The Presidency 2008 – the Weekly Betting Line

Democrat Primary Winner:

Hillary – 9-5

Awful, stupid response to the Geffen thing. Where’s Bill? She needs a new campaign manager.

Barack – 10-1

High charisma – got the Hollywood crowd going on – needs to stand for something fast.

Edwards – 500-1

He is nearly done.

Richardson – 1,000-1

NOTHING going on.

Republican Primary Winner:

Giuliani – 2-5

True leader – great speaker – forget the social conservative issues – he is the MAN

McCain – 50-1

What is he DOING? Schwarzenegger in CA? Criticizing Rummy? Berating Cheney? Good Lord, John - there is no one in the center.  STOP!!!

Gingrich – 15-1

Still hanging around the lamp post – waiting to see who stumbles and falls – smart guy.

Mitt – 500-1

Mitt – give it up.

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year Six: 1998

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today. With an overwhelming disregard for the role of the military and the national security of our country, here is what he does this year:

January 26: President Clinton declares publicly, regarding Lewinsky, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

February 23: Bin Laden issues a joint declaration with the Egyptian Islamic group Al Jihad, the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh, and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan under the banner of the “World Islamic Front”, which states that Muslims should kill Americans, including civilians – anywhere in the world. No response from the US.

April 16: The US ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson – and a Democrat candidate for the Presidency – visits Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, he asks the Northern Alliance resistance to stop its successful offensive against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies. He asks the Taliban to turn over bin-Laden. They ignore him. He then calls for an end of military supplies to all warring factions and calls for a religious clergy conference to discuss peace. The Northern Alliance believes him an honors the arms embargo. Pakistan however, steps up arms supplies to the Taliban and sends in military enforcements form the army and religious schools. Within a few months, the Taliban and al-Qaeda regain a military advantage and with support form Pakistani air power, capture most of the Northern Alliance areas of resistance. Nice call Bill, we can hardly wait or you to sit in the big chair. The US does nothing.

June 8: A US grand jury investigation of bin Laden initiated in 1996 issues an indictment charging bin Laden with “conspiracy to attack defense utilities of the US and that he heads a terrorist organization called al-Qaeda and is a major financier of terrorists around the world”. No sh*t.

August 6: Monica Lewinsky testifies under immunity to a grand jury.

August 7: US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are bombed simultaneously killing 224 and injuring more than 5,000 – Osama bin Laden takes credit for the attacks. No US response.

August 17: President Clinton undergoes four hours of grand jury questioning. Afterward, he says, “I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate.”

August 20: President Clinton orders synchronized air strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan. In Sudan, the US strikes a pharmaceutical plant suspected of being a chemical weapons factory. In Afghanistan cruise missiles strike camps used by OBL terrorist organizations. Hardly anyone was at the pharmaceutical factory which did not contain chemical weapons, and no one was at the OBL camps.

September 9: Kenneth Starr tells House leaders that he has found substantial and credible information that may constitute grounds for impeachment.

September 15: Following the Taliban and al-Qaeda capture of Bamiyan, the Hazara stronghold in central Afghanistan, massive atrocities are committed against the civilian population. On Afghanistan’s western border, Iran masses 200,000 troops in response to the Taliban’s northern offensive which is backed by Pakistan. No US response.

September 21: The New York Times reports that in August, a small group of presidential advisors met with Clinton reportedly with evidence that bin Laden wished to obtain weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons to use against US installations. No US response.

September 23: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1199 demanding a cessation of hostilities in Kosovo and warning that additional measures to restore peace will be considered. Wow.

November 13: President Clinton agrees to pay Paula Jones $850,000 to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit.

December 11: The House Judiciary Committee approves four articles of impeachment against President Clinton which involve perjury and obstruction of justice in the Jones case.

December 19: President Clinton is impeached; the House approves two articles of impeachment.

December 20: Polls show that President Clinton’s approval ratings are higher than ever.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. Bin Laden’s original strategy was to attack a middle-eastern country (like Egypt) with an outcome like that in Iran after the Shah got thrown out, but after watching the US fail to respond for six years in a row, he has decided to attack the US instead on 9/11. Wait until next week for 1999.

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year Five: 1997

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today. With an overwhelming disregard for the role of the military and the national security of our country, here is what he does this year:

February 23: A Palestinian gunman opens fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in NYC killing one and wounding six others before he kills himself – this to avenge sins of the enemies of Palestine.

March 13: President Clinton utilizes US military forces to evacuate certain US government employees and private American citizens form Albania.

March 25: US military forces deploy to Congo and Gabon for a standby evac of Americans from Zaire.

May 15: President Clinton issues the secret Presidential Decision Directive 56 (PDD-56) which guides the policy for PDD-25 on the US role in international peacekeeping operations. A controversial feature of the directive is that UN-associated NGOs are given a voice in the field through the creation of a “Civilian-Military Operations Center.” The directive also urges the inclusion of the NGOs in the planning and policy-making circles in Washington. AMAZING.

May 16: A classified report form the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA) concludes that Loral and Hughes have transferred expertise to China that significantly enhances the reliability of their nuclear ICBMs and that the US national security has been harmed in a significant way. Can you imagine what happens when the Iranians and the Chinese partner up?

May 29: President Clinton orders US military forces deployed to Freetown, Sierra Leone to evac certain US government employees and private US citizens. The US military has become our bus drivers, but then again, how would Bill Clinton know what to do with them?

September 9: The Department of Justice begins a criminal investigation into allegations that Loral and Hughes illegally passed technical assistance to China.

September 10: With the Middle East peace process stalled for more than a year, SecState Madeleine Albright makes her first official trip to the Middle East.

