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********************************** Odd Couple "What could conservative Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger and liberal Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts have in common? They both support marijuana for medicinal purposes. This morning in the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Nofziger will join Mr. Frank and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Executive Director Keith Stroup to offer support for the 'States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act.'" - John McCaslin's "Inside the Beltway," 7/24/02 ******************************* The More the Merrier If you know someone who might like to join conservatives and libertarians who receive our FREE Chuck Muth's News & Views briefings, just go to http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ for quick, easy subscription processing. *********************************** Depends on Your Definition of "Legal" "House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said he'll introduce legislation to grant legal status to people who illegally entered the USA more than five years ago," reports USA Today in yesterday's edition. "He said the bill would be introduced within two weeks." Geppy defended his plan saying the undocumented workers "have done everything we've asked them to do. They've worked, they've stayed out of trouble, they've obeyed the laws, they've." Now, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. "Obeyed the laws?" They BROKE our laws when they entered the United States illegally in the first place, leap-frogging over legal immigrants who were standing in line following the rules. And Geppy now wants to REWARD this with a blanket amnesty? I wonder if politics has anything to do with this decision? Nah. He wouldn 't do that. Would he? Hello? ********************************** Do As I Say, Not As I Do - I "Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle quietly slipped into a spending bill language exempting his home state of South Dakota from environmental regulations and lawsuits, in order to allow logging in an effort to prevent forest fires. The move discovered yesterday by fellow lawmakers angered Western legislators whose states were forced to obey those same rules as they battled catastrophic wildfires." - Washington Times, 7/24/02 ********************************** Do As I Say, Not As I Do - II A couple weeks ago, U.S. military action targeting Mullah Omar or some other top al Qaeda leader, resulted in what appears to be the deaths of innocent civilians attending a completely unrelated wedding party. The terrorist leader apparently escaped. A few days ago, Israel launched a missile attack against Sheik Salah Shehada, a founding member of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas and #1 on Israel's most wanted list. In the process, 14 innocent civilians who were unfortunate enough to be living in the building where Shehada was hiding, were also killed in the missile attack, as was Shehada himself. So the United States targeted a top terrorist leader, killed some innocent civilians - who were just partying at the wrong place and at the wrong time - but missed their target. Israel targeted a top terrorist leader, killed some innocent civilians who were arguably harboring the terrorist in their building, and accomplished their mission of taking out the terrorist. On Tuesday, the White House reprimanded Israel for its missile attack. Go figure. ********************************** Casualties of War Response to the Israeli missile attack which killed the #1 Palestinian terrorist on Israel's most-wanted list was what we've come to expect. The European Union top dog condemned the military action "directed indiscriminately against a civilian neighborhood." The Middle East News Agency condemned the attack as a "war crime" because it "clearly targeted peaceful civilians." And the Arab League piped in condemning "the deadly Israeli raid which targeted civilians." No, it didn't. It targeted a known terrorist who put every "innocent" civilian in that building at risk by his very presence there. Why wasn't the guy out in the desert sleeping in a tent with his camel rather than putting those "innocent" civilians at risk in a crowded apartment building. If you use civilians as a coward's shield, their deaths and injuries are on YOUR head, not the Israelis. Anyone who does not think that Israel is in a state of war against an enemy that actually DOES target innocent civilians with suicide bombers has his head where he can clearly see his pancreas. The loss of innocent life is regrettable. It's also a reality of war. If Palestinians would stop blowing up innocent women and children in pizza shops and shoe stores, maybe we'd have a little more sympathy for their loss. ********************************** Ho Hum "Calypso Louie" Farrakhan this week "sharply criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East." In other "news," a rooster crowed at sunrise, Norm ordered a beer during a "Cheers" re-run and it rained in the Amazon jungle. Film at eleven. ********************************** Plugging the Leak "(Anyone with top secret access to potential U.S. military war plans) has an obligation not to leak it to the press or anybody else because it kills people. It's outrageous, it's inexcusable, and they ought to be in jail." - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the defense official who leaked plans to invade Iraq to the New York Times ********************************** More Clinton Chickens Come Home to Roost "(A House Intelligence subcommittee), chaired by Rep. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican, disclosed that one of the reasons the CIA failed to get any informants close to Osama bin Laden can be traced back to a 1995 CIA directive that effectively blocked CIA field agents from recruiting unsavory characters. This foolish restriction foisted on the CIA by the Clinton administration had been extensively reported over the last few years. . . . As a result, our agents around the world could only hire local agents with bad human-rights records if the agents were prepared to risk their careers. . . . Not surprisingly, no agents risked establishing such contacts." - Columnist Tony Blankley ********************************** Race Hustlin' Busy Beaver Any hopes that a disgraced Jesse Jackson would just crawl back into the woodwork and leave American society alone are fading fast. The rhymin' minister named a successor to his Rainbow/PUSH extortion racket...er, coalition...this week even though he said he isn't leaving yet, compared police officers to terrorists and referred to them as the "militia," and announced yet another self-promoting peace mission to help a REAL terrorist, Yasser Arafat. Actually, to steal an old line, we have no problem with Jackson going to the Middle East on his "peace mission." We have a problem with him coming back. ********************************** Flagpole to Remain On Monday, it was revealed that a Forest Service flunky...er, bureaucrat...er, employee had informed Army veteran David Knickerbocker that he was to remove a flag pole flying the American flag from his summer cabin in California's Eldorado National Forest. The outrage and response was fast and furious, and by Tuesday Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reversed the decision and apologized to Mr. Knickerbocker