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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 48 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 48 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
16 November 2000
The Conservative Newsletter #49
Dr David E. Marlett, Editor
"It is easy to say 'vast right-wing conspiracy'; it is difficult to admit that the Founding Fathers are its founding members."
20 November 2000
The media talkingheads keep repeating Gore's mantra that he "won the popular vote." Gore may have won a plurality of the national vote but not a popular majority. Like Clinton in 1996, more than half of the votes cast last Tuesday were against Gore.
[ The Federalist ]
If George Bush makes it over the Florida and Electoral College hurdles, his presidency will be perilously disadvantaged by both his weak candidacy and weaker showing in the national polls -- though we should note that Mr. Bush's 48% is far greater than the 43% margin Mr. Clinton garnered in 1992. If the Bush presidency is to accomplish anything for conservatives, he will have to drop the "compassionate candidate" nonsense, get a vision for what that word "conservative" really means -- and lead!
[The Federalist ]
"Al Gore unleashed a bitter and dangerous campaign to win the presidency at all costs, even if it means undermining the very legitimacy of the electoral system itself. And in the process he has shown himself to be unfit for the high office he seeks." -Linda Chavez
"The street theater...by the Gore campaign has all the usual characteristics of this most miserable administration: lawyers, lies, exaggerations, litigation and unctuous sanctimony. ... No one has been denied the right to vote. Voters had their chance. They were just too stupid or too careless to fill out the ballot correctly. The law places that responsibility on them." -Charley Reese
"Indeed, Time.com already reports that when helpful election officials in Pinellas County (Florida), which went for Al Gore, 'removed the chaff from ballots before they were submitted for recount by the machines, Gore/Lieberman picked up an additional 417 votes.' It is hard not to admit the obvious. The Gore campaign is trying to railroad a victory. Nothing captures the true intentions of this strategy better than the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board's announcement of its 2-1 decision to proceed with a handcount. They held the press conference at 2 a.m. Sunday, in the middle of the night." - Wall Street Journal, 11/14/00
"Far be it from me to doubt those nice Palm Beach retirees who say their ballots were misleading. But it's hard not to notice that the only voters claiming to have been misled are Gore supporters." - Columnist Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 11/13/00
"Why am I shocked that Al Gore's calculated effort to divide this nation along racial, ethnic, gender, social and economic lines for political gain has persisted beyond the election?" --David Limbaugh
"The hallmark of the Clinton administration was contempt for law and morality. Gore has demonstrated before how well he has learned the lessons of political 'total war.' He lied easily and casually about Bill Bradley, about his role in illegal fund raising, and promiscuously about George W. Bush. His history of lying about himself cannot be laid at Clinton's door -- it merely shows how well-matched they were. But in the aftermath of this election, Gore has taken the tactics of spin and win to new lows -- because now what's at stake is the very legitimacy of our electoral process." --Mona Charen
With the Middle East in turmoil and the Far East entering a crisis of its own, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited Bill Clinton a few days ago only to find the U.S. president hopelessly obsessed with the election recount on Florida. Of course, Clinton is not alone in this obsession. The entire U.S. media -- and perhaps half the country -- is obsessed with the Florida count. But in case we've forgotten, there's a big and sometimes bad world out there.
Aside from ongoing battles between Israelis and Palestinians, the Far East is not looking good. On Monday the Philippine House of Representatives impeached Philippine President Joseph Estrada because of a corruption scandal. On Tuesday the embattled president of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, was weakened when a crucial ally resigned from his party. Also on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori resisted calls for his resignation in a leadership dispute that threatens to split Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
But the most ominous recent development in the Far East has to do with the U.S. carrier battlegroup that protects the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan from communist powers like China and North Korea. Incredible as it may seem, the Russian media is claiming that Russian aircraft penetrated the defenses of the USS Kitty Hawk on Oct. 17. According to Izvestia, units from Russia's Far Eastern Air Force and Pacific Fleet overflew the Kitty Hawk battlegroup without interception. "Nothing could be more awesome," said Izvestia. "Had this been a combat mission the aircraft carrier's destruction would have been guaranteed."
As experts will affirm, all potentially hostile aircraft approaching a U.S. carrier battlegroup are intercepted and escorted when they get to within 125 miles. Before they come to a distance of 25 miles they are given a serious warning. Within 15 miles the carrier's interceptors could be ordered to engage.
Did Russian military aircraft buzz the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk on Oct. 17 as the Russian's claim? According to sources with access to Western intelligence the incident did occur. In fact, two waves of Russian planes passed over the carrier before U.S. fighters were scrambled. According to one expert with 23 years experience in military aviation, over 15 separate ships (in the carrier battle group), with different and complimentary radar capabilities, were apparently unable to detect the approach of the Russian aircraft.
What does this signify?
Doubtless it is an important development in the military competition between the United States and the Russia-China "partnership." But from a technological standpoint, the Oct. 17 incident suggests that Russia may possess stealth technology which can render aircraft invisible to radar.
Theoretically, a device which emits a small amount of plasma can be used to envelop aircraft and shield them from detection. If perfected, such a device could be attached to any type of aircraft. If the Russians have this technology the United States is in serious trouble. If the Russians are preparing to sell this technology to China, we may not be able to defend our allies in the Far East.