September 26: After returning form the Middle East and accomplishing nothing, SecState Albright signs three agreements related to the ABM Treaty at the UN. Deeply criticized by military experts as a severe threat to our national security, the agreement re-imposes restrictions found in the defunct 1972 ABM treaty between the US and the USSR on a national missile defense system. Why?

November 1: President Clinton issues PDD-60 which formally abandons guidelines issued by the Reagan administration in 1981 that prepared the US for fighting and winning a protracted nuclear war.

December 5: President Clinton issues a “presidential determination” waiving provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to authorize the re-opening of the PLO office in Washington, DC>

December 19: Monica Lewinsky is issued a subpoena to appear at a deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.

What a year, Bill! You continued to threaten and weaken our national security, while using the military as a peacekeeping police and rescue force. Good luck with that Paula Jones thing.

Next Week - 1998

I realize that I am preaching to the choir here, but if there is somebody out there who actually knows someone in the left-wing media in a position to publish this, then please do it.  This kid runs the air traffic control tower in Baghdad.  Amazing perspective.  If the left-wing media never publishes pieces like this one, then it is no suprise that we see only one awful side to this story.  It is clear that the left-wing media is purposely managing a propaganda war to embarass Bush and convince those twelve stupid-a*s Republicans to vote for this disgraceful resolution tomorrow.  Unbelievable.

E-Mail from Tazz, Airman in Iraq to Rush Limbaugh

February 15, 2007

Hey Rush,

I am scratching my head here. None of this makes any sense… but I wonder what you think about all of this…

The national news media shows lots of our American servicemen and women dying over there in Iraq and getting killed, helicopters being shot-down, roadside bombs going off…etc…etc. Yet, when you are there, when you work with Americans and Iraqis who are actively engaged in re-building the country, who are out going after the enemy… there’s this ever-present sense of optimism, this prevailing up-beat mood of doing good. Just go talk to the wounded servicemen at Brooks or Bethesda… they’ll tell you the same. Likewise… the Iraqi gentlemen (civilians) I worked with were excited about their economic prospects. They were eager for their families to experience a better life than the life they had under a totalitarian regime.

Rush, there’s an upbeat mood out there in Iraq. The country and its new democracy are moving forward. And the enemy hates it.

On the subject of “civil war” or “civil strife” in Iraq…

From what we can tell… there’s no “civil war” or “civil strife” as the news media puts it. The terrorists are coming from outside the country and killing civilians – as many as possible – to gain a foothold in Iraq. They play this stuff on TV to make us sick. It’s working… we are getting sick… but Iraq is getting strong. If there really is civil strife in the country… then WHY don’t WE hear statements in the news about Shia leaders taking responsibility for Sunni killings, and vice-versa? WHY? This is why: Because they aren’t doing that Rush. THAT’S WHY we NEVER hear news reports from the so-called “civil strife” combatants themselves… because there aren’t any… the IRAQIS are trying to build-up their country and make it work… MEANWHILE the enemy comes and kills everyone they can… and they run away from the scene (or die in the blast themselves).

One more thought…

I HATE DOING MATH…BUT THINK ABOUT THIS….

Rush…there’s anywhere from 500 to 1,000 road vehicle convoys per day in the country of Iraq. One or three of these vehicle convoys (at most) get hit by an IED each day, which destroys maybe one or two vehicles. Most convoys have anywhere from 20 – 100 vehicles…NOW…what’s your odds (e.g. CNN reporter) of being tagged by an IED????

In Summary…

I remain confused, amazed, and dumbfounded by the news-media view on the war. And yet Americans are buying it…WHY??? How can we believe only one side of the story without seeing the whole picture… the whole story as it unfolds? Does ANYONE really know (other than those who are there) what’s REALLY happening in Iraq??? Is there any chance of getting any of this news reporting being done right???

America is doing good things over there. Our troops are awesome… they are an inspiration… a model of courage and of selfless patriotism. Why don’t people back home trust them?

Mega Dittos Rush

Very Respectfully,

Tazz

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year Four: 1996

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today.

February 6: President Clinton issues a waiver to lift sanctions and permit four satellites including a Loral product to be launched on Chinese rockets despite the January reports that China continues to export nuclear technology to Pakistan. On the same day, Clinton’s friend and Chinese Triad mafia member Charlie Trie attends a White House coffee with Wang Jun, China’s top military-industrial arms dealer who had a multi-billion dollar stake in getting access to American satellites.

March 10: The US deploys two carrier battle groups to the waters off Taiwan, calling China’s live-fire exercises which are intended to intimidate Taiwan “reckless and risky”.

February 14: On liftoff, the Chinese launch of its Long March rocket fails killing several people and destroying a $126m Loral satellite.

March 14: The Clinton administration announces a decision to move a commercial communications satellite from the Munitions List to the Commerce Control List of dual-use items along with the export license from State to Commerce.

April 5: The LA Times reports that the Clinton administration approved a shipment of Iranian arms to the Bosnian government in 1994.

April 9: President Clinton orders US military forces to Liberia to evacuate “private US citizens and certain third-country nationals because of the deterioration of the security situation and resulting threat to American citizens”.

May 10: Loral completes an engineering report that instructs China how to improve its faulty rockets and missiles, including solving fatal problems in guidance systems. This assistance enhances the ability of Chinese ICBMs to hit American cities with precision.

May 10: Sudan expels Osama bin Laden because of international pressure applied by the US and Saudi Arabia. He returns to Afghanistan.

May 20: President Clinton reports to Congress on the continual deployment of US military forces to evacuate the US embassy in Liberia and to respond to the various isolated attacks on the American Embassy complex.

May 23: The Clinton administration announces that China will not be sanctioned for transferring the ring magnets to Pakistan saying that there is no evidence that the Chinese government has willfully aided or abetted Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.

