Correspondence
The Great Sucking Sound Usually I read Ben Stein's Diary first, but your May issue drew me to P.J. O'Rourke's hilarious article, "Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck." By the time I finished...
...I don't set up moral standards for others, but I know in my heart that lotteries are wrong and they have no positive social value...
...Harp on this string...
...I'm a cop in Seattle, Washington...
...Everything's closed...
...Gamblers rifle family bank accounts, convert food and clothing money into chips, perceive relatives and friends as potential revenue streams, and deceive, lie, and deny...
...O'Rourke's article, I take the gravest exception to his thinly veiled disparagement of employment at Kinko's—twice...
...Sheehan is putting words in my mouth...
...After I run through the roll of quarters my pre-breakfast quaff is finished and I cash out...
...This is why I can't understand how a government that wants to do the best for the people is conducting them...
...a twenty-year veteran lieutenant who says he was fired from the force because of his outspokenness on [Clinton's photo(continued on page 74) 10 The American Spectator July 1995 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 10) ops] and other matters and is suing to get his job back...
...How about making and adhering to this rule: future analyses of AmeriCorps must contain at least one verifiable fact in order to be accepted for publication...
...There are too many good choices out there—even among conservative journals...
...The moral hazard inherent in protecting a country from the consequences of bad currency strategy is surely something that Mr...
...Although I am an illustrator, I don't even think you need more graphics or anything...
...I hope that the writer entertains no illusions about the young people to whom he directs this dribble he has written...
...Caldwell makes the dubious claim that the dollar isn't being adversely impacted by the bailout, but that is beside the point...
...Clinton N. Textor Augusta, Georgia I want you to know how upset I was to see the title of a lead article in the May issue which made use of one of the most disgusting expressions to spew forth from the "in" generation...
...Whalen's work...
...Mark Andresen Metairie, Louisiana 82 The American Spectator July 1995...
...He commiserates with degenerate gamblers who are obligated to bet the "farm" in order to build these hotels and casinos—a degenerate gambler does not need Las Vegas...
...Finally, the logical extension of such a process of re-examination by American conservatives of our ties with Mexico must include a fundamental decision about the nature of the Zedillo regime...
...it could expect a U.S...
...The despicable and contemptible remarks printed about a proven winner such as Governor Pete Wilson are not welcome in our home...
...Strangely, the millions of dollars spent sending these veterans to school led directly to a higher standard of living in America for the decades to follow...
...At the roll call before the event, the lieutenant in charge told us that during a visit in L.A., Clinton had asked a cop his opinion of the Crime Bill...
...When I take an analytical look at the lotteries I am baffled that a supposedly responsible government would promote them...
...The verbal is sharper than the visual sometimes...
...You might even say it is the theme of my article...
...As for myself, I'm an earlyriser...
...A subsequent law suit awarded this student $700,000...
...Charles H. McCrea, Sr...
...5) Here, when Mr...
...Anyway, my Kinko's career ($6.00 an hour to start, and I got a $1.50 raise before I left) was great...
...Besides, I've heard from a friend in the magazine redesign business that y'all were contemplating changing the magazine to look more . . . more what...
...It's a fantasy getaway—a break from the humdrum and routine of a working stiff's life...
...Sheehan is not misrepresenting what I said about Mexican anti-drug efforts or harping on environmental laws that have no bearing (continued on page 82) The American Spectator July 1995 79 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 79) on the subject of my article, he is merely agreeing with me at the top of his lungs...
...However I'm retired on a fixed income...
...As an unaddicted former resident of "Lost Wages" (three and a half years), I thought that I would never live to see an exposé of the sickness engendered in the fanatic casino mentality, as described in the May issue...
...It is for defending the dollar...
...Let me assure the readers of TAS that the ruling PRI party in Mexico and the narcas are one and the same corrupt, putrid organismo that cannot be reformed, only killed—pulled out by the roots and discarded...
...Not two days later, I was told by my lieutenant to move my personal car away from the station, because it had a "Slade Gorton for U.S...
...Mexico's use of protectionist anti-dumping actions and non-tariff barriers against U.S...
...A person who visits an alien destination and can find only the bad and none of the good is a sad commentary indeed...
...3) "NAFTA did not cause the peso collapse," writes Mr...
...After the fundraiser, a woman came out and said to one of the cops, "I think it's great the police support Ron and President Clinton...
...I manned the counter at Kinko's on Capitol Hill a few years ago, while waiting for my appointment as a special agent with the State Department...
...You people owe Pete Wilson an apology and you owe my wife and I [sic] a refund of the balance of our subscription...
...Please...
