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Our Opinions At last, even some of the more balanced members of the Republican Party are finally starting to wake up to President Bush's relentless assault on personal liberties. Bush apparently thought the month before the mid-term congressional elections would be a good time to throw another terrorist wildcard. He didn't count on opposition from his own party. Bush wants to rewrite some of the standards of the Geneva Convention, the long held rules of war and prisoner treatment observed by nations worldwide. Bush wants to loosen the rules governing interrogation techniques and lessen evidence requirements for military trials. Standing up to the president are Republicans U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam; Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Lindsey Graham. In addition, former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs Colin Powell has also voiced opposition. They realize the U.S. has an obligation and standing in the world to uphold certain standards. They realize that if we discard standards, many others around the world could too quickly follow our lead and do the same. Terrorism must be fought with every single tool available to us but at the same time we should not be so quick to throw away our moral foundation and our standing in the world community for what is right. As Sen. McCain observed, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."
Secretary of State just can't get it right Poor Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley. She may have been a school teacher but she didn't teach-or apparently take-courses on public relations. Her latest goof is her hand delivering of much-needed reimbursement checks to the counties so that she can pick up a little publicity before the election. It isn't the publicity she expected. Alabama's counties were mandated by a new federal law to update voting machines and the feds even provided the money. The only thing, the machines had to be ordered early this year to be on hand for the June primaries. Some counties were forced to juggle their budgets so they could fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the upgrades. Some even had to borrow the money. Now comes word that Worley has been sitting on the funds, often for months, waiting for a chance to hand deliver the checks. She acknowledged she mailed some but all could have been mailed and the counties would have their funds in hand by now. This is just another example of the ineptness that has marked Worley's term. She has made too many mistakes-she won't or can't work with county board of registrars, she's fired or had quit too many staffers to count who claim she is dictatorial, arrogant and vindictive. She's screwed up far more than she's gotten right over the past four years and has made the Secretary of State's office a joke. We are voting for her opponent, Republican Beth Chapman in November. Or more, correctly, we are voting against Nancy Worley.
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