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♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2006
HrWstan .ljuimtal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Letters to toe Editor
Brown website changes
I would like to take this opportunity to share some
post-election thoughts with my fellow citizens in Houston
County, and to invite all of you to visit brownonboard.
com in the upcoming weeks. Brownonboard will undergo
some changes. It will be a local knowledge seeking tool
to help folks stay informed as to what we are doing in
Houston County regarding our children’s education.
Please know this, the election is not the end of my
journey of advocacy for our children, parents, teach
ers and community. I will continue to ask the “tough
questions” and seek knowledge through the Board of
Education meetings, School Council meetings, PTSA and
PTO meetings and one of my favorites, the Georgia PTA
website.
I will share my findings with you through brownon
board.com, and I would like to encourage you to share
your thoughts with me as well. Since the election, I have
learned that some of you endured as much as three hours
of standing in line to cast your vote for me and other
key candidates who have a direct impact on our families’
quality of life in Central Georgia. Such unselfish acts
fill my entire being with a sense of camaraderie and an
overwhelming sense of community pride.
I consider it an honor to be a part of your world. Today,
I am more confident than ever that the students, parents,
teachers and neighbors in our communities are capable
of delivering feedback to the process, which ultimately
affects our children’s academic progress and outcome.
We simply need to be given the opportunity to do our
part. I would like the community to know, I will not
allow your vote/voice to be dismissed, nor will it be in
vain. We may be a system of plurality, but in America we
value autonomy as well. Thank You for your kind words,
prayers, support, and encouragement, We Will Make a
Difference! I promise!
Kathy Brown, Warner Robins
More govenment coming
Democrats are justified in celebrating their vic
tories in the national elections. However, one won
ders what they will get for their efforts. Consider
what Republican victories meant to Republicans.
Republicans generally value less government, fiscal
responsibility, lower taxes and a strong national defense.
For the past six years, they received: More government;
spending that would make a drunken Democrat proud;
and a national defense policy that includes the refusal to
protect our nation’s borders and the refusal to enforce
our immigration laws. Excuse me, but wouldn’t the
failure of a President to enforce our nation’s laws be an
impeachable offense? (Sorry to mention that, but I felt I
could get away with it as I am considered a Republican).
Democrats generally love to expand government, support
raising the minimum wage, want a nationalized health
care system to insure all citizens, and job protections.
Let’s see what they get when their party is in power.
For the first two years of the Clinton administration
they owned both houses of congress and at the begin
ning of those two years 43 million Americans were
without healthcare. After those two years, 43 million
Americans were without healthcare. Later, they got
welfare reform that took millions off the public dole;
they got GATT and the WTO which escalated the
export of American manufacturing jobs overseas. Does
it sound like Democrats received what they wanted?
In the final analysis, what a party espouses as its guiding
principles and what it actually accomplishes are two entire
ly different things. And, after awhile in office, the incum
bents forget any allegiance to party values and remember
only your name, address and phone number for fundrais
ing purposes. Public service seems to be very addictive.
In the final analysis, term limits gives meaning to public
service. But, don’t hold your breath waiting for office
holders voting to end their grasp on your wallets and
purses, you’ll pass out.
David E. Wittenberg, Kathleen
Out of the wilderness
After 12 years in the wilderness, the Democratic party
is going to have a chance to make America a better place
for all! This means tax breaks for the middle class and
our poorest citizens and the end of huge tax subsidies
for our richest one per cent and our oil companies.
Our national parks and our environment will be safer.
Our air will become cleaner. Detroit will build cars that
get more miles per gallon and are safer to drive. Pentagon
waste will no longer prevail. The Bill of Rights will be
enforced and all Americans will feel better about them
selves. Lobbyists will no longer rule over Congress. The
list is endless!
Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins
HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS
We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters
should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s
name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in
The Daily Journal will appear with the writer’s name and
hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The news
paper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons
of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are
asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week.
We cannot guarantee that a letter will be printed on a specific
date.
The Daily Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the
editor are published in the order they are received as space
permits.
There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail
it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Daily
Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at
1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday.
Belvidere favors Republicans
BELVIDERE, N.C. - Republicans
took a beating here in North
Carolina last Tuesday in a
state where they have been making
big inroads. Not this time. They were
almost wiped out.
But here in Belvidere in Perquimans
County things are different. My nephew
is active in Republican politics, a coun
ty that stands out like a sore thumb.
Though a small county, Republicans
did all right.
Unlike Georgia, where Republicans
have practically taken over state gov
ernment, North Carolina is showing
signs of being a Democratic bastion.
So much for politics. I am in a small
community, somewhat isolated, and
I’ll have to return home to learn what
really happened Tuesday. Folks up here
just aren’t interested in what goes on
in Middle Georgia, so information from
home is scarce.
Imagine being in a area where your
cell phone can pick up a signal only
once in a while and you can’t remem
ber your password to get into Cox.net
to receive your e-mail.
■ ■■
Cotton is king once again up here.
It used to be peanuts, but the federal
government’s actions concerning pea
nut allotments changed the dynamics
of farming here. Now you see field
after field of cotton, some of it already
picked, some of it waiting for the cot
ton picking machine to come along.
"...I know just how you feel,"
,jjk
! Sp^ w W m 'Wt
Bush's real plan lor dealing with Iraq
A mid the debris of the Republicans’
/\ loss of Congress and the second-
political explosion of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resigna
tion, there is other, perhaps even big
ger news.
Not to understate the obvious: As
President Bush put it in his Texas
vernacular, the Democrats put a
“thumpin’” on the GOP in Tuesday’s
midterm elections.
