Hennessy's View

Writers are always looking for the perfect topic for a book.  But there’s a problem.

What’s important to me may not be important to you. And what you to read about, I might not care about. 

That’s why great books achieve a certain universality.  They touch on the essence of life itself, of humanity itself, of existence. 

Some say that the secret to perfectly spellbinding stories is a mixture of just three elements: sex, food, and spirit.  That’s why Elizabeth Gilbert’s Love, Eat, Pray became such a phenomenal best-seller and movie.

I might claim that sex, justice, and military is the perfect American combination for a fiction story.

But I’m not here to talk about fiction.

I’m here to talk about hard, cold reality served up by one of St. Louis’s leading conservative writers.

Are you ready for the perfect conservative book recipe?

Buy and read Bob McCarty’s Three Days in August.  Read all about the book:

U.S. Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Kelly A. Stewart admitted to having a one-night stand with a 28-year-old German woman the night of Aug. 22, 2008. She did, too. Both knew sex was part of the plan when they left the discotheque near Stuttgart. Two months later, however, her story changed and the highly-decorated combat veteran found himself facing rape and kidnapping charges.

During court-martial proceedings one year later, Stewart faced an Army court-martial panel comprised of soldiers who had recently returned from a 16-month deployment with the Army attorney serving as Stewart’s lead prosecutor.

Despite a lack of both physical evidence and eyewitnesses to the alleged crimes, it took only three days for the panel to find Stewart guilty of numerous offenses — including aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, forcible sodomy and assault and battery — and sentence him to eight years behind bars.

Incredibly, the conviction was based almost entirely on the testimony of Stewart’s accuser, a one-time mental patient who, with the backing of the German government, refused to allow her medical records to be entered as evidence.

When several witnesses came forward during a post-trial hearing to reveal startling proof that the accuser had lied several times during the trial, their words were largely ignored by the court and Stewart remained behind bars.

Today, Stewart’s fighting for a new trial so he can shed the “sexual offender” label that will stay with him the rest of his life if justice remains out of reach.

Based on extensive interviews and never-before-published details taken from the actual Record of Trial, Three Days In August: A U.S. Army Special Forces Soldier’s Fight for Military Justice by Bob McCarty paints a portrait of military justice gone awry that’s certain to make your blood boil.

Coming in eBook and print versions.  Look for it at booksellers everywhere Oct. 19.

Mark the date, October 19, down on your calendar; it’s game one of the World Series, it’s the day before the next After Party at Helen Fitzgerald’s, and it’s the day Three Days in August launches. 

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Tea Party movement faces its greatest danger right now.  The future of this country, therefore, straddles a sharp and angry line.  One wrong move and everything that we’ve built over the past two and half years will collapse around us.

Occupy Wall Street is a communist idea built on the very same factors that inspired the Tea Party movement. If Tea Partiers let their disdain for the messenger distort our message, the American experiment will end.

Occupy Wall Street is recognizing some of the same problems that we recognized 3 years ago.  But the occupiers are missing the biggest problem: government.

Still, the key distinction between Tea Party and Occupy is in the solution we propose, not the problems that animated us.

• Occupy wants more government regulation; Tea Party wants less government
• Occupy wants wealth destroyed; Tea Party wants wealth created
• Occupy wants America diminished; Tea Party wants America restored
• Occupy wants liberty rationed; Tea Party wants liberty expanded
• Occupy wants everyone on the dole; Tea Party wants everyone rich
• Occupy wants equal outcomes; Tea Party wants equal opportunity
• Occupy wants perpetual childhood; Tea Party wants to be treated like grown-ups

The desired ends could not be more perfectly opposed.  But both movements result from the same problem: Government’s perverted relationship with business has distorted and damaged markets, concentrated wealth, and reduced serious competition of ideas.

Do you believe that the government has rewarded the very people who nearly pancaked the economy?  If you do, then you’re in good company.  According to a brand new Rasmussen poll:

Overall, 68% believe that most of the bailout money went to the very people who created the nation’s ongoing economic crisis. Twelve percent (12%) disagree, and 21% aren’t sure. This level of skepticism hasn’t changed in two-and-a-half years.

Do you believe that more government regulation is the answer?  If so, then you’re in a small minority.  Again, according to Rasmussen:

But when it comes to helping the middle class, just 20% of Americans believe that more government regulation will do the trick. In fact, three times as many (60%) believe that free market competition would do more to help the middle class.

But here’s where it gets tricky for Tea Partiers. Overwhelming numbers of Americans agree with a chant raised by Occupy Wall Street:

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans agree with the statement that the “The big banks got bailed but the middle class got left behind.”

If the Tea Party comes to be seen as defenders of Big Banks and bad businesses out of its opposition to Occupy Wall Street’s communist goals, we will lose our credibility.  The Unknowing Believers will look toward the collectivists.

Be careful.  More than three-quarters of Americans are ready to take sides.  They will look for consistency of purpose, viability of solutions, and feasibility of systems.

The ideas proposed by Occupy Wall Street failed in the Soviet Union and everywhere else they were tried.  Our ideas of free markets and free men and women have been tested satisfactorily for 240 years.  Occupy Wall Street believes private business is wrong to accept government money; we believe government is wrong to offer it.

Despite having 180-degree different solutions, both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street recognize some common problems of crony capitalism and corporate executives who put their own wealth ahead of the country, their employees, and their customers. Denying the problem after two and a half years won’t fix the problem; it will make us look like fools.

We have the message. We have the solution. We have the numbers.

**UPDATE:  It seems that Peggy Noonan and I notice similar things a lot.  And Occupy Wall Street includes protesters paid by the hour (h/t @dloesch.

***UPDATE:  Whoa!  Check out this brilliance from The Freeman’s Sheldon Richman:  Wall Street Couldn’t Have Done It Alone

Popularity: 3% [?]

Do conservative politicians believe in America and in liberty?  Or do they believe in their own grand plans?  We’re about to find out.

With Christie out of the race, the money will flood toward the establishment guy, Romney. In other words, the race will be over before Thanksgiving. Romney will be the GOP candidate.  Whether he beats Obama is a coin flip.

Romney will in the nomination, unless conservatives put country before pride. If conservatives are serious about winning, about slapping both the progressives and the establishment Republicans, there’s a simple solution:  every conservative candidate needs to drop out and throw in with the only conservative who has a chance.  That’s Herman Cain.

What should happen is simple. Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum drop and throw their support behind Cain.  Sarah Palin announces she’s not running and asks her supporters to back Cain.  Later (Thanksgiving-ish) Rick Perry drops and throws his support behind Cain.

Ron Paul can hang around.  He won’t gobble up a bunch of money, and he’ll keep some important issues front and center–issues like the 10th Amendment and the problems with the Fed.

This sets up a head-to-head battle of Grassroots vs. GOP Establishment.  I’ll put my money on the grassroots.

Question is, will the conservatives have the humility to drop out and support Cain?  I doubt it.  But I hope they prove me wrong.

What do you think?

HotAir reports that a CBS Poll puts Cain in first place for the first time.

Popularity: 3% [?]