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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