Jan 6, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
The essence of tyranny, journalist Christopher Hitchens writes in his latest dispatch for Vanity Fair magazine, is capricious law....
Mr. Hitchens... came to Manhattan in November determined to participate in "an orgy of lawlessness," while exploring "the shriveled core of the tiny Bloombergian mind." He took up two seats on the subway (Fine: $50); fired up a cigarette where one is not allowed to smoke (Fine: $200 to $2,000), and (gasp) engaged in such disorderly conduct as sitting on a milk crate on subway stairs. He rode a bicycle (sans bell) and coasted through Central Park without his feet on the pedals (a double offense)...."Under current New York City law," [Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter] writes, "it is acceptable to have a loaded handgun in your place of work, but not an empty ashtray." [NY Sun]
Hitchens may be a leftie but he's right about this; such laws are unacceptable in a free society.Jan 6, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From an Anti-Defamation League press release:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was deeply troubled that MoveOn.org had allowed an outrageous and highly offensive political ad that directly compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler to be posted on its Web site.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director and author of "Never Again: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism," issued the following statement:
"It is shocking that a mainstream political group like MoveOn.org not only allowed this vile and outrageous comparison of the American President to Adolf Hitler to be entered into its "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest in the first place, but that they even went so far as to make it available to the public on the Internet. Those responsible for this contest at MoveOn.org should have immediately identified this advertisement as one going far beyond legitimate criticism and rejected it out of hand. Instead, they made an irresponsible decision that has given legitimacy to the exploitative manipulation of images in a campaign season.
"MoveOn.org clearly would not have accepted a pornographic ad as legitimate criticism of a candidate. Why did they think that images of Hitler, the Nazi whose evil regime was responsible for the slaughter of millions of people during the Holocaust, was a fitting and credible expression of criticism of President Bush and his policies? Their lack of discretion cheapens the level of political discourse in America, and their comments explaining it were hardly comforting."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
For more on the MoveOn ad see Socialist Group MoveOn Promotes Ad That Equates Bush with Hitler.Jan 6, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Iran Van Jahan has a number of good links related to the Bam earthquake. Here are a few:
On Jan. 2, AP reported: Hardliners Criticize U.S. Aid."We hate the arrogance of the Americans and we are sure that they haven't come for humanitarian reasons, but for other things like spying," said Abdullah Irani, a mullah from Qum, the main center for Shiite clerics in Iran.
Two days later, Reuters reports: Iranian People Cheer U.S. Warming After Bam Quake.Ordinary Iranians are cheering a warming of diplomatic ties between Tehran and the United States brought on by the Bam quake, and hope an end is in sight to a quarter century of isolation from a country many openly admire. Even though conservative Tehran newspapers may rail at "earthquake diplomacy" by George W. Bush, many average Iranians on the capital's streets Sunday said they welcomed the American president's overtures that may rebuild severed ties. "I was overjoyed when I first heard America planes were going to fly in to help Bam," said Hassan Tayebi, 51, a retired civil servant, referring to the Dec. 26 earthquake that destroyed the southeastern city. "I really like Americans. They are really kind people and I hope the aid offer leads to better relations." Many Iranians show a more favorable attitude to the United States than their own government does.
Michael Ledeen explains this difference in reaction and what it means to America's self-defense: Aftershocks: The West must read the meter in Bam and Tehran[A]s we are reminded every day by the wonderful dentist in Baghdad who bravely blogs away at www.healingiraq.com, in the words of Jonathan Swift, "It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into." The regime in Tehran is not reasonable, it is fanatical. It has waged war against us for a quarter century and it intends to destroy us. It claims to act in the name of all Islam, and views us as the greatest Satanic force on earth. It will not come to terms with us, because its very essence is hatred of us and of everything we represent. Knowing that the vast majority of its own people hate the regime and loves America, it murders, tortures, and oppresses them. When the mullahs appear to be acting reasonably and tell us they wish to help us fight terrorism, it is a deception, not an expression of their real desires.
Yet many of our leaders, fine men and women all, continue to believe that the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan suffice to let us return to diplomacy as usual, even as the entire Western world ties itself in knots to protect against the next assault from the terror masters. [...]
