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A WORD FROM THE SENATE MINORITY LEADER

From: Tom Daschle

Adding rising energy prices to an already sagging rural economy is a recipe for disaster. We need to get to the bottom of what’s going on and determine where and how the federal government can help.

Now, if I was the Secretary of Energy I would respond:

Dear Tom,

Where exactly on Federal Lands would you and your Party permit exploration for oil and natural gas resources ?

DON’T KNOW NUTHIN’ ABOUT HISTORY….

The mix of ignorance and partisanship seldom makes for cogent historical analysis in an elected official. Read on:

Threat of war spurs U.S. soul-searching

Mix of politics, religion is strong, Kaptur warns

“One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown,” Miss Kaptur said.

Umm…Representative Kaptur, many of our major Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christians and the Green Mountain Boys were not motivated by religious zeal. Jefferson worked to disestablish the Church of England in Virginia as the state church. The era of the American revolution was in fact, far more secular than the late 17th century or the religious revival that would come in the 1840’s and spur the Abolition, Women’s Suffrage and Temperance movements. Please hire a recent graduate with a degree in History from a half-way decent university for your staff – they probably could use the job and you clearly need their advice.

The Green Mountain Boys are the American equivalent of al Qaida ???

” THE CAPITALISTS WILL SELL US THE ROPE TO HANG THEM ” DEPARTMENT:

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Hughes Electronics Corp. and Boeing Co.’s Boeing Satellite Systems unit said Wednesday they agreed to a $32 million civil penalty with the U.S. Department of State, arising out of allegations that the companies might have illegally shared sensitive space technology with China in the 1990s

Courtesy of Drudge.

NORTH KOREAN ENDGAME : Much is being made about Kim Jong Il’s nuclear brinksmanship by people who, if they had their druthers, would love to see American forces pinned down in large numbers babysitting two erratic dictators without resolving either situation. The Bush administration is actually handling things exceptionally well because strategically there are only four possible outcomes. First the United States could cave in the manner of the Clinton administration and pay a hefty bribe in return for a quieter style of North Korean WMD proliferation. This will not happen. Secondly, Kim Jong Il could attack South Korea in some way and risk a highly probable limited nuclear response by the United States to eliminate his WMD facilities and destroy his regime. Third the Bush administration, once it has settled accounts with Saddam could preemptively launch a significant but conventional strike against DPRK weapons sites and deter North Korea from responding with an overt nuclear threat. Seoul would not tolerate this option unless North Korea first put South Korea’s back to the wall. Or fourth, the Bush administration could quietly threaten North Korea with extreme measures while giving the regime a face-saving excuse to back down in public. I expect that the last possibility is the likeliest scenario. North Korea is not acting up just for laughs; their severe energy shortage and ruined ” Juche ” economy is apparently at a point of poverty where the regime’s mechanisms of control are in jeopardy. I also expect as part of the package that the Bush administration will insist on a restoration of IAEA inspections and food aid being distributed by a UN agency instead of the North Korean government. If you think this is a stretch, pause and recall that having any dealings with the U.S. was once ideological anathema to Pyongyang; they are in such dire straits as to be provoking a conflict for the sole purpose of engaging the United States diplomatically.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ! ( The real one ): British Historian Niall Ferguson has written a robust defense of the British Empire as a historical force for liberty in this month’s issue of BBC History magazine. It is excellent and an argument overdue for challenging the reflexively critical conventional wisdom of the academic world. Sorry, no online links so get thee to Border’s.