for the "misunderstanding." She said the employee, Debbie Gaynor, had made an "honest mistake." Uh-huh. It's a shame that blatant bureaucratic stupidity more often results in a promotion and/or raise in pay than something more severe than a slap on the wrist. Wonder if they have any woodsheds in that forest? ********************************** Clueless At a dinner party in Los Angeles recently, our hostess was about to say some grudgingly kind words about President Bush and the way he was handling the war on terror. She prefaced her remarks by saying, 'Now, I know everyone at this table voted for Al Gore, but.' Well, she knew no such thing. She just presumed it. . . . This false reality is a phenomenon that permeates media circles. . . . You see, they are - for the most part - clueless. Clueless about this country. Clueless about you." - Pat Sajak, "Imprimis" magazine, July 2002 ********************************* Opposition Remains Strong to Social Insecurity "Despite corporate scandals and the downturn in the stock market, 68 percent of Americans continue to support allowing workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts, according to a Cato Institute poll of likely voters. ".Perhaps most surprisingly, 64 percent of voters agreed that the recent accounting scandals meant that people needed more control over their retirement finances, making them more likely to support private accounts for Social Security." - Greg Pierce's "Inside Politics," 7/24/02 *********************************** McCain's War on the Internet Doggone it, Liz Swasey of the Media Research Center sent me the transcript of an interview between Tony Snow and FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith a month ago. I just found it in my email archives. It's important enough, though, to still include. Snow and Smith were talking about the new McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform bill and Smith's objection to certain parts dealing with regulation of the Internet and email. Sorry for the delay, but here ya go: Special Report with Brit Hume, June 28, 2002 (excerpt) [full transcript at <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,56679,00.html>] TONY SNOW, GUEST HOST: The Federal Election Commission recently ruled that it would allow some large, unregulated soft money donations, despite recently-passed campaign finance reform law. In response, Senator John McCain threatened to hold up all judicial nominations until the Senate appoints Ellen Weintraub, an election law specialist and McCain-Feingold supporter, to the Federal Elections Commission. Joining me to discuss the controversy is FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith. .... BRADLEY SMITH, FEC COMMISSIONER: For example, the bill mentions a wide variety of types of communications that are going to be set for more regulation - billboards, magazines, broadcasts, cable, satellite. Never says a word about Internet. But when we went into our regulatory process, Senator McCain and the other sponsors urged us to go ahead and regulate the Internet. Well, four members of the commission said no. And those sponsors have asked the four members. Those four members said we should resign. Now, they all say they want to regulate publicly the Internet. But they didn't in their comments to the commission. SNOW: How do they want to regulate the Internet? SMITH: Well, they want us to treat it like any other campaign resource and limit the amounts that can be spent on it and who can spend money. And to me, this would smother this new medium that's so democratic, that's inexpensive, that almost anyone can use. And I think that had Congress known that they were going to be regulating the Internet, it wouldn't have passed. Or another example is e- mails. They want to regulate e-mail communications. SNOW: Wait, wait. How do you do that? SMITH: What they want to do is regulate e-mail communications. If they go to more than 500 people they would have to be paid for with certain amounts of hard money and subject to reporting requirements of the act, and all the other panoply of things that go on under the Federal Elections Campaign act, which is a very complex act. SNOW: But whose communication would it regulate? Simply those of office holders, or anybody who's supporting an office holder? How do you make the bill of distinctions? SMITH: Well, it would be any communications made by political parties and also by various 501C and nonprofit groups that citizens might belong to. So for example, if you're a member of, you know, any group. You can pick one, the NRA... SNOW: So would it apply to Common Cause, pushing for McCain-Feingold? SMITH: If they sent out 500 e-mails at a particular time close to an election. Now, we've rejected that approach. We say, look, people, your e-mails are going to stay unregulated, at least until Congress specifically says we want you to regulate Internet and e-mail. ********************************* Long Savings on Long Distance! Just 4.97 cents per minute (5.97 cents for some non-regional bell companies) * All state-to-state calls in the continental U.S. * Residential or commercial * 6-second billing increments after the first 18 seconds * 24 hours/day * 7 days/week * No access codes * No minimums * No activation fees * No monthly service charge unless your bill is less than $20.00 a month (then a $2.50 service charge will apply) * No need to change your local phone company * No hassles * Easy sign-up. *And a small portion of each bill goes to help continue publishing our FREE Chuck Muth's News & Views e-newsletter. go to://www.GOPLongDistance.com today. ********************************** COMING EVENTS *********************************** * Free Republic's First Annual "Friva Las Vegas" conference at the Treasure Island resort on the Strip August 16-17. For more info, go to: <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/705851/posts?page=1> * ALEC 2002 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. August 7-11. For more information, go to: http://www.alec.org/ * ACU's "Public Policy Boot Camp" at the Marriott Residence Inn in Arlington, Virginia August 18-20. For further information contact ACU's Kerri Houston, 214.357.1504 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] * 17th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference. September 27,28 and 29, 2002 at the. Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona sponsored by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Second Amendment Foundation. Registration is free. You can register by email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by phone at 425.454.4911. For more information go to: http://www.saf.org/ * 30th Annual CPAC conference at the Gateway Marriot in Arlington, VA from January 30 - February 1, 2003. Details to follow. **************************** Chuck Muth, Editor/Publisher 3659 Scotwood Street Las Vegas, NV 89121 Phone: (702) 391-0222 Fax: (702) 454-7798 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The opinions and views expressed in Chuck Muth's News & Views reflect those of the writers, editors and columnists therein and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsors, advertisers ... heck, even some of our readers. To be REMOVED, go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ and complete the removal request instructions you'll find there. Or send your request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # #
