Congrats to Andre Carson

Congrats go out to Andre Carson. In March, he was elected to finish the term of his late grandmother for Indiana's 7th Congressional district. Carson is the second Muslim elected into the United States Congress.

On Tuesday, Mr. Carson won the Democratic Pary's nomination for the 7th District's seat.

Mr. Carson took his symbolic oath of office on the United States Constitution. I guess there are still some members of Congress who still hold this document in high regard.

Congratulations Andre!

Let's not Rush to Judgement

Philadelphia police investigating a triple shooting pull over three suspects on Monday. According to an undercover investigator, they were responsible for a nearby shooting. The situation in Philadelphia has been tense because of another recent shooting that killed a police officer.

Philly police arrive with a vengeance. About six officers hold the men down while other officers kicked, punched and used their batons on the men in the shadow of night in an urban neighborhood. But, a news helicopter camera was focused on them while they focused on making human punching bags out their suspects on the streets of Philadelphia and deprived them of the constitutional rights they pledged to protect.

"Let's not rush to judgement" was the theme of the talking points first stated by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and later echoed by Mayor Michael Nutter. Surely, they are lobbying for greater due process given to the officers than what they themselves provided under law. "It doesn't look pretty" was probably the greatest understatement as the politician tried to balance public anger with his political future in Philadelphia.

As these politicians weigh out the best strategy for themselves, I personally wonder when our country is going to say that enough is enough with police brutality. When are we going to hold them accountable to normal American standards? Does a beating have to come with an arrest or police encounter?

I too, won't rush to judgement. Apparently, these criminals were resisting arrest. These fine officers were clearly within law and reason as they carried out their duties that evening. There's nothing unethical on that video. That baseball-sized knot on that boy's head and those other bruises were already there when they arrived at the police station. I don't fall for stuff like this.

Equal Justice Under the Law?

Studies have shown that our government's infamous War on Drugs has been a total failure in its attempt to reduce drug consumption in America. Not only has it been terribly expensive ($45B for 2005 alone) and has allowed many opportunities for police corruption and brutality against blacks and lower-income whites. This is marks another failed attempt by the federal government to legislate individual behavior by prohibition.

Prohibition never works. It only moves the activity to the shadows and enriches the people who distribute the contraband while punishing the users. Even Russia tried the prohibition of alchohol. Looks like that worked out well.

A recent study also confirms that is has led to insanely disproportionate arrests and sentencing. 4 in 5 of the arrests have not been for dealing, trafficing or manufacturing, but for simple possession. 40% of all drug arrests are for marijuana possession. The supply side of the problem is basically ignored while the emphasis is placed on individual consumption.

Obviously, this leads to more users in prisons instead of dealers. It does nothing to slow or stop the flow of drugs throughout our communities as it was presented by Richard Nixon and then echoed and expanded by Ronald Reagan.

Although usage rates are almost identical, black men have been arrested by more than 12x the rate of white men. Black women have been arrested by more than 4x the rate of white women. Poor whites are arrested in much higher proportion than middle-class whites. Low level drugs are punished heavily while hi-end drug usage is pardoned quickly if prosecuted at all. Punishments are very different for rock cocaine vs. powder cocaine possession. The drugs are basically the same. The greatest difference is the people who use them.

"In Seattle, for example, a sophisticated assessment of black drug arrests controlling for drug use, type of drug, and role in the drug trade, concluded that while whites comprised the majority of persons who sell serious drugs, nearly two-thirds of persons arrested by police were African-American. And in New York City, an analysis of 175,000 "stop and frisk" encounters during a 15-month period by the state Office of the Attorney General concluded that African-Americans and Hispanics were significantly more likely to be stopped by the police, a disparity that could not be explained by legal factors such as differential patterns of cirminal offending. Moreover, fewer than a third of all police encounters resulted from a person meeting the description of a criminal suspect, suggesting that these were proactive practices of the police rather than responses to crime reports"

As a liberty driven American, I couldn't honestly care less about what free Americans do in the privacy of their homes; just don't ask taxpayers to fund your rehab or treatment.

