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*************************************** Smashing Battlefield Victory "Up to 50 Taliban fighters were killed in an air and ground operation by U.S. and Afghan forces against hundreds of guerillas yesterday in the southern province of Zabul, a spokesman (Juman Khan) for the governor said. . . . 'The rest of the Taliban, I think, have fled,' he said. 'The bombing has just ended because of darkness. As far as I can see, the Taliban have been defeated totally here and we have captured their bases.'" - Reuters, 8/25/03 *************************************** Big Brother Getting Bigger, Bolder "Conservative and liberal advocates are banding together to oppose new airline passenger screening methods that they say will be a "quantum leap" in government surveillance programs. The program (CAPPS II) under development by the Transportation Security Administration would conduct background checks using a data system containing information on more than 2 million passengers flying daily in the country." - Washington Times, 8/26/03 *************************************** Ashcroft's 2004 Patriot Tour "Attorney General John Ashcroft is on a publicity tour, promoting the Patriot Act and preparing the public for a sequel. But just as you can't always believe an actor who tells you his latest film is sure to be a hit, you have to take what Mr. Ashcroft says with a grain of salt." - Columnist Jacob Sullum *************************************** WWJRD: What Would Janet Reno Do? "Terror is bad for most of us, but not necessarily for the lawyers and bureaucrats who infest governments from here to Tucumcari and beyond. Some of them can't believe their good fortune. . . . The big bureaucrats and their lawyers use the threat of terror to instill fear and loathing, enabling them to nibble away at the Constitution in pursuit of their convenience in running bad guys to ground. "...The Patriot Act, though necessary to strengthen certain legitimate law-enforcement requirements, alarms many Americans, as it should, simply because it goes where no law before it has gone in infringing rights that we have always taken as the inheritance as sons (and daughters) of liberty. "...One way Mr. Ashcroft, his friends in Congress and hard-nosed conservatives who are willing to cede to the government extraordinary emergency power might measure the legitimacy of the concerns about the Patriot Act is to ask this question: Would they be willing to put the enforcement of the Patriot Act in the hands of Janet Reno?" - Wesley Pruden, "Pruden On Politics," 8/26/03 *************************************** Recall Boosts Voter Registration "The entrance of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and a wealth of other candidates in the gubernatorial-recall election has set off a small explosion in voter registration that is expected to mushroom as the Sept. 22 deadline nears." - Los Angeles Daily News, 8/25/03 *************************************** Arnold's Problem with His Base "Clearly, Mr. Schwarzenegger has a problem with the Republican base. He polls only 39% among Republicans in the poll, low for a candidate with his name identification and charisma. 'Arnold has a problem with older, white Republicans who don't like his flashy Hollywood image and wouldn't like his movies if they ever went to one,' says Tony Quinn of the California Target Book, an independent analysis of state politics. Those are also the voters most likely to demand specifics from a candidate, something which Mr. Schwarzenegger has only begun to dribble out. His decision to avoid a no-new-taxes pledge may have hurt him with this group, the bedrock constituency for Howard Jarvis' Proposition 13." - John Fund's "Political Diary," 8/26/03 ************************************** GOP Split Will Elect Cruz the Snooze "For all his celebrity candlepower, Schwarzenegger has drawn no more than about a quarter of the vote in a series of recent opinion polls, suggesting at the least a good deal of voter skepticism about his gubernatorial bid. . . . Schwarzenegger has been unable to expand his base of support, hampered by the fact that he shares the ballot with several other Republicans. "'What it really boils down to is a Republican primary being held within the framework of a general election,' said Stuart Spencer, the granddaddy of California GOP strategists. In a state with roughly 1.4 million more registered Democrats than Republicans, unless Republicans coalesce behind a single candidate, 'the Democrat wins,' said Spencer, who helped launch President Reagan's political career. 