December 31, 2003

Sun’s Genuine, Home-Grown Pundit Recaps 2003

It is time once again to condense the year’s political, economic, international and philosophical controversies into read-bites for new Sun subscribers who have been adrift in a lifeboat.

As is customary for pundits, I examined my scribbles for errors of fact in order to commit mea culpa if I had made one. However, upon stern examination I decided I hadn’t.

My conclusions may be poor things, but they are my children. If you wish to dispute me in a letter to the editor, please use a sharp crayon.

 * * *

Jan. 5 – There were at least two other victims of the brouhaha over Sen. Trent Lot’s laudatory words about retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond – history and the U.S. Constitution.

• After losing a bid for the presidency in 1948 as a States Right candidate, Thurmond switched to the Republican Party and embraced civil rights.

Jan. 12 -- There’s no beating around the Bush, the president’s proposed economic plan is bold. It is expected that presidents have bold plans.

• W’s takes your breath away – immediate, large cuts in income taxes; and eliminate the tax on stock dividends entirely. .

Jan. 19 – Illinois Gov. George Ryan marked his retirement by commuting to life imprisonment the death-row sentences of 167 convicted felons.  

• Lost in lameduckian euphoria was the reality of horrendous murders committed by those now spared legal, biblical and just punishment.

Jan 26 – That "heartless" Dubya once more has one-world do-gooders all atwitter.

• They complain he proposes to increase U.S. foreign aid to developing countries by 50 percent (good) but insists they account for it (bad).

Feb. 2 – President Bush’s State of the Union address so discombobulated hard-shell Democrats they couldn’t take "yes" for an answer.

Feb. 9 – The war about to get underway in Iraq has a larger objective than that of ousting the Butcher of Baghdad.

• It will be another strike against terror and tyranny. It is a burden free people will shoulder – a sacrifice that brave warriors endure for noble cause. Thus does personal liberty endure.

Feb. 16 – Politically correct "diversity" will be stoutly attacked and defended in three reverse-discrimination cases coming before the U.S. Supreme Court April l.

• That the date is All Fools Day seems appropriate. The arguments are irrelevant. Our goal should be something more basic – tolerance.

Feb. 23 –Kim Jong-Il of North Korea gears up for more international terrorism by restarting his nuclear weapons plant.

• He is said already to possess two atom bombs. There is real danger that he might sell one to Osama bin Laden or some other madman with a grudge.

Mar. 2 – Two events impinging the Supreme Court role as guardian of law – versus legislator of law – have come under scrutiny.

• First, the justices ruled that pro-life activists picketing abortion clinics have the same First Amendment rights as striking labor union members.
• Then, Senate Democrats launched a filibuster to block the nomination of conservative Hispanic Miguel Estrada to a U.S. court of appeals.  
• The big enchilada is the next appointment to the Supreme Court that may fall onto Dubya’s plate.

Mar. 9 – A war in Iraq of 21 to 28 days is predicted. A plan for the future must be ready to go before the troops are ready to go.

• The United Nations has concocted a postwar plan to step in three months after victory and steer Iraq to self-government.
• What Iraq will need most is protection from the clutches of France, Germany and Russia – not mutual fondness for accommodation.

Mar. 16 – Americans are getting their noses out of joint over a myriad of trivial offenses.

• Leading the list are display of the Confederate flag, recitation of "under God" in the pledge of allegiance and the use of Indian sobriquets by sports teams.
• My list of affronts is headed by raw sex on TV, rapping, Internet pop-ups, one-issue politicians and comic strips on the fold.

Mar. 23 – The "shock and awe" bombardment of Baghdad has shocked "old Europe" and awed anti-war demonstrators.

• Bush critics fond of "cowboy" epithets are tongue-tied. He not only can climb stairs and chew gum at the same time, he also can juggle balls and whistle "God Bless America."

Mar. 30 – Why all the hand wringing?  The proclaimed war for Iraqi freedom is over victoriously. This is not to say fighting has stopped. Re construction  could drag on for months.  

• More importantly we must not pack up and go home. It is in our own self-interest – as the number-one global target -- to forge ahead against terrorism wherever it lurks.

Apr. 6 – As Lenin famously stated, Americans demonstrating in support of communism are "useful idiots."

• Today the chattering class is obsessed with criticism about U.S. conduct of the Iraq War aftermath.
• The First Amendment gives today’s useful idiots the right to be obnoxious. However, there is nothing in law or tradition that requires us to treat them seriously.

Apr. 13 – With the toppling of Saddam’s huge statue in the heart of Baghdad by jubilant Iraqi – and helpful American soldiers – the vultures of Europe began circling to pick the carcass of a rotten regime.

• President Bush suggests nations that played footsey with Saddam should forgive all or large parts of the debts owed them – as the United States has done so often with loans to collapsed third-world countries.

Apr. 20 – President Bush has refocused our attention to the economy. He sent his lieutenants into the hustings to sell his tax-cut plan.

