St. Lucie News Tribune from Fort Pierce, Florida (2024)

July 8, 1998

Publication:

St. Lucie News Tribunei

Location:

Fort Pierce, Florida

Issue Date:

Wednesday, July 8, 1998

Page:

6

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

OPINION WEDNESDAY JULY 8y 1998 Sting arrests about money publicity A6B THE TRIBUNE THOllillDiilE fThis newspaper is dedicated to furnishing information to our readets so that they can better promote and preserve their own freedom and encourage others to see its blessings Only if in politics As long as there is a cloud over Jeb head he should withdraw his candidacy for governor of Florida Before it becomes a thunder storm Thist me Matthew Miller Port St Lucie A Freedom Newspaper serving St Lucie County since 1903 Maureen Saltzer Gawel publisher Anthony Westbury acting editor -Michael Goforth editorial page editor Lynn Ferraro operations manager 1 Sherri Propls advertising director Kathy LeClalr business manager Don Hornbeck circulation director Jeannette Walsh promotionscommunity relations Editorial If you are offered sex and the person doing the offering robs you of $500 you would probably call the police Except the solicitor for sex and the robber is the police That is what a police sex sting is They solicit sex and then arrest you The police want you to believe they curbed crime Sorry but they created a crime where there was not one They surely are as guilty because they conspired to create misbehavior! A person who drives a vehicle during the committing of any crime is a co-conspirator and is equally guilty Obviously if the police solicit sex they instigate misbehavior early the crime here is police misbehavior and they do it for money and publicity The publicity because the gullible public believes the police are arresting The criminal behavior is done by police soliciting the If men looking for sex is a crime then most healthy men are surely This is illegal taxation Police get $500 bailiff gets $50-75 cab fare is $20 and attorney gets This is a phony guise for money There is no justice here just a scam Police whom we are misled to believe protect us rob us and call it crime fighting Entrapment is against the law but police are not required to obey the law Did I hear someone say we have constitutional rights? Sorry but those have been dispensed with by the police Senior vice officer says once you leave the sanctity of your home you are subject to arrest and I get to decide what the charges will be and the prosecutors are backing me up Citizens are expected to be law-abiding but it is not required of police Soliciting citizens to break the law for the sole purpose of arresting them for money is certainly a crime a gullible citizen-approved robbery George Atkinson Fort Pierce Workshops allow public input on plan Quote Jeb Bush "You either trust me or you Who does he sound like? Why did Dave Eller pick Jeb Bush as his business partner? Could it be because of Jeb connections? Jeb Bush claims he never spoke to anyone in federal government about moving water pump industries Someone did But who? Jeb Bush went to Nigeria after his inauguration The Nigerians rolled out the red caipet Why? Could it be because of Daddy George? Jeb Bush said he earned from sales in eight foreign countries Jeb Bush also stated he offered financial advice to the companies What bank did he recommend? Brother bank? Jeb Bush refuses to divulge his business associates What is there to hide? He claims his business associates are entitled to some measure of privacy There was a Siuestion whether Jeb Bush was paid or his name or his ability to sell water pumps I repeat could it be because of Daddy George? In 1994 Jeb Bush sold his shares from Bush-' El to David Eller Tbtal proceeds from the sale were $64250 Where can you start a new business and in a short period of time profit $648250? office? Why is Jeb Bush running again for governor of Florida? he learn ms lesson from the last election? Remember Jeb father former president George Bush and his famous last words before he was elected Thist me read my lips no new taxes As soon as he was elected he raised taxes Quote Mrs Bush she's glad her sons are in politics they worked hard in business They sure did with the help of connections They have one son Neil involved in the Silverado Bank scandal in Denver What was the outcome? Hush Hush The have another son who is the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team What financed him? They have another son George governor of Texas who has aspirations of being our next president Remember when Jeb Bush was running for governor of Florida in the last elections and lost I was never so disgusted with a candidate as when Jeb Bush was debating live on TV with Governor Chiles He spoke to the TV viewers in Spanish I was wondering if Jeb Bush was running for governor of Florida or Mexico? Cheap shot to get the Mexican vote Clinton motivations deserve scrutiny President Clinton obviously has an agenda of his own He did not heed the conventional wisdom of the US government or the people about the signals peace-nicking in England and visiting Moscow would send the Viet Cong who were killing our boys in Vietnam and he seem to have any consideration for the freedom fighters who were massacred in Tiananmen Square Do you remember when Soviet Khrushchev visited this country at the height of the cold war and was driven in a motorcade down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol or more precisely what followed in the wake of that event? 1 Allow me to remind you Russia began stockpiling missiles with atom- ic warheads aimed at the US in Cuba Our battle is against powers and principalities and not the flesh President Clinton is a proud stubborn and highly-educated individual who believes he knows better than everyone else Even as the ambassador from Japan was talking peace and their navy was on their way to Pearl Harbor for a surprise attack Khrushchev was here to soften American sentiments in preparation for the installation of missile bases in Cuba visit to Tiananmen Square gives a boost to the present regime and will assuredly adversely affect the process of ousting the communists The way communism advances is by people usually intellectuals with power opening doors from within Only God can judge motiva- turn for visiting Moscow and whether or not he was giving comfort to the enemy during the war with the Vietnamese but allowing first-class missile technology to go to China in light of such large campaign contributions not to mention interference in the balance of power with India smells a little like a red herring or in the least some kind of New Age agenda Clinton has other credits like Gen-nifer Flowers Paula Jones more recently Lewinsky and others Then you have dose associates of his like the McDougals Webster Hubbell and the former governor of Arkansas all having served or serving jail sentences How about the vanishing papers that appear on a White House end table out of thin air and the White House attorney who lifts the files of Vincent Foster before the police or anyone else has a chance to make a thorough investigation into the cause of his death? The list goes on John Hrach Fort Pierce St Lucie County is in the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan a detailed policy statement and guide