-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! * Veritas Vos Liberabit * THE FEDERALIST(r) DIGEST The Internet's Conservative Journal of Record http://www.Federalist.com Date: 07 April 2000 Federalist #00-14.dgst To retrieve today's Digest as printer-friendly text or PDF, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/PDFdigest99-10.asp To support or sponsor The Federalist, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/support.asp ______--------********O********--------______ THE FOUNDATION "The legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions." --Thomas Jefferson ______--------********O********--------______ FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE In the news this week, if you are among the majority of Americans who now own -- directly or through various funds -- high-tech stocks, there is more trouble on the horizon. While we are not prognosticators of such things, and while it is highly unusual for us to comment on equity markets, we do know that many of our readers hold stocks, and we would be remiss if we did not now comment about recent developments. The Federalist Editorial Board has access to some of the smartest and most seasoned market analysts in the world -- we're not talking about the corner reps of big brokerage houses. Our sources estimate that there will be additional realignment of the equities market in favor of value stocks -- those with low price/earning (P/E) ratios -- in the next 18-24 months. This means that the trendy high-tech stocks with high P/E ratios -- market values far in excess of their earnings -- may soon fall out of favor. We are certainly not investment advisors, but we do know that greed has lost many fortunes -- large and small. Thus, holding investments, which have already performed well, in blind anticipation of similar future performance, can be ruinous. The next sell-off of high-tech stocks may be faster than the sell-off earlier this week, and the small investors who are last out will suffer the greatest losses. How sudden can market reversals be? The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was at 381 in September 1929. Stock prices had risen from conservative levels of 10 times earnings to speculative levels of 20 times earnings. On October 29, in only a few hours, the DJIA dropped so fast that it wiped out all the previous year's gains, closing that day at 230. The market rebounded for a period and then sank again at a torturous pace. (Note: Many of the high-tech stocks today are trading at 20-50 times earnings.) Of course, there are more safeguards since that precipitous market drop, which kicked off the Great Depression. Most significantly, margin requirements, which were as low as 10% in 1929, are now 50%. Those safeguards notwithstanding, in the more recent "Black Monday" crash of October 19, 1987, the DJIA fell from 2246 to 1738 in one day -- losing 22.6% of its total value. In the previous week, the DJIA had fallen about 10%, giving some warning of pending trouble. By the close of trading on October 19, 1987, U.S. equities investors had lost one trillion dollars -- on paper. The complicating factor today is computer day-trading, which introduces a whole new set of risks for most Americans, who are not speculators, but are investing for retirement. Caveat emptor! In other news.... The case of young Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez is front and center. The Federalist has argued repeatedly that there are no "parental rights" under Communist dictators. This week, our assertion was confirmed by a Cuban government spokesman, Luis Fernandez, who announced, "He [Elian] is a possession of the Cuban government. No other entity can remove this." The Cuban Constitution, of course, gives the government paramount powers as to dictating how children will be raised. The Federalist's editorial position has been that this matter should be remanded to the Florida state courts for a decision. This case is, indeed, a violation of principled federalism. The national government has overstepped a state government's authority. Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, arrived in Washington -- four months after his son arrived in Miami -- and said, "I hope, I expect...that my son will be delivered to me as soon as possible, and I would like to return with him to Cuba immediately." Of the delay, Paul Greenberg notes, "...[A] bureaucracy doesn't get personally involved. It doesn't ask why a father, on being told his child has been rescued from a watery grave and given refuge, would not rush here to claim his son, or at least hold the boy's hand after his ordeal. It doesn't ask why a father would just wait for his son to be sent to him, the way you'd expect a package." The battle is now a symbolic contest between the forces of freedom and totalitarianism. "Make no mistake, this conflict represents not a disagreement over technical aspects of the law or judicial procedure, but a clash of competing values," says Tom DeLay. "Conflicts between the values of a democratic republic and a communist tyranny require that one system give way to the other. When a democracy is compelled by force to make such concessions, it is tragic. When it does so voluntarily, it is an inexcusable betrayal. For this reason, I consider the government's treatment of Elian to be the lowest point of the Clinton administration's tenure...." Symbolism aside, the life of a child is at stake. And Americans of Cuban origin in Miami know these stakes very well. Regarding the Justice Department's efforts to take Elian from his relatives in Miami, Metro-Dade County mayor Alex Penelas says, "We will not lend our respective resources, whether they be in the form of police officers or any other resources, to assist the federal government in any way, shape or form to inappropriately repatriate Elian Gonzalez to Cuba." And this item from "The Children of Fidel Castro," the guidebook for virtually all Cuban children who