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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, Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Drive, Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 8874332
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim Road, Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Drive, Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-5279
Lewis Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Drive, Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3019
John Pugh
10813th St., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3342
. ■ COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Chairman Charles Laughinghouse, Post 1
3550 Rosewicke Drive, Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 886-7937; office, (770) 886-2810; cell, (770) 318-3277
dlaughinghouse@forsythco.com
Brian Tam, Post 2
4410 Dorset Lane, Suwanee, GA 30024
(404) 392-6983; office, (678) 513-5882; brtam@forsythco.com
Secretary Jim Harrell, Post 3
(678) 513-5883; fax, (770) 781 -2199
jwhaiTell@forsythco.com
Vice Chairman David Richard, Post 4
8540 Meadow Grove Lane, Gainesville, GA 30506
(678) 513-5884; dwrichard@forsythco.com
Linda Ledbetter, Post 5
206 Mountain Brook Drive, Cumming, GA 30040
(678) 513-5885; home, (770) 887-5709
lkledbetter@forsythco.com
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Vice Chairperson Ann Crow — District 1
320 Dahlonega St., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 490-6316; acrow@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Tom Cleveland — District 3
5225 Millsford Court, Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 844-9901; tcleveland @forsyth.k12.ga.us
Chairperson Nancy Roche—District 5
7840 Chestnut Hill Road, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Ronnie Pinson — District 4
8310 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, GA 30506
(770) 887-9808; rpinson@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Mike Dudgeon — District 2
10075 Normandy Lane, Suwanee, GA 30024
(770) 781-5222; mdudgeon@forsyth.k12.ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
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U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District
1026 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515-1011
■ (202) 225-4272; (770) 232-3005; Fax: (202) 225-
4696
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U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643 or (770) 661 -0999
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss
416 Russell Senate (Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3521 or (770) 763-9090
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 9th District
2133 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: RO. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
(770) 535-2592; (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. Eugene “Chip” Pearson, 51st District
The State Senate, State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
District: RO. Box 38, Dawsonville, GA 30534
(770) 886-6971 or (404) 656-9221
Sen. Jack Murphy, 27th
District
Coverdell Legislative Office Building,
Room 304
18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-7127
Rep. Tom Knox, 24th District
220-A State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-6831, or (770) 887-0400, law office
Rep. Amos Amerson, 9th District
Suite 401-G
State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334; (404) 657-8443
or (706) 864-6589
Rep. Mark Hamilton, 23rd District
Coverdell Legislative Office Building, Room 504
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-0188; local, (770) 844-6768
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Planned Parenthood’s obscene
GOP presidential candidate
John McCain sounded more
like a Democratic presidential
candidate (a recurring trend)
when he joined the Left’s oil
industry bashers a few weeks
ago.
Asked by a North Carolina
voter whether he supported a
Jimmy Carter-era windfall
profits tax, McCain responded:
“Um, I don’t like obscene prof¬
its being made anywhere —
and I’d be glad to look not just
at the windfall profits tax —
that’s not what bothers me —
but we should look at any
incentives that we are giving to
people or industries or corpora¬
tions that are distorting the
market.”
Here’s an idea for all the
hand-wringing GOP strategists
in Washington wondering what
it will take to win back disgust¬
ed economic and social conser¬
vatives: How about a
Republican presidential candi¬
date who will talk about the
tax-subsidized abortion indus¬
try the way McCain talks about
the oil industry?
In April, the annual report
for Planned Parenthood
Federation of America revealed
that the abortion giant had a
total income of $ 1.02 billion —
with reported profits of nearly
$ 115 million. Taxpayers kick in
more than $336 million worth
of government grants and con-
Hillary’s latest provocation stirs emotions
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
Just when it seemed on the last
Tuesday of the presidential pri¬
mary season that Hillary
Clinton would bow to the
inevitable, she enraged
Democrats who expected her
to start strengthening Barack
Obama as nominee.
During a conference call
between Clinton and New York
members of Congress, Rep.
Nydia Velazquez suggested
that only an Obama-Clinton
ticket could secure the
Hispanic vote. “I am open to
it,” Clinton replied, according
to several sources.
That message, promptly
made public, infuriated
Democratic activists outside
the Clinton camp. Clinton was
horning in on the climax to
Obama’s amazing political
feat. Worse yet, she was going
public on a vice presidential
bid she knows Obama does not
want to offer.
Talking about an unlikely
dream ticket further slows the
party unification process that
Clinton’s critics say comes two
months too late because of her.
She showed that her
exchange with Velazquez was
no aberration by not delivering
a concession speech Tuesday
night. Her extraordinary bid for
vice president is a new provo¬
cation by Hillary Clinton,
keeping with her repeated
insistence that she is electable
— an implication that Obama
Michelle
Malkin
; M
COLUMNIST
tracts at both the state and fed¬
eral levels. That’s a third of
Planned Parenthood’s budget.
And what market-distorting
results do we get for those gov¬
ernment incentives? In 2006
alone: 289,750 abortions.
Oil execs, tobacco execs,
banking execs, pharmaceutical
company execs and baseball
players have all been hauled up
before Congress for highly pub¬
licized whippings by crusading
lawmakers.
But the executives of
Planned Parenthood have
escaped government scrutiny
and public accountability for
their predatory behavior, danger¬
ous medical practices, deception
and deadly windfall.
In Washington, D.C., the
family of 13-year-old Shantese
Butler filed a $50 million suit
against Planned Parenthood after
a botched abortion left the girl
permanently injured and infer¬
tile. Students for Life of America
reports that Shantese was left
with “severe abdominal bleed¬
ing, severe vaginal injury, severe
injury to the cervix, significant
uterine perforation and a small
bowel tear.” In addition, parts of
Htoj
Robert 3*
Novak
f
COLUMNIST ssax
is not.
The backing for Clinton’s
attitude can be seen in my per¬
sonal encounter early Tuesday
morning. I bumped into a sep¬
tuagenarian former congress
woman who was a staunch
Clinton supporter.
She told me she awakened
that morning with the realiza¬
tion her candidate would not be
nominated. Well known as a
no-nonsense politician, now
she showed another side: “I
cried, really cried. We came so
close — so close.”
Tears were shed that night
by lower-income, less-educated
women, but also by accom¬
plished older professionals,
such as this former congress
woman. They see Clinton as
the culmination of their long
struggle, with triumph
snatched away by an untried,
untested newcomer.
They complain that, thanks
to the Democratic Party’s
baroque procedures in picking
a presidential nominee, Clinton
has been defeated though she
collected more popular votes
than Obama and won most bat¬
tleground states.
This resentment is reflected
in a nationwide private poll
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Friday, June 6, 2008
the unborn child were found
inside Shantese’s abdomen.
In Nebraska, Planned
Parenthood refused to disclose
the terms of a settlement with
another victim whose botched
abortion resulted in a perforated
uterus, massive blood loss, an
emergency hysterectomy, per¬
manent infertility, seizures, and
lifelong pain and suffering.
According to the suit
obtained by Life News, the
woman instructed the abortionist
and his assistants to stop, but
was told: "We can't stop.” The
Planned Parenthood employees
held her down to complete the
procedure.
Where's the subpoena-wield¬
ing Henry Waxman? Can Orrin
Hatch spare a moment from
investigating the New England
Patriots to probe Planned
Parenthood’s efforts tp advise
underage teens on how to cir¬
cumvent parental notification
laws to secretly obtain RU-486,
the abortion drug cocktail?
Where is the concern for the
women and children who were
mistreated by Planned
Parenthood clinics in Kansas,
where Johnson County District
Attorney Phill Kline has filed a
107-count criminal complaint
against the abortion racket, with
charges ranging from falsifying
documents to performing illegal
late-term abortions?
And where are Nancy Pelosi
month by McLaughlin
Associates, which usually
works for Republican clients
but is not connected with the
McCain campaign. Poiltaker
John McLaughlin found a 49
percent to 38 percent edge by
McCain over Obama among all
women. That is an extraordi
nary result, running counter to
a longtime Democratic advan¬
tage.
The conventional wisdom is
that women, along with other
Clinton backers, will be in the
Democratic camp once Clinton
actually concedes. But sea¬
soned operatives for both presi¬
dential candidates privately
advise that the length and
closeness of the Democratic
race make reconciliation much
more difficult because Clinton
did not leave the race once
there was no clear path to the
nomination for her.
Clinton backers who will
now declare full support of the
nominee in public take a differ¬
ent position when promised
that their names will not be
used. They frankly question
whether Obama should be
president.
I asked one Democrat, a
longtime political worker and
sometime candidate for public
office, whether he actually
would vote for Obama. He
paused, then replied: “Let me
put it this way. I would sleep
better if John McCain was
president.”
PAGE 11A
and the For The Children
brigade to investigate the shock¬
ing evidence of Planned
Parenthood’s nefariousness
exposed by undercover student
journalist Lila Rose?
Last year, Rose caught a
Planned Parenthood official
encouraging a female minor to
evade statutory rape laws in
order to obtain an abortion in
California.
In February, Rose released
undercover tapes of her discus¬
sion with an Idaho Planned
Parenthood official eager to
accept money from a racist
donor who wanted his funds ear¬
marked for aborting black
babies.
In April, she released video
of clinic officials in New Mexico
and Oklahoma willing to take
money from a blatantly racist
donor. One Planned Parenthood
staffer admits that “for whatever
reason, we’ll accept the money.”
For whatever reason,
Washington has turned a blind
bipartisan eye to this bloody,
government-funded business —
and pro-life, limited-government
conservatives in the Beltway
have gone along with subsidiz¬
ing it. “Obscene profits,”
indeed.
Michelle Malkin is author
of “Unhinged: Exposing
Liberals Gone Wild.” Her e
mail address is malkinblog
@gmail.com.
That is the atmosphere in
which Clinton has now offered
herself for the vice presidency.
One of her supporters,
prominent in Democratic poli¬
tics for nearly half a century,
saw the handwriting on the
wall several weeks ago and
approached Obama agents to
suggest a unity ticket. “There
was absolutely no interest —
none at all,” he told me. ‘They
wanted no part of it.”
Washington lawyer Lanny
Davis, an indefatigable advo¬
cate for Bill and Hillary
Clinton over the years, on his
own wrote Obama Tuesday
night urging him “to select
Sen. Clinton in recognition of
the more than 17 million
Democrats who supported her
at the polls.” Davis also talked
about a petition drive to pro¬
mote that goal. The Obama
camp’s response was not posi¬
tive.
When I asked Wednesday a
longtime friend of the Clintons
who has been neutral in the
presidential race what he
thought of her performance
Tuesday night, he declined to
answer and suggested “we
should watch what she says in
the next 40 to 48 hours.” He
surely would not welcome
more pressure, trying to force
herself onto the national ticket.
Robert D. Novak is a
nationally syndicated colum¬
nist and television commenta
tor.