About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 2008)
Page 4 - The Wiregrass Farmer, October 22, 2008 Editorial & Opinion The WIREGRASS FARMER - Established 1902 Official Legal Organ of Turner County 109 Gordon Street • P.O. Box 309 • Ashburn, GA 31714 Telephone 229-567-3655 email wiregrassfarmer@yahoo.com THE WIREGRASS FARMER (USPS 487-460) is published every Wednesday by Ashburn Newspapers, Inc., 109 N. Gordon St, Ashburn, Georgia. Periodicals Postage Paid at Ashburn, Georgia. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Wiregrass Farmer, 109 N. Gordon St., Ashburn, GA 31714 STAFF Bob Tribble, President • Ann Knight, General Manager Ben Baker, Editor • Linda Sellars, Sales Director Robin Tillman, Office Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES Senior Citizen discount in county only $20.00 Inside Turner County, $24.00 • Elsewhere in Georgia, $32.00 Outside Georgia, $40. Overseas rates on request. OUR POLICIES Signed letters to the editor are welcomed. Please limit letters to 500 words and include a name, an address and phone number where the writer may be reached during the day. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. All letters become prop erty of the newspaper. Liability for an error will not exceed the cost of the space occupied by the error. We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or materials unless a self-addressed stamped envelope is included.The deadline for LEGAL NOTICES is Monday NOON before Wednesday’s publication. Holiday deadlines will be announced at least one week in advance. Letters An honest opinion Editor There has been a lot of back and forth in The Wiregrass about the presidential candidates this election year. I’ve decided to put my two cent worth in this week. I am not a fan of either candi date, but I know who I will be voting for. Neither Mr. Perry nor Ms. Watson has been untruthful in their letters to the editor, but both have had their slant. I’m sure mine will as well. I promise to be as honest as I can about both candi dates. Neither McCain nor Obama appear to be great presidents in my book. Neither have any executive experience, a must in my opinion. Neither seems to understand that government interven tion is not the answer to the financial crisis we face today. The free market always works itself out. Just look at gas prices. The price has dropped 35 cents in two weeks, without any government regulations. With that said, here are my pros and cons of Senator McCain. He is a war hero, a HUGE plus for Commander in Chief of the armed forces. He was a U.S. Representative from 1983 - 1987. He then went on to the Senate from 1987 - present. He has always been known as a maverick that would cross party lines to get things done (even if I disagree with most of them). That is why he has had a hard time energizing the conservative base, he is not a true conservative. As a tme conservative, it scares me that McCain has sponsored bills with the likes of Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold. The McCain-Kennedy bill was an attempt to provide amnesty to the illegal immigrants who have entered our country illegally, thus becoming a criminal the time they touched American soil. We already have the laws in place to combat illegal immigration. We just need to enforce them. The McCain-Feingold bill basically limits free speech con cerning elections. The only side the public gets to hear is what the candidates tell them and the media's spin on the candidates views, which is always tilted in favor of the liberal politician. The media is totally exempt from the restrictions that McCain-Feingold bill has on other groups. This of course would make them even more powerful in leading the public down the liberal primrose path. The NRA, Unions, and Christian Pro Family Organizations can’t educate voters on a candidate’s record or history. Thanks, John. On the other hand, John McCain is in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade. Don’t get too excited yet, this doesn’t actually ban abortion. It would return the decision to the individual states, which is a good thing. He has voted to ban partial birth abortion, something I think we can all agree on. I’m mixed on McCain’s spending policies. He is in favor of vetoing all pork barrel spending and making public those who sponsor pork. He has voted numerous times to cut federal spend ing, yet he supports the bailout. On top of that he has promised another $300 billion to rescue people who bought homes they couldn’t afford. That is just foolish and socialistic. Now on to Senator Obama. I’ll begin with the pros. He has energized his voting block like no other politician before him. He is an American success story in his meteoric rise through the political ranks. He is the first African-American major party nominee. He has managed to sur vive numerous email attacks against him. I don’t think we should use unproven statements to disqualify a candidate from receiving my vote. On the other hand, one has to ask how he rose so quickly. No politician has ever come to prominence like Barack Obama. His greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. Experience. He was a member of the Illinois State Senate from 1997-2004. He then was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He immediately began his bid for the White House. Most people think he came out of nowhere this year, but those of us who follow politics knew he was mnning four years ago. This is why he voted “present” on many controversial topics. He was writing his own history in a way that he thought would make him the best candidate for the White House. In my opinion, if you can’t decide on one vote out of a hundred, how can you make a lone decision as President? Obama claims to be a new type of politician, but his record and actions show that he is just another panderer like those before him. He has no record of bipartisanship, his positions seem to change depending on who he’s speaking in front of. He will throw anyone under the bus that may hurt his chances of winning the election. This includes his own grandmother, who he referred to as a “typical white person” who is afraid of blacks. Why exactly did she help raise you then, Barry? He has acquaintances that he has flat out lied about in order to distance himself from them. He sat in the pew for twenty years and listened to the sermons of Jeremiah Wright. The man married the Obamas and baptized their children. Yet Sen. Obama claims he never heard any of Wright’s anti semetic, anti American speech. I can’t prove that he did, but that dog just don’t hunt. (See LETTERS Page 7) Letters to the editor welcome! Your opinion is important! Write: Editor, P.O. Box 309, Ashburn GA 31714 or email <wiregrass farmer@yahoo.com> We do not charge to publish letters to the editor. But, your letter must meet our publication requirements. Letters must be signed. We must have a phone number to call to verify the number. (Your phone number will not be published). Letters which do not meet our publishing requirements won’t be printed. Call 567-3655 for more information. Bailing someone out of jail A longtime friend called ^ than blaming all Congressmen me the other day and ask me to write something about the gov ernment bailout. She jokingly said she thought a bailout was when you bailed someone out of jail. Her call prompted me to do what she asked so the fol lowing are my thoughts on the issue. In my expert economic opinion there are two main fac tors that have caused the large majority of our present prob lems. First, the banks who made loans to those who pur chased homes with no down payments and questionable ability to repay the loans did it to themselves and should have to suffer the consequences of their mistakes. And secondly, the outrageous prices working folks have had to pay to keep gasoline in their tanks over the past year when all they could do was sit back and watch the oil companies make record profits month after month. Had these two problems been solved there would have been no need for a $700 billion dol lar bailout. Again, in my expert eco nomic opinion our country is not in as bad a shape as those in power wish us to believe it is. Yes, unemployment is up and other factors are somewhat out of line but not enough to panic and try to bailout banks and Wall Street with taxpayers’ money. Many bad business deci sions have been made over the From Where I Sit past few years, especially by our country’s lending institu tions. Other businesses have made bad business decisions and they are faced with solving their own problems. We have made a good number of bad business decisions within our newspaper group but would not let the government (taxpayers) bail us out of those situations if they offered. Most people are blaming President George Bush for our economy’s present situation when the blame should not be put on his shoulders alone. If President Bush is to be blamed then our Congressmen and Senators must also take part of the blame. There are not many things the president can do without approval of the House and Senate. Presently, many people are blaming Senator John McCain for part of the problem and that has no basis either anymore and Senators as stated above. Many folks are trying to make a big connection between President Bush, whose ratings are not very high, and Senator McCain. Check the voting record. Senator McCain has not been a yes man to all of President Bush’s proposals. Many questions are being asked about the bailout of the financial institutions and other businesses, and if there was really a major crisis. Small businesses that required mod est lines of credit to meet oper ational expenses and pay their bills on time probably were feeling a “trickle down.” So Main Street USA did feel some of the problems larger busi nesses were having. Most members of Congress have never run a business, or have not in a very long time, so their understanding of Main Street economics was not at the level of economic advisors who most had to rely on. Since the Wall Street and financial institutions bailout has cost $700 billion dollars, we need to expect better eco nomic times in the future. Fet’s hope that lessons have been learned from events of the past several months. In conclusion, my longtime friend is probably right when she said that bailout was bail ing someone out of jail. Our government probably did that maybe unknowingly. T K f tf; M; J i.v ll'.yj.- yrrYlniiU IwifjR. Tv Wishbone, Backbone, & Funnybone ... by Charles B. Perry A few weeks ago during a trip out west, we stopped in Deadwood, South Dakota. As we were walking down one of the streets we drifted into an old, small antique store where I purchased several old U.S. Marshall, Sheriff, and Texas Ranger Badges. Upon return ing home, I decided to browse my collection more closely. As I studied each of them each it was the Texas Ranger badge really peaked my interest. I then realized that although I had heard of the Texas Rangers all my life, I knew very little about them. I hope you enjoy the following brief history of the famous Texas Rangers. As a group and as individu als, the Texas Rangers brought order to a wild and lawless land, They grew into one of the most respected and best-known peacekeeping forces in the world. The history of the Rangers can be traced as far back as 1823 and to Stephen F. Austin, the man often called “The Father of Texas”. Eager to pro vide protection for the first American settlers in the region, Austin offered to ‘employ ten men to act as rangers for the common defense.” To fill the job as “rangers” they would need to provide their own hors es and weapons, and be hardy enough to handle a life on the trail. There had never been anything quite like the Texas Rangers before! Fike police man, they tracked down mur derers, outlaws, and cattle thieves, the Rangers had a jurisdiction as big as all of the state