TOPICAL GUIDE TO AMERICAN POLITICS
THE GOP RETURN TO 110-100 TOPICAL GUIDE AMERICAN POLITICS
10/01/07 Alleged GOP "conservatives" cave in and vote with the Democrats on a 5 year $35 billion increase in spending for SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program), which shouldn't even exist in the first place (Read the 10th Amendment.). Apparently the only option left available for the reform of our government will be actual bankruptcy. The national GOP can expect no help from me. JES
09/16/07 It's not hard to explain Alan Greenspan's recent load mouthing against Bush and the Republicans when you consider who crawls into bed with him every night. Its election time, a year early. JES
09/05/07 Fred's in the race: "I'm running for President of the United States of America". Fred has been criticized by some who contend he has waited too long to announce. Actually, the timing is early by historical standards. I would wonder at the timing of the announcements of other candidates, Democrat and Republican; way, way early. All this early activity reflects the depth of polarization of politics today in the United States. You will hear Fred speak much of "security, unity and prosperity" in the months ahead, as he addresses a key concern about the threat to the United States occasioned by international IslamicFacism. He will also take on the difficult task of directly addressing the brick wall of entitlement spending towards which the nation is racing. His calculation is that the ordinary voter is better prepared to consider the problems of terrorism and big government entitlements than the politicians. For more, got to http://www.fred08.com. The Mountain Observer supports this candidacy as representing the best ELECTABLE option for Conservatives in 2008. We shall see. JES
07/25/07 Is Fred Thompson a perfect Conservative? Of course not, as such a creature does not exist. Furthermore, the supposition of such a question is that there is a broad consensus among Conservatives concerning what criteria would define the "perfect Conservative" in the first place, which is in the category of chasing butterflies. So it is that such a complaint concerning Fred Thompson is, shall we say, juvenile. We are living through a period of high political polarization in American history, not conducive to reasoned argument and discourse in the public, or private, square. It is a problem that afflicts both the Left and the Right, however I would dare say that today 90% of the problem is on the Left. Let's work to keep it that way. That is the opinion of the Mountain Observer, and his further opinion, as a Conservative, that today Fred Thompson, who is perhaps 85% Conservative, is the most ELECTABLE Conservative to be had. I would like to see him teamed with Duncan Hunter. JES
06/29/07 Yesterday, in the Senate, the great McCain/ Kennedy/ Bush Amnesty "compromise" plan of 2007 for illegal wetbacks and terrorists of various heritages came to a halt. Finally. Mr. President, now go and enforce the law. Shut down the circus on the border. And I want to see some employers go straight to jail. You have the tools to do this, and have had all along. Now just go do it and quit protecting your corporate, Democrat and RINO friends. JES, American Nationalist Conservative.
06/18/07 At the behest of the President, and likely unknown pressures on the congressional "leadership", the grand scam immigration amnesty package is reappearing for reconsideration by the Senate. The tenacity of this effort to instantly legalize millions of illegals raises the suspicions of the Mountain Observer as to what exactly the pro passage forces may be trying to cover up. We need to take a harder look at the money trail. Aside from struggling house contractors, spinach growers and grass cutters, who is it, really, that has such a huge stake in all the cheap labor? Why is it that the Social Security Administration and the Homeland Security Administration can't, or will not, talk to each other? What is the depth of big corporate America's role in this controversy? The Mountain Observer does not approve of fueling wacko conspiracy theories, however, neither was he born yesterday. Something in this whole matter just does not smell right, or add up. We need to keep digging, wherever it leads, however insisting on verifiable and documentable facts. Selling out the country is a serious matter. JES
06/18/07 Now I understand that Senator Trent Lott considers talk radio to be the problem. Of course he has this exactly backwards: it is the multiple Senator Lotts in the Senate (and the House) who are the problem, And yes, we of the new alternative media, through whom real citizens (the People) can actually speak, will have to deal with that, and in particular, Senator Lott. Frankly, I have never been a fan of Senator Lott, and was not among those who enthusiastically attempted his rescue after the birthday party fiasco. You can look me up on that. JES
06/11/07 Mr. President, enforce the current law, and no amnesty. JES
06/11/07 Regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ,who I, I believe, I have not mentioned since the Harriet Miers fiasco. (The president has always been tempted to offer up Gonzales as a court candidate). I have always regarded the man as a fly weight, and in Washington only as a consequence of old Texas loyalties. I have complained repeatedly from the beginning of the Bush 43 presidency that the biggest problem with George W. Bush has been, and is, that he is a nice guy; not really a qualification for the job of President. A sub-text to this complaint is that Bush has repeatedly allowed personal loyalties to trump competence, and this has cost him, and the country, dearly, on several occasions. So it came to pass that these Presidential habits led to the elevation of Alberto Gonzales to the office of Attorney General of the United States. Predictably, for this observer, it has become apparent to those close to the scene that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is not up to the challenge of his office. Now the President has a problem. The Gonzales tiger has got the President by the tail, and the President can't let go. The liberal (Democrat) establishment, seething with rage against the President, sees the political opportunity to possibly bring the President down by finding any way possible to ditch Gonzales and then demanding a special persecutor as a condition of Congressional approval of Gonzales' successor. The legal outcome of any such persecution, guaranteed to be highly political, is not the priority; tying up the Administration in knots, with the possible added utility of forcing our surrender in Iraq, is the real political objective of this matter. Democrats really don't give a damn about the 8 fired attorneys. They see the perfect opportunity to go straight at the President; to hell with the American national interest in conducting the War against IslamicFascism for which they prescribe defeat anyway. So it is that the President, irrespective of the incompetency of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is forced to stick by his man, and Conservatives just need to stand by and swallow hard. What's best for the country has come to this. JES
06/08/07 Finally, thankfully, the inside brokered deal in Congress over amnesty for illegal immigrants falls apart in the Senate. We have just witnessed Congress at its worst. In the opinion of this observer, passage of this legislative monstrosity would have been fatal to the continued existence of the nation. George W. Bush, you are now on your own. In the course of this process, you have stabbed us, your own base, in the back. This came as no surprise; we have watched this storm approaching for a long time. I do not doubt your honesty and sincerity, and never have. Your recognition of the threat of the international threat against the West after 09/11, and your decision to preemptively target Afghanistan and Iraq as you did were absolutely correct. However, in the execution department you are an absolute bumbler, both foreign and domestic. I am too disgusted at the moment to write the list here now, and in any event I would just be repeating myself anyway. This matter of your ideas about border security and amnesty for illegal aliens however, just pushes everything over the top. General David Petraeus, who is now running the show, carry on. I look forward to your forthcoming report in September. For Iraq, it will be determinative. It is ironic that your boss in the White House, by his own actions and operational decisions, has done as much to undermine the War on IslamicFascism in several ways as all the Democrats and RINOs in Congress, and those Americans who elected them. This observer fears that another 09/11 event, perhaps nuclear, will be necessary to get folk's heads on straight. JES
06/04/07 On what's wrong with the "compromise" immigration proposals currently being debated in Congress, go to http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/misc/index.cfm#research for an examination of the details. JES
05/30/07 Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has had an repeatedly bad habit of throwing his own political base under the bus. (The "where else can they go" theory coming from the political middle.) However, yesterday, on the subject of border and immigration policy, the president crossed a bridge too far. Go to GEO. W. BUSH - IMMIGRATION 05-29-07 He has now become the Texas Democrat I predicted he would shortly after last Falls election. I repeat some of what I said at the time:
