This morning, I read that some Democrat operative said that most racists vote Republican. I beg to differ with that Democrat. There are a number of reasons that the statement is not true.

First, all black racists will be voting Democrat. Since almost all blacks vote Democrat it just goes without saying that all black racists will be voting Democrat.

Second, all Hispanic racists will be voting Democrat. The number of Hispanics voting Democrat is not as high as for blacks, but still just over 50% do vote Democrat. Those Hispanic voters that vote Republican tend to be the type of voters that are concerned with issues that are important to Hispanics. Those that vote Democrat tend to vote because they are voting against Republicans. Also, the Hispanic groups that most identify with the illegal immigrants and want to grant them status are those that vote Democrat. That would put all the Hispanic racists in the Democrat block.

Third, Democrats are the party that is concerned with race. Republicans generally do not concern themselves with race at all. When they come up with policy ideas, they consider what will be best for America, not what will benefit any racial group. When Democrats call Republicans racists, the Republicans are generally taken by surprise. They did not consider race in any of the calculations that led to the statements they made, so being called a racist is totally a shock. Also, look at the Democrat race for President. There are a lot of Democrat voters that will not vote for a black candidate. Those are racist actions. Republicans would vote for a black Republican candidate in droves. If a black Republican candidate ran for President and was truly a conservative, he/she would win the nomination without anyone else having a shot. In the Democrat party, that is not the case. Look at what Republicans do when appointing blacks to positions of authority. Republicans appoint blacks to positions of authority based on talent and experience. They give them positions with real authority. Look at Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as examples of how Republicans appoint blacks. Look at Democrat Presidential appointment of blacks; they appoint them to positions with no real authority. Look at the Democrat leadership and you will not find any black or Hispanic leaders with any real authority. Look at the Republicans and you will find Hispanics in prominent positions. When blacks try for those positions they generally get them, look at J.C. Watts in the House of Representatives.

Fourth, the Democrat party has always been the party that has tried to keep blacks down. This has continued up to the present day. They will let blacks say things or even appear to have authority. When it comes to reality, blacks need to be kept in their place. This is why the Democrat party is having problems with the candidacy of Barack Obama. He is black. That is enough to cause the party leadership heartburn. They will not be comfortable with a black in a leadership position. That means they will not work to get him elected President. They cannot have a black person appointing blacks to positions with real authority within the Democrat party. They know they can control the appointment of people in an administration, but not to the party.

In my opinion, Democrats are the party of racists. They are concerned with race all of the time. It is so tiring to hear that this or that comment is racist. Most people today are not racists. Most people today do not think of people in terms of race. The Democrats crying race all of the time causes people to think about race. This is tiring and insulting to the American people.

The Democrat operative is wrong. Most racists will be voting for Democrat candidates in the November election. There will be some white racists that will vote Republican. But, the vast majority of racists will be voting Democrat. I am sure that the Democrat operative is only considering the white racists in the racist grouping. Even there, I believe most of them will be voting Democrat in the fall elections. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!

Yesterday, I put forth the idea that it was time to end Operation Chaos. I still think that it is time to end Operation Chaos, but after the flap over the ad in North Carolina I am thinking that maybe we need to continue.

The ad in North Carolina links Barack Hussein Obama, Reverend Wright and the Democrat candidate for Governor. The ad is brilliant and let’s Reverend Wright spew forth his hate for all to hear. John McCain has asked the North Carolina Republican Party not to run the advertisement. The Democrats and the media are denouncing the North Carolina Republican Party as racist. There is nothing racist about the advertisement. The ad just points out that Obama is connected to Reverend Wright and that the Democrat candidate for Governor is also a Democrat. That is guilt by association. The Democrats do it all the time and nothing is said. Mrs. Clinton is running ads that are much worse than this one and she is not being called a racist.

The Leader of the Republican Party in North Carolina was on TV last night and stuck to her guns. She said they will run the ads and that they were not racist. That is courageous for her to do. We need more Republicans like her that have backbones. We do not need Republicans that do not have backbones. We have an overabundance of those in Washington right now. We need to weed out a large number. Unfortunately, to weed out the ones without backbones would replace them with Democrats without spines. That is even worse than a Republican without a spine.

Operation Chaos is getting the two Democrat candidates to cut each other up for the Republican nominee. I never thought that John McCain would be so squeamish about running ads about Democrats. We need to tell the truth about Democrats. We cannot go telling the Democrat lie about Democrats and expect to win. We have to be free to call Democrats exactly what they are. Too many Republicans think that we have to “play nice” with Democrats and then they will “play nice” with us. That will never happen. Democrats come with the long knives out all of the time. We are expected to put our knives in our scabbard and then take whatever the Democrat dishes out. We cannot win if we play the game the Democrats way. We have to be free to tell the truth wherever we find it.

The part of Operation Chaos that I think needs to be ended is the voting for Democrats. The fight between the two will continue until their convention in Denver. Neither candidate will withdraw. Both of them have a case to be made to the Super Delegates that they deserve the honor of the nomination. The Super Delegates are the ones with the problem. Having the Super Delegates was a hedge to prevent another George McGovern. With this election it has gotten out of hand. People can see the fallacy of having the Super Delegates at all. There is something to be said for having some slots for Governors, Senators and Congressmen. The problem is they have too many Super Delegates to be just the elected officials.

