The Signal from Santa Clarita, California • 5

Tuesday, October 3, 2006 THE SIGNAL A5 Senior Editor Leon Warden Bob Englehart Pelosi Plan: Another tee for 'Cut and Hurt' COUNT OFF TEN PACES TURN, )) WJ))i Views: Letters to the Editor while driving. Half of these drivers also admitted that text-messaging or talking on a cell phone while driving is extremely distracting. Using a cell' phone in any capacity at any age is a distraction and can lead to an accident. The best way to avoid fines and higher insurance premiums is to simply hang up and drive. Ronald Hamilton Valencia Via the Internet (www.the-signal.com) AND POINT.

rsrjmi Your Why Didn't They Do a Better Job With Day Fire? Editor: Over the past few weeks, the Day Fire has become an aspect of everyday life in Santa Clarita. I would be interested to know why it (is taking) so long for the fire to be put out? Why didn't the Forest Service handle this better? One of my cross country league meets was canceled, along with other sport events, due to this fire, and I'm sure many other people in the Santa Clarita were upset, as well. Could you please tell me what was done by the Forest Service to stop this fire? What mistakes can be avoided in the future? Chris Peterson Valencia Via the Internet (www.the-signal.com) Cell Use While Driving Can Cost More Than $20 Editor: Dialing, text messaging and chatting on the phone while driving became more expensive when Gov. Schwarzenegger signed SB 1613 into "free speech zone," a restricted, fenced-in area, blocks away from any embarrassing interaction with the subject of protesters' complaints. That means protesters can have free speech only in a certain, confined locale.

When I was a kid, there were no such limits on free speech. Do you feel your rights and freedoms being taken away? It's time to defend America. "We need a common enemy to unite us" (Condoleeza Rice). Then there's torture. Bush gets Congress to make a law stating that the only way "we" will follow the Geneva Convention rules on torture is to provide our own definitions of the words.

It's only torture if we say it is. And the "we" isn't "we the people" or even the Congress of the United States. It's Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld's secret interrogators who make up the rules as they go. If Bush says it's torture, it is; if not, it isn't. That's worse than a king.

That's a dictator. It's time to defend America. "A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader" (Plato, 429-347 B.C.) After G.W. took office in January 2001, he languished for eight months. Although there were plenty of hints of a pending terrorist attack such as the daily briefing memo about bin Laden determined to attack America the Bush administration talked little and acted less on terrorism or Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida.

They did have those plans to attack Iraq, however, but didn't know how or when to implement them. "The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Prop-agamki must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious. The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them-over and over" (Nazi Propaganda Leader Joseph P. Gocbbels, 1 897-1 945).

Then came Sept. 1 1, and Bush couldn't believe his good fortune when terrorists flew into the twin towers. Now he could sell any lie he wanted to the Amer You may admire the Pelosi Plan for Iraq or despise it, but nobody can ignore it. It lays out a program for.resolving America's problems in that tormented nation that is squarely at odds with President Bush's grim determination to "stay the course." It has provided the Demo cratic Party with a clear road map for future action that they can present to the American people, and it is bound to have an important influence, for better or worse, on the coming congressional elections and (far more important) on the outcome of the titanic struggle in the Middle East. Democrats, of course, hail the Pelosi Plan as a brilliant solution to America's current military dilemma in Iraq.

And Republicans, equally predictably, scoff at it as little more than a series of proposed blunders that would leave us worse off than we are now. But no one can deny that it is a constructive contribution to the national debate. If, by now, you are hopelessly confused, I apologize, for I have misled you. There is, of course, no "Pelosi Plan" for Iraq, and that is the whole point. Our would-be Madam Speaker has not uttered two consecutive words on any proposal for solving America's problems in Iraq.

She has, instead, confined herself to calling upon the administration to "redeploy" our troops there. Now, "redeploy" is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as meaning "to move (troops) from one front to another, as from Europe to the Pacific." But as used by Pelosi, it is merely a fancy, rather military-sounding synonym for "bugout" or, if you prefer, "cut and run." She has never suggested any place to which the troops might be "redeployed" (Abu Dhabi? Dubai?) or explained what they might do once based there. If she imagines they might use their new location as a base from which to strike in some militarily more desirable direction, what direction does she have in mind, and how many casualties is she prepared to incur? No, the congresswoman from downtown San Francisco simply means pulling out of Iraq and bringing the troops home by Christmas (or some other date). It is hard to think of any comparably irresponsible proposal by an American political leader. It is the exact opposite of a "plan." It doesn't even ask, let alone answer, what is surely the most important question concerning a bugout: namely, what Our country and everything it usee to stand for is under attack by the worst presiden in history and by his heartless, soulless, power-hungry thugs.

