Here’s what happened - Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, apparently told two neighbor children who were playing in the tree next-door to her house to, “quit playing in the tree like monkeys.” Apparently, the mother of these lovely, African-American children considered the comment to be racist and she called the Carpentersville police. Ramirez-Sliwinski said she did not mean the comment as a racial slur – she claims to have said it because she was worried that the children might fall from the tree and hurt themselves. The police apparently didn’t see it that way, and issued her a $75 ticket for “disorderly conduct, which they define as “When a person does something that alarms or disturbs another.”

And when it rains, it truly pours for Ms. Ramirez-Sliwinski. Before this incident, she was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and reportedly displays an Obama sign proudly in her front yard. Not anymore! In addition to the ticket, the incident persuaded Obama’s campaign (it’s always his people doing the dirty work) to call her and ask her to step aside as a delegate, citing her remarks as “divisive and unacceptable.” Ramirez-Sliwinski complied, citing she also will not run again as Carpentersville village trustee.

In her defense, the allegations of “racism” are a bit of a stretch. First of all, as a Carpentersville village trustee, Ramirez-Sliwinski has a reputation for representing the area’s 40 percent Hispanic population. Some of the … ahem … highlights of her tenure include opposing an English-only proposition and an ordinance to crack down on illegal immigrants. Granted these actions seem to benefit the Hispanic population of which she is a member, but they still clearly indicate a leaning to the left. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned, liberals can do no wrong!

Let’s take a look at what was said. Monkeys? Seriously? Now I’m no zoologist, but I’m fairly certain that most species of monkey is known for cavorting about in trees in a wild and unrestrained fashion. Hence, children recklessly playing in trees could very well draw a legitimate comparison. In fact, my childhood memories include an incident when my brother and I were furiously jumping on and off the living room couch. Our (white) grandmother demanded we “stop acting like monkeys” or she would tell our father. Rather than phoning the ACLU, my brother and I wisely opted to find another, less rambunctious form of amusement.

This sordid case bears more than just a passing resemblance to the infamous “water buffalo” incident that happened in 1993 at the University of Pennsylvania. For those who don’t recall, then-freshman Eden Jacobowitz yelled "Shut up, you water buffalo. If you're looking for a party, there's a zoo a mile from here" from his dormitory window to a group of black women who were making noise and interrupting his studying. The infuriated women charged Jacobowitz with racial harassment under the university's hate-speech policy. In his defense, Jacobowitz insisted his comment was not racist, and that the phrase was a rough translation of a Hebrew slang "Behema," which is used by Jews to refer to a loud, rowdy person. Unlike the case involving Ramirez-Sliwinski, this one had a happy ending - the women later dropped the charges and Jacobowitz settled his lawsuit against the university. (Score one for free speech advocates everywhere!)

Putting all humor aside, though, this situation illustrates in grave detail that the true threat to free speech in this country is not coming from the right, it’s coming from the left … and in juggernaut-like fashion. What’s even more disturbing is the insidious way in which the law and “propriety” were used to legally enforce political correctness, as if it were law. For comparing the children to monkeys, the police write Ramirez-Sliwinski a ticket, Barry’s people asked her to step down, and she no doubt was pressured by the remaining Carpentersville village trustees to not seek re-election. The message here is disturbing as it is clear - be politically correct, or suffer dire consequences.

So, its seems the liberals have succeeded at legislating morality - their morality. While there’s no official law on the books that states all speech must be politically correct, and there are no official punishment guidelines for transgressors, the evil of political correctness has become the law of the land, thus usurping our rights as Americans. (Expect the liberals to be dancing in the streets.) And poor Ms. Ramirez-Sliwinski has become yet another casualty in this ongoing war on the First Amendment. But Americans who believe that their First Amendment rights are more important than Political Correctness must stand up and fight these insidious forces within our very country. When one person misspeaks, it’s easy for them to pounce, but when everyone stands up against this intolerance and injustice, it become impossible to ignore. So stand up and be heard, for if we don’t exercise our voices now, we might not have the opportunity to do so later.

If we don't, it could be like my Uncle Glenn always used to say, “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.”

But looking at these electoral data suggests to me that there's another tribal divide going on here, one that separates voters more profoundly than even race (well, maybe not more profoundly than race in Mississippi but in other states). That's the divide between academics and Jacksonians. In state after state, we have seen Obama do extraordinarily well in academic and state capital enclaves. In state after state, we have seen Clinton do extraordinarily well in enclaves dominated by Jacksonians.

