From Victor Davis Hanson:

Much has been written of the recent Tom Hanks remarks to Douglas Brinkley in a Time magazine interview about his upcoming HBO series on World War II in the Pacific. Here is the explosive excerpt that is making the rounds today.

“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”

Hanks may not have been quoted correctly; and his remarks may have been impromptu and poorly expressed; and we should give due consideration to the tremendous support Hanks has given in the past both to veterans and to commemoration of World War II; and his new HBO series could well be a fine bookend to Band of Brothers. All that said, Hanks’ comments were sadly infantile pop philosophizing offered by, well, an ignoramus.

Hanks thinks he is trying to explain the multifaceted Pacific theater in terms of a war brought on by and fought through racial animosity. That is ludicrous.

Indeed, it is ludicrous. Hanson goes on to explain in detail why Hanks’ view is entirely wrong. But why would someone like Hanks – who has done really good work for our veterans – get it so wrong?

Mostly its because hardly anyone knows about the war with Japan. Outside of scholars and the vanishing veterans of that war (my father was one of the younger Pacific War vets – and he died last year at 82), there just isn’t much public knowledge about this war. This is sad on a lot of levels, not least of which is that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines defeated enemies who would have crushed anyone else (the rule of thumb is that once a unit suffers about 30% casualties, it’s done as a fighting unit until replenished – the 29th Marines on Okinawa suffered 81% casualties…and won).

The war had MacArthur’s brilliant campaign against the Japanese culminating in the liberation of the Philippines. The largest sea battles in history which including stunning, against-all-odds victories at Midway and Leyte Gulf. Campaigns which surged across thousands of miles of ocean and land. And most Americans have heard almost none of it – perhaps a bit about Pearl Harbor and then the bad, mean Americans drop atomic bombs on Japan. And someone like Hanks opines that we fought because we hated their race.

It is stupid. But it is also frustrating. Its like America’s glories have been shoved down the Memory Hole – our past is gutted so that fools can pretend the world is a certain way, when its actually entirely different from that.

One of our tasks over the next few decades will be to instruct the rising generation in the truth about their nation. We must eventually have a time when the glories of our ancestors are known, and honored – when we know the truth, not the fashionable theories of modern sophisticates imposed on the past.

But I don’t think the people in DC will listen:

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

As pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively, we feel compelled to challenge the myths that seem to be prevailing in the political discourse and to once again urge a change in course before it is too late. At stake is the kind of mainstream, common-sense Democratic Party that we believe is crucial to the success of the American enterprise…

…The White House document released Thursday arguing that reform is becoming more popular is in large part fighting the last war. This isn’t 1994; it’s 2010. And the bottom line is that the American public is overwhelmingly against this bill in its totality even if they like some of its parts.

The notion that once enactment is forced, the public will suddenly embrace health-care reform could not be further from the truth — and is likely to become a rallying cry for disaffected Republicans, independents and, yes, Democrats.

Second, the country is moving away from big government, with distrust growing more generally toward the role of government in our lives. Scott Rasmussen asked last month whose decisions people feared more in health care: that of the federal government or of insurance companies. By 51 percent to 39 percent, respondents feared the decisions of federal government more. This is astounding given the generally negative perception of insurance companies.

Which is, of course, exactly what I’ve been on about for months. Its not the economy, stupid. Its not the spin, stupid. Its not the “party of no”, stupid. Its the government – people are mad at government. Local, State and federal, the majority have had it with government and its bloated budgets, sweet heart deals for the well connected and serial political corruption. If Democrats are thinking they can swing people behind ObamaCare once its passed, or that improved economic numbers will save the day, they’ve got rocks in their heads. Unemployment could drop to 8% by November and it won’t matter in the least.

Unless Obama and his Democrats can convince the American people that they have changed their ways – that they have given up Big Government solutions and are really, seriously going to balance the budget and jail the corrupt – then the Democrats will lose in November, and lose rather badly.

