At long last….

As I opined a number of months ago, the economy was prepared for a major run during the third and fourth quarters of this year. And I was right, the economy was indeed prepared.

I, however, was not. My Little Business – The Card Group – got so busy so fast that I couldn’t keep up the ferocious blogging pace I set for myself. And being a Capitalist, first thing are first things.

So I’m back. As I close the end of this year, I have a bit more time to reflect on the events of the last months. Let’s start with the Big Stuff first.

Saddam in custody

It’s fun to type that. It’s nice that one of the most evil people of our time is sitting in a cell somewhere being badgered by the CIA interlocutors. And while the world may finally get a peak into the crazed mind of a ruthless dictator (and learn the whereabouts of WMDs), his capture creates more problems that it solves – if you didn’t back the war. Those parties that thought George Bush fils was like the old man and would cut and run before the job was done are now holding a very empty bag that is their future. The Big Losers are, in no particular order:

Howard Dean

The flinty Vermonter first bottled the anti-Bush hatred and left all his rivals to sputter “me too” as fast as they could find a friendly microphone. The only problem with that strategy is that it was completely predicated on Iraq becoming a Vietnam-like “quagmire”.

Dr. Dean is almost an archetypal Boomer politician insofar as he sees everything through the apocryphal filter of 1968. Boomers who didn’t grow up (and their Birkenstock-wearing offspring) still spew the same neo-Marxist nonsense at every opportunity, steadfastly holding to the belief that "The Man" (read "Republicans) "is holding down The People" (read Them and anyone else in the Brotherhood of Victimhood). Iraq had to be Vietnam because they thought it was an unjust war” and as Vietnam was unjust, all wars are unjust. Especially those started by those evil Republicans.

Dr. Dean tapped into that early and hard, corralling the anti-war / anti-globalization / “we love the Kyoto Accords” crowd. These folks visceral hated of people from “the fly-over”, especially those from Texas and very especially those who are religious proved a powerful (and lucrative) hook.

There’s only one problem: these wars are radically different. Vietnam was a war of containment, not liberation. And neither Lyndon Johnson nor Richard Nixon ever sought to capture the leader of the enemy combatant, namely, Ho Chin Mihn.

Bush did. And by doing so, he changed the entire dynamic of the Presidential Race next year. Should Governor Granola carry the day with left-leaning Democratic primary voters, Mr. Bush will hammer him in an avalanche not seen since Ronald Reagan’s the 1984 drubbing of Walter Mondale.

And other candidates are starting to see this as well. When Howard Dean said that, "the capture of Saddam Hussein has not made America safer," he managed to make himself appear so out of touch that some of the Democratic Presidential Candidates (and vast majority of the electorate) probably doubted his sanity. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's harrange of Dean on NBC's Meet the Press was particularly ugly. He was quoted in the Washington Post saying "If he truly believes the capture of this evil man has not made America safer, then Howard Dean has put himself in his own spider hole of denial."

It is at times like these that I enjoy being a Republican.

The French et al.

It must really suck to be Jacques Chirac these days. Can you imagine: special envoy and Bush family fixer James Baker comes a’calling to ask about forgiving some of Iraq’s debt. Miffed that French companies have been frozen out of re-construction deals, Chirac complained bitterly last week about the “legality” of such a move. Now, he has to listen to Mr. Baker’s tales of how Saddam is squealing like stuck pig, talking often and loudly about this shipment of contraband coming in during the embargo and that secret bank account.

“Oh, the implications if this got out to the public” Mr. Baker intones with the seriousness of a funeral director. “Now, how much debt do you want to forgive.” According to the latest reports, apparently quite a bit. How utterly French to want to be in on the victors spoils in Iraq after we have Saddam speaking slowly and clearly into a video camera.

They’re screwed and they know it. They have to pony up the cash now, knowing what the blow back of what Saddam’s memory would look like in newsprint. The same is true of the Germans and Russians as well. They backed a nag and it’s come back to haunt them.

The Major Media

Nearly everyone from Chris Matthews to Pat Buchanan wanted Mr. Bush’s crusade to fail, if for different reasons. Capturing Saddam is a huge deal and will ultimately lead to the Fox News Channel’s biggest ratings to date. Since they already clobber both CNN and MSNBC in prime time, the cable news rating wars are functionally over. Look for Fox to distill and bottle it’s cable news hour into a 30-minute format to take a run and ABC, NBC, And CBS.

Smart money says Dan Rather will retire shortly thereafter.

The UN

Totally discredited, the UN is now nothing more a collection of neo-socialist also-rans that can not do anything constructive other than hold meetings. Having sat on the sidelines of the Iraq liberation, they too are starting to feel a bit of blow back from none other than the Iraqis themselves. The Iraqi Foriegn Minister Hoshyar Zebari stated: "The United Nations as an organization failed to help rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years, and today we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament to that failure.”

Ouch.

And Dr. Dean, et al. want to take the opportunity of Saddam’s capture to turn this back over to the UN. Not a shot guys….

The Rest of the Arab World

Being the head of a despotic Middle Eastern government is probably a safe gig -- for the time being. The future is murkier. Having brought the mighty Saddam down the lowest levels prisonerhood and having images of his dental exam broadcast everywhere have probably sent a few shivers in Iran, Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Whalid Phares wrote in the National Review "... in Tehran, Damascus, Tripoli, and Khartoum, the masters of the palaces know very well that the next time dictators are extracted from holes, it won't necessarily be by infidel soldiers."

Indeed. Revolution is as contagious as the flu and seeing Saddam doing a perp walk might be just enough to topple some of the regions more fragile regimes (read "Iran").

When the Soviet Union fell the political landscape changed enough that the US didn't have to prop up friendly dictators. However, the State Department, in it's permanent quest for stability, didn't see the need to change our relationship with with Middle Eastern thug-acracies. Containment worked, they claimed, pointing to Saddam in his box. September 11th changed everything forever and pointed out the folly of attempting to put state supported terrorists in boxes. President Bush has unleashed powerful forces that may very well spin out of his control. And that's not a bad thing.

The idea that America should state for something positive and contructive -- democracy and liberty -- is not a radical idea. The actual practice of exporting our revolution is. George Bush is a radical American and true giant standing next the likes of Howrd Dean. And the world is already a better place for it.