1. They're all white.
2. They are racists.
3. They are all rich.
4. "Home grown" terrorists are born in groups like these.

Any of those sound familiar? Do you remember hearing a few of those attributes bantered about? Do you remember the reporter walking up to a black guy at one of the rallies and asking him if he felt threatened and uncomfortable? Do you remember the effort to have liberals 'infiltrate' protests and act as idiotic as possible to further cast a negative light on the overall movement?

Despite all of those attempts to sweep millions of Americans and their views under the rug and to label them as a threat to the country, none of what many on the Left hoped for actually happened. There were zero arrests. There were no displays of racism. Nothing happened to help mark the 'tea party' protesters as degenerates who would jump at any opportunity to trash Obama because he's black.

You can disagree with their ideology all day long...but you can't color them harmful or threatening.

Now lets take a look at the rallies and protests that happened over the weekend. Once again you had millions of people take to the street to voice their viewpoints. Did anyone in the media comment on their ethnicity? No. Did anyone in the media laugh off their viewpoints? No. Instead the participants are painted as victims. No one can possibly know how many of those that marched were here illegally. Its also interesting to not that, contrary to the 'tea party' protests, a large portion of the banners, signs, and t-shirts, etc., had little to do with immigration reform. There was a varied assortment of socialist and communist paraphernalia scattered throughout as well. The majority of it centered on 'workers of the world unite'. Go figure.

There were riots (especially after Arizona passed their new law), people were hurt, and police officers were assaulted. The images coming from both sets of protests were as different as night and day. The very sad thing about all of this is that the ones that were law-abiding and organized were treated like criminals. The ones that were actually run by criminals, were treated like victims.

The depressing thing is that none of this should surprise anyone.

Since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the newest immigration law last week, liberals across the land have blown up in tirades where words like "racist", "Nazi", and "anti-immigrant" were tossed around like leaves in a heavy wind. It seems that the vast majority of these people care not a whit about the current federal laws on the books prohibiting people from crossing our borders at their own leisure, leaving no trail or record. No, no, it seems that it is considered inhumane to require non-U.S. citizens to actually follow the law and apply to come into our country.

What those on the Left fail to realize...actually let me reverse that; they KNOW that those in favor of this law are not "anti-immigrant", it's just so much easier to categorize them that way.

The law itself is nothing extraordinary. Those opposing it would have everyone believe that Arizona police officers have lined up on the border and started shooting any and everything coming their way. That can't be further from the truth. The new law is merely a mirror image of the federal laws that already exist. A couple of things need to be clarified just for the record:

1. This law specifically prohibits law enforcement from engaging anyone based on race. Someone has to be pulled over or stopped due to an ordinary infraction (speeding, running a traffic light, etc.), then (and ONLY then) if the suspicion is there, identity can be requested.

2. The oft mentioned problem of making 'innocent' people "presenting their papers" is a non-issue. It's ALREADY a federal requirement to have your travel documentation on you at all times if you are not a citizen. This is nothing new. So despite our mythical President's fears, no one can be harassed while taking their grandchildren "out for ice cream".

Everyone should take note and remember that Arizona wouldn't have had to enact such a piece of legislation had the U.S. government done its job. If we would actually enforce the laws that have been in place for many, many years, numerous states wouldn't be in the financial and social conundrum that they are presently in. Arizona is simply the first to make the right move. It's a shame that a lot of our elected leaders chose to pander to a growing community to win their votes...instead of guaranteeing the votes of actual citizens by enforcing established laws.

In closing, I think it's amusing to point out a certain hypocrisy. I'd like to take you back to the initial health care reform debates around the country. Remember the town hall meetings that became very heated? Remember standing-room only events where people were visibly angry because politicians wouldn't listen to their arguments against this monstrous health care legislation? Do you remember what some Democrats did at those events? They demanded to see the ID of citizens before they would even let them ask a question. Yet these same people scream bloody murder when some would ask to see the ID of those that have broken the law. Interesting. Very, very interesting.

Eight years ago we were attacked in such a manner that we had not seen since 1941. Two planes flew into the World Trade Center. One plane, and her passengers, was heroically sacrificed in a field in Pennsylvania, and one plane crashed into the Pentagon. In just a few horrific moments, extreme acts of cowardice perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, changed the course of history yet again.

Many things have happened since that day. The United States began a campaign to actively pursue and eliminate terrorist groups around the world...as we should have been doing for decades. Two fronts were created in Afghanistan and Iraq and numerous other endeavors were started in more places than we'll probably ever know about. In the years that have followed, some could convincingly argue that most Americans have slid back into the same groove they were in on September 10th, 2001. We're a large nation with as many interests as people, so this mindset doesn't surprise me...although it does concern me. It makes me wonder what event would have to happen in order to shake this nation to its very core and not only demand, but actually receive the attention and dedication due to it. What would it take? How many would have to die?

It is important to understand that in order to completely defeat the people around the world who would employ such tactics, we must continue to be what made us great to begin with. Ingenuity, fortitude, compassion, understanding, and grit...these are the traits that have carried this nation through the centuries. There has never been a nation in the history of the world where everyone else's downtrodden, poor, ridiculed, and hated have come and created the greatest government and way of life that anyone has ever seen. No amount of misguided hatred from anyone, anywhere should be able to deter or defeat what we have. We are Americans. And as painful as that is to some, it's this attitude that has given them what they have in their lives today. We should never need a reminder of that.

I'll end with the closing story from President Reagan after his first inaugural:

"Under one such marker lies a young man-Martin Treptow-who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, 'My Pledge', he had written these words: 'America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.' The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. God bless you, and thank you."

Gates teaches African-American studies at Harvard. He's written many books and, I believe, made a few documentaries on the subject of racism. My gut tells me that when the police showed up the other day to check into a possible break-in to Mr. Gates' home, he immediately looked at the situation as an opportunity to advance his crackpot theories. In his eyes it was another example of white superiority and black oppression. He clearly stated that this made him think about the "vulnerability of being a black man" in America.

So, if you're trying to get into your own house, and the police show up because a concerned neighbor reports it, would you be beligerant to the point of arrest? Or would you do your best to prove its your home as quickly possible? Yeah...most sane people go out of their way to not piss off the police.

Now the Cambridge Police Dept. is considering bringing a lawsuit against Gates for defamation. I sincerely hope they crush him in court. I absolutely abhor "victim" politics. It does nothing except further cement festering negative stereotypes in our society. I keep hoping that one of these days Americans will come to realize that people like Gates, Jackson, and Sharpton are nothing more than race pimps...their sole purpose for existence is to keep continuous friction between the races in this country. God forbid, if that were to every actually fade away into history, men like these three will be rendered completely useless.

Then, of course, Barack Obama had to weigh in on the topic. Without looking at any of the facts of the case, Obama verbally chastised the police force and said they acted "stupidly". He also admitted that Gates is a personal friend of his. It's funny, yet saddening, to see the President of the United States instinctively jump to the "racial profiling" stance, without even blinking. Does Obama read anything? He's trying to shove this universal healthcare crap down our throats as quickly as possible...even though he admits he's not familiar with the House bill. BUT WE MUST PASS THIS NOW! Now he jumps right into the fray on this 'racial' incident and automatically assumes that Whitey is once again trying to keep poor, poor Dr. Gates down. Acquiring the facts first never once entered his head.

So far, police unions across the nation, the Cambridge Police Dept., and many more are standing behind Officer Crowley. As this plays out, I'm pretty sure that more evidence will be revealed that shows that the police officer handled the situation properly. After that, I'll be waiting with baited breath for an apology from the White House.

I listen to "Mike and Mike in the Morning" a lot on ESPN Radio. Those two are great when it comes to delivering and analyzing sports news and information. This morning they happen to touch upon the quotes from Jim Brown on Bryant Gumbel's show from the other day. Brown was talking about his "problems" with Tiger Woods.