are forced into the indoctrination program of the Young Communist Pioneers: "Cuba's children belong to the Revolution." And a final note: It was the inFidel Castro who, a few short years ago, authorized military jet fighters to attack and destroy an unarmed Cessna aircraft being flown by "Brothers to the Rescue," an organization which searches for Cubans who, in their attempt to escape Castro's prison island, are in peril of drowning at sea. The terrible irony is that Elian's mother suffered just such a fate, and now the Clintonistas want to return the child to Castro. Open Query... "Did you ever notice that in Havana there isn't a 'Little Miami' of escaped refugees from the United States? How come? And how come an American mother has never drowned between Miami and Cuba while escaping the United States to take her son to Havana?" --Claremont's Bruce Herschensohn The BIG lie... "One of [the Republicans'] great strengths is [that] they have no guilt and no shame. I mean, they'll say anything." --The Great Prevaricator, Mr. Clinton, on "guilt" and "shame." >From "The most ethical administration"... We are shocked -- SHOCKED -- to report that a federal grand jury indicted two Buddhist nuns for failing to show up at the trial of Al Gore's confidante and Democratic party fund-raiser, Maria Hsia. Hsia was recently convicted for arranging $100,000 of illegal campaign contributions during a Gore visit to a Buddhist temple. Though they were granted immunity, the nuns fled the United States -- joining the ranks of many others who have done the same rather than testify against the Clinton regime. Regarding your IRS overpayment... Clinton's March trip to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Switzerland was the most expensive foreign junket ever taken by a U.S. president. The Air Force estimates that Clinton's trip cost in excess of $80 million just for the aircraft used. And what U.S. taxpayer interests were served? "Clinton just returned from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Switzerland with not one foreign policy success," says Rep. Joel Hefley. "He did nothing to ease the poverty of Bangladesh, was scoffed at by the Indian parliament, dismissed by Pakistani leaders, and rebuffed by the President of Syria." Sen. John McCain added, "I don't think there has been a time in recent history where a president has embarked on a foreign tour in the extensive way that he did and come up totally empty-handed." Our "head-of-state" is not the only freeloading Clinton. HILLARY! commandeered government aircraft for 26 trips to New York in the last seven months of 1999, costing taxpayers $182,471. Her campaign has, thus far, reimbursed the government $32,878. Don't hold your breath waiting on the other $145,786. The intruders... "Those who suggest that filling out your census form isn't essential are plainly wrong," says Clinton. "An inaccurate census distorts our understanding of a community's needs, denies people their fair share of resources and diminishes the quality of life not only for them but for all of us." In a memo to government employees, Clinton asserted, "The data (from the census) collected will determine how more than $185 billion annually in public funds are shared fairly...." Will Mr. Clinton please cite for us where, precisely, the U. S. Constitution says the census is for the purpose of distributing government largess! News from the Swamp... In the House of Commons, a bill passed 350-8 to honor President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan with the Congressional Gold Medal. "Ronald Reagan fulfilled his pledge to restore 'the great confident road of American progress, growth and optimism'," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jim Gibbons. In other symbolic gestures, the House has passed by a vote of 287-141 another bill designed to ban partial birth abortions, which will prompt Clinton's veto which, will -- most assuredly -- be sustained in the Senate. In the halls of justice... The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Tennessee law which helps government officials -- and the public -- keep track of convicted sex offenders. The Tennessee law upheld by the court is similar to laws in all 50 states. >From the department of military readiness... A U.S. Army report shows that 40 percent of its helicopter fleet is not combat ready. >From the states... In the People's Republic of Massachusetts, Attorney General Thomas Reilly announced that the state will enforce regulations requiring all gun makers and dealers to comply with strict "consumer protection" regulations, a new twist on "twisting arms." Culture comment... Church of England theologian John Elford, Canon Theologian of Liverpool Cathedral, says that the Bible does not prohibit homosexuality, prostitution or drugs. Elford notes that Jesus, who lived with 12 male Apostles, never mentions the subject. Memo to Mr. Elford: See Matthew 19. And last, the Parents Television Council released a new study, "What a Difference a Decade Makes: A Comparison of Prime Time Sex, Language, and Violence in 1989 and 1999." The study concludes that sex and violence on primetime TV have increased 300% in ten years. Of course, most of that increase is attributable to coverage of the Phirst Philanderer's dalliances! ______--------********O********--------______ INSIGHT "It is after you have realised that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power -- it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you are sick, you will listen to the doctor." --C.S. Lewis {} "The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not." --F. A. Hayek {} "Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work." --Horace {} "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant." -- John Stuart Mill {} "Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is." --William Shakespeare {} "Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt." --Alfred, Lord Tennyson {} "Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts." --Charles Sanders Peirce {} "Live in the world you inhabit. Look upon things as they are. Take them as you find them. Make the best of them. Turn them to your advantage." --Robert E. Lee {} "Life well spent is long." --Leonardo da Vinci {} "My business is not to remake myself, but to make the absolute best of what God made." --Robert Browning ______--------********O********--------______ THE GOOD NEWS "Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel." (Proverbs 20:15) ______--------********O********--------______ UPRIGHT "Janet Reno ... demonstrated at Waco that sometimes you have to kill children to save them...." --Wesley Pruden ++ "You can tie it up with a rose-scented ribbon labeled 'parental rights' and it still stinks. The Clinton administration is willing to trade Elian's freedom for Castro's cooperation. The left, which can't conceive of anyone choosing America over a progressive state, would sacrifice Elian on the altar of its ideology." --Don Feder {} "...[S]ocialists are made, not born, and right now we are creating an entire generation of them." --Chuck Baldwin ++ "The socialist state requires greater and greater degrees of force to make it function. If resources and wealth are allocated on the basis of need rather than production, people will compete to be more needy rather than more productive." --Linda Bowles ++ "Government control of private-sector industry used to be called fascism. Today it is called the Clinton administration." --Geoff Metcalf {} "I always thought that when evaluating the worth of a human being, race shouldn't count. It appears my government has other ideas." --Greg Crosby {} "It is a foolish man who believes that the status quo can be maintained indefinitely." --Charley Reese {} "Why, then, did Ken Burns remove from 'Not for Ourselves Alone' Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's passionate descriptions of abortion as 'child murder' and 'infanticide'?" --Nat Hentoff on some of the celebrated moments of historical revisionism in March -- Women's History Month. {} "No doubt the folks at HCI [Handgun Control Incorporated] would rather have women ask a rapist to use a condom [than defend their lives and health with firearms]." --Dr. Michael S. Brown {} "...[T]he news media is essentially aligned with one party against the other party. This unbalances our democracy. ... News reporting breaks down when those assigned the job value news less than the causes or issues favored by newsmakers." --Paul Craig Roberts {} "We are here to protect the freedom of the American people, not to make privacy invasion more efficient." --Rep. Ron Paul {} "The Framers of the First Amendment were not concerned with preventing government from abridging their freedom to speak about crops and cockfighting, or with protecting the expressive activity of topless dancers, which of late has found some shelter under the First Amendment. Rather, the Framers cherished unabridged freedom of political communication." --George Will {} "How you treat the helpless is the real test of morality. Lots of people are flunking that test big time." --Thomas Sowell {} "Judeo-Christian revelation is not the negative influence secularists proclaim it to be. Rather, it is the taproot of our civilization." --Charles Colson ++ "Christians belong in American politics because there is not and cannot be a fundamental separation between our moral vocation and our citizenship." --Alan Keyes ______--------********O********--------______ ON THE POLITICAL FRONT >From the Bush campaign journal... "Bill Clinton promised the most ethical administration in history. He's fallen about 41 presidents short." --George W. Bush Observation Points: "Republicans are naive when they believe polls and they believe Democrats." --Cal Thomas {} "The campaign will be run on issues, but it will be about character. Voters are hungering for the anti-Clinton." --Mona Charen {} "...[George W.] Bush has not breathed one word about cutting a single existing, failed program. Instead, he has distanced himself from fiscal conservatives. 'I won't close down the Department of Education, but I will reform it,' Bush vows. 'The goal is not to cut the most, but to improve the most.' So much for devolution. Read George W.'s lips: The road to the White House is paved with kinder, bigger spending. When it comes to slashing the insatiable federal education bureaucracy once and for all, mum's the word." --Michelle Malkin >From Bore2000 -- The "Pander-Bear" Campaign... Wonder why Al Gore suddenly reversed his position on refugee Elian Gonzalez? There are about 800,000 Americans of Cuban origin in South Florida. Gore's active imagination got away from him again this week when he claimed that he authored the Reading Excellence Act. It was, of course, authored by Republicans, Senator Paul Coverdell and U.S. Rep. William Goodling, in 1998. Just another chapter for the now-voluminous work in progress, "Reinventing Gore." Observation Points: "Al Gore is speculating in the stock market of the American mind -- and he is selling short. His statements in this first week of the de facto general election campaign would suggest that he intends to plumb the depths of the voters' stupidity. From his early gambits, it's pretty clear Mr. Gore judges the American voter to possess the reasoning power of a daffodil and the attention span of a grasshopper...." --Tony Blankley Oh, HILLARY! Rodham-Clintonista... Stumping for the little wife, Mr. Clinton complained, "That's why Hillary's opponent can raise a double-ton of money, besides being mayor and having a special relation with a lot of those people who have it in New York, and you've got a right-wing venom machine geared up against her again." Apparently, a division of the "right-wing conspiracy" machine. Observation Points: "So far, though, Mrs. Clinton has been as robotic as one of those recorded messages saying what a valued customer you are. She acts as if she