Newspaper Page Text
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is ci page of opinions ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions o f the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
RO. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770) 887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tern, Lewis Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgnm Rd., Cumming. GA 30040; (770) 887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-5279
Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-4332
John Pugh
10813th St., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Charles Laughinghouse, Post 1
3550 Rosewicke Dr., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 886-7937; office, (770) 886-2010
David “A.J.” Pritchett, Post 2
4840 Chesterfield Court, Suwanee, GA 30024
(404) 392-6983: office, (770) 886-2809
John A. “Jack” Conway, Post 3
6130 Polo Club Dr., Cumming. GA 30040
(770) 886-9226; (770) 886-2807
Marcie Kreager, Post 4
9810 Kings Rd.. Gainesville, GA 30506
office, (770) 886-2806
Eddie Taylor, Post 5
4195 Morningside Dr., Cumming. GA 30041
(770) 886-2802
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Ann Crow
96 Barker Rd., Cumming. GA 30040
(770) 887-9640: acrow@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Paul Kreager
9810 Kings Rd.. Gainesville. GA 30506
(770) 889-9971; pkreager@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hill Rd.. Cumming. GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@fbrsyth.kl2.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowell
2030 Commonwealth Place, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 844-0830: rdowell@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Chairman Jeffrey Stephens
P.O. Box 169. Cumming, GA 30028
(770) 889-1470: jstephens@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
fU.S. Sen. Zeil Miller
Russell Senate Office Building. Room C-3
Washington. DC. 20510
(202) 224-3643; Fax; (202) 228-2090
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss |
1019 Longworth House Office Building L - .1
Washington. DC. 205151 . L
(202) 224-3521
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
p ’ 2437 Raybum House Office Building,
| Washington. DC. 20515
I J Gainesville: PO. Box 1015. Gainesville, GA 30503
I Gainesville, (770) 535-2592
B— Ml Washington: (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
U.S. Rep. John Linder. 7th District
1727 Longworth House Office Building.! •.
Washington. DC. 20515-1011 | <
Washington: (202) 22M272: Fax: (202) 225-4696 Q
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. David Shafer, 48th District
■ ▼ O' 109 State Capitol
t Atlanta. GA 30334
jj (404)651-7738
Sen. Casey Cagle, 49th District p xj
421 State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334 |
(404)656-6578; Fax:(404)651-6768
r— —] Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
(770)695-3127;
IT- .Office (404) 463-8055
■I
|p Zj Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District
■——■ (770) 466-1507; ■ ' * 1
Office (404) 463-1368 gk j
~ Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, Room 504
** - 18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
i (404) 656-0188, (770) 887-0400, law office
■ Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District
412 Legislative Office Building, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0137
Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, B
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325
(770) 781-9319, home
I » I
Looks IM VJE W I
SOME EAPINSLUGENCE.
W’JpN /W
Wil II ,1 Idwi ( life
4 i ptw l \ igfe-
wijß if LII I Us nk. JV V '
—— _ _ _
Why does Kerry back tyrant?
WASHINGTON When
Sen. John Kern, was interviewed
on foreign policy in Houston last
Friday by New York Times
reporters, he made news by
declaring that as president he
"would have been prepared to
send troops immediately " to save
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as presi
dent of Haiti. The newspaper pub
lished his statement Sunday, the
very day that Aristide’s Lavalas
gunmen shot more than 25 peace
ful demonstrators (five fatally)
who w ere celebrating his depar
ture. Neither Kerry nor Aristide's
other supporters in Washington
have mentioned the camage.
Why would the Dem
ocratic Party's presumptive
presidential nominee vigor
ously support a tyrant steeped
in violence and corruption?
Kerry's rationale is that the
people twice elected Aristide
(though his tainted second
election was called fraudulent
by independent international
observers). An alternative
explanation rests with
Aristide's gold-plated U.S.
connections. He is close to
Kerry 's influential friends, the
Kennedy family of Mass
achusetts, and is the uncondi
tional favorite of the Con
gressional Black Caucus.
