"Where is Arizona!?"

I'll bet most of you remember the television show "Cheers". It had a great ensemble cast, who complimented each other with every line. It was well written and very funny. One of my favorite characters was Cliff Claven, the know-it-all mailman. Cliff had an explanation for everything. If Cliff didn't know something, he would make it up. Nearly every episode had some great example of Cliff's "knowledge" of innocuous facts, no matter what anyone asked, Cliff knew something about it. I found myself looking forward to hearing Cliff's observations from his endless "fount of knowledge". I can't imagine anything much more embarrassing than being shown as a fool in front of a group of people because you don't know what you're talking about; and everybody else does!

I remember Barack Obama, while making his run for the White House, saying he would go to all 57 states during his campaign. The press had some fun with that statement. Maybe the vote from those 7 extra states helped him out; you know that Cook County counting system. I remember Joe Biden talking about how F.D.R. went on television to tell the people about his plans to save the American economy back in the 1930s. Sorry Joe, no television back then, but, it was one of Joe's funnier gaffs.

Last week Milwaukee County Supervisor, Peggy West, made a very interesting statement. It seems Ms. West didn't know that Arizona shares a border with Mexico. She said, "...Arizona, a state way removed from the border...", in regards to Arizona's new immigration action to protect itself from illegal aliens. Wow, what a "Clavenism", this will follow her around for a while.

Let's see who Ms. West is. Ms. West received a degree in human services from Milwaukee Area Technical College (this is some endorsement for that school). She worked in human services for ten years before being elected to the Milwaukee Board of Supervisors. She was on the Milwaukee Democratic Committee executive board. She was the 2004 Hispanic Woman of the Year. It's really too bad she can't read a map of the United States.

This statement reveals something most telling about the democrat party. Even if you don't know what you're talking about, remember to follow the party line on every issue. I hope the people of Milwaukee are sufficiently embarrassed by Ms. West's lack of common knowledge about something a fifth grader should know. Perhaps those folks will think a little more about how much their prospective elected officials really know before they cast their next ballot. This practice should hold true across the entire nation. Find out what these people know, and how much of what they say is just so much "smoke up your butt". The final responsibility of having an idiot or a liar in office lies with us; we need to do our homework!