Vox Popoli

When 13 Democratic members of the U.S. Congress asked United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send election monitors to the U.S. this fall, the move outraged many Republicans and other proponents of national sovereignty.

When those same 13 Democratic members of Congress were turned down by Annan, they took their request to Secretary of State Colin Powell – again to the shock of many Republicans and those who warn about foreign entanglements.

Yesterday, those 13 Democratic House members got their surprising answer from the State Department – the administration will indeed invite foreign election monitors to observe the U.S. elections in November.

It always amazes me how those who warn about how awful John Kerry might be pay no attention to how awful George Bush actually is. He is every bit the traitorous sell-out of national sovereignty that Bill Clinton was. The fact that he can’t speak without mangling his words doesn’t make him a good man any more than Bill Clinton’s quick wit made him a wise one.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Ms Theresa Heinz Kerry:

You cannot solve problems by throwing stones, and you cannot solve problems by telling lies, and you cannot solve problems by wishing ill to other people,” she said. “The only way you solve problems is by holding hands and talking about it….

Oh sweet Moses! There are times when I think it’s possible to be an adult and a Democrat. This isn’t one of them.

Michelle Malkin thinks she can simultaneously play and referee:

Taken in totality, rather than in selective slivers, my defense of Roosevelt’s homeland security measures remains unrefuted.

Next, please.

Malkin skips over the point that her entire thesis is utterly absurd! The totality of all the minor dangers Malkin cites doesn’t come close to that posed by the British Army in the War of 1812 – when British troops actually invaded the American homeland, burned the White House, etc. and yet the Commander-in-Chief did not then feel the need to completely shred the Constitution as did FDR with his executive order to intern and relocate American citizens of Japanese descent.

There was never any serious danger to the West Coast. Even if a factory or two was sabotaged, even if a military base or two was spied upon, even if a submarine lobbed a few shells at Los Angeles, it was not going to have any effect on the war effort whatsoever, as US industrial capacity absolutely dwarfed that of Germany and Japan combined. Since Malkin apparently knows nothing about military history, she rests her case on posterior-covering reports which consist of little more than what-ifs and just-maybes. Not having read the book, I don’t know if she’s actually foolish enough to claim that the West Coast was under the threat of invasion, but from the sound of her defense, I don’t think she was quite that detached from the history of this space-time continuum.

As for the protective aspects of the interment, if Malkin’s book causes her to become insufficiently popular with enough people, shall we lock her up against her will? For her own protection of course.

With Michelle’s support for the Patriot Act and now this boot-licking justification of State muscle-flexing, it seems she is as naive as she is lovely. Would-be dictators always promise protection from incipient danger, if only they can set themselves above the law. That hoary old trick was ancient when Marius was pulling it on the Conscript Fathers.

UPDATE: Here’s some information on the man that Ms Malkin is defending. It’s particularly interesting to hear that he bragged he had “committed enough illegal acts to be impeached and jailed for 999 years” even before he was seizing the nation’s gold and forcing American citizens out of their homes.

A week or two ago, I mentioned that if Wave 3 began in Feb-March, that it could be expected to run downhill until July 2006. One thing interesting about yesterday’s swoon was that in addition to breaking the important supports at 1080 and 1074, the SPX actually managed to get ahead of the schedule I proposed for it.

With 16.56 percent of the estimated 640 days to the next major bottom, the SPX has fallen 17.06 percent. The NDX, on the other hand, has only fallen 18.63 percent since its top, in 21.25 percent of the time. (The NDX usually tops differently than the SPX and DOW, although they bottom together at the big turns. In this case, it came 30 trading days earlier.)

Since the market never moves in straight lines, we’ll probably see a mini-rally soon, but I wouldn’t start looking for a multi-day one until the NDX falls another 5 percent or so. The last two short term moves were (i) down 10.86 percent and (ii) up 3.89 percent, so 6.87 percent in five trading days would seem too little movement in too short a time to mark the end of (iii).

All of this assumes, of course, that the wave patterns are meaningful. Always take it with a grain of salt.

MEXICO CITY – The US drugs czar has admitted that Washington’s anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has so far failed.

Mr John Walters, who heads the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, acknowledged that billions of dollars of investment over many years have failed to dent the flow of Latin American cocaine onto US streets, but he predicted progress would be seen soon.

