Quote of the week…

“To be sure, Mr. Bush’s own personality, as seen on Sept. 11, is one factor unifying people. He is a president with authority and a transparently decent man around whom people now naturally rally. But as the nation enters into the dark room of a continued war on terrorism against the background of a continuing recession, he may need to think more carefully about how to shape a permanently united America from our present multicultural flux.” –John O'Sullivan

On cross-examination…

“Can you imagine Bill Clinton making evil the centerpiece of a State of the Union? I doubt it, especially since he had to devote so much of his presidency to a kind of post-modernist relativism in which nothing is ever quite what it seems (not words, not sex, not promises).” –Rich Lowry

Open Query…

“‘United We Stand,’ proclaimed the post-Sept. 11 signs. What unites a people more than a common tongue? We can yak all we want about unity, but there are powerful forces working to fragment us in the name of equality and inclusion.” –Don Feder

The BIG lie…

“Even in this time of crisis, the Republicans are back to politics-as-usual, as we can see from the ‘economic stimulus bill’ they are trying to pass and which gives huge tax-breaks to corporations. It shows us that Republican legislators are still the representatives of big business, leaving the Democrats to defend working people….” –Barbra Streisand

News from the Swamp…

In the Executive Branch, the General Accounting Office, for the first time in its history, this week filed suit to obtain information on behalf of Congress from the executive branch, in this case suing Vice President Dick Cheney for information used in his formulations of national energy policy. The Federalist has previously argued, on pragmatic political grounds, for release of this information to remove fodder from Leftist cannons. (We don’t think Team Bush has anything seriously embarrassing to hide about their “financial relations with that donor, Enron Corporation.”) But we believe the GAO case has constitutional merit, in that Congress is a coequal branch of government to the executive and has a legitimate oversight role in the development of public policy, as the energy policy in question undoubtedly is.

That having been said, here is the scoop on the Enron Demo-ruse. Leftists complain that Enron’s lobby (headed by a Democrat) asked the Bush administration to not impose energy price controls. Ostensibly, the “smoking gun” in this matter is a memo between Enron and the Vice President which noted Enron’s objection to government imposed energy price caps. But at the time of the energy crunch in California, every free-market advocate in the nation, including the President and Vice-President, had already indicated their lifelong opposition to central government meddling in commodity markets.

As The Federalist noted a year ago (#01-04), “The fiasco in the People’s Republic of California began four years prior to President Bush’s inauguration, when that state ‘deregulated’ energy by freeing prices at the wholesale level while freezing them at the retail level and providing consumers no lasting choice or competition (among what had previously been monopoly energy retailers).” Free enterprise Socialism – California Style! (We noted our strong opposition to price controls, even though we received no memos from Enron executives.)

As quoted from the Wall Street Journal in that same edition: “Gov. Gray Davis…didn’t get it last summer when the trouble began. He didn’t get it last month when the problems multiplied, and he still doesn’t get it. Not only did Mr. Davis accuse out-of-state power suppliers of being ‘pirates’ and ‘marauders,’ but he has proposed making the withholding of power a criminal act and suggested committing public lands to power-plant construction ‘on the condition that energy be distributed only in California’.”

Six months into his presidency, Mr. Bush, our vigorous objections noted, did endorse an electricity-price-cap plan ordered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “They’re not talking about firm price controls…,” he said. “They’re talking about a mechanism to mitigate any severe price spike that may occur, which is completely different from price controls.” A “rose by any other name” we rebutted.

In the final analysis, the Left’s smoking gun subterfuge is all smoke and no gun. But the rule is that if a partisan issue is too complicated for most consumers to grasp, and can be spun with Leftmedia complicity in such a way as to undermine support for conservative initiatives, spin away.

Elsewhere in the Executive Branch, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Thursday that the term “fetuses” may be replaced with the phrase “unborn children.” The reclassification was intended to give low-income women access to prenatal care, but the language change is excellent news for pro-life advocates in contending that preborn children should be recognized as having the same rights as they possess once on the delivery table.

And on the silly side of the swamp, some wags have suggested modesty – even prudery – as the motivation behind new blue curtains for background to Justice Department briefings. Seems that the podium from which Attorney General John Ashcroft keeps the public abreast of news developments is directly in front of two partly unclothed figures representing justice that will now be covered up. (If that’s the only cover-up at DOJ now, we can live with that.)

