Media bias has deep roots in Orlando

Ye out-of-town socks no doubt missed the article in today's local daily rag about the one visit Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., paid to our fair city.

That was back on 6 March 1964, when his old Morehouse College roommate Rev. Curtis Jackson invited him to speak at Shiloh Baptist Church and later at a political rally over at Tinker Field. (Jackson was running for city council at the time.)

This was 7 months after Dr. King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, and was in the midst of the herculean effort to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Yet, our local newspaper buried the story of King's visit, because it didn't suit the agenda of the editorial board.

Now, of course, the pendulum has swung wildly in the opposite direction . . .both in the print media and broadcast news.

I suppose the lesson that may be drawn from all this would be that you've got to think for yourself and refuse to be spoon-fed your beliefs.

Mitt Romney: You can't buy the truth, you can't even rent it!

It is no secret that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has been outspending Mike Huckabee by a margin of 20 to 1 in his efforts to buy the presidency by winning the Iowa caucuses.

And, rather than using all that money to tell the folks in Iowa why they should caucus FOR him, he's spending it all on spreading lies about Huckabee.

So, let's begin to set the record straight:

1. As Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee signed a bill in 1999 that doubled sentences for production and distribution of methamphetamines. In fact, they were FOUR TIMES longer than sentences imposed in Massachusetts under Romney's "leadership." Huckabee is tough on crime.

2. Arkansas' state budget did increase during Huckabee's 10+ years as governor, but that increase was less than 4%--a rate even the New York Times has acknowledged as astonishingly low.

3. Mike Huckabee actually CUT overall taxes in Arkansas. There were a few examples when court orders and a public referendum forced increases to improve education and infrastructure. But, Romney conveniently "forgets" the 94 other taxes that Huckabee cut, including: elimination of the marriage penalty, indexing for inflation, and doubling the childcare tax credit.

4. Romney actually RAISED the tax burden in Massachusetts. He did so by calling his increases "FEES" instead of "TAXES," merely a matter of semantics, perhaps. But, it cost his constituents an extra half-billion on top of what was already one of the highest rates of taxation in the country.

Romney plays fast and loose with the truth, and not just when it comes to attacking Mike Huckabee. Notice his recent gaffe, in which he claimed his father had marched alongside Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Era. What a whopper that was, and it was uncomfortable watching him try to squirm his way out of it when the media held him to account.

With everything going on in the world today, what America needs more than anything in its new president is someone they can trust. And, given Romney's pattern of lying to the folks in Iowa, I don't see how anyone could trust him in the Oval Office.

I am not alone in hoping caucus goers reject Romney's lies and, instead, choose to support the only candidate on either side of the aisle who has the executive experience to govern this country and the honesty we should demand from our leaders: Mike Huckabee.

Go, Mike, go!