It’s not working, so of course, efforts will be redoubled. After almost 25 years of the War on Drugs, with nothing to show for it except hundreds of thousands of innocent people in jail and numerous American liberties destroyed, you’d think pro-drug war conservatives would consider pulling their heads out of their posteriors and wake up to how they’ve been helping destroy America.

“But what if we legalized drugs,” they gasp in horror. “Surely the country will collapse in a maelstrom of crack whores and coke fiends!” Well, Mr. Historical Ignoramus, seeing as how society and individual rights were in better shape back when the government was less powerful, rope was made of hemp and cocaine was legal, I don’t think we have a whole lot to fear, not from drugs, anyhow.

Using the power of the central state to control human behavior is always a mistake. As with the Patriot Act, the War on Drugs was designed as a weapon to be used against the American people. Don’t believe me? Fine, email me your telephone number and I’ll phone in an anonymous tip about the meth lab in your garage. Then you can discover firsthand just how well your Constitutional rights protect you.

Are you noticing a pattern here? We must throw out the Constitution because the Japanese are going to invade across 5500 miles of ocean! We must throw out the Constitution because Billy might smoke pot! We must throw out the Constitution because someone might send money to their bank in the Caymans! We must throw out the Constitution because someone is killing someone else in Iraq! We must throw out the Constitution because someone blew up two buildings in New York! We must throw out the Constitution because we need to promote economic growth!

Americans deserve precisely what they’re getting, which is to say a nation sans Constitution and individual rights. Ben Franklin warned us from the start, but no, we knew better! Things are different now, in this, the modern age. Sure, there may have been conspiracies in Rome, Byzantium, China, Greece, France, Spain, Germany, Russia and every other state power in the history of the world, but you’d have to be a crazy wearer of tinfoil hats if you think anyone would conspire after power in America! Why would anyone want to control the richest, most militarily powerful nation the world has ever known?

So, vote for Bush or vote for Kerry if you like, it makes no difference. Truly, it doesn’t. The die is cast and it has been for some time, probably since 1971 and Bretton Woods. I’m voting Libertarian because I believe there is value in acts of defiance, and because it is better to grasp at the slimmest of slim chances than to lend my hand and my consent to the devastation.

Politicians like to say they’re bullish on America. But odds are high that it’s those who short it that will reap the profits. In forty years, when the United States abandons its sovereignty to become a state of the American Union, (as the Free Trade Area of the Americas will likely be known as it follows the model of the European Economic Community), you will not be able to say that you weren’t warned.

But perhaps the most striking of all the differences between American and European working patterns, however, relates to working hours. In 1999, according to figures from the OECD, the average American in employment worked just under 2,000 hours a year (1,976). The average German worked 1,535 – 22 per cent less.

According to a recent American study, the average Frenchman works a staggering 32 per cent less. The journalist Madeleine Bunting has recently lamented that British workers are being pushed towards the American model, but the British worker is still working 12 per cent less than his American counterpart. This gap between American and European working hours is of surprisingly recent origin; 25 years ago, it didn’t exist. Between 1979 and 1999, the average US working year lengthened by 50 hours, nearly four per cent. But the average German working year shrank by 12 per cent. The same was true elsewhere in Europe.

How are we to explain this divergence? The obvious answer is European legislation such as the French 35-hour week or the recent British reduction of the hours worked by junior doctors. Another theory points to differences in marginal rates of taxation. But I cannot resist suggesting another possible explanation – one that owes a debt to Weber’s famous essay The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which he wrote almost exactly a century ago.

Weber believed he had identified a link between the rise of Protestantism and the development of what he called “the spirit of capitalism”. I would like to propose a modern version of Weber’s theory, namely “The Atheist Sloth Ethic and the Spirit of Collectivism”.

Interesting concept. It makes sense that atheists would be less inclined to work hard, since if this life is all they’ve got before vanishing into oblivion, there’s no point in slaving away instead of devoting oneself to an Epicurean philosophy of eat, drink and be merry. Oh, sure, some misguided non-souls among the godless might be inclined to work hard to make a better life for their children or something, but in general, it would be logical for the soulless to employ the same parasitic attitude towards societal wealth that they do towards societal mores.

I can’t say I entirely disagree, either. As I’ve written previously, I don’t think anyone ever went to his Maker – or into the dark bowels of oblivion – wishing he’d spent more time at the office.

