COLUMN: 04-30-2008

Senator Obama is right to distance himself from his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In the past few days, Rev. Wright has shown himself to be a demagogue in the same vein as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Regardless of the fact that all three of these reverends did good work in the past, especially in their youth as part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, they have all proven themselves to be desperate for public attention, resulting in their promotion of ludicrous conspiracy theories and even the most false cases of claimed oppression. Senator Obama shouldn't hesitate for the rest of this campaign to disown any and all remarks by Rev. Wright to avoid giving Senator Clinton's supporters the propaganda tools they are trying to find in their attempt to either destroy Senator Obama's entire career and allow Senator Clinton to win or at least destroy him enough to make him lose the presidency to Senator McCain, which would allow Senator Clinton to run again in four years in their view.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 04-25-2008

Senator Hillary Clinton on the role of the President of the United States:

"We're stronger as a Democratic Party, we're stronger as a nation when our people understand that, in effect, the president works for you."

THE TRUTH: The president does not "in effect" work for the American people. The president absolutely works for the American people and any president who follows a path that benefits anyone other than the American people is shirking their duty. Senator Clinton has allowed this slip in her words to show that she does not believe in our fundamental system of democracy and would continue her husband's legacy of self-interested politics that primarily uses public office to gain and maintain power and money. If she were to win the November general election, her view of the role would have the net effect of continuing the slide in America's values that began in 1992 with her husband's administration and has accelerated for the past 16 years. Despite the greatness of our system of government, it ultimately does depend on electing people who believe in liberty and the rule of law and we should be thankful that the odds of a Hillary Clinton presidency are extremely low at this point, lest we follow Russia's lead in turning our country into an authoritarian pseudo-democracy.

COLUMN: 04-23-2008

Yesterday was another sad day in America after Senator Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary based on every possible underhanded dishonest tactic. She won despite 67% of voters in that state saying that she attacks unfairly and equally large percentages saying that she is not honest. Her scare tactics about Senator Obama are no different than President Bush's scare tactics in 2004, which led to his re-election despite being one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history. We need a president who is honest and respects the will and values of the American people and either Senator McCain or Senator Obama fit that bill so much more than Senator Clinton ever will.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 04-18-2008

Senator Clinton on her lies about her trip to Bosnia and sniper fire:

"I may be a lot of things. But I'm not dumb. And I wrote about going to Bosnia in my book in 2004. I laid it all out there. And you're right. On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren't in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book. And, you know, I'm embarrassed by it. I have apologized for it. I've said it was a mistake. "

THE TRUTH: It wasn't a mistake - it was a bold-faced lie in an attempt to get votes. The only reason Senator Clinton is embarrassed and calling it is a mistake is because she was caught. She only finally told a half-truth when she said: "I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that one of us takes the oath of office next January. I think that has to be the overriding goal, whatever we have to do." By any underhanded means necessary is exactly the tactic that Senator Clinton is using to try to achieve her goal of attaining the presidency and she cannot be trusted to tell the truth when she claims that she will put the needs of the American people or even her own party ahead of her own ambitions.

COLUMN: 04-16-2008

Liberals' support of the Dalai Lama needs to be questioned as he tours America in support of Tibetan freedom from China. Just because it is right to stand against the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party does not mean that we should automatically support everyone who stands on that side. Let's look at the facts: The Dalai Lama was chosen for his position by elderly Tibetan Buddhist monks as a child and is automatically in that position for life. His position of "leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile" is scary because it would be a very bad situation if he ever gained power as a dictatorial autocrat, even if he was a so-called "beneficent dictator" (which would the best of many possible extremely bad scenarios). We need to support true democracies who support liberty and freedom for all their citizens and not follow celebrity-led fads towards an autocratic Buddhist theocracy or, even worse, celebrity-led fads toward brainwashing cults like Scientology.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 04-11-2008

Chelsea Clinton on again being asked about the Lewinsky affair:

"I think that is something that is personal to my family. I'm sure there are things that are personal to your family that you don't think are anyone else's business, either. But also on a larger point, I don't think you should vote for or against my mother because of my father."

THE TRUTH: Sexual harassment of Arkansas state employees and federal government employees by the chief executive of both governments is not a personal matter for the family of the harasser. Perjury during a criminal investigation of sexual harassment and publicly lying to the American people about the content of the testimony is not a personal matter. More important is her second lie: Senator Clinton is claiming her "executive experience" as First Lady during her husband's administration as the main basis of her run for the presidency. If we should discount this "experience", then she is less qualified than any other candidate going back to when it was 20 candidates running in both parties. If we include this "experience", then we need to consider the fact that the entire administration was based on gaining and maintaining power without any consideration for integrity, the rule of law, or representing the American people. Either way, Senator Clinton would be a terrible self-serving president and we should be thankful that she has already lost her party's nomination to Senator Obama (unless one of her underhanded tactics to destroy Senator Obama's career succeeds, in which case she would lose the presidency to Senator McCain due to the blatant offensiveness of her current campaign tactics).

COLUMN: 04-09-2008

In the passing of Charlton Heston this week, America lost a person who used his public fame for the good of his country. In recent years, Heston has been the victim of the anti-gun bias in the mainstream media who portrayed him as a conservative lunatic for defending the Second Amendment. This led to some people forgetting that he was also used his fame to promote civil rights in the 1960's, including being one of the the most influential people who stood by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial for his famous "I have a dream" speech. Like most Hollywood stars, much of Heston's life was self-serving and we should not glorify him as any kind of hero just because he portrayed larger-than-life characters well as an actor. He was not a hero, but he did do good for America and the world, which is much more than can be said about the vast majority of his peers, and we should honor that work as we mark his passing.

LIE OF THE WEEK: 04-04-2008

President Bush on nearing the end of his tenure as president and on Russian President Putin doing the same:

"You know we're two old warhorses and we're both getting ready to step down from our positions."

THE TRUTH: President Bush is already one of the worst presidents in American history and associating himself further with Putin is only making his historical legacy even worse. After claiming to have seen Putin's soul when they first met, President Bush has allowed Putin to roll back democracy in Russia and turn it into another energy-rich autocracy which is hurting freedom and liberty around the world. Also, as President Bush leaves office next January and loses what little influence he has left (since no one currently respects his administration anyway, here or internationally), Putin will be Prime Minister of his country and continue to rule indefinitely. President Bush will then become an extremely unpopular former president and Putin will continue his high level of popularity in Russia as he continues to control all mass media and public information, like all autocrats. Putin is a dangerous man who is harming American interests throughout the world and the sooner American foreign policy reflects this fact, the better off we will be.

COLUMN: 04-02-2008

Poor Senator Clinton - she's such an oppressed woman who is only losing because of gender bias in America and the existence of a "glass ceiling" in the electoral process. At least, that's what she wants you to believe with her latest ridiculous tactic of gender-baiting in yet another desperate attempt to resurrect her already-failed campaign for her party's presidential nomination. Unfortunately, there are many single-issue feminist voters who will buy this political spin and vote for her. This will further her campaign to either get the nomination or cause Senator Obama to also lose any chance of winning the presidency in the process by continuously dragging him through the political mud and creating a negative feeling around his campaign throughout 2008 (which would then give her a chance to run against likely-President McCain in 2012). If the Democratic Party has any ethics whatsoever, they will rebuke the Clintons and punish them (possibly by banning them from their convention) for their selfish bad behavior which is hurting their party and hurting America by removing the possibility of a fair campaign between Obama and McCain during the summer and early fall before the election.