COLUMN: 05-30-2007

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has recently proven exactly what is wrong with her view of the judiciary's role. By complaining loudly and reading her dissent from the bench, she has expressed her personal views on the issues of abortion and equal pay. This is absolutely the problem with liberal activist judges - rather than working to interpret laws according to the US Constitution, they insert their own personal views. Judge Ginsburg needs to stop legislating from the bench and start judging laws according to their constitutionality. Legislating should be left to the legislatures - the US Congress and State Legislatures.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-25-2007

President Bush on our status in Iraq:

"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice. If they were to say leave, we would leave."

THE TRUTH: It's clear that although the Iraqi people did elect their current government, that government's official statements are reflective of the agenda of the Bush Administration. It's also clear that the Iraqi government sustains its control of the country only through the presence of the American military and that they will never risk losing control by asking us to leave despite the clear position of the majority of Iraqis who want us to leave so that they can sort out their civil war on their own.

COLUMN: 05-23-2007

The Democrats dropping all deadlines from the war spending bill proves how truly lacking they are of any moral convictions. If they actually do oppose the horrible way that the President is running the war, they should not fear the ridiculous assertion that they don't support the troops if they don't give him all the money he asks for. The entire method of funding for this war is improper to begin with - declaring it supplemental funding year after year instead of putting it into the actual federal budget (because that would require much more scrutiny that the administration is willing to tolerate). Unfortunately, all of this just reinforces the fact that we're stuck with a President who cares more about business interests than any actual conservative values and a Congress that is completely devoid of any actual moral convictions or even the will to follow the obvious position of the vast majority of Americans.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-18-2007

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on the immigration bill:

"This is the last, best chance to pass immigration reform on our terms as a nation. If this somehow collapsed it will be years before you could recreate this.''

THE TRUTH: This bill is nothing short of a joke. The "path to citizenship" being created for the 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the country is completely unworkable. The border enforcement portions of the legislation are also useless unless the Congress also cuts back the demand for illegal workers by punishing the businesses who employ them. Unfortunately, both parties continue to be in the pocket of the corporate interests who fund their campaigns and this situation will never change until the US Supreme Court reverses their decision that using money is free speech. Money is not speech because money is never equal (and this should continue to be the case because it is the basis of a free market system). Unequal money means unequal speech and that is both a direction violation of the first amendment rights of every American and an indirect violation is shifting all political influence to the business world.

COLUMN: 05-16-2007

With the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell, this is a time to remember the good that he did without forgetting some of the harm that he also did. Throughout most of his career, Reverend Falwell emphasized the importance of religious people's participation in the political process. This has allowed a positive explosion of core religious morals and ethics to be held as the standard for public behavior by public officials. Although the current Republican Administration and members of Congress owe a lot to the support of religious conservatives, the two main factors that have led to their corruption are that they focus too heavily on the financial support of their campaign contributors and on winning political battles. Unfortunately, Rev. Falwell was guilty of this as well in his attacks against his political foes in recent years. We should carry on his legacy of bringing religious values into the public sphere while learning the lessons of failure and corruption that often results after gaining power.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-11-2007

US Treasury Department official Dale Thompson on investigating Filmmaker Michael Moore's travel to Cuba:

"This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba."

THE TRUTH: It's become obvious that all current Administration officials spend more time on political goals than on doing their jobs and this is the latest example. Although Michael Moore is very much to the extreme political left of American politics, using an official government agency to go after him on something as silly as traveling to Cuba to make a movie about nationalized healthcare is just more proof that we need to have some real conservatives put in place in our government agencies so that they can manage these government agencies efficiently instead of letting the government balloon out of control while they worry about attacking their political rivals.

COLUMN: 05-09-2007

Although the election of French President-Elect Nicolas Sarkozy is good for America in that his values are much closer to American views than all of his recent predecessors, he is a terrible choice for France in that he also represents the new extreme right wing of politics in Europe. This new group of leaders is virulently racist in their views of legal immigrants, which is especially surprising in that Sarkozy is the son of a Hungarian immigrant to France.

Unlike America's major issues with illegal immigrants, the primary issue in Western Europe is that the native born population has not been producing enough children to even maintain their population, let alone grow it. The only way to keep their countries going is to constantly import workers, who come purely for economic reasons and not to adopt the local culture. The result of this is that the percentage of natives is constantly shrinking and this is leading to a reshaping of the local culture that is almost unstoppable. This is starkly contrasted to the immigrants who want to come to America and adopt the culture and values here along with gaining economic opportunities.

Europe's arrogant views of children as a burden or luxury for the past 50 years have resulted in the impending death of their civilization. They have two choices: let their culture completely die out or bring in more and more immigrants and accept the cultural changes that result. The latter is the lesser of the two evils and should be accepted rather than resorting to the racist views of Nicolas Sarkozy and his ilk across Western Europe.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-04-2007

President Bush on the new Congress' position on life issues:

"I am concerned that this year Congress may consider legislation that could substantially change federal policies and laws on abortion, and allow taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life."

THE TRUTH: While President is generally right when it comes to the issues concerning protecting human life in our culture, this cynical attempt by him to bring up the issue during the same period when he has the lowest popular approval rating due to his stubborn positions on the war in Iraq is sickening. President Bush needs to understand that his political advisers are leading him down the wrong path and start doing what is really the right thing to do. It's not enough to bring up the few issues on which the majority of Americans agree with him - he needs to address the issues where he is unpopular and either provide a valid rationale for his positions or find a position that will be acceptable to the people he is elected to represent and serve.

COLUMN: 05-02-2007

"Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure."

The President's war policy in Iraq has already failed. Setting a date to stop the bloodletting is not the same thing as causing the war to fail which has already happened due to very poor policymaking. Being stubborn in trying to find a way to make his war effort succeed has only increased the numbers of American and Iraqi dead with no obvious return for that investment of lives and other assets.