Look at the many reports on the awful degradation of Iranian society, now leading the region in suicide and teenage prostitution, its standard of living a pitiful shadow of what it was before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, its infrastructure in tatters, its armed forces distrusted by the country's leaders, its students under virtual house arrest, its newspapers and magazines silenced, its talented moviemakers and writers and scientists and artists fleeing to the West whenever they see a crack in the nation's walls. Look at the damning human-rights reports. Read the harsh condemnation of the mullahs' relentless censorship from Reporters sans Frontières," which calls Iran the world's greatest predator of free press. And listen to the cries of the Bam survivors as they ask why this had to happen, why no help arrived until long after the disaster struck, and why the mullahs preferred to see thousands of them die, rather than accept humanitarian assistance from the Jews.
And then ask our leaders what in the world we are waiting for, and why we insist on believing that a regime so demonstrably evil deserves to have good relations with the United States, and why a people so demonstrably on our side, and so demonstrably worthy of freedom, does not deserve our full support.
And Thomas Sowell contrasts the recent earthquake in California to the one in Bam: Two Earthquakes And Their Results Under Two Different Social Systems:The deaths in Iran have been counted in the tens of thousands. In California, the deaths did not reach double digits. Why the difference? In one word, wealth.
Wealth enables homes, buildings and other structures to be built to withstand greater stresses. Wealth permits the creation of modern transportation that can quickly carry people to medical facilities. It enables those facilities to be equipped with more advanced medical apparatus and supplies, and amply staffed with highly trained doctors and support staff.
Those who disdain wealth as crass materialism need to understand that wealth is one of the biggest life-saving factors in the world. As an economist in India has pointed out, "95 percent of deaths from natural hazards occur in poor countries."
Jan 5, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From the NY Post:
...Howard Dean acknowledged yesterday that he sold $15,000 in stock in five Vermont banks in 1991 after getting "inside information" from a state banking regulator soon after he became Vermont governor...."It became clear to me that information I might receive in the future as governor could present a possible conflict of interest," Dean said in a statement.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the NYPost reports, Dean held onto to other investments which could present a conflict of interest such as $69,000 of AIG "despite state regulation of insurance" in Vermont.
...Dean didn't specify what the inside information was. A spokesman [for Dean] told the Journal that the regulator's report was "innocuous" but said Dean was shocked to realize he got inside information.
If it is "innocuous" why not reveal it?
...The Associated Press reported bank stocks were declining in Vermont when Dean sold, but a former Vermont banking regulator, Elizabeth Costler told the Journal that bank stocks were actually looking up and "it wasn't to his economic advantage to sell."
Perhaps, but after he sold them, the banks stock prices apparently declined--so his action was profitable in the sense that he was at least avoiding a greater loss. As a parallel, compare Deans actions--and the reaction to them--to the assault on business people such as Sam Waksal, Martha Stewart over their sales of ImClone. Why is it that politicians who hold far more dangerous and lethal power over us than businessmen can "seal their records" so we cannot find out what they were up to? This raises a host of interesting questions: Did any FDA regulators' or their friends profit from the "inside information" they might have received about what the FDA was going to do to Sam Waksal' Imclone? Who will regulate the regulators?Jan 5, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
According to Matt Drudge the "advocacy" group Moveon.org recently posted a second video (now pulled) on their website that called George W. Bush the Hitler of the 21st century. Writes Drudge in his report:
The 30-second video is the second ad comparing Bush to Hitler to be streamed on moveon.org. The clip is part of a contest to find the best bush-bashing ad. A panel of judges, including actor-director Michael Moore, and Dem campaign strategists Donna Brazile and James Carville, will select the winner.
Perhaps Moveon.org is taking a page from the book written by their modern socialist brethren of the former National Socialist Germany:
Relations between Germany and the United States, frayed over Iraq, took a turn for the worse when German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin compared George W Bush to Adolf Hitler.With her Social Democrats fighting out the tough final days of a campaign for Sunday's election, Daeubler-Gmelin made the remark while talking to metalworkers about US plans for a possible attack on Baghdad. "Bush wants to divert attention from domestic political problems. It's a method that is sometimes favoured. Hitler also did that," she said, according to a report by the Schwaebisches Tagblatt newspaper. ["Bush accused of 'Hitler' move", The Age, September 20, 2003]
A method favored not only by Herta Daeubler-Gmelinbutbut, but by Vanity Fair who seeks to pose the question their readers are apparently dying to know: if Richard Perle and Hitler's propaganda man, Joseph Goebbels, were "separated at birth."
