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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
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CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
P.O. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770) 8874342
Mayor Pro-Tem, 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
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) 886-2810
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.k12.ga.us
Paul Kreager
9810 Kings Rd., Gainesville, GA 30506
(770) 889-9971; pkreager@lbrsyth.k12.ga.us
Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hill Rd., Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowell
2030 Commonwealth Place, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 844-0830; rdowell@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Chairman Jeffrey Stephens
P.O. Box 169, Cumming, GA 30028
(770) 889-1470; jstephens@forsyth.k12.ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
U.S. Sen. Zell Miller
Russell Senate Office Building, Room C-3
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643; Fax; (202) 228-2090
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss f L-
1019 Lohgworth House Office Building 205151 -
~
Washington, D.C. ^ C IN
(202) 224-3521 —I
nH U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
W " ' fiM 2437 Rayburn House Office Building,
j* Washington, D.C. 20515
/• 4 m Gainesville: P.O. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
Gainesville, (770) 535-2592
EM Washington: (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 22 5-8272
U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District I
1727 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington: (202) 2254272; Washington, Fax: D.C. (202) 20515-1011 2254696 1 \ |l
1
S T ATEJ -E GiSLATQ R S
3 Sen. Atlanta, (404)651-7738 109 State David GA Capitol Shafer, 30334 48th District
Sen. Casey Cagle, 49th District
(404) 421 State 656-6578; Capitol, (fax) Atlanta, (404) GA 651-6768 30334 | H
fp g a p 1 - '' j Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
B *1 1 (770)695-3127;
mm . Office (404) 463-8055 —|
—
Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District |J
(770) 466-1507;
Office (404)463-1368
Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
flP** Legislative Office Building, Room 504
■%>* 18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
- J (404) 656-0188, (770) 887-0400, law office
- Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District
i 412 Legislative Office Building, Atlanta GA 30334
N (404)656-0137
Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative Office Building,
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325
(770) 781-9319, home
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Talk radio feels group’s wrath
The Council on American
Islamic Relations won't con¬
demn Muslim fanatics, but it
has declared war on outspoken
Americans who will.
CAIR, which calls itself
"America's largest Islamic civil
liberties group," has lately
focused its wrath on conserva¬
tive radio talk show hosts. A
new report by the group
released this week attempts to
tie talk radio to a dubious
"sharp jump" in (self-reported)
"Islamophobic hate crimes" in
the United States. CAIR fights
dirty — fabricating quotes, tak¬
ing comments out of context,
indulging in the cult of victi¬
mology and exploiting a
gullibly sympathetic press. By
manufacturing an anti-Muslim
hate epidemic that doesn't exist,
CAIR obfuscates its own suspi¬
cious role in fomenting anti
American extremism.
The most recent target of
CAIR's campaign to stifle crit¬
ics of radical Islam is Boston
based radio talk show veteran
Jay Severin. On April 23,
CAIR issued a press release
headlined: "Boston Radio Host
Says Kill All Muslims; Islamic
Civil Rights Group Calls for
Host's Termination." On April
25, the Boston Globe parroted
the charges in a story that quot¬
ed CAIR spokeswoman Rabiah
Ahmed accusing Severin of
saying on his show, "I've got an
idea, let’s kill all Muslims."
Republicans in Congress seek to halt deficits
WASHINGTON A
specter is haunting the House
of Representatives — the
specter of reforming the
flawed budget process. Rep.
Paul Ryan, a 34-year-old
third-term Republican from
Janesville, Wise., is advocat¬
ing an entirely new congres¬
sional system intended to put
a serious lid on runaway fed¬
eral spending. The collateral
damage from this effort would
emasculate the Cardinals, the
mighty House Appropriations
subcommittee chairmen.
The appropriators will not
easily relinquish their iron
grip on spending, but Ryan
cannot be written off as a
mere junior troublemaker. He
has more than half of the 227
Republican congressmen
behind him, who sooner or
later will demand action on
the floor. They reflect the
growing discomfort inside the
congressional GOP over mas¬
sive federal budget deficits.
The budget process is one
of the largely overlooked
scandals in American govern¬
ment. The Budget and Im¬
poundment Control Act.
passed in 1974 as part of the
post-Watergate reforms, has
failed to control. That failure
has been ignored by both
Republicans and Democrats,
even in the 10 years since
Republicans gained control of
Congress. Never before have
A
Michelle
Malkin
v
COLUMNIST m ,
Just one teensy problem
with the story. It wasn't true.
On April 27, the Globe was
forced to publish a correction
admitting that Severin never
said "kill all Muslims." CAIR.
however, has refused to admit
the fabrication and continues to
call for Severin's termination.
In Washington, D.C., CAIR
took aim at local talk show host
and JewishWorldReview.com
columnist Michael Graham for
making an "implicit" call for
violence against all Muslims
and for advocating common
sense security profiling.
Singling Graham out for criti¬
cism. CAIR announced a new
initiative "designed to counter
anti-Muslim hate on radio talk
shows" called "Hate Hurts
America. Like Severin,
Graham refused to be intimi¬
dated.
"What CAIR does is try to
portray all criticism of all
Muslims everywhere as big¬
otry," Graham responded.
"They singled me out because
I said on the air (and have said
in print as well) that Islam is a
uniquely dangerous religion,
that the religion itself needs a
Robert 5*
Novak
the Appropriators been less
controlled as they pack their
bills with pork earmarked to
individual needs of lawmak
ers.
It has been noted in the
Republican cloakrooms that
Ryan has not been his usual
optimistic self lately, but has
been voicing concerns about
the deepening fiscal hole,
Ryan, a former speechwriter
for Jack Kemp, is the purest of
supply-siders but does not
share Kemp's disinterest in
balanced budgets. Along with
other conservatives, he wor
ries about the present flawed
process leading to tax increas
es rather than spending cuts.
On Feb. 9, Ryan intro
duced the Family Budget
Protection Act (a total rewrite
of the 1974 act despite its
corny nomenclature) as a
major project of the Repub
lican Study Committee. His
co-sponsors are two freshman
congressmen: Jeb Hensarling
of Texas and Chris Chocola of
Indiana.
The lack of seniority by its
sponsors belies the bill's sup
port by more than a hundred
House members, One member
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Friday, May 7, 2004
reformation much like those
experienced by Catholicism
and Mormonism, and that the
one distinguishing attribute of
'moderate' Muslims is their
reluctance to publicly criticize
the actions of the Islamo-fas
cist extremists who continue
to spread terror. Now, you
might agree with me or you
might disagree with me, but
this is hardly bigotry. 'Stating
the obvious' is a more apt
description. But any criticism
from an infidel like yours
truly is unbearable to the folks
at CAIR, and so they've
launched their attack."
National radio personali¬
ties Paul Harvey and Dr.
Laura have also come under
fire for expressing opinions
about Islam and calling on
Muslims to dissociate them¬
selves from terrorists. Harvey
caved in to CAIR's pressure
after members of the group
besieged advertisers with
threats and complaints
because the veteran broadcast¬
er alluded to Islam as "a reli¬
gion which encourages
killing." The ever-feisty Dr.
Laura stood her ground, refus¬
ing to apologize for advising a
mother not to let her daughter
attend a field trip to a local
mosque unless it was "one
that has done its best to rout
out terrorists in its midst."
CAIR attacks the "hate
filled rhetoric" of conservative
of the House Republican lead¬
ership, Conference Chairman
Christopher Cox of California,
has signed on. Another 30 or so
Republicans are backing a less
sweeping budget reform spon¬
sored by moderate Reps. Mark
Kirk of Illinois and Michael
Castle of Delaware. That adds
up to a solid majority inside the
Republican conference.
Ryan's bill would set rigid
spending caps, permitting
growth only to the extent of
inflation. It would allow
money saved by pork-elimina
tion to come out of the federal
budget altogether — a change
from the current practice
under which killing $50 mil
lion for the infamous indoor
rain forest in Coralville, Iowa,
for example, would merely
transfer that money to other
accounts for appropriators to
spend. The elimination of
"baseline budgeting" would
end the ridiculous practice of
describing reductions in
increased spending as spend
ingcuts.
Although the most impor
tant element of this reform
sounds legalistic, the budget
resolution would have the
force of law for the first time,
This is a dagger aimed straight
ut the heart of the Cardinals.
These powerful chairmen of
Appropriations subcommittees
could no longer take the House
floor near the end of the ses-
PAGE 11A
talk show hosts, but as Middle
East scholars Daniel Pipes,
Robert Spencer and others
have amply demonstrated,
several of the group’s past and
present leaders have refused to
criticize the hate-filled rheto
nc and bloody acts of vio¬
lence — of terrorist organiza¬
tions such as Hamas and
Hezbollah. Three former
CAIR officials have been
indicted on charges of terror¬
ism, money laundering or
fraud. Most recently, Ismail
Royer a former CAIR
"communications specialist"
w'ho "wrote investigative
pieces on anti-Muslim organi¬
zations was sentenced to
20 years in prison for
weapons convictions related
to his participation in a net¬
work of militant jihadists cen¬
tered in Northern Virginia.
CAIR publicity hounds
remain uncharacteristically
silent about Royer's convic¬
tion. Instead, they fulminate
about the civil rights of
Muslims being violated when¬
ever someone offers even the
mildest public dissent from
Religion of Peace propaganda.
These people won’t rest until
they have achieved the A1
Jazeera-fication of America's
airwaves.
Michelle Malkin is a
nationally syndicated colum¬
nist. Her e-mail address is
malkin @ comcast.net.
sion and cavalierly ignore ear¬
marked spending that violates
the budget resolution. They
would be disobeying the law's
requirements and would need a
two-thirds vote in both cham¬
bers to override them.
Rep. Jim Nussle of Iowa,
the House Budget Committee
chairman, is a reformer at
heart but is preoccupied now
with the annual rococo quest
for a budget resolution. Under
the present budget system, a
handful of apostate Repub¬
lican senators may combine
with nearly all Democrats to
effectively block continuation
of President Bush's tax cuts.
Instead of controlling spend¬
ing, the budget process is now
subverted to force higher taxes
that would permit higher
spending.
Paul Ryan's bill would not
be considered by the Senate
this year even if it cleared the
House, but he and his fellow
House conservatives have
long-range goals. The specter
of budget reform, which
makes appropriators quake at
the knees, extends beyond the
2004 election. Sooner or later,
the Republican leadership will
have to determine whether
they are willing to put a lid on
federal spending to save the
Bush tux cuts.
Robert Novak is a nation¬
ally syndicated columnist and
a television commentator.
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