One thing this election has highlighted is that nobody wants a Democrat administration to have control over health care. If they cannot even run their own primary in a reasonable manner, how can they be expected to run 1/7^th of the economy with any effectiveness? The answer is they cannot run 1/7^th of the economy with any degree of effectiveness. They would run it less effective than they have run the primaries this election season. Democrats have failed to run any of their programs effectively. Every one they started has cost many times the original estimate. Every one is causing more problems in the economy than it was ever intended to solve. No Democrat program has ever solved anything. Even their most effective program, the Endangered Species Act, has been one giant problem for anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with it. It has helped some species of plant or animal survive and come back from the brink of extinction. But the cost to the economy and the environment has been tremendous. They are even trying to make it worse by including the Polar Bear which is not endangered and is increasing in number.

Operation Chaos has been a success. It resurrected the candidacy of Mrs. Clinton and produced the resulting destruction of both candidates. There are only a couple of primaries to go and they are relatively small. It is time to call of Operation Chaos. Nothing more can be gained except for some more wins by Mrs. Clinton. I am not sure that more wins by Mrs. Clinton is good.

Right now, the most damaged candidate in either party is Barack Hussein Obama. He is not sure where the next blow is going to come from. He has not held a press conference since Operation Chaos began. His debate skills, which were minimal to begin with, deserted him completely. His friends and long time allies are being brought into question and they are not the savory kind. Early this year, everything was turning up roses for Barack Obama. Now, everywhere he turns more disasters seem to occur. He probably wonders where the next disaster will come from. All of this is good news for John McCain.

Mrs. Clinton on the other hand has seen her campaign resurrected from the dead. Before Operation Chaos started, she was one loss from being out of the race. Now, with her win in Pennsylvania, she is sure to survive until Denver. There is no need to prop up her campaign any further. To prop it up further might just get her as the candidate in the election in November. Right now, she looks like the stronger of the two candidates. We already know that she lies. We already know that she has unsavory characters in her background. We already know that she helped destroy the military. We already know that she is a closet communist. What more could come out that could damage her? The answer is nothing. That is why Operation Chaos needs to be ended right now. It has achieved its purpose, which was to revive Mrs. Clinton’s campaign until Denver and get the two Democrats to start cutting themselves apart. That has been achieved and will continue until they get to Denver and probably even while they are in Denver.

Now we need to look at which candidate is the weaker candidate in November. Barack Obama is weak. His entire platform is built out of weakness. Mrs. Clinton on the other hand, is not weak. She is resilient and relentless. She never gives up. That is not the candidate you want running against you. You want the candidate that is weak and when confronted will withdraw. That is exactly the scenario that Barack Obama is exhibiting right now. Barack Obama may eventually grow a pair, but Mrs. Clinton keeps Bill’s in a box on the shelf. Barack Obama is a neophyte and will make rookie mistakes. Mrs. Clinton has been around the block a few times and will not make many unforced errors. She may stretch the truth a bit, but overall will make fewer errors than Barack.

If Mrs. Clinton wins the nomination, blacks will have a hard time accepting the fact that they won the race yet lost the prize. That will play to our favor. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters will be much more pragmatic about her loss. They rationalize that she has already lost and so there is no harm to support the winner. That leads us to choose Mrs. Clinton as the nominee. I still maintain that she will be the tougher nut to crack come November. His overall weakness and neophyte status will render him the easier candidate to make a Dukakis. Part of that is the fact that people do not really know who Barack Hussein Obama is. That will make it easier for John McCain to get him in a tank and have him look foolish like Dukakis.

I just read hughhewitt.com and was impressed by a list of Mark Robert’s identifications of where God wanted him to be at different times in his life. I too have had similar calls.

I went to the University of Northern Colorado to find God. Growing up in a home where God was expelled, I had no background in Religion. When I was a freshman at Northern Colorado, I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. During my time in Greeley, I took all the classes they offered. I grew in the church. I found my future wife and baptized her prior to my leaving on a mission.

I was sent to the England North Mission to find Sister Bird. She was about 63 years old when we found her. It was late in the day and my companion and I had agreed that we would only knock on one more door that day. She took a Book of Mormon and we set an appointment to come back. When we left, my companion said that she would never join the church and he was not going back. I enlisted the District Leader’s companion to go back with me. After talking to her, he said she was never going to join the church and was not going back. I then talked the District Leader into going with me. After meeting with her, he said she was not going to join the church and was not going back. I then talked the Zone Leader’s companion into going with me. After meeting with her, he said that she would never join the church and was never going back. I then talked the Zone Leader into going with me. Finally she agreed to be baptized. After her baptism, she brought at least 30 people into the church during the remainder of my mission. If I had not been there, she would not have been taught and baptized.

After my mission I got married and went to BYU. After a year and a half, we were short of money. We did not have enough funds to go one more semester. I joined the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department in Golden, Colorado. That got me police training that would be important later. A friend helped me get hired by the Federal Government in Bowman, North Dakota.

I was in Bowman because there were two 19 year old girls that liked the Osmond’s and wanted to know more about their church. We arrived in town just before the missionaries. We stayed in town just long enough to see the two girls be baptized and go off to college or get married. We were then transferred to Lakota, North Dakota.

Just after we arrived in Lakota, North Dakota the only policeman in town was shot. He was shot badly enough that he would not be able to recover. The town hired another policeman from one of the towns’ people. He had no police experience. I had made friends with the Sheriff who had an office next to mine. The sheriff recommended to the city that they hire me as a part-time police officer until the untrained officer could be certified by the state. I served as a part-time police officer for a short time and helped teach the new policeman some of the tricks of the trade to stay alive. After he returned from the academy, I was transferred to Cheyenne Wells, Colorado. While in Lakota, we adopted a Native American daughter.

In Cheyenne Wells, Colorado we were there long enough to help a road crew made up of LDS young people get through a job. Shortly after they completed their job, I was transferred to Chandler, AZ.

