www.townhall.com/columnists/johnmccaslin/jm20040713.shtml
The family of US Air Force Maj Gregory Stone was shocked to learn that video footage of the major's Arlington National Cemetery burial was included by Michael Moore in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11." Stone was killed in March 2003 by a grenade that officials said was thrown into his tent by Sgt. It's been a big shock, and we are not very happy about it, to say the least," Kandi Gallagher, Stone's aunt and family spokeswoman, tells Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson. We are furious that Greg was in that casket and cannot defend himself, and my sister, Greg's mother, is just beside herself," Gallagher said. The family does not know how Moore obtained the video, and Gallagher said they did not give permission and are considering legal recourse. She described her nephew as a "totally conservative Republican" and said he would have found the film to be "putrid." "I'm sure he would have some choice words for Michael Moore," she said. "Michael Moore would have a hard time asking our family for a glass of water if he were thirsty." SLUMBER PARTY If the trend continues, congressmen will have to stay up mighty late - or else awaken before the crack of dawn - to cast votes in the waning months of the 108th Congress. Sleepy-eyed Democrats aren't amused by the Republican-led "wee-hour" voting, including a groggy Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown, who calls the previous five days "a bad week in Washington."
speaker of the House, never before has this House of Representatives operated in such secrecy," he says. "At 2:54 am on a Friday in March," he begins, "the House cut veterans' benefits by three votes. At 2:39 am on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes. At 1:56 am on a Friday in May, the House passed the tax-cut bill, weighted especially towards millionaires, by a handful of votes." "At 2:33 am on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization bill by one vote. At 12:57 am on a Friday in June, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote. And then, after returning from summer recess, at 12:12 am on a Friday . Are you, sir, insinuating a Republican strategy - to cast votes in the dark of the night while newspapermen are home sleeping? "Always in the middle of the night, always after the press had passed their deadlines, always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed," Brown insists. "At best, Americans read a small story with a brief explanation of the bill and the vote count in the Saturday newspaper. And people here, the Republican leadership, know that Saturday is the least-read newspaper of the week." The most sweeping changes in Medicare in its 38-year history were forced through the House at 5:55 on a Saturday morning." ADIEU, BUBBA Bill Clinton the future president of France? "Normally, you'd have to live in France for five years .
French social scientist Patrick Weil was the first to report that French civil law permits "citizens of states or territories over which France has ever exercised sovereignty or extended a mandate or protectorate" to apply "immediately" for naturalization as a French citizen. That would pave the way for Clinton - who longs these days to be president of something - to seek France's highest office.
"He just loved being president, he tells us, again and again and again. France doesn't even require that Clinton renounce his American citizenship. However, he would need to purchase an official residence in France and learn the French language. A congressional bill has been introduced to examine whether a black granite memorial to former Sen. Edmund S Muskie along the banks of the Androscoggin River in Rumford, Maine, should become a part of the National Park System. A son of Polish immigrants, Muskie was born and raised in Rumford. He joined the Navy during World War II, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. He became Maine's governor in 1954, a US senator in 1958, Democratic nominee for vice president alongside Hubert H Humphrey in 1968, and a candidate for president in 1972. He was a secretary of state under Jimmy Carter, and later was named to Ronald Reagan's special review board to investigate the Iran-Contra affair. "The president of the United States shook hands and nearly kissed a dog." TRADING WITH FIDEL The Miami Herald tells a most intriguing story of a 95-year-old Cuban-American woman who has just filed federal suit against Paris-based Club Med, accusing the resort chain of unjustly profiting from a five-star hotel it built on land that her family owned in pre-Revolution Cuba. Elvira de la Vega Glen of Miami says she and her surviving son are entitled to compensation for a Club Med built in 1997 on a stretch of beach that her family owned for generations. "The land, now part of a valuable tourism area, was seized by the Cuban government after the Fidel Castro revolution," explains the Herald, saying the suit charges the resort company with violating the US Trading With the Enemy Act. "I'm bringing this case because the people who are there have no business being there," Glen informs the newspaper. "It was the most beautiful beach in the world, oh, the most beautiful beach." Representing the woman is Washington lawyer Stuart Newberger of the Pennsylvania Avenue law firm Crowell & Moring LLP. He says the State Department is looking into whether Club Med violated the Helms-Burton Act, which prohibits "trafficking" in property confiscated from Cuban-Americans. Club Med tells the newspaper that it will defend itself "vigorously." VIRGIN SON Let us continue our series of items on proposals to place former President Ronald Reagan's portrait on various forms of US currency, having written last about legislation to place the Gipper's face on the front of every $10 bill printed after Dec. "Printing his likeness on the $10 bill is a fitting tribute to a leader who inspired the forces of freedom to victory over the evils of communism, won the Cold War and restored America's economic vitality," says Rep. Of course, the $10 bill features Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father and the first secretary of the Treasury. When it was suggested that Reagan's mug shine on the dime or half-dollar, Democrats not willing to erase the images of former Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F Kennedy cried foul. We jokingly pointed out that there was no immediate reaction from the Alexander Hamilton fan club - until now.
lived and worked, we are celebrating his life," says Delegate Donna MC Christensen, Virgin Islands Democrat. She says that although Hamilton was a great American, "it is not widely known that he was from St. "There, he developed the exceptional accounting, finance and writing skills which later propelled his career." LOSING STREAK "Other than that second inning, the game was pretty good." Steny H Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, after Republicans beat his team 14-7 in the 43rd annual Roll Call baseball game for charity. A 5,000-plus crowd, including Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, saw the Republican team score 10 of its runs in the second inning. THINK ABOUT IT During a question-and-answer session at the Council Bluffs Public Library in Iowa, first lady Laura Bush was asked whether she's seen Michael Moore's so-called documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is highly critical of her husband's administration. SOUTHERN APPEAL Dismayed by "deepening divisions" in America and specifically the South, a dozen prominent white Southerners - historians and academics alike in cahoots with former President Jimmy Carter - have set out to retake the country. "Of course, other good books dissecting the Bush regime have appeared, but ours will be the first critique of the government coming out of the South's white liberal tradition, a segment usually lost in the overwhelming tide of the region's conservatives," Mildred Inge Wakefield, publicist for "Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent," tells this column. The launch of this 12-essay anthology - penned by "not just another bunch of New York liberals," with the foreword by Carter - was to tak place Monday at the National Press Club in Washington. Among the essayists: John Egerton,...
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