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THE FEDERALIST(r) DIGEST The Conservative e-Journal of Record * Veritas Vos Liberabit * 22 February 2002 Federalist Edition #02-08 Friday Digest *To support The Federalist, Link to -- http://www.Federalist.com/support.asp *To sponsor an edition of The Federalist, Link to -- http://www.Federalist.com/sponsor.asp *To retrieve today's Digest as HTML printer-friendly text or PDF Link to -- http://www.Federalist.com/current2002.asp *To change your e-mail address or format, see instructions in footer. CONTENTS: The Foundation Federalist Perspective ______----********O********----______ THE FOUNDATION "It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor." --George Washington ______----********O********----______ FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE Top of the fold... President George W. Bush traveled to Asia this week, visiting Japan, South Korea, and Red China, and noting, "All three governments are lending their support in our war against terror. ...[And I] thank them on behalf of a grateful nation, for their steady and strong support as this nation leads a coalition to defend freedom." Japan may be experiencing mere economic discomforts and dislocations, but freedom is still threatened in large areas of that region. At his last stop on the tour, Mr. Bush chose to concentrate on areas of agreement with the Chinese Communists and his best hopes for further agreements, saying, "I encourage China to be a force for peace among its neighbors. My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missile and other deadly technologies." Mr. Bush reminded that no nation is "exempt from the demands of human dignity," and he pointedly included mention of where freedom is lacking for the Chinese people, who "should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work." Mr. Bush added: "For centuries, this country had a tradition of religious tolerance. My prayer is that all persecution will end, so that all in China are free to gather and worship as they wish. Faith points to a moral law beyond man's law and calls us to duties higher than material gain. Freedom of religion is not something to be feared, it's to be welcomed, because faith gives us a moral core and teaches us to hold ourselves to high standards, to love and to serve others, and to live responsible lives. America is a nation guided by faith." And President Bush peered into one dark hole of the "axis of evil" across the demilitarized zone separating our ally South Korea from Communist North Korea, saying similarly that "no nation should be a prison for its own people." Repeating his characterization of North Korea as "evil," Mr. Bush commented on its museum holding axes used to murder non-Communists, and its disordered priorities: " Korean grandparents should be free to spend their final years with those they love. Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed." In the second black hole of the "axis of evil," Iran has continued meddling across the border in Afghanistan, attempting to destabilize the interim government before it can truly free the Afghan people. Intelligence reports count "scores" of infiltrators, including agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Iranian spy service, and Iranian special forces troops from the Revolutionary Guards Corps. One U.S. official described them thus: "They are armed to the teeth, and they have lots of money to buy people off." Expect this dangerous situation to persist, as Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi disingenuously said, "We are determined to remain in Afghanistan as long as the government and the people want us to do so." No wonder suspended bombing runs had to recommence over Afghanistan last weekend to protect our fighters! And little surprise, then, that interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai now asserts that the tourism minister murdered last week, Dr. Abdul Rahman, was in reality assassinated by opponents mingling with hajjis en route to Muslim pilgrim sites! Similar destabilization moves have been undertaken against Pakistan, of course. We note with sadness confirmation that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has been murdered by his kidnappers -- as part of such actions. Pearl's abductors have stated they killed him because he was a Jew and was pro-Israel. Our prayers go out to his wife, child, family and friends. And rounding out the trio of the "axis of evil," Saddam is next up. Asked Thursday about plans to "take out" any identified weapons of mass destruction facilities in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replied, "We certainly wouldn't discuss it in a press conference." As reported in The Federalist last week, and in the rest of the national media this week, "The Pentagon and CIA are currently filling in final mobilization details for an assault on Iraq using 225,000 U.S. troops. Battle orders could be issued within 60 days." Memo to Saddam: Since 1991, the "bunker busters" have gotten better and the "smart weapons" have gotten wiser -- by several orders of magnitude. Visiting the Olympics to encourage troops serving on the home front, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I would not think that the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City would be characterized as the ending of having to invest in security, homeland security, or in the war on terrorism. This is an important world event. And you're right, we have more people in Utah participating in this Joint Task Force Olympics and various aspects of it than we do in Afghanistan. And we have that because it's such an important event and because we want to make sure it's a safe event for the world." That said, we do seem to be doing well in rolling up incipient Jihadi terror plots in concert with our allies! Sources reported late Wednesday the Liberty Bell has been targeted, although "nonspecifically," and moving terrorist cells were arrested in both Rome and Turkey this week -- before they could hit. But Team Bush conflicts, frictions between diplo-babblers favoring increased international security force arrangements in Afghanistan and warriors leaning more toward training up a real Afghan army, persist. Regarding the infighting between the Bush administration and Secretary of State Colin Powell, a few naïfs on your Editorial Board were hopeful the initial "disagreements" were part of a "good-cop/bad-cop" strategy. But Powell's erupting embarrassments to the team, and