For those of you who don't know who Jim Brown is, well he's one of the all time great running backs in NFL history. He retired only after nine years in the league which always leads to NFL observers to debate where he would be in the record books if he had played just a few more years. He was really the first back to combine speed and power, lethally. There's no doubt he's one of the best ever. Since his retirement he's been heavily involved in many things concerning the social aspects of inner-city black communities. He's been in several commercials through the years and a few movies, but his work in low income black communities have been his driving focus through the years. Which is great. If that's how he wants to spend his time and energy, then God bless him. More power to him.

The problem comes from this bitter mentality he's developed about other prominent black atheletes...specifically Michael Jordan (when he was in his prime) and Tiger Woods (even though Woods is bi-racial). Brown seems to think that Tiger Woods isn't doing "enough" on the social side of things. Here's his quote directly...

"This cat [Woods] is a mamajama; he is a killer. He'll run over you, he'll kick your [behind]. But as an individual for social change or any of that kind of (stuff), terrible. Terrible."

I'm not sure what exactly Tiger is supposed to be doing to calm the Jim Browns of the world. Is he supposed to march right into the middle of the Crips and the Bloods in south central L.A. and fight the good fight? If Brown could get the chip off his shoulder for two seconds and do a little research, he'd find that Tiger Woods has done some tremendous things. First and foremost is the fact that he has transcended his race on the global level. When people see Tiger Woods, they dont' see a guy with 'darker' skin. They see an enormously talented individual who's only begun to revolutionize his sport. Actually, maybe this is most accomplished feat...he is a great husband and father. He's never broken any laws. He's never been photographed hitting a bong. He's never beaten his wife (Can Jim say the same??) Tiger has been a prominent moral hero for years. He's one of many living embodiments symbolizing "doing it the right way". Furthermore, the Tiger Woods Foundation has impacted far more children and teenagers than Jim Brown could ever hope to reach. Brown simply has no clue what he's talking about.

This ties into something else that never fails to drive me up the wall. Who in the Hell does Brown think he is anyway? His issues seem to go deeper than just wealth envy. If the man has any common sense, he should be financially set for life, however, he seems to think that because Tiger is rich and partially black, he should be giving more than everyone else. This is a prevalent thought pattern for a lot of people. "You have more than I do, so that's not fair." "You should be giving more to charities (at a level that I approve) than anyone else, because you have so much money."

A good example of this involves Michael Vick. A few years ago, right after the campus shooting incident at Virginia Tech, a lot of people criticized Vick heavily for only giving $10,000 to the school (Vick is an alum). $10,000 is a lot of money to most people. I know I sure as Hell can't write out a $10,000 check to my favorite charity. But to hear the critics whine about it, you would have thought that Vick set the campus on fire and then pissed all over to put it out.

It's this aura generated by sour puss whining losers that's slowly eroding this country. One can only hope that common sense prevails in the long run. The only obligation anyone has, no matter if you are rich or poor, is to live your life the best you can and set examples with your actions...not your mouth.

************

Taking a one hundred and eighty degree turn now, I'd like to turn the spotlight on the situation in Honduras. I'm flabbergasted at the administration's stance on this.

A brief synopsis: Basically the Honduran (now ex) President (Manuel Zalaya) wanted to execute a constitutionally illegal presidential referendum. The Honduran Supreme Court called him on it and ordered it stopped. He then organized a mob to go and secure the voting ballots from Venezuela (since the Supreme Court's decision halted the ballots being printed in Honduras) and the military stepped in and arrested him at the scene. He was then deported. There's a nice article in the Wall Street Journal detailing this even more.

To hear Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fidel Castro (Cuba), and Ahmadinejad (Iran) tell it, and NOW Obama, a military coup took place and improperly replaced the Honduran President. That's simply not what happened. The Honduran military was acting under the proper authorities when the ex-President was arrested. He was trying to illegally rewrite their Constitution so he could seek another term. The referendum that would have allowed that was legally and properly shot down by the Honduran Supreme Court.

