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♦ SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2005
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans Rex Gambill
Vice President Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Crackdown Is Good Thing
Warner Robins police are cracking down on
motorists who run red lights, and they are staying
busy.
As anyone driving in Warner Robins knows, there
are plenty of motorists who believe that the sight of
a yellow traffic signal means “speed up and get
through that intersection before it turns red.”
Unfortunately, often the light turns red while the
motorists is still under the traffic light and acci
dents occur too often.
An incident at the intersection of U.S. 41 and
Russell Parkway that resulted in two deaths was
the catalyst that set police into action to crack down
on people who run red lights.
Already almost 200 citations have been issued to
motorists who have run red lights in Warner Robins
during the past week.
Some motorists have complained that “it just isn’t
fair” for police to park near intersections where
they may or may not be visible to catch them break
ing the law.
Certainly it is fair. Running a red light is not a
game. Neither is speeding. The only thing accom
plished when police cars are in sight is to slow traf
fic down. It does not catch the would-be violators.
Running of red lights is such a serious problem in
some cities that they are purchasing cameras to
mount at intersections. The cameras capture the
tag number of violators, who receive a citation in
the mail.
So far, several cities in Atlanta’s suburbs have
installed such cameras and they are proving benefi
cial.
Whether cameras in Warner Robins would be
practical is questionable, in view of the number of
busy intersections where the practice of trying to
beat lights when they turn yellow is a common prac
tice. It would take too many cameras and would be
too expensive. Since the cameras that are available
today are not portable it would be impossible to
move them from one intersection to another.
We endorse what the Warner Robins police are
doing now. There have been too many minor acci
dents at intersections as a result of running red
lights and there have been deaths.
Both can be avoided if motorists keep in mind that
the yellow light is meant as a warning to prepare to
stop for a red light, not as the starting signal to
stomp on the accelerator to save mere seconds.
Debunking another Gitmo myth
Newsweek. Amnesty
International. Jimmy
Carter. Dick Durbin. The
Guantanamo Bay-bashing
continues.
In a rant published
Tuesday, the Minnesota Star
Tribune actually castigated
Durbin for “caving in” on
his slanderous remarks com
paring U.S. treatment of
detainees at Gitmo to tor
ture and genocide by Nazis,
Soviets and Pol Pot. The
paper wrote that Durbin
shouldn’t have apologized
and decried the entire oper
ation as a “hellhole.”
But it’s not just unhinged
liberals who keep piling on.
The “maverick” Sen. John
McCain echoed one of the
Left’s most oft-cited and
erroneous complaints about
Gitmo on NBC’s “Meet The
Press” this weekend - that
detainees have been denied
trials:
“The weight of evidence
has got to be that we’ve got
to adjudicate these people’s
cases, and ... if it means
releasing some of them,
you’ll have to release them.
Look, even Adolf Eichmann
got a trial.” (Can we put a
lid on the Nazi analogies
already? Crikey. A Knight-
Ridder reporter was too
smitten to be bothered by
his Eichmann-invoking
hyperbole: “McCain is
emerging as a voice of con
science and nuance on the
stay-or-go Guantanamo
issue.” Nuance?)
GOP Sen. Lindsay
Graham, another newly
Michelle Malkin
Columnist
Creators Syndicate
christened “maverick” who
appeared on MSNBC’s
“Hardball” last week, lodged
similar allegations about the
absence of trials for Gitmo
detainees: “We need a proce
dure and process that will
allow us to determine who
an enemy combatant is,
interrogate them to make us
safer in a humane way, and
set up trials for the worst
offenders and repatriate
those who - who don’t meet
the category of a - of a
threat. That, to me, would
look good to the world. It
would make us safer.”
My friend, Judge Andrew
Napolitano, made a similar
assertion on Fox News’
“O’Reilly Factor” last week:
“The government is not giv
ing them those trials.”
And now, the facts:
Every single detainee cur
rently being held at
Guantanamo Bay has
received a hearing before a
military tribunal. Every one.
As a result of those hear
Apology meaningless If given under pressure
Readers have been kind
with their e-mail and letters.
It has been some time since I
shared any with you, so here
goes with a few more.