June 1: In Hong Kong, Clinton donor Johnny Chung meets China Aerospace Corp. executive Liu Chaoying, a lieutenant colonel in the People’s Liberation Army who attended counterintelligence school. Her company builds satellites and rockets and provides equipment for China’s nuclear tests. The company also owns China Great Wall Industry Corp., which had been sanctioned by the US in 1991 and 1993 for selling missiles to Pakistan.

June 23: President Clinton waives sanctions under PL 101-246 for the Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT) satellite to be exported for launch from China.

June 25: Khobar Towers, a military housing facility in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia is attacked as a fuel truck carrying a bomb explodes killing nineteen US military personnel and wounding 515 more.

July 9: President Clinton waives sanctions under PL 101-246 allowing the Globestar satellite to be exported for launch from China.

July 9: Liu Chaoying arrives in the US and at the home of Democratic fundraiser Eli Broad and a subsequent photo op with President Clinton. Liu and Chung incorporate Marshall Investment, Inc., a front for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and a funnel for PLA funds traveling through Marshall to the US Democratic Party.

August 23: Osama bin Laden issues a Declaration of Jihad against the US and calls for support of Islamic revolutionary groups around the world.

September 3: US forces launch forty-four cruise missiles at military targets in southern Iraq. President Clinton announces a widening of the no-fly zone.

September 27: The Taliban movement captures Kabul and gains control of 90 percent of the country. The Clinton administration announces that the Taliban will bring stability to Afghanistan.

December 20: The NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) peacekeeping mission ends in Bosnia and the UN-mandated Stabilization Force (SFOR) mission begins. The 54,000 troops of IFOR are replaced by just 18,000 SFOR troops. The US contingent is reduced to 3,600 troops in Bosnia.

Tomorrow – 1997

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year Three: 1995

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today.

February 27: In Somalia, 1,800 US combat forces arrive in Mogadishu to assist with the removal of the UN Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM II) peacekeeping operation.  Symbolism over substance again.

March 3: The UNOSOM II international peacekeeping force is withdrawn from Somalia, in the midst of continuing instability.

March 8: Three unidentified gunmen kill two US diplomats and wound a third in Karachi, Pakistan. No response from the US.

March 31: The US-led peace operation in Haiti gives way to a UN peacekeeping operation, called the UN Mission in Haiti, or UNMH.  Get out without headlines.

June 3: NATO and other European Union countries agree to plans for a rapid-reaction force of up to 10,000 troops to protect UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. The US offers to provide air support, intelligence, transport and other equipment – but no ground troops. No ground troops assures no headlines underscoring the deaths of US soldiers.

August 8: Two of Saddam Hussein’s sons-in-law, both key aids, defect and are granted political asylum abroad. One of them, Hussein Kamel is the principal architect of Iraq’s programs of WMD and claims that Saddam intends to invade Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He also claims Saddam has huge stockpiles of WMD. We ignore the claim and do nothing.

August 30: NATO begins a campaign of massive air strikes against Bosnian Serb military targets around Sarajevo under Operation Deliberate Force, which lasts for about one month. No victory – no loss.

September 28: The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank is signed in Washington. The fake handshake photo-op follows. It looks like Arafat smells a fart. Following the signing, President Clinton hosts a summit attended by Jordan’s King Hussein, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarack, Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat.  Photo Op looks like Clinton brokered the peace agreement.

November 4: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv, by an Israeli. The message is clear: Israel does not want peace with the PLO.

November 13: A bomb hidden in a van explodes at the US military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven and five Americans. No US response.

December 17: Presidential elections are held in Haiti. Although former president Aristide is not permitted to run, his protégé Rene Preval wins with 89 percent of the votes cast. The vote is marred buy only a 28 percent voter turnout and multiple boycotts. We declare victory.

Though the Dayton Peace Accords are signed on November 21^st of 1995 resulting in a stabilized Balkans, the pattern of continued use of the military in symbolic gestures designed to present an image of President Clinton’s feeling the pain of others continues. Always Tomahawks, never troops results in no headline accounts of body bags and assures high poll numbers.

By the mid-1990’s the world not only doesn’t remain a safer place, it continues to get worse. As you can see, the pattern of minor appeasement combined with vague, non-supportive and purposeless military leadership sends a message to our enemies that the US simply does not have the stomach for serious combat and is led by a President who “despises the military”, favors commerce and future favors over National Security and clearly fails to understand (charitable view) where his actions are leading this country.

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest.

The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling among a nation’s military is far worse.

A man who has nothing which he cares about more

than himself is a miserable creature who has no

chance of being free, unless made and kept so

by the existence of better men than himself.”

- John Stewart Mill

                                    The Contest in America

Tomorrow – 1996

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year Two: 1994

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today.

January 6: President Clinton labels three types of satellites as “civilian”, thus circumventing sanctions on China in order to allow exports to proceed.

February 28: US military aircraft under NATO control shoot down four Serbian Galeb planes in the former Yugoslavia while patrolling the no-fly zone.

April 10: NATO-led US warplanes strike Bosnian Serb forces in Gorazde.

April 12: US combat-equipped forces are deployed to Burundi to assist with the evacuation of US embassy personnel and other citizens from Rwanda.

May 4: In Cairo, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat sign the agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho area formally setting terms for the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

July 13: President Clinton (now thoroughly distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment law suit filed in May) issues presidential waivers under PL 101-246 to allow US satellites to be launched from Chinese rockets.

July 22: In Rwanda, US forces begin a three month “intervention” to assist NGOs and international organizations to provide relief to refugees of the civil war and to assist with the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops. By mid-August, US troops participating at the peak of the mission total 3,600 with most deployed outside of Rwanda.