Rich Lowry scratches his head:

It’s always a kick to speak at a YAF events. Any eye-batting aside, what was most notable about this year was just how many smart young conservatives out there seem to think that there are no important differences between Bush and Kerry–whether this election really matters was a question that came up repeatedly. I find it hard to fathom how someone can think that, but there you are…

Gee, I have no idea. Perhaps it’s because they’re the smart ones.

JS sends a timely email:

My change-of-party form is now making its way through the bureaucracy. As soon as they process it, I’ll be officially registered Libertarian. Ironically, it appears the government has trouble even processing a simple form. I got a call saying the processing was delayed because the portion of the form which had my address on it had been “cut off by their letter opening machine”.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the part your blog and columns have had in helping me make this decision. Six months ago I fretted over the decision to leave the Republican party. However, given impetus to think it through, I realized I had always preferred George Washington’s America over George Bush’s. The final “decision” was no decision at all, with little fretting necessary. I’m less a “convert” to the Libertarian Party than one who simply (and finally) noticed which party walked the walk instead of just talking the talk.

This is by no means the first email of this sort that I’ve received, but I thought it was worth posting considering the recent conversation about what libertarians are doing. The most important things don’t involve getting involved in formal party politics, but in convincing those around you that principle matters.

And JS, you are very welcome. The battle won’t be won, tomorrow, November or the next election cycle, but it isn’t lost until the last man quits.

Fred praises the Mexicanas:

Now, young and beautiful has its charm. Men do not, as a rule, seek out withered crones. But—and I know many of these men well—what draws them is the warmth and womanliness of the Mexicana. In Mexico you don’t marry one of the guys. You don’t marry a child-support bomb waiting to explode without visitation. You don’t marry a hundred pounds of irrational anger looking for an excuse. You marry a woman. The difference…my God, the difference…. Yes, money is the only effective aphrodisiac, anywhere, as any man knows who has been in the Philippines with a paycheck. Drive a flashy car in Washington and leave hundred-dollar tips and you will have women all over you….

Violeta was suddenly, utterly, and in the short term irremediably without work or money. She also had a daughter of nine to care for. For a long time it was beans, tortillas, and water. Mexico does not have the social safety net that Americans rely on. So they stayed home and read. Violeta got through the Decameron and four volumes of Borges.

While I don’t even know that I’ve ever met a Mexicana, I can’t help but wonder how many of the self-professed strong, educated American women, who require intense therapy and Prozac the first time someone dares to disagree with them, have even heard of Boccaccio, still less the Chinese Encyclopedia.

A word of advice. If men tend to smile nervously and back away from you on a regular basis, it doesn’t mean that they’re intimidated by your stupendous brain, it means they think you’re a lunatic.

As one reader here recently noted, cheerleaders of the Bush administration defend the Patriot Act even though they admit that they have neither read it or know what it contains. They presume that it is good because it is against terrorism. I’d be interested to know how they defend the following provisions, which have nothing to do with terrorism:

Several provisions of the USAPA have no apparent connection to preventing terrorism. These include:

Government spying on suspected computer trespassers with no need for court order. Sec. 217.

Adding samples to DNA database for those convicted of “any crime of violence.” Sec. 503. The provision adds collection of DNA for terrorists, but then inexplicably also adds collection for the broad, non-terrorist category of “any crime of violence.”

Wiretaps now allowed for suspected violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This includes anyone suspected of “exceeding the authority” of a computer used in interstate commerce, causing over $5000 worth of combined damage.

Dramatic increases to the scope and penalties of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This includes: 1) raising the maximum penalty for violations to 10 years (from 5) for a first offense and 20 years (from 10) for a second offense; 2) ensuring that violators only need to intend to cause damage generally, not intend to cause damage or other specified harm over the $5,000 statutory damage threshold; 3) allows aggregation of damages to different computers over a year to reach the $5,000 threshold; 4) enhance punishment for violations involving any (not just $5,000) damage to a government computer involved in criminal justice or the military; 5) include damage to foreign computers involved in US interstate commerce; 6) include state law offenses as priors for sentencing; 7) expand definition of loss to expressly include time spent investigating, responding, for damage assessment and for restoration.

As was the case with the War on Drugs, the Patriot Act means that simply redefining things, like website graffiti, as terrorism, the government now has another weapon in its arsenal which will be used to assault American liberties.