for how the county will proceed toward its future In conjunction with that process the county will hold public workshops on the plan on Thursday and on July IS both from 7 to 9 pm in Room 101 of the County Administration Building The present Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1990 The update is to get the plan into compliance with new state regulations and to consider new objec- tives and policies desired by county residents The process and the plan itself may sound a bit boring filled with technical jargon and bureaucratic mumbo jumbo But it represents the county's vision of what the county should be And that should be important to all who have a stake in the county's future In addition according to the formal notice of the public workshops: "Matters affecting your personal and property rights may be heard and acted That should get the attention of citizens but it may not Certainly special interest groups will be sure their opinions are heard by county commissioners and staff important however for representatives of varying opinions and for average citizens to also be heard The county has issued the invitation It make people respond The Comprehensive Plan is what its name says comprehensive Among its major elements are future land use including commercial development along major corridors and conservation of sensitive land traffic circulation including bicycle paths mass transit and the county airport housing needs infrastructure including stormwater utilities and water attenuation areas coastal management recreation and open space including management of conservation areas capital projects which will be totally revised from the 1990 plan and economic development The workshops this week and next week are designed to receive input from the public prior to drafting of the proposed revised plan Citizens we assume will also have the opportunity to comment on the draft However now is the time for interested members of the public to get in their opinions early so they may be incorporated into the draft When personal rights and property rights may be changed through policies being proposed by the county we would hope citizens would take notice and respond Without public response the greatest input that commissioners may have may be from special interest groups and county staff Much more than that is needed Mdwllycom Two sides to same counterfeit coin Campaign consultants and journalists need to recognize responsibilities to public their own and eager to advance their own careers by "taking any candidate or officeholder they happen to cover The journalists were able to back their assertions with a survey taken by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in conjunction with the campus session That poll of 200 consultants found that while they blame the news media for voter cyni- David Broder cism they are nearly unanimous in finding nothing wrong in the negative campaigns they devise Large majorities of them find it perfectly accept- table for the better part of a day and discuss the provocative question "Can Democracy Survive The versity where consultants and journalists alike are required to face their Eublic responsibilities but this time public Otherwise we will continue to blame each other without changing a thing As long as consultants define their purpose entirely by their won-and-lost record whatever damage their tactics do to public confidence in the political system things will only get worse And as long as journalists focus entirely on who wins and how ignoring the fact that most voters care more about the policies that emerge that will affect their lives there can be no improvement The reporters are right that consultants must take more responsibility for the character of the campaigns they run And the consultants are right that reporters and editors need to stop playing with meaningless campaign gaffes and focus on informing voters on the policies candidates propose and their records of delivering on them The cynicism of the consultant community and the cynicism of the press are two sides of the same counterfeit coin And the price can be measured in public disillusionment with our precious heritage of representative government David Broder is a Washington Post Writers Group columnist WASHINGTON The signal fact about the coming campaign and all campaigns in this era is that virtually everything voters see and hear will be generated by people who have no direct responsibility for governing the country and no real accountability to the public Almost all the information and impressions that go into the electorate's decisions come either from campaign consultants employed by the candidates parties and interest' groups or from reporters covering them They are accountable to their individual employers but none of them has to answer to the voters This is not new but it takes on increased importance when each election cycle brings stronger evidence that the campaigns as engineered by these consultants and reported by these journalists are turning off voters not encouraging their participation What also has become clear thanks to an experiment conducted by American University here last month is that the two groups implicated in this turnoff would rather blame each other for the problems than accept responsibility for the damage both are doing to confidence in this system of representative government Professors James A Thurber and Lewis Wolf son of American University invited a number of consultants and political reporters to sit at the same MIIWIMJIJUMT Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit able to run races that focus primarily on criticizing the opponent and emphasize tiie personality of their own candidate more than his or her positions on issues The consultants at the campus session had no comparable data on journalists but said they need a survey to know everything they need to know about the character of the people they deal with every day Reporters they told the pollsters are getting worse And so they say are the candidates Given the attitudes held by the people who generate what the public sees hears and reads about a campaign only an incurable optimist would suggest a quick fix is sight for the dismally low trust in our system of choosing our leaders The first step clearly is to create more situations like the one at American Uni portion I heard and the reports about the rest of the day involved far more finger-pointing than agreement The academics decreed the session off-the-record so I may not quote anyone But the counterpoint of the debate went this way: The press blames the consultants for sanitizing and almost robotizing their candidate-clients walling them off from real scrutiny avoiding unscripted situations while at the same time savaging their opponents with innuendos and negative attacks cynically willing to win at any cost The consultants for their part describe the reporters as shallow opportunists totally uninterested in policy ideas prone to exaggerate conflict or create it where it exist distrustful of motives but Romans 8:5 PRAYER: Dear God direct our lives toward you and lead us to serve one another so that we may find peace Amen CopyrigN IMS by (w Upper Room PO Bon 1M Nuhtrila 1km 37202-01 BB UMdbypvnmca.

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