especially his general failure to fall in line behind the Commander-in-Chief, now fall into the category of insubordination. Alas, your Editorial Board's cynics were right in holding fast those "conservative ideas" Powell long ago forgot, including healthy skepticism about working with Leftists! Quote of the week... "The long-awaited 'campaign finance reform' vote finally took place last week, with the House ultimately passing the measure. The debate was full of hypocritical high-minded talk about cleaning up corruption, all by the very politicians of both parties who dole out BILLIONS in corporate subsidies and welfare pork. It was quite a spectacle watching the big-spending, perennially-incumbent politicians argue that new laws were needed to protect them from themselves!" -- Rep. Ron Paul Ah, yes, "campaign finance reform" -- for politicos the functional equivalent of condoms! On cross-examination... "With their suffocating insularity, the media almost never allow a second for the concept that opposition to squashing campaign speech is based on idealism. Nor when it comes to their side, seldom do they mention the possibility that supporting 'reform' could be a scheme for Democratic advantage. ...The target is conservatism. Liberals believe they can pass liberal legislation much more easily if they don't have conservative and business lobbies making an end-around the liberal media, giving their perspective to the American public -- even if they have to pay to do so. ...To the liberal media, a victory for conservatism just cannot be 'in the interests of voters.' They can't possibly believe voters would find it in their interest to oppose liberalism. Conservatives now muzzled, they can hope voters never learn what is in their best interest other than what liberals say is in their best interest." --Brent Bozell Open Query... "There is evil in the world, and it coagulates, it gathers force, and if it bursts its bounds endangers everybody. 'Axis of evil'? Yes, there can be such things. How could we ever have doubted it? What dream were we living in, what sort of mist, what fog?" --Michael Novak The BIG lie... "We're for traditional values. In many ways, the ACLU is the nation's most conservative organization. Our job is to conserve America's original civic values -- the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- and defend the rights of every man, woman and child in this country." --ACLU declaring itself "conservative" on their website. News from the Swamp... Reactions continued to last week's passage of so-called campaign finance reform in the House of Representatives. The gas now floating around the Swamp is that Mr. Bush, while knowing portions of Shays-Meehan are unconstitutional, will still sign the measure if it reaches his desk, counting on the Supremes to strike down at least some of its most noxious parts. Team Bush political machinators, too smart by half, are advocating this course, arguing that the high court is likely to remove a few provisions most slanted against Republicans, that Mr. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign will not be much affected anyway, and that he will gain Leftmedia kudos for signing it and cannot take the heat were he to veto it. While all the campaign finance reform (AKA "incumbent protection") pontificators issue polemics on the evils of money, and are joined in that chorus by their Leftmedia sycophants, the worst inherent danger of the current legislation has not really been aired. It is not as much that the current legislation favors the voice of unions and other sources of Leftist payola while silencing many other "special interests," as that it leaves the power to make kings almost entirely in the hands of the Leftmedia. As The Federalist reiterated last week, the congressional majority passing this excrescence ignored their oaths to "support" the Constitution, and Mr. Bush's oath is even more serious -- to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." As friend of The Federalist Cal Thomas noted, "Lest we forget (and a majority of the House last week apparently did when it passed its version of a campaign finance reform bill), the Constitution says in the First Amendment: 'Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances'." Signing a bill he knows to be contrary to that oath would be such an abdication of his official duties that National Review deems it "a betrayal." But we have a better idea -- a "conservative" idea best not forgotten! When the Senate debated campaign finance reform last year, Team Bush listed the simple "reform principles" the President favors -- almost none of which are in Shays-Meehan. Mr. Bush wanted to "maintain strong political parties" -- not in there. He requested "paycheck protection" banning use of union due for politics without explicit worker consent -- not there. And he requested protection of "the rights of citizen group to engage in issue advocacy" -- not there -- and in fact so burdensome on individuals' First Amendment advocacy rights that even some Shays-Meehan supporters agreed the Supreme Court could strike them down. Memo to W: Two wrongs don't make a right ... nor do they make an excuse. And they certainly don't make a "smart" political move! Call a press conference at the National Archives, read the First Amendment to our Constitution and then ceremoniously dispose of this "Incumbent Protection Act" -- as you promised you would do last January! Memo to John McCain: "Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe." --Theodore Roosevelt And from the House of Lords, Demo Sen. Teddy Kennedy was invited to an event this week trumpeting passage of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education bill, but Kennedy used the platform to denigrate vouchers. "I'm strongly opposed to the $4 billion in terms of the tax provisions that will provide for vouchers," said Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. You will recall that Kennedy and Mr. Bush became best buddies while Kennedy "assisted" with the passage of this Leftist legislative abomination. Memo to all not skeptical about working with Leftists: If you lie down with dogs, expect to scratch a lot from fleabites! Judicial Benchmarks... In the halls of justice on the right, speaking of vouchers, the Supreme Court Wednesday heard arguments defending a Cleveland, Ohio, program for school vouchers for disadvantaged children to escape failing schools -- under their parents' choice and discretion. The final decision is expected to be close, but why should that be, for as friend of The Federalist Linda Bowles properly asks, "It is time to return to parents control over the education and 'upbringing' of their own children. When and by what authority did the government take charge of the children? Whose children are they, anyway, and why, in the land of the free and the brave, has it become necessary to ask such a question?" And regarding children, another patriot friend of The Federalist, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court, affirmed a lower court ruling that denied child custody rights to a woman because she is a lesbian. Judge Moore wrote in the court's opinion, "Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated. Such conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws of this State and is destructive to a basic building block of society -- the family." >From the Left... All those Demos making hay of Enron are now on the run. Turns out that Enron was on the Clintonistas' "A list" of corporate courtiers, and most of the Enron principals were at Gore headquarters for election night last November. Oh, and now we know that Global Crossing not only provided a huge cash-out for Democrat National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe ... but it also anted up far more to Democrats than Republicans.... Sshhhh ... don't let the Leftmedia get hold of that story! And we especially like this comment from Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald to former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay: "You're perhaps the most accomplished confidence man since Charles Ponzi. I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fair to carnival barkers." >From the "Race Bait" Files, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan this week denounced the war on terrorism, suggesting that President Bush should be tried for war crimes. Farrakhan was joined at a conference in Inglewood, California by fellow bait masters Maxine Waters and Al Sharpton -- Je$$e Ja¢k$on was regrettably absent while in search of more Enron victims to exploit. The Commissars... The government always knows best, right? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced changes last October for required government forms associated with background checks that federally licensed firearms dealers must complete before finalizing gun sales, including a set of boxes instead of a fill-in line to indicate purchaser ethnicity, and a specific location for sales at gun shows. Well, the new forms were never mailed, and that prevented completion of gun sales nationwide this week! Comments by Dave Anver, President of Dave's Guns, the largest gun dealer in Colorado, typified events all over the country: "No one in the entire state could make any sales without the new form." (Turns out the government's printer could not get the contracted work done on time.) BATF employees were busily faxing out copies this week to backlogged gun sellers, but admitted they did not know when the problem would be corrected. As Ronald Reagan often reminded, "Giving a bureaucrat a new rule is like handing a pyromaniac a lighted match in a haymow." Regarding the redistribution of your income... This item from Ann Coulter on things funded by you and named for the "conscience of the Senate": "The Robert C. Byrd Highway; the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam; the Robert C. Byrd Institute; the Robert C. Byrd Life Long Learning Center; the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program; the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope; the Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing; the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse; the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center; the Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center; the Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center; the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building; the Robert C. Byrd Drive; the Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex; the Robert C. Byrd Library; the Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center; the Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center. And then it got late, and I had to stop researching. But it appears that every slab of concrete in West Virginia is named after Bob Byrd.... There may still be a toilet in West Virginia that is not yet named for Bob Byrd." >From the department of military readiness... Rounding out his trip in the West, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited the troops at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base, remarking on their essential role in the fight against Jihadistan, "If we are to win the war on terror and prepare for tomorrow, we have to take care of the most important asset we have, the men and women in uniform." Evidently, as our armed forces have been promised, "help is on the way." >From the department of military correctness... And Mr. Rumsfeld was queried about news reports this week on possible missions of the Pentagon's "Office of Strategic Influence," and whether those might include planting intentional disinformation with the press. Secretary Rumsfeld distinguished, "The word 'deception' is an interesting one because it would be wrong to use the word in any context other than a strategic or tactical deception. ... If they're getting ready to undertake a direct action against an al Qaeda stronghold someplace in Afghanistan, and they want to come in from the west, they may very well do things that will lead the people in that enclave to think they're coming in from the north instead of from the west. And that would be characterized as tactical deception. ... So it seems to me that what people have to understand about this is very clear: number one, government officials, the Department of Defense, this secretary and the people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the world the truth. And to the extent anyone says anything that at any time proves to have been not accurate, they correct it at the earliest possible opportunity. And I've read some of these articles that are floating around, and my advice is to think of it the way I've just described it: That's the way it works. That's the way it has worked. That's the way it will work in the future." >From the states... Virginia is jumping on the crafty bandwagon set in motion by Arkansas -- by getting ready to allow Virginians who believe themselves undertaxed to voluntarily pay more and and get their names posted on the Department of Taxation Web site. Bravo! The Alabama Senate has approved state public schools posting the Ten Commandments and other historical documents. The bill's sponsor, Sen. George Callahan, said of requiring Alabama's 1,445 public schools to display the Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, "This bill is to teach our children where our laws come from." In Georgia (where the Decalogue is not displayed in schools), a macabre discovery in Walker County (bordering Chattanooga, Tennessee), as investigators found that a crematorium owner decided to save himself a little money by returning potting soil to the family members of deceased, and dumping hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of bodies in mass graves around his property. (Several members of The Federalist Editorial Board have family members who are among the bodies recovered, or yet to be recovered, at this location.) Ray Marsh, owner of Tri-State Crematory, and once recognized as the county's "Business Person of the Year," has been arrested and jailed. (And a political footnote: Georgia Demo legislator Mike Snow, whose campaign received significant support from the Marsh family, introduced a bill in 1992 that would have exempted Tri-State Crematory from state inspection. That bill did not pass but in 1995, Snow did get a measure passed giving Marsh a two-year reprieve from regulation. In trickle-down Clintonista style, Snow has now authored a new bill to tighten licensing and inspection requirements for crematories, and another bill to make desecration or abuse of a human corpse a felony. Somebody get this guy a cell next to Marsh!) The "Non Compos Mentis" Department... "What I saw will burn in my mind and heart forever -- the boredom of the sows in the gestation crates ... all alone except for the flies that covered them.... [I] promised them that the suffering they endured would not be in vain. And I would make sure I did what I could to expose their plight." --Lauren Ornelas, U.S. campaigns director for Viva! USA, a vegan indoctrination organization. Court Jesters... A Manhattan judge reinstated a policeman fired for having sex with a prostitute in a women's restroom at the Manhattan district attorney's office. Justice Marcy Friedman said that since it was Officer Troy Jackson's only offense, "the penalty of dismissal is so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness." Well, we are shocked -- SHOCKED! -- to report this "sense of fairness" in a jurisprude! Culture comment... Making the world a "not safer" place, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee is providing 12,000 Olympic condoms if athletes request them from first aid stations. Friend of The Federalist and former Oklahoma Rep. Tom Coburn, a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, remarked, "For decades the federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote an unsubstantiated claim that promiscuity with condoms can be safe. We now know for a fact that this is a lie." Faith Matters... In a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention this week, A.G. John Ashcroft spoke of the war on terrorism, "We are a nation called to defend freedom -- a freedom that is not the grant of any government or document, but is our endowment from God." Barry Lynn, grand potentate of the misnamed "People for the American Way" (a radically Leftist group that advocates the errant notion of "separation of church and state" as if that were mandates by our constitution), criticized Ashcroft, saying, "It seems to increase the perception that [Ashcroft] cannot separate his religious agenda from his public office." Perhaps someone ought to remind Barry Lynn of the words of President George Washington, whose birthday we celebrate today: "Morality is the necessary spring of popular government.... Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without Christianity." On the frontiers of science... New research in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry suggests that a good night's rest may end up "rest in peace" -- as those who slept eight hours or more nightly were found likelier to die sooner than those sleeping five to seven hours each night. Sleep and depression researcher Daniel Kripke, the study's author, cautioned, "We don't know what the causal factors are. But it's possible that sleeping too much, like eating too much, is bad for your health. And it might be true that a little bit of sleep or sleep restriction, like restricting your diet, could be good for your health." Hmmm, The Federalist has reported on prior studies indicating naps and rest during the day are associated with longer life spans. So maybe it's good if this quandary keeps us up nights but we still sleep at our desks.... Around the world... Israeli forces blew up Palestinian radio and TV transmission facilities in Gaza, and Israeli troops entered Gaza City. So much for results of the much-vaunted "peace process"! Sounds like war to us.... And about how crime fighting works across the big water, Londoners are now six times likelier to be robbed or assaulted than New Yorkers, as London street crimes swelled by over 16 percent last year, and if committed at the same pace will total over 60,000 this year. Wow, look how well all those British spycams are working! A Swedish court ruled that a sperm donor cannot get off that lightly, giving only at the doctor's office, but must behave as a "financial father" by paying child support for three children after the separation of lesbian couple rearing his offspring. As the children's biological father he is obliged to pay $265 monthly after the women's 10-year relationship ended. And last... >From the New York Times department of corrections, award-winning free-lance writer Michael Finkel was excused from any further assignments after it was discovered that he used "improper narrative techniques." More specifically, the Times's editor noted its "policies prohibit falsifying a news account or using fictional devices in factual material." No word yet from Fox News on Geraldo von Munchausen's future with their network, after he got caught in one of his theatrical stunts -- tearfully claiming he was on "hallowed ground...I said the Lord's prayer," when, in fact, he was hundreds of miles from where several of our military personnel were killed by friendly fire. Memo to our readers: Caveat Emptor! -- PUBLIUS -- *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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