disastrously unfold from London to Paris to San Francisco to points beyond, let's step back to the bigger picture of what these Olympics are all about. They are not about sport and Olympic Ideals, that's for sure.  The competing athletes from scores of countries all over the world are only props.  These Beijing Games are about one thing only.  They are about face - Chinese face. The concept of face - as in "losing face" or "saving face" - plays a critical role in Chinese culture and the way most Chinese deal with reality - a way that is fundamentally opposed to that of Americans. If your "face" is the primary concern of your life, controlling your conduct and morality, then you believe that reality is what other people say it is, not what it is in fact.  The morality of face is the morality of pretend.  For any country to host an Olympic Games, it's a matter of national pride.  But for China, that's all that it is.  The purpose of the Beijing Games is China's "coming-out party," during which the world accepts Chicom China as a morally legitimate nation, and publicly pretends it is not a dictatorship.  For the Chicoms, this pretense is the Games' only purpose. Which means, if the party is spoiled, it will be a catastrophic loss of face for the Chicoms, and the Han Chinese they rule.  What will be the consequences of this?

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HALF-FULL REPORT 04/04/08

"Ted Turner Offers To Commit Suicide To End Global Warming." That should have been the headline for this story, in which the founder of CNN declared: "We're too many people; that's why we have global warming." The HFR couldn't agree more with you on this, Ted - with one caveat.  What we actually have is too many people like you.  Anyone who believes there are too many people inhabiting the earth has only one moral and consistent path of action to take: Start reducing the human population by starting with themselves, i.e., commit suicide. The world really will be much better off without you, Ted.  Trust us on this.  We don't care how you do it - slit your wrists, drink Draino, whatever - just don't take anyone else along with you unless it's Jane Fonda. In the meantime, the HFR thanks you for so clearly reminding everyone what an incredible idiot you are, and how every time you open your mouth, you do grave damage to the credibility of the commie causes you mindlessly espouse.

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HOW TO TRANSFORM ZOMBIES INTO THINKING PARTICIPANTS

This is a story of how I learned to transform a workforce of 1,500 unionized zombies into participating human beings.  It was in a Belgian steel mill in 1963. Since then I have been able to replicate this transformation of  zombies into thinking participants in different parts of the world.  The basic requirement is human contact beyond all barriers and education. Given that, the possibility of such transformation is universal, for human beings are human beings.  The limiting factor is culture.  The transformation is far easier in some cultures, far harder in others. I have found it to be the most difficult and frustrating with Arabs.  Close to the edge of impossibility.  In Asia, I found the best to be...

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THE FORECLOSURE SCAM AND THE REAL WAY TO CASH IN ON REAL ESTATE

It's hard to miss the full page newspaper ads - such as in the Washington Post and likely in your local paper as well - blaring about "the investment opportunity of a lifetime" by investing in foreclosures. "The current rise in foreclosures is an incredible opportunity for you to make incredible real estate deals!" claims the WaPo ad.  All of these ads are scams.  Yet it turns out that there is a genuine solution to the mortgage crisis, and those who understand it will be able to make a lot of money.  Let me tell you how to do it.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/28/08

One of the coolest guys on the planet has been a friend of mine for thirty years - Col. Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune Magazine.  We've had various adventures together, like being shot at by Soviets in Afghanistan, and please don't ask him how he got the nickname "Bob Ka-bab," or else he'll tell you about "Snuffy Jack." Thus the first item on the HFR agenda this week is to tell you how you can participate in Bob's Stir The Chicom Pot Contest... ... If done right, efforts to sabotage the Chicom Olympics may reach a "tipping point," turning them, as the Washington Post just noted, into a "politically toxic showcase of repression."  Another tipping point was reached this week in the debate on "climate change"... ... Additional happy news on the enviro front comes from the Bush Administration... ... And we can be more than half-full grateful that the Roberts Court this week decided 6-3 for American sovereignty, humiliating Condi Rice in the process...