According to Izvestia, the aerial mission against the Kitty Hawk battlegroup was organized by Russia's intelligence services. It was an intelligence-gathering mission to see if Russian air units could fly undetected into the airspace of a vital U.S. military asset. If this mission was a smashing success, as claimed, the consequences of Clinton's neglect of the military can no longer be ignored. The people of the United States have to understand the dangerous position they are in. If something doesn't happen to change the inward-looking self-preoccupation of the American public, the prosperity and liberty we now enjoy may be cut short by catastrophic events.
With China poised to act against Taiwan and North Korea at the peak of a 23-month military buildup, it is ominous that Russia's military prowess suddenly appears less than dilapidated. Of course, Americans are not paying attention for a number of reasons. This lack of attention is not merely because of the disputed presidential elections. In recent years a majority of U.S. pundits have asserted that we have arrived at an era of peace. Globalization has supposedly replaced great power conflict on the world stage. But this type of theorizing is childish. The world has never outgrown war and (if the term "human nature" has any meaning whatsoever) the world never will outgrow war. No doubt there will be those who scoff at the idea of a near-term military crisis in the Western Pacific. Perhaps they are right.
On the other hand, we should seriously consider the words of Liu Jiangjia, a Chinese military officer who recently claimed that a new arms race has begun. In all seriousness, Liu stated, "War is not far from us now."
It is more than a little curious, at this moment of political uncertainty and division, that America's chief anti-communist allies in the Far East are experiencing internal upsets of their own. It is also odd that China and North Korea have been preparing for war, and that Russia has demonstrated the ability to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier previously assumed to be invulnerable.
While you were busy with Florida, the rest of the world was busy too.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Five observers to Saturday's hand count in Palm Beach County have filed affidavits in federal court charging that a Democratic county commissioner manipulated ballots so Al Gore would receive more votes than George W. Bush.
Carol Roberts, a de facto appointee to the three-member elections canvassing board, is accused in the filings of asking a Democratic observer to the count whether ballots should count and that she "twisted the ballots and poked her finger directly in sections of, and aggressively handled, the ballots."
On one occasion, observer John Grotta said in a sworn statement, Miss Roberts looked at a ballot and said " 'Unfortunately, the corners aren't detached,' as she was referring to a ballot that would have been a vote for Vice President Gore."
The most pointed charges in the affidavits were cited in a request by the Palm Beach Republican Party that Miss Roberts, a longtime Democrat, step down from the board because of her partisan behavior in last week's sample count of 4,600 ballots.
When the count found that Mr. Gore netted 19 more votes, Miss Roberts was adamant about a full recount, asserting that Mr. Gore could claim as many as 1,900 more votes based on the sampling.
Miss Roberts refused to remove herself from the panel, saying in a public statement - read by canvassing board chairman Charles Burton to a press gallery that is now an encampment outside the Emergency Operation Center here - that the count was done "in full view of public observers from both parties and cameras from all over the world.
"All board members examined and voted on all questioned ballots and nearly all votes were unanimous. . . . I will continue to be fair and impartial and will not recuse myself."
Yesterday, Miss Roberts publicly challenged the election powers of Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican, in the recount dispute, saying Attorney General Robert Butterworth, a Democrat, had the proper authority. Mrs. Harris has been the target of Democrats, who claim she is partisan and must recuse herself.
The partisan rancor has completely divided the sides in the manual recount debate. Palm County's hand count was delayed yesterday pending the state Supreme Court's opinion on the legal standing of the process.
The charge against Miss Roberts "is not a witch hunt," said Mark Hoch, administrator for the county's Republican Party.
"We have complaints coming out of the woodwork, and most of the things we look at are unsubstantiated," Mr. Hoch said. "Carol Roberts, though, can be seen as truly partisan."
Miss Roberts arrived at the emergency center around 6:15 a.m. yesterday with a sheriff's deputy bodyguard and a personal assistant. As a vocal advocate of the manual count in both Palm Beach County and three other surrounding - and Democrat-dominated -counties, Miss Roberts has thrived on the controversy surrounding the recount.
At one point this week, Miss Roberts said she would go to jail to have the manual recount accomplished. In Palm Beach County, recounts by hand and machine have added 787 votes for Mr. Gore to an extra 119 for Mr. Bush - a net Gore pick up of 668.
The affidavits filed yesterday also include charges that elections workers were reluctant to reassess votes despite the protests of observers.
In one case, a worker refused to recount a stack of ballots that contained Bush votes, according to observer Mark Klimer.
Mr. Klimer's statement included the accusation that Miss Roberts picked up ballots from a stack that was to be evaluated later by the entire board and interspersed them with a stack of Gore votes.
He also said the ballot evaluation was inconsistent. Some ballots judged as Gore votes did not meet the agreed standards for a valid vote, the West Palm Beach banker said.
Mr. Klimer said yesterday he was in the counting room for 4 and 1/2 hours on Saturday. A Republican, Mr. Klimer said his interest was not partisan: "I was there to make sure it was fair."
"Beyond a shadow of a doubt, what I saw is the absolute truth," Mr. Klimer said.
Miss Roberts is one of three Democrats on the seven-member County Commission. She was elected in 1986 after serving 11 years on the West Palm Beach City Council.
When she became president of the Florida Association of Counties in 1996, Miss Roberts took some heat for marking the occasion with three days of festivities paid for with $55,000 from her business friends.
[ Washington Times ]
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