Newspaper Page Text
4A
♦ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2006
Houston Daily .Ijmmuxl
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Now lor Northside
Last week work began to add a red light
- along with some other upgrades - at
the intersection of Perimeter Drive
and Macon Road in Perry.
Or at least that’s what was reported as the
only work that appears to be going on cur
rently is at the intersection one street up at
Park Avenue.
That, the red light at Perimeter, is sure
to be a welcome addition - especially for
anybody trying to take a shortcut from the
business area of Sam Nunn Boulevard (i.e.
Wal-Mart) and then turn left.
That solved, the question might next be:
What to do with Northside Drive (also in
Perry and off
Macon Road
but just a few
streets south).
It’sjustashort
road but for
anybody who’s
ever tried to
turn left onto
Washington
Street or left
onto Macon
Road knows,
late in the
day it can be
a major head
ache.
You could put a red light at the west end
- the intersection with Washington Street
- and solve some congestion, while at the
same time not raising tempers of the resi
dents too much, but the other end is not
such an easy solution.
That’s because there’s already a red light
no more than 25 yards away that intersects
with Swift Street. Swift Street is a heavily
traveled road so you can’t very well mess
with it.
It wouldn’t be totally out of the ordinary
to put a red light at the intersection of
Northside and Macon - despite the short
distance between it and the one at Swift
- and then add a sign: Do not block inter
section.
There are at least three just like that in
Warner Robins - one on Russell Parkway
, one on Moody Road and another on
Watson.
To get caught in-between one is a bit of
a nuisance but you can bet having to wait
and wait and wait for a turn is a whole lot
worse.
Letters to toe Emtor
Impact fees here and now
Having had occasion to agree with Foy Evans’ column
last week, I write to disagree with some aspects of his
column entitled “The pros and cons of Impact Fees”.
He seems to believe that Impact Fees are far off
into the future for middle Georgia. That is not the
case. Currently, Peach County is considering imple
mentation of Impact Fees and the city of Perry has
decided to implement Impact Fees to defray recre
ation and park costs and construction of fire stations.
Impact fees are the only fair way to pay the expenditures
necessary to provide infrastructure required to meet the
demands caused by our county’s growth, that is com
pletely out of control.
To demand that county residents underwrite the costs
of the developer is, to my mind, immoral. All
See IMPACT, page jC
Put all options on table
OPEC has recently announced a cut in oil production
in order to increase prices. Although the politicians, espe
cially the Democrats, do not wish to discuss the issues;
this is one issue problem that will not go away by ignor
ing it. We should not be fooled because of a temporary
reduction of gasoline prices.
However, the Democrats, Pelosi and Jim Marshall did
bless us with a vote on a bill to allow for more off shore oil
drilling, which was certainly overdue. Unfortunately, a
piece-meal approach to oil exploration and the “business
as usual” approach to oil marketing will not to work to
the Nation’s best advantage.
All public oil resources must be on the table, such as
the Alaskan ANWR, continental oil shale on Federal land,
as well as the off shore exploration and production.
Next, we need at least two or three dozen more oil
refineries, perhaps on Federal land; with exemption from
all environmental laws except pollution control. We need
this oil industry growth despite the environmentalist’s
See OIL, page $C
That, the red light at
Perimeter, is sure
to be a welcome
addition - especially for
anybody trying to take
a shortcut from the
business area of Sam
Nunn Boulevard (i.e.
Wal-Mart) and then turn
left.
America headed toward very 'kinky' election
It could only make sense in this
political season, when an llth-hour
revelation of sexually explicit e
mails and text messages exchanged
between a congressman and current or
past pages in the U.S. House suddenly
grabbed all the headlines.
How fitting that Texas - known for
its wild politics - offers an indepen
dent candidate for governor named
“Kinky.” Moreover, he is running neck
and-neck with the Democratic nominee
and not too far behind the incumbent
Republican.
Not many political strategists see
a particular potential fallout from
the Mark Foley scandal, in which
the Florida congressman apparently
made inappropriate contact on the
Internet with at least one House of
Representatives page. Pundits may not
see it yet, but “kinky” may more than
ever be the way voters are feeling this
fall, and they may express themselves
by voting for some third-party candi
dates.
First, let’s clear up one thing on
Foley. Yes, it was Democratic opera
tives who were shopping around the
Foley e-mail story.
I know because earlier this year the
editor of our Insider Advantage online
political newsletter in Florida called
our Atlanta office. He had been offered
the opportunity to learn details about
damaging e-mails between Foley and
house pages. The call came from a
credible source with a record of infor
mation accuracy.
Why did we not take him up on the
offer? Because our websites, promi
nently including the Southern Political
Report and various state-based sub
scription newsletters, are devoted to
advanced analysis, polling and strategy
for government and political affairs
clients. And that kind of information
only.
When we were founded seven years
ago, we committed to leave personal or
scandalous stories to other news out
lets better equipped and more inclined
to use them.
“I didn't know getting a flu shot could make your feet hurt!"
I r?LU shots'^
Celebrate Columbus Day proudly
Monday was Columbus Day, or at
least the federal government’s
idea of when to observe the
second most important day in October.
(The first, of course, is Halloween,
which isn’t actually a holiday by gov
ernment standards but is a major
event for a Couple of hundred mil
lion Americans who hold it in high
regard.)
The real Columbus Day, as you
remember from grade school, is Oct.
12, which is the day the navigator,
after having sailed the ocean blue in
1492, discovered America.
Put your hands down; I’m not
acknowledging incensed outcries
from anyone who says, “How could
Columbus have discovered America
when it was already inhabited?” It is
such remarks that have scared decent,
holiday-hungry Americans away from
•celebrating Columbus Day in recent
years, making them afraid to think a
European might have been responsible
for opening up the New World to trade,
immigration and colonization by the
ancestors of today’s taxpayers, civil
servants and soccer moms.
That’s why we have made Columbus
Day the invisible holiday. The last time
we made a big deal out of it, we still
thought the Crusades were fun, Custer
was a good soldier and the Pilgrims
OPINION
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
So the Democrats pushed a story. A
big story. Republicans can cry foul all
they want, but the fact is, the result
of it has been more than even the
Democrats could have hoped for. Not
only have polling numbers in tight, cru
cial congressional elections plummeted
for the Republicans, but now their top
congressional leadership is bickering
in response to a call from the con
servative newspaper The Washington
Times, and others, for House Speaker
Dennis Hastert of Illinois to resign
because he had supposedly covered up
Mark Foley’s wrongdoings.
The only good news for the GOP was
that Bob Woodward’s new book, “State
of Denial,” has been put on the back
burner by the Foley news.
Woodward’s book, purported to be
strictly nonfiction, details the actions
of what Woodward says was a seem
ingly inept and overconfident Donald
Rumsfeld and others as they blindly
stumbled toward catastrophe in Iraq.
It stretches believability that the
Republicans, usually paranoid about
talking to the media, won’t pass on any
information to those of us who spent
years in the party, but will spill their
guts to Bob Woodward.
Woodward’s book aside, the GOP’s
chances of holding on to majority con
trol of Congress look to be on the rocks
for sure. The constant drip, drip, drip
of Foley revelations is taking care of
that.
But again, pundits are missing the
“kinky” side of things in this election
season. In at least several states, inde
pendent candidates and Libertarians
are showing up on ballots. In some
cases, they are drawing stronger sup-
wore tall, black hats with gigantic
buckles that would make a wrestling
champ proud.
Columbus Day isn’t just the story of
an accidental discovery. It’s the story
of a dogged Italian who asked the
king of Portugal for help in financing
his voyage for a better trade route to
India, was rejected, then turned to
Spain. Hundreds of years before the
“European Union, Columbus had his
passport stamped in every port.
You know the rest of the story, or at
least the version from our textbooks,
which, like most history lessons, is sort
of true. I won’t repeat it here; if you’re
off today, go look it up.
By the way, if you live in Canada
and have a really, really good newspa
per deliverer, you are probably read
ing this at home today because you
are observing a holiday of your own:
Thanksgiving Day.
It’s difficult for us Americans - yes,
'R My-** m
llpi a 3
Glynn
Moore
Columnist
Morris News Service
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
port at this stage in the election cycle
than they traditionally do.
Kinky Friedman is one of them, and
one of a kind. He’s running for gover
nor of Texas. Once the leader of a band
called the Texas Jewboys, the irrever
ent country singer is polling statisti
cally even with Democratic nominee
Chris Bell and only nine points behind
the Republican Gov. Rick Perry.
Friedman’B campaign slogan: “Why
Not?” His support base has grown
with the endorsement and support
of Jesse Ventura, the former profes
sional wrestler who became governor
of Minnesota.
Will Friedman win? Kinkier things
have happened. Even if he doesn’t,
he’s a sign of what’s happening all
over. In percentages slightly or greatly
higher than history would suggest,
Libertarians and other parties are win
ning the support of voters.
Usually these “extra” candidates get
almost no support this far out from
elections, and then end up with no
more than two or three percent of the
vote. As concern among conservatives
grows about Republican leadership in
Washington, support for Libertarians
and others may only increase.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if a series of
political bombs designed by Democrats
to boost their election chances instead
significantly boosted support for
Independents or Libertarians? The end
effect might be the same - electing
a Democratic Congress. Then again,
maybe there’s a little kinkiness in the
electorate this year.
Matt Towery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a for
mer Georgia state representative, the
author of several books and currently
heads the polling and political informa
tion firm Insider Advantage.
To find out more about Matthew
Towery and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and car
toonists, visit the Creators Syndicate
Web site at www.creators.com.
I know you Canadians are Americans,
too, but that’s the way it goes, eh?
- to understand, why Canada observes
Thanksgiving weeks before we do. In
fact, most of us didn’t even know that
you have a Thanksgiving. I realized it
only because I happen to have a wall
calendar next to my desk.
Your holiday has nothing to do with
our Thanksgiving Day, which remem
bers the big barbecue held after the
aforementioned, unbuckled Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock (although
they didn’t really; look it up).
No, your Thanksgiving Day began
in Newfoundland because an English
explorer named Martin Frobisher, like
Columbus, found one thing while look
ing for another (a northwest passage to
the Pacific).
Decades before the Pilgrims,
Frobisher declared a day of thanksgiv
ing for having survived his journey.
Nowadays, as in our part of America,
Canada’s Thanksgiving remembers
bountiful harvests of all kinds. That
reminds me of another good reason for
giving Columbus Day its due.
If the winds and seas of history had
gone a bit differently, Monday might
not have been Columbus Day at all, but
Frobisher Day. Think about it.
Reach Glynn Moore at glynn.
more@morris.com