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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (605270)	8/18/2004 9:56:19 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Who Needs Assault Weapons? By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: August 18, 2004 ERIDIAN, Idaho — If you've been longing for your very own assault rifle and 30-round magazine for the next holiday season, you're in luck. President Bush, sidestepping a promise, is allowing the ban on assault rifles and oversized clips to expire on Sept. 14. So at a gun store here in Meridian, a bit west of Boise, the counter has a display promising "2 FREE HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES." All you have to do is purchase a new Beretta 9-millimeter handgun and you'll receive two high-capacity magazines - on the condition, the fine print states, that the federal ban expires on schedule. President Bush promised in the last presidential campaign to support an extension of the ban, which was put in place in 1994 for 10 years. "It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society," Mr. Bush observed at the time. These days Mr. Bush still says that he'll sign an extension of the ban if it happens to reach his desk. But he knows that the only way the ban can be extended on time is if he actually urges its passage, and he refuses to do that. So his promise to support an extension rings hollow - it's not exactly a lie, but it's not the full truth, either. Mr. Bush's flip-flop is surprising because he has generally had the courage of his convictions. Apparently he's hiding from this issue because it's so politically charged. Critics of the assault weapon ban have one valid point: the ban has more holes than Swiss cheese. "The big frustration of my customers is that [the ban] removed things that were kind of fun and made it look cool, but didn't affect how the gun operated," said Sean Wontor, a salesman who heaved two rifles onto the counter of Sportsman's Warehouse here in Meridian to make his point. One was an assault weapon that was produced before the ban (and thus still legal), and the other was a sanitized version produced afterward to comply with the ban by removing the bayonet mount and the flash suppressor. After these cosmetic changes, the rifle is now no longer considered an assault weapon, yet, of course, it is just as lethal. Still, assault weapons, while amounting to only 1 percent of America's 190 million privately owned guns, account for a hugely disproportionate share of gun violence precisely because of their macho appeal. Assault weapons aren't necessary for any kind of hunting or target shooting, but they're popular because they can transform a suburban Walter Mitty into Rambo, for a lot less money than a Hummer. "I've got a ton of customers shooting squirrels with AK-47's," said Kevin Tester, a gun salesman near Boise. "They're using 30-round magazines and 7.62-millimeter ammunition, they're shooting up the hills, and they're having a blast." I grew up on an Oregon farm that bristled with guns to deal with the coyotes that dined on our sheep. Having fired everything from a pistol to a machine gun, I can testify that shooting can be a lot of fun. But consider the cost: 29,000 gun deaths in America each year. While gun statistics are as malleable as Play-Doh, they do underscore that assault weapons are a special problem in America. They accounted for 8.4 percent of the guns traced to crimes between 1988 and 1991, and they are still used in one in five fatal shootings of police officers. If anything, we should be plugging the holes in the ban by having it cover copycat weapons without bayonet mounts, instead of moving backward and allowing a new flood of weapons and high-capacity magazines. The bottom line is that Mr. Bush's waffling on assault weapons will mean more dead Americans. About 100 times as many Americans are already dying from gunfire in the U.S. as in Iraq. As many Americans die from firearms every six weeks as died in the 9/11 attacks - yet the White House is paralyzed on this issue. Mr. Bush needs to live up to his campaign promise and push to keep the ban on assault weapons. Otherwise, we'll bring more of the Iraq-like carnage to our own shores, and his refusal to confront our gun problem will kill more Americans over time than Osama bin Laden ever could. Also:http://nytimes.com/2004/08/18/opinion/18luttwak.html

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (605270)	8/18/2004 10:10:47 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769670

Too many jokes about Kerry, not enough time...

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (605270)	8/18/2004 10:56:19 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

How McGreevey's 'Sleaze' Will Hurt Kerry and Help Bush Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004 New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey's outrageous attempt to win sympathy as a confused "gay American" instead of admitting he is a corrupt American will hurt John Kerry and help President Bush, suggests Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "The governor wrapped himself in the rainbow flag of gay rights to cover up some most unappealing warts. First, his administration has been surrounded by the stench of corruption almost from the beginning – and there is certainly more to come," Sabato writes in his popular e-mail newsletter, Crystal Ball. "Second, the people of New Jersey seemed to smell a rat virtually from the beginning of his term; McGreevey has been consistently unpopular, so low in the polls that few would have bet that he would even have been nominated by the Democrats for a second term. "Third and most important, McGreevey has led a governorship of personal sleaze. He has intentionally used two older women – his wives – and two younger women (his daughters) as props to cover up his double life. (Thanks to our correspondent Steve Wells, we were reminded of the ironic New Jersey tourism ads from the past two summers, with McGreevey holding his current wife and their daughter at the Jersey shore, while exclaiming, 'COME OUT – and see what's new in New Jersey.' Folks, you just can't make this stuff up.) As the truth unfolds, it will be abundantly clear that McGreevey's homosexuality was no recent revelation to him, but rather has been his norm in a long political career that could fairly be described as one long deception of the public for his own personal gain. Some details, if revealed, are sure to shock even the cynical among us," Sabato writes. "McGreevey's corruption, deception, and sleaze are well illustrated in his outrageous decision to appoint his male lover, an Israeli citizen, to a critical, intelligence-sensitive, and extremely well-paid post in homeland security. The taxpayers funded his extramarital relationship – not unlike the infamous 1970s case of Congressman Wayne Hays of Ohio, who put his mistress, Elizabeth Ray, on his payroll as a secretary despite the fact that, as she later revealed, she could not type. (A powerful committee chairman, Hays was forced out of his chairmanship and eventually Congress as a result.)" Even the people of New Jersey are realizing that the guv has been forced out because of his corruption, not his sexuality. Sabato doubts if the laughably corrupt Democrat-daffy land of Robert Torricelli will vote for Bush instead of Kerry, "but the Republicans can squeeze some advantage out of the messy McGreevey matter in some of the key battleground states." Democrats are so terrified of same-sex marriage, a ballot issue on 11 states in November, that in the battleground of Missouri they finagled to move up that question to the August primary to avoid damaging Kerry. Seventy-one percent of voters in the Show Me State supported the proposed constitutional amendment. The 11 states holding referenda in November include closely fought Ohio (normally a GOP state, but unpopular tax-crazed Gov. Bob Taft has damaged Bush), Arkansas, Louisiana and Oregon. "We'll bet the referenda pass everywhere, even in liberal states, and by large margins in most places. This helps George W. Bush," Sabato says. He concludes: "The Crystal Ball's Assessment: Unintentionally, Jim McGreevey's scandal has helped to raise the prominence of gay rights on the Campaign 2004 agenda across the nation. McGreevey has instantaneously become a well recognized albatross for the Democratic Party and John Kerry, and thus a plus for George W. Bush – playing into the ballot initiatives on gay marriage in crucial swing states. Oddly, then, McGreevey's coming-out is proving to be a come-down for John Kerry."