The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 306, Ed. 1 Monday, October 10, 2005 Page: 4 of 12
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Baytown Sun and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Sterling Municipal Library.
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OPINION
I I IE BAYTOWN SUN
Monday. October 10.2005
4
Cheers
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&jeers
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LITMUS TEST
‘Criminal conspiracy’
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weapons were known to be false when he
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Baytown Sun or its advertisers.
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B.G. Jennings
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FRED HARTMAN
Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
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Cheers and Jeers is a collection of quick
hits of praise and comments on local, state
and national issues compiled by The
Baytown Sun editorial board.
Government officials
Baytown
Gary Jackson,
City Manager
281-420-6501
Calvin Mundinger,
Mayor
281-424-4359
Mercedes
Renteria,
District 1
281-420-9796
Scott Sheley,
District 2 .
281-422-8008
. Brandon Capetillo,
Districts
281-424-2545
Don Murray,
„ - District 4
281-424-2300
Ronnie Anderson,
Districts
281-427-9084
W ISaptoton &uit write to us
1301 Memorial Drive, P.O. Box 90
Baytown, Texas 77522
Main: (281) 422-8302
Newsroom: (281) 425-8016
Retail: (281)425-8036
Classified: (281) 425-8008
Circulation: (281) 425-8048
Fax: (281)427-1880
. ; E-mail: sunnews@baytownsun.com
Web site: www.baytownsun.com
Sammy Mahan,
District 6
281-837-9705
Anahuac
Guy R. Jackson,
Mayor
409-267-3141, ext. 35
Beach City
Guido Persian!,
Mayor
713-949-6188
Mont Belvieu
Bryan Easum,
City Administrator
281-576-2213, ext. 223
NickDixon,
Mayor
281-385-2042
Phyllis Sockwell,
City Secretary
281-385-2266,
* ext. 224
I
-
GENE
LYONS
Washington Post’s Walter
Pincus. Most negotiated
ways of providing informa-
tion without compromising
their professional integrity.
Meanwhile, it’s become
known that White House
denials of Rove and
Libby’s involvement in
“outing” Plame to the press
have become inoperative
— whether criminally or
not remains to be seen. Bush’s vow to punish
them has been forgotten.
Then there’s Judith Miller, the flamboyant
New York Times reporter and neo-conserva-
tive pin-up girl whose discredited “exclu-
sives” on Iraq’s imaginary nuclear weapons
’ ------------
waivers provided by her sources — she never
the same information a year ago. Lawyerly
Miller had simply reconfigured her lofty
principles — possibly to avoid criminal con-
tempt charges.
Then somebody leaked Scooter’s letter to
the press. It said Miller’s truthful testimony
would actually benefit him. helpfully remind-
ing her of the legal tightrope her source is
walking: “(A)s l am sure will not be news to
you. the public report of every other
reporter’s testimony makes clear that they did
not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity
...Ixl. -- ..ill.__L-T_______-11 55 ,
See. if Scooter didn't know Plame was a
crime. It’s the incompetence.defense. The let-
dear weapons, and
David Bloom
Managing Editor
Jane Howard Lee
retired Reporter
Danielle Lynch
News Editor
Cheers
Cheers to the Goose Creek Athletic
Director Al Richard, principals and coaches
who made last week’s rescheduled Lee and
Sterling football games go off without a
hitch. The first time for both teams to play a
rescheduled game at Stallworth stadium on
the same night, both games began and
ended on time and showed our school dis-
trict’s flexibility in working around
Hurricane Rita. We only hope these two
teams can go head to head at
^The Game.”
,, To the Baytown Police Department for its
-visibility and overall good job during the
'recent hurricane. Keeping officers on the
streets and in view kept looters away from
area homes and businesses.
To the “cooler campaign,” a grassroots
effort to deliver truckloads offood to areas
of East Texas were most devastated by
Hurricane Rita. The campaign, which also
"brought flashlights, batteries, mosquito
spray and more to affected Texans, is a great
example of locals who care. Efforts like
this do not go unnoticed.
To the organizers of the 31st annual
Greater Baytown Senior Olympics, includ-
ing Lynne Foley, Lee College Senior Citizen
Program Director, 16-year veteran organizer
of the event and Harris County Precinct 2
Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and her office
for making the four-day event a success.
Additionally, Lee College Student Congress
judged the event and Outback Steakhouse,
as well as the Robert E. Lee and Ross S.
Sterling Key clubs all donated their time to
competing seniors. Described by one com-
petitor as what keeps them “up and going,”
the games served as a social, as well as
^competitive. “It’s good because we get to
’tneet each other and have a good time,”
HOW TO REACH US
Wanda Garner Cash, Publisher
wgcaSh@baytownsun.com ■
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytOwnsun.com
NEWSROOM
David Bloom, Managing Editor
david.bloom@baytownsun.corn.