...Caldwell says the bailout is not a "corrupt" agreement because "it is qualitatively a standard bailout strategy, even if it is quantitatively of staggering size...
...It is distressing to learn of the contemplated use of coated stock to meet advertisers' demands...
...Treasury, or appropriating the resources of the "independent" Federal Reserve...
...Sheehan, Ross Perot, Carlos Salinas, and I would all agree on...
...Color printing on this type of stock nearly always sets off paroxysms of sneezing...
...Why do Ferguson and other critics insist upon trashing kids who are trying to serve America...
...oh...
...Caldwell...
...Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas is a city of dreadful night—and day...
...The cops outside were seething...
...Opposition to its spread should be adamant...
...Just keep doing what you do best...
...When this subscription runs out, it will give me great pleasure to cancel you out...
...Every time I look at the little page icon of Ben Stein, it makes me laugh...
...Mildred C. Lynch Thousand Oaks, California Although I enjoyed P.J...
...If The American Spectator wants to expose a real scam, it should go after something that was just like AmeriCorps, except that it happened on a much larger scale...
...Already we hear some well-intentioned business leaders (and some not so sincere) talking about the "political reforms" of President Ernesto Zedillo, but we must put aside such nonsense...
...George R. Martin, M.D...
...Let me add to the picture he paints so well...
...The bartender gets a buck and I'm off to the two-dollar tables until 8:00 a.m...
...Caldwell's representation that NAFTA is based on "free market principles" is untenable in view of U.S.-Mexico financial, monetary, and exchange-rate coordination policies...
...He dismisses this idea with the flip statement, "On second look, of course, and in practice, it isn't and doesn't," but doesn't provide a shred of corroborating evidence to back up this snap judgment...
...Zedillo is a puppet of his patron and predecessor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari...
...infallibility is almost universal nowadays...
...This plan was implemented through an executive order—opposition congressmen don't get to issue those...
...The Mexico bailout resumes official U.S...
...4) That there are elements of NAFTA that do not go all the way to a free market is denied by neither its supporters nor its foes...
...Christopher Whalen Chief Financial Officer Legal Research International, Inc...
...2) Mr...
...Caldwell's characterization of NAFTA as "free trade" describes the treaty's title, but not its reality...
...By the time I finished the article, half the people in the company's cafeteria were surrounding me as I laughed uncontrollably on the floor...
...To quote an old line—"it's not worth the paper it's printed on...
...Bob Dole's public support for the bipartisan bailout...
...At what point will conservatives realize that the Cold War is over and that we must use new moral and, indeed, legal standards to judge our relationships with foreign countries, even neighbors like Mexico...
...Tyrrell, having condescended to visit Las Vegas, found honest people playing honest games with their own money, whereupon he pronounced the city "horrible...
...In his attempt to exonerate NAFTA, he overlooks a side agreement (also unratified by Congress) that provided a $6 billion line of credit for the peso in case of a devaluation...
...Sauro was disciplined by the chief of police, but the mayor of Minneapolis demanded his dismissal...
...Days later, officers requested to wear their uniforms in a nondenominational "March for Jesus...
...It seems to me, however, that The American Spectator could at least make an editorial decision to stop printing unsupported opinions, unsubstantiated innuendo, and unmitigated bile that add nothing to the legitimate policy debate about the merits of AmeriCorps...
...He claimed it was a "non-political" event, despite the abundance of signs protesting upcoming ballot measures deemed anti-gay...
...Lest your liberal foes accuse you of withholding information (and in the absence of knowledge other than from the news media on my part) the ostensible reason for Sauro's dismissal is police brutality...
...In the meantime, he had compiled an outstanding record of arrests...
...guarantee emboldened Mexico to pursue recklessly loose credit policies, which in turn kept the peso significantly overvalued...
...Louis, Missouri Your June issue was truly great...
...In short, Mexico would not have to suffer the consequences of excessive risk-taking...
...So, we get to the fundraiser, and lo and behold, a sergeant, in full uniform, is up on the stage giving a speech supporting President Clinton and Ron Sims (a Democrat who was running against Republican Slade Gorton...
...Until Zedillo ends the theatrics that now pass for "reform" in Mexico City and orders the arrest of the former president for his intellectual authorship of the massive malfeasance, criminality, and corruption of the past six years, there can be no credible talk of "reform...
...Give my wife a roll of nickels and a halfway "decent" machine and she's happier than a pig in slop...
...In case there's even a shred of doubt as to what I'm talking about: it's the top headline on the cover of your May issue: "Why the GOP Doesn't Suck...
...2) Mr...
...it subsumes both the hardheadedness of the right and the selflessness of the left...