Surprisingly, the public seems nearly paralyzed or asleep. I really hope registered voters wake up and realize the antidote to "presidential paralysis" is to vote for Democrats on Nov. 7. If you're not registered and want to register as a Democrat, give me a call at 297-1999. I'll help get you registered.

The deadline for registering or reregistering Democrat is Oct. 23, but please don't wait until the last minute. It's time to defend America. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man 's character, give him power" (Abraham Lincoln). I remember when "truth and justice" was the American way.

Now it's lie, cheat and steal, and it's Buck McKeon, George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger's execution of Karl Rove's master plan to deceive the American public and obtain political dominance. The great shame and tragedy is not how evil and self-serving these people are. There have always been power-hungry evil-doers who want to take advantage of the weak and the innocent. The shame and tragedy is how readily and easily most Americans relinquish their constitutional and human rights, and their political power.

It's time to defend America. "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer" (Henry A. Kissinger). Let's start with one of Bush's latest and most offensive offenses: eliminating habeas coipus for all but U.S.

citizens. That means the administration's thugs can detain and imprison any citizen anywhere in the world, and throw them in a secret prison without an opportunity even to hear the charges against them. They don't even need to tell anyone they did it. Let's say a Bush administration secret police officer doesn't like the questions a British reporter asks. That reporter can get ambushed by special forces and delivered to a secret prison William Rusher Commentary would its military and political consequences be? The first military consequence, of course, would be the collapse of all American, international and Iraqi resistance to the terrorist jihadists and the various religiously-inspired militias who are even now slaughtering scores' of their fellow Iraqis every day.

"Civil war" is almost too dignified a term for the chaos into which Iraq would collapse. Eventually, various poles of political authority would emerge, no doubt supported financially and militarily by the various Islamic nations on Iraq's borders. These nations in turn, freed from any obligation to honor such concepts as "democracy" or even "liberty," would impose even worse tyrannies than those existing today on their own peoples, and the Middle East would become one vast cesspool of Islamic dictatorships, bent on expansion. Worse yet, America's reputation as a defender of freedom, let alone an honorable and formidable military power, would turn to mud. The terrorists, triumphant over having forced Uncle Sam to turn tail, would double or triple in size on short order, and train their sights on further terrorist victories in Europe and, of course, in the United States.

(Or do you think that, gratified by the success of the Pelosi Plan, Osama bin Laden and his allies would call off their jihad against the West and the Great Satan and go back to tending their goats?) As President Bush has tirelessly reminded us, we didn't start this war, and the attack on Iraq was simply a belated response to a series of Islamist assaults on the West stretching back nearly thirty years. No American soldier was anywhere near Iraq, or even Afghanistan, on Sept. 1 1. That was our "Pelosi Plan," and it didn't work. William Rusher is a distinguished fellow of the Claremont Insti tutelar the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy.

His colupin reflects his own views, and not necessarily those of The Signal. Bruce McFarland Democratic Voices until G.W. no longer imagines that person to be a threat. Bush doesn't have to tell anyone about it. He doesn't need a warrant.

He doesn't need a court. He doesn't even need a list of charges. The disliked reporter will just disappear. What? You don't think "we" would ever do that? Of course, you and I wouldn't, but the Bush administration already has many times. And Guan-tanamo is just one prison we know about.

We have secret and mobile prisons all over the world. It's time to defend America. "Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry (Thomas Jefferson). For those of you who don't think Bush wants to squelch the press and anyone else he disagree with please remember how Bush's FCC was pushing Congress to allow less diversity in ownership of media mar kets. It came out recently that the White House received detailed reports from its commissions stating that the proposed FCC legislation would have a devastating effect on dissemination of news and ideas.

They said the public would be much less likely to hear or read various points of view. The administration buried the reports and continued to push Congress to pass the legislation, which it wisely didn't. Even the Republican Congress couldn't stomach Bush's evil plan to consolidate power and limit dissent. It's time to defend America. "When the government fears the people, it is liberty.

When the people fear the government, it is tyranny" (Thomas Paine). Another ugly example of the administration's desire to limit or eliminate dissent and free speech is the so-called law. The new law, which takes effect in 2008, restricts talking on a cell phone while driving unless a hands-free device is used. However, California drivers need to be aware that a $20 or $50 fine for talking on a handheld cell phone isn't all that is at stake. There are also potential insurance implications.

If motorists are involved in an accident while talking on a cell phone, they could face higher premiums from their insurance company, even if they didn't directly cause the accident. Comparative negligence can be attributed to a driver involved in an accident if he was on a cell phone, even if the driver wasn't at fault. The result could be higher insurance premiums because of an accident on a driver's record. Most insurance companies can subpoena cell phone records to check if a phone conversation occurred at the time of the accident. On the other hand, cell phone records may be accessed to prove a driver wasn't distracted by his cell phone, particularly if there is a dispute between drivers.

The bottom line is that talking on a cell phone distracts drivers, especially teenage drivers. According to a study commissioned by the Allstate Foundation on teen drivers, 56 percent say they make or answer cell phone calls ican public, as long as he dressed it in fear and self-defense. Although the terrorists came from Saudi Arabia and were trained in Afghanistan, the clever boys (and woman) in the war department were able to craft a plan to attack Iraq. Meanwhile, we attacked Afghanistan, and the public bought the administration propaganda about how difficult if was to get bin Laden. "If the lie is large enough, everyone will believe it" (Adolph Hitler).

Soon enough, the administration's PR machine was trying to sell everyone on what a big threat Iraq was. Well, it wasn't, and they knew it wasn't anywhere near as much of a threat as they were trying to sell us. Think about it. The latest assertion from Bush and Cheney is that although Saddam was incapable of doing the U.S. any harm, he was a bad man who was thinking about ways he might hurt us.

Now, thousands of Americans and tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died for the Bush fantasy of lies. And the Taliban has had "a resurgence in Afghanistan. Bush's plan was absolutely wrong at every step of the way, from conception to implementation. I could write 10 columns about the Iraq war, but I think others already have. It's time for the American people to wake up and defend America.

"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent" (lssac Asimov). The recently semi-declassified National Intelligence Estimate states unequivocally that the war in Iraq has not lessened the threat of terrorism in the United States and around the world; it has increased it. Indeed, our efforts have been fodder and fuel to build and solidify those who would do us harm. How long are we going to let the idiot-child and his chicken-hawk friends perpetuate this deception on the world? Sorry, most of the world has already condemned our actions. It's faithful and loyal Americans who continue to allow the abuse of power.

It's time to defend America. "Our scientific power has outrun Letters Policy The Signal welcomes letters to the editor, provided they are original and include the writer's first and last name, address and daytime phone number. (Only the writer's name and community will be printed.) Letters and all other commentary represent the opinions of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Signal, its staff or management. Letters are limited to one per person, per month. The Signal reserves the right to edit letters based on content: those longer than 500 words may be edited for space.

Anonymous letters will not be published, nor will names be withheld. Mail: The Signal, P.O. Box 801 870, Santa Clarita, CA 91380-1870 FAX: (661) 255-9689 E-Mail: (plain text only) To Reach Us: 259-1234, ext. 234 our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men (Martin Luther King My final thought today is about stealing.

You may ask, 'What did Buck, Bush and Schwarzenegger steal?" It's simple. They've stolen our future, and they've stolen our American way of life. When the Republicans and the administration decide to raise the interest rates on student loans so they can give tax breaks to the ultra-rich, they are stealing the future of many generations. When they give no-bid contracts to their friends to inflict democracy on a country that never asked for our help, they're taking funds away from any truly beneficial projects. Every dollar spent to perpetrate the unjust and illegal war in Iraq is a dollar less that could be spent on health care, education, clean air and water, rebuilding the country's infrastructure or hundreds of other needs.

Bush, Schwarzenegger and McKeon have stolen our hard-earned dollars, and they've stolen much more from our grandchildren. It's time to defend America. "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves" (Edward R. Murrow). Too harsh? Not really.

I want to know why we've let this national disgrace go on so long. It will take generations to repair the damage George W. Bush has inflicted on America. "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come (Victor Hugo). On Nov.

7, we can't boot the president from office, but we can cut off his political testicles by electing Democrats. A Democratic House and Senate will take away his keys and send him to his room. Please get out and vote. Defend America Fire the Republicans! Tell your friends. Bruce McFarland is president of the Democratic Alliance for Action.

His column reflects his own views, and not necessarily those of The Signal. "Democratic Voices" appears Tuesdays and rotates among several local Democrats..