You know the old expression that when someone says "it's not really about the money" it's ALWAYS about the money?

I keep hearing from the Barack Obama camp that his campaign won't really be about race.  You know what's coming, right?

The first telling sign about how the Illinois senator wants to make sure his campaign is definitely about race came during last night's "60 Minutes" love letter.  Both Sen. Obama and his wife made almost passing references to racial issues that a careful listener would have caught.

First off, Obama was asked something about being "black enough."  He made a brief reference to how difficult it is for him to catch a taxicab when he tries to hail one. 

Secondly, Mrs. Obama was asked about the risks her husband faces to his safety by running for president since he's black.  She replied that "as a black man" any time he goes to the store, he risks getting shot.

First off, any of us who take cabs on a regular basis have a deep cynicism that a man wearing a two thousand dollar camel-haired coat and carrying a briefcase would have a tough time hailing a cab, black or white.

And secondly, I'm not sure if Mrs. Obama has ever researched whether or not a black man runs a bigger risk of getting shot while simply "going to the store" than a non-black.

In both cases, the Obamas used gratituous examples of race, indicating that we'd better be ready for a racially-charged campaign.

In other words, when the Obama people say "this campaign won't be about race", we need to remember that that's up the candidate -- and his wife.

I find it amazingly creepy that when I heard the news on the radio today that Anna Nicole Smith had suddenly died at the age of 39, it didn't surprise me one bit.

There seemed to be so much tragedy and drama and heartache associated with the former Playboy centerfold that an abrupt end to her life really didn't seem to come out of the blue.

I know I'm really in the minority here, but I've always felt sorry for Anna Nicole.  She was who she was, a former topless dancer who was plucked out of relative obscurity by an 80-something year old oil billionaire who had the hots for her (and all of her, um, attributes).

So what if he was a million years her senior?  From all accounts, she made him happy.  Like it or not, she was his wife.  So when he died, she probably deserved his money.  But one of his sons fought -- and fought hard -- for the money.  And that son dropped dead last year, the prime example of not being able to "take it with you."

Of course, there was her son's mysterious death at age 20, just a few days after she gave birth to a daughter.  And then, a nasty debate about who the father of the little girl was, the sleazy lawyer named Stern or some other lover.

Her life was a mess.  She often slurred her words, stumbling around and falling down and appearing to all the world as a woman with a bigtime substance abuse problem.

And now, her body lies in a freezer in a hospital morgue, awaiting the autopsy that will undoubtedly reveal her ingestion of something she probably shouldn't have ingested.

I just felt sorry for her.

I'm sitting here in my radio studios with a sense of dread.

I'm minutes away from going on the air, hosting a radio show that's heard by millions of weekly listeners.  Like all of us, I continue to shake my head and wonder how a world-class astronaut could don a pair of diapers and bring a steel mallet with her during her trip from Houston to Orlando to confront her romantic rival.

And I just know what I'm going to say that's going to get me in a heap of trouble:  she's a woman.

How many of us men can say that the women in our lives have all had a "meltdown moment?"  Let's face it, call it PMS, hormones, whatever, there is a point in a woman's life where all logic and reasoning goes out the window and she turns into a raging, crazy monster.

With that in mind, is it really smart to consider a woman for president?

I know I probably shouldn't say this kind of stuff, but admit it:  aren't you thinking it?

Wish me luck.  I might be joining Kevin Federline at the burger joint by the end of the week....

I was listening to my colleague Hugh Hewitt's radio show the other when he was interviewing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman from Minnesota.   It was nice to hear Sen. Coleman's apparent disdain for the idiotic, meaningless, non-binding Senate resolution complaining about the President's troop surge plan.  In fact, here's what Sen. Coleman said to Hugh:

[Bottom line is I voted against the resolution that I think is…I’m going to be very blunt…is a pull-out resolution. This isn’t an abandon Iraq resolution. The words don’t exactly say that, but I listened to John Murtha testify, and I listened to the reaction of my colleagues across the aisle, that’s their position. They talk about redeployment, and redeployment really means get out, regardless of the consequences. I have concerns about a portion of the President’s plan, I have articulated those concerns, but I’m not ready to give up on victory or success in Iraq, Hugh.]

Sen. Coleman was referring to his vote against the resolution in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which approved the resolution 12-9.

But when the resolution came before the full Senate vote yesterday, Coleman was the only Republican (Susan Collins of Maine isn't really a Republican, she's the textbook RINO -- Republican in Name Only) to stand with the Democrats and vote for the resolution.

