COLUMN: 01-30-2008

Attorney General Michael Mukasey should never have been confirmed by the Senate because he shows the same lack of moral courage as his predecessor. The United States of America is a nation of laws. We pledge allegiance to the US Constitution as the basis of those laws and not to any sovereign, president, party or another other person or group of people. Being the chief law enforcement office in the country requires the Attorney General to clearly state what is within and what is outside the boundaries of those laws, whether they come from federal, state, or local governments or from international treaties and laws to which our government has agreed. Torture is clearly illegal for all American citizens to participate in everywhere in the world. Using the excuse that we would be "telling our enemies exactly what they can expect" if we capture them to negate announcing the clear illegality of torture is a cowardly answer. History has proven in every case that information gathered from torture is worthless and counter-productive (especially when it leads to unnecessary wars like the current War in Iraq). The entire Bush administration needs a lesson in the rule of law because they seem to try to find every excuse to skirt laws that they don't like (rights for POWs, warrant-less wiretapping, definitions of torture, etc) by invoking ridiculous statements such as the president having the right to bypass laws as the commander-in-chief of the military during a time of war. We need our government to reflect our values domestically and internationally especially during a time of war, otherwise we will become like every other authoritarian government in the world that invokes national security as the excuse for their inhuman behavior.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 01-25-2008

Senator Hillary Clinton on Senator Obama's strategy of exposing their lies about him:

"I think what we saw last night was that he's very frustrated," she said. "I believe that the events of the last 10 or so days, the outcome of New Hampshire and Nevada, have apparently convinced him to adopt a different strategy."

THE TRUTH: New Hampshire clearly doesn't reflect the opinion of the rest of America. Nevada was the first indication of the Clintons stooping to the dirtiest tricks of politics as they were on the verge of losing the election. Yes, Senator Obama is frustrated, but he should have known better. President Clinton and Senator Clinton are not honorable enough to expect them to not resort to dirty politics and his campaign team should have planned better. It will be an interesting judgment of America's moral courage today when we see whether their underhandedness ultimately leads to their downfall or their return to power.

Separately, there was some truth coming out of the Clinton campaign for once. When questioned about President Clinton's disgraceful behavior, never before seen from a former president, Matt McKenna, President Clinton's press secretary, said "History will judge the impact on the Clinton legacy, not daily or weekly political reporters." History has already judged Clinton as one of the worst presidents ever and any attempt to recover any dignity by doing good work as a former president has now been rightfully wiped away forever.

COLUMN: 01-23-2008

The Clintons will clearly stoop to the lowest possible level of disgusting political behavior in order to regain the power of the presidency. Despite many calls by Americans across the political spectrum, President Clinton refuses to stop denigrating his position of honor as a former president. His attacks on Senator Obama after his wife lost in Iowa have been mostly bold-faced lies that are meant to pull the race for the Democratic Party nomination into the gutter. Their goal is very clear: make most of the Americans who want to support Obama's message of hope for the future (although it is has misguided liberal basis) so disgusted with the political process that they no longer want to participate, even by voting. Unfortunately, it seems to have worked in Nevada and may yet derail Obama's clear superiority as a candidate and let Senator Clinton squeeze her dishonest way into the White House.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 01-18-2008

National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy on Chris Matthew's apology to Senator Hillary Clinton for saying that her career benefited from her status as a betrayed wife:

"Chris Matthews is a repeat offender when it comes to sexist attitudes toward women politicians. . . . I wasn't really looking for an apology. I was looking for a behavior change, and for him to treat female politicians the same way as male politicians."

THE TRUTH: Chris Matthews is an idiotic pundit who says a lot of dumb things without thinking, but in this case he was right. Hillary Clinton has clearly taken advantage of her husband's infidelities to further her political career and saying that NOW would like females to be treated in the same way as males is a lie. In an ideal society, men and women should be judged equally and paid equally, but this must apply in both directions. NOW is a biased organization that stands up for women when they are wronged but never does the same for men when women are the ones taking advantage of a situation. Thus, their opinion of justice is irrelevant and the truth should be told: Senator Clinton clearly works to benefit electorally from her status as a woman and as a betrayed wife and should be taken to task for doing so.

