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4A ♦ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2006 Muustmt Gaily djuunutl OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans Managing Editor Editor Emeritus Cleaning up their act Did we hear someone shout “Hallelujah”? Or was it a chorus shouting, “It’s about time”? Anyway the decision by Warner Robins’ mayor and council is to begin enforcing its ordinance against littering more strin gently. There are neighborhoods in Warner Robins that look like the aftermath of a tornado. Yards are.full of junk and trash and there are junk automobiles that turn neighbor hoods into unsightly messes. In the past some citations have been given to violators of the city’s ordinance. Each incident has been handled independently of other viola tions. A cita tion would be issued. The case would be settled. The file would be closed. Another inci dent would be handled as if this was not a recurring problem. The city officials have decided to make violations cumulative. Each successive vio lation can result in stiffer penalties. This is the way it should be and the mayor and council should be commended for this deci sion. Neighborhoods should not be dragged down because some residents in the area do not have pride enough to keep their front yards free of litter and junk automobiles. They want a neighborhood they can be proud of. They deserve it. And they should be protected from people who turn it into a source of shame and dis gust. Warner Robins is on the right track. Perhaps soon some of the blighted neigh borhoods will begin to look much better. Guest Editorial Program offers useful tools for local farmers Special to the Journal The Environmental Incentives Program is a voluntary program developed to provide incen tives for farmers to address natural resource concerns on privately owned agricultural lands. EQIP provides technical and financial (cost share) assistance. The EQIP program is available to farmers actively engaged in livestock or agricultural production. Agricultural producer and land eligibility criteria must be met to participate in this program. This popular program has been used by farm ers to control erosion, to enhance irrigation system efficiency, to improve livestock waste management, and much more. This competitive program offers contracts to the highest ranking applications until available funds run out. Payments are based on preset cost list. Most participants receive 50 percent of the listed cost. However, high cost-share rates may apply if you meet the additional eligibility criteria. Participants are reimbursed after prac tice installation. All practices must be installed and maintained according to USDA specifications. Practices installed prior to approval are not eligible for cost-share. To participate in this program you must apply at your local Natural Resources Conservation Service office. The Houston County Office is located in the Houston County Government Building (old courthouse), 801 Main Street in Perry. Only those applications received by Dec. 1 will be considered for 2007 funding. For more information, contact the local NRCS office at 478-987-2280 Ext. 3. There are neighborhoods in Warner Robins that look like the aftermath of a tornado. Yards are full of junk and trash and there are junk automobiles that turn neighborhoods into unsightly messes. A look at another side of BRAC Will they kill babies in England? During my recent trip to the east ern part of North Carolina I came upon an interesting - and perhaps informative - BRAC story. Oceana Naval Air Station is located in Virginia Beach. In the last round of BRAC closings this base was tar geted. Oceana was supposed to close, with the approximately 12,000 mili tary and civilian personnel trans ferred to Cecil Field in Jacksonville. Cecil Field was one of Jacksonville Naval Air Station’s satellite fields dur ing World War 11. It was closed down some time after the end of the war. One of the reasons - possibly the main one - that the BRAC commission said that Oceana should be closed was that homeowners in the area had been complaining for years about the noise being created by fighter planes doing touch-and-go training landings. Though many of the homes were built around Oceana long after the base was located in Virginia Beach, homeowners went to court, asking for reparations for loss in value of their homes. Reopening Cecil Field in Jacksonville would require substantial expendi tures for road improvements and other infrastructure. Whether the city should spend the money needed for these improvements was put before the vot ers. Last Tuesday the voters said “no” to reopening the base and bringing 12,000 military and civilian personnel to the area. So it is back to the drawing board for Oceana. Before the BRAC commission said the base should be closed the Navy had been scouting for a place to locate a landing field for the touch-and-go * How Democrats 'clean house' Remember how Nancy Pelosi exploited the female card before the midterm elections? “Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House and a new speaker to restore civility,” she bragged. Women, she implied, do a better job than men because we presumably know how to get down on our hands and knees and scrub the mold and mil dew out of every corner and crevice of our own domiciles. But from the way she’s acting, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t know spic from span. She’s conducting Beltway business as usual, just like the good old boys she demonized throughout the campaign. (Madame Pelosi just happens to do it in an Armani aqua blue-gray pantsuit that gets thumbs-up from obsequious Washington fashion writers.) Well, a back-scratching corruptocrat in pastel is still a back-scratching cor ruptocrat. Case in point: Which con gressman is Mrs. Clean considering as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence? Impeached federal judge Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who took bribes, lied under oath and was kicked off the bench. And which colleague is she back ing for House majority leader? One of Congress’s leading dirtbags: Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. As if his extremist cut-and-run war strategery weren’t bad enough, Murtha’s (un)ethical record is enough to make even liberal apologists blush. Unfortunately, Murtha’s defeated opponent, Diana Irey, couldn’t get folks to pay enough attention to his Abscam past during the campaign. But now that he is poised to assume the speak ership and all its attendant perks and privileges, the Abscam scandal is front and center. In 1980, Murtha was an unindict ed co-conspirator in a massive brib- OPINION landings. A location that was rejected would have put the little community that I visited last week in the flight pattern. Residents of this quiet, out of the way community were very upset. Plans were put on hold. Now, I understand, another location on Albemarle Sound, close by, is being considered if Oceana is not closed. Residents of Perquimans County are not happy, since the new field can bring plenty of noise but no economic benefits. Because of Jacksonville’s rebuff of the proposal to use Cecil Field the fate of Oceana is now up in the air. Incidentally, residents who filed a lawsuit because of the noise being made by fighter planes won their case and will split S2B million dollars. ■ ■■ Here’s a story that is sure to cause an uproar. A spokesman for the Church of England has announced that the church is in favor of killing severely disabled babies at birth. It already has stirred the pot in England and you can be sure the idea will be condemned and praised in many places in this country. Disabled organizations in England are outraged and are going after the church ferociously. The church rationalizes that the cost of taking care of severely disabled babies and taking care of them for their entire lives is a financial ery probe - in which undercover FBI agents videotaped Murtha entertain ing a $50,000 bribe from agents posing as emissaries for Arab sheiks trying to enter our country illegally. Democrat defenders of Murtha scoff that the story is “old news.” (Liberal math: Abscam story from 1980 equals “old news.” Bush National Guard story from 1973 equals “new news.”) But only recently have we been reminded of Abscam transcripts that paint an even uglier picture of Murtha than the short snippet of publicly available FBI video in which Murtha turned down the bribe. As noted by The American Spectator, an old Jack Anderson column reported these little noticed parts of Murtha’s conversation with the undercover agents: “I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions at all, period. . . . After we’ve done some busi ness, well, then I might change my mind. ..." . . . “I’m going to tell you this. If anybody can do it - I’m not 8.5.-ing you fellows -1 can get it done my way. ” he boasted. “There’s no question about it.”... But the reluctant Murtha wouldn’t touch the $50,000. Here on secret vid eotape was this all-American hero, tall and dignified in a disheveled way, explaining why he wasn’t quite ready to accept the cash. “All at once,” he said, “some dumb [expletive deleted] would go start talk ing eight years from now about this v Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox net VL A liBSSMp Michelle Malkin Columnist malkin@comcast.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL burden that the country should not bear. This is a hot one, indeed. ■ ■■ What is going on? The director of the Centers for Disease Control has said that she is concerned that manufactur ers of flu vaccine will not make enough next year because so many people have not had the shots this year. But in another statement she says that of 110 million shots that have been manufac tured only 77 million have been dis tributed. Doctors and health clinics, as well as some military installations, are still waiting to receive their allotments. This sounds like a real screw up. ■ ■■ Beware: A movement is afoot to persuade the Georgia Legislature in its next session to remove the tax that presently is charged on gasoline and replace it with a general sales tax. It would raise more money and it would spread the cost to everyone, not just users of motor fuels, whose taxes now are marked for expenditure bv the highway department. ■ ■ ■ Darfur. It is a tragic situation with Muslims killing people of other reli gions by the hundreds of thousands. Pressure is being placed on the United States by European countries, as well as black activists in this country, for President Bush to send American troops there. European countries criti cized our President for going into Iraq, but now they want him to send troops to Darfur. Seems to me we have our hands full in Iraq. Let the European countries deal with this one. whole thing and say /expletive deleted], this happened. Then in order to get immunity so he doesn’t go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people. So the [5.0.8.] falls apart. ”... “You give us the banks where you want the money deposited, offered one of the bagmen. “All right,” agreed Murtha. “How much money we talking about?’’ “Well, you tell me. ” “Well, let me find out what is a rea sonable figure that will get their atten tion, ” said Murtha, “because there are a couple of banks that have really done me some favors in the past, and I’d like to put some money in." So much for restoring cleanliness and civility, eh, Nancy? Abscam isn’t Murtha’s only ethics cloud. Defense industry lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, a former colleague of Murtha’s who worked as a senior staffer on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, has reportedly funneled some $300,000 in campaign contribu tions to Murtha over the last three election cycles - either through his company, PMA, or its clients. They’ve reaped rich rewards: In 2006 alone, PMA clients received at least 60 ear marks worth some $95 million. Murtha also aided Democrat Congressman Alan Mollohan, who remains embroiled in a federal contracting corruption probe. In 1992, Bill Clinton pledged to run the most ethical administration in his tory. We know how that went. Fourteen years later, Nancy Pelosi has recycled the pledge - and is now well on her way to recycling the same old soiled legacy. A friendly woman-to-woman tip to Nancy Pelosi: To clean a house, you take the garbage out, not in. Michelle Malkin is author of “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild." Her e-mail address is writemalkinffvgmail.com