Foy: You were rather
harsh in your comments
about Sen. Richard
Durbin. He has apolo
gized for his comments
in which he equated the
way we treat prisoners
at Gitmo to Nazism and
the Russian gulags. He
has apologized. What say
you now? - JD
Answer: When it takes
someone a week under
intense pressure to issue a
qualified apology, I take it
with a grain of salt. I believe
he said what was in his
heart the first time.
Foy: Don’t road con
tracts have completion
dates with penalties for
failing to meet the dead
line? How about Houston
Lake Road? - MS
Answer: Contracts for
roadwork do have deadlines
and cash penalties. But
sometimes a contractor can
pay the relatively small
penalty while he moves his
equipment and people to a
more lucrative job. Looks
Parks symbolic of American
Yesterday I did what hun
dreds of millions of other
Americans will do this year,
largely in summer months: I
took my four kids and two
friends to one of those huge
amusement parks. (We were
there for my 9-year-old’s
birthday.)
The children absolutely
loved the heart-stopping
rides, the crummy (and
incredibly expensive) junk
food, and all the excitement.
I myself was, of course,
vaguely miserable the entire
time. The only reason I was
n’t completely miserable is
because the kids were hav
ing such a blast. •
As a mother, the really big
rides - the roller coasters -
terrify me. I used to love
those things when I was a
kid - the scarier, the better.
Then I got to the point
where I would go on a
ridiculously high, twisty
roller coaster about every
three years just to remind
myself why I didn’t do it
more often. Now, if someone
ings, more than three dozen
Gitmo detainees have been
released. The hearings,
called “Combatant Status
Review Tribunals,” are held
before a board of officers,
and permit the detainees to
contest the facts on which
their classification as
“enemy combatants” is
based.
Gitmo-bashers attack the
Bush administration’s fail
ure to abide by the Geneva
Conventions. But as legal
analysts Lee Casey and
Darin Bartram told me, “the
status hearings are, in fact,
fully comparable to the
‘Article V’ hearings required
by the Geneva Conventions,
in situations where those
treaties apply, and are also
fully consistent with the
Supreme Court’s 2004 deci
sion in the Hamdi v.
Rumsfeld case.”
Treating foreign terrorists
like American shoplifters -
with full access to civilian
lawyers, classified intelli
gence, and all the attendant
rights of a normal jury trial
- is a surefire recipe for
another 9/11. That is why
the Bush administration
fought so hard to erect an
alternative tribunal system
long established in
wartime - in the first place.
The few critics who
acknowledge the existence
of the tribunals argue they
aren’t sufficient. They “pro
vided due process in form,
but not in substance,” as
Newsday put it. That view is
shared by a Carter-appoint-
■HB HI ?'? flfli
Foy Evans
Columnist
foye vans 19@cox .net
like we may be victims of
something like that.
Mr. Evans: You seem to
be in favor of unlimited
and unrestricted growth,
regardless of how much
inconvenience it is caus
ing us. I am for limited
growth. What say you? -
TP
Answer: Without growth,
our county would dry up and
taxes would go up. As long
as there is demand for hous
ing it should be provided for
newcomers. We cannot build
a fence around Houston
County and tell potential
newcomers that we already
are in and they are just
■sag. ok— H
Betsy Hart
Columnist
Scripps Howard News Service
could magically promise me
I’d permanently lose 5
pounds for just one coaster
ride, I’d still say no.
But in spite of all that, I
love roller coasters and
theme parks. And it’s not
just because my kids love
them. It’s because they
always remind me of how
incredibly fortunate we are
in the United States.
Permanent amusement
parks are totally available to
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ed liberal judge, but an ear
lier decision by a Bush
appointed judge upheld the
tribunals. In the end, courts
will almost certainly affirm
the legality of the Gitmo tri
bunals, which, as noted,
were modeled after the due
process standards described
in the Hamdi decision.
That ruling, may I remind
you, addressed the detention
of a U.S. citizen as an enemy
combatant. As former
Attorney General William
Barr noted last week in tes
timony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee,
“Obviously, if these proce
dures are sufficient for
unlucky to be so late getting
here. In reality, all of us,
except a few families who
lived here when Robins Air
Force Base was built, are
“newcomers.”