Listen, if we want to continue the War on Drugs, let's make is equally punitive for all illegal drugs instead of isolating the ones abused by minorities and low income whites. I think that this will be the only way to bring the idiocy of this very evasive and expensive program to its knees.

Let's make the standard sentencing for powder cocaine identical to equal amounts of rock cocaine and target valium abuse with the same vigor as we do other drugs. I think that legislators will change their tune very quickly if they began to lose their sons, daughters and wives to the prisons; if they don't get swept up themselves.

Nelson Mandela Still on the U.S. Terrorist Watch List

Nelson Mandela still needs to get special permission to enter the United States. He is still on the list of terrorists that our government has compiled. It seems as if we've never gotten around to officially changing our policy against him and the African National Congress.

It's a painful reminder of our shameful support of the pro-apartheid South African government until the mid 1980's. When the South African government declared Mandela and his counterparts at the ANC terrorists, the United States also conformed to the policy and restricted his travel.

However, it is also a positive reminder that our government is one that can heal itself and rectify past mistakes. When Ronald Reagan vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, his veto was overriden. This marked the first time in the 20th century that a president had a foreign policy veto over turned.

Do as I Say, Not as I Pay

Why is it that most liberals scream against tax cuts but do everything possible to avoid paying taxes themselves? Sometimes the greatest opponents of tax cuts use savvy accounting practices to pay the least amount of taxes as possible for themselves.

Al Franken who has railed against tax cuts for years has been found to owe $70,000 in back taxes. He said he was given some bad advice by his accountant. Yeah okay.

To avoid hypocrisy why don't these people simply use a 1040 EZ tax form, pay the highest amount possible?

Peggy Noonan on Rev. Wright

Peggy Noonan is an old school conservative that I've always admired. I don't always agree with her thoughts. But, she is consistent, fair and has been a strong champion of limited government even in the face of a pseudo-conservative administration that has increased the size of government to levels that would make LBJ seem like Ron Paul . Of course, today's Republicans are more likely to listen to big-government Republican flamethrowers like Ann Coulter.

But I digress. Ms. Noonan writes today on the whole Rev. Wright issue. She presents a unique perspective in today's Wall Street Journal.

"I have been watching America up close for many years – if you count a bright childhood, for half a century. I have seen, heard and respected the pain of a people who were forced to come here when they did not want to and made to live in a way that no one would want to. Who could deny them their grief or anger?"

She likens Rev. Wright's speeches and sermons to the Irish Catholic folk group Wolfe Tones; whose music has Irish Nationalistic undertones against British rule. She discusses why a 20 year old Irish-American who has never personally been supressed would still listen to their music.

My 20-year-old friend has lived a good life in America and is well aware that he is not an abused farmer in the fields holding secret Mass in defiance of the prohibitions of the English ruling class. His life has not been like that. Yet he enjoys the bitterness. He likes going to Wolfe Tones concerts raising his fist, thinking "Up the Rebels." It is good to feel that old ethnic religious solidarity, and that in part is what he is in search of, solidarity. And it's not so bad to take a little free-floating anger, apply it to politics, and express it in applause.
He knows the dark days are over. He just enjoys remembering them even if he didn't experience them. His people did.
I know exactly what he feels, for I felt the same when I was his age. And so what? It's just a way of saying, "I'm still loyal to our bitterness." Which is another way of saying, "I'm still loyal." I have a nice life, I'm American, I live far away, an Englishman has never hurt me, and yet I am still Irish. I can prove it. I can summon the old anger.
Is this terrible? I don't think so. It's human and messy and warm-blooded, as a human would be.

I wonder if Irish Catholics like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly listen to Wolfe Tones? Are they full of hate because of this?

The Biggest Wealth Redistribution Scheme in History

Shell Oil and British Petroleum announced on Tuesday world record profits of $17 billion for the first 3 months of 2008. $17B PROFIT. Their profits increased by 25%. On Thursday, Exxon Mobile announced their quarterly profits at $10.9 billion. Almost comically, they were disappointed that they didn't have a greater increase than their 17 percent jump. Far be it from me to begrudge another person of their lawfully gained earnings. However, their manipulation of gas prices is very flirty with the unlawful and absolutely personal with unethical. If we were fighting in WWII instead of the War in Iraq, both of these companies and the others in collusion with them would be brought up on charges for war profiteering. For capitalism to work, business needs to be beneficial to both the buyer and the seller. If the balance leans too much in one direction, the scales will break. These few companies are bleeding our economy and compressing more wealth than ever experienced in world history. They do it with complete disregard for the rest of the country.