COLUMN: 01-16-2008

Former Governor Mitt Romney's victory in the Michigan Republican primary sadly shows that many voters continue to vote based on an emotional response rather than based on a sound judgment of the qualifications of each candidate. Although he has been shown to have no real support in states where he was weighed equally against his competitors, his father's long shadow in Michigan carried the day for him yesterday. He will likely be similarly victorious in Nevada, Utah, and other states with a large Mormon population. However, he will not ultimately win because he has shown that he will sway to any position that he thinks will win him an election and because Americans are not yet ready to support a Mormon president.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 01-11-2008

President Bush on his new push for Palestinian statehood:

"The establishment of the state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it. And it will enhance the stability of the region, and it will contribute to the security of the people of Israel. The peace agreement should happen, and can happen, by the end of this year. I know each leader shares that important goal, and I am committed to doing all I can to achieve it."

THE TRUTH: As great as it would be to finally solve the Israeli-Palestinian situation, this push by President Bush in the last year of his presidency (after effectively ignoring the issue for seven years) stinks of a desperate grab for a respectable legacy. President Bush knows that he will be judged based largely on the Iraq War, which is a failed policy even if it ultimately results in a decent democratic nation. This is because any successes will occur after he leaves office and will be credited to his successor, but all failures will be deservedly attributed back to him. Nonetheless, President Bush should be fully supported in this effort because leaving the problem festering will simply make it harder for anyone to solve at a later time.

COLUMN: 01-09-2008

Senator Hillary Clinton's victory in New Hampshire should not be taken as a bellwether of her chances across the rest of America. Much like her election victories in New York, where she never lived before running for the US Senate there, New Hampshire's liberal elites support her based on her political connections and her status in the party rather than based on her being the best candidate to lead her party in the future. Although she may ultimately win her party's nomination, it will likely be based on her campaign's use of underhanded tactics, such as push polling or spreading of internet rumors about her opponents, rather than focusing on a positive message of leading America to a better place in the future. The Clintons have shown that they will do anything to gain and maintain power and no one should be fooled into thinking that they will run an honest campaign this time around.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 01-04-2008

Former Governor Mitt Romney on his second place finish in the Iowa presidential caucuses:

"Well, well, we won the silver, but just as Dan Jansen pointed out - you win the silver in one event, it doesn't mean you're not going to come back and win the gold in the final event."

THE TRUTH: Romney is flawed candidate and he thinks he can make up for that by using his vast fortune to buy the election. However, his flaws are so deep (especially his significant flip-flops on so many issues when you compare his run for governor in very liberal Massachusetts and his run for president in the very conservative Republican primary process) that he will not be able to whitewash them and convince many of our fellow citizens. His early lead in the polls across multiple states were due purely to name recognition (after spending a lot of money to achieve that) and should never have been publicized by a responsible news media. As elections get closer and many more Americans pay close attention to the candidates, he will never actually get the percentages shown in the early polls. His only victories will likely be those where other factors play a major role, such as Utah and Nevada with a large number of Mormons or Michigan where his father was a popular governor for many years.

COLUMN: 01-02-2008

It seems that British colonialism has taken hold once again, with American help. In Jordan, King Abdullah was spending most of his time in England (his mother's homeland) when he was called on to take the authoritarian reigns of his country as his father was nearing death and it became clear that his uncle, the former crown prince, would not be as subservient to the west as was his father. In Syria, President Bashar Assad was spending his life as an eye doctor in England when he was called back to Syria to learn to take over his father's dictatorial regime after his elder brother Basil was killed in a car accident. Most recently, Benazir Bhutto's son is being called "home" to Pakistan (where he's never really lived) from England to lead his mother's party after her assassination last week. However, he is currently planning to return to England to finish Bachelor's Degree before taking his role on formally and will lead only as a figurehead in the meantime. When will the American and British governments learn that supporting (with the exception of Syria) these western-educated despots will not increase the spread of our values and will instead lead to more anti-Americanism?