Posted on 12/19/2002 4:20:16 PM PST by B Knotts
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray was in Vancouver on Wednesday challenging high school students to answer these questions:
What is behind terrorist Osama bin Laden's popularity in some parts of the world, and should the United States adopt his nation-building tactics?
Speaking at Columbia River High School, Murray, D-Wash., responded to questions from students, most about the war on terrorism or government spending for education.
Later Wednesday, Murray visited C-Tran headquarters and checked out a new bus.
Murray met at Columbia River with world history students and student government leaders. Across town, Hudson's Bay High School students participated via teleconference.
Murray concluded the session by challenging the students to consider alternatives to war.
"We've got to ask, why is this man (Osama bin Laden) so popular around the world?," said Murray, who faces re-election in 2004. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries ? that are riddled with poverty?
"He's been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that.
"How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"
Murray said she doesn't know where she comes down on that guns-or-butter question, and building infrastructure in Third World countries would "cost a lot of money, and we have schools here and health care facilities here that are really hurting."
Be 'better neighbors'?
"War is expensive too," she said. "Your generation ought to be thinking about whether we should be better neighbors out in other countries so that they have a different vision of us.
"It is a debate I think we ought to have."
Murray was in the minority when the Senate voted 77-23 in October to give President Bush authority to use military force in confronting Saddam Hussein. The state's other senator, Democrat Maria Cantwell, voted for the resolution.
Murray opened Wednesday's event telling the students, "You'll be graduating into a world that is very difficult. ? The economy is struggling. War in Iraq is a very real possibility in the short term" and could cost $200 billion even if it were to last only a few weeks.
The cost of waging war could result in cuts to domestic programs such as Pell grants for college students, she said.
Responding to a question about federal spending for schools, Murray said the Bush administration is backing off its pledge of support for the No Child Left Behind program.
"There are crises in every one of our schools in this country," Murray said, and cutting spending on education has long-term deleterious effects.
Visit to the bus barn
Later in the day, Murray spent 45 minutes at the C-Tran administrative and operations facility at 2425 N.E. 65th Ave. for a holiday potluck. Randy Frasier's Mountain View High School jazz and concert choirs serenaded her with holiday carols.
Afterward, Murray examined a new $312,000 Gillig coach, the first of several dozen that will replace 20-year-old GM buses that have racked up an average of 650,000 miles each.
Murray is on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, which funnels matching money to states and local agencies for buses and other transit programs. Eighty percent of the cost of new buses will come from federal grants, and the remainder from local C-Tran money.
I'll bet Patty wishes she was, unless the Jihadist A$$hole vote bloc is big enough to be decisive in Washington State.
If there's a videotape of the speech, her opponents are going to show it 24/7 until she's up for re-election (which, IIRC, is in 2004).
She's evil. She applauds evil. She's not gonna live this one down.
OK, here goes:
Oh I see. Those must have included the traditional Chanuka Carols, Muslim Carols, Kwanzaa Carols, and Hindi Carols among others.
Instead, we'll just metaphorically stuff this speech up her alimentary canal, twist the blade a few turns, then snap it off :o)
But we didn't have to, did we? And we haven't had to wage war against them again, have we? At least not the German ones. And we won't have to wage another war against the Arab ones after we clobber them the way our fathers did Germany in WWII.
UBL's appeal to the Muslim masses is the appeal to the hatreed that is endemic to human beings. It is an appeal to the urge for plunder and pilage. He promises recruits power and prestige even if only in death. Such power and prestige it is impossible to otherwise attain without being born to it.
Such apeals have worked for the ages. Such appeals filled the ranks of the the Chekka, the KGB, the Stasi, the Gestapo and the SS. The fact that a person who holds such a high office would say this is appalling beyond belief. It makes Trent Lott look like a master of phrasing to influence African American voters.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
The RNC has long since written us (Washington State) off. There will be no high profile candidate. The state party is an absolute shipwreck, and we got 0 RNC help for the few congressional races where we had a viable candidate. Rove won't give this race a second thought.
Folks, no offense intended, but we've got more than our share of loonies like this already. Please tell this idiot to stay home!
:0) Merry Christmas, all!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.