The people are really waking up to this scam:

Gallup’s annual update on Americans’ attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence. In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.

According to Gallup, just two years ago 65% felt that global warming was already upon us – now its 53%, with a plurality figuring that even if its happening, its being exaggerated. We’re only a step or two away, I think, from putting this absurdity to bed.

But, remember, the environmentalists will just make up another one. Each time one of their theories proves laughably false, they’ve got another all set to go. I’m sure there’s already been some obscure conference somewhere which put forth some alternative “we’re all gonna die” scenario which will gain ever more currency as anthroprogenic global warming goes down. There’s just too much money to be made off of end of the world scams…

One down, 49 to go:

ACORN, the liberal group notorious for allegedly trying to inflate voter rolls through fraudulent practices, has seen its last election in Ohio.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now will permanently surrender its Ohio business license by June1 as part of a legal settlement with the conservative Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, both sides said yesterday.

ACORN was active in Ohio in the 2006 and 2008 elections, working to register thousands of low-income people to vote and get them to the polls. The group’s efforts were marred by irregularities, including one case in which ACORN workers allegedly induced a Cleveland man to register to vote 72 times, offering cigarettes as an incentive.

Keep your eyes peeled for some sort of successor organization. These fraudsters aren’t about to give up. We’ll have to pursue them and their attempts to subvert America relentlessly.

Of course, a good effort in this would be to get the ACORN-in-Chief out of office in 2012.

Terrible news:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife and daughter were hospitalized Thursday — the wife with a broken back and neck — after their minivan was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer truck on an interstate highway in suburban Virginia, authorities said.

Reid’s wife, Landra, 69, and the couple’s daughter, Lana Barringer, 49, were taken by ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. Neither woman’s injuries appeared to be life-threatening, and the daughter was expected to be released from the hospital Thursday night, Reid aides said. Mrs. Reid was listed in serious condition, an aide said, but she was not expected to require surgery.

Our prayers for Senator Reid, his wife and daughter and our hope for a speedy recovery.

We’re finally getting through to them:

House Republicans approved a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks on Thursday, one day after a House committee enacted a ban on for-profit earmarks.

The Republicans’ moratorium is more extensive than the House Appropriations Committee’s ban in that it applies to all earmarks for all members of the caucus…

…House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) hailed the decision in an interview on Fox News.

“Republicans did something very dramatic today that’s going to make it very uncomfortable for business as usual,” he said. “So now House Republicans are going to the American people and saying we want a clean break from the runaway spending in the past. And that’s going to be quite a contrast from this Congress and the administration.”

We’ll have to keep after them and be rather merciless with any week kneed types who try to get around this. Our Republican demand is that no longer will the money of the American taxpayer be used to buy a politician re-election. No more ear marks – not ever again; that should be our ultimate demand.

This is also why I think we’ll do well in November no matter what happens – Democrats are praying for 8% unemployment and 5% GDP growth. They figure that will save them. It won’t. The people are not upset at the economy, but at government. Which ever party captures the mantle of revolutionary change in the way government business is done will win – and win very big – in November.

Writing off 2010, but warning us Republicans that we’re going to get clobbered in 2012:

The Republicans who won in ’94 mistakenly believed that Americans had ratified their right-wing philosophy, when voters had simply been using the GOP as a protest vehicle. When 1996 rolled around, the economy was stronger (thank you, 1993 budget), the Republicans’ brand was tarnished (voters came to loathe the Gingrich Congress), and Clinton was again able to charm the country with his sunny demeanor.

The story of Clinton’s first term, in other words, is the story of the difference between midterm and presidential elections.