• As Presidents Kennedy and Reagan demonstrated, tax relief creates jobs and increases net revenues for more social programs.

Apr. 27 – Welcome to the Third World War – a conflict more of global change than guns, but deadly nonetheless.

• Lest you think the three-week conquest of Iraq was the end of U.S. military involvement, think again.

May 4 – Unbelievably, Senate Democrats have mounted three, simultaneous filibusters against President Bush nominees for U.S. District Courts of appeal.

• The nominees asserted they would follow the law in deciding abortion issues. Dems were shocked, shocked.

May 11 – Before editorializing about Moralist William J. Bennett’s weakness for inside straights, know that your writer indulges in a monthly orgy of nickel-dime poker – an All American pastime at which I am victimized by avaricious companions.

• Sometimes it’s hard to recognize sin. A moralist is a preacher holding a royal flush.

May 18 – Two disturbing events in journalism popped up last week that raise storm warnings about the way news is disseminated in the information age hard upon us.

• A New York Times reporter was fired for falsifying many of his stories.
• The Federal Communications Commission proposes greater joint-ownership of newspapers and TV stations for a few media giants.

May 25 – Inflation, deflation – Chicken Little would have it both ways. Both are irrational. They are based on expectations of future economic conditions.

• Federal Chairman Alan Greenspan has taken us about as far as he can with monetary tools. Now we need some political assistance that will allow savers, investors, businesses and workers to keep enough of their money to keep the U.S. economic engine chugging.

June 1 – Now that President Bush has gotten half the tax cuts he wanted – sort of – to stimulate the economy, Democrats are beating the drums for a minimum wage hike.

• Any wage that increases costs without an increase in output is a delusion. It simply devalues money.
• Two months after a minimum wage increase, we are back where we were in purchasing power.

June 8 – United States is a nation most other countries love to hate.

• According to a Pew Research survey, a large majority the world’s people like American democratic and free market values.
• Yet, they dislike American efforts to promote them.
• To others we can only say: "Lead, follow or get out of the way."

June 15 – Folks receiving Medicare are going to get a prescription drug benefit long wished for, but it may be one the boomer generation will rue.

• Fiddle-de-dee. We will worry about that tomorrow.
• For now, some relief on personal health care costs – particularly for the poor – is a boon.

June 22 – One evil empire down and two to go. Protesting Iranian students have dealt themselves in.

• With a little pluck and luck, they may resurrect democracy strangled by their Islamic clerics.
• President Bush – determined to nullify terrorist regimes that threaten the United States – holds his cards close to his vest, Texas style.
• One thing the Iranians can be sure of, he’s not bluffing.

June 29 – Forget the 14th Amendment guaranteeing "equal protection of the laws."

• In the double-header University of Michigan cases regarding student admissions, the Supreme Court promulgated a wink-nudge-and-nod advantage for African-Americans,  Hispanics and Native Americans. Caucasians, Orientals and Arabs are snubbed.

July 6 – Anyone here know the name of a shifty tort lawyer? Perceived victims of society – abetted by resourceful attorneys – are cashing in. So, why not me?

• I’m lovable and cute. With a little coaching, I’m sure I can cough, moan or limp convincingly before a jury of my peers.

July 13 – President Bush has returned from his whirlwind tour of five African nations in time to host a brainstorming session with U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan.

• The topic will be: "Should the U.S. intervene in the bloody civil war in Liberia?"
• Liberia is a misguided experiment in nation building by a few zealots a century and a half ago – not by the U.S. government.  

July 20 – Don’t forget North Korea, the third Axis of Evil.

• Not because it will bomb us or anyone else, but because Dear Leader Kin Jong-Il sells nasty weapons to terrorists.
• North Korea is playing the old "don’t make me do it" game.

July 27 –  President Bush is accused by the chattering classes of "murdering" Saddam Hussein’s monster sons in a shootout with American soldiers.

• Bushphobics have come unglued over Iraq events.
• They are reduced to Clintonesque parsing of words by which success becomes failure.

Aug. 3 – The Vatican urges American Catholic lawmakers to vote as a moral duty against bills recognizing gay marriage.

• President Bush responded, "I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or the other."

Aug. 10 – A friend challenged me to name five Democrats I "respect." I rattled off eight:

• House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
• Sen. Zell Miller
• Sen. John Breaux
• Sen. Joe Lieberman
• Sen. Bill Nelson
• Hugh B. Price, president, National Urban League
• Former Sen. Sam Nunn
• Leon Panetta, chief of staff for President Clinton.

Aug. 17 – The contretemps of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard summer sojourners is both amusing and enlightening.

• A proposed string of eco-friendly windmill generators there upsets the Kennedys and Cronkites who object to "visual pollution." NIMBY.

Aug. 24 – Terrorists – overtly as nations, or covertly as maniacs – always make one, big mistake.