August 5: US aircraft, operating under NATO and acting upon requests of UN protective forces, attack Bosnia Serb heavy weapons in Sarajevo’s heavy-weapons exclusion zone.

September 19: 20,000 US forces enter Haiti under code name Operation Uphold Democracy as the lead force in the multinational operation to restore Jean (the crook) Bertrand Aristide to power.

October 15: President Clinton lifts sanctions he had imposed on China for selling missile technology to Pakistan.

Leadership involves conduct. Conduct is determined by values.

Values are what makes us who we are.

- General H. Norman Schwarzkoff

November 1: A newly operational Afghan militant force called the Taliban, created by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency around Islamic schools and funded by the Saudis emerges from northwest Pakistan and captures Kandahar. On the same day, President Clinton issues a waiver on sanctions on China for missile-technology exports.

November 10: Iraq accepts the UN-designated land border with Kuwait as well as Kuwaiti sovereignty as confirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 833.

November 19: The UN Security Council approves Resolution 958 which authorizes the use of air power to support the UN Protection Force in Croatia.

December 12: China transfers ring magnets to an unsafely guarded nuclear facility in Pakistan violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and contravening US laws that require sanctions.

December 22: President Clinton announces that the US Army peacekeeping force in Macedonia will be replaced by five hundred soldiers from the 1^st Cavalry Division.

While Clinton was dramatically reducing the size and capability of our military while at the same time sending them helter-skelter off on weakly planned peacekeeping missions only as a symbolic show of “concern” and conducting social experiments with “don’t ask, don’t tell” and women in combat roles, he was getting tremendous help from the liberal left wing of the Democrat party.

In his incredible book, “The Enemy At Home”, Dinesh D’Souza points out that what Muslims really hate is not America per se, but the American culture which has become increasingly vulgar, trivial, and disgusting. It is not just the reality shows where contestants eat maggots or the talk shows where guests reveal the humiliating details of their sex lives, it is “high culture” which liberals define as intellectual, refined and sophisticated.

As an example of the latter, Vagina Monologues, is a play that has won countless rave reviews and Hollywood accolades and is now routinely performed in more than twenty countries, including China and Turkey. In the book version of the play, now sold in translation in Pakistan, India and Egypt, the author offers what she calls “vagina occurrences”: “Glenn Close gets 2,500 people to stand up and chant the word c*nt … there is now a c*nt workshop at Wesleyan University … Roseanne performs ‘What Does Your Vagina Smell Like?’ … Alanis Morissette and Audra McDonald sing the c*nt piece … and on and on.

The debate over the culture war that has been going on since the sixties has been pretty much confined to our domestic agenda – until now. The Muslim community is very afraid that the current vulgarity is being exported into their traditional cultures and that is why they hate us. When we debate issues like abortion, school prayer, divorce and gay marriage, we are debating two radically different views of liberty and morality. Issues like divorce and family breakdown are symptoms of a great moral shift that has occurred in American society and continues to divide and polarize this country, and is at the root of the anti-Americanism of traditional cultures.

Tomorrow – 1995

The Clinton path to Islamofacist War – Year One: 1993

The Chronology that documents Clinton’s conversion of the US military into humanitarian relief workers (and a lab for social engineering) while on a direct path to the Islamofacist War we find ourselves in today. George Bush haters, get your facts right.

“In less than three years as commander in chief, Clinton

and his team, while increasing the number of overseas

deployments, reduced the total active-duty force from

2.1 million to 1.6 million men and women. The Army

was reduced from eighteen full-strength light and

mechanized divisions to a vulnerable twelve. The Navy

was reduced from 546 to 380 ships, toward a targeted

reduction of 300 – the smallest naval force since the pre-

world war II period.”

“And on his watch, our military was deployed more often

than during any other Presidency in history, not to fight actual wars

but to manage poorly planned and unclear peacekeeping missions

with unclear rules of engagement in places like Somalia, Haiti,

Rwanda, Colombia, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Kosovo all resulting in

little if anything gained in terms of democracy and the development

of civil societies in these countries.”

February 26: In New York, the World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic terrorists. A car bomb planted in an underground garage kills six people and leaves ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND injured. Investigators believe the mastermind of the attack, Ramzi Yousef, is financially connected to Osama bib Laden.

April 12: NATO air forces begin enforcing the UN-mandated no-fly zone over Bosnia, involving sixty US, French and Dutch warplanes.

April 9 – 18: In Iraq, US planes bomb Iraqi antiaircraft sites that had tracked and attacked US aircraft.

April 13: US forces in association with NATO enforce the ban on all unauthorized military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

May 4: In Somalia, Operation Restore Hope is replaced by the UN Security Council Operation UNOSOM II, with enforcement powers and a mandate to disarm warring factions, in Accordance with the Addis Ababa agreements of January 1993. Out of 22,700 multinational troops and logistics personnel, 2,900 are US forces, primarily combat SUPPORT personnel assigned to the UN Logistics Support Command. Restore Hope was established under US command in December 1992 to establish a secure environment for humanitarian relief operations.

June 19: US aircraft fire on an Iraqi antiaircraft site displaying hostile intent.

June 26: The US attacks the Iraqi Intelligence Service Headquarters in Baghdad, launching 23 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles (Clinton’s favorite – as there is almost no risk of US casualties) in retaliation for an attempted assassination of the former US president George Bush while he visited Kuwait. The assassination attempt was hatched by Iraqi agents.

July 9: UN protection forces, including 350 US soldiers, are deployed to participate in the UN protection of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

“There are ways in which a ruler can bring

misfortune upon his army by attempting

to govern that army in the same way as

he administers a kingdom, being ignorant

to the conditions which obtain in an army.”