...By 9:00 a.m...
...What I actually said, on p. 36, was, "NAFTA did not cause the peso collapse, but a free market did make necessary the `transparency' that has led investors to re-examine the way Mexican politics operates...
...But Mr...
...And to justify the vulgarity on the grounds of kidcentricity—of which there's no shortage in our lives—would compound the gaucherie...
...For example, Ferguson mentions the idea that national service seems to be "the transideological idea, 'neither liberal nor conservative...
...The nearest bookie or race track will do just fine...
...O'Rourke and The American Spectator...
...Andy Harbison Nutley, New Jersey Congratulations to RET for being the first to point out the true nature of the gaming industry in Las Vegas, America's most horrible city...
...Whalen is revered by the Mexican center-right, and even Jorge Castaileda, an internationally known leftist intellectual with whom Mr...
...Instead of providing young people with entitlements, it provides them with a chance to serve and to earn benefits for higher education...
...In Vegas, at 6:00 a.m...
...To the extent that there is an argument here: (1) I don't dispute that Gingrich and Dole were involved in, and back, the second bailout strategy (and the original one, for that matter...
...E.G...
...This arises from an incident at a Minneapolis night club where Sauro was performing off-duty security service...
...James M. Sheehan Research Associate Competitive Enterprise Institute Washington, D.C...
...support for repeated Mexican policy failures...
...Sheehan made up for me...
...I go to the bar—"buy" a roll of quarters and get a "free" Bloody Mary...
...well, maybe it wasn't so...
...So, considering that and the gastric ulcers you may be experiencing, is it worth it...
...Gambling is becoming the cocaine of the lower middle class, the opiate of timorous politicians afraid of public employee and teacher unions...
...that's their kind of ploy too...
...So, we were told, in the strongest terms possible, that if we were asked anything of a political nature by anyone, we were to say nothing...
...If so, it's another good reason, one I hadn't thought of, for avoiding pop-culture-from-the-bottom-up...
...Please, take my advice—you don't need to change a thing...
...Sheehan's ludicrous implication is that the opposition to NAFTA came from those who would rather have seen a pure Hayekian capitalist treaty in its place...
...Andrew Ferguson, in his review of Steven Waldman's book The Bill (TAS, May 1995), like most critics of AmeriCorps, bandies about personal opinion and scurrilous innuendo as if they were facts...
...Tyrrell, I am a libertarian conservative...
...You can be sure that Clinton would be salivating over debating the likes of Gramm, Buchanan, or Dornan...
...3) The $6 billion is not a line of credit, properly speaking, but a swap fund...
...to contribute financially to prop up the peso...
...Readers desiring more information on the kind of shenanigans detailed in my article could do no better than to look up Mr...
...Far worse Ferguson levelsa very serious charge about AmeriCorps: "The press is already uncovering the inevitable abuses—under-the-table-payments to the volunteers, servers who serve as agitators rather than do-gooders"— without citing a single source to substantiate these reckless accusations...
...is overcommitted...
...I wish to respond to several points made in Christopher Caldwell's apologia for the U.S...
...What do you do at most vacation spots at 6:00 a.m...
...The disgrace of which I am speaking involved millions of Americans "volunteering" in a government-funded bureaucracy that paid them for their "service...
...The obvious motivation for having a lottery is the greed of our elected officials...
...Here, as in most cities, the street cops are mostly conservative, while the brass and city leaders lean on the liberal side...
...Christopher Caldwell replies: First, my thanks to Christopher Whalen, whom I know only through his reputation as the single most widely informed non-Mexican on the links between Mexico's corruption and its financial disasters...
...David W. Gaier Chicago, Illinois Police After Clinton John A. Barnes's article ("Photo-Op Cops," TAS, May 1995) struck a nerve with me...
...Your use of it in a virtual banner head across the cover is inexcusable...
...Edina, Minnesota Dicing With Las Vegas It was with great relief that I read R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s editorial "Chip On My Shoulder" in the May issue—finally, a national commentary on the lunacy of the social decay being fostered by state lotteries in this country...
...So many nags, so little time...
...NAFTA rules-of-origin prevent American retailers from selling products without sufficient "North American" content...
...On Capitol Hill, of course, I contributed to the advance of deliberative democracy through high-volume copying for a lot of congressional offices—what, with all those studies and analyses and bills, on taxes and social programs and...
...1) Calling the bailout a "plan pushed by Clinton" is highly misleading, as is the reference to Republicans being suspicious of the "fishy" bailout plan because of Treasury Secretary Rubin's alleged conflict of interest...