In the House of Commons, Demo Leader Richard Gephardt, who provided the Democrat response to Mr. Bush’s speech, has been making early presidential bid noises. To wit: “I would ask anybody: A year ago, if you had the choice of investing in your Nasdaq account or investing in Social Security, which of those two accounts would be better today? … Which would be stronger? There is no doubt in our mind that a Social Security account over the last year would have been far stronger.” Yes, but since Social Security is generally a benefit maturing over a long period of time – about 30-40 years – retirees today can rightly ask what their money would be worth had it been invested in equities rather than left on deposit in the nonexistent Social Security trust fund.

From the Left…

From the “Je$$e Ja¢k$on” Files, the good reverend, “working” with former Enron employees this week, had to respond to questions about donations to Rainbow/PUSH by – you guessed it! – Enron. His first reply: “To my knowledge, no, I have not and neither have any of our entities.” His later acknowledgment: “Whatever it was, it was minuscule.” Ja¢k$on met with former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay for prayer and support, comparing Lay to the biblical figure Job. But that comparison will not fit until Lay is scraping his boils with potsherds!

Hey, you know the Leftspin machine is in trouble when the only guys Daschle-Gephardt, et al., could round up to lead the charge are Je$$e Ja¢k$on and $hyster $harpton! And with all their effort to spin Enron toward the White House, you would think someone would have the common decency to shine some light on this tidbit regarding the massive bankruptcy of fiber-optic cable company Global Crossing. It seems that Democrat National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe’s buddy at Global, Gary Winnick, gave McAuliffe an early in for $100,000. It seems McAuliffe also got an early out – cashing out with a cool $17,900,000 profit before the company bellied up, leaving the remaining stockholders with, well, nothing.

(Apparently McAuliffe took some lessons from Sen. Ms. Hillary Rodham-Clinton, who, you may recall, turned a $1,000 commodities investment into $100,000 – with a little help from her friends at Tyson Chicken. That would be the same Tyson Chicken served up with new indictments by U.S. Attorneys two weeks ago.)

Judicial Benchmarks…

In the halls of justice on the right, the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld preeminence of the Georgia Defense of Marriage Act, limiting marriage to one man and one woman, and ruling that a Vermont civil union is not the equivalent of a traditional marriage regardless of other states’ interpretation. The decision arose from the divorce of Darian and Susan Burns, in which Darian currently has custody of their three children, and visitation agreements barred the children from exposure to unmarried cohabitation. Susan Burns had obtained a Vermont “civil union” with her lesbian cohabitant and asked the court to recognize this and allow visits with the children. The Georgia court ruled unanimously, saying, “even if Vermont had purported to legalize same-sex marriages, such would not be recognized in Georgia. …[T]he Defense of Marriage Act] clearly states that it is the public policy of the state of Georgia to recognize the union only of a man and a woman. Marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited in this state.”

In the halls of injustice on the left, a U.S. District judge tossed out student-led nondenominational prayers of grace at the Virginia Military Institute, ending a 50-year-old tradition at the academy. Family Research Council’s Jan LaRue objected, “We have absolutely no evidence that the intent of the framers of the First Amendment or any other part of the Constitution was to prohibit or obliterate these practices…. I don’t think the ACLU’s got a prayer [of succeeding on appeal].” We second that objection!

The Commissars…

From the “Bureaucrati Ignoramus” Files: Newly issued Department of Transportation guidelines for airport security screeners in the “FAA Guidance for Screeners and Other Security Personnel” prohibit security measures focusing on passengers most likely to be terrorists: “Selection [for closer examination] must not be based solely because a person speaks Arabic, Farsi, or another foreign language, or solely because they speak with an accent that may lead one to believe they are Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and/or Muslim.” If that isn’t the first-cut criterion for “closer examination,” what is? Fuses extending out of sneakers?

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

Do you believe it’s done by taxation only? Recent investigations examining the impact of regulation and taxation on the American economy have concluded it’s more detrimental than previously thought. A new study by W. Mark Crain and Joseph M. Johnson calculated that U.S. manufacturing firms spent $2.2 million each, roughly $1,700 per employee, complying with federal workplace regulations in 2000. This places the total cost to the U.S. manufacturing sector at $32 billion in 2000. (Earlier studies appear to have underestimated regulatory costs by about 75%.)

From the department of military readiness…

Guess what’s right on track! The Federalist’s recommended path for rapid emplacement of effective, flexible ballistic missile defenses! Last Friday, a Navy cruiser equipped with the Aegis defense system engaged in a successful test of Navy Theater Wide interception by shooting down a rocket off Hawaii. Broadening the capabilities of these existing sea-based platforms is the best way to get quick deployment of such protections for our countrymen and our allies.

From the states…

Private detective and security guard Donald G. Arnold is a Vietnam veteran, president of his neighborhood association, and was Maryland’s 2000 “citizen of the year” for work with police in southeast Baltimore to make the city safer. Arnold’s recent application for renewal of his permit to carry a gun was turned down, however, under state guidelines for enforcing federal law barring firearms possession to anyone convicted of even certain minor crimes. Arnold’s disqualifying offense? In 1969 he was convicted for participation in a barroom melee after a man eying his Army jacket called him a “baby killer.”

And the New Jersey Board of Education has unveiled new history curriculum standards, but these pass right over any inclusion of the American founders – no requirements for covering George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. State officials defending the new standards claimed that teachers would, of course, make sure students “recognize the names of some major figures in American history.” Perhaps the “Garden State” ought to change that nickname – more fertilizer than flowers there, we’d say!

In economic news…

The 32nd annual World Economic Forum meetings kicked off in New York City Thursday behind concrete barriers and amid expectations of rowdy street protests. Chairman Hamid Karzai, interim leader of Afghanistan addressed the confab at its opening, as poverty, redevelopment amid recession, and combating terrorism are the organization’s policy goals this session. And they mean to fight all three with only materialistic tools!

In business news…

Amazon.com recently announced it has finally survived an accounting quarter in the black! We knew some Internet enterprise could eventually operate in the black…especially if Andersen was doing the accounting. Now that you have all done your part with Amazon.com, please turn your attention to Federalist.com, where we also desire a small margin of net revenues over expenses.

The “Dumb and Dumber” Department…

You may recall Dr. Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns, who equates people and chickens. (The Federalist #02-02 reported that Davis said, “While I would not dream of using arguments to diminish the horror of the September 11th attack for thousands of people, I would also suggest that the people who died in the attack did not suffer more terrible deaths than animals in slaughterhouses suffer every day.”) This week she’s back – protesting the hilarious Carl’s Jr. commercials in which a group of men, one snapping off a latex glove, surround a chicken looking for its “nuggets.” Davis likened the portrayal to a gang rape on a woman. Hey, we like those ads – we’ve not only wondered where to find the “nuggets” on the chicken, but also the “fingers”! Maybe right next to the “lips”? But we are even more perplexed that the Carl’s Jr. ads tout their offering of “Chicken Strips.” Sounds like weird bestial voyeurism to us, but then some people may like plucking chickens….

Culture comment…

Isn’t the New Hampshire state motto, “Live Free Or Die”? A favorite target around our editorial shop, Princeton “bioethicist” Peter Singer, told advocates for the disabled at the New Hampshire Governor’s Commission on Disability he considers murder of severely disabled newborns morally acceptable. “I do think that it is sometimes appropriate to kill a human infant. For me, the relevant question is, what makes it so seriously wrong to take a life? Those of you who are not vegetarians are responsible for taking a life every time you eat. Species is no more relevant than race in making these judgments.” No nuggets for him, then!

Faith Matters…

Announcement this week of a revised NIV Bible has raised up a stir. While The Federalist has not yet reviewed the evangelical-translated language, rather than being a stiff bow to political correctness, we suspect the new terminology has more to do with changes in modern English definitions and usage – for example, with the word “men” less often than before construed as meaning “all humans” but today usually taken as meaning only “all males.” In other words, we don’t think the TNIV rewrite of The Lord’s Prayer begins, “Our Somebody Out There Somewhere, Yo….” Being keepers of “original intent,” we’ll be on the case, and we’ll let you know of any real violations of original meaning that might be discovered!

Around the world…

Terrorists in Pakistan continue to hold captive Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl. Back home, we join his young expectant wife and his colleagues in prayer for his safe return. But spilling innocent blood is sport to his captors, and our military colleagues on the front with Jihadistan assure us that sufficient notice has been given that should Danny’s life be taken, the cost will be swift – and a hundred-fold.

And speaking of terrorists abroad and the media, the London Evening Standard noted the Bush administration has muted European criticism of the treatment of al Qaeda detainees at Gitmo (including three Brits): “America is threatening to return up to 40 alleged al Qaeda fighters to Britain, presenting the government with a security, legal and diplomatic nightmare.” Nothing concentrates the clarity of Leftist minds better than the prospect of having to harbor a terrorist!

And last…

We know beauty is only skin – and there are only so many beautiful heads – so political entrepreneur Arnie Rubin may be onto something in proposing a new political action committee called HAIRPAC to support follicularly challenged candidates for elective office. Rubin said, “We figure we get discriminated against because we haven’t got enough hair.” Perhaps a couple of their slogans could be: “The Bald Truth And Nothing But,” or “No Secrets Under Our Hats.”