But reporters quizzing the president
on Wednesday about the election results
and about Rumsfeld - Had Bush been
untruthful when he said recently that
Rumsfeld was going to stay? - seemed
to be missing the broader, deeper point
at which the president was hinting.
It’s an open secret among politi
cal in-the-knows that those closest to
former President George H. W. Bush
- and perhaps the elder Bush himself
- are getting more and more disturbed
about Iraq.
They weren’t for going there in the
first place. Now their urgency has
intensified. They believe “staying
the course” is a course of destruc
tion for the current President Bush,
his Republican Party and the nation.
These behind-the-scenes actors can no
longer contain their instincts to pro
tect all three.
Recent media reports have brought
to light fresh concerns about the White
House and Iraq by James Baker, the
elder Bush’s top confidante. Baker and
former Congressman Lee Hamilton are
spearheading a study group tasked
with finding realistic, expedited strate
gies for getting out of Iraq.
It’s painfully clear that whatever
recommendations they conjure will be
warmly received at the White House.
President Bush several times refer
enced the group’s work at his post-elec
tion press conference.
Another telling appointment is that
OPINION
This is the first time cotton in some
fields has been picked by machine.
We are in a fertile agricultural
area close to Albemarle Sound. The
Perquimans River sort of wraps itself
around the county seat of Hertford and
where in staying backs up to the river.
I am staying in a beautiful old home
that was built in 1860. There are other
homes in the area dating back to the
1800 s, including one on which a sub
stantial sum of money has been spent
restoring it and turning it into a fine
restaurant.A restaurant way out here
in the country, in a village of a few
hundred people? Yes. And it is doing
well, which reinforces the observation
that if you build a better mousetrap
they will come.
It is so different here than at home I
have trouble absorbing it.
There is one gas station/store, which
proudly calls itself a super market.
To the few hundred people living
within driving range it might as well
be a super market, because it provides
them with essentials they otherwise
would have to travel about 10 miles
to get.
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
of Bob Gates as the new Secretary of
Defense. He’s known in Washington
circles as a pragmatist who’s unlikely
to be blinded by the idea that current
strategy in Iraq is unalterable.
Gates is president of Texas A&M
University, where George H. W. Bush’s
library is located. Like the former pres
ident, Gates once headed up the CIA.
So all the evidence points to a “higher
power” that has now stuck its substan
tial nose into the affairs of the U.S.
Departments of State and Defense.
Look for it to provide not only guid
ance, but political cover for what’s
going to be more than just a tactical
adjustment to the U.S. approach in
Iraq.
This won’t mean abandoning the
region.
It can’t. The chaos that would fol
low in Iraq and in the Middle East
would raise a stench that would even
tually drift across the ocean and find
us. Terrorists would launch new and
improved destructive capabilities if left
in possession of the desert field.
What it will likely mean is a redraw
ing of strategy to concentrate on forcing
the reluctant Iraqi government to gov
ern, and on curtailing our involvement
enough to signal Iraqis and Americans
that our presence there isn’t open
ended.
Did President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld
and others have blinders on when
shown the public opinion polls that
indicated the Republicans were about
Foy
Evans
Columnist
loyevansl9@cox.net
JL
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
■ ■■
Today I learned that a beautiful,
exclusive gated community of expen
sive homes has been developed on
Albemarle Sound in what I would have
believed to be a most improbable place.
The homes are large and expensive.
Many of them look out over Albemarle
Sound. Others surround a beautiful
golf course. In an isolated area, miles
from shopping and other amenities, it
is nourishing and is having a big impact
on the makeup of the population in the
county, which many contribute to the
fact the county is leaning Republican
in some races. I find myself wondering
where people come from and why they
will settle, even in such an outstanding
development. It probably goes back to
the fact that wherever there is water
people will pay high prices to be on it
or near it.
Back in Georgia, for example, look
at land values on Lake Oconee, Lake
Sinclair and Lake Blackshear. The lure
of water seems to be overwhelming. It
certainly seduces people into reaching
into their pockets and turning loose of
money for homes they often probably
would not want to live in back home.
■ ■■
For me, it is back home soon. It has
been an important trip, but not for
fun. It had to be important, because I
like to sleep in my own bed too much
otherwise.
to get skunked in the elections? Who
knows?
What can be known is the certainty
that both President Bushes - 41 and 43
- gained before the election that some
thing with American foreign policy had
to give, and soon.
What “gave” was the roof on the
Republican House and possibly the
Senate, as well as the one over Don
Rumsfeld’s head.
What might have been gained is
the critical insight that America can
leave Iraq sooner rather than later, and
without leaving it completely naked to
face an enemy clothed by Iran.
Now the question looms: If exiting
Iraq is possible now, wasn’t it also
possible months ago, when the GOP’s
political grave hadn’t yet been dug?
As crucial as that question is, it’s
only a rhetorical one now. More to the
point, it’s now plain that the elders
of the Bush dynasty have stuck their
boots in the muck created by the cur
rent president’s commitment in Iraq.
They want to end George W Bush’s
Vietnam, not by giving in, but by
reducing America’s role and, by that,
soon ending American casualties.
Rumsfeld was about brawn. Gates is
about brains. Considering Tuesday’s
elections, a little more gray matter
might be in order to fix what’s the mat
ter in Iraq.
Matt Towery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a former
Georgia state representative, the author
of several books and currently heads the
polling and political information firm
Insider Advantage. To find out more
about Matthew Towery and read fea
tures by other Creators Syndicate writ
ers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate Web site at www.creators,
com.