PSYCHE

Dan Rather has announced that he will step down as anchorman for the CBS Nightly News in March. He is going to continue to be an investigative "reporter" for 60 minutes. I suppose that the anchor position was getting in the way of his advocacy "journalism." As a full-time 60 minutes reporter, he will no longer be encumbered by facts.

No replacement have been announced, but possible candidates include Baghdad Bob, Michael Moore, or Terry McAuliffe.

Ironies Ahead!

"A top aide to new CIA Director Porter Goss warned the associate deputy director of counterintelligence about unauthorized leaks to the media."
How do we know about this? The story was leaked!
I am sorry, BUT WILL Bureaucrats IN ALL agencies JUST SHUT UP AND DO YOUR JOB!
Let the decision maker do their job, the bureaucrats do theirs!

The ACLU, Defenders of "freedom"(that is there own version of freedom)


The ACLU has once again saved the Union from that vial group known as The Boy Scouts!

"CHICAGO, Nov. 15 -- The Pentagon has agreed to warn military bases worldwide that they should not directly sponsor Boy Scout troops, partially resolving claims that the government has improperly supported a group that requires members to believe in God."

{Satire alert} When asked what alternatives young men may seek to fill their time, an ACLU representative suggested a good drug den or house of ill repute rather then the vial moralistic society of the Boy Scouts.

I suppose that they also have a problem with teaching Young men to shoot.
And people wonder why there is a Red, Blue state divide in America.

On my honor
I will do best,
to do my duty
to GOD and Country
and to obey the Scout Law
To help other people at all times
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake,
and morally straight.

A Specter in the Room

I have not commented on the ongoing battle that conservatives(of which I consider myself) have waged against Senator Arlen Specter's bid to become Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I have many concerns about the ramifications of a Specter chairmanship and the results of the efforts to deny him the position.

First, I believe that High level pressure was put on Specter early on in the PA primary, and specter had to have made some concessions to get active White House support in order for Specter to win the primary. Therefore I do not think Specter will be very active early on in the nomination process opposing nominees, especially for lower level district and appellate vacancies. This ties into my second concern. I fear that if Specter decides to go off the reservation on an early term SCOTUS nominee or a high profile Appellate position, he will harm PA greatly in that all of his pet projects, his initiatives, and funding that will benefit PA will be blocked for the remainder of his tenure. Finally, I fear that if Specter is denied the Chairmanship or his projects harmed as a result of his actions in the Judiciary Committee, He may resign from the Senate(His ego may not allow for this). If he is to resign, our Democratic Governor will get to appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. This is not very important now, considering the Republicans have a 55 members majority, but any loss in the majority will hurt the party's ability to govern effectively.

I do not see a bright side to the "Specter" issue. I think that all the public and behind the scenes pressure is good in that it shines the light on him and may make him allow nominees come a vote that he may have "Borked" without such pressure. But, I think his ego may get the best of him because he may be looking for a "Legacy" which may allow him to rationalize destroying nominees in committee. If Specter tows the line on the BIG nominees, I think the White House, and many conservatives would not mind giving Specter a few wins with District and low profile appellate nominees, but the Big nominees are non-negotiable. If Specter gets the Chair, The White House, and any conservatives Justice on the SCOTUS looking to retire, should do so near term while Specter can be contained. At most, if we hold off for two years when, hopefully, we have a Republican Governor(preferably Bill Scranton) then if Specter is forced out, it would not matter as much.

Well It looks like the Warrior Princess may get promoted to Secretary of State! I wonder if she is going to have the same roll in State that Porter Goss has in the CIA, you Know, draining the Swamp:

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

Just remember that Secretary of State use to be the preferred position to make a run for President! She may just be setting herself up for 2008, that is, if she can't become the Commissioner of the NFL!

America, F#$K Yea!

You have to love this:

"The soldiers shared laughs during the more surreal moments, such as when a psychological-operations truck rolled through the city blaring the theme song to the movie "Team America: World Police." In the film, Rambo-like puppets hunt terrorists and blow up the Eiffel Tower in the process. There is no need to thank us, the puppets tell outraged Parisians."

Misplaced priorities?

In what kind of world do the executives at CBS live where they Fire a producer for cutting into CSI to announce the death of a terrorist, BUT refuses to take action when one of their major "NEWS" programs tries to pass off forged documents to attack the President?

Yasser Arafat Dead!

This could be the greatest opportunity for peace or touch off a civil war inside Palestine. I fear that the differing factions, the PLO, the PA, Hamas, Hezbala, and various nation states like Syria and Iran will all fracture causing a civil war. The losers, will be the Palestinian people. Conversely, with the end of Arafat's Road block to peace, real advancements might be made towards a lasting peace in the region. either way, his death with have an interesting effect geopolitics for the next few months. I f Syria tries to prevent any regional peace process, I believe that the bullseye they already have on them will turn into a red glowing fireball.
Anyway, May God have mercy on Arafat's Soul!

Drawing the Wrong Conclusions(OR fun with math)


Much has been made about the rising up of the evangelical vote in last Tuesday's election. I do not believe that the large evangelical turnout tells the complete story of the 2004 election.

The following is a list of candidates and their vote totals from 2000 that ran on either a conservative or Libertarian ticket:
Harry Browne (LBT, LBT-IA, LBF, I) 384,000
Patrick J. Buchanan (REF, RFM, FRE, BP, BR, CF, IDP, RTL, I) 449,000
Howard Phillips (CON, CST, AIP, AMC, BP, CNC, CPF, IAP, UST, I) 98,000
Notice that these candidates received 1,764,000 votes nationwide.

Now look at the candidates that ran on either a conservative or libertarian ticket in 2004:
Badnarik 383,000
Peroutka 132,000
Notice that these candidates only received 515,000 votes nationwide. That is a difference of 1,249,000 votes between 2000 and 2004.

Why is this important, well lets look at Ohio:
In 2000:
Harry Browne (LBT, LBT-IA, LBF, I) received 13,475 votes
Patrick J. Buchanan (REF, RFM, FRE, BP, BR, CF, IDP, RTL, I) -26,724
Howard Phillips (CON, CST, AIP, AMC, BP, CNC, CPF, IAP, UST, I) -3,823
That is 44,022 votes in Ohio for conservative and libertarian candidates.

In 2004:
Badnarik received 14,331 votes and
Peroutka- 11,614votes.

That is 25,654 votes for conservative and libertarian candidates and a net difference of 18,368. Assuming that those who voted in 2000 for a third party voted for Bush in 2004, it can be determined that those 18,368 votes did have an effect in that the margin for Bush in Ohio was only 136,000 votes and those 18,368 could have constituted 14% of Bush's margin of Victory(18,368/136,000).

The point in all of this, and I am not sure I made it, is that while evangelical turnout may have helped Republicans keep pace with the Democrat's increase in turnout, I would suggest that Conservative and Libertarian voters who normally cast their vote for a Third party, cast their vote on Tuesday for Bush and helped put him over the 50% mark.

Lets look at it this way. In 2004, 1,249,000 fewer voters cast their ballots for a Libertarian/conservative candidates then did in 2000 while voter turnout increased. If those voters followed their normal voting pattern(assuming they voted for Bush this time around), Bush would have received 58,527,000 voters rather than 59,770,000 and he would have dropped from 51% of the popular vote to 50%. (Bush's vote total{58, 527,000}/ total votes{117,017,627})

Now a 1% swing does seem trivial, but I believe that the psychological factor of breaking the 50% barrier allows Bush to claim a larger mandate than would a 49% or 50% total. Also, the 1,249,000 voters who did not vote for a conservative/libertarian candidate could have constituted 36% of Bush margin of Victory Nationally( The difference in third party Lib/Con voters from 2000 to 2004{1,249,000}/Margin of Victory {3,463,000})

Now this all highly speculative and I would NEVER claim to be a master of statistics, but it does seem to suggest that conservative/libertarian voters may have come "Home" to the GOP for this election. These voters generally support pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, strict budgetary constraints, and smaller governments. If these voters did indeed support the President this time around, the question remains, why would they support a President who appears to be against their core beliefs? The Answer, of course is The war on Terror. Contrary to common wisdom, an important swing voting bloc may have been influenced into voting for Bush not because of Social issues, but because of 911. My main fear is that all of this talk of an evangelical mandate may turn off 36% of Bush's margin of Victory in this election and may result in a backlash against the GOP in Future elections.

Now, all of this raises question about the rolls of Third party candidates in future elections. Could our highly divided electorate signify the end of "viable" third party candidates like Perot and Nader? Have third parties reached their pinnacle of influence with their effect on the 92 and 2000 elections? And, if third parties are no longer a viable alternative, what will be the effect on the two major parties; will they adopt certain aspects of the third parties(like in the early 1900's), or will they ignore their views and chase away a portion of the population from participating in elective government? Time will only answer these questions, but I believe that we may not have to wait too long before they answered.

"Your honour calls you hence...
And all the gods go with you! Upon your sword
Sit laurel victory."
- William Shakespeare

The troops are positioned, the supplies are in place, the strategy is set and the battlefield has been chosen. The Ground war Begins At 6:45 AM.
ONWARD to Victory for our President!


Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."
- Winston Churchill