Academics and public employees (and of course many, perhaps most, academics in the United States are public employees) love the arts of peace and hate the demands of war. Economically, defense spending competes for the public-sector dollars that academics and public employees think are rightfully their own. More important, I think, warriors are competitors for the honor that academics and public employees think rightfully belongs to them. Jacksonians, in contrast, place a high value on the virtues of the warrior and little value on the work of academics and public employees. They have, in historian David Hackett Fischer's phrase, a notion of natural liberty: People should be allowed to do what they want, subject to the demands of honor. If someone infringes on that liberty, beware: The Jacksonian attitude is, "If you attack my family or my country, I'll kill you." And he (or she) means it. The academic who hears the Rev. Jeremiah Wright declaiming, "God damn America," is not unnerved. He hears this sort of thing on campus all the time. The Jacksonian who watches the tape sees an enemy of everything he holds dear.

He didn't, he was just a really sweet 100+ pound German Shepherd. On this particular day in 2000, Jake was just shy of his 3rd birthday and he went down the hill to the pond with my dad to watch the geese and ducks swimming. He wasn't in danger of drowning because he was wearing a life vest, dad was in the coop getting feed while Jake waited.

All of the sudden we heard a howl and then a growl. The howl was a small pack of wild dogs and a coyote heading straight for Jake. My heart stopped and I was screaming and running. There was no way anyone including my dad was going to get to Jake before the pack. Jake had wandered a bit and the pack was in between my dad and my son. The growl we heard almost an instant later, came from Buttons, who, was charging down the hill toward Jake at a speed I didn't know he was capable of. Buttons went for the coyote and took him down, the rest of the pack ran away. Buttons, without a doubt, saved Jake's life and earned my dad's respect. That was the last time my dad called him stupid. He became "good dog" from that day till my dad died a year later.

When Buttons died Jake told me that he prayed for Buttons to find his Papa (my dad) in heaven, so that he (Buttons) wouldn't be alone. Then he laughed and said it would be funny if Papa had to see that floppy ear forever.

Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton released dueling advertisements Wednesday that highlighted how the housing crisis has come to dominate the presidential race, with Mrs. Clinton using a version of her red-phone commercial to question Mr. McCain’s ability to handle the souring economy.

In the advertisement, the Clinton campaign again portrays a family asleep in the middle of the night when the phone rings, meant to evoke a national crisis. The narrator then intones, “John McCain just said the government shouldn’t take any real action in the housing crisis; he’d let the phone keep ringing.”

Within hours, the McCain campaign released an advertisement on the Internet. It starts with images of the Clinton advertisement, with the narrator then commenting, “Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama just said they’d solve the problem by raising your taxes — more money out of your pockets.”

This is a good place to attack McCain since he has already admitted to being an economic retard. Here's the thing though, we don't elect economists to be Presidents. We elect leaders that we believe are best suited to decision making. They don't have to be economists or military strategists. They have to be smart and capable of hiring good economists, strategists and anything they need to assist them in making decisions for us.

Still, McCain was a dolt for outing himself as a weakling on economic issues and he deserves the hits he's no doubt going to take until November.

NATO decided Thursday not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important Black Sea nations will become members one day.

Senior American officials also said that NATO leaders agreed to fully endorse U.S. missile defense plans for Europe and urge Russia to drop its objections to the system.

French and German concern over Russia's reaction dashed the two former Soviet republics' hopes of being granted a "membership action plan" that bring them into the alliance within the next five to 10 years.

But alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO welcomes the countries' aspirations to join. "We agree today that these countries will become members of NATO," he said.

Well, at least, they have some hope for becoming members of the group eventually. Does NATO still serve a real purpose or are they becoming like the U.N., a hollow shell of what they once were?

One positive note. Now that France has a President that isn't a cheese eating surrender monkey, they will be sending more troops and elite forces into Afghanistan to help us out over there.

YAY! Layfayette can finally rest in peace again...

Sen. Debbie Stabenow's [D,MI] husband, Thomas Athans, 46, was stopped by police who were investigating prostitution at the hotel, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press under the state Freedom of Information Act.

Athans, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network, apologized in a statement issued by his attorney and said he "fully cooperated with law enforcement. My family and I are dealing with this matter in a personal and private way."

I know what you're thinking. You want to know where are the jokes and insults. I'm not going to make them. I went after Spitzer because he was a special type of scum. I don't go after people just for being cheaters. That's between the couple. I'm just saying that the continued criminalization of sex for money is stupid.

All men pay for sex, one way or another. When they go to a "pro", it's just simpler and more upfront. When they buy you dinner first, it's called dating. If they get laid, they feel "lucky". Sure because they shelled out the money and got what they were hoping to get. Married guys pay too. Not always with money but unless you are on your honeymoon, there is always a little "negotiating" before sex. I'm not saying it to be cynical, I'm saying it because it's basically true. Men want sex and woman decide if they are getting it. Either way, the simple fact is all men pay for sex.

I will not ban Mr. Wonderful for his comments because he did not attack anyone here personally, unlike many others of you who can't manage to start talking without blasting an insult my way. He never attributed the "racist" remark to Obama, in fact he further stated:

Granted, Barry never said this ... at least, not to my knowledge. (It would make for one hell of a blog if he did!) But as inflammatory as those two little words might seem, they should give you Obama Apologists a good idea as to how some whites regard Barry's associations and their somewhat questionable views on race ... and his (white) grandmother. And try as he might, ol' Barry still hasn't been able to fully reconcile that with some white voters.

He tried repeatedly to engage but was rebuffed, insulted and DISRESPECTED by many of the regular commenters right away. Day 1.

Many of you are offended by his words. Guess what? I'm offended regularly, not by Mr. Wonderful but by many of my friends here. If you want me to start quoting, it could get very uncomfortable for some of you. Friends say things, in the heat of the moment, but still some of it is really vicious. I was ready to pull the plug on the blogging thing because I was sick of being your personal Conservative whipping girl. I didn't. Instead, I brought in back up.

Mr. Wonderful is a close, personal friend of mine. He was treated woefully on his first day here but still he persisted. Many of you welcomed him by savagely ripping him to shreds and he responded in kind. You treat people in the manner you wish to be treated. He came here as my guest, my friend and I hoped my other friends would give him a fair shake. It didn't happen but I have some hope that it will. You all are my friends and your continued visits to my corner of the world are important to me. Mr. Wonderful is my friend, he is someone that is very important to me and he isn't going anywhere. Maybe now that you all know that, you can try again. If you don't want to, I understand. No hard feelings.

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

“Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

Can we just start this political season over with new candidates? Please?

Sounds good to me. Sure, it sounds really reasonable. But then if he kept talking he'd sound way less reasonable....

On economic policy, Mr. Obama favors higher income, Social Security and corporate taxes. He also mentioned important notes about data security, key for hard drive recovery companies like this. He supports massive increases in domestic spending and greater government regulation of the economy. He favors a significantly larger role for the federal government in health care. He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Higher taxes, higher spending and opposition to NAFTA. That's pretty standard liberal fare.

Mr. Obama has criticized the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a partial birth abortion ban, and he wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. He voted against John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. In Illinois, Mr. Obama supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. And he supports granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Having a problem with the Partial Birth Abortion Ban? That's fucking EXTREME liberal and the article doesn't mention but he also has a problem with parental notification for minors seeking abortions. Schools need parental permission to give out aspirin but condoms and abortions - THOSE ARE COOL? Banning handguns is really extreme. We aren't talking about AK47's, he means handguns. So, he has a problem with the 2nd Amendment... Supports giving illegals driving privileges but I, a legal citizen, shouldn't be allowed to own a handgun for for self defense? Yeah, that's moderate...NOT. Good luck in the PA primary, Barack.

On national security matters, Mr. Obama voted to deny legal immunity to telecom companies that have cooperated with the government in warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists. He wants to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. He supports a full-scale withdrawal from Iraq. And he says, in his first year in office, he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea without preconditions.

I. THINK. I. HAVE. A. PROBLEM. WITH. HIS. NATIONAL. SECURITY. IDEAS.

I don't think McCain will have a tough time cleaning Obama's clock during the debate of ideas, since most of Obama's ideas are not what the average American voter would be comfortable with...

This is a post about Obama's IDEAS. So, if you can't handle debating his ideas, then you should go ask your mom for a sippy cup and some granola while the adults talk!

Dick in a Box