A STRANGE AND ORDINARY WASHINGTON DINNER PARTY
A couple of nights ago, I attended a dinner party at the Capitol Hill home of a friend of mine. There was good wine, good food, and good conversation. Every night there are dinners like this held all over Washington, the normal rationale for which is a guest of honor. In this case, the guest of honor was the leader of a political party in Pakistan, Imran Khan. This resulted in a quite strange yet equally ordinary evening in DC. The charismatic and strikingly handsome Imran Khan is one of Pakistan's greatest celebrities. While other countries go crazy over soccer, Pakistan's sport is cricket - so the entire country went delirious with joy when its national team won the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Imran Khan captained the team and almost singlehandedly won the final game. The Oxford-educated cricketer then married, in 1995, the daughter of one of England's richest men, billionaire Sir James Goldsmith - Jemima Goldsmith converting to Islam beforehand. The following year, with $8 million of Sir James' money, he founded his own political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice). As he spoke to us and fielded questions, attired in a Saville Row suit and with an accent of impeccable Oxbridge English, he was urbane, witty, charming, and articulate. He is also an airhead.
THE RON PAUL MOVIE CONTEST
I had my say about Ron Paul in No Paulista. Yet the good gynecologist from Lake Jackson, Texas, has a devoted following among TTPers, and it is in their honor that To The Point is holding a contest. And that is for the greatest Libertarian Motion Picture. What movie ever made, in your opinion, best celebrates individual freedom, private property, the loathing and ridicule of government tyranny, the glory of the individual human being, and which has the most fun doing so? There are a lot of choices. We think of Hollywood as an anti-American cesspool of liberal lunacy. But once you begin to look around, there's a wealth of pro-freedom entertainment.
THE SIMPLEST STIMULUS
When Democrats and Republicans agree quickly on something, it's usually either a meaningless gesture, or a raid on the federal treasury. The economic stimulus package agreed to by President Bush and congressional leaders will be more beneficial to politicians than it will be to our economy. The deal -- the principal element of which is to give income tax rebates to people who pay little or no federal income tax -- is driven by fear our economy may be going into recession. Since the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, we're not in one yet, and neither the Congressional Budget Office nor the Federal Reserve thinks we'll go into one this year. But the economy is weakening, for two principal reasons.
THE GRAVE SCANDAL OF ISLAMIST INFLUENCE IN THE PENTAGON
A scandal is emerging in the Pentagon that may be the most strategically ominous case of official misconduct since the Clinton administration's China-gate. It began with the firing last month of Stephen Coughlin, a major in the Army Reserves working as a civilian contractor for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he ran afoul of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England's point-man on Moslem community outreach, Hashem Islam. Mr. Islam is an admirer of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization designated by the Justice Department as a front for the Moslem Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslimi).
TIMEOUT FOR STORYTIME
It's time to take a break from the wearisome incessancy of politics and presidential campaigns 24/7. So gather around, boys n' girls, and let me tell you a story about moral debauchery during the greatest age of intellectuality mankind has ever known, about kings and concubines, dukes and adulterers, heroism and war, with an ending that will change the way you look at the most mundane everyday thing.
FINALLY A BIT FASTER AGAINST IRAN AND SYRIA
Lately, we've been doing much better at catching the Iranians, often in tandem with the Syrians, who are giving a lot of support to terrorists in Iraq. Better yet, we are slapping penalties on them, most recently on three terrorist supporters and leaders in Iran and one in Syria, where he runs the al-Zawra television station. Americans are henceforth forbidden to do business with these rogues, and if the USG - Iraq Reconstruction Task Force can get at any of their assets, we'll grab them. That's excellent news, and the announcement is helpfully accompanied by considerable documentation of the terrorists and their supporters singled out by our Treasury Department. Undersecretary Stuart Levey, who has been one of the driving forces behind this program, puts it in a broad context: Iran and Syria are fueling violence and destruction in Iraq. Iran trains, funds, and provides weapons to violent Shia extremist groups, while Syria provides safe haven to Sunni insurgents and financiers. All of which and more clearly shows what I and others have been arguing for a long time: Iran supports al-Qaeda.
RED HERRING SCAPEGOAT?
Topping my personal list of mondo bizarro stories this week was the headline in papers all over the country, Ex-Congressman Charged in Terror Case. The story reveals that:
Former congressman from Michigan Mark Siljander was indicted Wednesday (1/16) as being part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaeda and Taliban supporter. He's accused of lying about lobbying on behalf of an Islamic charity (The Islamic American Relief Agency or IARA) that was accused of sending funds to terrorists... The government accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist..I knew Mark quite well when he was in Congress (1981-86), and know he despised Gulbuddin. Although I haven't seen him in some time, for Mark to be caught in a scam not just with a terrorist fundraising ring, but the terrorist being Gulbuddin, is just off the wall. So one question to ask is: where did the IARA get the $130,000 to send to Gulbuddin? Turns out the Islamic charity got the money from the US government: USAID, the US Agency for International Development.
THE GOP RACE BEFORE SOUTH CAROLINA
I've done perhaps 1700 surveys and focus groups. Generally, I've maintained that published polls affect pundits, insiders, and donors - not voters. But I've been saying for awhile that this year (the way the primaries are clustered and with the hyper-media coverage) would be different, and it is. What happens in each primary is affecting national numbers. And national numbers are affecting what happens in each primary. There is a momentum effect, and people are looking for validation. That's why I have long predicted Rudy's collapse, and how national polling numbers would change, and even when they would change. Yet I find it easier, at this point, to count out winner Huckabee than no-show Rudy. Anything is possible in this volatile environment, including a brokered convention. So here are a few thoughts on where the main candidates are on the eve of the South Carolina primary (1/19), and where I am, and why I continue my view from last year that McCain has the inside track.
SHARIA LAW AND MAFIA RULE IN FRANCE
Last May, French voters elected Mr. Sarkozy as president because he had promised to restore the authority of the Republic over France's 751 no-go areas, the so-called zones urbaines sensibles (ZUS, sensitive urban areas), where 5 million people live - 8 percent of the population, almost all Moslem immigrants or their children. Eight months later, the situation in the ZUS has remained as "sensitive" as before. People get mugged, even murdered, in the ZUS, but the media prefer not to write about it. When large-scale rioting erupts and officers and firemen are attacked, the behavior of the thugs is condoned with references to their "poverty" and to the "racism" of the indigenous French. The French media never devote their attention to the bleak situation of intimidation and lawlessness in which 8 percent of the population, including many poor indigenous French, are forced to live. Moslem racism towards the "infidels" is never mentioned. Xavier Raufer, a former French intelligence officer who heads the department on organized crime and terrorism at the Institute of Criminology of the University of Paris, thinks that bribes from organized crime has a lot to do with the indifference of the French establishment.
WANT A REAL FREE LUNCH FROM THE GOVERNMENT?
Have you ever had a "free lunch?" A "free lunch" means the benefit you receive has no direct or indirect costs and is not a payment for a past act or a future obligation. When Hillary, in her Christmas video, showed all of the "gifts" she was going to give us (e.g., "national health insurance," "kiddy care," etc.), she was promising to saddle us with future tax obligations, which are only "gifts" in Washington political-speak - and certainly not a free lunch for the nation. The administration, members of Congress, and the presidential candidates are in the process of coming out with their "economic stimulus" plans to help avoid a recession or to mitigate the pain if one occurs. Rather than take this opportunity to offer a real "free lunch" by removing government obstacles to a proper functioning economy, some will propose more spending and regulation because they are more interested in power than doing what is best for the citizenry. Wouldn't you prefer to get a real free lunch from the government?