HOMELAND SECURITY: Giving new impetus to President Bush’s desire for a Homeland Security bill, CNN reported November 7 that "The area of South America known as the tri-border region, which drew the attention of anti-terrorism experts after September 11, has again become a point of concern. CNN has learned from coalition intelligence sources that several top terrorist operatives met recently in the area-where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay intersect-to plan attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Western hemisphere. Sources said the meetings, which took place in and around Ciudad del Este [in Paraguay], were attended by representatives of Hezbollah and other groups sympathetic to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network." The tri-border region is largely controlled by leftist narco-terrorists and is home to many people of Arab descent.
AFTER MURKOWSKI: With Sen. Frank Murkowski’s election as governor of Alaska November 5, speculation about which of his fellow Republicans he would name in January to take over his seat until the next Senate election in ’04 was centering on Anchorage Mayor George Wuretz, University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton, state Teamster boss Jerry Hood (who worked closely with Murkowski on ANWR), and the senator’s daughter, State Rep. Lisa Murkowski.
MESS FOR DEMS: For lovers of the Constitution, last year’s campaign finance "reform" package was a major disappointment. But if the Supreme Court fails to strike down the reforms this spring, conservatives may be somewhat consoled by the fact that the new laws could seriously harm the Democratic Party’s fundraising machine for the 2004 elections. In recent years, Democrats have relied increasingly on a small number of multi-million-dollar soft-money contributions from their wealthy liberal base of trial lawyers, Hollywood celebrities and media/technology moguls. Republican campaign committees, on the other hand, receive many small contributions-the average gift is close to $100-that essentially reflect the party’s middle-class base. Under McCain-Feingold, Democrats will lose their current soft-money cash cow. After studying Federal Election Commission (FEC) data for the third quarter of 1998 and 2002-the years of the last two midterm elections-the Washington Times found that "[d]uring the last midterm cycle (’97-’98), the three major Democratic committees raised $107 million in hard money, compared to $185 million for the three major GOP committees. The gap was less than $78 million. For the 2001-’02 cycle, Democratic committees raised $127 million in hard money. Republican committees raised $289 million. The hard-money gap more than doubled, rising to $162 million for the current cycle." In 1997-’98, soft-dollar contributions comprised 43% of total donations to Democratic committees. That number grew to 61% for the last election. That compares to 43% in soft money contributions to the GOP committees this cycle.
BIG LABOR BLUES: For all the election-year talk from Democrats about corporate corruption and the need for tighter ethical standards in business, they have been silent about illegal activities among their allies in organized labor. Former Ironworkers Union President Jake West has just pleaded guilty to an embezzlement charge as he was about to undergo two trials on more than 50 felony counts. West, who retired as head of the 135,000-member union last year, faces charges ranging from embezzling more than $10,000 in union funds on golf outings to giving former Ironworkers General Secretary Leroy Worley more than $200,000 in union funds not to run against him as president. Sources in both the Justice and Labor Departments also confirmed to HUMAN EVENTS that United Brotherhood of Carpenters President Douglas J. McCarron is the subject of three federal probes regarding stock profiteering and pension fund malfeasance. McCarron, who pulled his union out of the AFL-CIO two years ago, has long been the top labor chieftain courted by the Bush White House.
TOO BAD: Just before Election Day, filmmaker and author Michael Moore was ecstatic on his website: "Well, folks, Tuesday is the day! The day that George W. gets taught a long-overdue lesson. The day that we, the MAJORITY-the 52% who never elected him-get our chance to reclaim a bit of our former democracy (back when ALL the votes used to be counted). What if, on Tuesday, all of us, regardless of our political stripe, and just for the fun of it, decided to serve one [obscenity] eviction notice that said, you have two years to remove yourself from the premises-and you had better not damage anything on your way out?"
