The Gazette would like to recognize Nick Johnson for his work as cartoonist these past 5 years. He graduated Fillmore High School this year and also distinguished himself as Student of the Year.

Nick will be starting his studies at Cal Poly, in crop science. His cartoon, which he actually began before graduating from 8th grade, reflects his strong interest in farming.

We know Nick will continue to excel in his studies but we wish him the best of luck just the same. His cartoon, Life of Lulu (his beloved beagle) will also be missed.

Go for it Nick!

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Barack Obama continues to corrupt the country and scandalize the world with his utter incompetence. Any good work accomplished in the Middle East before he became our Commander in Chief has been scrambled, lost for at least a generation. Our enemies are greatly strengthened and our friends betrayed by his weakness and naiveté. It is maddening to watch the ISSI capture all of those Iraqi cities and towns so quickly after our warriors paid such a high price in blood and treasure for that territory - and see the Iraqi troops cut and run.

It's difficult to make sense out of the complex mess Obama and his clueless clones have made of world affairs during these past 5 years. Victor Davis Hanson explains the nature of this mess in his June 24 column, "Obama's World Disorder". It would be time well spent to Google this short historical review. It puts Obama's roll in accelerating the coming world war (my opinion) in clear perspective.

Obama is a man who simply doesn't know what he is doing - and nearly everything he is doing is wrong. In my opinion America will suffer a terrorist attack many times worse than what we sustained on 9/11. I think that our Muslim enemies will not waste the incredible vulnerability offered by Obama's presidency. Whatever will happen (nuclear, biological, radiological, or conventional attack - or a combination) will occur before the end of Obama's term. Since we are woefully unprepared (despite Homeland Security's unenlightened efforts) chaos will prevail and martial law will provoke violent resistance. DHS is a hugely funded, over staffed, over armed proto national police force. We should be reminded, as in John W. Whitehead's great June 16 column (The Rutherford Institute) that, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty.”—James Madison.

I think it's too late for Iraq. We should at least have cluster-bombed the ISIS columns retreating into Syria with so much abandoned American equipment and munitions; 40 tanks (Abrams?) Bradley fighting vehicles, hundreds of armored humves and artillary - and manpads. It should have looked like the Highway of Death in Kuwait (remember that?).

We can always pray. Obama has humbled himself before our enemies by bowing. Maybe he can humble himself on behalf of America before our God - and I don't mean Allah.