of Texas; their ‘beat’ cov ered more square miles that there are in some countries. Tough and resourceful, the Rangers patrolled the wide- open frontier of Texas for weeks and months at a time, often living off the land and navigating without maps. As the Rangers protection from Indian Raids to the settlers, they soon matched the Indian’s skills of horsemanship and tracking. They fought with such ferocity they soon gained respect from the Indians. Fending aid to the U.S. Army in the Mexican War, the Rangers were such fearsome combatants that the Mexican army dubbed them “Eos Diablos Tejanos”...the Texas Devils. There have been many famous Texas Rangers... although few are household names. Individually, the Texas Rangers were some of the most colorful heroes in America’s history. Together, they brought peace to an untamed frontier, where settlers faced dangers from hostile Indians, cattle rustlers, marauding bandits and murderous gunslingers. Maj. John B. Jones, the first commander of the Frontier Battalion in 1874. Through his leadership the Rangers were transformed from a loosely organized band of on-again, off-again volunteers into a per manent, well-organized and highly disciplined law-enforce ment division. Capt. Feander McNelly was the leader of a group of Rangers officially known as the ‘Special Forces’ who patrolled the Texas-Mexico border. They were more popularly known as ‘McNelly’s Rangers’ and they showed no mercy to the des perados that were foolish enough to tangle with McNelly and his Rangers. Sgt. John B. Armstrong, a member of ‘McNelly’s Rangers’, was tenacious in his pursuit of an outlaw. He tracked killer John Wesley Hardin from Texas to Pensacola, Florida where he was arrested. Ranger, Capt. William McDonald had been a Deputy Sheriff and U.S. Marshal. He also served as a body guard to President Theodore Roosevelt. He was noted for his fearless ness and provided history with two of the Rangers most famous quotations. McCondal was sent to Dallas, Texas to break up a fight, when McDonald arrived, the Mayor of Dallas seeing he had arrived alone asked, “Where are the others?” McDonald answered, “Ain’t I enough? There’s only one fight!” Another of McDonald’s quotes that certainly help label the Rangers was “No man in the wrong can stand against a fellow who’s in the right and keeps on a-comin’!” Today, the Texas Rangers remain an integral law enforce ment agency. As times have changed, so have the Ranger’s methods. Employing the latest technology and training in the latest methods of scientific detection, they are equal to any investigative agency in the world. Though time has brought many changes, the Texas Rangers remain an elite force. They are still the resourceful, untiring lawman whose exploits are legendary around the world...’the men in the right who keep on a- comin’. Until next time... Baker’s Dozen F ar aints For the person who gave the name to the festival that has generated international attention for this small South Georgia town, you’d think I’d feel differently about Solenopsis invicta. Yes, I refer here to that invader who was welcomed with the same open arms that greeted yankee carpetbaggers after the end (on paper any way) the War of Northern Aggression. I bring your atten tion to that mighty mite, that midge of mayhem, that diminutive dynamo of destruc tion, that colossal creature of chaos and that’s enough alliter ation for right now. Fire ants. Call ‘em what you will, call ‘em what you want, if you are from the South you have a vast number of names for this South American invader. Fire ants have, at various times, thought to be beneficial. Except for educating a few folks as to why they do not need to live in the South, I can not see how the fire ant has done anything helpful. You’d think fire ants would gleefully attack termites, but nooooo. You can have a huge infesta tion of both of ‘em. I think they gang up on us underground to stage massive practical jokes. “Here’s the plan,” say the queens (oh yes, fire ants and termites are led by queens, females. Betcha THAT gives you a new understanding of fire ants). “The termites will undermine the floor. When they have all the wood chewed up so that it barely supports a human, the ants will attack. When the ants attack, the humans will begin jumping up and down and the floor will collapse.” This of course happens and both colonies of critters then nearly die laughing. You can hear ‘em if you lis ten closely enough. Anyway. Even as I type this, I have a fire ant blister on my left wrist. As I prop my hands on the edge of the table which serves as my desk, this particular bite is also resting on the table. Happy happy, joy joy. Arg. But this also reminds me of a time back when Farry “Hawgin”’ Fishbreath and I played golf. He still does now and then, whereas I have sworn off except for charity golf tour naments when I get to drive the refreshment wagon. We were on the course one day when an obvious yankee pulled up next to us. He rooted around in his bags for a while at the tee and finally quit with a disgusted look on his face. “Youse guys gotta tee?” he asked. “Naw. We don’t use ‘em no more,” Hawgin’ said. “I find I get a better drive without one.” I too was lacking tees. And clubs. And golf balls. I was in charge of the cooler and fish ing gear. Every time we got to a water hazard, we fished. The yankee golfer muttered under his breath and walked to the tee. He dropped the ball. “Hey. Rather than do that, why don’t ya prop yer ball on that mound of dirt over there,” Hawgin’s said. Yep. Prezackly what you’re thinking. A light glinted in the golfer’s eye. He got behind the mound and eyed down the fair way. Hawgin’ slid into the cart driver’s seat. “Baker, we best be goin’ now,” he whispered. “I totally agree,” I said. The golfer laid his ball on the mound. He took his stance. He swung. The mound exploded. As we crested the hill driv ing wide open back to the club house, we could hear his screams.