Except that it wasn’t the 1993 budget but the 1995 budget which really got things rolling – and 2000 showed that even peace and prosperity doesn’t necessarily win continued power for the guys in charge. Gingrich was, indeed, loathed but that was because the New Media simply wasn’t there – we had Rush Limbaugh, a few magazines and that was it. You can’t quite as successfully vilify a Republican in 2010 as you could in 1996 – especially now that MSMers are held in increasing contempt by the electorate. And Clinton was charming – but he also adopted huge swaths of the GOP agenda in order to win re-election in 1996 (welfare reform – opposed tooth and nail by Democrats – was key to Clinton’s victory).

Can Obama be re-elected in 2012? Certainly. Its always very hard to get an incumbent out. In 1980 it was because we had the till-then worst President America ever had in office battling it out with the man who is arguably third after only Washington and Lincoln. In 1992, the ruling party’s vote was split (in 1996, as well – people forget that Clinton never won a popular vote majority; that Obama is the first Democrat to win such a majority since 1976). Prior to Bush I and Carter, you have to go back to 1932 to find a sitting President voted out of office. Its not something which happens on a regular basis. Anyone seriously handicapping 2012 has to put it “leans Obama”.

But, will he? That will depend upon a lot of factors:

1. Is the economy good or bad?

2. Is there a foreign crisis calling in to question the President’s leadership ability?

3. Has there been scandal?

4. Is there a third party to siphon votes away from the President?

In the normal course of events, the economy would be better, foreign affairs would be quiet, there wouldn’t be a major scandal and no third party…but these aren’t very normal times, and we might be wallowing with 10%ish unemployment for years, foreign affairs are getting brutal and not likely to calm down, there already is all sorts of scandal bubbling under the surface and already some leftists are exceptionally angry with Obama.

Lots can happen. Its a long ways away. But to try to extrapolate out from 1994/96 is foolhardy.

They are getting extremely desperate out there:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the Chairwoman said Tuesday.

Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

Which just opens up all sorts of Constitutional questions – but which also shows that if they are even thinking of this, they haven’t got the votes to pass, and know they won’t get them.

This is what our “Democrat” party is reduced to – using anti-democratic tricks to advance their cause…

Turns out, it was DC and environs sucking all the money out of the country:

Loudoun ranks as the richest county in the United States, immediately followed by Fairfax and Howard counties, while Montgomery, traditionally one of the wealthiest, is now 10th.

Forbes magazine ranked eight other Washington-area counties in its list of the nation’s 25 wealthiest counties, far more than any other area in the country. The rankings are based on 2008 median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Government is too big and too many people are getting rich off the taxes paid by the middle class. Ask Reid – he’s become a millionaire while “serving” in government. Pelosi has done pretty well out of it, too. Lots of people have – but that is not the way its supposed to be. Service in government is supposed to be a sacrifice – your love of country and sense of duty is supposed to move you to public service, and if you did it right, you should come out of it financially worse off than when you went in.

Our nation is bankrupt and the people who bankrupted it are rich. You know, it is time for a tax increase – a 50% surcharge on non-military, government incomes in excess of 200% of the American median. The government types can get a raise – once the median income of Americans goes up.

Big bunches of money just disappearing at a record clip:

The government racked up a record-high monthly budget deficit of $220.9 billion in February, the Treasury Department announced today.

The latest flood of red ink brings the total deficit for the first five months of the current fiscal year to $651 billion, far exceeding the $589 billion shortfall for the same timeframe in the last fiscal year.

The government ended the 2009 fiscal year with a record $1.4 trillion shortfall. The Obama administration has forecast a $1.56 trillion deficit for this year.

Now, remember, there hasn’t actually been a big bunch of new spending – not a lot of TARPs and supplemental war funding bills since October. In other words, on the expenditure side, things have been pretty much gonig as planned for FY 2010.

So, why is the deficit rising so high? Could it be that revenues are down. And if revenues are down, economic activity is down. And if economic activity is down…then the whole economic “recovery” simply isn’t happening…

This, when coupled with the continuing, rapid decline in sales tax revenues at the State level is a more solid indicator of the true state of the economy than all the stats and happy talk in the world.