11/09/06 If you think that President Bush will protect what is left of the tattered GOP with the veto, think again. In the last six years he has used the veto pen one time, correctly vetoing a measure that would have funded embryonic stem cell research. More to the point, he let pass train loads of bills generated by a so-called Republican Congress that were entirely out of line with Conservative principles. The Mountain Observer has been more than tolerant of both a wartime President and the GOP in the face of outrageous Left Wing political assault. However, that same Left Wing is now in charge of Congress, not necessarily because the American people are now all Deaniacs (Ask Joe Lieberman), but because the President and the GOP betrayed the base that elected them. In the same election that swept Democrats into control of both houses of Congress (frequently by razor thin margins), the same voters in 8 out of 9 states voted to declare that marriage means a man and a woman, and in Michigan that affirmative action has no place in higher education. Political bases really do not like being mis-lead by their political representatives. Now as for President Bush, forget the veto pen. Throwing Donald Rumsfeld under the bus, watch him morph into a Texas Democrat. And watch the GOP tear itself apart between big government Libertarians and small government values voters as the GOP swings Left. Time for an American Conservative Party. As for Democrats and Liberals, this was no victory. They are now faced with the problem of feeding their fish with zero substance. Sand castles on a wet beach. Great comedy if the international security consequences weren't so serious. Oh, yes, and 1.5 million abortions a year. JES
OK, I was wrong about the veto (he has recently forced the hand of Democrats in Congress on the subject of funds for the military in Iraq, thankfully, and hopefully to come on a couple of pending right to life issues). However, on the border, and spending, he has been, and will remain, useless. The GOP split is hard; the issue is much bigger than George W. Bush (Sen. John Kyle R-AZ, among others, are now in much trouble). It is a split between actual Conservatives and the Libertarians who have infested themselves into the party over the last 30 years. It is a split between the heartland and the coastals. It is a split between rural and urban, all of which has been discussed many times previously by the Mountain Observer. As for the President, it is one thing to be principled, and not poll driven. It is another matter to be politically stupid, especially when, as a matter of principle, you are simply wrong and have low approval ratings going in. Mr. President, you chose the wrong hill to die on; you are history. Senator Fred Thompson, where are you? Meanwhile, General David Petraeus, carry on. JES
05/24/07 On immigration: I've said it all before. Go to TOPICAL GUIDE AMERICAN POLITICS IMMIGRATION. Democrats want cheap votes. Republicans want cheap labor. So nothing gets done and the problem festers. It's been this way for decades. Now, driven by security concerns and original problems grown too hot to any longer deguise, politicians are in full panic mode; their primary individual priorities, as they imagine them to be, to head for the tall grass. What has not changed is any real intent to fix the problem, which is to say, enforce current laws. The current proposed legislation is a traveling train wreak, akin to throwing more gasoline on the fire. Under the current highly charged political moment, the best result would be no new legislation at all. Whatever happens, or doesn't happen, at this point, we know one thing for sure: The Republican Party is a bunch of old fools being led around by the nose by Ted Kennedy. Again, here's what needs to happen:
a). Secure the border, which is to say: lock it down with a 2000 mile electric fence or its functional equivalent. Authorize Border Patrol personnel to shoot to kill, with immunity from prosecution, smugglers, "coyotes", drug runners or anyone who looks like they might be, and authorize "hot pursuit" into Mexico if that's what it takes.
b). Put any American employer in jail who hires an illegal immigrant. Period.
Trust me. The swamp will be emptied in a hurry. Then we can sit down and talk about immigration reform. JES
03/28/07 On Dinesh D'Souza. The man has written a lot of good stuff, however in the opinion of the Mountain Observer, he can, on occasion, go off in strange directions. For example, since the 2006 elections, he, along with other east coast based "Conservatives", have shown too much enthusiasm for embracing potential candidates for the 2008 presidential run who themselves are not really Conservative, but who seem eager to mis-represent themselves in this regard. They are typical Republican hacks, not Conservatives. Sorry, Dinesh, but Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are not Conservative. Let us not redefine the word. Now on election day it is quite possible that the best the American people can consider is another Republican hack, but meanwhile, let's not misappropriate the term Conservative. Is it possible that you, yourself, actually fall into this category, along, perhaps, with much of the National Review crowd? Now the most disturbing effort on your part so far has to do with this strange analysis that the American Left is somehow in conscious and direct cahoots with the IslamicFascists of the world against western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy. Surely the Mountain Observer has made very plain that IslamicFascism feeds on Western cultural decay, and that within the West, Conservatives are as much equally at "war" with Secular Materialism as we really are at war with IslamicFascism. But to consider that IslamicFascists and Western Material Secularists, including the American Left, are in common coordinated cahoots against western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy smacks of a conspiracy theory worthy of Howard Dean. The reality of the situation is that these two human subspecies are running off in opposite directions from each other, equally a threat to what's left of western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy and Judeo Christian culture. We are challenged on two fronts, and while certainly there is an "Axis of Evil" aka IslamicFascism, it does not include the Western Left. What we have with the Western Left are secularists so self consumed and marinated in marxism that they long ago simply melted into self hating useful idiots, with the French, as usual, leading the way. So let's not go kooky; leave that to the Left, which these days is supremely practiced in the arts of delusion. Dinesh, perhaps in certain respects I misunderstand what you are trying to say, but my trouble is that I fear not. As for who genuine Conservatives should be pushing for President in 2008, it's early, however, among the electable, I think Fred Thompson may be the right guy. Why aren't national "conservative" figures picking up on this? JES
03/24/07 Again the Chinese are wooing the Russians for Siberian oil. Russian and Chinese foot dragging in the United Nations on really tough trade sanctions against Iran are running up against a wall as Iran's complicity in sabotaging Iraq become more widely exposed. The pieces of the puzzle are as follows: The American "surge" in Iraq is showing signs of results, and in Congress, Democrats are stumbling in their efforts to sabotage the war effort. The renewed credibility of American determination suggests the real possibility of a collision with Iran, not only over the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons ambition, buy also over Iranian hegemonic ambition in Iraq and the entire gulf state region. The United States has pushed very hard in the Security Counsel for some really tough economic sanctions against Iran, and both the Russians and the Chinese have stood in the way. Russia historically has had an interest in trade access to the south, many times frustrated. The Chinese are rather desperate for oil to power their exploding economy; they have very little of their own. While the Mountain Observer is generally skeptical concerning the effectiveness of trade sanctions and boycotts, in this situation with Iran the fact of the matter is that they are very vulnerable to some real damage if a genuine and tough boycott was applied and enforced. Even so, boycotts have a limited lifespan of effectiveness; witness the post Gulf War experience with the boycott against Saddam's Iraq. The appeal to our side (Democrats excluding themselves) to a tough boycott against Iran is that it might have sufficient short term effectiveness to force an internal political correction to the power of the mullahs and the policy ambitions of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against many of his scared neighbors. The Iranian economy today is on shaky legs, and ordinary Iranians are politically very restless. The Mountain Observer remains skeptical that all this diplomatic maneuvering will produce effective results, but at the same time recognizes the political need to run the trapline. And I would suggest that both the Russians and the Chinese recognize that we are closing in on the end of that trapline, even if American Democrats don't. If the Russians and the Chinese don't begin to cooperate more closely with the American efforts to utilize the boycott route, then the United States is really left with no options whatsoever but to confront the Iranians directly militarily, with negative implications both for the supply of Chinese oil and a spectrum of Russian (Putin) national priorities. Thanks to Mitch McConnell, we may yet be able to stall off the desire of Democrats to run and hide under a pillow. JES
03/13/07 On shutting down Liberals, Democrats and the entire Progressive agenda. In addition to an enhanced repeal of the 16th Amendment (Go to Mission Statement), next on the list should be the unqualified repeal of the 1965 Higher Education Act and all subsequent attachments. Watch the rats run for cover. JES