MoveOn responds in a statement by Wes Boyd, Founder of MoveOn.org Voter Fund:
...During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.
None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries...
Reports Daniel Drezner on the ad that was according to MoveOn.org "voted down by our members and the public":
This was one of MoveOn.org's fifteen finalists for the ad competition. Or was it? If you now go to MoveOn's page of commercial finalists, you will note that the ad in question appears to have been yanked. It should have the url: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/view.html?id=02&size=small But the sequence of ads skips from id=01 to id=03
(For the record, at the time I write this, the ad with a database id=16 is also missing as the 15th finalist has a database id=17.)
In today's Wall Street Journal, Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress Rosen comments on MoveOn's ad:
...using the memory of that genocide as a political prop. Their comparison diminishes the reality of what happened, and their actions cheapen the memory of a horrific crime. It also does a terrible disservice to this country at a perilous time, when we need to examine the dangers we face with clarity and purpose...President Bush has shown that leadership in Iraq, and our troops have liberated a people who were oppressed by another murderous dictator. MoveOn.org compares this liberation to the Holocaust. It deploys a picture of Hitler to vilify President Bush. Comparing the commander-in-chief of a democratic nation to the murderous tyrant Hitler is not only historically specious, it is morally outrageous. Comparing an American president, any American president, to Hitler is an outrage. The MoveOn.org ad was inexcusable. Political figures such as Al Gore, who have associated themselves with MoveOn.org, have a special responsibility to condemn these ads; donors to the group such as George Soros have the same responsibility. They owe it not just to the memory of the millions who died in the Holocaust. They owe it also as a simple matter of decency.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Soros in November of 2003 stated that "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world ... When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans ...My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me." Far from condemning such an ad one could conclude that the premier Moveon.org sponsor--anti-capitalist, billionaire George Soros--advocates its message.
As readers of Capitalism Magazine all know there are many reasons to criticize President Bush. He is an inconsistent, pragmatic, sometimes defender of freedom (case in point is his refusal to stand up for Republic of Taiwan against the Communist dictatorship of China as reported in Allen Forkum's excellent article on George W. Bush's Unprincipled Foreign Policy Against Taiwan). Yet this is not what MoveOn is attacking President Bush for.
What they are attacking Bush for is setting a precedent that a group of free countries -- primarily the United States of America, along with the U.K., and fifty plus other countries -- can dispose of a "sovereign" totalitarian dictatorship that was like Hitler's Germany in fact. Whatever MoveOn is advocating it is not freedom.Jan 5, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses, Dollars & Crosses 2
From the Washington Times:President Bush yesterday called for making his tax cuts permanent for the first time since signing a major tax-cut package in May that was touted as temporary in order to keep the price tag low. Critics saw the move as an attempt at yet another tax cut "costing more than $1 trillion over the next decade" at a time when Democratic presidential candidates are demanding that Mr. Bush repeal even his earlier, temporary cuts.
Cost whom? Blank out.Tax cuts cost the government nothing, because government officials did nothing to produce the wealth that is taxed, to begin with.Taxes cost taxpayers wealth because it is they, and not bureaucrats like Dean, Gephardt, Rangel - and even President Bush -who in their positions as government officials produce no wealth (as least George W. Bush has the decency to allow all taxpayers to keep more of their money).It is taxpayers who had to work for and earn that wealth that is taxed--and the cost of that tax is the physical and mental effort they had to expend to produce that wealth that is involuntarily taken from them. All government has to do to get wealth is to point a machine gun at a disarmed citizen and threaten them with fines and imprisonment.... "Some critics, who opposed tax relief to start with, are still opposing it," [Bush] said. "They argue we should return to the way things were in 2001. What they're really saying is they want to raise taxes.""People are more likely to find work if businesses and their workers can be certain that the lower tax rates of the last years will stay in place," Mr. Bush said. "Today, you don't have that confidence. That's because at the end of next year, the $1,000 child tax credit will shrink to $700. In 2008, capital-gains taxes are scheduled to rise by a third. In 2011, the 'death tax' on estates will reappear just one year after being phased out. That doesn't make any sense," Mr. Bush told the business owners, who interrupted him with numerous standing ovations during the 42-minute speech. "We're going to phase out the death tax — which is a bad tax to begin with — and then let it pop back to life. But that's reality."
But, unlike death, it doesn't have to be.
From an Anti-Defamation League press release: