Rave #4 - Wal-Mart's Debt to America

Last month, a study sponsered by Wal-Mart found numerous indicators of the company's effect on the U.S. economy, both good and bad numbers. It seems that no matter how successful an American company is at acheiving profitable status and market domination, the children of the Entitlement Mentality will always pursue the "evil angle" and potential demise of this institution, unless of course that institution gives them a hand out. But nonetheless, Wal-Mart has pushed on and succeded in not only saving consumers money on every day items, but due to the sheer size of the company, have to a greater scale, affected the entire nation in a positively financial aspect.

After a rant or two, I have to rave about an authentically American institution, a cultural beacon of corporate brilliance that has both its flaws, but also its values.

In the face of tyrrany, a push against the grain
There is an entire generation that feels like everyone should have a chance to get ahead. For sure, nearly every level headed American believes that life, liberty and the pursuit of financial happiness is an American value. Yet we've perverted that value of life, liberty and happiness into something of a selfish, vicious circle of a game where King of the Mountain is obligated to furnish the hand-me-downs to a tyrranical mob just waiting for its turn to take a beating.

Wal-Mart was started by a former JCPenney employee who had a degre in Economics from the University of Missouri, earning just $75 a month. The ball started rolling when Sam Walton purchased a department store in 1945 for $20,000 using $5,000 he had saved from his military service as collateral. He began experimenting with his someday Wal-Mart principles early on, offering central location, longer hours, special discount pricing (by buying right from the manufacturer), and offering a wide assortment of goods. Soon his store (A franchise of the Federated Store family) led the six state region where he was located in sales. So successful was Walton in his management that everyone wanted in on the action. When Walton's lease was up in 1951, the landlord refused to renew the lease because he wanted the store for his son. So Walton used it to his advantage, selling the store for a $50,000 profit!

Sam Walton had already been planning ahead and had purchased a small 5 and dime in Bentonville, Ark which was also a chain of Ben Franklin/Federated Stores. He staged a "Remodeling Sale" and introduced his new store to the community. It was just as successful as his first store, and soon he opened another 5 and dime in Fayetteville, 20 miles away. Serving on the Rotary Club boards, the City Council, starting little leagues for the kids, he began to branch into nearly every area of pubic life in his little local town. And when he opened up his new store, he began to do something aggressive: he began to nose around in other stores to find talent to manage his business! He did, and offered competitive salaries and managed to build a successful team with vision and values. From the very beginning Sam Walton offered profit sharing and benefits to his employees, something that most businesses did not offer at that time. He valued his employees and knew they were the key to his success. (Don Soderquist, "The Wal-Mart Way")

Soon after, by the mid 1950's Walton, with the help of his brother, brother in law, and father in law had opened a couple more store from Kansas City to Arkansas. He opened his first Walton's Family Stores, and by 1962, with 16 variety stores in tow, he opened his first store named "Wal-Mart".

Over the years, Wal-Mart slowly and quietly applied it's principles to foster consistent growth and stretch ever further across the nation and press prices further down. By 1965, he employed 250 people, and by 1975 the operation had grown to 6,500 employees and over 200 stores. By 1980, Wal-Mart was selling more than $1.2 billion in merchandise at prices lower than any of it's competition: K-Mart, Sears, JCPenny, etc.

By 1990, Wal-Mart had 275,000 employees, 1,528 stores with over $25 billion in sales, and it was only beginning! By 2000, Wal-Mart had increased its sales to $165 billion a year, making it the world's largest retailer by far; larger than Target, Sears or K Mart combined. in the four years on the books since then, the company has seen more than 1,000 new stores push it's revenues to over $260 billion, saving the American consumer over $12 billion a year. Even Warren Buffet, greatest investor in history recognizes the positive effect of Wal-Mart on the overall health of the U.S. Economy: "You add it all up," says Warren Buffett, "and they have contributed to the financial well-being of the American public more than any institution I can think of." (Fortune, 3/03 "One nation Under Wal-Mart")

Sam Walton died in 1992, but he left behind a legacy that despite what the critics say, has valued his employees and his customers. I would agree that a few lessons could be passed on from Sam to his successors, such as his tendancy to visit stores at random and talk with various 'associates' about their jobs, the environment they worked in, and how many people they smiled at that day. But nonetheless, Wal-Mart today stands above many employers, in that it offers health insurance to all it's part time employees, profit sharing and upward mobility to it's managment and offers academic scholarships and encourages further education to those who have the unction to reach higher. The only reason Wal-Mart gets the brunt of the hostility is it's size, the scale by which the company is measured. People figure that a company that earns billions should be forced to give those billions away to its employees, but the drug store owner down the street could make 15% off the candy bar you buy from him, and won't hear a peep from the unions now will he? What hypocrisy!

Some believe that Wal-Mart is driving down wages while it beats prices down to almost nothing. In fact, it has contributed to a lower "average" wage, primarily for the lower income, illiterate class (which ordinarily may be out of a job entirely, by the way). According to studies by Global Insight, researchers found that the world's biggest retailer accounted for nearly 210,000 net jobs last year while driving nominal wages down 2.2 percent. On the other hand, however, lower wages (which are still significantly above minimum wage in every state) have lesser effect on the economy when prices are either kept flat or even pressed lower.

Making 98 cents this year compared to $1 last year means little or nothing if what you're buying costs less than 97 cents, when it used to cost $1. Does this illustration make sense?

Because consequently, the same study found that The world's biggest retailer also lowered consumer prices by 3.1 percent, and real disposable income was 0.9 percent higher than it would have been in a world without Wal-Mart.

In the eyes of Wal-Mart's detractors, the chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: it pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of "only" $9.68 an hour, doesn't provide most of them with health insurance (because they choose not to pay the $20/mo for it), keeps out unions, has a checkered history on labor law and turns main streets into ghost towns by sucking business away from small retailers.

But...
McKinsey & Company did a research a few years ago, concluding that Wal-mart contributed to at least 12% of the entire productivity gains in the years 1995 to 1999 alone. Quite a significant benefit for one company to have. The least of all accusation against Wal-Mart is that it is ripping off the American public, a general standard of bad or good business. So the enemies of personal responsiblity and free-markets have to find something else to criticize. And wages are the golden key to them. Yet, when prices are held in check, and inflation is almost singlehandedly harnessed to historical lows by one company looking to both make a buck and benefit its community, how can someone complain?

"By now, it is accepted wisdom that Wal-Mart makes the companies it does business with more efficient and focused, leaner and faster. Wal-Mart itself is known for continuous improvement in its ability to handle, move, and track merchandise. It expects the same of its suppliers."

In 1992, Sam Walton received the Medal of Honor from President George Bush, and to the nation he stated, "We're all working together; that's the secret. And we'll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle, a better life for all. We're proud of what we've accomplished ; we've just begun."

Just because a man's dream became a reality doesn't give a person the right to claim their part in the success with no merit to stand on. If you want to make more for your effort, increase your skill, move up the ladder, become management, use your money wisely, invest it into the fastest growing retailer in history (30 years running) and buy yourself a little house and stop complaining that the rich don't give you freely what they worked so hard to get in the first place.

In short, Wal-Mart's only debt to America is that it allow its principles to flourish more abundantly, not that it be held against the wall and shaken down for the few pennies it makes off your bubble gum.

Rant #6: Museum of the Foolery

Every now and then, a liberal thinker gets a great idea. It's even more astonishing when they get the great idea first... But that's another discussion. What I am particularly thrilled about is that recently a museum was opened in the U.S. highlighting the cultural accomplishments and artistic expressions of those dispersed over the ages from the African Continent.

I'm about to go off on a rant...

I may draw the eyebrows of some of my more reserved friends, but I think this is something positive, if not abused in it's purpose by a left-leaning agenda. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) recently opened (unfortunately) in San Francisco, CA. It's located on Mission Street, an exciting and high-traffic avenue of San Francisco, easily accessed by the masses. (By the way, do not confuse my 'unfortunate' insert and my optimism... I think San Francisco is a beautiful and exciting city; it's just currently under foreign rule)


What I enjoy about this sort of institution is that it underscores several relevant principles for me:

• Tasteful art by anyone ought to be housed and appreciated by any and every one that has a common interest. (Emphasis on tasteful) I myself am an artist and support the establishment of artistic learning and expression in a very visible, publicly supported (I don't mean funded) fashion.
• The masses that were dispersed from the African Continent were truly "dispersed" (hence the term "Diaspora", and any idiomatic similarity to the description of Jewish persecution is beside the point. A travesty was brought upon that continent that is not unique in commission to the white man; it is a land of tyrants that have long supressed freedom and dignity.
• I appreciate the expression of a people that have been under oppression, particularly because it is under difficult circumstances that such ambition has risen despite the heavy hand of hatred and the teaching of your intellectual inferiority by an ignorant or stubborn group of people.

What is my complaint in the midst of my positivity? Aside from the fact that the opening of this museum was harnessed and in fact, attended mostly by a positively radical leftist community... aside from the fact that the museum is founded in a cultural mosh pit of foolish ideas (S.F.)... aside from the fact that hardly a single conservative leader embraced or lauded this project...

Rabbit trail:
This brings to my mind a new idea: Maybe right-thinkers (an idiom that is so apropos!) should build a museum featuring the most foolish ideas man has fabricated, the ideas which have fallen flat time and time again. Is it possible that a "Museum of the Foolery" could be the Smithsonian of corrective remembrance for those who think they've found a "new idea"? Of course, it would never gain support on the West Coast, but maybe Hillsdale, MI? Nah, too remote... I suggest somewhere it could do the most benefit, say Gary, Indiana? Or shoot for the stars: the Capitol Mall.

Back to the MoAD story, Leah Garchik, of the San Francisco Chronicle gave me plenty of reason to shake my head over the hypocrisy of a "pragmatic" left. It seems every time leadership changes hands, whether here in the U.S. or overseas in the land of the "dispersal", the left thinkers embrace the change with open arms as long as it meets a shallow criteria: Embrace black power, resist traditional order/be a revolutionary, uphold marxist ideals as though it's a new concept that "will work this time", and finally, the real initiation: hate American idealism and power.

MoAD's chief financial officer, Michael Brown gave a speach before the crowd of nearly 500. Of Dutch descent, Brown had grown up in Zimbabwe. His family fled that country and scattered when President Robert Mugabe took office. "Despite the color of my skin,'' he said, "I am an African. And that, to me, is the overriding message of this museum.''

Now what Ms. Garchik faithfully superimposed on this notebook report (to quote from her article) was that Brown's family "fled that country and scattered when President Robert Mugabe, considered by many a tyrant, took office. Mugabe's administration is symbolic of many things, of course, including a return of power and land to blacks. Most people in the room would approve of that..."

What ignorance! What pragmatic disillusionment! Robert Mugabe, elected into office became nothing close to a reflection of the will of his people; he now holds a place among the many African leaders that have taken power over their people and brutally administered "justice" to lift their cronies and allies. He took (formerly) Rhodesia from an example of economic prosperity and equality, educational strength and self-sufficiency (on a continent not known for such things) to despair and corruption.

Barbara Simpson, WND columnist and San Francisco area radio show host and newspaper contributor said it very well:
"The sheer audacity and ignorance of those statements is breathtaking, to say nothing of its elitism. Let see ... a productive white family, which considers itself "African," is forced to "flee" their home country because a black is elected president. But, as long as power and land are returned to blacks, everything is OK."

Robert Mugabe is a poster child of native African leaders that have given descendents no alternative place to return, if they wanted to:

(From B. Simpson's article)

• A man who orders the bulldozing of thousands of homes of the poorest in his country (sometimes with people still in them) leaving them in winter without shelter, sanitation or water
• A man who promises reimbursement and then orders the outright theft of white-owned farms, the beating, raping and killing of the farmer owners and the blacks who work for them
• A man who distributes the best land to political cronies and family and allows squatters on the rest, not a fair homesteading distribution program
• A man who destroys/takes over businesses, censors the media, destroys the stock market, the education system, the airports, and the currency (inflation is 700%)
• A man who steals elections and has his political enemies threatened, attacked and maimed, if not killed
• A man who orders the wanton shooting of all big game, even endangered species (speaking of the hypocrisy of the left...)

"The liberal elite say none of this matters because what's really important is returning power to black people. The United Nations has been stunningly silent on this travesty, as have other nations, including France and China."

What bothers me so much about the history surrounding the oppression of African peoples is more than the fact it occured within our own society, and that my ancestors were deluded enough to believe it their God-given right to subject an entire people to the curse of indignity and forced labor. There seems to be a geographical burden on the entire African continent, from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Rwanda and Sudan, and across to Senegal and Liberia. Some would pontificate that it was Western empirical powers that taught this primitive continent the concept of colonialization and subjection and corruption. But this is ignorance, if not a bald-faced perversion of the truth in history. Mankind, in itself possesses the ungodly impulse to succeed and obtain power by whatever means necessary. It is true, from time to time that a society learns from it's actions and the biblical truths of individual liberty and prosperous life overtake the evil institutions that exist; it has yet to happen in Africa.

But such was the case in the United States in the 19th century. The Whig and subsequent Republican party were the progressive radicals that believed a strong, unified nation gauranteeing liberty and good faith to all "beings" not just "citizens" was the basis for a strong democratic republic. Since then, while some shadows of this horrible past still waft in the fog of our minds, the descendents of the African "diaspora" have ascended to great heights equal to the accomplishments of the Jewish people, the Chinese, Korean, or any other culture that was suppressed by tyrants and dictators.

History holds several beacons of successful, though rare African leadership: Toussaint L'Ouverture of Haiti in his resistance to Napoleonic power, Nelson Mandela, who was against both white and black domination, and Tenkamenin, King of Ghana from 1037-1075... probably the only truly successful democratic ruler of African origin.

What fails the African culture today is a continued reliance on government which constantly changes over to reveal another corrupt plan to exploit it's people and resources. America has maintained it's economic and cultural might on the basis of it's geography, natural resources and it's faith and moral conscience. The land of Africa has even more potential, should it ever unite and truly reform. What is needed are enlightened leaders with solid principles that understand the power of personal liberty and are not intimidated by placing power in the hands of the people.

Now it sounds like I'm talking about America... maybe I am.

America is a land of many people, many beliefs and backgrounds, but traditionally one principle: the freedom and dignity and potential of man to live his faith in harmony with his neighbors and for his God. To break it down a little further, I believe that God has blessed this nation like no other in history because we have embraced two concepts that every other nation-state or empire was lacking in one or the other: personal responsibility, and faith in a biblical God that blesses as we give. We ought to tremble constantly at the thought of relinquishing this heritage to progressive, post-modern ideology.

I prayed today that God would allow Africa to see independence, liberty and God-fearing leadership for the first time; that it's several hundreds of millions of people would become the most transformed, empowered civilization in ages. And I hope the same to continue for the American descendents of this impoverished continent, living only a few steps away from where I sit.

Yes, we ought to make it possible for them to reach it on their own volition; the answer has obviously never been to do it for them.

Rave #3 - Don't hide THIS light under a Bush

Want to hear some good news for a change?

After a rant or two, I have to rave about something our nation is doing well for once!

We received optimistic news Tuesday from the Labor Department regarding the productivity of American businesses and their workers. Originally forcast to rise by 4.1% this year, the forcast has been revised to 4.7%. Additionally, labor costs actually decreased last quarter, easing pressures on businesses to keep wages flat.

Some examples pulled from the news till:

• National grocer Kroger Foods, reported that it's 3rd quarter results showed a 30% gain in sales over last year
• Factory orders rose by 2.2% in October, as expected, and strong, considering the impact of the Hurricane disasters upon the Gulf region.
• The government reported that 215,000 jobs were added to the payrolls in November, following a "disappointing" October (56,000 jobs despite Hurricanes Katrina and Rita).
• Reuters survey 37 analysts after the hurricanes and determined that between 25,000 to as many as 400,000 jobs would be lost due to the impact upon infrastructure and employment, as well as costs to local governments. Contrary to predictions, the losses amounted to less than129,000 - only the first negative movement since 2003. The GDP, however continued to grow that quarter, in excess of 3%.

As energy prices continue to correct their inflated prices (as expected in our resilient open-market), consumer concerns about hard costs have begun to subside, and they are beginning to spend money again. Good news!

Bad news? Well leave it to the....

For the last year we have had the media pressing this matra into our minds: the economy is struggling while the government is running up unprecedented tabs on our future with record deficits. People are making less, more are losing their jobs!

Hogwash! I say...

Since Bush enacted strategic tax cuts...

• Corporate profits have leaped to all time highs, benefiting over 50 million shareholders across the nation.
• Real GDP has grown by at least 3% for the last 10 quarters dating back to 2003.
• Existing home sales are hitting records across the nation (despite reports that the market is correcting itself), including Wisconsin, where gains amounted to more that 9%.
• The unemployement rate is 5.1 %, lower than the yearly average during the 1970's, 80's and even the "booming" Clinton tenure.

People are making more money than ever before, and the only thing that liberal economists can do is point to meaningless numbers that would have mattered only in another economic era (certain deficit numbers, minimum wages and isolated economic dynamics). Now, technology determines productivity, and education dictates wages. Their math models are so old that there are some doom-sayers that claim the economy is worsening when, in fact, it is only getting stronger. (The one exception I agree with the left on is that our education system is cracked and bleeding and needs to find more efficiency and access to blighted areas)

Back to the economic debate... How many times have you heard in Mass Media (MM) that the Bush administration has taken a budget surplus from the Clinton years and turned it into record deficits? Constantly? Sure, and yet they not only ignore, but they knowingly distort the truth about the Clinton Presidency vs. the Bush Presidency.

The GDP posted gains in Clinton's first month of office, topping $6 billion for the first time
During Clinton's tenure, beginning in 1992, he inherited an economy that was already recovering from a brief cyclical recession; imagine who got the credit in the MM.

What many like to do is paint this beautiful picture of the Clinton years:
When President Clinton entered office, he took hold of the souring economy, tightened the government belt and created the best economy this nation had seen since WW2. 13 million jobs were added to the nation payrolls and average incomes per household increased significantly.

What many don't see are the actual figures behind the gloss. Despite running federal surpluses (which were simply "bonuses" the goverment subsequently spent), the federal deficit continued to rise. (As did personal credit, which had more to do with the expansion than did normal dynamics like wages and inflation) Unforunately, the 1994 victory for the Republican Congress couldn't halt the government spending that ensued.

However... Strengthened by the biggest tax increases in American history, the tax rolls continued to rake in the cash. Increasing technology and record productivity gains (as well as some irrational stock market performance) countered the negative impact of tax increases on American businesses and the wealthy class. Result? Record tax income, historically low unemployment and federal surpluses for the first time since the 60's. And what did the Administration do with the surpluses (which didn't even appear until Clinton's 6th year)? Pay down the nation's debt you wonder? Lower taxes? NO! The national debt continued to rise by 48%! Between 1992 and 2000, the national debt rose from $3.8 billion under Bush I, to $5.7 billion by the time Clinton left office.

Ironically, the very month Clinton left office, the economy showed signs of weakening
Within one year the over-heated, unattended tech market turned south, as many had warned, taking people's job, wages, retirement and collateral with them; the 2000-01 stock market crash had liquidated some $6 trillion in American household wealth. And this is important, because the nature of our budget surpluses the last two years of Clinton's presidency were not due to restricted and wise government spending, but rather tax revenues generated off the "froth" of an unrealistic trading market.

When that $6 trillion vanished, so did the tax revenues that Clinton took credit for.
The recession that ensued was quickly blamed on Bush; amazing, since he had not enacted one single piece of economic policy between his taking office and the first job losses of the tech industry.

So the new President did what many had been crying for years to be done:

• He lowered taxes by nearly half for the top bracket, and simultaneously lifted the number of people not paying taxes by over 1 million.
• Cut the 28, 31, and 36 percent rates fall by 3 percentage points, while the 39.6 percent rate fell to 35 percent. A new 10 percent tax bracket replaced the 15 percent bracket.
• The Bush economic plan reduced tax rates on dividends from 39.6 percent to 15 percent and on capital gains from 20 percent to 15 percent.
• Enacting policies aimed at cracking down on corporate abuse and feeding cash back into the wage-starved economy, Bush took the unpopular stance of financing economic growth on the tab of the government.
• He also expanded the child credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
• Reduced marriage penalties, increased subsides for education and retirement saving, repealed the limitations on itemized deductions and phaseouts of personal exemptions, and provided temporary, limited relief from the alternative minimum tax (AMT), a complex law that was designed to prevent aggressive tax sheltering but primarily affects large, poorer families or residents of states with high income taxes.

American's response? Spend it. Result? Economic expansion, higher wages and better jobs.

The Federal government was seeing tax revenues rise once again. Deficits have continued, however despite a $200 billion war, the Federal coffers have begun to see the light of day in terms of surpluses. Originally, the government reported that 2005 would see a deficit of well over $450 billion. However, new IRS procedures on collection and increasing corporate profits pumped new cash into the tax stream. In the fiscal year 2005, the projected deficit is $307 billion, which is nearly $100 billion less than 2004, and this was accomplished without raising taxes, and in fact, cutting them significantly!

Bush's cuts -- highlighted by a drop in tax rates on dividends and capital gains -- have been followed by:

• A $187 billion rise in federal tax revenues in the first eight months of the last fiscal year alone.
• That represents a 15.4 percent gain in federal tax receipts over 2004.
• Individual and corporate income tax receipts are up 40 percent in the 2 1/2 years since the tax cut.
• The Dow is up 24 percent since May 2003 while the Nasdaq has risen 39 percent, adding roughly $3 trillion to the wealth holdings of American households.

And not just federal government receipts are benifiting from all the freed up cash. So are local and state governments. State tax receipts already have climbed 7.5 percent this year. New York City, which long has suffered from debt, suddenly has a surplus of more than $3 billion.

And you know what the Democrats are saying about this?

• Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.), ranking minority member of the House Budget Committee said in October "the final figure (Budget Deficit) this year was $588 billion worse than the Bush administration projected when it sent up its first budget in 2001."
• Karen Finney, Communications Director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said this week, "While President Bush praises his own economic record, he fails to mention that he squandered a huge surplus and has presided over the worst deficits in our nation's history."
• Democratic House Leader, Nancy Pelosi had this to say about Bush's economic policy, "The federal budget should be a statement of our national values. Instead, Republicans have proposed a budget that is an excuse to give tax cuts to their special interest cronies, while increasing the deficit..."

So Bush lied to us again?! No, we can easily see how twisted this logic is. First of all, the entire Congress and Bush Administration looked at the numbers coming from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the consensus (on BOTH sides of the aisle) was that a tax cut was in order. The tax cuts passed overwhelmingly, including the support of many Democrats. What no one foresaw was the collapse of the revenue base that was used to support the tax cuts.

Today, we live in an age of one of the best economies America has ever seen. Not everyone feels the immediate benefits of the Bush economy, but they will. Nonetheless, the unemployment rate is at a historical low, wages are rising (and will continue as corporate profits make wage increases easier to manage), good rental housing has become more affordable (as well as home loans), millions of jobs await skilled workers to fill them and productivity has made our nation the hardest working nation on earth.

Hold the truth up for the whole world to see: tax cuts work. Period.

Misgiving #2 - Russia Equips Iran for War

Can you believe it? It's actually still seeping through the clay, from the rotten and contaminated ground beneath us. The years of philandering, sell-outs, closed-door deals (and affairs), the wild oats sown by the Clinton Administration are still coming up to bloom.

WorldNetDaily.com reports today that Russia has utilized the concessions of a 10 year old "agreement" made secretly between Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to sell weapon defense systems to Iran. It is estimated to be a military transaction worth about $700 million and will provide Iran with 29 Tor M-1 missle defense batteries. These batteries will be installed and armed to protect Iran's "peaceful use" nuclear reactor programs.

Apparently in April of 1993 , President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin formed a commission chaired by the Prime Minister and the U.S. Vice President. This Commission was called the "US-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation". Later it was referred to simply as the GCC (Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission).

The Commission's original mandate was to support cooperation
between the United States and Russia in the areas of space, energy, and high
technology. However, as of July 1996 the GCC had been expanded to include eight
different committees: Space, Business Development, Energy Policy, Defense
Conversion, Science and Technology, Environment, Health, and Agribusiness. The
Commission formally convenes about twice a year in either Washington or Moscow;
the individual committees maintain regular contact throughout the year.

Two years later, an agreement was signed between the two parties that allowed Russia to sell some missle defense systems abroad, including but not solely, Iran. That agreement allowed the sales through 1999, but Russia does not believe the recent sale to Iran of 29 Tor M-1's violates the agreement, nor the Ballistic Missle Treaty, nor the Iran-Iraq Non-proliferation Act, sponsored by then-Senator Al Gore!

Amazing how an office and a few years will change a man. These are the seeds that have been sown by a corrupt and at the very least neglectful administration.

• Sattelite technology sales and top-secret violations of national security policy involving China
• GCC deals allowing arms sales to Iran
• The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
• Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates (40 gov/47 prvt)
• Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation (61 indictments)
• First president sued for sexual harassment
• First president accused of rape
• Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
• First president to be held in contempt of court
• First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court

What a legacy; it haunts our trust in government and our national security even today. And we voted him into office twice. Al-Qaida's "illumination" of America's evil didn't even materialize until former President Clinton engraved our sins upon the minds of the world.

We are to blame; never again!

Rant #5 - The Silent Riot

The Great American Tragedy
That Everyone Wants To Ignore

“There is a silent riot in the conscience of men and women, of could-have-beens, whose violence will never be seen, whose anger will never be heard.”
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In 2000, I was living in Portland, Oregon, attending college while participating in third-party campaigning. During my tour of the state as "Youth Coordinator", I spoke at many schools, universities and on radio shows, as well as paneling debates with other county Party heads, both Republican and Democratic. This Rant is a publication distributed by the thousands in Oregon and Washington during the 2000 Presidential election that I wrote in response to one of those visits. Although I would probably not vote for a Reform Party Candidate today, I am not ashamed of my involvement at the time to help a man that I saw was willing to buck the two-party system and clip the "two wings on the same bird of prey".

______________________________________________

Taking a Stand In Public Schools
I recently had the privilege of speaking at a local Portland high school, on behalf of Reform Party Presidential Candidate, Pat Buchanan. In a room designed more like an auditorium than a classroom, I delivered a speech on Mr. Buchanan’s issues, and fielded questions from over 150 students and teachers over a one hour period.

We rattled cages on such topics as gun rights, foreign policy and immigration. As might be expected for such a hot-button issue this election, abortion was one of the first to be addressed by an inquiring student. After some discussion, one anxious sophomore with a slight but of contempt in her voice quipped: “I’m 16 years old and if I got pregnant right now, it would ruin my life. I’d have to quit school, get a job and it would just ruin everything. I would abort the pregnancy. What do feel about that scenario?”

My first response was, “well I hope you don’t get pregnant then.” After the nervous laughter from the students, I gathered myself to answer such a straightforward, piercing question, and I asked her, “how can the elimination of a nuisance human life abrogate a woman of the consequences of her irresponsibility? We hold fast to the truth that it is a human life we’re talking about and adoption is probably the best solution for your proposed scenario.

Abortion has become a form of birth control.
And now, with the release of Mifepristone (RU-486) in the U.S. In Nov, 2000 abortion may now have gained the designation of a do-it-yourself operation of systematic execution; a human insecticide designed as a cheap, two part remedy to the expensive abortion procedure, which your tax dollars now pay for. In direct answer to the girl’s question I answered adoption, to which one teacher replied that he knows the system to be so corrupt and damaging that many children may end up being abused emotionally, and turn out living in disadvantaged circumstances. While he knew this to be the exception not the rule, what followed far outmaneuvered anything I could have said all day.

Another young girl raised her hand. She looked to be about 14 or 15, and somewhat shy. While she intended to ask a question, she instead resorted to telling me she was adopted as a baby. “I know the system,” she said. “I know how it works. My mom chose to have me and give me up for adoption instead,” she continued, as her voice began to crack. Every person in that room froze. You could hear a pin drop as every soul observed this girl on the edge of tears tell how she was given up for adoption, nearly falling victim to an abortion. I listened intently, and when she was finished, thanked her, and told her I was so glad that she was here to tell us her story. She just smiled. The girl who challenged me was silent. Faced with the notion that her desire to keep her life from being “ruined” by her own irresponsible behavior – God forbid! – could erase from existence another precious girl such as this one before us… well, there was simply no excuse.

It was at this moment, as this younger girl smiled at me, that I realized that this issue of “pro-life” is not simply about Right vs. Left, Choice vs. Life, or Roe vs. Wade. It’s about me and it’s about you. It’s how we look at each other, where we place each other on our list of importance, how high we’re willing to value others we don’t even know. How much does the human life of someone we don’t yet know matter in out own minds? The very attitude that claims the lives of tens of thousands every year through gun violence is the very attitude that causes one to attempt to dampen the validity of pre-birth humanity, at the excuse of convenience, or one’s “constitutional right”.

The Million Child March
History has borne us examples of human inequality, and displayed that injustice will not go unanswered. In the 1890’s it was child labor. In the later 19th century through the early 20th century, millions of women sought to have themselves recognized as equal individuals in political society. In the 1960’s millions more African Americans marched against that culture which had derided them of basic human dignity and respect. Today we have a much greater cause, a much deeper conviction.

There is a silent riot in the conscience of men and women, of could-have-beens, whose violence will never be seen, whose anger will never be heard. Painful it is to imagine a mob of 40 million angry, livid “fetuses”, crying out for justice on the clouds of heaven. Or the greens of the Capitol Mall.

There is a Million-Child March making it’s way through the streets of the roads we chose not to travel. Of the ghost towns that were never built because half a generation was annihilated in the name of “convenience”.

Thousands of politicians and millions of women have decided to remove these thoughts from their minds, and pervert science to numb their guilt. They’ve reduced human life, aside from their own, to mere happenstance, insignificant. But not all have forgotten these innocent children. Some still seek to right the wrong that’s been done, to heal this scab that has attached itself to our heritage. It horrifies me to think that half my generation has been wiped off the face of this planet because 9 robes sitting in a lofty bench in Washington said we cannot impose our morality on women; that the government cannot invade the “privacy rights” of a woman. But what about the child upon which the doctor and the mother are imposing THEIR morality?

The Lesser of Two “Evils”
What worse is that the favorite politicians of today declare that “decent people” can disagree on this issue, and that it’s not a concern on which to be divided. And to top this, million reason that they’d rather rally behind those who hide, than take the chance that their voice could be part of the force that turns the tide. Truth will remain constant, even though morals and ideals do not. And that Truth does not appear “electable” at time.

In the immortal words of Dante, “There is a special place in hell for those who remain silent.” And we shall not remain silent.

But when is enough going to be enough? While we diplomatically attempt to subvert this culture of death and selfishness in our country, through take-what-we-can-get tactics, tend of thousands of children are being slaughtered every month that passes in the name of convenience. Surely, there are strong men and women in our ruling body that will forever stand for Truth and Justice. But they are not the “fringe”… the “fundamentalists”.

I believe Almighty God is more horrified at the prolonged decadence than we are; we’ve had 30 years and 14 elections, let’s vote our conscience for once, and let Him do the rest. In the next 30 seconds another child will pass into heaven on a blade of steel. Hundreds more die while you decide your vote…