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THE RESURRECTION OF CHRISTIANITY VS. ISLAM

This past Sunday, March 23, 2008, was the most extraordinary Easter we may see in our lives.  To begin with, we'll never see an earlier one. Because Easter is dated via the ancient Hebrews' lunar calendar used to identify Passover, it is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox of March 20th.  This year, the moon reached full one day later, March 21st, which happened to be a Saturday.  Thus Easter was the next day. You can't have an Easter much earlier than March 23rd.  One day earlier, in fact, March 22nd.  The last time Easter fell then was 1818; the next time in 2285.  The last time Easter fell on March 23rd was in 1913, and the next time will be in 2228. So unless you are at least 95 years old, you've never seen an Easter as early as last Sunday, and unless some Durk Pearson life extension technology keeps you around for another 220 years, you'll never see another. So this Easter was chronologically special - but it was also special for a far deeper reason than that.  In fact, it is the combination of two specific events taking place during this Easter Week that may well signify the resurrection of a dormant Christianity and its resultant defeat of militant Islam.

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THE REVOLUTIONARY RENDEZVOUS

Get set for a Revolutionary TTP Rendezvous this summer!  The dates are Friday, August 22 through Sunday, August 24 - the weekend before Labor Day weekend.  The place is where the American Revolution began - Boston. First we'll go to where America began* -- Plymouth Rock.  Then to North Church from whose steeple the signal was given for Paul Revere's ride, and follow his ride to Lexington.  From Lexington Green we'll go to Concord and North Bridge, where the Revolution started with "the shot heard ‘round the world." We'll host many a lager at the Green Dragon Tavern where Sam Adams and his fellow revolutionaries conspired and plotted against the British.  Revolutionary good cheer will also be had at the Bell In Hand, and every Irishman's favorite Boston pub, Dooley's. With the help of our members in Boston like Marco the Wizard and the Dynamic Blonde Duo of Maureen Bowen and Eileen Corcoran, we're putting together a package of hotels, venues, and activities that you won't want to miss at a price you can afford. Details will be forthcoming - but in the meantime, mark your calendar and plan to have a revolutionary good time with your fellow TTP'ers.  Boston, August 22-24. [*That's not to forget where America also began - Jamestown, Virginia.  Right nearby is Yorktown where the Revolution was won.  Obviously a site for a future Rendezvous.]

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GOT A QUESTION FOR ME?

Thanks to TTP'er and entrepreneur Eric Martell, we're pleased to announce The TTP Teleconference. It's a sort of "mini-rendezvous" using an interactive format based on a web-site where you can ask questions and a teleconference call where I can answer them. We're now ready to try our first free teleconference.  It will be on Monday, April 7th at 9:00PM Eastern Time.  The way it will work is simple.

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THE DEMS, THE DEVIL, AND THE DEEP BLACK SEA

Could the Democrats' dilemma possibly get any funnier or more entertaining?  It's still March, we've got seven more months to election day, and the way things are going, it's going to take a cross between Einstein and Houdini to prevent a McGovernesque disaster. Even weirder, it's beginning to look like they want such a disaster.  So weird that maybe their Bureau of Propaganda - otherwise known as the "mainstream media" - wants it too. Dem leaders know Hillary can't win against McCain.  They know Obambi can't win against McCain.  Yet they would far rather give it to Obambi - for they fear black envy and racist hatred more than they fear destroying their party.  They would rather appease the former than avoid the latter.  That's masochism, big time.

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FROM APPEASING NAZIS TO APPEASING MOSLEMS

Adolf Hitler realized the importance of having a good press. In Nazi Germany with its press censorship, it was easy for Hitler to have a good press. However, during the 1930s the Nazis also tried to control the media in the neighboring European countries that Hitler was planning to invade. The Nazis bullied the democratically elected governments in these countries to censor everything that resembled what today might be called "Naziophobia" - criticism of Nazism.  A number of bullied governments gave in to the Nazi intimidation rather than back the few courageous individuals who spoke out against totalitarianism.  Today, we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Islamist extremists want a good press. They do not tolerate criticism. Even cartoons are deemed offensive. They warn those who criticize them "to consider the possible consequences" of Islamophobia.

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TAXATION AS LEGALIZED ROBBERY

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society," while his predecessor on the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall, also correctly noted, "The power to tax is the power to destroy." The American Founding Fathers, in the Declaration of Independence, state as one of their grievances against King George III, that he imposed "taxes on us without our consent." "No taxation without representation" was a rallying cry of the Revolution, and from that time it has been widely agreed that imposition of a tax without the consent of the governed is a form of tax tyranny. President Calvin Coolidge stated it succinctly, "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."  (Ronald Reagan admired Coolidge so much he had Coolidge's portrait hung in the Cabinet Room of the White House.) So at what point does taxation move from that necessary for proper government to tyranny?

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/21/08

We should call the HFR this week The Toast Report, because that's what so many folks on the dark side have become in the last few days. Let's start with Obambi.  This is going to be like watching one of those spectacular crash-explosion movie disaster scenes shot in agonizingly slow motion.  One month from tomorrow (April 22) is the Dem primary in Pennsylvania.  Obambi's worshippers in the media will be the guys in the movie scene reaching out in slo-mo and shouting noooooo!, knowing all the while they can't prevent the inevitable.  He is going to be destroyed by Mrs. Clinton in PA.  Blue-collar Budweiser Democrats will not vote for someone who takes his kids to a church that goddamns America. The same is going to happen to him in the North Carolina primary on May 6, except for his winning the huge black vote there.  Then it becomes obvious the Clinton-Obama race is about nothing but race, with Obambi only having the black vote.  At that point, the Dems realize they are truly, truly - in Daniel Henninger's delightful term - Mamet-worded.

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MONKEYS IN TIBET

potala2 I took this picture of the Potala on my first expedition across Tibet in 1986. Even though I've since logged over 10,000 kilometers criss-crossing Tibet, seeing the Potala is always a fantastic thrill, one of man's great architectural masterpieces built centuries ago in Tibet's capital of Lhasa. It is no thrill, however, for Tibetans. For them, the Potala is "dead," for the Dalai Lama no longer lives there. The Potala is instead a bitter reminder to Tibetans that their country has been stolen, that they are slaves to their masters, the Chinese. COA (Chinese Occupational Army) garrisons are littered throughout Tibet. The Tibetans call them Tibu Baptu, Monkey Stations. Tibetans look upon Chinese soldiers as tibu, monkeys; Chinese Communist Party officials as pakba, pigs; and the swarms of Chinese immigrants sent to colonize Tibet as chusin, crocodiles devouring Tibet's culture. After slaughtering two million Tibetans in the Chicom seizure of Tibet since 1951, destroying its sacred monasteries, exiling and demonizing the beloved Dalai Lama, and colonizing it with imperial tyranny, the Chinese Pakba have the audacity to elaborately celebrate each year the "Liberation" of Tibet. This year, wonderfully and finally, the Tibetans fought back.  And even more wonderfully, it made world-wide headlines, exposing the brutality and horror of Chinese imperialism to the entire world. For the latest developments on the ground in Tibet, see SaveTibet and FreeTibet.  The latter in particular will explain how you can personally participate in the liberation of Tibet and in ruining China's Genocide Olympics. What I want to discuss here are three aspects of the situation you may not otherwise hear about.

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GOD DAMN BARACK OBAMA

That didn't take long, did it?  That's the way it is with frenzies, whether they're dotcom bubbles or phony messiahs.  A few moments of "the madness of crowds," then it's down the rabbit hole of history. So there goes another Great Black Hope, the Great Liberal Dream of absolution from America's racist sins dashed yet again.  Better luck in 2012 or 2112, O ye liberal sinners, because it's over in 2008.  Obama is toast. You know he's toast when Chris Matthews, who poses as a tough-guy bully but is really just a liberal pussy wallowing in white guilt, goes apoplectically over the top proclaiming Obama's speech in Philly today to be "one of the great speeches in American history," surpassing Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream and "worthy of Abraham Lincoln." To see the total absurdity of this, try imagining Martin Luther King's reaction to a Jeremiah Wright sermon.  You can be quite confident he would publicly denounce it as the most vile racism and walk out of the church.  Obambi and his not-proud-of-her-country wife stayed for 20 years. This smooth-talking charismatic con man is lying through his teeth when he said he wasn't really aware of his pastor sermonizing "God Damn America."  God Damn America?  No, God Damn Barack Obama. 

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/14/08

This week's HFR is way, way more than half-full - it's overflowing.  The delicious destruction of a Democrat fascist is so orgasmic it can't be confined to an HFR blurb, but deserved its own article:  The Real Spitzer Scandal. The Hillary-Obambi Destruction Derby keeps getting better.  But as we enjoy Obambi having to fire his Israel-hating/Palestinian terrorist-loving advisor Samantha Power for calling Hillary a "monster" (you mean she isn't?  who knew?), and the PIAPS having to fire her advisor Geraldine Ferraro for pointing out that people pay attention to Obambi only because he's black (when everyone knows he's only half-black) - let's focus on the real cause of the mud fight: There's no substantive difference between these two moonbats in terms of political principles or ideology or Big Brother/Big Government programs they both advocate.  Thus the only way to create a difference between them is through personal invective, attack, insult, and smear. So far, even though Her Thighness had to grovel yesterday (3/13) to blacks in apology for Ms. Ferraro's telling the truth, Obambi has definitely been more damaged in the fight so far than she.

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THE REAL SPITZER SCANDAL

Yes, we're all swimming in glee over the glorious sight of a self-righteous governor's complete humiliation.  The indignation we feel over the scumbag's dragging his wife along to stand by him and publicly humiliate her in the process confirms we have a right to gloat. Eliot Spitzer is a fascist thug.  What has happened to him is not "sad," a "waste," a "tragedy," or any other liberal sob-sister characterization.  What has happened to him is called karmic justice.  He is getting, and let us hope he continues to get, exactly what he deserves. The real Spitzer scandal, however, has nothing to do with cheating on his wife with hookers.  This happens every day in every city in America with guys whose wives aren't bright enough to provide them with fantasy sex - albeit not as extravagantly and brazenly as Spitzer. The real scandal is that Spitzer was for years cheered as a hero for being a fascist thug.  The real scandal is that a fascist thug was elected Governor of New York by 70% of the vote.  The real scandal is a legal system in America run by fascist thugs calling themselves "Prosecutors." 

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THE RACIAL SPLIT THAT’S TEARING THE DEMOCRATS APART

Barack Hussein Obama's recent ridicule and rejection of Hillary Rodham Clinton's suggestion that he be her VP running-mate squashes the "dream-team" fantasy of many Democrats. It also means the racial division within the Democrat Party between Blacks and Latinos will continue to widen into a disastrously unbridgeable abyss.  What's happening in my home town of Los Angeles is instructive. The Los Angeles Times has been documenting with Pulitzer quality reporting, the racial gang wars in the L.A. basin. The largest and oldest Latino gang,  the Mexican Mafia, has ordered ethnic cleansing of formerly all-black neighborhoods. This has led to an increase in black vs Latino violence. Close to my home, the Gateway Harbor area, several blacks have been murdered by Latino gangs in this expressed racial hate crime wave. A six year old black boy was shot in the head and is fighting for his life at Harbor UCLA Medical center -- two Latino gang members were arrested for the "random" shooting. Hate crime charges may be filed. These hate crimes help explain the growing division in the national Democrat Party. 

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SARKOZY: FROM HEROIC HOPE TO LAUGHINGSTOCK NIGHTMARE

When Nicolas Sarkozy was running for president of France last May, I proclaimed him to be "Europe's best hope." Mr. Sarkozy won the votes of 53 percent of the record 85 percent of the French electorate that came out to vote in the presidential elections. The French approved of his tough rhetoric against the Islamist "thugs" (his word, voyous) who control many no-go neighborhoods in the country, where more than 10 percent of the population already adheres to the Moslem faith. During the presidential campaign his Socialist opponent, Ségolène Royal, warned that a Sarkozy victory would lead to violence in the Moslem neighborhoods. The French refused to be intimidated into appeasement and rose to the occasion. French men and women who normally do not vote because they distrust politics turned out en masse to elect "Sarko." The "thugs" have since begun to ambush police and no longer refrain from shooting at officers, but the Sarkozy government had not clamped down on them.  Yet that is only the beginning of the coming Sarkozy nightmare.

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POLITICAL FIXES FOR POLITICAL CAUSES OF RECESSION

There is still time to avoid a recession - a recession being technically defined as two quarters of negative economic growth.   What needs to be done, and can be done in the next 60 days, follows. First, it is important to realize the present economic slowdown was caused by a series of mistakes by the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the administration, and Congress. Many of our government policymakers and politicians still insist it was the other guy's fault and pretend that taking money from one group of taxpayers and giving it to another (a k a, a "stimulus package") will somehow miraculously revive the economy. The administration is guilty of having both proposed and acquiesced to spending that resulted in more costs than benefits to the economy, which has slowed growth. Even though those in the administration cannot suddenly reverse much of the wasteful spending on their own, they can do several things by presidential directive - Executive Orders issued by President Bush -- to make things better immediately.

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WHY DEMOCRATS CANNOT DEFEND AMERICA

[The Council for National Policy is America's premier group of conservative leaders. At its meeting this weekend, I have been asked to address CNP members, explaining in five minutes why Liberal Democrats seem incapable of even wanting to defend our country.  This is what I will say.] A good place to start understanding why Democrats cannot defend America is the Amazon jungle.  There is a tribe in the Amazon called the Yanomamo.  When a Yanomamo woman gives birth, she tearfully proclaims her child to be ugly. In a loud mortified lament that the entire tribe can hear, she asks why the gods have cursed her with such a pathetically repulsive infant. She does this in order to ward off the envious black magic of the Evil Eye, the Mal Ojo, that would be directed at her by her fellow tribespeople if they thought she was happy and her baby was beautiful. So she is afraid to be happy, because of the fear of being envied by her fellow villagers. From now on, whenever you think of a Liberal Democrat, I want you to think of that Yanomamo woman in the Amazon.  For it is that primitive jungle fear of being envied that makes a Liberal.

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HALF FULL REPORT 03/07/08

This week's HFR focuses on the Obamarama - or as Jack Kelly describes him, the guy in an empty suit with a glass jaw.  Naturally, we're all dancing on the bar tables over Hillary's winning Texas and Ohio, ensuring a vicious catfight between her and Obambi from now ‘till Labor Day.  What fun. It turns out, though, that Hillary has a woman on her side who is turning out to be one of her campaign's greatest assets, who just may ensure the Hildebeast's victory over Obambi and her nomination.  Nope, not Gloria Steinem nor Barbra Streisand nor Halle Berry.  I refer, of course, to... *** ...On the international scene, the HFR reports that Jews around the world rioted in violent protest over a British researcher's claims that Moses, the founder of the Jewish religion, was high on psychedelic drugs and hallucinated that he spoke to God on Mount Sinai.

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EIGHT MORE YEARS OF ILLEGALS

Over a year ago, Congress passed a law to spend over $7 billion to build a fence to secure our Mexican border. On February 22, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced at a news conference that a high-tech "virtual fence" project on part of the U.S. border with Mexico was finally ready for service. The so-called Project 28 virtual fence was built near Nogales, Ariz. The $20 million project of sensor towers and advanced mobile communications was supposed to be ready by mid-2007, but was delayed by software problems.  So Mr. Chertoff's announcement was good news. But only five days later on February 27, the media reported that the Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a virtual fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of that first 28-mile phase by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear.

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GIVE WAR A CHANCE

That was the title of a very funny book P. J. O'Rourke wrote a few years ago about Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  And it's very apt advice right now for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe. You knew that Venezuela's coke-head clown dictator was going to find a pretext for war with Colombia a month ago in Wars On The Way.  The Colombian Army's take-out of Chavez's FARC buddy Raul Reyes, a murderous Marxist midget (he was barely over five feet tall) last Saturday (3/01) provided it. Now let's hope Uribe accepts Chavez's offer of war.  For if he does, it's bye-bye, Hugo.

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HALF FULL REPORT 2/29/08

We start off this week's HFR with a marvelous confirmation that Yes, Virginia, Hollywood really is that stupid and shallow... Next up is the exhilarating photo flap over Hussein Obambi's looking like a Moslem girlie-man in drag. Then the HFR announces that its Hero of the Week award goes to General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who had the courage to publicly state that "global warming is a total crock" of fecal material... The HFR further announces the impending death of North Korea... And lastly, there appeared this week two astonishingly hopeful signs of moderation in Islam.

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EUROPE’S CHOICE: STATISM OR FREEDOM

Ljubljana, Slovenia.  As I gaze out on the prosperous and exquisite "old town" of this ancient city, it seems far removed from the country of Yugoslavia of which it was part. After a brief battle in 1991, Slovenia won its independence, and is now a part of the European Union. The tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, the final remnants of Yugoslavia, are felt not much more deeply here than in most other parts of the EU. By almost any measure, Slovenia has been an economic success during the last 18 years, and now enjoys a per capita income (on a purchasing power parity) almost equal to that of the average EU country, and about 60 percent of that enjoyed by the average American. Despite Slovenia's success, it now faces many of the same problems found in the larger EU countries. Back in 1991, Slovenia, tucked up against the Austrian Alps, had the goal to be a little Switzerland with its economic prosperity and personal liberty. Yet, two decades later, the economic system in Slovenia looks more like that of France than Switzerland. Thus the debate here, as it is emerging in so many places in Europe, between retreating into stagnant statism or moving forward into freedom.

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AN AMAZING QUESTION ASKED BY EASTERN EUROPE

During the past two centuries, three major European continental nations have tried to impose their will on the rest of the continent, indeed, on the globe. First France in the early 19th century, then Germany in the first half of the 20th century, and finally Russia. In the second half of the 20th century, France and Germany each realized that on their own their importance on a European and global level was going to decline. Hence, they became the motors of the so-called European unification process. Many - especially in Britain, but also in smaller countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands - perceive the European Union to be a joint Franco-German effort at dominating Europe. Eastern European nations such as the Baltic states and Poland fear that one day the Franco-German axis might be enlarged by bringing in Russia.  They realize that the biggest threat to their independence is a Franco-German-Russian axis. If one day Paris, Berlin and Moscow decide to join forces the rest of Europe will have to do as they are told. So they have begun to ask themselves an amazing question.

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SO SLIPPERY HE MAKES BILL CLINTON LOOK HONEST

Sen. Hillary Clinton has road-tested several versions of attacks on Sen. Barack Obama that don't work. Obviously, and first, don't come out against change and hope - the perennial themes of successful election campaigns. Even my old boss, Ronald Reagan, campaigned for re-election in 1984 in response to the claim that America needed to change on the phrase, "We ARE the change" (as well as on the hopeful theme of "morning in America"). If a candidate is not for change, he is not for us.  Nor will Americans ever vote for a presidential candidate on what he or she has already done for us. In American politics, gratitude is always the lively expectation of benefits yet to come. The question is always, what will you do for us tomorrow? Americans will not give Sen. John McCain the White House because we are grateful for his heroism 40 years ago at the "Hanoi Hilton." We are grateful, and he was heroic. Americans might gladly vote a medal, or even an opulent retirement home, but not the presidency.

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JOHN THE JERKOMANIAC

In her tribute to Bill Buckley, Mona Charen lauded not only what he had accomplished - a "profoundly consequential life" - but what he was as a human being:  "by universal acclimation, the most gracious man on the planet." "It was always Bill," she observed, "who rushed to get a chair for the person left standing" at a meeting.  "Always Bill who reached to fill your glass" of water.  "Always Bill who volunteered to give you a lift wherever you were going, insisting it was on his way." With his usual impeccable timing, Bill Buckley chose to leave us at just the opportune time to contrast the gracious humanity of the founder of America's conservative movement with the personality of the man claiming conservatives should support his nomination for President of the United States. The Democrat Party and its candidates, Mrs. Bill Clinton and Hussein Obambi, have the neurosis possessed by all liberals - Infantilizomania, the obsessive compulsion to treat adults as children. The presumptive candidate of the Republican Party has a different type of neurosis - Jerkomania, the obsessive compulsion to be a jerk.   The only way for McCain to overcome this is for conservatives, when they think of him, to think of Cordell Hull.

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TURKEY’S PHONY INVASION OF IRAQ

Turkey Invades Northern Iraq blared headlines around the world last weekend (2/23-24).  Thousands of Turkish troops had crossed several miles into Iraq to "root out" PKK Kurdish guerrillas from their "mountain strongholds." Here is a map of the Turkey-Iraq border.  It runs west-to-east or left-to-right from Syria (the triangle that Highway 6 runs through is Syria) to Iran.  [See map in main article.] Note the Turkish town of Cukurca.  This is the Turkish Army's staging point, where the invasion was launched, and from where, as CNN announced yesterday (2/27), Turkey Sends More Troops Into Iraq.  The farthest penetration of Turkish troops has been about 24 kilometers or 15 miles into Iraq in the area of the Iraqi village of Al Amadiyah. Anyone who sees this map and knows where the PKK is based is instantly LOL - laughing out loud.  The PKK "stronghold" is in the Qandil mountains where Turkey, Iraq, and Iran come together - almost 100 miles by road or jeep track from Cukurca. This is a phony invasion.  Check out this story in the Washington Post, whose eyewitness reporter states the Turkish troops can "go no farther" than 15 miles into Iraq, that the Turkish military has "targeted Kurdish civilians in villages that are often far from the bases of the [PKK] guerrilla group," and quotes an Iraqi Kurdish soldier:  The Turks "say there are PKK in this area, but actually the PKK are very far from here." Why would the Turkish Army stage a Potemkin invasion of Iraq and pretend to attack the PKK?   To ramp up anti-Kurdish Turkish jingoistic nationalism while preserving the business deal the Turkish Army has with the PKK to run drugs.

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PUBLIC EDUCATION AND HIGHER TAXES

Why do individuals and countries engage in self-destructive behavior? Many books have been written on the topic, but given the U.S. election campaign, it is worth examining why some politicians and other opinion leaders advocate policies contrary to both good theory and empirical evidence. Despite this evidence of success, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to increase the top tax rates, though there is no evidence that raising the top rates will result in any more revenue but there is evidence it will result in slower growth. They can get away with it because voters have had their brains mangled by public education. Since education in almost all countries these days is chiefly in public institutions, except for relatively small numbers of students educated in U.S. private schools and universities, it should come as no surprise that the government employees doing the "educating" are biased toward the public sector and are anti-business.

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HALF-FULL REPORT: 2/22/08

I have been saving a very special bottle of wine - a 1992 Chateau Vieux French Bordeaux - for a very specific occasion:  to celebrate the death of Fidel Castro.  Looks like I'll be opening it soon - for the best news of the week is Castro's announcing he has one foot in the grave by ending his 49-year run as Cuba's El Jefe Maximo. I chose the vintage not just because 1992 was a great year for French reds, but because I went to Cuba that year.  I told the story a couple of years ago in Cuba Libré.  A meeting with Castro had been set up, at which I intended to tell him the Cuban people would some day urinate on his grave.  He got wind of it and canceled the meeting.  My wife was very relieved. Dagny D'Anconia explained the dictator's slow and awful descent towards demise some time ago in The Partial Assassination of Fidel Castro.  Drawn-out lingering nightmare agony - just the sort of hell a piece of murderous human garbage deserves. What's hilarious is the lib media's portrayal of Raul Castro as a Cuban Mikhail Gorbachev reformer.  Raul is a 76-year old alcoholic who hasn't much longer to go himself.  The army and secret police still run everything, but with Fidel gone the regime has no legitimacy.  Odds will increase for a really bloody revolution.

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MCCAIN LEMONADE

Aren't you just so surprised?  The infamous article I authored three weeks ago that went viral on the Internet and got McCainiacs in a total tizzy, How the Clintons Will Destroy John McCain, warned of the wardrobe full of McCain skeletons nicely arranged on hangars just waiting for the lib media to take out and display to the world. I warned, for example, of "media disclosures of the lady lobbyists in Washington having adulterous affairs with McCain - there are at least three of them." I didn't, however, think that the New York Times and the Washington Post would jump the gun so soon and wait a little longer - but they decided Michelle Obama's incredible not-proud-of-her-country admission was so damaging to her husband's campaign that attention had to be re-directed to a juicy McCain adultery scandal, replete with color pics of the hot blonde lobbyist involved.  This morning (2/21), the photo of Vicki Iseman is up on Drudge for millions to see. In response, McCain did exactly the right thing:  he attacked.  He didn't simply denounce the story as a "smear," but he had his campaign manager, Charlie Black, announce that McCain would now "declare war on the New York Times." Perfect.  When you've got lemons, make lemonade.  And that's just what conservatives must do now with the lemon of John McCain.

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THE HALF-FULL REPORT

You know the old glass half-empty/half-full perspective.  Whenever it's mentioned I always think of Dennis Turner.  Many years ago, we were having a discussion whether the future of freedom was bright or bleak.  Arguing for the former, I mentioned Reason Magazine's "Trends" feature, which itemized recent pro-freedom developments. Dennis instantly responded, "Yes, but it's mis-named.  It should be called "Anomalies." But we are not eternal pessimists here at To The Point.  We aren't naïvely Pollyannic either, but are instead rationally optimistic, always on the look out for opportunities and solutions instead of being bummed out on dangers and problems. And we'd like you to participate in the hunt.  So we are instituting the TTP Half-Full Report.

