Newspaper Page Text
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
*
This is a page of opinions — ours, _your.v and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
i writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
On your payroll
CHY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
RO. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770) 887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tern, Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Drive, Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-4332
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
jwharrell@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
IWedbetter@forsythco.com
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Ann Crow—District 1
320 Dahlonega St, Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 490-6316; acrow@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Vice Chairman Tom Cleveland — District 3
5225 Millsford Court, Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 844-9901; tdeveland@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Chairwoman Nancy Roche—District 5
7840 Chestnut Hill Road, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 8894)229; nroche@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Ronnie Pinson—District 4
8310 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, GA 30506
(7/0) 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
!
far
P 73*.
i
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
Rl#;
V* /«*!
j
(flffe
U.S. Sen. Johnny isakson
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643 or (770) 661 -0999
i
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss
416 Russell Senate Office Building
(202) Washington, D.C. 20510
224-3521 or (770) 763-9090
2133 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: P.O. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
(770) 535-2592; (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. Eugene “Chip” Pearson, 51 st 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
&
I
f L
I
€ » ¢
,
1 kwJ
K
I* L
W ft
_
£ *
X>- — ■^7 "f it
n TVV □ --^ B EK£°g\IZi 0 C
« A* I
,V »• • 5>* . ’TP*'
©
1 ,v s*
Ml \I
xdF Uk dn Jhl ' Vi 11
l\ \JL
.4)7/ )l .\L .
•> • )o* . Avy
2 VA K//<. '!//>
v/4 it
is
<2? all*— Wj I
3 L
\\ How can global warming be real? Any school kid
knows summer gets shorter every year! if
What girls need to know about Pelosi
The Democratic Speaker
of the House and a co-author
hired to try to add flavor to
bland Beltway establishment
oatmeal have penned a self
help book for “America’s
daughters” to help them
“Know Your Power.”
It’s a dreadfully pedestrian
text (“As long as we recognize
the power within us, we will
continue to have choices, and
we will continue to lead.”),
surpassed in its dreadfulness
only by the timing of its publi
cation.
With congressional •
approval ratings at an all-time
low and the Democratic
Congress under fire for taking
a five-week vacation instead
of working on energy policy,
perhaps this wasn’t the best
time to send Nancy Pelosi jet
ting from coast to coast to tell
our daughters how to save the
planet, manage our house
holds and run our government,
Sorry, Nan. There aren’t
enough carbon offsets to com
pensate for this tree-wasting
dud and its accompanying
gas-guzzling, hot air-emitting
publicity tour.
Intended to inspire young
women to public service,
Pelosi’s preachy tome
(“Courage springs from the
heart.”) stands in stark con
trast to her refusal to stay and
work this summer in
Washington on a host of ener
gy bills and drilling proposals,
“Know Your Power” merely
underscores the true message
more tax cuts with a massive deficit?
Every year, Washington
spends more than it takes in.
The federal deficit is expect¬
ed to hit $482 billion next
year. So why are both presi¬
dential candidates promising
voters bigger government and
more tax cuts? They must fig
ure that if they don’t, they
lose.
I understand why John
McCain wants to make per
manent the 2001 and 2003
Bush tax cuts, and Obama
wants to retain the cuts for
families earning up to
$250,000. When those cuts
sunset after 2010, the child
tax credit will shrink, the
marriage penalty will return
and Americans will see a big
bump in their tax bills.
But why add more good
ies? Why eliminate the
income tax for seniors mak
ing less than $50,000 a year
— as Obama proposes? Why
suspend the federal gasoline
tax of 18.4 cents per gallon
over the summer as
McCain proposes?
Why more tax cuts? I
asked the Obama campaign.
Michelle
Malkin
COLUMNIST
of Pelosi’s actions (or rather,
inaction): “Do as I say, not as
I do.”
While Madame Speaker
advises America’s daughters
to “never draw a line in the
sand,” she refuses to return to
Washington and allow up-or
down votes on Republican
energy proposals,
While Madame Speaker
advises America’s daughters
“to defend your position with
facts,” she has demonstrated
blinking ignorance about the
price of gas in her own district
and the laws of supply and
demand,
While Madame Speaker
advises America’s daughters
to “treat one another in a civil
way,” she has resorted to busi
ness-as-usual demagoguery
against her ideological oppo
nents. Over the weekend,
Pelosi denounced the conser
vative revolt on the House
floor last week — an objec
tion to the Democrats’ five
week recess — as “a war
dance of the handmaidens of
the oil companies.”
While Madame Speaker
advises America’s daughters
that “you have to know what
you’re talking about, you can’t
grandstand,” she gave a pitiful
Debra
Saunders
COLUMNIST
Team Obama sent this state
ment: “President Bush’-s tax
breaks to the special interests
are what set us on the road to
bankruptcy — Sen. Obama’s
tax cut plan is a common
sense solution to our current
economic crisis,
Rather than giving addi
tional tax breaks to oil corn
panies and the richest 1 per
cent of the nation, Sen.
Obama will provide $1,000 of
tax relief to more than 95 per
cent of all Americans. Sen.
Obama will put more money
in the pockets of working
Americans, while ensuring
that our vital public programs
— such as public education
and veterans’ health care —
are fully funded.”'
OK, but that’s the wrong
approach. The Tax Policy
Center figures, over 10 years,
Obama’s tax package would
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Friday, Augimt 8,2006
performance on ABC’s “This
Week with George
Stephanopoulos when
pressed to explain her
stonewalling of up-or-down
votes on energy bills.
In classic grandstanding
style, Pelosi mischaracterized
GOP proposals as drilling
only, blustered about drilling
not having an immediate
effect on lowering gas prices,
criticized Republicans for not
divining the right parliamen¬
tary moves to get their legisla¬
tive plans through, and then
sniffed imperiously that
“they’ll have to use their
imagination as to how they
can get a vote.”
Spoken like a true leader
filled with “courage,” fueled
by “passion” for public serv¬
ice and driven by her caring
for struggling families feeling
the impact of high-energy
costs and limited access to
American oil.
Assailing Republican bills
as “diversionary,” Pelosi spent
10 painful minutes attempting
to divert a simple question:
Pelosi: This is a diversion¬
ary tactic from failed energy
policies.
Stephanopoulos: But if you
feel you have the better argu¬
ments, why not give a straight
up or down vote for drilling?
Pelosi: Because the mis¬
representation is being made
that this is going to reduce the
price at the pump. This is,
again, a decoy. It’s not a solu¬
tion.
6*
Ask me whom I trust
to cut spending, and
there's only one
answer: McCain.
99
reduce federal revenues —
read: increase the federal
deficit — by $2.8 trillion.
And that doesn’t include the
cost of his spending propos¬
als. ’
,In an interview Monday,
McCain answered that tax
cuts can stimulate the econo¬
my. His proposal to lower the
U.S. corporate tax rate from
35 percent to 25 percent is
intended not to help “the fat
cat,” but to create jobs.
Economist Gerald Prante
of the nonpartisan Tax
Foundation sees the McCain
corporate-rate cut as one of
McCain’s better ideas —
although McCain is “not real¬
ly paying” for it.
PAGE 9A
Stephanopoulos: Well, if
you’re right, why not let it be
debated out and have the
vote?
Pelosi: We have a debate
every single day on this sub¬
ject.
Except on the House'floor,
where Pelosi forbade debate
on GOP amendments and
where the lights and cameras
have been darkened to prevent
debate.
Rather than exercise her
power responsibly by calling
lawmakers back to the Capitol
to address Americans’ con¬
cerns about gas prices and
energy independence, Pelosi
has dismissed oil and gas
drilling as a “hoax” — even as
she reportedly encourages
vulnerable Democrats to
embrace drilling to bolster
their electoral prospects.
In 2006, she blamed a
Republican congress for high
gas prices. In power for 19
months, Madame Speaker
now blames the Republican
minority for gas prices that
have nearly doubled.
Nancy Pelosi’s real lesson
for America’s daughters:
Women in power are just as
capable of mastering
Washington double talk,
blame avoidance and partisan
hackery as are men.
Imagine that.
Michelle Malkin is author
of “Unhinged: Exposing
Liberals Gone Wild." Her e
mail address is malkin
blog@gmail.com.
Neither candidate is pay¬
ing for his tax cuts. McCain
made the mistake recently of
telling ABC’s George
Stephanopoulos that nothing,
not even a tax hike, is “off the
table” when it comes to fixing
Social Security and Medicare
systems that are underfunded
to the tune of $175,000 per
American. Tax foes pounced.
McCain retreated.
Too bad. McCain has a
long history of fighting
Washington’s big-spending
ways. He has been a fearless
foe of earmarks. He voted
against the pork-rich farm
bill, which Obama supported.
Ask me whom I tf)u$r to cut
spending, and thwVsIonly
one answer: McCain. v
A Democratic Congress,
with a President Obama, like¬
ly would spend, well, like
he’s George W. Bush. Voters
tell pollsters that they want
change. Do they? would No serious
White House dace not
to promise more something
for nothing.
E-mail Debra J. Saunders
at dsaunders@sfchronicle.com.