So what happened, Sen. Coleman?  What made you change your mind?

Surely, Al Franken's announcement that he plans to run for your Senate seat isn't what made you cozy up to the Democrats in complaining about a troop "surge", right?    You wouldn't be that politically transparent, would you, Sen. Coleman?

I'm starting to think that there is no honor or integrity or character left in Washington -- even from normally reliable Republicans like Norm Coleman. 

It's just all a political game to these folks.

I never mind eating my words when it's appropriate to do so.   None of us who make our living espousing conservative views and opinions at a place like townhall.com or on talk radio have any reluctance to point out the liberal bias in today's news media.

So when one of the big boys at one of the big four networks does a great job in exposing the hypocrisy of a liberal Democrat like John Edwards, we should offer some kudos.

I hope every American who is struggling with the ongoing debate between Democrats and most Republicans over the war in Iraq had a chance to watch Tim Russert of NBC's 'Meet the Press' hammer the former North Carolina Senator and would-be presidential candidate Sunday morning.

Russert did a masterful job of pointing out the real challenge that an anti-war voice like Edwards has to deal with:  how to explain his support of the war, both while he was a sitting U.S. senator and as recently as October of 2004, and then completely contradicting himself (just as he gets ready to start his presidential campaign) and suddenly advocating an immediate withdrawal of thousands and thousands of troops.

John Edwards is a phony.  Tim Russert did a superb job in proving that phoniness and political opportunism on 'Meet the Press' yesterday.

Perhaps the most compelling revelation during Russert's show was showing what Barack Obama, a then-state senator in 2002, had to say about invading Iraq.  It seems that Obama is one of the only Democrats who predicted failure in Iraq as early as 2002 and he did so in eerie detail which mirrors today's anti-war voices of the Democratic Party.

As I keep saying, if the 2008 presidential election will largely be about the war, there's only one Democrat who has consistently opposed it:  Barack Obama.

That could prove to be a big problem for Hillary and John Edwards.

I have been paid to express my opinion for 29 years.   Never before have I been driven to the bathroom, becoming violently ill, over something somebody said.

Not until now.

My wife and I were enjoying a little getaway at DisneyWorld this weekend when I saw that filthy, miserable Hanoi Jane standing at a podium in front of a few thousand anti-war creeps.   

So Jane Fonda is back, eh?   Things are only going to get worse before they get better.

How long will it be before people are burning American flags again?   How soon before freaks are standing in America's airports in order to spit in the faces of returning soldiers from Iraq, like they did to returning soldiers from Viet Nam?   I wonder when Jane Fonda will pay a visit to Iraq so that she can pose with some terrorists with that big, goofy grin she sported when perched on the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun?

It really is enough to make any good American retch.

Unless we speak out against the Jane Fondas and Tim Robbins and Sean "Spiccoli" Penn of the world, we will deserve them.  Until we drown their pitiful, leftist voices out with shouts of patriotism and support, this will be our fault.

Seeing Jane Fonda Saturday was enough to make me wish the unthinkable:  it will take another terror attack on American soil in order to render these left-leaning crazies irrelevant again.  Remember how quiet they were after 9/11?   No one dared take them seriously.   It was the United States against the terrorist world, just like it should be.

It's time to stand tall, speak loudly and defend America against these enemies like Hanoi Jane.

She's back.  Are we going to let her get away with it....again????

After a couple of days in bed warding off a nasty cold, I'm ready to get back in the saddle today in a big way:  I'm scheduled to interview one of the Southern Methodist University professors who is leading a drive to block the George W. Bush Presidential Library from being located on the leafy Dallas campus.

I can't wait to speak with her.

When I do, I'm going to ask her about grace.  It's something that Methodism is all about (full disclosure:  I'm a practicing member of the United Methodist Church).   Our pastor continually preaches about the virtues and spiritual gift of God's grace.  And when I keep reading the ugly things that supposedly religious professors and Methodist instructors are saying about our commander-in-chief, I just keep wondering why they seemed to have missed that part of the sermon.

No one really disputes that President Bush is a man of deep religious conviction.  His own pastor proudly describes the president as a "good, devout Methodist."  In fact, I often wonder if the reason so many on the left seem to despite President Bush is because he proudly and boldly proclaims his Christianity.

So the concept of a group of an admittedly small, yet vocal, professors from a Methodist college in America trying to embarrass our president with such a blatant lack of grace is simply astounding.

The lady I'm going to interview on my radio show today is literally an "Associate Professor of Christian Education."     Some Christian, eh?

I can't wait.

It's good to be back to work.

I'm sitting in my radio studios fielding phone calls from people who are positively hysterical over the hand-wringing going on over the execution of a couple of Saddam's henchmen in Baghdad.

Apparently, when Barzan Ibrahim dropped through the trapdoor, his head came off.  Ibrahim was the once-feared and terrifying leader of Saddam's revolutionary court.  The two men were convicted of having numerous people murdered, including by being sent through meat grinders.

Death by meat grinder.  Boy, that sounds a lot worse than having one's head snapped off, eh?

The squeamish reaction to the recent hangings is a perfect example of the bleeding heart boobs who oppose the death penalty for anyone.   It was the same thing with Saddam's execution.  The people who opposed it, like the New York Times ("Was There A Rush To Execute Hussein?") are just anti-death penalty.

Personally, I'd rather have my head come off in a split second than dangle from a rope for a minute or more.  I'd rather feel nothing, like the guillotine once offered, than ingest gas or get shot before a firing squad.

And as so many talk show callers are pointing out, having one's head lopped off is CERTAINLY easier than being put through a meat grinder.

Death is death.  Get over yourselves, bleeding hearts....!

When I moved to the Dallas area a number of years ago, I did so for a variety of reasons.  After having lived in the New York City area for a number of years, I suppose I was ready for a somewhat calmer, slower pace.  The company that syndicates my radio show is based in the Dallas area so it would be easier to work with the sales staff and network personnel.  And most importantly, in the weeks after 9/11, our Empire State Building studios were being evacuated regularly, and it's pretty tough to do a national radio show while you're standing out on Fifth Avenue.

My wife and I like the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  There's a goodness to the people here, a real solid quality of life and standard of living, not to mention reasonable housing and cost of living expenses.

But I'm positively ashamed of my hometown in reading about the Dallas-based pizza parlor, some place called "Pizza Patron", which is now accepting Mexican pesos for payment for its pizza pies.

Oh brother.   Now we have an American pizza chain taking peso?   What's next, grocery stores allowing Mexicans to pay with pesos?   Should immigrants from Mexico be able to pay their phone bill with Mexican currency?

The insanity continues.  Companies continue to patronize and cater to Hispanics, in a desperate attempt to get their business.  I guess "Pizza Patron"s pizzas aren't good enough on their own merit, the owners have to conjure up a cheap publicity stunt in order to sell product.

Here's hoping enough people stay away from "Pizza Patron" so that they'll either re-think their idiotic pesos policy or they'll go out of business.  It's pretty unlikely that "Papa John's" or "Dominos" will be accepting pesos any time soon...

Have you heard about the case of the 9 year old girl who has been butchered surgically in order to have her growth stunted?   This is about a sick a story as you'll hear.   It basically involves a family who tragically is caring for a 9 year old girl who is severely mentally and physically disabled.  She can't sit up or care for herself and stays on a pillow that her family evidently carries around.  According to news reports, the parents, who understandably have a tough time caring for her, don't want her to grow.  If she's bigger, it will be harder for them to take care of her.     So they've subjected her to a hysterectomy, a breast tissue removal, and have had her injected with hormones in order to stunt her growth.

Listen, my heart goes out to anyone who has a loved one in such a physical or mental condition.  I can't even begin to imagine how tough it must be to face that challenge on a daily basis.   But surgeries to stunt her growth in order to keep her small, so she can be carted around by her family like a pet rock?

This is yet another attack on the culture of life in America.  Abortion, Terri Schiavo, and now this.   Absolutely dreadful.

Every time I watch Bill O'Reilly on the Fox News Channel, I'm reminded of how terrific he is.  Last night, he brilliantly compared the two huge news stories of the new year:  the death of President Gerald Ford and the hanging of Saddam Hussein. 

Bill pointed out that these two stories are a perfect illustration of the ongoing battle in our world between good and evil.  We said good-bye to a kind, decent, patriotic American President.  And we bid good riddance to a brutal, evil dictator who thought nothing of having innocent human beings slaughtered.

In a way, the deaths of Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein are a metaphor for the war on terror.  We have good, decent, freedom-loving people who completely understand why we fight.  And we have another side that only wants to tear down the Bush Administration, attack the military effort, and complain every step of the way.

Once more, O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" does a masterful job in putting difficult topics in a form and style we can all relate to.