just burst from a cocoon, programmed by nature to stay on message no matter what. If she were a moth, she'd fly right into a bug light. ... She comes across as robotic, battered--a mannequin whose real emotions are masked by a say-cheese smile and the rhetorical equivalent of a shuffle." --The Washington Post's prize liberal columnist, Richard Cohen. ______--------********O********--------______ EDITORIAL EXEGESIS "So, tying the dots together, the picture that emerges is Al Gore, the whatever-it-takes candidate (abruptly embracing permanent residency status for Elian Gonzalez), running as the titular leader of a congressional Democratic party that is moving steadily and inexorably back to liberal traditionalism. We hope that by November, self-styled New Democrats from Wall Street to Silicon Valley figure out what they're buying into -- a party whose model looks more like 1964 than 2000." --Wall Street Journal ______--------********O********--------______ DEZINFORMATSIA "Americans' Federal Tax Level Falls" --Washington Post above the fold Sunday headline. **That is, if you exclude federal payroll and excise taxes, not to mention all the hidden government regulatory costs now usurping an additional $6,500 from the average household's annual income. ++ "[T]he median two-earner family, making $68,605, paid 8.8 percent of their income in federal tax, about the same as 1955." --More dezinformatisa from the same Washington Post article. **In 1955, a family making $68,605 paid $168 in payroll taxes. Today, a family earning $68,605 pays $10,496.56 in payroll taxes. We will leave the joy of computing the increase to all you median two-earner households out there! ______--------********O********--------______ SOCIOCRATS "The only way they can win is to convince people that we're space aliens." --Mr. Clinton {} "All of this is basically nonsense -- the kind of politicians' talk that gives hypocrisy a bad name even as it has serious policy consequences." --David Broder on conservative criticism of the unconstitutional census questions. {} "Candidates for president, even the incumbent, should not duck the hard and legitimate questions that a free press will often generate." --Mike McCurry, who, as Clinton's press secretary, orchestrated the Great Prevaricator's ducking of "the hard and legitimate questions" about Clinton's lies in the Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. ______--------********O********--------______ VILLAGE IDIOTS "I love the United Nations." --Globalist Ted Turner on why the UN flag flies at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta and why he banned CNN editors and correspondents from using the word "foreign" in news stories. {} "South Carolina white boys love to dig their heels in. There's no question." --Village novelist Pat Conroy, protesting for the removal of the Confederate flag from the SC statehouse. {} From the "Village Academic Curriculum" File: Next Fall, the University of Michigan will be offering "How to Be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation," which "will examine the general topic of the role that initiation plays in the formation of "gay identity" through gay literature, "muscle culture," Broadway musicals, and interior design. **They left out "formation of gay identity through academia. ______--------********O********--------______ SHORT CUTS "The only way Gore can be credible on campaign finance reform is to turn himself in." -- Tony Blankley {} "When I was in Congress people would ask me if I missed working with actors, and I would reply, 'No, I miss working with professional actors'." --Former Rep. Fred Grandy, who played "Gopher" on TV's "The Love Boat" {} "It was well that Slick Willie, more formally known as William Jefferson Clinton on state occasions like impeachment, did not resign the presidency. So that future generations will have a voluminous record of what the America of 1998-99 thought was important and what was unimportant in our politics, law, character and general deportment." --Paul Greenberg {} "Did you all get your census forms? I have an idea. You know where it says race? Let's all check 'Eskimo' and see what happens." --Craig Kilborn Night Lines: Leno.... Clinton urging all Americans to honestly fill out their census forms. C'mon. This is the guy who wouldn't answer a question while he was under oath. .... Do we even need the census? I mean if the Publisher's Clearinghouse people can find out where we live, why can't the government? .... Finally some good news for Bill Gates. He was named president of the Small Businessman's Association. How about that? .... Clinton said that if Hillary wins the Senate race in New York, he has no idea what the duties of the husband of a Senator are. I bet you one thing, it's not interviewing interns. .... According to the New York Post, Monica Lewinksy's mom just paid 15,000 dollars for a painting of her daughter. And that was just to cover the cost of the paint. .... Al Gore has vowed to make campaign finance reform one of his top priorities. Isn't that like making Whitney Houston in charge of band rehearsal? Letterman.... Here's bad news. The Japanese prime minister is now clinically brain dead. On the bright side, this must be very encouraging for George W. Bush. .... Bill Gates lost 12.1 billion dollars. That ties the old record, it was 3 tourists taking a cab to LaGuardia, lost the same amount. .... Here now some bad news for New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike. The Supreme Court says that New York can now ban nude dancing. If you are looking for nudity, your best bet is still the subway. .... How many of you have done your taxes? How many don't plan on doing your taxes? I was looking at the 1040 form and there is a little box you can check if you want to send Hillary back to Arkansas. (**) Denotes Editor's Comment -- PUBLIUS -- **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! 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