Newspaper Page Text
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
PO. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028: (770) 8874342
Mayor Pro-Tern, Lewis Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim 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
108 13th St., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Charles Laughinghouse, Post 1
3550 Rosewicke Dr.. Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 886-7937: office, (770) 886-2810
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@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowell
2030 Commonwealth Place. Cumming. GA 30041
(770) 844-0830: rdowell@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Chairman Jeffrey Stephens
PO. Box 169. Cumming. GA 30028
(770) 889-1470; jstephens@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
U.S. Sen. Zell 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
Washington. DC. 20515
(202)224-3521
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
2437 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington. DO. 20515
Gainesville: RO. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
Gainesville. (770) 535-2592
Washington: (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
f a
kJ
U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District
1727 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, DC. 20515-1011
Washington: (202) 2254272; Fax: (202) 225-4696
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. David Shafer, 48th District
109 State Capitol
Atlanta. GA 30334
(404) 651-7738
i sJK
Sen. Casey Cagle, 49th District
421 State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-6578; (fax) (404) 651-6768
Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
(770) 695-3127;
Office (404) 463-8055
Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District
(770) 466-1507;
Office (404)463-1368
Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, Room 504
18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-0188, (770) 887-0400, law office
r '■ i
r
<»■
Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District
412 Legislative Office Building, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0137
Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative Office Building,
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325
(770) 781-9319, home
I 1 I
a ■
Ji
fl
aft V
AV-Ffr*. V.tACcKi ———
Woodward book being distorted
WASHINGTON Did
President Bush really brief
Prince Bandar on his Iraq war
plans before he informed
Colin Powell? Did the Saudi
ambassador really cut a deal
with the Bush administration
to increase oil production in
time for the presidential elec
tion? The answer to both
questions is no. but those alle
gations entered the election
year bloodstream thanks to
distortion of Bob Woodward's
Plan of Attack."
The crack investigative
reporter's latest blockbuster
does not make those allega
tions. but still became instant
Democratic talking points,
employed by presidential can
didate John Kerry himself. In
contrast. Woodward’s revela
tion of Saudi Arabia's support
for the Iraq invasion went vir
tually unmentioned.
Judging by published
excerpts, news accounts and
even some of Woodward's
comments on television.
"Plan of Attack" is of a piece
with kiss-and-tell anti-Bush
memoirs on the best-seller
list. The full 443-page text,
however, portrays George W.
Bush as a conscientious, well
informed leader presiding
over a military team that
devised an ingenious attack
plan. Whether Bush made the
right decision to remove
Saddam Hussein by force, he
does not come across as the
Destruction of unborn not Just a nothing’
Beautiful young actress
Ashley Judd went to
Washington last weekend
wearing a crucifix and a
trendy little T-shirt that boast
ed: "THIS IS WHAT A FEMI
NIST LOOKS LIKE "
The Associated Press
snapped a photo of Ashley,
honored guest of the "March
for Women's Lives," which
has been widely disseminated
on the Internet. Pro-abortion
leaders must be ecstatic. In a
sea of angry (Hillary Rodham
Clinton), haggard (Cybill
Shepherd) and ghoulish
(Whoopi Goldberg) women
shaking their fists and waving
coat hangers, Ashley's pretty
smile helped put a softer, gen
tler and more glamorous spin
on the morbid march for
"reproductive rights."
Ashley's message to mil
lions of young American
women and girls: Opposing
the partial-birth abortion ban
is fun! Morning-after pills are
cool! Sex without conse
quences rules!
One wonders what
Ashley's mom, beloved coun
try singer Naomi Judd, must
have thought of her daughter
traipsing around with abortion
rights' militants. Naomi has
spoken eloquently for years
about how she firmly rejected
abortion as an unwed teen and
repeatedly witnessed the mira
cle of life as a labor and deliv
ery nurse. "I've seen ultra-
n ' I
BK
™ --z
Robert
Novak
■EEESSBL——
nitwit portrayed by Dem
ocrats.
Publicity about the book
has overlooked Woodward's
account of the Saudi connec
tion. While the Israeli govern
ment and its ardent American
supporters have waged a dis
information campaign against
the kingdom. Prince Bandar
bin Sultan —a senior mem
ber of the Washington diplo
matic corps actively col
laborated in preparing for
war. Early in 2003, he went to
Paris to try to bring around an
obdurate French President
Jacques Chirac.
Woodward reveals that
war planning always included
sending U.S. Special
Operations Forces through
and from Saudi Arabia into
Iraq. Last Sunday, amid the
anti-Saudi buzz inadvertently
spawned by Woodward's
book, the Associated Press
reported "Saudi Arabia secret
ly helped the United States far
more than has been acknowl
edged." U.S. and Saudi offi
cials told the AP not only
about special operations but
also that the kingdom provid
ed the U.S. with at least three
air bases on Saudi soil, plus
Michelle ' w
Malkin tL
sounds . . . you know that
those babies are real," she told
TV talk show host Sally Jesse
Raphael in 1998.
A few years later. Naomi
faced off against Sen. Barbara
Mikulski, D-Md., on ABCs
"Politically Incorrect" and
argued for an eminently rea
sonable 24-hour waiting period
before abortions. Drawing on
her nursing experience, Naomi
advocated full disclosure of the
risks and consequences of
abortion including the use
of ultrasound to give women
the "whole picture." Sen.
