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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (70407)	1/3/2005 8:07:21 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Two Views of Tsunami Relief: Government Doing Too Much, Not Enough cnsnews.com\Nation\archive\200501\NAT20050103a.html By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Morning Editor January 03, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - MoveOn.org, the liberal, anti-Bush advocacy group, is urging its members to help tsunami victims in South Asia because doing so is a test of global leadership -- and "the world is depending on us." But on the other side of the coin, the Ayn Rand Institute, a group that promotes the "individual rights" philosophy of author Ayn Rand, believes the U.S. government should not help tsunami victims at all. In an online message to its members, MoveOn.org said it has been inundated with requests from concerned citizens, asking "how we can push through our sadness and lend a hand" to tsunami victims. The message, dated Dec. 30, says generous Americans are ready to give -- "but the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration have made a weak initial contribution to the effort -- first offering $15 million and then $35 million when they came under pressure. Clearly, we can do more." MoveOn.org says although $35 million sounds like a lot of money, it is "insignificant," given what's needed. "To put it in perspective, we're spending $35 million in Iraq every 7 hours," the group noted. "In this hour of need, if America chooses to embrace our role as a world leader, we can have an unparalleled impact," the message says. It urges MoveOn members to pressure lawmakers to act; and it also urges Americans to donate to private relief organizations. "Now it's time for America to show its true colors. We want to be known as a nation that leads the world with compassion, generosity, and community -- not with disastrous foreign military adventures," the message said. "We are a nation that values human life, family, and extending freedom and opportunity to where it is most needed. We must now reach out in a serious way to do just that." 'Not the government's role' On the other side of the argument, David Holcberg, a research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif., says it's fine for private organizations and individuals to send money to tsunami victims, but he says the U.S. government should not give any money to tsunami victims -- "because the money is not the government's to give." In a recent commentary, Holcberg writes that the U.S. government has no right to take taxpayers' hard-earned money and give it away. "Year after year, for decades, the government has forced American taxpayers to provide foreign aid to every type of natural or man-made disaster on the face of the earth: from the Marshall Plan to reconstruct a war-ravaged Europe to the $15 billion recently promised to fight AIDS in Africa to the countless amounts spent to help the victims of earthquakes, fires and floods -- from South America to Asia," Holcberg says. Holcberg rejects the altruism by which Americans are expected to sacrifice their wealth to provide for the needs of those who did not earn it. The Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (70407)	1/3/2005 8:26:05 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Letter-writer contends election was fraudulent timesargus.com January 2, 2005 This is an open letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. James Jeffords: Thomas Paine said that the right of voting is the primary right by which all other rights are protected, and that to take away this right is to reduce a people to slavery. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced voter fraud in the recent November elections the biggest issue since Selma, Ala., where rampant voting suppression of blacks generated a civil rights march 25,000 people strong. U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, recently conducted hearings on voter fraud in the critically important swing state of Ohio. His hearing and other public hearings in Ohio have received sworn testimonies that document "thousands of complaints of voting irregularities" favoring George Bush. Election observers have testified under oath that more than a dozen voting machines switched Kerry votes to Bush votes while voters watched in amazement. In many Ohio counties there were voting machine shortages in largely Democratic precincts, leading to waits of over 10 hours to vote. There was also a Watergate-type burglary in the Lucas County Democratic campaign headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, in October, and voter turnout rates of an improbable 98.55 percent reported in parts of Miami County that voted heavily in favor of Bush. The November vote, said one observer, was "the crime of the century." A lawsuit has been filed at the Ohio Supreme Court charging that a fair vote count would give the state and the presidency to John Kerry rather than George Bush. On Dec. 21, notice of depositions were sent to President George Bush, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and others to appear and give testimony regarding the legal challenge of Ohio's election results in the case Moss v. Bush et. al. On Dec. 20, subpoenas were issued to top election officials in 10 Ohio counties where vote-count fraud is suspected. The challengers are trying to get a meaningful vote recount, but Ohio Attorney General Kenneth Blackwell, who also acted as chairman of Bush's Ohio re-election committee, does not seem to be cooperating very well. Jan. 6 is the date Congress accepts the Electoral College vote and the Republican strategy appears to be to make the Ohio recount drag on as long as possible. Voting problems in November were not limited to Ohio. Across the country over 57,000 complaints of voting violations have been reported to the House Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Government Accounting Office. Reports include voting machines in Florida and Oklahoma that were actually shown to be counting votes backwards. Most "touch screen" voting machines leave no paper trail, are relatively easy to tamper with, and hide the vote tabulating process from traditional citizen oversight. New York and California have refused to permit this technology. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 allows the presidential election to be contested on Jan. 6 if one U.S. Representative and one U.S. Senator step forward. A number of representatives are ready to do so. Sens. Leahy and Jeffords, I ask you to be the guardians of democracy. I call on you to review the evidence. This moment may be crucial for the future of our country. I urge you to be courageous and exhibit moral leadership by refusing to certify the results of the presidential election of 2004 until all of the serious allegations of fraud have been fully investigated by independent parties, especially in the states of Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico. For more information go to: freepress.org or contestthevote.org. Tad Montgomery Brattleboro