The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 14

4B Monday, August 12, 2002 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean.com 3 M1DSTATE 'Horn-honker' is among candidates sounding off go ahead and vote for the largest "I don't care where thev came ster Labs a local Web technology company employee Political experience: Activist for positive social change his constituents to a state income tax, he said, and many people are unhappy about the way the past two or three legislative sessions have gone. People want to know their government is being run well on existing revenues, Odom said, and he wants the legislature's Fiscal Review Committee to resume its watchdog role and become more involved in looking into mismanagement and waste. "Over the last eight years, I think there has been a coziness that existed between some of the legislative leadership and the current governor that has resulted in not a real effective watchdog approach being takan by the appropriate committees of the General Assembly," Odom said. from, if they are from Manchester, England, or Lower Slobovia if they are here illegally, they need to apply or get out," he said. Brown said he also would sponsor legislation to freeze homeowners' property taxes when they reach age 65.

Jones said she decided to seek another term because more things need to be done for children and state government needs to be made more efficient. Jones said Brown was inexperienced. "He has not ever been involved in the community or attended any sort of community meeting I have attended. I honestly have no idea what his issues are." Candidates Wood said the legislature needed to put more focus on edu-catioa "We can't continue to pay the lowest per-student amount and expect to have excellent results," she said. "I was very disturbed at recent TCAP scores.

Even though they went up a bit, the discrepancy in socioeconomic groups and between white students and students of color is unacceptable. We need to focus on ways to improve the scores of our students of color." Wood said she thought she had a shot at beating Harwell because reapportionment made the district more Democratic than it had been in the past. Harwell also faces opposition from Thomas F. O'Connell, 25, a local Web technology company employee, who says in campaign literature that he is "concerned that we have allowed Tennessee's budget crisis to be ignored in favor of an unhealthy debate about taxes." "This should not be a debate about taxes vs. no taxes; this should be a debate about priorities and efficiency." District 56 candidates Beth Halteman Harwell tax increase in ennessee ior a system that most everybody agrees isn't working.

"If you are not happy with the way government is providing services at present, why would you want to give them another $1 billion?" Backs quoted former TennCare Director Brian Lapps as saying that TennCare is such a mess because the legislature does not have the will to change it West said he voted for legislation to improve the delivery of TennCare and to impose restrictions on who receives it. West said he voted against a state income tax but voted for the tax package that passed to end a shutdown of state government services. "The reason was, there were 22,000 state employees out of work. Health services, educational services, safety services were in jeopardy." West said he was prepared to vote for repeal of the tax "at the proper time." "I am proud of my 18 years of service to the Donelson, Hermitage and Antioch communities," West said. "Regarding my opponent, he only shows up every two years to rua He has resigned from every club he joined in order to get elected, and he hasn't been seen at a function in two years," West said.

1 Sherry Jones Age: 53 Address: 4947 Sherman Oaks Drive, Nashville Political affiliation: Democrat Occupation: Part-time consultant Political experi Candidates Gary Odom Age: 50 Address: 119 Dunham Springs Lane Political affiliation: Democrat Occupation: Association executive director JONES ODOM By DUREN CHEEK Staff Writer One legislative candidate acknowledges that he was a hom-honker, joining the parade of cars honking horns as they circled the War Memorial Legislative Plaza to protest the legislature's income tax deliberations. Other candidates are, being labeled as "do-nothings." And it wouldn't be an election without a rematch or two. Here's a look at how some of the campaigns are shaping up: Local performing arts theater owner Shannon Woods said she decided to oppose veteran Republican Rep. Beth Halteman Harwell because Harwell did not represent her views. She said she found herself complaining a lot about politics and she decided to impress on her children that it was important not only to complain but also to act Wood said she and Harwell, who also serves as chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, held opposite views on many issues.

"I am a pro-choice candidate and she recently supported a bill that would have taken a woman's right to choose away in Tennessee," Wood said. "She was a member of the 'Do-Nothing Caucus' and I find that inexcusable for a legislator. She had not voted for anything down to the point where the legislature shut us down. "To say we ought to have cuts without following through on what those cuts are Ls not acceptable." Harwell said Wood was correct about her anti-abortion stand, but she said Wood's other criticisms were unfounded. "I think I have worked very hard on the committee that looked at reducing the size of government or offering programs that could be reduced in size or eliminated," Harwell said.

"I worked on a bill to reform TennCare, and ultimately I did support what I thought was the best alternative in what was the current budget crisis." According to Wood's campaign material, Harwell said, Wood is not only for an income tax but also for a graduated income tax. "I don't know anybody who thinks the federal income tax is fair," she said. Harwell said she was "very much in touch" with the values of 1 the district. Political experience: 16 years in legislature, 12 years on Metro ence: Eight years in House and eight years on Metro Council J. Brown Age: 50 Address: 3807 Ezell Road, Nashville Political affiliation: Republican Occupation: Actorwriter Political experience: None House District 55 "I apologize for saying this, but I'm a horn honker," Remo Circo, the Republican challenging veteran Democratic Rep.

Gary Odom in the 55th District, said last week. Circo was on the ballot not only as a legislative candidate but as a Republican candidate for the seat that US. Rep. Bob Clement gave up to run for the Senate. "It is just as easy to lose two elections as it is to lose one," Circo said.

Circo is a frequent observer at legislative committee meetings and confessed to joining those driving around the Legislative Plaza honking their horns to protest legislature's adopting any new or increased taxes. He has some serious issues. He said the legislature "broke my heart" by rejecting measures to have recorded votes in committees and subcommittees. He said that there needed to be a better explanation of what happens to unspent money that state departments turn in at the end of the fiscal year, called an "overappropriatioa" "Gary Odom is a good old boy. I can't say anything bad about him.

But there are so many people who have been up there so long. We need some new people up there, new blood. I am not saying that about Gary." Odom said he wanted to have the opportunity to work with the next governor to try to fix some of the problems with TennCare. The state has never had a handle on TennCare eligibility, and eligibility determination should be made by an independent outside agency, he said. "Those are issues I have worked on for a number of years and obviously have not had much support out of the administration for the past eight years on those issues," he said.

Odom said he also wanted to do more work on behalf of home-based health care. "I am just hopeful with new leadership in the governor's office we can do more in those areas than we have been able to do in the last eight years," he said. There is a lot of opposition from Age: 45 Address: 42 Wyn Oak Political affiliation: Republican Occupation: State legislator, assistant professor and state Republican Party Remo Circo Age: 74 Address: 214 Old Hickory Blvd. Political affiliation: Republican Occupation: Retired history teacher HARWELL Candidates Ben West Jr. Age: 61 Address: 4013 Port Cleburne Lane, Hermitage Political affiliation: Democrat (V-rjinatinrv Presi CIRCO chairman Political experience: Served in the House since 1988 Political experience: Campaign 1 1 i I WOOD House District 60 There's a rematch in House District 60, where Republican Dave Backs is again challenging incumbent Democratic Rep.

Ben West Jr. for the Hermitage-Donelson seat in the legislature. Backs lost to West in the 2000 election and may face a decidedly uphill battle in the strongly Democratic district again this year. Backs is critical of West's voting for the largest state tax increase in history, the $933 million tax package approved by the legislature last month, and not doing more to improve TennCare. The tax package raised the sales tax in Davidson County from 8.25 to 925.

"TennCare, that is the money pit, that is what needs to be reformed," Backs said. "Nothing has happened. That's the problem. What Ben has said is we have all these problems, but I am going to Shannon Wood Age: 44 Address: 2616 Wayland Court Political affiliation: Democrat Occupation: Owner, Darkhorse Theater Political experience: Ran for U.S. Senate in 2000 Thomas F.

O'Connell Age: 25 Address: 6501 Harding Road, Apt. B1 Political affiliation: Independent Occupation: Mon- dent of three corpo- WEST rations, armored car transporter, security company and anytime teller machines Political experience: 1 8 years in state House Dave Backs Age: 54 Address: 291 7 Crystal Springs Lane, Hermitage Political affiliation: Republican Occupation: Self-employed Political experience: Ran for the legislature in 2000 Duren Cheek covers state government for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 726-4889 or e-mail dcheektennessean.com. Photos of B.J. Brown and Dave Backs -'-were unavailable at press time.

House District 59 Democratic Rep. Sherry Jones, seriously injured in an auto accident earlier this year, is campaigning for her fifth two-year term in the House. She only started walking without crutches two weeks ago and said she had been unable to do as much door-to-door campaigning as she would like. Jones is opposed in the general election by Republican B.J. Brown, who said he decided to run because he did not think any candidate should be unopposed.

Brown said more laws are needed to stop illegal immigration. O'CONNELL PAID ADVERTISEMENT WILSON You deserve afactuallook 71A The Unrelenting and Virulent Hatred of the Arabs Will peace ever be possible under those conditions! Alter over fifty years of statehood, Israel is a lone outpost of Western civilization and its values. The Arab nations surrounding it are a swamp of terrorism, corruption, dictatorship, and human enslavement. But the hatred of the Arabs against Israel and against all Jews is so abiding and so virulent that peace, at least for the foreseeable future, seems to be most unlikely. Mt.

Juliet officer's death an apparent suicide motorist reported seeing the officer slumped over the steering wheel Mack said it is uncertain when Hensley was shot "He had been there some period" of time when he was found, the mayor said. WARREN DUZAK A Mt. Juliet police officer found yesterday shot with a gun apparently committed suicide, city officials said. "The indications are consistent with self-infliction," Mt. Juliet Mayor Kevin Mack said last night.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and the Wilson County Sheriffs Department are investigating the shooting, but it appears that Kevin Hensley used his own weapon to shoot himself once in the chest, Mack said. Hensley, who Mack said was in his mid-to-late 30s, had stopped on the side of Interstate 40 in his patrol car. About 6:15 p.ra, a What are the facts? No "Sacrifice" Will Overcome the Haired: Many still be licve that the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews could be settled if the Israelis were willing to bring greater "sacrifices for Such "sacrifices" would include relinquishing ever-larger portions of their tiny country (less than half the size of San Bernardino County in California) to the Palestinians, dismantling the "settlements" in JudeaSamaria (the "West handing the Golan Heights to Syria, and allowing the "return of the refugees" a group that has grown miraculously from about 500,000 to somewhere around 5 mil Mortal Hatred and the "Big The "big lie," invented by the notorious Joseph Goebbels of Nazi infamy, is a mainstay of Arab hatred and propaganda. In Egypt and Jordan (the two Arab countries technically at peace with Israel), government -controlled news sources published that Israel had distributed drug-laced chewing gum and candy to kill children and to make women sexually corrupt. The Jews (Israelis) are being accused of having introduced foot and mouth disease in the Middle East.

The age-old calumny of Jews using the blood of Christian and Moslem children in order to bake their Passover matzos is alive and well in Arab publications. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an egregious falsifica lion, and the absorption of Israel's only course. to assume its previous even a substantial fraction ft: 1 i i. tion originating in Czarist Russia, is a steady best-seller in all Arab countries. Among other malevolent fabrications, it accuses "internal ion- of which would signify the ul uiu iiutmug nui lo ue demographic end of the preempt resolutely if it appears necessary to assure survival of the country." Jewish stale.

But by now, after almost two years of GUTTER PROTECTION SYSTEMS Attaches to your existing gutters Gutter Helmet Saves You More Money And You'll Never Clean Your Gutters Ever! Here is how we do it: 1- We 00 N0T Repace Your Existing Cutters. 2. We Simply Add a Protective Cutter Helmet Here is how we save 1. You Save 50 by Using you more money: Existing Gutters. Roofing Manufacturers Endorse Cutter Helmet al Jewry" of "limitless ambiiion, inexhaustible greed, and hatred beyond imagination." In the controlled Arab press, Holocaust denial and accusation of the Zionists having been in cahoots with the German Nazis are regular features.

Egypt's government-sponsored Al Akhbar newspaper has expressed fervent thanks to Adolf Hitler for having taken advance revenge on the "vilest criminals on the face of the earth." Still, it berates him for not having been thorough enough in his task of extermination. The Arabs do not consider Israel a normal country, but a creation of the devil, an excrescence, a malignant force of aggressors, murderers, infidels and barbarians. It should be destroyed, for the glory of God, no matter what sacrifices that might entail. Mortal hatred against Israel and against the Jews is taught to Arab children from the very first grade. Children are encouraged to sacrifice themselves as martyrs and suicide missiles, with promises that Paradise with unimaginable pleasures awaits those who sacrifice themselves in the holy cause of killing Jews.

the bloody war against Israel in the Al Aksa Intifada, it is clear to even the most confirmed to even the most ardent supporters of the "Oslo Peace Process," that absolutely nothing that Israel could do, any further "sacrifice" that Israel were prepared to bring would satisfy the Arabs and would promote peace. The sad but irrefutable conclusion is that only the complete disappearance of Israel, its annihilation, its being wiped off the map could satisfy the Arabs and most of the Moslem world. During his recent visit to Syria, not too long ago, the Pope listened to Bashar al-Asad, the President of Syria, declare that Jews have betrayed Jesus Christ, with the same mentality with which they tried to betray and kill the prophet Mohammed." (Disappointingly, the Pope did not protest this canard, either right then or at a later date.) Saddam Hussein, the tyrant of Iraq, expressed the wishes of his country and of the Arab world with the succinct entreaty "God damn the Jews." This bottomless hatred, a hatred that pervades the Arab world in all strata of society and is incessantly fomented by Arab governments, including those supposed to be "at peace" with Israel, cannot be assuaged by negotiation or by making any further "sacrifices for Nothing will suffice, except the destruction, the complete disappearance of Israel. The Arab states, having been unable in over fifty years and in many wars to defeat and exterminate the hated Jews, are now feverishly arming themselves with "conventional weapons" (easily purchased from the West, including, sad to say, from the United States), and are ardently pursuing the development of weapons of mass annihilation. Just as the suicide bombers do not vacillate to sacrifice themselves, one can safely expect that, once in possession of such weapons, the Arabs will not hesitate to sacrifice millions of their own people in order to destroy Israel.

Israel's only course in the face of this almost certain prospect is to assume its previous stance of unflinching deterrence and, as it once did in the destruction of the Iraqi atomic reactor at Osirak in 1981, not to be inhibited by "international opinion" to preempt resolutely if it appears necessary to assure survival of the country. (Gutter Helmef CH Jheirs ferns' ja Senior Citizens This ad hat been published and paid (or by FLAME Call now fcr a Free Estimcto I nicnnnnt flunilnhln' FLAME itx extmpt, non-profit educational 501(c)(3) organization. Ms purpose fa the reiearch and publication ol the tacts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests ot the United Stales and its allies in that area ot the world. Your tax-deductible contributions ere welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines.

We have virtually no overhead. Almost all ol our revenue paya tor our educational work, tor thase clarifying messagea, and lor related direct mail. r-n rtt 615-367-4101 Facts and Logic About the Middle Bast P.O. Box 590359 San Francisco.CA 94 159 Gerardo Joffe, President TO Expirai 08-1802 L.j ifentht mm ttsJi wltfc iffnmi crO. 1.