Mikulski growled that it was
an "insult" to think that women
didn't know what they were
doing. Naomi responded that
famous abortionist Bernard
Nathanson, co-founder of the
National Abortion Rights
Action League, only dis
avowed his profession after
witnessing abortion procedures
filmed through ultrasound
technology.
"Oh, my God in heaven,
this is a living human being in
its mother's womb," Naomi
quoted Nathanson confessing.
"(H)e was devastated at what
he had done."
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Friday, April 30,2004 -
cheap fuel.
In return. Bandar wanted
ironclad assurances that this
time the U.S. was intent on
removing Saddam Hussein.
On Jan. 11. 2003. Woodward
reports, the Saudi ambassador
met with Vice President Dick
Cheney and Defense Sec
retary Donald Rumsfeld and
was shown a war-planning
map. On Jan. 13. Bandar
received confirmation of war
plans from Bush himself,
according to the book.
At this point. Woodward
writes. National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice
advised the president that
"you need to call (Secretary
of State) Colin (Powell) in
and talk to him." He did so on
Jan. 13. a few hours after
meeting with Bandar. The
widely speculated notion in
anti-Bush circles that Bandar
was in on war plans well
before Powell is nonsense.
Woodward writes of Powell
learning in May 2002 of
detailed planning for war with
Iraq. The secretary of state's
misgivings were no secret, but
Powell knew what was going
on and clearly conveyed his
apprehensions to the presi
dent.
As for the price of oil.
Woodward quotes Bandar as
telling Bush on Feb. 24. 2003.
that the Saudis hoped to fine
tune oil prices over 10 months
to prime the economy for
Needless to say. neither
Naomi nor Dr. Nathanson was
welcomed on the dais with
Ashley. Whoopi and Cybill.
Neither was Democratic presi
dential candidate John Kerry's
wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who
committed the shocking sin of
letting the truth about abortion
slip out in a recent Newsweek
interview. The procedure, she
said, is about "stopping the
process of life ... I don't view
abortion as just a nothing."
One wonders at the candid
conversation Mrs. Heinz
Kerry might have had with
Rebecca Porter. Florida direc
tor of Operation Outcry Silent
No More, who recently
attended a Kerry campaign
event in Tampa. Fla. Porter
quietly held a sign that read,
"My abortion hurt me."
Candidate John Kerry stared
at Porter's sign while working
a handshake line, but did not
address her. Instead, a Kerry
campaign staffer grabbed the
sign and tore it to pieces.
Emulating the Democratic
Party strategy (remember, this
is the party that banned pro
life Democrat Bob Casey, the
late governor of Pennsylvania,
from speaking at its 1992 pres
idential convention), the free
speech fanatics of the Left did
their best to stifle pro-life dis
sent and voices of conscience
at last weekend's march. They
shouted down counter-protest
ers and tried to hide pro-life
PAGE 11A
2004." The Democratic cam
paign machine expanded that
into something sinister. Sen.
Kerry himself, questioning
whether there was "a deal" or
a "secret pledge," asserted
"the American people are get
ting a bad deal."
When Woodward appeared
on CNN's "Larry King Live"
April 19, Bandar made an
unsolicited telephone call to
the program. King brought up
"the story that Mr. Woodward
has about the promise to
lower the oil prices by the
election." Woodward inter
rupted: "That's not my story.
What 1 say in the book is that
the Saudis . . . hoped that oil
prices will stay low because
that's good for America's
economy." Bandar agreed: "I
think the way that Bob said it
now is accurate."
"Plan of Attack" is the end
product of massive research
and reporting, from which
many conclusions can be
drawn but not many are by
the author. In television
appearances since publica
tion. Woodward has tried not
to go beyond what is in the
book and has mostly succeed
ed. The accounts used in the
continuing defamation of both
George W. Bush and Saudi
Arabia were not written by
Bob Woodward.
Robert Novak is a nation
ally syndicated columnist and
a television commentator.
protest signs by covering them
with their profanity-laced plac
ards. The abortionistas got
unexpected help from the Bush
administration's National Park
Service, which forbade many
pro-lifers from displaying
graphic posters on adjacent
sidewalks.
Nonetheless, the truth
keeps slipping out. In Britain,
a ground-breaking documen
tary by filmmaker Julia Black
titled "My Foetus" aired last
week. Black is pro-choice, but
says she "wanted to kick-start
debate by allowing both sides
... to actually look at what an
abortion is." Her film showed
a four-week-old fetus being
vacuumed from its mother's
womb as well as images of
the broken limbs of 10, II and
21-week-old aborted children.
Pro-choice journalist
Lauren Booth described her
response to the documentary
this way: "My hand flew to
my mouth in shock. I swal
lowed. I didn't want to say it,
but the word 'murder' came to
my lips."
This is the true face of
abortion, Ashley. Multiply it
by 40 million. The mass
destruction of unborn life in
the name of feminist rights is
not "just a nothing." Go ask
your mom.
Michelle Malkin is a
nationally syndicated colum
nist. Her e-mail address is
malkin @ Comcast, net.