'That's how simple it is.' "The cold mathematics explains why pressure is building on state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) and Peter V. Ueberroth to abandon the Republican field for Schwarzenegger, whose vast fortune and celebrity have made him a favorite of the party establishment, if not the grass-roots. Both McClintock and Ueberroth insist they are in the race to stay." - Los Angeles Times, 8/26/03 ************************************** A Pea-Shooter vs. An Uzi "As for (California GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom) McClintock, even the perception that (withdrawn candidate Bill) Simon's votes will shift to him will help. But if those votes don't shift, the conventional wisdom calls for more Republican eggs in the Arnold (Schwarzenegger) basket. After all, Mr. McClintock has a skeleton staff and little money. Against Goliath, this is David without a slingshot." - Columnist and political strategist Arnold Steinberg ************************************** The Indian Scam "The California recall is providing the nation an intense education in contemporary American politics, and high on the list of lessons is that Indian tribes have, lucratively, sold their souls to gambling and can buy off or defeat anyone who might want to stand in their way. California tribes make some $5 billion a year in gambling revenue, and have poured more than $120 million into state political campaigns since 1998. It's much the same story across the country. "It's time to ditch the fiction of tribal sovereignty, and recognize the tribes for what they are: good, old-fashioned, all-American sleaze merchants and scam artists. They should be fully welcomed into the American family like used-car salesmen, Hollywood, and telephone marketers. "...The ultimate answer to the Indian scam is to end the fiction of tribal sovereignty. If tribes are sovereign nations, why are they allowed to interfere in U.S. elections by contributing huge amounts of money? When another sovereign nation, like China, pours money into U.S. politics, as it did in 1996, it's a national scandal and cause for an FBI investigation." - Columnist Rich Lowry *************************************** 4.75 cents-per-minute Long Distance * All state-to-state calls in the continental U.S. * Residential or commercial * 6-second billing increments * 24 hours/day * 7 days/week * No access codes * No minimums * No activation fees * Calling Card Rate is 10 cents per minute * No monthly service charge unless your bill is less than $20.00 a month (then a $1.99 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. Just go to: http://www.NewsandViewsLongDistance.com *************************************** Tommy J on Wall of Separation "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State." - Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury (CT) Baptists, January 1, 1802 *************************************** Jimmy M on Establishing Christianity "Who does not see that the same (government) authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" - James Madison, "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments," 1785 *************************************** Tommy P on Religious Shows & Noise "The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has any right to interfere. . . . No man ought to make a living by Religion. It is dishonest so to do. Religion is not an act that can be performed by proxy. One person cannot act religion for another. . . . Religion does not unite itself to show and noise. True religion is without either. Where there is both there is no true religion." - Thomas Paine in a letter to Camille Jordan, 1797 *************************************** Moore's Gift to the ACLU "(Alabama Chief Justice Roy) Moore's political grandstanding isn't helping matters. And his defiance of U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson's order to remove the monument has resulted, appropriately, in his suspension from the bench. The civil disobedience argument may fly for a Martin Luther King, but certainly not for an elected state judge sworn to enforce the law. If Justice Moore wants to become a professional protester and ignore federal court orders, he'll need to hang up his robe first. "...The problem is Justice Moore's current methods, which are doing more to raise money for the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State than advance the cause of religious liberty. In a worst-case scenario, his actions could result in a series of opinions broadly striking down public displays of the Ten Commandments. For the sake of preserving religious expression in public life, we hope he backs off and finds another battle to fight another day." - "Review & Outlook," Wall Street Journal, 8/26/03 *************************************** Affordable Campaign Websites! Now you can get professional-looking campaign web sites for as little as $10 a month. That's right...just ten smackeroos a month. Here's what's included in this fantastic new program from Campaign Secrets, Inc. (available ONLY to Republican candidates): * Free Hosting * Unique Domain Name * Personal Email Accounts * Credit Card Processing * Unlimited Edits * Event Calendar * Volunteer Sign-up Page * Built-in Bulk Emailer Campaign Site Builder can be used for political organizations and non-profits, as well. For more information, just go to: http://www.campaignsecrets.com/websites.asp *************************************** How to Subscribe If you know someone who might like to receive News & Views, you can sign 'em up at: http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ Published by Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth Editor/Publisher 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003-4303 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Citizen Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public policy organization and does not endorse candidates or lobby for specific legislation. 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