In Chandler, AZ I helped three Indian Reservations start Conservation Districts. The people that held my position before me had tried to help them start these districts for 20 years. We also adopted two children while in Chandler, one black and one Hispanic. After the districts were certified by the state and the adoptions were final, we were transferred to Lake Havasu, AZ.

While in Lake Havasu, we were asked to help an unwed mother until she could have her baby. We had just leased out an extra room to the LDS missionaries, so we found another family for the girl. The night she was in labor, I talked to the man who was going to adopt the baby. I told him that I did not know why I was saying this but, if anything happened and he could not adopt the baby he was to call us. Three months later, the mother of the family died. The court told him that he could not adopt the girl. He called us and we adopted the girl. After that was final, we were transferred back up to North Dakota in Dickinson.

We arrived in Dickinson just before the Branch President of the Dickinson Branch moved away. I was called to be the Branch President and served in that capacity for three years. When my job changed, I was called to the High Council. We then moved to Minot, ND.

In Minot, ND, I was wildly successful in my job. Just as I was going to achieve some national recognition and pump up my head, I had nasal surgery and it failed. I got a permanent headache out of the surgery. It meant that we had to move from Minot. We found a position for my wife in Winslow, AZ.

In Winslow, it got us back to AZ and closer to where my oldest son had moved. He moved to Chandler, AZ about the same time we moved to Winslow. After a couple of years in Winslow, my wife got a job in Phoenix. We are now in a location where all of our family can be close by. We may not be here for any great spiritual or other reason, but we can be close to our grand kids as we grow older. That means a lot to my wife and I.

On Saturday, I was reminded that it was Patriot day by reading from Hugh Hewitt.com. Hugh then referred me to Powerline to read up on what Patriot day actually means.

Patriot day is the anniversary of the day the Revolutionary War started. On Lexington Green, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired by the British Soldiers who were marching to Concord to destroy the munitions that were stored there. There are conflicting stories on exactly what happened that April morning. The Americans say that the British fired without provocation. The volley from the British killed 8 Americans and wounded 10. The British say that an American separated himself from the main group of Americans and fired. He did not hit anyone as he probably only had powder in his gun, not shot. The British say they fired in response to that initial shot by an American.

There is no way that we will ever know which story is right. All of those involved have been dead for almost 200 years. There is no way we can ever recreate the forensic evidence to determine who was correct. All we can go on is our personal opinion. My opinion is that someone probably had their gun go off by mistake. In response to this initial shot, the British let go with a volley upon the Americans. This initial shot was not aimed at anyone but probably went harmlessly up in the air.

The events of the day actually started the evening before with the ride of Paul Revere. I did learn something from the reports that were reprinted. Paul Revere was captured by 10 British soldiers on horseback as he neared Concord. He escaped because they heard gunfire and when some went to investigate the others got confused and Paul Revere escaped.

After the British marched to Concord to blow up the munitions, they had to march back to Boston. That is where the Americans started firing on them and killing them. The British were losing a lot of men along the way. The officers gave an order that anyone in a house along the way should be killed. As a result, many women and children were killed on the British march back to Boston. The British were saved when a relief column with artillery came and engaged the Americans. The Americans had no artillery and had to withdraw.

My ancestors lived in the Boston area during that time period. I do not know if any of them were involved in the action that day. I would like to think that I had some of my ancestors involved in fighting the British, April 19, 1775. I most likely had ancestors involved in the blockade of Boston. I know that one of my direct ancestors, Jonathan Cheney, was a Lieutenant who served on the staff of George Washington during the war. He was primarily involved in getting messages from Washington to other Generals in the field. He served in that capacity for most of the war.

In the past, I had learned that the Revolutionary War started in April 1775. I may have even learned that it was on April 19, 1775. I must confess that I had forgotten that fact. When I read the first hand accounts of the events of that day from both sides, I was moved. The people that wrote the accounts of that day were actually there. They experienced what happened that day and it was forever a major event in their minds. When I read of the 8 Americans that were killed by the initial British volley, I was moved for their families. I was also moved by the compassion of the citizens of the area that buried the British dead. They gave the dead a headstone after the war. That showed that there was not a lot of hate involved on either side during the early stages of the war. After atrocities were committed, some became embittered. Early on the fighting was over ideas.

The government raided the compound of the FLDS church in Texas last week. They received a tip from a “Sarah” who claimed she was 16 and made pregnant by her spiritual husband. Acting on that tip, the Texas police raided the ranch and took over 400 children. The police still have not located “Sarah”.

Yesterday, the police in Colorado Springs, Colorado arrested a woman for making false phone calls to police. Many people think that this may be the person that made the phone call as “Sarah”. She has been known to use that name in making calls and likes to pretend that she is under age. The calls to the Texas police fit the MO of the woman arrested in Colorado Springs. The Mojave County, Arizona Sheriff’s Department also received calls from a “Sarah” that made the same claims as in Texas. In Arizona, they did not act directly on the phone call while in Texas they did.

The 400 children are being held in foster care until it is determined what to do. The authorities have to find out if there has been abuse and other alleged crimes. The children are not used to 21^st century technology or lifestyle. The foster care will be a culture shock of the first magnitude. If no crimes are discovered and the children are returned to their homes, they will never be the same for their parents. This will be especially true for the girls.

I do have some experience with the FLDS church members. For two years I worked along the Colorado River as an RC&D Coordinator. Part of my job was to work on projects that member cities and counties submitted. I helped the cities/counties prepare the plan for submission and then follow it through to completion. Colorado City was part of my area. At the time, it was the primary location for the FLDS church. I had to work with city leaders to develop their projects and then design and complete them.

When I would drive into town, all of the women would disappear. But, after working with the men on the project, I would find a box of food in my truck at the end of the day. I also was shown around the community and was amazed at the fact that the roads would be finished for a couple of blocks then it would be dirt. They explained it like this, when the city got a pool of money for roads, they would build as much road as the money they had. That way the city was never in debt. The houses in town were in much the same condition. They were all in some stage of construction. The same explanation was given for that building oddity. They also explained that with more than one wife, you had to add space when you added a wife. You might not have enough money to complete all the added building at once, so you built what you could.

They also showed me their meeting house in the center of town. The building was fantastic. They built it large enough that they could have a full-size basketball court in the middle of the building. They also had a stage at one end and a podium at the other end. They explained that oddity like this: they would face the chairs one way for church meetings and the other way for plays and other cultural activities. When I saw the building it was unfinished. They had special rooms for funerals. Someone had given a lot of thought into what uses the building could have.

We had a representative from Colorado City on our Board of Directors. When we would meet in state wide meetings, he always brought his first wife. In our local meetings, he would bring his other wives, one at a time. His first wife was close to his age. His other wives were younger. All that I met were over the age of 40. Our representative was supposed to be one of the top three or four men in Colorado City. I am not really up on the politics of Colorado City at that time or now.

My experiences with the FLDS have been positive. I did not meet a single one of them that was not nice to me. Of course, none of them knew that I am LDS. From what I understand, they do not like members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do not know that for a fact, just something that I was told in St. George, Utah.

In the Democrat debate the other night, the questioners did not ask one question about the most important topic that the new President will have to face. That is disgraceful. Any debate between any number of candidates needs to have at least one question on the war against Islamo-Fascism. If you count all the Democrat debates, they did not ask a question about the war a single time. How in the world are you supposed to know how the Democrat candidates will handle the Islamo Fascists who want us dead? If you listened to the debates you would think that health care or some other government program is the most important topic in the world. You would be wrong.

The Democrat debates were nothing if not pabulum for the masses. They talked about health care and drivers licenses for illegal aliens. They never talked about the important issues of the day. Of course, the Republican debates were not much better. They tended to talk too much about Religion and abortion. But, at least, they did talk about the war occasionally.

If you listened to the Democrats, you would never know that we were even in a war. They would mention that the reason we are in a recession is because we spend too much on the military. But, they never mention the fact that we have people trying to kill us.

You do get Democrats visiting with and schmoozing with terrorists. Jimmy Carter is over in the Middle East right now doing his best to undermine US foreign policy. Jimmy Carter was a poor President. He may have been smart. He may have been Religious. But, he made a terrible President. Since leaving the Presidency, he has made an even worse ex-President. He has met with almost every dictator in the world and given them his clean bill of health. He then talks about how terrible the US is. That is no way for an ex-President to behave. Bill Clinton is not doing much better as an ex-President than Jimmy Carter. At least Bill Clinton is not meeting with every dictator in the world and denouncing the US at every opportunity. Bill Clinton just goes to the Middle East and collects big fees to denounce the US.

We have three living ex-Presidents. They are: Jimmy Carter, Democrat; George H.W. Bush, Republican; and Bill Clinton, Democrat. The two Democrats have gone out of their way to make sure they disgrace the US every chance they can. President George H.W. Bush has acted with class through the terms of Bill Clinton and his son. President George H.W. Bush has only praise for the US. He supported the President in office, even if it was a person he disagreed with politically. The two Democrats make everything partisan.

Right now, the Democrat party is on the verge of selecting their candidate for President. If I were to lay a bet, it would be that Barack Obama would be their nominee. He leads in the delegate count and has a voting block that the Democrats have to have in November. Mrs. Clinton is trailing in the delegate count and in the polls. Her followers are also more likely to support Barack Obama than his supporters are to support her.

But, the bloom is off the rose as far as Barack Obama is concerned. At one point, he was the second coming of the Messiah. Now, he is just another second class Chicago area politician. He will never be able to recover the momentum that he had a couple of months ago. His prime financial backer from his early days is on trial in Chicago. Barack has been brought into the trial by inference. It was reported that he was at a reception for a big money Saudi donor to Tony Rezko. That may come to haunt him as the trial continues. If Tony Rezko is convicted, Barack Obama may receive some of the fallout.

The other way the bloom came off the rose is Obama’s relationship with his minister, Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright has been caught preaching anti-American sermons at his church. There are enough sermons on the topic that it would appear that any member of the congregation would have to know if they belonged to the church for very long. Reverend Wright has also preached anti-Semitic sermons. He also regularly preaches a black supremacy message. If this were a white minister doing this preaching, Obama would be finished as a candidate. That Reverend Wright is black; he is given some slack for this obviously offensive preaching.

It looks like the two candidates for President will be deeply flawed. The Democrat candidate will be so bad that I will be forced to vote against him and for the most likely candidate to defeat him. The Republican candidate is also deeply flawed. I have said many times I would never vote for him again. The Democrats always seem to put a candidate up against McCain that is so bad that I have to vote against them. I can only hope that McCain picks a good running mate. That would really help the Republicans retain the Presidency.

The Democrats held their last debate of the primary season last night. Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama were asked questions by two “reporters” from ABC News. Something must have been in the water, the reporters actually asked a couple of real questions to these candidates. When they did, the candidates looked at them like the world had come to an end. The candidate then stumbled around for a while searching for something like an answer. When one finally came, it was lame at best. It showed how totally unprepared for the real world these two phonies are.

Barack Obama was asked about a former member of the Weathermen, a terrorist group from the 1970’s. Barack had served on a board with this individual for a few years and held campaign events in this person’s home. George Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Obama about Mr. Ayres, the Weatherman, who has stated that he, did not do enough terrorist acts in the 1970’s as a member of the Weathermen. Obama basically said that Mr. Ayres had not endorsed him. Holding a campaign event at your house is close enough to an endorsement as far as I can see. Barack then stated that he did not agree with the opinions of Mr. Ayres. Barack also said that he also knew Senator Dr. Coburn from Oklahoma. Senator Coburn has suggested that those who perform abortions should be tried for murder. Barack said that Senator Coburn’s opinion and that of Mr. Ayres were equal. They are not equal as Mr. Ayres is a terrorist and belonged to a group that killed people. Senator Coburn is not a terrorist and has never belonged to any group that has killed anyone. Barack really showed the deer in the headlights problem with that question.

Mrs. Clinton tried to really nail Obama with the Ayres question. The problem is that her hands are probably less clean than those of Obama. Her husband pardoned terrorists to win votes for her in New York. She did nail him with the Ayres question, but also put a nail in her coffin with the implication of cozying up to terrorists to gain votes.

All in all, Mrs. Clinton looked the best in the debate last night. It was not so much that she won the debate; it was more that Barack Obama lost the debate. In the debate, he looked lost without the crutch of the teleprompter and a prepared speech. He floundered around and looked like someone completely out of his element. She also looked bad, but she at least did not look completely lost. She looked like she was sucking on lemons all night, but at least she was prepared. He looked like he walked into the debate without any preparation. It was as though he expected everyone to bow down and worship at his feet instead of asking him tough questions. The questions were not really that tough. They were merely the most obvious questions to ask a candidate running for President. They were on topic and germane.

Looking at this debate, the Super Delegates have to be looking at each other and saying to themselves, “How did we get in this situation?” The Democrats are stuck with two candidates that have tremendous flaws. They are so far to the left that they will be completely unable to connect to the American voters. The myth of Barack Obama has been completely destroyed. There was a time when he looked unstoppable. Now, he looks like totally damaged goods. He got roughed up by little blows. If he had been facing a Republican that had big differences, there would have been terrific blows. Mrs. Clinton stands on almost exactly the same ground on the issues. They are just fighting over whom best can deliver the goods. They both got roughed up just talking about who can deliver the message. When they have to fight over the message, they will really have problems holding their own. They are in indefensible positions and they know it.

These next few months will be interesting in the Democrat party. The party is in disarray. They have two candidates that would have trouble being elected dog catcher in any town in America. Neither candidate gives off an air of confidence. Neither one seems ready to act as a Commander in Chief. Both are acting like school girls in a petty fight over hair ribbons. What the Democrats need to do is choose someone with real standing. Unfortunately, almost all of those people are Republicans.

The Democrats are looking at a loss on the order of a George McGovern in 1972. That was a total defeat of monumental size. It may be a bad year to be a Democrat. That is good for the country.

Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the United States. He arrived yesterday and was greeted at the White House. It was the largest greeting, ever, at the White House. That is as it should be. He represents the largest single Christian church in the world. He is also the head of state for the Vatican. Both of those give him the honor of being recognized as important by the President of the United States. He would have a similar honor given to any head of state. As a religious figure and a head of state, it adds to the pomp involved in the reception.

The Pope speaks for almost 1 billion Catholics. That is a lot of people. They are from almost every country in the world. That gives him a big voice in world affairs. He has a lot of authority on religious and ethical issues. He is not always right, but at least he does have a place at the table.

He claims to be the link between our Father in Heaven and we as people. He comes from a long line of Popes that claim that same authority. The Catholic Church recognizes the Pope as infallible. That means that he can do no wrong. Unfortunately for Catholics, the Pope is a human being. Being human is by definition acknowledging that you make mistakes. Making the Pope infallible is not acknowledging that he is human and will make mistakes. Catholics just hope that the Pope makes small mistakes, not big ones. Unfortunately for Catholics, not all Popes have made small mistakes. Many have made big mistakes and those have had bad consequences for many people. I am not saying that Pope Benedict XVI will make big mistakes. Most recent Popes have not made big mistakes. The big mistakes have mostly been made by Popes that let power go to their head in the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages.

The claim by the Pope is that the Apostle Peter made the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Rome became the Pope. While it could be true that the Apostle Peter made the Bishop of Rome that does not mean that the next Bishop of Rome has the same authority. That is because Bishops have to be called by Apostles. After all the Apostles were killed, there was no-one with authority to call the next Bishop of Rome. Therefore, the next person who was made the Bishop of Rome did so without authority of the church. New Apostles should have been called before a new Bishop of Rome could have been ordained. Then the Bishop of Rome would have had authority over the people that lived in and around Rome. If the congregation got large enough, the unit would have been divided and there would have been two Bishop’s in Rome. At no time would the Bishop of Rome ever exercised authority over the church. He would always been under the authority of the Apostles.

So after an examination of the record it is clear that some things are not right in the Pope’s claim to be the leader of the True Christian Church. As the Bishop of Rome he would only have authority over Rome. As Bishop of Rome he would have been called to the position by Apostles and released by Apostles. Being a Bishop is not a lifetime position. Some people have held the position through the end of their lives, but that is an exception to the rule. Most people called to be Bishops are released after a few years in the position. Early Bishops held the position for as long as 20 years. More modern Bishops are released after about 5-7 years.

One other problem with the Pope is that as the Bishop of Rome, he is not married. In Hebrews it clearly states that a Bishop is to be the husband of one wife. Catholic Bishops are not married. How can they be Bishops if they are not married or have ever been married? Those are just some questions to ask of Catholic Bishops. They do not follow the teachings of the Bible when it comes to Bishops. The Catholics do not follow the Bible when it comes to a lot of other things also.

There are a lot of good things about the Catholic Church. There are a lot of bad things in the history of the Catholic Church. Almost any church has things in its history that it would just as soon forget. You cannot judge a church completely on its history. Churches are run by human beings. Human beings make stupid decisions and do stupid things. Those stupid things cause those of us today to cringe and doubt. If a church is true, it is true regardless of what stupid things people have done in its name.

Today is Tax Day. It is the day that everyone has to file their taxes. This year there is another reason to file your taxes, you get the stimulus check if you file. If you do not file taxes, you do not get a stimulus check.

Today coming in to work, I listened to the Dennis Prager show. He had Congressman Lindner on about the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax is a consumption tax. It taxes you on what you spend, not what you earn. To help the poor, everyone will get a pre-bate check to cover what a person at the poverty level will pay in consumption taxes during the month. Right now, our tax is based on how much you earn. The more you earn, the more you pay. The Fair Tax would only be implemented if the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution is repealed.

The current tax system is set up to encourage people to commit fraud. There is a less than 1% chance that you will get caught, so why not fudge the figures. The latest estimate, according to Congressman Lindner, is that there is $325 Billion in under reported income per year. The government does not estimate how much the underground economy is worth, but outside groups estimate that it is worth about $3 Trillion. That is a lot of money that is not being reported to the system. There is little the government can do to stop the under reporting. Things have gotten tighter in reporting, but there are still holes big enough to drive a Mack Truck through.

The advantage of the Fair Tax is that this underground economy will no longer be an underground economy. Everything they purchase will be part of the Fair Tax as everything is taxed. The underground economy will be a thing of the past. People under reporting income or taking too many deductions will be a thing of the past. That will greatly boost the amount of money going to the government.

Businesses that left the country because of taxes will return. They will not be taxed on their employees or their income. That will encourage any company in the world to come to the US to establish their headquarters or at least build plants. Full employment would be the story. Companies would go on a massive expansion on the amount of building and hiring that they do. Americans would be able to produce goods cheaper than anywhere else in the world.

The only drawback to the Fair Tax is that it would take social engineering out of the hands of Congress. That would mean that they would have less influence on the economy than they currently do with tax issues. They would have fewer people coming to the seat of power seeking some favor for campaign cash. That would mean that Congress would have to work on actual issues instead of tinkering with social problems using the tax code. The current tax code is based on the theories of Karl Marx. Karl Marx is the author of communism. I realize that most Democrats worship at the altar of Karl Marx and communism, but some have actually come out in support of the Fair Tax.

Because the Fair Tax would greatly reduce the power available to Congress and it would have to be approved by Congress, there is little chance of passage. It could happen if enough people pushed it. But without a massive groundswell of support, there is little chance of passage. It makes too much sense. Taxes are supposed to be to raise money to fund the government. The Fair Tax makes taxes do just that. The current tax system is so much more than a system to raise money to fund the government. It is a way to shape society the way that you want it. If you want more of something, just make the tax law such that it is a tax advantage to do something. Shortly after that, there is a lot of money chasing that idea. Even if the idea makes no economic sense, the money goes where the taxes say it will.

I fully support the Fair Tax. Every person that cares about the United States should support the Fair Tax. To find out more, go to fairtax.org. The more you know, the better you can answer the questions people have about the Fair Tax. Many people are afraid of something new. If they investigated the Fair Tax they would be supporters as well. They are probably misinformed by people that know little about the Fair Tax and then write an article about the Fair Tax that is full of mistakes. People use these articles filled with mistakes and try to use them to combat the ideas in the real Fair Tax.

The wheels appear to be coming off of the Obama bus after his comments last week. Since I commented on Saturday, Barack Obama has tried to clarify his comments. What he has done is dig himself a bigger hole.

His original comment was that people were bitter over losing their jobs in small towns. Because they were bitter, they turned to religion and guns to give them security. His clarifications just amplify the fact that he sees everything in economic terms. He believes that everyone that is poor should look at the world and want more social programs. That they do not is because they have religion or guns to pacify them.

That world view is exactly out of the leftist handbook. The problem is that leftists are not supposed to say what is in the leftist handbook. If they say what is in the handbook, people will understand where they are coming from and never vote for them again. That is what makes Obama’s comment so problematic for the Democrats. Do they embrace it as the truth the see it for? Or do they denounce it as a mistake? If the embrace the idea, people will consider them leftist elitist snobs and not vote for them. If they denounce it as a mistake, Obama will lose some of his “magic”. That is a big dilemma.

Mrs. Clinton took no time to start dumping on Obama for the gaffe. There is no real difference between the two on the issues. There is little difference between how they view the American people. There is a huge difference in how they would implement their programs. Obama would be less inclined to be dogmatic in his implementation. The end result would be the same; the technique to get there would be different. Since there is so little difference between Obama and Clinton, any small difference has to be magnified. This is not really a difference as it is a mistake that can be amplified into a perception difference.

The move should help Mrs. Clinton win in Pennsylvania. She was leading there, anyway. But, this will cement her lead and not allow Obama to defeat her at the last minute. It will also cut into Obama’s leads in the rural states of North Carolina and Indiana. It probably will not impact the Democrat primary contest very much. The gaffe will come back to haunt Obama when he has to fact the Republican nominee in November. There the real differences between Obama and McCain can be amplified and this gaffe will really hurt Obama with rural voters all across the country. It might be enough to insure a McCain win in November.

What did Barack Obama mean when he said that rural people were bitter? He looks at poor people and thinks that they must be bitter. He thinks that he would be bitter if he were poor, so the poor must be bitter. Then he looks at the poor and sees that they are not bitter. So, he has to come up with some explanation that accounts for the reason why the poor are not bitter. Since he has no real belief in religion, he thinks that all others have the same non-belief. He ascribes the non revolt of the poor as being satisfied by answers in religion. He also does not believe that any rational person could believe that gun ownership is good, so he ascribes gun ownership to some form of dementia. This all came bubbling out in his comment last week. This comment will be attached to Obama whether he likes it or not. I assume that he will not like it.

Barack Obama is finally showing his colors. It may be too late for Mrs. Clinton, but not too late for John McCain. Barack Obama said that small town residents are bitter over lost jobs. That is why they own guns and cling to religion. That is not a way to endear you to small town America. There are a lot of people in America that live in small towns. They will not like being called bitter.

After he was called on it, Barack Obama did not apologize for his remarks. He amplified his comments and dug himself a bigger hole. Since this occurred on a weekend, there will not be much traction until Monday. But, when the radio shows play his comments over and over, Obama will wish he had kept his mouth shut. The talk shows will make him sound inarticulate. That is not what he is, but on this comment, he surely is inarticulate.

Most people that live in small towns live there because they want to. There are many advantages to living in a small town. I lived in a few during my career with the Soil Conservation Service. Everyone knew you and that was a great feeling. One other advantage is that everyone knew who your kids were and watched out for them. When they were doing something wrong, you would get a phone call that your child was at some place doing something wrong. That way you could show up and put a stop to the childhood transgression. The child was forever in the dark as to how you found out.

There are disadvantages to living in a small town. Recreation opportunities like movies are far away. Buying groceries and gasoline is usually limited to one place and the prices were usually not the best. School for the kids usually had only 8-10 kids per class, so many classes were combined. There was no Kindergarten program for 5 year old kids.

Living in a small town, I never had the impression that anyone was bitter over living there. Almost everyone in the small town wanted to be there and did not want to leave. If they had to leave, they always tried to make it back to their home town. The small towns I lived in ranged from 600 to 3500 people. The small towns that were far away from larger communities generally were the most stable. The ones that were within commuting distance of a large town had some of the big city problems cropping up. I did not see those problems in the small towns that were more isolated.

Barack Obama will not like the blowback that he receives from people that live in small towns. He will not like the blowback from people that remember the small towns they grew up in. That amounts to quite a lot of people. He just called them unimportant. No-one wants to be unimportant. Barack Obama may find that he is the one that ends up being unimportant out of all this.

The Democrat candidates are talking about instituting socialism in the US. They do not call it socialism because if they did very few Americans would vote for it. So, they couch their socialism in terms that do not mean what they say. Socialism will destroy the American vision. That vision was first written down by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. It was codified in the Constitution. Even though most of the Congressional representatives ignore the Constitution, it has served us well for over 220 years.

In 1776, we started a war with the strongest country in the world to throw off the shackles of Europe. My many great grandfather, Jonathan Cheney, joined up and served as a Lieutenant on the staff of General Washington. He was involved in many of the important decisions that determined the future of the United States. As a junior officer, he had little influence on the decisions; he was still there to know of them first hand. He served honorably throughout the war and was given some land in Ohio to compensate him for his service. He then moved to Ohio and then on to California in 1848, just before the gold rush.

In 1860, the Confederate States of America fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor starting the Civil War. My many great grandfather, Joel Jones, answered the call. He served in the infantry and rose to the rank of sergeant. Fighting in the Civil War helped free the slaves and preserve our Union.

In 1916, my grandfathers, Archie Revie and Martin Swahn, joined the army to defeat the aggression of Germany. This aggression was part of the continued effort of European powers to mess things up. Their service in the army allowed them to become friends. They maintained that friendship after their service and purchased homes near each other. My parents met through the efforts of my grandfathers and I resulted.

In 1942, my father joined the army as a lieutenant of an anti-tank unit. His first action was in the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45. He served with the 99^th infantry. He never talked much about his service, so I am not exactly sure what he did, but I know the 99^th infantry took the initial hit from the Nazi attack. My father’s service in World War II helped keep socialism away from many of the European powers.

Socialists have very long time periods to install their agendas. If they get defeated at one point, they just take a step back and regroup. They never stay defeated. They always are working to install one more socialist institution. There was a time in the early part of the 1900’s when the Democrat party was not socialist. That changed with Woodrow Wilson and continued through Franklin Roosevelt and beyond. One of Roosevelt’s Vice-Presidents was actually a member of the communist party. I am not saying that Roosevelt was a communist. I am just saying that the Democrat party slowly became more and more socialist from 1916 until today.

When I first registered to vote, I registered as a Democrat. I felt at home in the Democrat party. Slowly over time, the Democrat party became more and more socialist and more and more radical. I was never a socialist. I always believed in the American dream of independence and individualism. By the time of Jimmy Carter, I had started voting Republican. During Ronald Reagan, I changed my registration to Republican. From then until now, I have watched the Democrat party become more radically socialist. Now I believe that electing a Democrat to any office is an act of treason. Democrats to not love America, they love socialism. Socialism is not American. Socialism is European in origin and Asian in implementation. Neither one sits well with anyone who truly believes in this country and its ideals.

The United States is not perfect. It can never be perfect. It was designed by humans and it is implemented by humans. Being human is by definition, imperfect. But, it is the most perfect government in the world. It reaches perfection when it approaches implementation of the Constitution as written. Unfortunately, too many see the Constitution as a “living” document, which means it can mean whatever they want it to mean. The Constitution means what it says. If the government is doing something that is not in the Constitution, it should cease doing it. I do not believe that the government will ever stop doing the unconstitutional things that it is doing. We can only hope to limit those unconstitutional actions as much as possible. We should work to eliminate them where possible.