What's going on today is the quietest, but also the largest redistribution of wealth that the world has ever seen. Gas prices have risen steadily without relief for several years. The oil industry through companies and traders manipulate the price of oil without actually physically buying the product, raise the price of gas according to that speculation and the cash is fast tracked to the bottom line. It is a inventory-less process and foolproof way of raking in billions. This is happening totally under the nose of federal regulators and government officials who pretend that they have no idea what's going on and how to stop it.

Surely, this drain of American dollars will be felt in the years to come. Every time quarterly profits are announced, another benchmark is set. Oil companies have broken more records than Jim Thorpe. Inrespective of their drain on the economy and historic profits, we still give federal subsidies and special tax breaks to these companies and they have the conscience to defend it. On the backs of the American people, these companies have redirected more American wealth than any in history and we are still subsidizing them. When the House of Representatives passed a bill to remove these subsidies to finance the development of alternatives to oil, President Bush threatened to veto the measure. He says they shouldn't be singled out. They are making record profits under a slow economy with every industry struggling because of them, and Bush doesn't want to "single them out". Some people think Bush's coziness with the oil companies are behind these prices.

Meanwhile, the rest of our country is struggling through the closest thing to a recession we've seen in years. Almost every industry from the airlines (national commerce), to the trucker drivers(interstate commerce) to the cab drivers (local commerce) throughout the country has been negatively impacted specifically because of gas prices. Of course, this means they have to raise their price to consumers across the country. Food prices are up almost across the board. Milk, eggs and cereal are at all time highs. Schools are raising lunch prices. Power companies are requested rate hikes to counter how they have been impacted. Every company that moves a product or physically distributes services has been affected. All of the extra cash is being directly funneled to the gas and oil companies. They defend their profits.

The worst part is it is all a farce. My friends, this is nothing more than a scheme. It's an illusion and slight of hand that would make Criss Angel blush. Oil companies will say that they have no control of gas prices. They blame it on OPEC and slither back to behind closed doors. "Gas obviously comes from oil. If OPEC raises the prices, we have to raise the price of gas." Now, that's true to an extent. But, oil companies are charging us today's market prices for oil they secured at yesterday's market prices, if they bought it at all! It is pure profit for these companies and they are doing it on the back of almost every American citizen and company in this country.

Monopoly Power not Subject to Supply and Demand
Because it is early spring, our nation is coming off of its regular low driving season. Doesn't matter. Prices have gone up steadily even irrespective of the fact that usage has gone down. The EIA announced that inventories rose by 1.1M barrels. We have plenty of supply with low demand and are still paying record prices at the pump. There was no major hurricane or other natural disaster to negatively impact our economy.

Now, peak driving season is about to get underway as families across the country get prepared to take their summer vacations. This is the time that gasoline usage increases; which affects supplies and raises the prices. This is also the time that U.S. oil refineries have decided to reduce their output to levels we haven't seen since Hurricane Katrina destroyed the gulf coast. We'll have even less gas circulating through our economy. "Good time for maintenance" they say. Therefore, record prices are expected to go up even higher this summer; even outside of normal trends. They always seem to justify the price going up. But, we never see the decrease when usage trends favor the consumer.

Americans don't have much choice but either pay the rate or ride a bicycle to work. The oil companies have a stranglehold on our economy through their monopoly. Conserving doesn't really help much as it slows our economy even more without really addressing the issue. Drilling in ANWR and other parts of our country will not help much. American companies that drill today for oil within the United States still charge OPEC pricing along with our Canadian and Mexican "friends". If we buy crude at OPEC level pricing, American citizens still won't see any difference in their wallets. Additionally, the increased supply probably will not help. We don't get the benefits of supply and demand today. Taxing their excessive profits will not lower our rates as we still pay the same price at the pump. It just takes our money from the oil companies and give it to the government. I'm sure Americans would prefer to simply keep their money.

The solution is simply to reinstall capitalism to the oil industry. The subsidies and tax breaks that we give them today should be redirected to finance new competitors. For American drilled oil, these competitors should be mandated to charge special a American rate for oil distributed within the country. We also need to develop and promote alternative sources of energy and devices that will be compatible with these sources.

One Big Happy Purple Party

John McCain has just announced he is now for universal health care. He has a new plan. It's called Hillary Care. Okay. Just joking. He calls it his Guarenteed Access Plan. I guess this is McCain's version of "compassionate conservatism". As a former Republican and independent conservative, this is pretty hilarious. If I was still a Republican, this would probably make me pull out my hair in lieu of my normal shave.

This overused triangulation dance that these pseudo-cons have learned is one of the many reasons I left the Republican Party. There are no more ideological conservatives in government. There are no more principles. They don't stand on anything. Everything is up for grabs. Today's Republicans are indulging in a seemingly alcoholic Democrat-Lite beverage instead of a form of conservatism that's closer to John Adams.

Democrat or Republican; red state or blue state; they are all liberals and form the worst shade of purple imaginable. Free spenders with Orwellian tactics. I think I'll pass.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Image Enhancement Tour

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is on his nationwide tour to restore his image that has been under constant attack over the last several weeks. After receiving more negative press than probably anyone in today's news, the man that preached three sermons every week for 30 years has decided to engage the public and the media and submit a more complete picture of himself than what others have offered.

This is probably a bad idea for Barack Obama as he can't really win. This guy is doing Obama no favors by constantly staying in the public eye. Regardless of what he says, many people simply will not listen long enough hear his point, agree or not. They will only remember the sound bites from the clips that have been run and re-run countless times.

I was watching the panel on Fox News on Friday. They were highly critical of Wright's interview with Bill Moyers. But, at the time of the panel's discussion, the interview didn't even hit the airwaves. It was scheduled to broadcast later that evening.

I still think that this tour will have a negative impact on Obama's campaign as he tries to bring whites who are still undecided to his campaign. Unfortunately, this campaign has began to take on racial overtones since Bill Clinton's episode in South Carolina. Sean Hannity decided to put his stamp on the election, local Republicans some counterparts in the media followed Clinton's lead and the country has since been mired in racial turbulence; irrespective of their own skeletons.

From what I can see, Jeremiah Wright is more concerned with his message, image and responsibilities than Obama's presidency. Reverend Wright is making his rounds clarifying his remarks and answering questions about the issues that he brought up. However, he is quite unapologetic about his criticism of American policy of yesterday and today. In today's America, any criticism of the country's policies or execution thereof means you hate your country and Rev. Wright has no shortage of criticism. Again, this cannot be good for Obama as the some in the media attempt to paint him as an arrogant, radical, potential Muslim that has been listening to "kill whitey" from the pulpit for twenty years.

However, if you heard the sermons in their entirety, one would get a completely different understanding. Lost is the picture of the country hating American and the picture of an educated and articulate theologian that weaves race and political commentary into his sermons. There just isn't the anti-white attitude that many promote. Pretty disingenuous. I still don't agree with him on several points. I also think suggestions, solutions and calls to action should accompany any negative announcements. It doesn't do much good to simply state the problems without offering solutions. But, his points along with the biblical support deserve more than simple dismissal.

Doesn't matter though. This presidential race is now about race and peripherals instead of the issues that folks care about. In the next few months, we will hear more about Jeremiah Wright than the right course in Iraq, more about the William Ayers than clean air in our cities and more about the size of Jeremiah Wright's new house than the size of government creeping into our own houses.

No Human Caused Global Warming

Al Gore has to be furious as he chomps down on his double cheeseburgers. Patrick Moore, the original tree hugger and founder of Greenpeace says that there is no human caused global warming. This is of course no surprise to me as I've never bought into the theory that humans are causing temperature increases on the planet. But, it must really frustrate those who are saying we only have ten years before we fry ourselves by our own hands. However, cow flatulence and manure send out more greenhouse gases than all the cars and planes combined! I wonder why Al Gore never mentions this. Couldn't be for his love of cheeseburgers, could it?

Sure, the stats show temperature increases over the last decade or so. But, it cooled by similar degrees the decade before. Back in 1974, Time Magazine even published an article saying the earth is headed to another ice age:

"man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend.....dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth."

Sound familiar? It's the same argument that global warming advocates are using today. Warming and cooling trends are more attributable to the cyclical nature of our planet than anything that man has done. Similar to the seasons in which we are all familiar, everything in nature runs in cycles, our physical planet included.

But, most won't listen to Mr. Moore. People who doubt man-made global warming are considered as crazy as the people who doubt the evolutionary theory that one species can actually change into another species.

Cops that Killed Sean Bell Acquitted!!

Is this 2008 New York or 1968 Selma, Alabama?
Simple travesty. The NY Police officers who killed an unarmed black man after his bachelor party were acquitted today. They were found not-guilty by a judge who obviously thought the officers were justified in killing him because they "thought" he had a gun. Similar to the Diallo case, police officers' creative imaginations qualify as sufficient evidence to kill someone, regardless of what the actual facts may be.

Here's the deal. Two undercover officers were at the scene of Sean Bell's bachelor party trying to find evidence to close the place down. Bell and his friends leave the club after a dispute with another patron in Bell's Nissan Altima. One undercover cop tries to get them to stop. But, various witnesses at the scene say he never identified himself as an officer. According to Bell's crew, they think they're about to get robbed or car-jacked by the group from the club, so they try to keep going. But other officers get them to stop by spraying 50 bullets and shooting everyone in the car. Bell dies from one of the 4 shots he receives. The front passenger gets shot 13 times. Another passenger gets shot 3 times, tries to run away, is arrested and handcuffed to his hospital bed for three days. The rest of the bullets hit nearby homes, cars and businesses.

Nothing wrong here I guess. Everything done according to proper police procedure; no criminal wrecklessness really. Obviously this judge and NYPD officials are okay with these officers killing civilians and playing Wild West in populated residential neighborhoods. Former NY Governor Elliot Spitzer decided against assigning a special prosecutor, obviously because he felt there was nothing really special about this case.

Now, if Bell was a teenager running away from police with a pellet gun, he really would have got what he deserved. Blacks need to stop all of the complaining about dying or excessive force by the police. We know they're making all of this up.

Wesley Snipes Sentenced to 3yrs as a Message to all of Us

Wesley Snipes has just been sentenced to 3 years in jail. Thankfully, this means we probably won't have any more Blade sequels anytime soon. But, I've always liked Wesley and hate to see him get locked up.

However, there is a much bigger issue here. He was exonerated on 5 of 8 counts including 2 felonies! According to the law and the jury he was only found guilty of the misdemeanor violations which usually gives probation and/or community service. But, the judge said he gave the maximum penalty for each count because he didn't want any other citizens to get the idea that they couldn't pay their taxes. They don't want the rest of us to get any ideas.

What happened to individual justice? Who wants to be used as an example? I thought justice was blind? I guess Snipes' point was that the government must prove its case according to the founding documents that sit to the left of this post. Technically, he may be right. But, realistically we don't pay much attention to trivial things like the Constitution anymore. Legal or not it's just not worth the fight for most of us. We simply bow down, pay our taxes and get on with our lives We all know that the folks at the IRS are the last people we want breathing down our necks.

Good news on the Peace Front!!

This is really cool. A few good articles came out today from the Middle East. Although many outlets like to publish and promote the hate and bickering that usually comes from the Middle-East, it's good to see some good news announced.

First, leaders from international Muslim and Jewish communities have agreed to hold talks to re-establish the historic ties in an attempt to gain peace and use religion as a bridge instead of a wedge. Muslim scholars reached out to the Jewish leaders and they promptly accepted.

Acknowledging that there is "a dangerous and widespread misconception that an innate hostility exists between Judaism and Islam," the Jewish leaders stressed that "it is important to affirm the dynamic history of interaction that our communities have shared with one another."

On another note. Syrian leadership have confirmed that a peace deal with Israel is being worked out. Could we be on the road to hisotoric peace in our generation? For the Syrians to settle their differences with the Israelis, is very note worthy. Maybe other countries that share borders with Israel will do the same. Maybe this will lead to peace between Israel and Palestine? One can only dream.