• They overestimate their initial effectiveness and underestimate the ultimate resolve of their victims.
• Bombing of the United Nations’ humanitarian aid office in Baghdad is the most recent example of self-defeating terrorism.

Aug. 31 – The ACLU has won its biggest battle to erase religion from everyday life – by forcing Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove his two-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the State House lobby.

• Though the Judaic-Christian instructions may not be totally germane to everyday law, the world would be a better place if faultfinders reviewed them occasionally.

Sep. 7 – It is customary on Labor Day for know-it-alls to evaluate the status of manufacturing workers – as if farm, professional and service sectors are sidelines.

• In toto, labor unions are doing very well and very poorly.  

Sep. 14 – The ceremonies memorializing 9/11/01 reminds us that America is engaged in a war that will profoundly redirect the course of civilization.

• The threat of terrorism, and the need to resist it, seems self-evident. Yet, there are many who want peace and prosperity without risk or travail. Stupidity is a mental disorder inured to the elixir of common sense.

Sep. 21 --  The governor-recall election in California – where voting by Mexican emigrants may decide the outcome – focuses attention on the meaning of citizenship.

• Is it a right, privilege or responsibility?
• Authors of the U.S. Constitution distrusted "popular factions" and "minority tyranny. Therefore, they invented "representative democracy" of checks and balances.

Sep. 28 – Let’s not quibble. We all know that liberals – controllers of the Democratic Party and so-called mainline media – are terminally biased.

• Politically correct pandering to win the hearts, minds and votes of selfish-interest groups threaten national unity.

Oct. 5 – This is an s. This is a b. They look different, yet critics of President Bush are alphabetically challenged.

• President Bush said in his State of the Union address last January that "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought uranium from Africa. Not "bought."

Oct. 12 – The California recall hoopla is over, but  serious political developments remain – not the least of which is the future of the Democratic and Republican parties.

• After examining bowls of chicken entrails, political pundits foresee a reordering of the political landscape that we have come to know and love.

Oct. 19 – As expected, some die-hard California Democrats charge voting irregularities in the recall election.

• Supposedly it disenfranchised African-Americans and Latinos.
• The charges are mirror complaints that the U.S. Civil Rights Commission abandoned after the Florida presidential election.

Oct. 26 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rattled media cages with a provocative memo to his top four subordinates by asking a pertinent question:

• "Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror?"
• Political partisans – foreign and domestic – skip past the deep, philosophical question to focus on perceived problems that suggest failures.

Nov. 2 – Wildfires in Southern California are the worst in its history – forcing us to rethink our relationship to Mother Nature.

• The loss of timber is a hundred times worse than the loss of pine tree that might have been lumbered off for jobs, homes, trade and a realistic environment.

Nov. 9 – There is good news or bad news – depending on your political persuasion and employment status.

• Third quarter figures on business productivity are pretty good. Unemployment figures are below the average since President Truman invented the index.  
• George Bush’s "little bitty" short-term tax cuts have stopped economic hemorrhaging.

Nov. 16 – Who do you think you are?  

• This is a question that increasingly worries Uncle Sam. Support for national identity cards seems to be growing exponentially.
• There is ample reason in these days of intrusive government to be wary of identification cards that could become a spy-bug for Big Brother.

Nov. 23 -- All the turkeys this week won’t be served up with cranberry sauce if Congress does what it has threatened for the past several years.

• Two long-awaited agreements – a prescription drugs benefit for Medicare, and increased energy supplies – have been lathered with applesauce for quick passage.

Nov. 30 – President Bush’s secret flight to Baghdad for Thanksgiving dinner with the troops has sent his critics into a tizzy.

• Nitpicking by eight of the nine Democrat presidential wannabes – particularly Howard Dean – has become tiresome.

Dec. 7 – Virtual reality – a term describing the make-believe world of computer games – was aptly used in Geneva, Switzerland, last week to characterize an informal peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians.

• The Freudian slip of the tongue was that of Yossi Beilin, formerly justice minister in the Israeli Labor Party, speaking to a dovecote of peace activists.

Dec. 14 – As if the Democratic Part is not in enough disarray, now comes former presidential candidate Al Gore endorsing Howard Dean.  

• Dean wows leftists, but centrists decide elections. Democrats have chosen to fight each other in the middle of the road, thereby trampling key voters there who decide elections.

Dec. 21 – Now that "we got him," what shall we do with Saddam Hussein? Since drawing and quartering is frowned upon these days, the fate of the Butcher of Baghdad is a quandary.

• I suggest something worse than death – solitary imprisonment for the rest of his life in a 10-by-10 cell on some uncharted island.
• No visitors, mail, newspapers, radio or TV. Just a pillbox of cyanide.

Dec. 28 – While taking down Christmas decorations, it is appropriate to think about the "wall of separation between church and state.

• The "wall" dictum does not exist in the Constitution.
• The vast majority of Americans – Christians, Judaists, and Muslims – believe in one God and should have equal access to display in government spaces.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers