U.S. Sen Patty Murray -- Senator Asks Students to Ponder (Sen. Murray lauds Osama bin Laden)

Columbian ^ | 12/19/2002 | Gregg Herrington

[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.

[Teacher317]

Where's that Limbaugh destruction machine when you really need it?

Where are those out of control guns, killer SUV's, and murderous Right-wing radical nut-cases when you need them?

[Man of the Right]

Murray is a radical left dyke in a state moving rapidly to the left -- with the unemployment rate to show for it.

My sense is homeland security specialists regard Washington state, where I lived from '98-'02, as among the most likely to be hit by a weapon of mass destruction for the following reasons: 1. A large Muslim-Arab-Al Qaeda community, 2. Wretched police forces in Seattle and Portland, 3. A laissez faire attitude toward terrorism among the State's entire political elite (including Murray), 4. A total lack of cooperation with Homeland Security, the AG, and FBI, 5. A long coastline, Canadian border, and major ports wide open to terrorism, 6. high-value strategic and symbolic targets (examples: Bremerton Naval Base, Boeing assembly plant, Space Needle, Microsoft campus, Hanford Site, Grand Coulee Dam).

If Seattle were wiped off the map, how well would Murray's statement stand the test of time? We know how Japan apologists/retainees fared politically after Pearl Harbor.

[Teacher317]

Follow-up note: Of those convicted of murder with a handgun, what percent (of those who are registered to vote) are Democrat?

[Man of the Right]

Murray shares Rosy O'Donnell's sexual and political orientation and personality.

[agincourt1415]

Thermo Nuclear BAAAAAARRRRRFFFFFF Alert. She is a Washington State U.S. Senator ?, my I ask who Karl Rove has selected to run against this garbage, LOL.

[nutmeg]

I'm speechless.

Make that at least two of us.

Pinging a few FRiends...

[B Knotts]

Well, you know...all that poverty in Saudi Arabia drives them to hate us. :-P

[B Knotts]

Thanks for the ping. This needs to get out to people.

[RdhseRat]

Sounds to me like Senator Patty Murray just confirmed that she is soft on terrorism!

[Man of the Right]

Murray has never served in the military, never witnessed a war, and has no idea what a weapon of mass destruction would do to either Washington -- D.C. or State. Both rank of the very top of the list of places most likely to be hit by the Islamists, and eventually by North Korea.

[D-fendr]

She must have missed the quote from the Islamic political leader: "We don't want anything from you, we want to eliminate you."

[B Knotts]

So, I'm waiting for the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN to get as outraged about this as they did about Sen. Lott joshing Sen. Thurmond on his 100th birthday.

But I'm not holding my breath...

[G Larry]

Hey BUD!
It's the West Side Morons!
You know, the soggy ones, West of the Cascades.

[beckett]

Wow...stunningly stupid remarks. It's scary to think that Murray not only has the right to vote for our elected leaders --- a prospect that dismays me whenever I hear a particularly stupid remark come out of the mouth of an American of voting age --- but that she actually is an elected leader!

[HighWheeler]

you should add "socialist traitor terrroist supporter" to that list.

She is one of the Domestic Enemies referred to in "enemies of the state, both foreign and domestic".

[B Knotts]

The only way to satisfy the Islamist terrorists is to submit to Islam and convert or pay the jizyah as all good dhimmi must do, or be killed.

[leilani]

There's no difference between what the slow-on-the-uptake-sneakers mama and the ole miss cheerleader-senate leader have said. They are both nuts: The nutwad from Seattle says that the guy who throws acid in the face of widowed women whose burkas fall from their faces is a man we should all admire.The nutwad from Pascagoula says that black folks should just move to the back of the bus. Except forgive me, even Lott didn't say it was "admirable" that they should have acid thrown in their faces. Damn that Murray bitch is dumb. She even beats Mississippi Lott dumb.Hands down!

[Fintan]

Heaven help me for what I think when I read stuff like this.

Yeah, me too..

And you're right...this parasite will probably be lauded by the likes of Katie Couric and Peter Jennings.

[G Larry]

Hugh Hewitt asked that we express ourselves here.

Will you WA state Republicans please save this nonsense for the next campaign against Patty?