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KNIGHT IN SLIGHTLY TARNISHED ARMOUR “Freedom is a lonely battle, but if the United States doesn’t lead it - sometimes imperfectly, but mostly with honor - who will?” - Columnist Cal Thomas THEY WOULDN’T USE A BOMB, WOULD THEY? “Terrorists are attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction. If they get them they will try to use them. Their brutal slaying of a single American with a knife is a demonstration of what they are eager and planning to do to millions of innocent Americans with such weapons.” - Washington Times editorial, 5/14/04 ANTI-WAR RHETORIC HARMING TROOP MORALE “The Marines fought hard in Fallujah and took a lot of very evil people out of the fight. That effort, and the associated loss of Marine lives, was not in vain. . . . (However), we're reading that everyone back home is starting to lose faith in our efforts in Iraq. The last CBS poll put the numbers under 50 percent for the first time. I know that doesn't mean a loss in support for the troops, but supporting 'the troops' while not supporting the mission doesn't do much for us.” - Unnamed Marine Corps officer, “Inside the Ring,” 5/14/04 HEADS HAVE ROLLED “Those who are wringing their hands and shouting so loudly for 'heads to roll' over [the Iraq prison abuse] seem to have conveniently overlooked the fact that someone's head has rolled — that of another innocent American brutally murdered by terrorists. Why is it that there's more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all?" - Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat WHERE THE WAR CAN BE LOST “Victory in Iraq will come neither quickly nor easily. But unlike World War II or the Civil War, this is a war we cannot lose on the battlefield. This is a war we can only lose at the ballot box.” - Columnist Jack Kelly THE FIFTH COLUMN “The American Civil War was not about conditions in Andersonville prison and the war in Iraq is not about conditions in Abu Ghraib prison. . . . When our troops are putting their lives on the line for this country, thousands of miles away, surely it is not too much to ask of the rest of us back home to act like adults and put things in perspective — even during an election year. That includes the media. Sometimes the fourth estate seems more like a fifth column.” - Columnist Thomas Sowell THEY’RE NO ANGELS “They’re not there for traffic violations. If they’re in cell block 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they’re murderers, they’re terrorists, they’re insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands.” - Sen. James Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican APPLES AND ORANGES “The dismembered and charred corpses of American contractors dangling over the Euphrates River, in comparison to the abuse committed by a few soldiers at Abu Ghraib, are like the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer compared to Heidi Fleiss.” - Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican WHERE THE BUCK STOPS “Prison guard Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, who took photographs of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq...said the mistreatment was not authorized by higher-ups in the chain of command. ‘Our command would have slammed us,’ he said. ‘They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on there would have been hell to pay.’” - Washington Times, 5/15/04 RUMMY MUST STAY “Whether (Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) chose to leave on his own volition or was fired, the world would see it as President Bush firing him. . . . It probably would cost him the presidency.” - Columnist Tony Blankley THOSE WHO FAIL TO REMEMBER HISTORY… On Thursday, “presumptive” Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry boasted that “when Bill Clinton left office not one young American in uniform was dying in a war anywhere in this world.” Yeah, most were dead already. As House Majority Leader Tom DeLay notes, “under the policies in the 1990s, we suffered six dead at the World Trade Center bombing, 19 dead of the Khobar Towers, 224 dead in the Africa embassy bombings, 17 sailors dead on the USS Cole, and within months, 3,000 dead on 9/11." Like that poor guy at the end of the circus, President Bush, shovel in hand, has been forced to clean up the mess left behind by his predecessor. What we DON’T need is another Clinton Democrat in office to undo all the house-cleaning that’s been done since 2001. TIME FOR SACRIFICE One of our biggest objections to how the war on terrorists has been handled has nothing to do with how the administration has proceeded to drain the swamp, but in how it has failed to reign in unnecessary and/or unconstitutional domestic government spending to offset the cost of the war. The White House seems to believe we can have guns AND butter...and financially, as the economy recovers, maybe we can. But we shouldn’t. There is a lot of government pork which should be excised from the budget menu regardless of whether or not we can “afford” it. And there’s no better place to start than the useless U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This panel has been out of control for years under the “leadership” of big-time Democrat chairwoman Mary Frances Berry. Its history of hostility to everything Republican and conservative is too long to list here. And its dysfunctional financial operation has now resulted in a request to “buy out” a number of staffers in order to avoid layoffs due to “dire financial circumstances.” The organization’s $9 million annual budget hasn’t been audited in 9 years, and Lord only knows how these wingnuts have misspent the taxpayers’ money. The first rule for getting yourself out of a hole is to stop digging. So rather than trying to figure out how they misspent the money while they continue to misspend the money, just pull the plug on this turkey. How many bullet-proof vests could we buy for the troops in Iraq with $9 million? And that’s exactly how the administration should put it. Ditto the money going into the National Endowment for the Arts. The list is endless. It’s crazy to continue operating as though we can have our cake and eat it, too. And even if we could, we shouldn’t. Time to break out the budget ax. What other federal programs and/or expenditures do you think Uncle Sam should zero out or dramatically reduce in order to help pay for the war and Iraqi reconstruction? Add your suggestions to the list by visiting our Discussion Board at: http://blog.chuckmuth.com/blog/ SHOOT FIRST...ASK QUESTIONS LATER Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, is fed up with the slow pace of arming pilots to protect the cockpits in today’s unfriendly skies. One of the monkey wrenches gumming up the works is Thomas Quinn, director of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Mr. Quinn, in what Rep. Wilson called a “ridiculous” internal memo, voiced objections to allowing guns in cockpits because “the pilot receives no training in interview techniques.” Interview techniques? “We’re not proposing they interview the terrorists as they storm the cockpit,” says Wilson. “Let’s get serious.” OPENING PANDORA’S BOX “…(T)he 17th Amendment...is the provision that provides for popular election of senators. Few people today know that the Founding Fathers never intended for senators to be popularly elected. The Constitution originally provided that senators would be chosen by state legislatures. . . . The 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913. It is no coincidence that the sharp rise in the size and power of the federal government starts in this year.” - Columnist Bruce Bartlett GETTING IT BASS ACKWARDS The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) ruled last Thursday that we were already too far into the 2004 campaign season to make any major changes to the campaign cash status quo. As such, it postponed a decision on whether or not various Democrat “527” organizations, such as MoveOn.org, were violating the McCain/Feingold law by using “soft” money (corporate and union donations) for ads and such in federal races for president and Congress. “Bush-Cheney campaign Chairman Marc Racicot and Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie called the FEC decision irresponsible,” reported the Washington Times on Friday, “and says it destroys the campaign-finance regulations passed in 2002.” We can only hope so. We need MORE political debate in this country, not less. McCain/Feingold should never have been passed by a Republican Congress or signed by a Republican White House in the first place. Now maybe the GOP will cut loose their own “527s” and begin competing in the arena rather than whining and complaining about how “unfair” it is for George Soros to give $15 million to defeat George Bush. But don’t hold your breath waiting. SURVEY SAYS! Should the Senate block the confirmation of Dawn Tisdale, a former postal union official from a spot on the board which regulates the postal service? * Yes * No * I’m a Kerry Democrat...Yes AND No Cast your vote by clicking the “Survey Says!” tab at www.citizenoutreach.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Chuck Muth’s News & Views is published by Citizen Outreach, a non-partisan, 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. 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 Citizen Outreach, its officers, directors or employees. 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