Meet the 2008 Dark Horse

Fred Dalton Thompson isn't a name on the tip of many tongues as a favorite in the already hot 2008 presidential race. He is better known as New York City District Attorney Arthur Branch from the wildly popular television drama, Law and Order. Yet only five short years ago he wrapped up his successful senatorial career as the Ranking Minority Member in only his eighth year (he replaced Al Gore in 1994 and was re-elected in 1996). In Fred Thompson we conservatives have a candidate eerily similar to our hero, Ronald Reagan.

According to OnTheIssues, Thompson believes in low taxes and a balanced budget, tort reform and capital punishment, school choice, free trade and welfare reform. In other words, he is fiscally and socially conservative with certain libertarian tendencies. He believes in deregulation of industry and loose federal control over the economy. He is fallible, of course, like every other human being on this earth. Not every issue will resonate with the entirety of the conservative base, but then again even Reagan passed the most liberal abortion law for its time when he was governor of California.

And now, twenty years removed from the last actor turned President, the stars have seemingly aligned in a similar pattern to bless this nation with yet another. And to add a proverbial cherry on top, some of Reagan's closest advisors have voiced support for Fred Thompson. Reagan's deputy chief of staff, Michael Deaver, says of Thompson:

He is very popular in his party. He could change this whole thing and turn this
primary system upside down. (source)

Clark Judge, a former Reagan speechwriter, added this, "Fred Thompson, like Ronald Reagan, is a man of tremendous substance." Roger Stone, a former Reagan campaign strategist, put it this way:

The president Americans want is, in fact, the guy they see on Law and Order:
wise, thoughtful, deliberative, confident without the cockiness of George W
Bush, urbane yet country. Fred Thompson communicates all those virtues.

And this coming Friday night, in Reagan's backyard of southern California, Mr. Thompson will address the 45th annual dinner of the Lincoln Club. The club has been portrayed as the largest and most active political club in America, and the event was highly sought after by other Republican candidates.

It will be interesting to see, in coming months, whether or not Thompson has delayed his decision too long even though it is still relatively early for the race to be so heated. These races ultimately come down to the person with the best message and more importantly, the most money. The former will most likely be firmly in Thompson's court, but the latter will be a difficult mountain to climb with several candidates having ties to Wall Street and other large-scale donors.

The candidate many on the right have been hoping and praying for is here. Now the only question is, will he run?

Nanny Gore: Artists Can Fight Warming Too

When Algore opens his mouth, it is almost assured that something sycophantic will come out. Lo and behold he hasn't dissappointed this time as he has delivered an SOS at the opening of the Tribeca Film Festival in the New York City district of the same name. In this case, however, SOS stands for "Save Our Selves."

“Art, music, film, dance, poetry — all the arts — have long been our greatest
tools to explore the regions of imagination that defy our efforts to think
rationally about subjects that our emotions tell us are too painful to
contemplate,” he said.

Rationally, you say? I'm hard-pressed to find anything in the art world that has done anything rationally. All five artistic categories thrive on irrational, out-of-the-box thinking that appeals to a cross-section of society.

There is an explanation for Gore's latest call-to-arms; he wants to utilize an industry whose financial lifeblood comes almost entirely from the public sector. The entire emphasis on fighting global warming has been placed on the government by Mr. Gore in a predictably pedantic series of demands. Gore urges the world's governments to cut back on carbon emissions by 90% before 2050 and wage green warfare on businesses if they fail to comply with his hodgepodge of regulations and economic hogties.

The most important thing Algore has failed to realize is something that was put graphically in a Wall Street Journal editorial several months ago. The graph most definitely speaks for itself; in concurrent five year spans from 1990 to 2004, the United States has gone from a 6-10% growth rate to a paltry 2.1% in the latest span. Meanwhile, the first fifteen members of the European Union, or EU-15, have proceeded to take a 2.2% cutback in emissions before all of the hype to a 4.5% growth rate AFTER they all signed onto the Kyoto Protocol in 2002.

The difference between the two nations, apart from the glaring fact that the US never signed Kyoto, is that the European Community has undertaken a series of industry-crippling regulations while the United States has remained steadfast in its support of free markets. Free competition has forced many large corporations to cut emissions independent from government coersion. From General Electric to United Technologies, some of the biggest companies by market capitalization have been cutting emissions at double-digit clips for several years now.

A word to the unwise, Mr. Gore. America's people have always been skeptical of government. We broke away from a tyrannical king 231 years ago, broke away from ourselves 146 year ago, and spent almost a half-century fighting hyper-government in the form of Communism during the Cold War. If you so desperately want to fight global warming, perhaps you should step aside and let the free market continue its course toward your desired end. It would amaze you how efficient markets can be ...

The Perspectives: La Terza Parte

Back again, after my second (and sad to say, much longer) hiatas, the blog is under a redesign. During the latest reboot, if you will, I'm going to be changing the looks and the content. In addition to politics and current affairs topics, there will be some sporting additions in honor of the newly christened baseball season. Mainly, these sports posts will be concerning the daily Brewers games.

Anyone who has been checking in for updates over the last year, thank you. You will not be disappointed with Version Three.

Stay tuned for more ...