Way to go, O'Reilly!

Boy, the execution of Angel "Daddy Death" Diaz in Florida must have really been botched badly last week, eh?   After all, it had to be pretty gruesome for Gov. Jeb Bush to order a halt to all executions for the time being.

So what was the reason for all the squeamishness?

Apparently, Angel Diaz "grimaced" as the lethal drugs were entering his system.  Oh, and his mouth "appeared" to open.

Wow.  What a nightmare.  So it took 17 minutes longer for this miserable, low-life, murdering scum to die than it usually does.  So this monster, who was described as a violence-loving creep, "appearance to grimace?"  Are you serious?   Do  you think the people he maimed and stabbed to death "grimaced" a bit?  I wonder how long it took his victims to die?

We are slowly losing our minds in this country.  A jury orders a killer to be executed.  We used to strap folks like him to Old Sparky and fry them, remember?  We've hanged people, locked them in a gas chamber, strung them up before a firing squad.  Think those poor, pitiful folks ever "grimaced" or opened their mouths a bit?

What a bunch of nonsense.  The only people griping about Angel Diaz's execution are ACLU types or people strongly opposed to the death penalty to begin with.

Murderers ought to grimace when they're being put to death.  Instead of pretending we're putting a condemned killer to sleep, or "nappy-time", let's remember that we're executing someone.  It shouldn't be pretty.

As I'm thumbing through the newspapers and browsing online to get ready for my radio show, with Fox News Channel on the TV in my office, I hear news anchor Lauren Green report that some Islamic activist group is "targeting" fellow radio host and friend Dennis Prager.  His offense?  He dared to say out loud what most Americans are thinking, that it's outrageous for incoming Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison to even consider using the Koran instead of a Bible when he takes his oath of office in January.

I'm intrigued by just what it is that this activist group means by "targeting" Dennis.  Just how, precisely, do they "target" a radio host?  During this war on terror, that's a pretty loaded word, eh?  My producer says that they want Dennis removed from the governing board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Wow.  A group of Muslims wants Dennis Prager, a Jew, removed from his leadership post with a memorial to the millions of Jews slain during WWII because he believes an incoming U.S Congressman should refrain from swearing on the Koran as he begins his U.S. post as a congressman.

You gotta hand it to some of these groups:  they have some nerve.  After all, it takes a lot of gall for a Muslim to try and dictate to a Jewish organization who they should and shouldn't have on their governing board. 

Like the thousands of illegal immigrants waving Mexican flags in the streets of America this summer demanding "rights", there seems to be no shortage of "hutzpuh" on the part of some Muslim activists in our country.

Three cheers for the power of the people!    HarperCollins heard the outrage over O.J. Simpson's planned book and pulled the plug.   It was absolutely the correct thing to do and they should be commended for it.

Furthermore, all of us who objected should be comforted   We can make a difference.  We can sign petitions, call radio shows, write letters, express outrage, and once in awhile, ever so often, the "powers-that-be" will take notice.

That's precisely what happened with this disgusting example of gross opportunism.  The people complained, the company pulled the plug.  Thank God for some common sense.

This story reminds me of what a joy it is to come to work each and every day, where i can host a national radio show, appear on Fox News Channel, and write for Townhall.com and help facilitate the kind of positive outcome that happened with this book.

News Corp's decision to cancel this entire project should motivate all of us to continue to speak out, to write letters, make phone calls, and let our voices be heard.  Remember how Wal-Mart tried to replace "Christmas" with "holiday" last year?  The people spoke (objected) and this year, "Christmas" is back in full glory at Wal-Marts all over the country.  A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said they heard the people and they fixed it.

Do you hear the people sing?

Some thoughts while shaving:    so Emmitt Smith and his partner win "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC-TV last night.   Oh brother.  I wonder if Emmitt will replace his Superbowl trophy with his "Dancing with the Stars" one?   In our household, we're huge Emmitt Smith fans.  As a legendary football player, not a guy wiggling his hips and sashaying across the stage.  Every time I saw Emmitt on a commercial or a news show dancing his fanny off, I just cringed.   I absolutely refused to watch him shake his groove thing.  Every time he danced, a piece of me, the Dallas Cowboys season ticketholder, died.  How embarrassing.  My wife,  meantime, absolutely loved it and was rooting for Emmitt all the way.   It must be a guy thing.   No man wants to watch his football hero looking like he's in a touring company production of  "Peter Pan"....Emmitt, what have you done???