03/12/07 Add ex-Senator, Fred Thompson, R-TN, to the list of Mountain Observer qualified 2008 presidential candidates. An impressive idea I had forgotten about. Go to ELECTIONS 2008. JES
02/21/07 Comments concerning the 2008 Presidential elections. What's wrong with Rudy. Go to 2008, an expanded vision. JES
12/24/06 South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford www.scgovernor.com/ . Go there. JES
12/22/06 A long time ago I suggested that the sleeper Conservative candidate for President might be South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. I think this is the right guy for 2008. His major problem is that nobody knows him, yet. If you consider yourself to be a serious Conservative, and not a GOP toady, do some research and get acquainted. JES
12/03/06 The idea of negotiations with Iran and Syria is absolutely the dumbest idea I can imagine. Anyone who even thinks such a move could be constructive is a mental case in need of immediate institutionalization. All the wrong moves have started; the destruction commenced on 11/07, and will prove to be virtually irreversible. Democrats did not win this election; Republicans, and Americans, lost it. The Mountain Observer will continue in its task of charting the way things ought to be, recognizing the fact that the United States has begun its long decent straight into hell. JES
11/19/06 House Republicans elect a new leadership that does not inspire the confidence of Conservatives. Senate Republicans re-install Trent Lott, R-MS as minority whip. My problem with the Hon. Mr. Lott, nominal conservative, was always his tendency, in the past, of cozying up to Liberals. But they say he knows how to count votes. We shall see. Meanwhile, the new minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY could potentially turn out to be a bright light. JES
11/19/06 The President installs Sen. Mel Martinez, R-FL, author of the infamous Senate Hagel-Martinez immigration amnesty bill which passed the Senate last May by a vote of 62-36, as the new general Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Great news for those who wish to woo Mexican First type Hispanics. Not so good for Conservatives, including American First type Hispanics, intent on the rule of law, the security of our borders and culture and the general integrity, and honor, of the traditional naturalization process. This is a step in the direction of the bust up of the GOP as we know it. JES
11/15/06 In Congress, both houses, I think it would be wise for the moment for the GOP to stand aside and simply let the Dems boil in their own oil. They are already making themselves look foolish; just let it happen. The GOP should confine its efforts, such as it is able to do so, strictly to looking out for the best interests of the country, avoiding even the appearance of partisanship. Dem profession to the contrary, six years of unmitigated hatred of Conservatives, George W. Bush, and white Christian men cannot be shut off like a spigot. Do not respond to it. Absent substance, Dems have nothing else, and will be held accountable by the electorate that supported them. It will not be pretty; just let it happen. JES
11/15/06 Within the orbit of Iraqi politics it has grown increasingly apparent that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the weak link in the chain, and in a sensible world, should be removed. Meanwhile, the so-called Baker- Iraq Study Group, an euphemism for How Best to Surrender Without Telling Anybody Group, emboldened by a voter decision to cut and run, like most committees, flounders around in its attempt to substitute defeat for victory. What none of this motley bunch seems to realize is that we had the jihadists right where we wanted them: over there, not over here. The war in Iraq had been more successful than originally anticipated in drawing IslamicFascists physically to a central point where they could have been dealt with in a terminal fashion. But no, we have inverted victory into defeat, as will become apparent in the years ahead. The likes of Osama bin Laden, and John Francois Kerry, the French looking guy, ex-pretender to the office des le roi des Etats Unis, who also served in Vietnam, seem to have prevailed. Americans, be proud of yourselves. What an absolute mess. JES
11/13/06 "Ordinary Folks", aka "Joe Six pack", aka "Reagan Conservatives" and the economy. Before the recent election the Mountain Observer listened to, and saw, much chin pulling and speculation as to why so many people failed to recognize what a tremendous economic recovery had occurred over the course of the last 5 years. Economic ignorance born of the state of American education, etc, etc? This is no doubt part of the answer, however a deeper examination is called for. Just perhaps "Ordinary Folks" are forced to confront a perspective in their very ordinary lives that the typical, perhaps mildly elitist, commentator of Libertarian apologia does not personally confront and chooses to ignore.
Let's try to look at the matter from the perspective of our "Joe Six pack", and for the sake of discussion, let us stipulate that our guy is fully aware of all the current glowing numbers. Somehow, he suspects there is something missing in the analysis. Those core rate inflation numbers are great, but they do not include food and fuel, which includes how he heats his house. Now as it happens, these are items of great priority to "Joe Six pack", as is the cost of medical care for his kids and his aging parents. To top it off, he senses that however good his current job may be, there is an increasing threat to his job, and/or what he gets paid, from computers and immigrants, legal and illegal. The boss keeps talking about the need to "increase productivity"; translation: "Joe, you may be history". Finally, there is at least a dim awareness that the nation has a balance of payments problem, production is going overseas, fuel is increasingly coming from overseas. He is not likely to understand the intricacies of international finance and the banking system, but there is this lurking suspicion that somehow he is getting ripped off. He might even be aware of the fact that since 1913 the national debt has grown from zero to 6.17 trillion dollars while at the same time the 1913 dollar is now worth 4 cents. He might also be aware of the fact that since passage of the 16th Amendment, politicians and lawyers have stolen both his wallet and much of his freedom, both political parties in collaboration.
Now there is a difference between stupidity and ignorance, and I would suggest to you that to just toss off our Reagan Conservative Joe Six pack as stupid is not only wrong, but an act of political suicide. To begin with, he is instinctually conservative. Secondly, he is decidedly not stupid. As for ignorance, we all own that one, but ignorance can be fixed. I would suggest that it is the task of Conservatives who are serious about the future of conservative principles that it is absolutely necessary to address each of Reagan Conservative Joe Six pack's concerns with substantively solid (not political) answers and a program of action. Time has come to break some dishes. Platitudes and condescension are out; seriousness is called for. The simple fact of the matter is that the GOP is absolutely out to lunch, and Conservatives, in and out of the GOP, need to go to work. There are a lot of Americans looking for some serious leadership, currently the most unfilled job since Ronald Reagan. JES
11/11/06 The results of the election on Tuesday leave Conservatives more free to discuss in public certain matters that have festered below the surface out of principled loyalty to a war time President. To be sure, George W. Bush is still the President, and a war time President at that, and we will be quik to defend him against opposition attempts to suggest otherwise. However, in the current political context, Conservatives no longer need to carry around the baggage of a pending election in defending the corruption of Conservative principles. Its is a fact that we are at war with IslamicFascism, and without knowing it, have been for years. 09/11 was not the beginning, but it woke us (some of us, at least) up. George W. Bush, to his great credit, recognized much of the overall scope of the problem, and responded, when previous Presidents had not. He has correct in identifying Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the Axis of Evil, and his decision to go in after Saddam Hussein was correct. It was in the implementation that mistakes were made.
There are two characteristics of the President's management style that became relevant. First, he is not a detail guy; he is inclined to depend on the organization under him. He turns them loose within the constraints of basic policy direction, and is fiercely loyal to them, and expects that loyalty to be respected in return. Secondly, those on his team, perhaps harboring concerns about certain consequences of policy instruction, including conflicts of substance among elements of the organization as a consequence of the policy instruction, may have sometimes gotten stuck by his inattention to detail. There is a fine line between bringing the boss a bad message and disloyalty, and the President is known to be very sensitive to disloyalty. Aside from personal instincts in this regard, he has been properly sensitive to the great abuse of executive privilege that has occurred in recent years going back to Watergate days, and has been determined to check further erosion. The cancer of leftist subversion within the bureaucracy and the press has not made that easy. So it is that it has not always been easy for true friends to pull the President aside and say "you know, Sir, I think you might be wrong about this or that, and may I suggest another way".
Now of course I am very much the outsider, and this is strictly educated guessing on my part. However right now the GOP needs a new party chairman, and whoever is chosen has be able to stand up and say to the President that, on certain issues, the party may need to disagree with the President if it is realize any chance whatsoever in 2008. The issue of immigration policy comes to mind. Do not expect this to happen. JES
11/11/06 Veterans day, a sobering thought 4 days after voters on Tuesday, confronted with the choice of totally loony Democrat control of Congress, and largely incompetent nominal Republican control of Congress, chose the former. The President is now in the position of making the political choice of swallowing his own cocktail of compassionate conservatism, or recognizing the need to actually become a Conservative. I would predict that he will not only choose the former, but perhaps himself become more openly a defacto democrat. What is at hand is a mis-reading of what actually happened on Tuesday. What happened was that Democrats won by running "conservative " sounding candidates, and Republicans lost swamped by a national and congressional GOP cut loose from its Conservative moorings. Tuesday, excepting those urban islands of knee-jerk Liberalism, too many actually conservative voters jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Now the question is whether the GOP nationally, will continue to move Left, or straighten up and fly Right? Preliminary indications are not encouraging, leaving voters with the accelerating dilemma of facing a choice at the poles of a party of the extreme Left and a "more moderate" party of the left. In an age when the dominate media and academic institutions of the nation are firmly in the control of the extreme Left, real Conservatives have a problem. It is additionally very relevant to recognize that Christianity is loosing its grip, on several levels. But again, what many do not seem to realize is that the Lord cannot be voted out of office, however much some try. JES
11/09/06 What went wrong and how? An early review of election results data suggests 2 things to me that stand out. 1
1. The most damage was done by the defection of Reagan Democrats, not a surprise to this observer.
2. The overall loss, and the difference, was "a mile wide and an inch deep".
That the GOP at headquarters, including the President, claim to have been caught by surprise, in the opinion of this observer, is explained by a major difference in the behavior of the electorate, Left vs. Right. The Left is always complaining loudly about everything to anyone who will listen to anything, and generally with a priority on themselves. In contrast, Conservatives are much more prone to avoid direct public criticism of a wartime President, for the sake of the war effort, the safety of the troops and our own national security interests. So it is that there has been a lot of water piling up behind the dam. For over a couple of years this observer has found himself among those disaffected with the President's handling of the war largely for the softness of the policies and the mission drift away from a proper focus on our own national security and toward an OJ Billyboy internationalist preoccupation UN type approval of everything. I know I am not alone on this point. And my point is not restricted to the war, but domestic issues as well. GOP "insiders" would do well to spend less time pandering to the likes of "Pinch" Sulzberger and more time carefully reading the hundreds of websites like this. You had no excuse to be surprised by these election results. JES
cc: Chairman@gop.com Conservatives: file this address, and use it.
11/09/06 If you think that President Bush will protect what is left of the tattered GOP with the veto, think again. In the last six years he has used the veto pen one time, correctly vetoing a measure that would have funded embryonic stem cell research. More to the point, he let pass train loads of bills generated by a so-called Republican Congress that were entirely out of line with Conservative principles. The Mountain Observer has been more than tolerant of both a wartime President and the GOP in the face of outrageous Left Wing political assault. However, that same Left Wing is now in charge of Congress, not necessarily because the American people are now all Deaniacs (Ask Joe Lieberman), but because the President and the GOP betrayed the base that elected them. In the same election that swept Democrats in to control of both houses of Congress (frequently by razor thin margins), the same voters in 8 out of 9 states voted to declare that marriage means a man and a woman, and in Michigan that affirmative action has no place in higher education. Political bases really do not like being mis-lead by their political representatives. Now as for President Bush, forget the veto pen. Throwing Donald Rumsfeld under the bus, watch him morph into a Texas Democrat. And watch the GOP tear itself apart between big government Libertarians and small government values voters as the GOP swings Left. Time for an American Conservative Party. As for Democrats and Liberals, this was no victory. They are now faced with the problem of feeding their fish with zero substance. Sand castles on a wet beach. Great comedy if the international security consequences weren't so serious. Oh, yes, and 1.5 million abortions a year. JES
11/08/06 History will come to record that yesterday the worldwide IslamicFascist agenda scored a huge victory in its war with the west. Osama bin Laden was right: America cut and ran, Such is the objective reality of the situation, forthcoming denials of reality notwithstanding. The consequences will take decades to repair the damage, if, indeed, that will ever be possible at all.
As for the Democrats, the mob will demand a revolution, and the professional politicians, having overfed the fish, will be unable to deliver. The problem with their rhetoric in opposition is that it has been totally lacking in substance, for years. Socialism does not work, and neither will a policy of "cut and run", however disguised. Terrorists will see it for exactly what it is: retreat and surrender, making inevitable another 09/11 event(s). Today our country is in a world of hurt, and apparently most do not even recognize this. As reality unfolds, expect the Dems to start fighting among themselves in a more public way. The handy target, and excuse, will continue to be George W. Bush, sufficiently so that an alert GOP might be able to capitalize on voter weariness of this overworked point before November 2008. However I would bet against such GOP capability. The party is feckless and as intellectually broken as the Democrats are mentally ill. Among other things, what we have just witnessed is the death of Compassionate Conservatism, a silly idea from the beginning. The party, and George W. Bush, ran away from their own base; betraying us with huge spending, walking away from small government, surrendering on certain social issues, e.g. affirmative action, and failing to take borders seriously be they with Mexico or Iran and Syria. The war in Iraq, never successfully portrayed as at the heart of the worldwide war against IslamicFascism that it certainly is, has been crippled from the beginning with too much pandering to an international audience most of whom are not our friends. The President has allowed his policies to be subverted by Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan, Hu Jintao, Teddy The Swimmer, "Pinch" Sulzberger, Susan Estrogen, and Vicente Fox (This, of course, the short list).
What many do not seem to realize is that the Lord cannot be voted out of office, however much some try. JES
11/05/06 Voters on Tuesday are confronted with the choice of totally loony Democrat control of Congress, or largely incompetent nominal Republican control of Congress. For the sake of the country, the Mountain Observer endorses the choice of a largely incompetent nominal Republican control of Congress; perhaps; incrementally, with the help of the Lord they can be scared straight and we will continue our best efforts from our end to do so. At the same time the Mountain Observer recognizes the possibility that the Lord has His own ideas, above our understanding, of how to address the whole mess. We look to His guidance. Within the limits of our understanding, we will press forward. JES
10/18/06 Republicans are in a lot of trouble, most frequently out of fear of supporting conservative positions, coupled with outright betrayal of Conservatives on a number of issues. Not that Conservatives will vote for Democrats, but will just stay home, which is the functional equivalent, and stupid. It has not helped that, especially in the last year, the President's foreign policy has morphed into a OJ Billyboy look-alike. We seem to be surrendering on the "war on Terror". All this means is that the challenges and burdens confronting us in the future will grow exponentially, at great cost in terms of life and treasure. The American people will have no one to blame but themselves. JES
10/06/06 I am a registered Independent. I left the Republican Party in 1995, disgusted with Republican congressional abandonment of the Contract With America. From that point on it seemed to me that what the Republican Party, too prone to cave to the Left, needed most, was observation and commentary from the Right. It was from this perspective that the Mountain Observer was launched in November 2000. Now this perspective is pertinent to the current political situation, fueled to a flash point by the Foley/Hastert fiasco. I am not a single issue Conservative (see 10/04 below). That includes values and culture, upon which the rest is nested. As for Mark Foley, a very sick man, he is gone from Congress, and may those who love him come to his personal assistance. Revelations of the apparent insincerity of some of the text messaging notwithstanding, Foley resigned, recognizing personal error on his part. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, however, does not appear publicly to recognize his own failure, as House Speaker, in coddling a Congressional institutional climate of inattentive moral turpitude. Perhaps this comes with residence near Chicago, however, in any event, in January, Hastert must go. My wing of the Conservative base (you don't need to be registered Republican to vote for the right people) is fired up by the political subterfuge of Democrats in this, and many other previous matters. We are also fired up by a Republican establishment that cannot take itself seriously. Contrary to the apparent dreams of Democrats, we will not go off and hide in a corner on election day. We are more determined than ever to take over the carcass of the Republican Party, and invite the northeastern country club types to wash dishes. So it is Denny Hastert, that you and those like you are in trouble. As for Democrats, this country is too precious to allow you to put your hands on the levers of government. Go bash gays, and continue to abort your future voters. When Conservatives someday finally get control, Liberals of all types are welcome to leave. God bless America. JES
10/04/06 Truly the silly season is upon us, and Rush gets it wrong. Contrary to what Rush has said in the last day or two, Tony Blankley of the Washington Times did not call for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, but for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert from his speakership position. The presence of Dennis Hastert in the House of Representatives is the proper concern of the voters of his district in Illinois, and no one has suggested otherwise. Again, the Mountain Observer endorses this view.
The House Speaker is responsible for the overall management of how the House conducts business, and for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to now claim that he had limited knowledge of what was going on regarding the Pages and Rep. Mark Foley describes the Speaker either as short sighted, or a dolt, maybe both. Once upon a time there was this thing called HONOR, in which the resignation of the leader of an institution was assumed proper consequent to institutional failure, which is what we have here. I am an economic conservative, a defense conservative, a cultural conservative and a values conservative, which is to say that I am a Conservative. Those of a genuinely Conservative persuasion are fed up with being pandered to for votes every two years, and then being immediately tossed aside the day after election by partial conservatives frequently more accurately described as Libertarians. Now it so happens that the behavior(s) of Mr. Mark Foley are totally unacceptable to much of the "base" we all know is essential to Republican victories, but so to is Jack Abramoff, bridges to nowhere, unnecessary compromises with a fickle Senate and on and on it goes. What is missing is the production of more actually Conservative results, buggering boys not to be included. Since 1994, the House Republicans have gotten very sloppy about themselves.
Now, Mr. Limbaugh, in the opinion of the Mountain Observer you need not fear that Conservatives will stay away from the poles this Fall, a point on which we appear to agree. The key issue before the voters is the War on IslamicFacism and the border. So it is that the best way to re-assure and build on the strength of values is to support them, not run away. The strength on our side is so strong on the security issue, we can well afford to expose our values to the test. This is not a small matter. At the end of the day, without the values, there will be no Conservative accomplishment of any kind. In January, it will be time to elect a new Republican Speaker, preferably not one from the suburbs of Chicago. Why, Rush, are you so afraid of us ? If you agree that the turnout this Fall will be in our favor, than what can possibly be the problem with some intra-party discipline ? If we are both wrong about the outcome of the election, then I also agree with you that the key issue will have been the border.
As for Democrats stoking the pot on matters Foley and Hastert, again we agree; let them overplay their hand and also explain their actions. I believe the voters can sort through all this, apparently better than you do. JES
10/03/06 The Mountain Observer endorses the call by the Washington Times for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert from his speakership position. His dissembling over the events surrounding the Mark Foley affair, in the opinion of the Mountain Observer, are only the most recent of a series of matters that do not describe a serious leader, and certainly never one to be mistaken as a Conservative. Later. JES
05/25/06 So it is that the Republican Party has finally come the Great Divide, the Divide, that is, between its two fundamental constituencies: business oriented libertarians, and social / culturally oriented conservatives. The Mountain Observer has, for years, identified with both, but at points of conflict deferring to the social / culturally oriented conservative analysis as to what constitutes true Conservatism. I have loudly objected to libertarian attempts (too frequently successful) to highjack the conservative label for their own "free market" agenda. Mountain Observer letters are littered with this discussion, and a quik summary can be had by going to POLITICS 101 . What is the point? The point is the very real and practical disagreement among Republicans in the Senate over how to handle the various issues poised by current immigration / illegal immigration laws, policies and defacto activities. The most acute point of separation has to do with the issue of "amnesty", what is and isn't "amnesty" and, in any event, what to do about millions of illegals ("wetbacks") running around loose. The Mainstream Liberal Press, which has a politically vested interest in adding obfuscation on top of obfuscation, is not much help to the "ordinary" citizen trying to understand the subtleties of the discussion. However "ordinary" Americans have two things in their corner: The internet and common sense. As I have pointed out recently elsewhere on the same subject, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck". So it is with "amnesty", and an overwhelming percentage of the American people will never buy what Republican Senators, President Bush, Nebraska meat packing interests and California tulip pluckers are trying to push upon us. JES
05/25/06 The truth is that many Conservatives have been nervous about George W. Bush from the beginning, including the Mountain Observer, as a review of the very first M O letter will document. Throughout this presidency we have been on a rollercoaster ride; at our heights with the President's general response to terrorism after 09/11, and support of our national defense establishment, and at our lowest on issues relating to spending and the growth of government. Lurking in the background has always been the irritant of the President's dismissive attitude toward Mexican border issues, and his relationship with Vicente Fox. For reasons of national security, most Conservatives have often held their fire, not wishing to subvert the matter of national defense and the "War on Terror" by inadvertently giving aid and comfort to Liberal Democrats. However, the discussion has always been running in the background, subtly understood by those with a well developed Conservative nose. Most of us were inclined to hold our noses, at least through the 2006 elections, but now it is too late. The border issue has blown up in the context of various other serious mis-steps by the President, and the GOP in general. The implications for the 2006 elections are serious, although the impact is not obvious. However, events on the ground have forced a rapid rearrangement of priorities for Conservatives, and George W. Bush and the GOP are in a lot of trouble. The disconnect between Washington DC and the Heartland has never been wider in recent years, and the fundamental problem is that George W. Bush is no Ronald Reagan. The Conservative movement is clearly leaderless, the GOP is clueless, and Democrats are just plain nuts and a danger to the Republic. 2006 is going to be a very rough year; the cat's out of the bag. JES
12/17/05 A lot of fellow Conservatives seem to be piling on the band wagon for Senator George Allen R-VA for President in 2008. I do not share their enthusiasm; I have been watching this develop for some time now, and something here seems to be missing. I can't quite put my finger on it. There is more to this job than playing football. I would like to know more about Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina. We shall see. JES
09/09/05 Yesterday, as Democrats, the Press and Travis County Persecutor Ronnie Earle continue to chase after Tom Delay, former National Security Advisor, (to OJ Billyboy) Samuel R. Burglar was fined $50,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson, in addition to other penalties and loss of clearance for 3 years. This, of course, for routinely squirreling away classified documents in his pants and socks, apparently for review in anticipation of the need to defend his ex-boss. Watch for possible developing connections to issues being raised in the Able Danger affair before Congress. JES
09/06/05 Perhaps this hurricane Katrina deserves it’s own webpage. Myself, caught in the middle of serious technical difficulties with this website, find maintenance of this situation difficult. Let’s see: we will call the new page KATRINA, RITA and the WELFARE STATE. Go there for updates and analysis. JES
08/29/05 Hurricane Katrina rips into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. There will be people hurting. JES
06/03/05 So "Deep Throat" was W. Mark Felt, one time 2nd in command of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. A lot of folks at high levels were playing fast and loose with the law, including W. Mark Felt. Aroused by indignation about certain goings on within the Nixon Whitehouse, a top law enforcement officer could have imagined a more proper, and legal, way to proceed than as he did. I was never a fan of Richard Nixon, who was not a Conservative, with a list of complaints familiar to Conservatives, however, as an American, I think one must give Richard Nixon credit for one thing: his role in the successful prosecution of Alger Hiss. This, of course, was the primary basis for the hatred bestowed upon him by the Liberal Establishment, forever distorting the history of the times. The litmus test of Alger Hiss to this day is a marker in the divide between the American Left and the American Right. I point out this fact, not as a defense of Nixon's Watergate related activities, but as a suggestion of the need for context in understanding a complex period in our history. I also remember well the genuine fear most Washington politicians had acquired of J. Edgar Hoover, who had been in his post as head of the FBI for so long that he seemed to "have the goods" on everybody, and believed to be willing to act on such information in an arbitrary way. It is not unreasonable to surmise that W. Mark Felt's actions were a product of revenge against an Administration that had consciously named a new head of the FBI from outside the organization to replace Hoover, and not Mr. Felt. It would now seem that Nixon deserves credit for his judgment on this matter too.
It is necessary to make one other point about Richard Nixon. It has to do with the way he finally stepped down. "I must put the interests of America first", not bad for a president otherwise headed for impeachment, to be compared with behavior in a more recent case of actual impeachment. But times are changing; how often today do we hear of honorable resignations? In an age of moral relativism, you see. it is always somebody else's fault. JES
06/03/05 The Senate continues to flail around under the mismanagement of Republicans and the intellectual and moral corruption of Liberals. Congress as a whole is a broken institution, responsibility falling back to the voters themselves who nearly always deserve what they vote for. Argued elsewhere on this website, many times, the long history of charter drift by US courts is traceable back to Congressional management failure. As also with issues of fiscal irresponsibility, the people's representatives are failing their Constitutional responsibilities as the polis collapses gradually into havoc. The healing must start at the bottom. In America, it can. JES
05/13/05 Newt Gingrich is rapidly finding his own way to the bottom of the dung heap with his waltz with Hillary. It is absolutely amazing how personal ego can warp personal judgment. Sorry Newt; forget 2008, or national elected office for anything ever again. Our assessment of you in 1996 was correct. JES
05/11/05 The Mountain Observer needs to extend recognition of the fact that of all the radio talk show hosts out there, (and the Mountain Observer is able to, and does, monitor dozens) Rush Limbaugh remains the most effective, articulate and intellectually collected one on the air, compared to anyone else. This is not to say he is always articulate and intellectually collected; it is to say that within the genre, he is the best. I make this point because his communicative skills may very well make the difference in a battle being played out in the Senate. This week, Rush is spending a lot of time not talking to you and me, but directly to a handful of Senators much in need of being out-gassed of personal ego.
This week, in the Senate, the political tensions of the not-so-submerged American Civil War II are focused like a laser on the matter of the "Constitutional option" (as Conservatives see it), or "nuclear option" (as Liberals see and report it). At issue, to cut to the chase, and given the political balance in the Senate between those of Conservative vs. Liberal inclination, is the issue of whether or not to allow the full Senate an opportunity to vote up or down on the President's nominees for federal judges. The outcome of this fracas is likely to have consequences in the balance of political power in Washington DC for years to come, which is the cause of the contentiousness. Both sides are heavily invested. JES
05/11/05 The fate of John Bolton stands as a primary test of wills in the same conflict. There is much at stake. JES
04/29/05 The House of Representatives revives some rules for the Ethics Committee, calling on Democrats to lay their cards on the table concerning Tom DeLay. DeLay welcomes this action, to clear his name. Perhaps Democrats have mis-calculated, assuming they could continue to use this issue to belabor DeLay. The mis-calculation here, by Democrats, however, is that they have now opened the door into their own faces, and Republicans, sick and tired of all the faux political posturing, can now be expected to use the revived rules to go after a long list of Democrats who have real problems. It is good for a change, to see the GOP stop trying to be good guys and to begin to fight back; long overdue. Let's hope they follow through and chase down the Democrat hypocrisy, just in time for 2006. Democrats can now fear what they said they wished for. JES
04/25/05 On the subject of Social Security reform, in addition to the aforementioned problem with RINO's (04/20/05 below), the fact of the matter is that the President has this bad habit of coming out of the gate strong, on any issue, only to concede and fall back prematurely. As a consequence, political supporters, willing to risk their own political capital, find themselves chopped off at the knees. All of this combines to produce a mentality of defeatism among a majority with absurd non-results. So it is that the President may have fatally undercut his own efforts when he equivocated ("everything's on the table") on the issue of raising the payroll tax cap above $90,000. Aside from the fact that he initially said specifically that this detail was not an issue "on the table", to now equivocate on the matter is to raise the specter of his father's famous pledge about not raising taxes, and then allowing it to happen. Yes, Mr. President, a tax increase is a tax increase, just as amnesty is amnesty, and 2 plus 2 is 4. Neither your friends, or enemies, are fooled by any of this. JES
04/20/05 At this point it appears that the President's efforts to sell his Social Security reform package has run into some strong headwinds. Predictably, it is the Republican RINO's, mainly in the Senate, who are proving unhelpful, not out of principle, but rather out of the usual absence of political courage and leadership. As has been the case all along in his foreign policy leadership in Europe and the Middle East, the President's basic proposals in behalf of saving Social Security from itself have been absolutely correct, particularly with respect to the privatization options for younger workers. Absent these reforms, the Social Security system, and perhaps the Republic itself, are headed directly at a brick wall at high speed. As for Medicare and Medicaid, largely "free" federal dollars in hands of state politicians, it may be already too late. Mr. President, carry on, we applaud your necessary courage. It has been referred to before as the loneliness of command. JES
04/06/05 Mr. President George W. Bush it is necessary to be very clear with you and the Republican Party about the specific issue of our border with Mexico. Mr. President, your recent words directed at the Jerry Seper's Minuteman Project volunteers describing them as "vigilante's" are understood by the Mountain Observer as a gratuitous slap in the face, not only directed at these properly patriotic Real Americans, but at all of us, including the Mountain Observer, who are responsible for putting you in office in the first place. It appears that in your view your personal friendship with Vicente Fox trumps your responsibilities as President to protect our national borders from hostel foreign insurrectionary forces, and to observe and enforce our own immigration and naturalization law. What the hell is wrong with you? I am a registered Independent, have been since 1995 when the GOP crapped out on its own "Contract with America", and this is but one example of why that is so.
I am not an enemy of Mexico, or the Mexican people. I want to see a prosperous, healthy and self sufficient Mexico, but that is a condition for the Mexican's themselves to accomplish. All the American kiss-ass, whether through NAFTA, or simple accommodation of cheap labor illegal immigration, is exactly the same, and with the same effects, as our own domestic welfare programs. All you are doing is enabling the growth of an international dependency that is corrosive to ourselves, and to the Mexicans. However, even more seriously, you are undermining our own national security by failing to control our own borders, and defaulting to an assumption of good will on the part of those, including your good "friend" Vicente Fox, who are clearly engaged in insurrectionary acts and policies against our border states, and who harbor designs against us. These are documentable facts. The next terrorist attack on this country traceable to our borders, north or south, will be the end of the GOP, to be shoveled onto the ash heap of history along with modern Democrats, and the sun will begin to emerge on a new political day in America.
Those in Congress who do not stop you in your tracks on your amnesty proposals, or who fail to insist on correction of your lackadaisical support of our beleaguered border forces, and even current American law, will all be in trouble with the Mountain Observer in 2006. In 2008, Jeb Bush is off the table, and, perhaps Tom Tancredo is on. JES
03/24/05 Congress, and successive Administrations, continue to wish away the problems surrounding the flight of manufacturing to overseas economies, often hostile toward our own interests. Often stated in these letters, much of it has to do with wrongheaded tax policy, unnecessary regulatory interference, and Federal spending programs run amok. Looking to the Federal Reserve and Alan Greenspan to fix with monetary maneuvers, what is, in fact, a basically fiscal (over spending) problem is rapidly wearing out as a political explanation for our balance of payments problem. An integrated and comprehensive analysis of all these issues is long overdue, as is hard corrective action. Actual risk taking leadership on these matters is in short supply. Talk is cheap, and the GOP needs to wake up. JES
03/12/05 Part of the reason lifetime New Yorkers don't understand Conservatives or the GOP of the red state variety is that they have as a model a governor by the name of George Pataki, a complete political chameleon. When the folks in Massachusetts vote for Ted Kennedy, The Swimmer and Senate expert on water-boarding, D-MA, at least there is no confusion, or pretension, about the choice. In case you haven't noticed, George W. Bush is from Texas, and Zell Miller is from Georgia. Nor is it a coincidence that the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads no longer exist; the remaining rails in the northeast are now owned by southern based carriers CSX and NS (Norfolk Southern). JES
MO 05 01 The President directs the nomination of Ken Mehlman as the new Chair of the RNC. Ken Mehlman comes across to me as a real street fighter, and friendly to the the Republican conservative base. He will be the first RNC Chairman under Bush 43 that I feel good about going in. We shall see. Meanwhile, fellow Conservatives, do not get too alarmed by the nomination of Jo Ann Davidson of Ohio as co-Chairman. It is a political payoff. There are several legitimate hard headed political reasons why this should be a good move, including the fact that Ohio must continue to be regarded as a swing state going into 2008. Davidson's efforts in 2004 were so important, that she might have made the difference, while her personal position on "choice" helps in the Northeast to inoculate the GOP from any charge of "extremism" such as the Democrats have fallen for on the opposite side. I know this drives you nuts, as it does me, but I don't think she is any Christie Todd Whitless, and it is not her function to make, or even propose, policy. Ken Mehlman is in charge, and it is his job to raise money and organize the base. JES
MO 05 01 We have more to be concerned about with the Chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee of Arlen Specter. The Mountain Observer considers him to be a snake in the grass. What we need in the federal court system is a lot less stare decisis (the Arlen Specter principle that precedent decisions are to be followed by the courts), and a lot more stare reversal (the Sohmer principle that a lot of unconstitutional mistakes need to be fixed). JES
MO 05 01 As I predicted before it happened, on November 2, 2004, 12 years late, the American Heartland really began to wake up. It still has a way to go.
11/30/04 Having accomplished election results generally favorable to the political right, a word of caution is advised. For starters, be advised that these days there are a lot of people running around claiming conservative credentials who are really more opportunistic than seriously consistent. It was disturbing to me a couple of days ago, listening to an also ran "conservative" talk show host who seems to have frequent serious bouts of PMS, rant on about the immigration issue and stumbling into an almost racist reaction to the President's nomination of Carlos Gutierrez as Secretary of Commerce. His complaint was incoherent. Now this web site has loudly complained about the President's posture on border issues, immigration, and political correctness; I need not repeat it all here. However, what this web site has never done, and will never do, is to fail to welcome to our shores genuine victims of statist regimes who come to us in peace, prepared to become productive American citizens. Few people fill the bill as does Carlos Gutierrez. As for his qualifications for the job, his tenure with Kellogg's is pretty impressive. Did he close a plant? Yes, and probably saved the company, and a lot of American jobs as a result. Does this talk show host know who I am talking about? I'm sure he does, and my advice to him is that he needs to stop acting like a woman from Brooklyn and cool his jets. We have a hard struggle ahead of us in developing sound immigration and border control law and policies; conservatives do not need to shoulder the burden of improper and incorrect accusations of racism. Carlos Gutierrez, welcome to America from a very Conservative American. JES
11/20/04 Post election, it is time to speak to an issue that I have not addressed, in any detail, in a long time. I refer to the matter of Left Wing fascism. I refer you back to my 11/20/00 letter, embedded in the Mission Statement of this web site, in which I alluded to the "handshake" on the back side of the Left-Right spectrum, which is really a circle, with communists and fascists joining hands in a common defense of socialist Statism, albeit in different formats. ( Also visit Old Mountain Observer Letter LFMOWEB 103 LETTER 01-02 ). The far left wing (communist) model organizes an economy on the basis of central planning and control of state owned enterprises; private ownership disallowed. The far right wing (fascist) model organizes an economy on the basis of central planning and control of state regulated private corporate enterprises; i.e. socialism on the cheap (using other peoples money). It has been my contention for the years that following the collapse of the USSR, left wing Liberal Statists (upon close examination, communists), having recognized the failure of their socialist communist model, switched horses to the fascist economic format. Go re-read the Mission Statement, if you have not already done so.
Stop and consider the words and actions of the far left of the American Democrat Party over this past year. Go analyze the political registration and campaign contribution patterns of many large "multinational" American corporations and their top management, and go analyze the social causes they support. The penetration of Statist fascist thought into elite leadership, both Democrat and Republican, of this country may be stunning only to those who have not watched this happen.
I am not proposing any grand conspiracies. I am proposing an avenue of analysis important to understanding the direction in which we have been headed, which I believe is Statism, at the expense of American republican democracy. To me it is clear that the primary thrust is from a Statist Left, bitter and angry at their continued loss of power to Conservatives on the Right who continue to gain political ground in their defense of traditional American values and republican democracy. As the Democrat Party continues it's slide into the quicksand, the Republican Party moves left, soaking up the vacuum, and opening up a discussion within itself between corporate liberals and traditional conservatives.
As an example, follow the discussion within the Republican Party between those who will accommodate cheap and illegal immigration, and those who insist on reform and a fence. The fault lines of this conflict follow other crevasses as well, which I will attempt to flag as we move forward. This web site will continue to follow the discussion, which at a core level may be the most important to understand, much the rest being symptoms. In spite of current conventional wisdom, Left-Right analysis will continue to be important.
The most encouraging news in this struggle was the defeat, in this last election, of the Old Media. Clearly, the rise of the internet as a tool of communication and education is a major technical achievement in behalf of the First Amendment. The battle against the Statist Leviathan has only begun; it is the prediction of the Mountain Observer that much turmoil lays ahead, but in America, anything is possible.
To further develop your understanding of the truly Statist mindset of the contemporary American Left, I direct your attention to 2 different books by David Horowitz; see Current Reading Recommendations, below. JES
11/03/04 This morning we face a sense of relief for our country, and the recognition of the fact that we ducked a bullet. What has happened here demands reflection. I recall in 1992 the genuine shock I found myself in to discover that the nation had actually selected an obvious left wing scam artist and his communist wife over a decent, if somewhat out-of-touch, centrist. The eight years that followed were clearly disastrous in many ways, with, perhaps, a single exception. This exception was an accelerated extension of an awakening on the part of many Americans of the destruction to our society that had occurred over the preceding decades of socialist statism. The consequences of domestic collectivism and intellectual relativism were brought into sharp relief with traditional and fundamental American culture and values. A broad and popular process of self examination has ensued, and many corrective initiatives have been launched, but the task ahead of us is massive. One does not stop a run-a-way coal train on a dime. While we have good reason to celebrate the outcome of this election, we also have every reason to reflect on the domestic forces of subversion that struggled for American defeat. Unlike many, I do not hesitate to apply the terms treason or unpatriotic when they clearly apply.
President George W. Bush is to be congratulated. Like most conservatives, I have a list of serious criticisms of some of the President’s actions, especially on the domestic front. Now, among conservatives, we can re-engage in a discussion about mistakes made and initiatives to be pursued. The political retail imperatives of the 4th year in office are always hell on those of us yearning to think and speak freely.
The President has made some mistakes that may, or may not, have been responsible for a close call. It should now be clear to everyone that “compassionate conservatism” has its limits, when what has been needed all along is a harder emphasis on really tough love. What he has done so far, to his everlasting credit, is to have returned personal honesty and integrity to the Oval Office, and much of what he has done, or attempted, was correctly aimed, including tax cuts and a correct re-ordering of our foreign policy.
The War on Terror was correctly conceived, and if there was an error concerning Iraq, after 12 years of equivocation, it was to move too slowly, although I understand the logistical difficulties inherited from 8 years of willful neglect by the previous Administration. In the opinion of the Mountain Observer, our actions in Iraq were not only correct, but in fact should have happened even if we knew then what we don’t know now about Iraqi WMD, and even if the September 11th 2001 attacks had not occurred at all. The reasonable objection to my point is that the American people would clearly have been unwilling to support such a position, and that it would not be consistently conservative to have proceeded in the face of such objection. It is in this context of what I believe should have happened, in the hypothetical, and what has happened, in fact, juxtaposed against a now documented endorsement by the electorate, that the absurdity of the Left’s apparent analogy with Vietnam is exposed. While even many conservatives may differ on the point, the case can be made that our direct national interests in Vietnam were tenuous and marginal, whereas our direct national interests concerning the unfolding threats of Islamic Fascism are a clear and present danger, and would only be further encouraged by pacific response. While the President correctly identified a three part Axis of Evil, including North Korea, a second tier of mischief should also included Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, each with its own particular profile. However, accepting the premise of these realities, what should be the conservative response now be? Most of us will find it unsatisfactory to just stand by. We need to follow through on the original pre-emptive logic.
This President, not entirely conservative himself, has been pushing in the right direction on many issues. Differences among conservatives are largely over strategy, not goals, certain paleo-conservatives not withstanding. If we have a problem it is because conservatives are not generally driven by polls, but by principle, which is as it ought to be, and which will be increasingly understood by future electorates. I think we should begin again by recognizing what we are up against, which, just for starters, includes, not only RINOs*, but over 200 years of existentialist perversion in one form or another. Conservatives, by nature, are not activists. We tend to prefer to be left alone and to go about our own daily business, which is to say that we are poor at keeping track of what others, not so inclined, intend for us on their own behalf. So it is that producers find themselves funding slackers and the faithful find themselves shoved aside by those who imagine themselves to be God. It is impossible to engage in any constructive dialog with those who are dishonest with themselves, including the French.
The race for the next Presidential contest begins today. I believe the challenge will be greater than what we have just witnessed. The American seed will survive; I have that faith, however I am sufficiently grounded in reality to recognize that America may, at some point, be submerged by history until a future generation wakes up, and I may not live that long. The primary function of this website will continue to be to address that future generation, for there is no error that has occurred that cannot be corrected by a generation determined to do so. Russell Kirk, Bill Buckley, Ronald Reagan and many others have given us a pretty good kick start. Above all, let us never forget that there is a greater Authority looking out over all of this. The Lord instructs us to do our best, and He will take it from there. Conservatives have another enormous asset: the truth is on our side.
God Bless America. JES.
*RINO Republican In Name Only, AKA “Northeastern” or “Coastal” types.
11/03/04 Presumably, this morning, Pat Buchanan is disappointed. The Greek money wasn’t enough. Pat reflects a political strand of thinking once thought dead on December 7th, 1941 when Jap Zeros launched from aircraft carriers should have put to rest the notion that we were safe behind two oceans. Although I think that there is an additional component to Pat’s thinking, I will be kind, for the moment, and leave him alone to commiserate with Michael Moore. The fundamental flaw with Pat’s entire position is the premise that the electorate has always preferred to run and hide under the rubric of non-intervention. No, Americans have always been nationalist, carefully gauging our foreign policy to our capacity to act in our own national security interests. Which is also a reason why John Kerry lost this election. We do not need foreign instruction and approval on the right to defend ourselves. JES
11/03/04 As it now turns out, the election is all over, and George W. Bush has won Re-election as Ohio is conceded to Bush, coupled with a Bush win in Nevada. New Mexico and Iowa are still open, but neither can effect the outcome either way at this point.
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According to Fox News, as this is written, the President has won Ohio and is one electoral vote short of election. I anticipate that the honor will go to New Mexico. George W. Bush has been through 4 years of hell. Agree or disagree with everything he has done or not done, you have to respect this man. In the tumult to continue, the Mountain Observer salutes the dignity and respect he has returned to the Oval Office. I recognize that the Democrats, according to longstanding custom, will do whatever they can to subvert the democratic process with trial attorneys and judges.
To be sure, there has frequently been confusion on the American scene about the identity of Conservatism in America. The Founding was framed on revolutionary ideas concerning the relationship of an individual with government, while at the same time claiming the lessons and experience of British, Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage as the foundation of the framework. So it is that American Conservatives find themselves defending a revolution founded on conservative wisdom. It has been recently suggested that "Paleo" conservatism was initiated as a reaction to Liberalism. Perhaps so, but then I would suggest we are not talking about Conservatism at all. Conservatism is the wisdom of the ages, which includes the matter of self defense. The Paleo author of this concept of "recent invention" correctly links himself to the 1930's "America First" reaction to the initiatives of the Wilson Administration. The writer's observation, perhaps inadvertently, also correctly links "paleo" concept of "reaction" with 20th Century "run and hide from modern reality" thinking, the mother of the League of Nations, ignoring the consequences in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hawaii. None of this, in my view, is correctly Conservative. Conservatism is not an ideology, but an analytical process that accepts human nature as it is, has been through the ages, and documents the development of real world insight and experience. When people drop bombs on you, as in 1941, or fly planes into buildings, as in 2001, you react. Yes, in the last century this has certainly included a "reaction to Liberalism", but that is certainly not where it started. History did not start in 1914, or 1898. I prefer to reach back at least to Abraham (not Lincoln), perhaps not far enough. So-called Paleo Conservatives need to re-examine their self consumption with the "evils" of Empire, Preemption, the Neo-Conservatives and the USA and reconsider their own history and priorities. Genuine American Conservatism includes an examination of the totality of history, which includes empire and preemption, and only lately "neo-conservatives" and "paleo-conservatives", among much more, and also French and domestic American deceit.
The Paleo template of American history, that the founding fathers prescribed non-intervention as an ongoing fundamental policy, endorsed by future waves of the electorate, is just plane poppycock. George Washington and Jefferson advised caution and circumspection in the context of the weak and fragile condition of the new Republic. Subsequently, our history, beginning with Jefferson taking out after the Barbary pirates, and the Louisiana Purchase, was positive within the context of our ability to project. Ask any Siberian American his opinion about American inclinations about "empire". No Pat, you've got it wrong. The American electorate has not always been permanently disposed toward isolation or non-intervention; it has always been disposed toward American Nationalism, occasionally calling for circumspection, and occasionally recognizing either opportunity or the need to defend itself. In the current context, I'm about fed up with knee-jerk blaming of the USA and Israel for all the faults in the world, and so, apparently, is most of this electorate. from the election results that have unfolded before us,
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