While destitute Haiti is one
of the world's poorest coun
tries. Aristide has been profli
gate in spending millions on
U.S. lobbyists and lawyers.
Powerful American politicians
Liberals seem glad about Ashcroft’s suffering
Those oh-so-compassion
ate liberals could hardly con
tain their glee upon hearing
the news that Attorney
General John Ashcroft is suf
fering from a severe case of
gallstone pancreatitis.
"He has it coming. He is
utterly sub-human and evil.
Suffer, bastard," gloated an
Internet user on the
DemocraticUnderground.com
Web site. "(T)he world would
be better off without him."
responded another writer on the
forum. "I hope he is in the most
severe pain a human being can
suffer, and after that, I hope he
remains in constant pain with
no hope of relief." chimed in
yet another bleeding-heart
Democrat. Out in Hollywood,
comedian Bill Maher echoed
these unsparing sentiments dur
ing his HBO talk show mono
logue. speculating that Ashcroft
contracted his unimaginably
painful and potentially deadly
illness from "wiping his (exple
tive) with the Bill of Rights."
The audience roared with
laughter.
It is not the incivility of the
Ashcroft-haters that galls me. It
is the unmitigated insipidity
and apathy they display toward
what this man and his depart
ment have done to protect their
right to be free, safe and stupid.
On the day he was admitted
to the hospital last week, for
Robert 1
Novak
sit on the board of Fusion
Telecommunications
International, which Aristide
granted an exclusive conces
sion over the country’s lucra
tive long-distance market.
These favors may partially
explain the remarkable for
bearance toward the Haitian
leftist by American liberals.
In his interview declaring
for military intervention,
Kerry conceded "Aristide was
no picnic and did a lot of
things wrong." But Black
Caucus members, during a
House International Relations
Committee hearing last week
that they forced, were uncriti
cal supporters in demanding
Aristide's return. Aristide's
accusations that the U.S.
abducted him and sent him
into African exile lack sub
stantiation but have been
spread by the Black Caucus
anyway. The Bush administra
tion contributes to the libel by
having maintained a hands-off
policy toward chaos in Haiti
over the past three years.
Reports filed with the Justice
Department by registered foreign
agents reflect spending by the
Aristide government of well over
a million dollars a year, an
Michelle ’ W
Malkin Jb
■
example. Ashcroft was sched
uled to speak at a Justice
Department news conference.
He was set to announce the con
victions of three jihadists who
trained in Virginia on behalf of
the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LET), a Pakistani terrorist
group. The defendants spun
their usual "woe-is-me/Islam is
a Religion of Peace/I'm an inno
cent victim of racial profiling"
tales for their tearful relatives
and a sympathetic media. But
the Justice Department didn't
buy their stories. And neither
did U.S. District Judge Leonie
Brinkema, a Clinton appointee,
who blasted the terror cell
members' cover stories for trav
eling abroad to wage holy war
as "incredible" and "simply
implausible."
Masoud Ahmad Khan. 32,
of Gaithersburg, Md., was
convicted on eight counts:
conspiracy; conspiracy to levy
war against the United States;
providing support to the
Taliban; conspiracy to provide
support to LET; firearms con
spiracy; and three counts of
use of firearms in connection
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Friday, March 12,2004
astounding amount for such a
small country. This money' did not
produce a concerted sales effort to
attract U.S. foreign aid funds, but
it did build personal support for
Aristide. Black Caucus members
have been frequent visitors to
Hain, where they have been enter
tained lavishly.
The Kennedy family's connec
tion with Aristide goes through
former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy 11.
Both Kennedy and his mother,
Ethel, have served on the board of
advisers of the Aristide
Foundation for Democracy.
Aristide was a guest at Kennedy s
second wedding.