Foy: Why don’t newspa
pers and television tell
the race of people who
commit crimes? It sure
would help. - MJ
Answer: And all hell
would break loose if they
did.
Mr. Evans: You wrote
that WiMax is dead. I am
under the impression it
still is alive and well. -
DC
Answer: WiMax is not
dead. It is as far as Houston
County is concerned. AT&T
is working on a pilot pro
gram in a part of Atlanta for
some businesses. Promoters
of this wireless technology
contend it will be practical
in urban areas and for busi
nesses there. eWEEK maga
zine, which I have quoted,
says something better is on
the way.
Foy: It looks like voters
will be asked to approve
two one-cent sales tax
increases later this year
almost every class of
Americans. Wow. The sheer
amount of wealth and ener
gy required to operate these
things must be staggering.
And it’s for absolutely no
other purpose than to
“amuse” us. (I have to
believe the “waste” drives
some folks nuts.) Most
amazingly, virtually every
segment of America has the
time and money to be so
frivolously amused and
enjoy expensive family
fights over whether to go on
the “scrambler” or the “zip
per.
I mean, such amusement
used to be the province of
kings. Now, we consider it
our “right.” Each year,
America’s amusement parks
attract 300 million visitors.
At let’s say about 30 bucks a
pop for admission (I’m low
balling here, and forget
what we’re dishing out
inside the parks) we’re
spending something like $9
billion dollars in the United
States just to get into the
American citizens, they are
more than enough for for
eign detainees.”
Do John McCain and the
anti-Gitmo gang actually
believe otherwise, or are
they too clueless to realize
the implications of their
gulag-Pol Pot-Nazi-
Eichmann-hellhole
harangues?
• • •
Errata: Last week, I wrote
that Barbara Walters
“reportedly pronounced (an
airplane encounter with a
nursing mom) ‘gross and
disgusting.’” The quote
came from The Calgary Sun,
Ted Byfield, June 12, 2005,
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
through SPLOSTs. Do
you believe the people in
Houston County will buy
into both of them? - JC
Answer: Yes. Houston
County voters are intelli
gent and they also have
shown in the past that they
are responsible. Both
SPLOSTs will replace
SPLOSTs that are expiring,
so our sales tax will still be 7
percent.
Foy: Sometimes I wonder
if you believe that you
have all the answers. Do
you?
Answer: No way. I just
give my opinions.
Sometimes I am right.
Sometimes I am wrong. But
I’m always sincere.
Mr. Evans: I am con
cerned about the Russell
Parkway extension. Is
the city of Warner
Robins going to protect
it from becoming anoth
er Watson Boulevard?
Answer: I believe they
will. Of course, the stretch
from Highway 41 to 1-75 in
Peach County already has a
dozen or so billboards. We’ll
just have to wait and see.
freedom
places. Nine billion dollars -
that’s greater than the gross
national product of all sorts
of whole little countries.
I think it’s great.
I’m not suggesting for a
minute, by the way, that the
fruit of such wealth is
always good or that money
always buys happiness. But
it sure can buy choices and
possibilities and unimagined
opportunities.
Yes in some other coun
tries people are hungry
while we ride roller coasters
(or don’t, in my case.) I’ve
heard folks in and outside of
this country complain ad
nauseam about our excesses
- our big cars, big houses,
and wasteful lifestyles - as if
such things cause that
hunger. I haven’t heard
them complain about roller
coasters - yet.
But in any event, I know
that the fact that we have so
many roller coasters (and
the other “excesses” folks
complain about) is just a
See HART, page 5A
but Walters did not use
those words as she frowned
and complained she was
“uncomfortable.” My apolo
gy for the error. Walters also
informs me that Elizabeth
Hasselbeck has not com
pletely given up nursing,
and that Walters was “on a
crowded shuttle,” not first
class. All the more reason to
cut the mom some slack.
Michelle Malkin is author
of “Invasion: How America
Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other
Foreign Menaces to Our
Shores” (Regnery). Malkin’s
e-mail address is
malkin @comcast. net.