Doyle Barlow, Sports Editor
doyle.barlow@baytownsun.com
Clarissa Silva, Design Editor
clarissa.silva@baytownsun.com
Danielle Lynch, News Editor
danielle.lynch@baytownsun.com
ADVERTISING
Angie Pagel, Classified Mgr.
angie.pagel@baytownsun.com
CIRCULATION
Janie Halter, Circulation Mgr.
janie.halter@baytownsun.com
The Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of
up to 500 words. Guest columns
should, include a photo of the
writer. We publish only original
material addressed to The Baytown
Sun bearing the writer's signature.
An address and phone number not
for publication should be included.
All letters and guest columns are ;
subject to editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse to pub-'
lish any submission.
Send signed letters to: Wanda
Garner Cash or David Bloom, The
Baytown Sun, P.O. Box 90,
Baytown, 77522; fax them to (281)
427-1880 or e-mail sunnews@bay-
Items featured on this page are
the views of the persons identified
, < with each submission and do not •
time, call (281) 425-8048 t5y 10 a.m. necessarily reflect the views of The
■
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
No evidence against
intelligent design
Joan Ryan’s column in
Wednesday’s Sun presents no proof
of evolution and no evidence
against intelligent design.
However, her column does illus-
trate the liberal left’s myopic infatu-
ation with it’s own self-assumed
superiority.
She tells her son to grow up and
not to be “like the idiots in Dover,
Pa.” She says the Dover hearings
display “America’s spectacular fail-
ure to produce citizens with the
ability to reason.”
Since they do not reason the way
she reasons, they lack the very abil-
ity to reason, or so she reasons. As
evidence that the people in Dover
are “tenderheaded,” she quotes a
New York Times poll that found 55
percent of the public believe “God
created humans in their current
form.” However, the poll only
proves that 55 percent of the popu-
lation sees the issue differently from
the way she sees it.
Her characterization of the major-
ity as “tenderheaded” proves only
that she lacks respect for those
whose opinions differ.
In Ryan’s world, she asserts there
is “no legitimate dispute” about the
theory of evolution.
In the real world, however, there
is much dispute.
Hundreds of legitimate scientists
(as of July 2005) have signed this
statement, “We are skeptical of
claims for the ability of random
mutation and natural selection to
account for the complexity of life.
Careful examination of the evidence
for Darwinian theory should be
encouraged.”
But Ryan says there is “no” dis-
pute. The full and impressive list
can be found at www.discovery.org,
Follow, the link under “News: Over
400 Scientists Convinced that
Darwinian Evolution is Deficient.”
For Ms Ryan to assert that these
and others are not legitimate scien-
tists is prejudicial and perhaps big-
oted to say the least. Ms Ryan rea-
sons that to “reject evolution in
teaching biology is as inane.as
rejecting quantum theory or the the-
ory of relativity in teaching
physics.”
Catchy but yes, inane. Legitimate
scientists actually teaching relativity
and quantum theory have signed the
statement quoted above! Absolutely
not existing are any scientists
objecting to quantum theory or rela-
tivity.
Evolution is simply not in the
same category with provable and
unquestionable theories such as rel-
- ativity, gravity, etc.
Perhaps this is because evolution
is actually a metaphysical theory?
Unproven and improvable because it
cannot be tested?
The scientists’statement by the
way. is absolutely all that the par-
ents and school board of Dover, Pa.
want for their kids.
With her closing comment, Ms.
Ryan only nails my point that the
liberal left is infatuated with it’s
own self-aggrandizing superiority:
“For the Dover folks, the best evi-
dence against human evolution
might be themselves.”
Her meaning is clear. These peo-
ple are inferior, hardly above the
apes. They have not evolved at all.
How arrogant.
How bigoted.
How condescending.
In my opinion, such an attitude is
out of step with American ideals Of
freedom of conscience, not to men-
tion academic freedom.
A person with an attitude of supe-
riority like hers, with such a prov-
ably low opinion like hers of ordi-
nary Americans (not to mention
respected scientists), could not pos-
sibly embrace the ideals supporting
American democracy, the govern-
ment “of the people.”
Wouldn’t she be more comfort-
able in a totalitarian dictatorship
where the “ordinary,” clearly inferi-
or and unevolved people like those
in Dover, could be told what to
think and what to believe? Perhaps
China or .North Korea?
5
I
EDITORIAL BOARD
Wanda Cash
Editor/Publisher
Jim Finley
retired Managing Editor
Doyle Barlow
Sports Editor
ered an incorruptible bulldog by Justice ;
Department colleagues, was appointed to
investigate.
Amid histrionic protests among
Washington’s journalistic establishment.
Fitzgerald persuaded several federal judges ..........
that the mystery could not be solved without indignation. The TV talking heads would be
the testimony of’reporters — < v -«■*«--.
, non-partisan professionals like The week would be “criminal conspiracy.”
Jeers
To those who committed crimes during
the Hurricane Rita mandatory evacuation.
While many were seeking refuge out of
• . • v v’ c ivun ivvvvuiiu > ivv-pvoiuvni vuviivj o viuvi
town, a crime wave washed over Baytown, of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby in particular,
with the number of burglaries jumping by <-. > . ,r-. •<
12 in the first day of the evacuation. Taking
advantage of your neighbors during this
time of panic is pathetic, at best:
The Sun encourages readers to submit
their own cheers and jeers. Cheers and
Jeers is published every Monday. Send sub-
missions to sunnews@ baytownsun.com.
One of the oddest spectacles in contempo-
rary celebrity journalism took place when
New York Times reporter Judith Miller
recently showed up on television to celebrate
her release from prison. Miller had been
jailed-for 84 days at the behest of special
counsel Patrick Fitzgerald due to her refusal
to testify in the Valerie Plame leak investiga-
tion. Plame is the CIA operative whose cover
was blown by Bush administration appa-
ratchiks in an effort to discredit her husband.
Ambassador Joe Wilson; also to warn poten-
tial whistleblowers that retribution would be
• harsh and swift.
Joe Wilson is a career diplomat who brave-
ly defied Saddam Hussein during the Gulf
War by sheltering persons the Iraqi dictator
had threatened to hang inside the U.S. ,
Embassy. But he’d earned this White House’s helped drive the nation to war. Miller said
' waivers provided by her sources—- she never
wrote a story about Plame— were the result
. of prosecutorial strong-arming, hence worth-
less to so fierce an advocate of First
Amendment press freedom as herself.
mamuivni. Accompanied by a series of passionate
Wilson had traveled to Africa at the CIA’s New York Times editorials comparing her to
behest to investigate the charge, subsequently everybody from Martin Luther King Jr. to
shown.to be based upon crudely forged docu- Gandhi, Miller went to jail, vowing to stay as
ments. The White House had to admit that long as necessary to preserve our liberty. She
Bush should never have made it. .. .
But loyalty to the regime takes precedence Whitewater holdout who said Kenneth Starr
over all competing values in this White -----
House — truth, patriotism and honor among
them. So Bush staffers leaked anti-Wilson .
smears to selected courtier journalists (of the cd her it. was OK to sing. Except Libby’s
flattery and GOP political correctpess).
r , ...
ing that Wilson couldn’t be a real man
Plame, got him the African gig — as if two
unpaid weeks in sunny Niger were a luxury
junket.
. . . The problem was that Valerie Plame was a
■ covert operative, t.e. a spy Her job was
keeping nuclear weapons out of terrorist
hands. Blowing her cover may. have been.a
federal crime, endangering her life and
exposing a crucial intelligence operation. „
Professing shock, President Bush vowed with 'me, or knew about her before our call.”
swift action against anybody involved. Firing , See, if Scooter didn't know Plame was a
would be the least of it. secret agent, “outing” her may not be a
The White House issued categorical crime. It’s the incompetence defense. The let-
denials on behalf of political mischief-maker ter also implicitly promised Miller big scoops
Karl Rove and Vice-president Cheney’s chief on, get.this, Iran’s nuclear weapons, and
„ri :uu.. closed with a poetic line reminding her that
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, consid- “(O)ut West, where you vacation, the aspens
—jwill already be turning. They turn in clusters,
because their roots connect them.”
Ponder that metaphor for a moment.
Here’s all I know: If Hillary Clinton had ■
written Susan McDougal a letter like that, the
Washington press would have exploded with
among them predicting indictments, and the phrase of the
PRODUCTION
Wayne Oxedine, Production Mgr.
wayne.oxedine@^ytownsun.com
MISS YOUR PAPER?
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enmity by publishing a New York Times col-
umn on July 6,2003, basically implying that
President Bush’s claims about Saddam’s
attempts to buy African uranium for nuclear
weapons were known to be false when he
made them. Accompanied by a series of passionate
pr‘1 1 1 j 11 . AC.' - ,1 /IT A 5_ .
behest to investigate the charge, subsequently everybody from Martin Luther King Jr. to
long as necessary to preserve our liberty. She
became the neo-con Susan McDougal, the
-..........
wanted her to lie about the Clintons.
Until last week, that is, when Miller’s
source “Scooter” Libby supposedly persuad-
kind who gain access to the powerful through lawyer insists he gave her attorneys exactly
flattery and GOP political correctpess). the same infornjation a year ago. Lawyerly
Robert Novak published a coluftm insinuat- scuffling broke- out. but it seemed clear that
o_ , ing that Wilson couldn’t be a realman
pother competitor said. That about says it because his wife, CIA operative Valeria .
a*L " Plame, got him the African gig —as if two
To the winners and the organizers,
Highlands Horizons of the Miss Highlands
and Miss Highlands Junior pageants held
last weekend. While Whitney Bell was
crowned Miss Highlands 2005, all of the
c.qntestants showed true sportsmanship and
□fcserve to be honored.
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 306, Ed. 1 Monday, October 10, 2005, newspaper, October 10, 2005; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1192035/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.