Marvin “Chick” Heileson (left) is making his second attempt in 2012 to unseat seven-term incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Simpson in Idaho's second congressional district GOP primary.

Simpson voted for the original Patriot Act and its continued extension last year, despite the fact that it allows warrantless searches in flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On foreign policy, Simpson's voting record demonstrates a belief that the President can ignore Congress and the U.S. Constitution and take the nation to war without the explicit consent of Congress. Simpson voted against the Kucinich amendment last year to require a vote of Congress before American servicemen's lives were put at risk in Libya. Simpson backed all major Republican-supported entitlement spending during his congressional tenure: 2001's No Child Left Behind Law, the 2003 Medicare prescription drug law, and the TARP bailout in 2008.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney swept presidential primaries in five northeastern states April 24, widening his delegate lead on rivals Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  Romney won GOP primary contests in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware.

President Obama has two initiatives to help victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake, a private initiative that deserves lavish praise and a new government dole that lacks constitutional authority and merits condemnation. The January 12 earthquake in Haiti has unquestionably wreaked unspeakable violence.

The so-called “Three Amigos” summit among the executive leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico in Guadalajara last weekend ended August 10 with nothing being accomplished more than a three-day photo-op and press releases containing vague platitudes.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that sources inside the U.S. Justice Department claim Attorney General Eric Holder will likely soon order a Justice Department probe of felony torture by the CIA during the Bush administration.

President Barack Obama will meet with Canadian President Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon this weekend in Guadalajara, Mexico, for a North American Leaders Summit. The host of issues they are expected to discuss this weekend includes immigration, drug violence, trucking, and the Canadian objections to the “buy American” provisions adopted by Congress earlier this year in the “stimulus” legislation.

The Obama administration is pushing to leave more troops in the Persian Gulf and to create a regional equivalent of NATO in the Arabic Middle East, according to the New York Times.

North Korea bombarded a South Korean island with a barrage of as many as 170 shells in the early morning hours of November 23. “I believe we should punish them severely to a point where they will never think of another attack,” the South Korean-based newspaper Chosunilbo quoted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as responding in a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting after the attack. Lee's remarks were more restrained on his official presidential website, where he pledged to “retaliate against any additional acts of provocation in a resolute manner.”

The publication of nearly 400,000 secret U.S. military documents about the Iraq war by the whistleblower WikiLeaks earned condemnation from governments on three continents within hours of their posting on the Internet. The U.S. government, the British defense ministry, and the Iraqi prime minister's office all quickly condemned the documents being revealed to the public.

Japanese Financial Services Minister Shozaburo Jimi confirmed that China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan had not defected to the United States, something rumored from Chinese-based sources for several days over the weekend. But the question now being asked is why the rumor started in the first place.