...The Washington Post broke the story that the bailout plan to use the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF)—money controlled exclusively by Rubin without oversight from Congress—was pushed on a reluctant (continued on page 79) The American Spectator July 1995 75 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 75) Clinton by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott, and others in the Republican leadership...
...Or tell me I'm the one with the dirty mind...
...This is similar to the argument for subsidizing the cosmetic changes of Gorbachev's reform Communism, which like reform corporatism, is an oxymoron...
...It may be—but, if so, only due to the perception that the U.S...
...Does Mr...
...Las Vegas to my wife and me has been a vacation spot for over 25 years (often twice a year...
...Sauro had thirty-two complaints against him, none of which was confirmed...
...This bureaucracy sent these "volunteers" on all-expense-paid tours to Europe and to Asia for several years, and then brought them back to America and provided them with free educations from the public coffers...
...I was referring to the financial strategy of the bailout, not its politics, as any reader of the relevant paragraph on p. 40 will quickly discern...
...The reason for our disenchantment can be found in "The Continuing Crisis" section of your May 1995 issue...
...During the November elections, I was part of a detail that was doing crowd control for a presidential speech/fundraiser...
...William J. Lampkin Muriel L Lampkin Modesto, California Don't Go Changin' I am in sympathy with your requests for funds and your ideals regarding quality reporting...
...I regret that The American Spectator's sympathetic report on Mexico failed to bring out these relevant considerations...
...AmeriCorps seeks to give the young people of today an opportunity to serve their country, just as the young people of the 1940s had an opportunity to serve their country...
...Organized crime's Shangri-La, where all that glitters is not gold-filled...
...By a 1934 statute, the ESF cannot be used to prop up the peso, to save insolvent Mexican banks, or to help the Mexican elite convert its peso holdings into dollars...
...Hamilton, M.D...
...Sure, the teenagers who use the word (for what the GOP supposedly doesn't do) probably don't even know its origin...
...That these geese are already so well-plucked, pulling more feathers by direct taxation educes deafening squawks...
...But "a reluctant Clinton...
...Joel J. Orosz Kalamazoo, Michigan Wilson Picketer We wish to cancel our subscription and receive a refund for the remainder of our subscription period...
...Rather than signing free trade agreements with this criminal organization foreigners mistake for a government,we should declare war on the PRI, and hunt down its members like the common criminals that they are...
...Likewise, Mr...
...As you are experiencing, the income, supposedly "fixed," has to contend with increasing expenses...
...I buy the newspaper and bring my wife a cup of coffee up in the room...
...Does he perhaps find the atmosphere more inspirational and morally uplifting at home near Washington, D.C., where dishonest people play dishonest games with other people's money...
...There is nothing standard about the president bypassing Congress, making unauthorized loans from the U.S...
...Ray Munson San Francisco, California Mexico Corrupto Christopher Caldwell and TAS get dozens of fuerte abrazos and congratulations for "Dinosaurs and Desperados" (TAS, May 1995...
...What I actually said, elsewhere on p. 40, was, "Any worries that the dollar will be in imminent peril for the lack of $20 billion in marks and yen [in the ESF] are vastly overblown...
...Robert A. Fromtling Westfield, New Jersey For maybe three years I've been compiling a list, hitherto highly confidential, headed the Vulgarity Hall of Fame...
...Caldwell assimilated a vast amount of material into a clear, coherent overview of what is truly a nasty situation...
...First, the modesty of my friend Raymundo Riva Palacio in describing the evolution toward a narco state in Mexico comes from the fact that he must continue to live south of the border...
...companies are NAFTA-legal...
...It includes many of the names you might expect: Cher and Roseanne and Maury Povich and the like...
...Thomas Reynolds Boca Raton, Florida My sympathies to R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...I feel pretty sure it won't be any form of mea culpa, in any language...
...Washington, D.C...
...I have been an educator all my long life and I would not tolerate the use of that expression in my classroom...
...This disgraceful interlude in our history, of course, was World War II...
...My sole request is for more P.J...
...The fact that there is now an excellent chance for the conservative PAN to take power in Mexico impresses few State Department and National Security Council gnomes, who are happy doing business with our corrupt clients in Mexico City...
...We have a strict policy of not allowing the uniform to be used for political events, but predictably, it depends on the event...
...Sheehan could at least have done me the courtesy of accurately representing what I wrote...
...we're ready for breakfast and the start of a five-day/fournight jaunt with good meals and nightly entertainment...
...Whalen would surely disagree on a broad variety of issues, has sung his praises in a recent pamphlet La Ultima sorpresa?: "Among foreigners, justice demands that we remember . Christopher Whalen, who, notwithstanding his strident tone, pointed out the connection between political authoritarianism, an overvalued exchange rate, and the inevitable financial crack-up at the end of the road...
...I can only guess at your reaction to this (and other protests I'm sure you'll get...
...What is the legislators' concern for the citizenry...
...The detractors of public education—and they are to be found everywhere—would question that ability in young people today...
...4) Mr...
...It also committed the U.S...
...I soon recovered, only to wait anxiously for the next issue of The American Spectator...
...I want nothing more than to go about the business of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without government interference...
...I am not so naive as to think that The American Spectator would ever become a supporter of AmeriCorps...
...Now, with regret, I will add P.J...
...Their request was denied by the chief, who said it would violate the separation of church and state...
...If you do not know the source, do find out...
...From the content of the article itself by one P.J...
...Curiously, despite the fact that it was run by the federal government, this bureaucratic effort managed to destroy the totalitarianism that threatened to engulf the world...
...Gambling is a monstrous vice...
...No wonder the Pope sometimes seems increasingly irrelevant...
...Government interference in foreign exchange markets means that currency prices are determined politically, not by free markets...
...It offers not hand-outs, but rather hands-up...
...This implicit U.S...
...Tell me another one...
...I did not say the dollar isn't being adversely affected by the bailout...
...The student alleges that Sauro kicked and beat him after he was handcuffed, inflicting grievous injury, although he was able to compete in hockey within two weeks...
...The new North American Development Bank, created with NAFTA, extends the foreign aid concept to border environmental problems...
...This is greed with no conscience and with no qualms about betraying the public trust...
...Second, Caldwell fails only by not extending his excellent analysis to the role of successive Republican and Democratic administrations in Washington in fostering and protecting the miserable, narco-dominated status quo in Mexico...
...Oh sure, I can well believe it was all meant as some satiric fun, which is just the kind of thing your Hollywood bete noires might say about their little booboos...
...The peso bailout itself is a form of foreign aid that props up the ruling party at the expense of true reform elements within Mexico...
...O'Rourke, it is not much better...
...The cop gave an answer that the president didn't like and the cop got in trouble...
...Phil Wall Seattle, Washington In John Barnes's May story there is a quote from Mike Sauro of the Minneapolis Police Department...
...I have always believed that the ones who suffer the most are the children of the pitiful gambling addicts who frequent such horrible places as Vegas and Atlantic City...
...That's a very different sentiment than the one Mr...
...But there are some words that even minimal good taste rules out of civil speech, let alone public print...
...Billions in World Bank and IMF aid to Mexico have been fruitless...
...Indeed, can he really expect them to read...
...So glory in it...
...Caldwell makes no mention of either Speaker Gingrich's or Sen...
...I'd suggest that you just drop the letters to the editor section...
...bailout if things got out of control...
...Oh, forget it...
...Senate" bumper sticker on it...
...The matter is still in litigation, but the dilemma of Minneapolitans is whether they have eliminated a "thumper" who is a detriment to the Department or simply made the streets safer for criminals...
...Richard L Black Palm Coast, Florida Mr...
...bailout of the Mexican regime...
...For the record, the Financial Times broke that story, not the Washington Post...
...Corps Blimey I was dismayed to see The American Spectator give space to yet another cheapshot artist who attacks the Corporation for National Service's AmeriCorps program based on innuendo and opinion without a shred of hard fact...
...himself might not, if he's young enough...
...Recently, our new chief marched in the "Gay Pride" parade, in full uniform...
...Oddly, the "volunteers" who participated in this activity were not ruined by the experience, but rather came back to build a prosperous economy and a caring society...
...5) To "pull the plug" on aid to the Mexican ruling party is an action that is almost fifty years overdue...
...Can he really expect them to read this...
...Thank goodness, some of us conservatives have good old common sense and we would be very lucky if Pete Wilson was the one debating Clinton in 1996...
...Politicians who court such insane institutions are putting their communities on a one-way street to ruin...
...NAFTA's many side agreements, exemptions, and exceptions make it more of a mercantilist trade bloc than a free trade area...
...A minor melee occurred during which a young college student jumped on Sauro's back while he was dealing with several other rioters and was physically subdued, arrested, and handcuffed by Sauro...
...Caldwell really consider the naming of a few drug traffickers in a Mexican government document a great NAFTA accomplishment deserving of new subsidies...
...Like Mr...
...When the peso was devalued, Uncle Sam's $6 billion pledge was not enough to cover the losses...
...Sometimes up—sometimes down...
...The medics were ready with CPR, if needed...
Vol. 28 • July 1995 • No. 7