Unfortunately, we will have to fight the Democrats every step of the way. Democrats are the party of Jefferson. They should be for freedom. Unfortunately, they are the anti-war party and have been for over 150 years. Even Roosevelt had to put Republicans in his cabinet to run WW II. He could not find enough Democrats to run a war. That is a sad commentary on a party.

On the way to work today, I heard much of the first hour of the Dennis Prager Show. He was interviewing a black author by the name of McWarter (sp). I probably misspelled his name, for that I am sorry.

The premise of the discussion was that having Barack Obama as President is such a plus that it outweighs all of the negatives. The positives that would occur would be that black children and other minority children would see a black President talking to them from the White House. They would see black children in the White House. They would see a black President being flown around on Air Force One. Those positives would help black children overthrow the image that there is institutional white racism.

The author was quite willing to swallow Obama’s socialist agenda to achieve this goal of racial equality. I too have championed racial equality for many years. My family is a mixture of black, white, Hispanic, Asian and Native American. My children have been brought up to not think of race as anything negative. They cannot think that one racial group is bad because they have a brother or sister that falls into that racial group. As a result, they bring home friends of any color. For me, it is a fulfillment of a dream to have my children and now grandchildren being basically color blind. If my family can do it, other families can do it. But, it is not a high enough goal to throw the country under the bus to achieve.

Barack Obama is a radical leftist. His rating from leftist organizations is 100. His rating from conservative groups is 0. He got these ratings by voting a hard leftist agenda during his time in the Illinois legislature and in the US Senate. If he were elected, he would be the candidate farthest to the left in our nation’s history. He would radically change the US from a nation of laws to a socialist utopia. As we all know, there is no such thing as a socialist utopia. The closest thing to a socialist utopia is Cuba where the people are held in fear.

I am not willing to change my country from a free country into a socialist country just to achieve a noble goal of reducing racial hatred. There are a number of Conservative black leaders who would be perfectly acceptable to me. Barack Obama is not one of the acceptable black leaders. His agenda is too far to the left. We need to move toward more freedom and personal responsibility. Obama wants to move away from freedom and away from personal responsibility. That would take away from the American dream that has stood the test of time for over 200 years. We would become Europeans again. That is what we fought a war for independence to prevent. We wanted to be free and independent of Europe. Now, we have politicians that say we should be Europe again. Europe has followed a failed path. Just look at Europe and you see failure after failure. Do we really want to be a failure like Europe? Or we could pick an even worse failure, like Russia or China?

There are black politicians I would gladly support. J.C. Watts is one of them. He was a Congressman from Oklahoma. He was also a strong conservative. If J.C. ran, it would be as a conservative. He would be asking Americans to support American values and support a black person for President. That would be something to behold. I would love to see J.C. in the White House. I do not think that he wants to be President. He has given no indication that he would like to run. In the Republican Party, there is a lot less racism than there is in the Democrat party.

General Petraeus is on Capitol Hill testifying before Congress on the progress in Iraq. The Democrats told him before he came that he was not to bring good news. I have not been able to hear his testimony, but from reports, it is generally positive. He reports that the surge has greatly decreased the overall violence in Iraq. He reports that the political goals are being achieved because of the decrease in violence. He reports that the Iraqi armed forces have taken a greater role in the combat with the Islamic terrorists.

When Democrats are questioning General Petraeus, they are using questions from before the surge. As they pose their questions, they put them in the situation as it existed prior to the surge being implemented. Every time, General Petraeus reminds the Senators that the surge has changed the dynamics of the situation in Iraq and we are winning. But, the Democrat Senators do not want to listen. They are on their high horse and refuse to be dislodged by the facts of the situation.

We have yet to hear from the two Democrat contenders for the Presidency. I would expect that both of them would set things up as things were in 2006 before the surge began. They will also advocate removing all the troops from Iraq as soon as possible. Everyone wants the military home from Iraq as soon as possible. The disagreement is over when is the best time to bring them home. Democrats say that now is the time and forget what will happen to the good citizens of Iraq that believed us. The Republicans say that we should stay there until the Iraqi Republic can defend itself and no longer needs us to perform military operations. Thanks to the surge, the time for the Iraqi military to take over the majority of the fighting is approaching. They are highly involved in the fighting right now. It is just led by the American military. Soon, we will be in supporting roles and soon thereafter we will not be involved except for the most complex missions.

I would hope that Americans would see that the situation in Iraq is not what it was in 2006. We are not doing all of the fighting. The Iraqi elected officials have voted in almost all of the benchmark laws that we wanted them to approve. General Petraeus deserves a big thank you for leading our military in this surge. He has done a fantastic job. There must be some medal or honor we could give to him that would show the thanks that we have for a job well done. He would say that he did not do it alone. He would be correct in that assessment. But, someone had to take the lead. He took the lead and made sure that we followed through with the plan as originally drawn up. I am sure that what we are doing today is not exactly what was drawn up when the plan was made. That is the nature of war. Plans are great until the first shot is fired. Then it is reacting to what happens that determines the outcome of battles and wars. The objectives may remain the same, but the details will be changed to meet the changing conditions.

The American people can say thank you to General Petraeus themselves. There is a place to send a thank you to General Petraeus on the web site of Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Mitch McConnell is the Senate Minority leader. I went to the web site last night and signed a card. Please click here to add your name to the card. I borrowed the link from Hugh Hewitt at hughhewitt.townhall.com.