Libertarian Leanings

Start 'em young

Ah, the sad plight of Air America.  They've had some unwelcome publicity lately, compliments of Brian Maloney, who brought the story to light at The Radio Equalizer.  It arises from Air America's financial problems.  Apparently, Air America borrowed $480,000 in governmental grant money from Bronx based Gloria Wise Community Center that they say they plan to pay back, assuming Gloria Wise Community Center can stay afloat long enough to collect.  But there's another connection to Gloria Wise -- Camp Air America!  Air America came up with the brilliant idea to team up with Gloria Wise and start their own liberal madrassa.   Great idea!  Churn out legions of loyal little listeners.  Where else will they get 'em?  Gee Al, good luck with that.  It ought to build up the listenership, but do you think you can wait that long? 

Velvet Hammer

According to this front page article in the Washington Post, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has taken control of U.S. foreign policy.  This means George Bush has taken control of U.S. foreign policy, and so any successes we might enjoy as a nation are subject to some degree of skepticism, in spite of a litany of achievements.

It is too early to know whether the new tactics will ultimately bring results, and many of Rice's steps so far this year have been limited to overtures or temporary fixes. But those have at the least created momentum where before there was deadlock.

On North Korea, Rice got the prickly Pyongyang government back to six-nation talks last week on nuclear disarmament by publicly recognizing it as a "sovereign state," then empowering her top aide on East Asia to repeatedly meet privately with the North Koreans -- extended contact forbidden during Powell's era.

On Iran, Rice agreed to offer incentives -- allowing the Islamic republic to apply for eventual membership in the World Trade Organization and buy badly needed spare parts for aging passenger aircraft -- in exchange for a European pledge to support U.N. Security Council action if talks fail. Powell had trouble just getting the White House to drop language including Iran in an "axis of evil," which implied eventual confrontation.

With India, she brokered a deal to sell peaceful nuclear technology that will cement U.S.-India relations, but which may also risk undermining the treaty to halt nuclear weapons proliferation.

On Sudan, Rice found middle ground between the administration's rejection of the International Criminal Court and U.N. efforts to launch a war crimes investigation into violence in the Darfur region. The State Department helped draft a U.N. resolution supporting an international probe that would pass -- but on which Washington could abstain.

Secretary Rice is the perfect choice to head the Department of State.  Philosophically in tune with President Bush, she enjoys his trust and shares his inclination for direct and firm talk.  They are a world shaking team, in a world that has desperately needed shaking.

On her first trip abroad, Rice warned the European Union not to lift an arms embargo on China, telling diplomats they would rue the day if U.S. troops ever faced European-armed Chinese soldiers across the Taiwan straits. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who then held the rotating European Union presidency, was so startled by her tough talk that he spilled his coffee in the lap of European foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"The Europeans sent delegation after delegation saying, 'Please be more flexible.' She did not yield," Burns said. "She told them, 'You've united the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress. That's not an easy thing to do.' " The Europeans ultimately shelved their plan.

Colleagues have dubbed Rice the "velvet hammer." Philip Zelikow, State Department counselor and a close adviser, said that "one of her gifts is that she knows how to say very direct things to foreign governments in a way that is not confrontational. She is very assertive, very firm, but doesn't leave them feeling sullen and resentful."

It must really suck to be the Washington Post right now -- faced with U.S. successes at nearly every turn and forced into reporting them, when they'd really rather not.  Fortunately for our mainstream press there is always Iraq.

Rice's legacy is more likely to be determined by two historic challenges: salvaging the U.S. intervention in Iraq and making headway in promoting democracy in the Islamic world. On both, long-term strategies are not yet visible.

Ace reporters Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler find no strategies, but they keep digging.  In search of insight they go to Derek Chollet who served in the U.S. State Department as chief speechwriter to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke.

"If we are not able to find a meaningful or satisfying closure to Iraq, whatever definition of success we can rally around, whatever good ideas they have for the rest of the world will be undermined," said Derek Chollet, former foreign policy adviser to John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate. "All of this will be words if they don't get Iraq right."

Hmmm.  Mr Chollet was also advisor to John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign.  An interesting source for opposing viewpoint.  Are opposing viewpoints that hard to find?  I guess so.  For the last word, the ever fair and balanced Washington Post goes to former and future failed presidential candidate Joe Biden.

"She's off to a strong start. But it takes time to turn a supertanker," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The administration is beginning to realize it's not enough to be strong. We also have to be smart, that we can't secure America's interest solely with force, acting alone. I hope Condi completes the turn from ideology to reality."

"We also have to be smart," he says.  Good lord, will they ever stop kicking that dead horse?

Property Rights Amendment

In response to the dreadful Supreme Court decision in the Kelo v. New London case, Stephen Macklin at Hold The Mayo has started a petition for a Constitutional Amendment that will restrict government power of eminent domain by strictly defining "public use".  The wording of the proposed amendment is:

The right to ownership of property being the cornerstone of liberty, no government, or agency thereof, within these United States shall have the authority to take property from any person, corporation, or organization through exercise of eminent domain for other than a public use without just compensation.

Public use shall be understood to be property the government owns or retains the paramount interest in, and the public has a legal right to use. Public use shall be understood to include property the government owns and maintains as a secure facility. Public use shall not be construed to include economic development or increased tax revenue. Public use of such property shall be maintained for a period of not less than 25 years.

Just compensation shall be the higher of twice the average of the price paid for similar property in the preceding six months, or twice the average of the previous 10 recorded similar property transactions. Compensation paid shall be exempt from taxation in any form by any government within these United States.

You can sign the petition at the Open Source Amendment Project.  I've signed it and I'd recommend everybody sign it.  As a result of the Kelo v. New London decision, it is now considered "public use" if in the opinion of local government, higher tax revenue will be realized by the transfer of privately owned property from one individual to another.  This is an issue that needs our attention.

Update:  8/3/2005, Captain's Quarters carries a horror story from Oakland where thriving small businesses are being forced out to make way for a private apartment complex.  Things are going to keep getting worse until we get some action, folks.

Home again

We started our drive back home from North Carolina's Outer Banks this morning around 7:00, and pulled into our driveway in Nashua, New Hampshire about a half hour ago.  Blathering will resume tomorrow. 

The Plame Game continues

Was it the outing of Valerie Plame that was the crime?  Or a leak from within the CIA?  My theory as I artfully articulated in this brilliant post is looking pretty good.

So, here I sit with my tin foil hat jammed down firmly over my ears. I'm sticking with the conspiracy theory.  CIA and compliant press join forces to unseat a sitting president.

Rick Moran at RightWing NutHouse likes it too, and actually has real information on the topic, not merely wild conjecture of the type you find here.  Today's American Thinker carries Rick's article, CIA vs. the White House: Inman speaks, in which he says,

Spruiell asks an excellent question: “Where was all the liberal outrage over the leaking of classfied information when the leaks were designed to hurt the Bush administration?”

This is where the scandal’s focus should be; the deliberate and selective leaking of classified information by unelected bureaucrats in the months leading up to the election for the purpose of swinging the contest against the President.

Meanwhile speculation is rife at Just One Minute.  Why is Judith Miller in jail?

Air America -- making us proud

From Brian Maloney:

Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in governmental grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network.

Via Truth Laid Bear.  Read the whole thing.

Ill-equipped?

The Washington Times headline says Ill-equipped soldiers use excess force.   Somehow "ill-equipped" seems a bit misleading.  The story is based on a secret memo that was acquired by the Times.

The memo says soldiers need precision-guided pistols, in addition to heavy-fire machine guns, to ensure that innocent people are not killed...

In the March 15 memo, Gen. Chaves tells top commanders in Baghdad that he does not have the right mix of weapons to fire from the turrets of armored Humvees and other vehicles that guard supply trucks...

Gen. Chaves also wrote of a second benefit. "A soldier wielding a pistol is viewed by local nationals as a token of authority," he said. "Historically, Iraqi soldiers in positions of authority carried pistols and were known to not hesitate to shoot alleged criminals."

So a request for a laser-guided pistols is spun into headline implying our troops are being sent into battle without proper support.  I wouldn't have expected that from the Times.  Maybe it's just me.

The courts

Today's lead editorial on Opinion Journal shows why Supreme Court nominations are so important to the Democrats.

The "assault weapons ban" expired with a whimper last year. State legislatures have been rolling back firearm laws because the restrictions were both ineffectual and unpopular. Gun-controllers have responded by avoiding legislatures and going to court, teaming with trial lawyers and big city mayors to file lawsuits blaming gun makers for murder. Companies have been hit with at least 25 major lawsuits, from the likes of Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago and Cleveland. A couple of the larger suits (New York and Washington, D.C.) are sitting in front of highly creative judges and could drag on for years.

When they are unable to win at the ballot box, Democrats turn to the courts.  What will they do if justices interpret the law rather than create it?

Conservative Friends

Drew Burchett at Conservative Friends has begun a Blog of the Week feature, and for his very first featured blog he picked Libertarian Leanings.  I'm quite honored to say the least.  Stop over for a visit and read all the nice things he says about me.  Oh, and also for some good conservative commentary.

New York

On Saturday we paid our respects to the World Trade and the people who were there on September 11, 2001.  We had driven down from Nashua Friday night, checking into the Marriott a couple of blocks from Ground Zero just before midnight.  It was nearly 1:00am by the time we were able to walk over to Liberty Street and look down into the hole that was the site of the twin towers.  Liberty Street is still closed to all but pedestrian traffic.

Liberty Street has been closed to traffic before.  After the 1993 bombing huge air conditioning units were installed in the roadway where they remained for more than a year.  In those days I was a frequent passenger on the Number One train from Columbus Circle to the Cortland Street, World Trade Center subway stop.  The Cortland Street stop had been somewhere in the middle of that vast hole.  As I looked into it, I tried to guess where it was that I used to get off the train, but I couldn't tell.  It seems like such a long time ago.

Susan and I came for a visit to New York eight months after the attack.  We couldn't get close to the World Trade at that time.  A wide area from Broadway to Battery Park City  was closed to the public, so we went around, wondering north along the Hudson to the World Financial Center.  Glass had been blown out of the Winter Garden.  Farther up a bagel shop had been abandoned.  Eight months after the attack there were still coffee cups left on the tables and dust was every where.

But Saturday was brilliant and beautiful.  Saturday we walked through the Winter Garden.  The palm trees are back.  We passed by that bagel shop but decided against going in for coffee.  The lines were too long.  I love New York.  It's a startling admission.  I'm a Red Sox fan after all, but there it is.  We went up to Central Park and sat on a bench to watch them play softball.  We had lunch in a local bar -- DJ Reynolds -- great place for a beer or anything else you might want.  We had dinner that evening at Au Manderin just off the Winter Garden.  It was great to be back.

The world is a different place and America is a different place, too.  I find inspiration in New York.  New York is tough and resilient.  New Yorkers are tough and resilient.  And very American.  As New Yorkers have rebounded to begin the task of rebuilding a broken piece of their city, America has rebounded to begin the task of eradicating those forces that had hoped to hold America and New York hostage to their violent whims.  We have a long way to go on both fronts but both are well started.  New York inspires me and strengthens my hope.  I believe we will win.