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

August 3: An Army Ranger task force of more than 1,100 soldiers is deployed to Somalia as a “quick reaction force”.

August 31: The Oslo Accords are agreed to by Israel and the PLO during secret talks in Norway. After 45 years of conflict, the two agree to recognize each other. Arafat signs a letter recognizing Israel and renouncing violence.

September 13: The Oslo Accords are signed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a White House ceremony.

October 3: In Somalia, eighteen American soldiers are killed in a Mogadishu firefight with irregular forces loyal to warlord Mohammad Aidid. Some 500-1,000 of Aidid’s fighters are killed by US troops.

October 7: President Clinton announces that the US will withdraw all combat forces and most logistics units from Somalia by March 31, 1994.

Today, 2007: “Somalia has two rival governments — the weak, internationally recognized transitional government, marooned in the inland city of Baidoa, and the Islamist forces, a popular grassroots movement that controls much of the country, including the battle-scared seaside capital, Mogadishu.” New York Times

Tomorrow – 1994

North Korea Pissing on the USA Again … Who’s in charge here?

U.S. experts who visited Kim in Pyongyang last week said North Korea would propose a freeze of its main nuclear reactor and a resumption of international inspections in exchange for energy aid and a normalization of relations with Washington. Kim said Thursday that any moves by North Korea would depend on the U.S. attitude.

"We are going to make a judgment based on whether the United States will give up its hostile policy and come out toward peaceful coexistence," he said, adding that the U.S. was "well aware" of what it had to do.

In 1994, when NK threatened to turn South Korea into a “sea of fire”, the Clinton administration sent (good GOD!) Jimmy Carter to practice his “smile”diplomacy with the churlish Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. The resulting framework agreement was a fraud; NK did not agree to any substantial verification process to monitor its ongoing nuclear activities. Instead, through the agreement, the NKs became the largest recipient of foreign aid in Asia – among other things UNLIMITED food aid for a dictatorship whose Stalinist policies were causing the death by starvation of over two million of its own citizens.

And, not only that, but the US, South Korea and Japan agreed to build two nuclear power plants for them.

In spite of Pyongyang’s history of lying and cheating, Clinton actually declared, “This agreement will help achieve a vital and long-standing American objective, an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula.”

For the next six years, the Clinton administration ignored NK’s role in nuclear and other missile-related activities in China, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Lybia. The administration’s lack of resolve, and inability to take on accountability for what was going on in the international community and in Asia and the Middle East helped to escalate programs of weapons of mass destruction in all these regions. Clinton played golf, read the polls, and avoided making decisions that might be perceived by the American public to be militarily aggressive. God forbid! All the guy ever cared about were his poll numbers. Thank God W doesn’t.

China’s missile buildup along the Taiwan Strait and in the Himalayas adjacent to India had little impact on the administration.

Instead Beijing was rewarded with repeated presidential waivers, including satellite-launching agreements with US aerospace companies that resulted in the perfection of China’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. “friends of Bill” and his commerce secretary, Ron Brown were rewarded with permission to sell previously restricted military-related technologies to Chinese companies with direct ties to the military. In addition, Chinese companies and middlemen were granted bargain-basement sales on supercomputers, despite the formal objections and complaints form the Department of Defense and other agencies.

The Clinton administration also lifted restrictions on the sale of our own communications encryption software, which has enabled the Chinese military to operate its weapon-development programs at higher levels of secrecy. IN the ultimate coup de grace, the administration transferred the responsibility for licensing sensitive military technologies from the State department to the Department of Commerce, which appeared to act as a fundraising arm of the Democratic National Committee.

Beijing has been in bed with NK for years, yet continues to act as though they are our “partners” and want to assist us in these bi-lateral talks to get NK to step away from their nuclear program. All of the classified advanced thermonuclear research secrets that escaped our national laboratories during the Clinton administration, ended up in the hands of the Chinese and NK, while we continued to spend hundreds of millions in aid.

The good news is that Bush/Rice have succeeded thus far in ignoring NK’s demands for unilateral talks and all of their bullsh*t saber-rattling. I hope that Bush continues to refuse settling for anything short of open-monitoring nuclear activity and trade between NK and China, Russia and Iran, or we are doomed to see the same movie over and over again.

Why not Richardson?

Since the weekly Betting Line went up, I have received a bunch of e-mails asking me why I did not consider Bill Richardson a viable Presidential candidate.

Bill is a “Friend of Bill’s” who has entered the race for the sole purpose of positioning himself as Shrillary’s Veep running mate, hoping that the other Bill will remember him for all that he did during the Clinton Presidency on Big Bill’s behalf and that it somehow might influence Shrillary. HA!

I hold Bill Richardson indirectly accountable, right after Big Bill’s direct accountability for the Twin Tower attacks on September 11^th.

In the Fall of 1998, our counterterror network had Osama bin Laden in its sights and was begging the White House for permission to strike. But, Clinton had disappeared and could not be found to give the order. When he finally responded, he painstakingly procrastinated until the opportunity was lost. This disgusting abdication of responsibility by President Clinton – when action might have prevented the attacks three years later- would not surprise the handful of members of Congress and their national security advisors who followed the rise of the Taliban and the transformation of Afghanistan, beginning in 1993 – 1994, from one of the battlefields most responsible for the West’s victory in the Cold War into the nerve center for the “clash of civilizations” that we now face.

The Clinton Administration repeatedly rejected pleas by certain members of Congress to assist moderate Afghan troops resisting the extremist Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies. In spite of no support from the USA and against incredible odds, in the spring of 1998 the Afghan Northern Alliance had remarkably gained the battlefield edge and the al-Qaeda/Taliban forces faced possible defeat. Northern Alliance commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud offered to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden who had headquarters near Massoud’s territory. Instead of responding affirmatively, the Clinton administration sent then-UN Ambassador Bill Richardson to Afghanistan to ask the Northern Alliance leaders to conduct a cease-fire and to stop receiving arms shipments from countries like Turkey, India and Russia. Richardson and Pakistan offered peace-talks instead.

Sadly, the Northern Alliance trusted him and while waiting for these talks to begin, the Pakistani government accelerated weapons shipments to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In the next Taliban offensive, aided by Pakistani air strikes and soldiers, the Clinton administration sat idly by and watched the Northern Alliance get routed.

Just one week before the World Trade Center was destroyed al-Qaeda agents assassinated commander Massoud – and with that act, eliminated any hope of taking out Osama bin Laden.

As a part-time resident of New Mexico, I applaud Bill Richardson for doing quite a lot for the poor people of this State with very little, but he is a lifer politician and he clearly set the wheels of history in motion leading up to 9/11 solely for the sake of his political career. This is only one example – I have further Richardson history in Asia for a future blog.

And by the way, Shrillary will not ask him to run with her – the Clinton’s disloyalty is legendary – ask Dick Morris.

Slowdown? What are you smoking?

This economy has demonstrated that it is immune to $70/bbl oil prices, higher interest rates, housing slowdowns and auto slumps. So, what the hell is Harry “Real Estate Barron” Reid and Nancy Pelosivitch and Ted “A River Runs Through It” Kennedy talking about?

On January 31^st, the Commerce Department released a report documenting a 3.5% rise in 4Q GDP causing the doomsayers at Goldman Sachs to hit their 5^th martinis before the market closed.

Consumer spending rose to 4.4% in the quarter clearly sending a strong message that whoever the Democrats represent doesn’t seem to need a lot of relief. A strong job market and rising wage levels are offsetting any fear among consumers that their home values have fallen. If you take out housing and autos, real GDP rose 5.8% !!!

Exports alone rose 10% in the quarter finishing the year at 9.2% which added 1.64% to the GDP. China exports rose by more than 30% for the year clearly demonstrating that it’s growing economy is more important for America’s exporters than the devalued dollar.

With this kind of health, expect an interest point rise or two in the next six months as the Fed is right to be concerned about inflation. Core inflation less food and energy is up 2.1% last year and 4% in the last two years.

Economic growth following the Bush tax cuts in mid-2003 has averaged more than 3.6% without any fanfare from any corner of the political mind space. Amazing! If this had happened under Clinton, this is all you would hear about – or – if Europe ever gets to 2% GDP growth, they break out the party hats!  This guy Bush is an exceptional CEO.

Of course, I am sure the Democrats will say the Commerce dpartment is lying.

The biggest threats to this economic expansion are not the “trade deficit”, or “global imbalances” or the “savings rate” or the “Yuan-Dollar” – the greatest threat is protectionism or tax increases by these fools in Congress. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

The Presidency 2008 – the Weekly Betting Line

Democrat Primary Winner:

Hillary – 4-5

Shrill, socialist, disingenuous, scripted, obvious movement to center, a woman who has used ALL of her husband’s substantial chits and skills and charisma for the last four years, yet still can’t muster much over 40% of her own party’s vote. This is how stupid the Dems are. Get’s the black vote. Has not a prayer in the general – anyone but Hillary.

Barack – 20-1

As Joe said, smart, articulate, clean and good looking. Great speaker, lots of charisma, reminiscence of Jack Kennedy. No experience and not black enough for the black vote. No platform. Against the war – and actually a record of being against the war. Must explain the 4 years at the Masrada – and soon. Wins traction points as a potential VP candidate and great exposure for the 2012 race.

Edwards – 100-1

Wins socialist, universal health care voters who love the idea of raising taxes on the rich and who like Southern snake oil salesmen with lizard tongue thing going on. Loves sound of own voice. Hasn’t a prayer and not a VP candidate either.

Biden – Done – Joe … shut up!

Republican Primary Winner:

Giuliani – 4-5

He is what he is. Smart guy, articulate, courageous, affable, charming and good looking. Rudy did what he had to to get elected in liberal New York – he is not a pro-choice guy, he is not an anti-gun guy, and he is a rational almost-conservative right wing guy who is electable. (Sorry, Gunny). He agrees with W’s supreme court picks and he has demonstrated courage, honesty and leadership in tough situations. This is our best hope at getting a guy into the race who can win. A McLain (national security – war hero – even though he seems confused about the Geneva convention) or Gingrich (fiscal conservative) VP running mate would finish the ticket.

McCain – 8-1

Republican creds (though these days doesn’t mean much, war hero, supports this war, understands the Middle East, leadership skills, although he is a little loose at the mouth, Naval Academy grad (which is worth a lot). Soft on immigration. VP probable.

Gingrich – 15-1

Brilliant guy. Needs to lose the colored shirts and look more Presidential. Newt stands for everything I believe. If Rudi gets it, I hope he chooses Gingrich to run with.

Mitt – 100-1

Give me a break.

Universal Health Care - Economics 101

What single element always brings rationality, productivity and lower prices to any market? Semiconductors, personal computers, mobile phones, HDTVs, automobiles, computer storage, green home building, and the list goes on forever. All of these are free markets and demonstrate the results of unfettered capitalism.

Only when government or organized labor subsidizes or unionizes markets, do they become closed and manipulative. Look at Oil. Big oil companies do not set prices … and their 10 cent per gallon profit (which Red Nancy characterizes as “obscene”) actually pales in comparison with the Federal government’s 60+ cent per gallon profit. Were getting to Health Care, I promise. Oil is a heavily regulated and controlled market created by OPEC, and thus is not free and open. OPEC owns most of it and prices it in accord with their perception of supply, demand and desired capacity. Oil is then priced on the open markets by commodity futures traders who guess what the supply, capacity and demand is going to be in the future. Until oil gets to the commodity traders, it has a base price set by OPEC and non-OPEC producers who can draft right behind.

Oil is effectively the same as public school education costs, or US automobile costs, or the cost of your government. It is effectively unionized. Which brings us to health care.

The average guy on the street never cared much for Economics in school … I mean, what a bore, and how will this be useful to me in the future? Besides, if you put hundred economists in a room. eight hours later you would have a hundred theories about the best way to do anything. It is crystal clear to me that the economists who got it right are Hayek, Schumpeter, Freidman and Laffer who created a model for free market capitalism that has driven this country to unprecedented wealth and prosperity and dragged the larger part of the free world along with it.

It appears that the house and the senate are either populated with average guys on the street, or shameless politicians who care only about being re-elected … or both, I suppose.

To say the words, “We should provide affordable health care for every man, woman and child in America” politicians get to sound caring, bold, populist and re-electable. What they actually sound is reckless and unaccountable. The only way to provide affordable health care is to create a free market for health care. And, if anyone should know this, it is Arnold Schwarzenegger. This man does not have a socialist cell in his body. His entire history is a model of free market capitalism. So, proposing universal health care in California is clearly a populist political gambit designed solely to get him reelected and then, who knows? Orin Hatch has proposed an amendment that would essentially overturn Article 2 of the Constitution and allow Arnold to run for the big job. Stay tuned.

The big problem today with health care is the complete disconnect between the consumer and the providers. Instead of the consumer deciding what kind of health care s/he wants or needs, like when shopping for a flat screen LCD, the providers decide what they are going to offer and because there are no choices, the consumer gets screwed. When the consumer has very little control over a market, the market goes in the toilet … the now defunct Soviet Union is a great example.

Most private heath care plans cover everything imaginable and individuals are forced to pay for that coverage even though they will probably use less than 5% of the services provided. It is sort-of like a health care plan designed by Microsoft; pay a lot for Excel and Word but use only 5% of their functionality.

Instead of a de facto nationalized “universal health care” which will only increase costs, add more bureaucracy, eliminate incentives for increased productivity and innovation, and result in waiting lines for MRIs (try to get one in Canada), we should launch an aggressive HSA (health savings account) program allowing individuals to choose the health care they need.

One approach that makes sense is a two pronged non-taxed HSA (like the 401(k)) where 25% of the premium goes toward catastrophic health care with a $5000 out of pocket cap, and 75% goes into a savings account that is used for prescription medicine, routine doctor visits, etc. If it isn’t used, it sits as working capital and is invested similar to your 401(k) plan, another boost for the economy.

FEHBP (the largest union health care membership in the country) is probably representative of the norm; 47% of patient expenditures go to prescription medicine, while only 20% goes to hospital in-patient care and physicians visits, yet most of what you currently pay in premiums is spent on hospital in-patient care that you will probably never use and physicians whom you will never see. So, 80% of the cost pays for 20% of what you actually need. Again, we are paying for a system designed not by consumers but by bureaucrats, and not open to the competitive vengeance of the free market. Catastrophic care is pretty cheap and if you factor in the current employer contribution and the current deductibles, a properly structured HSA would lower the costs of health care to both individuals and their employers and allow individuals the freedom to manage their own health care.

The problem with implementing such a plan is political. Red Nancy has multiple problems with such a plan. Not only would it change her demographic dynamics by reducing the dependency of her voters on the Democrat party, but it would essentially result in a tax cut to Joe six-pack, expose Nancy to a less rich health care package for herself while exposing the Union health care coverage to the light of day (as a Federal Union employee, her package is worth a lot of money and Bush’s proposed $15,000 tax plan would cause Nancy to pay taxes on the amount North of that) and demonstrate the efficiencies of free market capitalism. But, it appears that we are rapidly headed in the other direction. In addition to the government banning trans-fat from restaurants and outlawing foie gras, we now have public schools measuring body mass and sending warning letters home to parents. George Orwell appears to have been right, yet off by 20 years or so.

Why can’t we truly reform Congress and send in people whose goals are to stimulate the economy and create prosperity for their citizens? It should be obvious to everyone that when people control their own money, they tend to get more value from it and create a competitive, equalizing free market environment where productivity, investment and the economy thrives. When the government controls it, we get the US Post Office, Public Education and National Health Care. Hello?

Trade Deficits and the Economy

My wife, having spent a week in California called last night and was really depressed ... listening to NPR for a week might do that to you ... the liberal perspective on life is like that group in high school that could never succeed at anything and so formed up to complain to the administration that they were being bullied by the winners and got the standards reset so that everyone could get D's and graduate. So, they all did and now they are in Congress. It is also apparent that they barely earned a D in Economics.

The fact that Harry Reid constantly complains about the trade deficit, which is really an early argument toward government controls is either: a) evidence that he doesn't understand anything about economics (which would be frightening), or b) evidence that he is a savvy politician and knows that the clarion populist call to "save our children and grandchildren from having to shoulder this enormous debt" is a no-brainer vote getter from mindless idiots who have not a clue as to how their daily bread and butter actually arrives.

Not only is the trade deficit not bad for the US economy, it is the best thing that could possibly happen to it and for the rest of the world as well. So, here is econ 101 short form:

Trade is driven by investment flows. When people from other countries invest vast amounts of money in the US, we run a trade deficit because of our global accounting - see below. The US, in contrast to the unstable, stagnant, terror-ridden, free-market endangered rest of the world is a safe, transparent, low-inflation haven that provides a slam-dunk return, and so why wouldn't everyone invest here?

Unfortunately, because of that screwy score card, Harry either believes that we are in trouble or gets to use the outcome for political gain. For example, if China sells $1 billion in say, tennis shoes to Wal-Mart and then uses that money to buy a micro-chip factory in Shanghai, we call that an "export" and Harry stupidly cheers. If on the other hand, they use that money to build a chip factory in Virginia, which by the way then creates hundreds of jobs for engineers and salespeople, we call it an "import" and Harry and the rest of the Democrats decry the "import" and our resulting trade "deficit".

Joe six-pack and his buddies at NPR stupidly and lazily line up behind and vote for the Democrats who want to put an end to the trade deficit through government controls. Because all anyone hears from the doom and gloom media is that the US is an aging society that is drowning in debt and burdening the world with risk, we have distorted our domestic and international policy making. The media is a lot like academic economists. They vote largely Democratic and cannot stand the fact that the current American boom has happened under a Republican watch. And, what a boom. Record stock market. Economic growth averaging more than 3% since 9/11. Since the tax cut of 2003 on income, dividends and capital gains, the US GDP has expanded by an amount greater than the size of China's entire economy.

Academic economists write of job losses at old-line manufacturers but ignore the larger and more diffuse number of jobs created at smaller private service companies. They whine about the trade deficit but fail to mention the flip side of capital surplus - the flow of foreign investment cash pouring into the US - keeping the stock market high and borrowing rates low. Maybe the disconnect between the headlines and the actual markets have more to do with the fact that academic economists see their influence waning. If the world's economies run best on a Hayek-Schumpeter-Freidman-Laffer free-market model, then economists of the meddling sort have little to do - except b*tch.

Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia economics professor, Nobel Prize winner and card-carrying member of the sour punditocracy recently wrote a sky-is-falling piece in the Guardian (of course) entitled "2007: Will the Dam Break?" Stiglitz sees a flood coming. "At the root of America's economic problems are measures adopted early in Bush's first term. In particular, the Administration pushed through a tax cut that largely failed to stimulate the economy, because it was designed to benefit mainly the wealthiest taxpayers." Yet, Joseph, how do you explain why tax revenues have increased to historic levels since that tax cut?

Later in the same article, he says, "America's household savings became negative for the first time since the great depression." He uses Commerce Department data which only factors in actual savings deposit accounts at Banks. No real estate. No 401(k)s. No stocks. No bonds. No treasury notes. No other assets on American household balance sheets. This is like offering evidence of global warming based on the claim that 2% of the polar ice cap is melting while ignoring the other 98% that is freezing. Calculated properly, US households have more financial savings - and in most years add more - than the rest of the world combined. What a great country, huh?

Econ 101 - longer form: The US is the world's biggest producer, exporter, seller, saver and innovator. On average it adds 30% more to global GDP each year than all of Asia (45% more in 2006) with one tenth the population. US employment, wages and profits are at record levels. America is the biggest source of foreign aid and the only major source of its most effective component: private donations. All the result of tax cuts "for the rich".

Despite the sour fiscal predictions, the federal budget is on course to be in balance by 2010 with debt-to-GDP ratio well below the Clinton Administration's average - if we did nothing. Harry and his friends simply cannot reconcile the claim that our trade deficit costs jobs and adds to global financial risk - while we enjoy a 4.5% unemployment rate and the eager flow of long-term, low-cost foreign capital into US investments. What's the problem again, Harry?

Selling our economy short may be causing even more damage to our international economic policy. We are now apologizing for the global trade imbalance. We accept blame for growing our economy and population faster than our trading partners (which draws in imports) and providing more attractive investments (which brings in foreign capital). The primary burden should be on the trade-surplus, capital-outflow countries to enhance their economic climes, not on us to diminish ours. Russia has two exports - natural gas and weapons - and two customers - Europe and Iran. All of Europe's natural gas comes form Russia and all of Iran's weapons come from Russia. How does that model look?

The world has huge economic problems. Europe's low birthrate, high unemployment and exodus of human capital are of bigger consequence to the world than the US trade deficit, yet the trade deficit dominates the G7's agenda and world headlines. Japan and South Korea are still relying on corporatism instead of economic flexibility, a global liability as their workforces shrink. Russia's bleak hope is to create energy monopolies fast enough to prevent the Islamic world and China from overrunning its sparsely populated borders. Much of Latin America and Africa are decapitalizing, running IMF-mandated (International Monetary Fund) fiscal and trade surpluses (capital outflows) that have contributed to their multi-decade stagnation in per capital income.

Despite the rich global environment for economic progress, the US - low on self-esteem - has focused on China's yuan as the 21st century's economic scourge. US exports and global growth would get a much bigger boost if more countries joined China in growth promoting currency stability than if China joins them in currency instability. Begging China to add to the yuan's value at the dollar's expense parades our weak image and enhances China's strength.

At the same time, Latin America seems to have decided the US is one of the weak links in the global economy and has reached out to Europe and China for investment and free-trade agreements with the he view that those are the economic relationships of the future. The real problem with the trade deficit is not what it is doing to our economy or Harry and his friends using it for political gain, but that it is now being misread by some of the rest of the world and has resulted in weaker relationships and the clouding of our economic vision here at home, even as our economy enters its third decade of robust expansion.

Many in Congress, the Treasury Department and business believe that we should have "reciprocal trade" with other countries, that is to say no deficit or surplus. That is equivalent to saying that a business should have reciprocal relations with every one of its accounts. I have been running a deficit with Albertsons, Safeway and Whole Foods for over 40 years, yet somehow my economy is just fine. This is a classic, preposterous, stupid and destructive congressional notion. This year marks the 400th anniversary fo the settlement in Jamestown, VA. Since that time, America has run trade deficits for all but 50 some-odd years. Just look at what all that bad economics has done.

Have a prosperous day.