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THE FOUR GOVERNMENT-CAUSED REASONS FOR OUR ECONOMIC MESS

How much money would the government have to give you and every other American to avoid a recession? You cannot answer because the question contains a false conclusion, and when political arguments are about false conclusions, the wrong policies are pursued. To try to reverse the current economic slowdown, one first must understand the real causes and then try to correct those causes. Many in Congress, the administration, and the Fed have misdiagnosed the problem and then given the wrong medicine -AKA "the stimulus package." There are four government-caused reasons why Washington remains "stuck on stupid" regarding the economy.

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BACK IN THE USSR

If Yogi Berra happens to be in Moscow this coming May 9, we know what he'd say:  "Looks like déjà vu all over again." On that day, heavy military equipment will once again roll down Moscow's Red Square for the Victory Day military parade. Tanks, missiles, and 6,000 troops will be joined overhead by fighter aircraft and military helicopters. The last time Moscow saw such a display of military hardware was November 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The parade is designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal the U.S., NATO members and Russia's neighbors that Russia's power is back. It also illustrates President Vladimir Putin's emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic institutions.

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THE CAUCUS – A LAST BASTION OF SELF-DETERMINATION

Unless you live in one of the 17 states that still use the caucus as part of the political nominating process, your knowledge of that institution is likely limited to Iowa caucus reports on the news.  Yet the caucus plays a broader, important role in our presidential nominating process.  In states that have retained or returned to the caucus - such as my state of Colorado - every election year sees a spirited debate over the merits and demerits of the caucus system.  The young lady who cuts my hair, a staunch conservative Republican, expresses the negative viewpoint as well as anyone.  She doesn't like the caucus system because it excludes too many people.  To prove her point, I suppose, she self-excluded herself by not attending the caucus in our precinct, despite my strong encouragement to do so! Our local Republican Party treasurer, on the other hand, champions the caucuses because they're the only place the average voter can actually participate in debates on issues and candidates and have those debates translate into meaningful action. I myself like the caucus system for an entirely different reason.

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WHAT A BEACH PARTY!

sarasota_sunset Sunset on the beach at Sarasota, Florida, with good friends and an adult beverage.  Can't beat that, especially when those friends are fellow TTPers.  All of us sure did have a good time.  Here's a synopsis of what we did and what we learned.

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MCCAIN AS THE ANTI-REAGAN

It's going to take a while for conservatives to become fully resigned to John McCain's securing the Republican presidential nomination. They may never be if he does some incredibly dumb thing like picking a Preacher Socialist - Mike Huckabee - as his running mate, or his supporters continue to demonize conservative heroes like Rush Limbaugh for not genuflecting at the saintly image of Sir Galahad McCain. No Knight of King Arthur's Round Table, like Sir Galahad who McCain pretends to be, possessed "a strutting self-righteousness... that goes hand in hand with a nitroglycerin temper."  That memorably accurate description of John McCain by Mona Charen explains why McCain is the Anti-Reagan. Aside from Ronald Reagan the politician, statesman, or political conservative, Ronald Reagan the human being was someone of great-hearted likeability.  It was almost impossible to dislike him.  The contrast is stark.  It is almost impossible to actually like, to be genuinely fond of John McCain because at the bottom of his character he is an insufferable jerk. Because of his essential unlikeableness, McCain cannot create conservative passion for him.  This truth will outrage the McCainiacs, who will thus angrily blame his loss in November upon conservatives.  But as anyone should know on this Valentine's Day, you can't force someone to love you. You've got to entice them instead.  You don't angrily stomp your feet and call them deranged if they don't love you.  There's no bigger turn-off than that.

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REAGAN VS. CLINTON BY THE NUMBERS

Under which recent president do you think the U.S. economy performed best? The policies of Presidents Bush, father and son, and Jimmy Carter clearly did not work as well as Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's. So let's compare their economic performance.  For the numbers show that Democrats can continue "the-Clinton-economy-was-best" ploy only if the Republicans and the news media let them get away with the factual misrepresentation.

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