It's a little unnerving when the President of the United States backs three of the four biggest thugs on the planet and their opinion on this matter. Honduran democracy was upheld in this decision. The military did not sieze power...they prevented another wannabe dictator from doing exactly that. While sham elections are common place now in areas like Latin and South America, the Middle East, and East Asia, one would think that the leader of the free world would take a more proactive stance against those that mean to perpetuate them. Instead we get more coddling from the U.S. Their official stance is Zalaya is the legal President. One of the few times we get to actively uphold democratic ideals...and we shoot ourselves in the foot by backing the wrong guy.

Well, the news cycle over the past 48 hours has me believing that I've sucked down a bag of lemons.

Where to begin? The new energy legislation passed by the House is a good place to start.

I have it on good authority that U.S. Senate offices as well as members of the U.S. House of Representatives were flooded with faxes and phone calls regarding this legislation. The majority of those correspondences were overwhelmingly against it. It did pass narrowly, by a vote of 219 - 212. The 1200 page document barely made it out alive...so now it'll make its way to the U.S. Senate. So what exactly is in the behemoth? What does it do?(Don't ask a politician...since the vast majority of them didn't even read it.)

This bill is an attempt to curb greenhouse emissions by certain companies. Those companies are electric utilities, oil companies, natural gas producers, and some industries that produce energy on site. That's a noble goal right? Well remember the old adage reflecting how many 'good intentions' are used in paving the road to Hell? Good...because it applies here.

The Obama administration is claiming that this is going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. How they came to this conclusion, I'm not sure. What I do know is that when these energy companies are continuously squeezed by these emission caps, they are going to do two things:

1. They will close operations down here and move them overseas, thereby jacking up the unemployment rate.
2. They will jack up the prices of the energy they sell to cover the costs of the new taxes.

Either way you look at it, jobs will be lost and less energy will be produced here. Which means more oil will have to come from somewhere else. Also remember that one of the contributing factors of the importation of so much oil into this country is due to the fact we haven't built a new refinery in over 30 years. With this legislation as law, the tax burden would force 1 in 6 present refineries to shut down. So that's another 16% loss to our production.

Lets also not forget the following quote from Obama during the campaign:

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."

Now some are going to argue that we should eliminate all of these energy uses, no matter the cost. This is done in the name of the environment and curbing "global warming". Those same people are also morons. This can be masked as an attempt to help the environment all day long, but in the end its another grand attempt to completely destroy economies based on market freedom and further advance the rapid growth of the U.S. government. The administration just recently shot down a study from its own EPA, questioning the reality of man-made "global warming".

So what else is in this thing? Another claim made by the administration is that this will create a lot of new jobs. Funny. If its going to create so many jobs, why is Title IV, Subtitle B, Part 2, Section 436 even in it?

"An eligible worker (specifically, workers who lose their jobs as a result of this measure) may receive a climate change adjustment allowance under this subsection for a period of not longer than 156 weeks…80 percent of the monthly premium of any health insurance coverage…up to a maximum payment of $1,500 in relocation allowance…and job search expenses not exceed[ing] $1,500.”

So basically when these industries start laying off people left and right, never fear! The U.S. government (i.e. the U.S. taxpayer) will come to the rescue for up to 3 years! Yay!

There are also measures that would eventually allow the feds to move into a more complete role in monitoring home and small business energy use. Which of course would allow more bureaucrats to be hired to enforce these new codes for "our own good".

But hey! Why should you worry about this thing? It's politics. And Washington, DC is boring...only a place where old stogies go to die, right? At least Simon Cowell got his $144 million offer. These things have no real impact on us at all. Obama is too cool...that's all I know.

I can't decide if its mostly extreme hubris or catostrophic idiocy that creeps into the minds of some of our elected leaders. It's probably a dangerously high mix of both.

The man was the leader of the Republican Governor's Association. He was touted as a possible frontrunner for the GOP bid in 2012. He had made his mark as a fiscal conservative who railed against excessive government spending, which had become a lost art over the last few years.

Now this guy had the unmitigated audacity to skip country to Argentina so he can get his swerve on with an Argentinian mistress. Over Father's Day weekend, nonetheless.

I don't claim to be perfect. Nor do I hoist that expectation onto the backs of politicians that I support and/or admire. But come on...an affair?! Really?!

In today's day and age, people in the public eye are lucky to be able to go to the bathroom without someone blogging about/complaining about/praising the act within minutes. Anyone with political and public ambitions must always have the idea that they are constantly being observed in the backs of their minds...AT ALL TIMES. To believe otherwise indicates that you are not ready to be in the limelight and you certainly aren't ready to be paraded in front of the voting/watching public at all hours of the day...let alone have Presidential ambitions.

The act of adultry is as old as time itself. It'll be here till the end of days. But you'd think that more people would understand that our brains are located above our shoulders...not below our hips. Especially those that stand to lose everything important to them should they be caught (which is inevitable).

So thanks again, Mark Sanford. You've added another purple ring around the blackened eye of the American political scene.

Words spoken by a fictional character...but they ring true, nonetheless.

Most of the grandest events in our world's history were born from a butterfly's wings. The smallest, most inconsequential moment, slowly but surely, transforming into one cataclysmic event. Minutes, hours, and days, become years, decades, and centuries.

The situation in Iran could become one of those moments. One simple push at the right moment, at the right place, could lead to the downfall of the Mullah regime. While the country is ruled by a select group of terrorists just itching to crack their cultural whips, the population of Iran conceals of a lot of potential dissenters...and most of them are young, intelligent, revolutionaries with an itch to change their country once and for all. I hope that this latest fiasco will provide them with the willpower and fortitude to see that change through. Unfortunately, despite decades of promising otherwise, I don't think they'll get much help from the United States. Lets hope and pray that we don't witness another Tiananmen Square.

North Korea is also using the times to flex their 'lets rock the boat' muscles. They indicated yesterday that they're planning on launching their newest kind of missile at Hawaii on the fourth of July as a show of thier defiance. To date there have been numerous warnings from the UN Security Council aimed at reining in a very volatile N. Korea. Like most UN resolutions, however, they haven't worked. On May 26th this is what we got:

"The United Nations Security Council has unanimously condemned North Korea's nuclear test as a clear violation of Security Council resolutions, and said it would begin work immediately on a new, legally binding resolution addressing the violations."

I don't know about you...but if I were North Korea, I wouldn't exactly be deterred from my current course of action. The lack of strength in the UN is a completely different topic for another day, however. What we have to worry about now is who we have to handle these two potentially enormous problems.

Our current President.

Remember back in the campaign, when Joe Biden let slip that the world would test Barack Obama should he be elected President? Here's exactly what he said:

"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

For once, Biden hit it on the head. Now I'd bet my right arm that his intent wasn't to air silent concerns. It was a subconcious, veiled warning which can loosely be translated as: This is our guy and we need your help...and when he's in office, the $h!# is gonna hit the fan. We're gonna look like idiots in the beginning of the crisis, but I promise we'll do the right thing.

Our President's actions over the next few weeks concerning these two international conundrums will shape the geopolitical landscape for decades to come. Will we ignore the plight of the Iranian people? My gut tells me we will. I do not forsee a "tear down this wall" moment. I hope I'm wrong.

Will North Korea's actions be relatively ignored again? Three years ago they tested missiles on the 4th of July. Even Bush did nothing to stem that action. Would you expect anything differently from Obama? In my mind, when a nation launches a missile at another nation's territory, it's an act of war. Sane leadership doesn't "test" military machinery by aiming the point of attack at someone else.

Those that thrive on their personal power view the political world through a different prism. They see grandstanding and bold speeches as a sign of weakness. Remember Neville Chamberlain? He, and people like him throughout history, tried to do anything to secure peace. It never enters into the minds of those that hold those same philosophies, that sometimes stands must be made and that the darkest of night is always right before the dawn. When peace is sought at any cost, then it's certain to be lost.

So how will Obama respond? Will the Mullahs in Iran be bolstered by being allowed to kill thousands of their own people? Will North Korea continue to build its nuclear missile program in plain site while the rest of the world hurls UN resolutions at them?

"Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing."