Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 5A
ForsythOpinion
Friday, June 1,2012
YOUR ELECTED
OFFICIALS
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, RO. Box
3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770)
887-4342
Ralph Perry, 1420 Pilgrim Road,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-
7474
Rupert Sexton, 211 Hickory Oak
Hollow, Cumming, GA 30040;
(770) 844-7929
Mayor Pro-Tern Quincy Hofton,
103 Hickory Ridge Drive,
Cumming, GA 30040, (770) 887-
5279
Lewis Ledbetter, 205 Mountain
Brook Drive, Cumming, GA
30040; (770) 887-3019
John Pugh, 108 13th St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-
3342
COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS
R.J, (Pete) Amos, Post 1,110 E.
Main St., Cumming, GA 30040;
(678) 513-5881; rjamos « forsyth
co.com
Brian Tam, Post 2, 4410 Dorset
Lane, Suwanee, GA 30024;
(404) 392-6983; office, (678)
513-5882, brtam “forsythco.
com
Secretary Todd Levent, Post 3,
110 E. Main St., Cumming, GA
30040; (678) 513-5883; tlev
ent@forsythco.com
Vice Chairman Patrick Bell,
Post 4, 110 E. Main St.,
Cumming, GA 30040; (678) 513-
5884; home. (678) 648-6130,
pbbell@forsythco.com
Chairman Jim Boff, Post 5, 110
E. Main St., Cumming, GA
30040; (678) 513-5885; jjboff@
forsythco.com
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Ann Crow, District 1, 320
Dahlonega St., Cumming, GA
30040; (770) 490-6316; acrow@
forsyth.-k12.ga.us
Kristin Morrissey, District 2,
3310 Cany Creek Lane,
Cumming, GA 30041; (404)
550-3083; kmorrissey @ -for
syth.k12.ga.us
Chairman Tom Cleveland,
District 3, 5225 Millsford Court,
Cumming, GA 30040; (770)
844-9901; tcleveland « forsyth.
k12.ga.us
Vice Chairwoman Daria
Sexton Light, District 4, 50080
Hopewell Road, Cumming, GA
30028; (770) 887-0678; dtight @
forsyth.-k12.ga.us
Nancy Roche, District 5, 7840
Chestnut Hill Road, Cumming,
GA 30041; (770) 889-0229;
nroche@forsyth.k12.ga.us
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
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.Tom Graves, 9th
District; 2133 Rayburn House
Office Building, Washington,
D.C., 20515; (202) 225-5211;
fax:(202)225-8272
U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, 7th
District; 1725 Longworth House
Office Building, Washington,
D C., 20515; (770) 232-3005
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. Steve Gooch, 51st
District, Coverdell Legislative
Office Building, Room 321-B, 18
Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA
30334; (404) 656-9221
Sen. Jack Murphy, 27th
District, Coverdell Legislative
Office Building, Room 325-A, 18
Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA
30334; (404) 656-7127
Rep. Mike Dudgeon, 24th
District; Coverdell Legislative
Office Building, Room 608-C, 18
Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA
30334; (404) 656-0298
Rep. Amos Amerson, 9th
District, Suite 401 -G, State
Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334;
(404) 657-8443 or (706) 864 6589
Rep. Mark Hamilton, 23rd
Oistrict, Suite 218, State Capitol,
Atlanta, GA 30334; (404) 656-
5132; local, (770) 844 6768
Send a letter to the editor to PO. Box 210 Gumming, GA 30028; fax it to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail It to editor@forsythnews.com.
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Jim Powell lor the Foriyth County News
‘Civilian act hard to swallow
The first lady of the Untied
States is on a whirlwind pub
licity tour for her hefty new
hxxl and gardening book,
which the White House
hopes will bolster Team
Obama's favorability ratings.
I'd say it's a classic recipe
for rank campaign hypocrisy
and media double standards
While journalists savor
chummy chitchats w ith Mrs
Obama aboul beets and
Beyonce. FLOTUS is once
again escaping hard ques¬
tions about her cronyism,
junk science and generous
junket^ at taxpayer expense.
Mrs Obama's 2012 cam¬
paign media blit/ has
brought her to daytime air¬
waves ( "The Ellen
DeGenercs Show”), prime¬
time reality TV (“The
Biggest Loser”) and chil¬
dren’s programming CiCar
ly”). This week, she's hitting
up “Good Morning
America," "The View,"
Rachael Ray's cooking show,
“LIVE' with Kelly tRipaf
and Comedy Central's “The
Daily Show with Jon
Stewart."
My prediction? As soon as
the fawning media frenzy
dies down and Mrs Obama's
book rises to the top of The
New York Times best-seller
list. POTUS will go back, to
claiming that I LOTUS is a
“private citizen” who should
be left alone. The Obamas'
Chicago strategists have long
enjoyed invoking selective
immunity for the first lady
without challenge Lapdog
reporters have assisted in
creating an impenetrable
bubble of political protection
around the profligate, policy
meddling first lady.
We've seen it before.
When conservatives dial
Obama, on
The following editorial appeared in the
Seattle Times on Sunday.
Choosing a worthy president and com
mandcr in chief is not a casual task for
voters.
Those laboring to compare and con¬
trast President Obama and Mitt Romney
on war and foreign policy have a vexing
assignment.
Obama's record invites approval and
stirs frustration at the same time He is
working to leave Afghanistan, but not
fast enough He recently won support
from NATO on a 2014 departure date to
follow handing over security responsibil
Hies to Afghan forces in 2013
To its credit, the Obama White House
has broadened foreign-policy discussions
to be more inclusive, and to recognize
the United Stales is long past unilaterally
controlling any debate.
During the Arab Spring and the Libyan
uprising, Obama rallied support, but the
ii r\
MICHELLE MALKIN
Columnist
lengcd Mrs O's caustic 2008
campaign trail statements
disparaging America and
fear-mongenng for votes, her
hubby invoked the “civilian”
shield He threatened
Republicans to "lay off his
wife." arguing that political
spouses should not be sub¬
ject to public scrutiny
because they didn't choose
public life
When Mrs O's lavish
vacation in Spam aceom
pamed by an entourage of 70
Secret Service agents and
250 Spanish law enforce¬
ment officers — provoked a
massive public backlash in
2010. then-White House
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
argued that the first lady was
a "private citizen” w ho
should be off-limits to tough
questions about her behavior
Horse-hockey.
Obama's outspoken bitter
half conscientiously and
deliberately inserted herself
into the public square long
before the family moved to
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. —
whether it was organizing a
Woods Fund panel with her
husband and Weather
Underground terrorist Bill
Ayers, taking a publicly sub¬
sidized government job w ith
Chicago Mayor Richard
Daley, or parlaying her rcla
tionship with political men¬
tor Valerie Jarrett into a
cushy public job at the
University of Chicago
Medical Center, w here she
oversaw a patient dumping
U.S did not lead the charge.
Coordination and resources, but not an
arrogant assault Iraq lessons learned
Romney gropes for something to say
on foreign policy, which explains why he
alternately appears to endorse Obama's
moves and timetables in Afghanistan,
except when he does not
Wholly out of his element. Romney
surrounded himself w ith many of the
same ncoconscrvative advisers who
launched the U.S. into two wars
That point was reinforced not by left
wing critics in the Democratic Party, but
hy former Republican Secretary of State
Colin Powell, who was exasperated by
the right wing credentials of Romney 's
foreign policy and national security
teams.
Powell was annoyed by Romney 's
chatty denunciation of Russia as the No.
I geopolitical foe of the United States
He was particularly frustrated that
Romney did not seem to put any thought
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
scheme that benefited her
political cronies.
As I reported earlier this
month, Mrs. Obama’s signa¬
ture program (now run by
Obama's best golfing buddy
Dr, Eric Whitaker) just
received a $6 million grant
from an Obamacaxe agency
with zero independent over¬
sight. Taste the boodle.
Just a humble private mom
raising her two daughters
while Dad docs all that hard¬
ball politics stuff? Pshaw,
Let's not forget that Mrs.
Obama leveraged her hub¬
by’s Senate victory to snag a
lucrative scat on the corpo¬
rate board of directors of
TreeHouse Foods Inc.
despite having zero experi¬
ence in the industry
When her garden gloves
are off. her political boxing
gloves are on. Mrs. O
famously has castigated
other Americans' choices in
how they cam their money.
She used her East Wing
power to push Obamacare.
She has exploited the bully
pulpit to restrict food adver¬
tisers’ speech. She has
served the SEIU's legislative
agenda of increasing the wel¬
fare state and padding mem¬
bership rolls with more gov¬
ernment sch«x»l workers
under the guise of fighting
child obesity.
And she has relied on
questionable sc ience to
declare war on so-called
“hxxl deserts" in poor neigh¬
borhoods where she claims
only fasl food is available.
But according to two major
peer-reviewed and published
studies: 1 > poor neighbor¬
hoods had nearly twice the
number of supermarkets and
large-scale grocers per
square mile as wealthier
into the claim, which was disputed by the
formet general and chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff
Obama settled an elemental grudge
with the unrelenting pursuit of Osama
bin Laden The decision to dispatch
teams of special forces to Pakistan was
disparaged by Romney as a no-brainer
any president, even Jimmy Carter, would
have made
f rustrations with Obama arc about
pav e, not global engagement or thought
fulness Romney, in the absence of origi¬
nal ideas or suffering bad advice, choos¬
es to pick and poke His jabs at China
betray a naive world view
The challenger does not so much offer
critiques as pick nits, and then change
his script
A basic 2012 election issue with foi
ctgn policy consequences is also deeply
rooted in domestic politics; shnnking the
si/c. role, expense and international pres
cnce of the U.S military.
neighborhoods, and 2) there
is no correlation between
what students in a large-scale
California survey ate. what
they weighed and what kinds
of foot they ate within the
immediate radius of their
homes.
While she denies a nanny
slate agenda. Mrs. Obama
successfully has strong
armed several major restau¬
rant chains into redesigning
their menus to her exacting
healthful standards. One of
those targets is Darden
Restaurants, which operates
Olive Garden and Red
Lobster restaurants across
the country . At a time when
mosl food service providers
are struggling under the
weight of increased taxes,
health care mandates and
regulations. Darden
Restaurants just happens to
be one of the few and fortu¬
nate businesses to obtain one
of those coveted Obamacare
waivers.
When Michelle Obama
stops using her public office
to push new big government
power grabs and redisiribute
wealth to her cronies (flash¬
back: Chicago Obama
lympics), stoke racial griev¬
ances, and meddle in Obama
administration personnel
decisions that lead to whis¬
tleblower firings (ask her
aboul former AmeriCotps
Inspector General Gerald
Walpini, I'll leave her alone.
Until then, someone's got
to deliver FLOTUS her just
desserts.
Michelle Malkin is the author of
"Culture of Corruption: Obama
and his Team of Tax Cheats,
Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery
2010) Her e-mail address is
malkinblog@gmail com