UPDATE

Now HAMAS is offering peace with Israel!!! I think I'm about to play the lottery! Seriously though, could all of this be from Jimmy Carter's trip? I think that all parties will be too proud to admit it if he really helped create this radical change in tone over there. But, it really doesn't matter who gets the credit as long as serious progress is made, peace is installed and lives are saved.

Hillary Wins PA

Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary yesterday, further driving the Democratic Party into chaos. Although her campaign is functioning in the red and is on the wrong side of the math, she surely is determined to take this race all the way to the convention. It will take almost an act of theivery to capture the nomination from Obama. I, for one don't put this past her. The Dems will have a long road to patch up their party after this dogfight.

John McCain has to be loving this. It gives him time to reach out to independent voters and try to raise some cash. However, the results from PA show that he still hase much work to do to get conservative Republicans behind him. It's very interesting that although he has had the nomination locked up for weeks, 27% of Republicans still voted for Huckabee or Ron Paul.

I guess they are trying to make a point that they will not accept "Democrat-Lite" as the new philosophy of the Republican Party.

Pelosi's Gas Plan

Gas prices are killing the country. The oil companies are raping Americans in the biggest fraud in the history of our country. Republicans frequently argue against financial policies that only serve to re-distribute wealth. However, given the world-record profits of the oil companies now-a-days along the severe struggle of every other industry and regular Americans; I'd submit that we are now under the largest re-distribution of wealth scheme in American history.

Pelosi has a plan to eliminate the billions in tax breaks and federal subsidies that we give the oil industry. However she wants to use this cash to finance alternative fuels. I disagree.

My next column will address gas prices and the economy as a whole. Stay tuned. It will be a barn-burner. I'm taking no prisoners.

No! I'm the Real Mass Murderer!!

This article is intriguing on a couple of fronts. First, it should remove the conspiracy theorists opinion that 9/11 was orchestrated by the Israelis. Zawahiri himself is blasting that theory. He makes it clear that his group should be given full credit for the attack on our country on Sept. 11th.

Unlikely to happen, but I'd love to see this reinvigorate our efforts to actually capture/punish him and bin Laden. They are truly the mass-murderers that we all thought.

However, what's very interesting is that he also says that Iran was in cooperation with the U.S. in our war in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as we searched forAl-Qaida.

What's Wrong with a Little Espionage amongst Friends?

Looks like we captured another spy relaying sensitive, classified information to the Israelis. This guy worked with the same official that received pilfered information from Jonathan Pollard. Can these guys be the only ones working against our country? I wonder if there are others still out there operating?

Not sure why the Israelis feel the need to spy on us. What gives? We are obviously their closest ally on the planet and have shown throughout time that we share interests and will even use our own military to defend them.

I guess we're cool as long as they don't sell our secrets to the Chinese.

Cancel NAFTA? After we've gained so many jobs??

Our illustrious President is not in favor of cancelling, ceasing or renegotiating NAFTA. In fact, he's pushing for a new trade agreement with Colombia. Clearly, there are still many American jobs to be sent out of the country.

Free, open and fair trade is good. However, when our trade deficit is at historic levels, there is no reason to continue to outsource good American jobs. I would be in favor of this new Colombian deal if prices got a bit cheaper or somehow more than a few Americans actually benefited from the agreement.

News from the Terrorist Front

Bin Laden's #2 isn't very happy with lack of support that his group of international terrorists have been given by other Muslims.

Hey, there are a billion and a half Muslims around the world. If they were all crazies as some would lead you to believe, why the recruitment problems? You may not hear this fact from other conservatives.; but not all Muslims agree with suicide or terrorism as a means to an end. Obviously, al-Zawahiri agrees as well as he is still breathing and wasting that mountain air on the Pakistani border.

Hopefully, the next President will go back to Tora Bora and blow up some caves to eliminate these crazies. The world will be a better place.

Let's Get this Going!!!!

Okay. This is better. I like this site much better than the other one.

I'm ready to kick this thing off. I've officially renouncing my membership to the Republican Party. Those fakers are just as liberal as the Democrats. They just have different issues. Democrats want to control your money. Republicans want to control everything else.