Kennedy also has been listed
as a board member of Fusion,
which has exclusive access to the
flood of telephone calls placed by
Haitian residents of the U.S. back
to family and friends in Haiti
every weekend. Writing in the
Boston Globe in 2001. Kennedy
said: "I was proud to help bring
more than Si million in private
investment from Fusion into
Haiti."
Last week's House hear
ings were demanded by Black
Caucus members. Rep. Cass
Ballenger of North Carolina,
the Republican subcommittee
chairman, as a Southern gen
tleman granted permission to
all members of Congress to
attend and speak. Lasting
more than five hours, the hear
ing was an anti-Bush. pro-
Aristide pep rally. Rep.
Maxine Waters of California.
with a crime of violence.
Former Marine Seifullah
Chapman. 32, of Alexandria.
Va.. was convicted of conspir
ing to provide material sup
port to LET; conspiracy;
firearms conspiracy; posses
sion of firearms in connection
with a crime of violence; and
use of a firearm in connection
with a crime of violence.
And Hammad Abdur-
Raheem, 35, of Falls Church,
Va.. was convicted of conspir
ing to provide material sup
port to LET; conspiracy; and
firearms conspiracy.
(By the way, where are all
the gun controllers to praise
the Justice Department for
pursuing strict enforcement of
their laws? Hmm? They must
be out to lunch with all the
moderate Muslim leaders get
ting ready to praise Ashcroft
for going after fanatical
extremists who give their reli
gion a bad name. Right?)
The media elite belittled
the Ashcroft prosecutions of
these Islamists because they
practiced on a paintball field.
But brushing off these war
riors as "paintball terrorists"
would be as irresponsible as
shrugging off the Sept. 11
hijackers as "video game ter
rorists" because they trained
for their murderous missions
on flight simulator software.
"For the defendants and their
a regular visitor to Haiti to
confer with Aristide prior to
his departure, repeated his
claims of being kidnapped at
gunpoint under U.S. auspices.
The White House indicated to
Capitol Hill its displeasure with
the International Relations
Committee for letting itself
become an open forum for Bush
bashing. For their part, congres
sional Republicans complained
that Assistant Secretary of State
Roger Noriega put on a woefully
weak performance under badger
ing by Black Caucus members
(with Rep. Donald Payne of New
Jersey claiming that the U.S. gov
ernment orchestrated Aristide's
collapse).
Noriega responded with
nuanced answers. Republican
Rep. Jerry Weller of Illinois,
not known for incendiary
statements, was more effective
than the State Department rep
resentative at the hearing in
describing Jean-Bertrand
Aristide: "He was a brutal dic
tator. allowing children to be
sold into slave labor, and if we
hadn’t gone in there. Mr.
Aristide would be dead
because the people would
have killed him." Weller
describes a situation that the
Black Caucus overlooks. John
Kerry minimizes and George
W. Bush ignored for three
years.
Robert Novak is a nationally
syndicated columnist and a televi
sion commentator.
co-conspirators,” Judge Brin
kema wrote, "these games
were viewed as not just an
opportunity for outdoor exer
cise. fellowship and an oppor
tunity to improve self-defense
skills, but also as preparation
for real combat."
Every single time Ashcroft
has brought charges against
jihadists in America, he has
been mocked and vilified.
Every single time he has tight
ened the screws on Islamic ter
ror recruitment and financing,
he has been lambasted as a
racist. Every single time they
have been arrested, the defen
dants have proclaimed their
absolute innocence. And each
time Ashcroft has won convic
tions against them neutraliz
ing terror cells in Lackawanna,
N.Y., Portland, Detroit, and
now northern Virginia he
has been met with more con
demnation and derision.
John Ashcroft has nobly
taken on the grueling job of
protecting a nation of ingrates
who take joy in his illness
while terrorists continue to
plot to kill us all. God bless
you, Attorney General, and get
well soon. America, land of
the free and home of the
thankless, needs you back.
Michelle Malkin is a
nationally syndicated colum
nist. Her e-mail address is
malkin @ comcast. net.
PAGE 11A