Thank you, my FRiend !
Merry Christmas to you !
Posted on 12/24/2002 3:14:25 PM PST by Stultis
Bin Laden remarks give Murray grief
Les Blumenthal; The News Tribune
WASHINGTON - Sen. Patty Murray says she was just trying to prompt a thoughtful discussion when she told high school students the United States might learn something from Osama bin Laden's efforts to help the poor in the Arab world.
Instead, the Washington state Democrat got her picture plastered prominently on the Web, became a hot topic of conversation on talk radio and had her patriotism questioned by the head of the state Republican Party.
Even one of her possible Republican opponents when she faces re-election in 2004, U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Spokane), challenged her to a one-on-one debate on the topic of bin Laden.
Murray, in a telephone interview, said she was shocked by the Republican response to what she considered a free-ranging discussion that represented one of the best American values - freedom of thought.
"I am astonished the Republican Party would try to spin out of control a conversation with high school students," she said. "Republicans have been trying for six months to use the war on terrorism for political purposes."
During an appearance Thursday before an honors class at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash., Murray (D-Shoreline) challenged students to consider why the United States is so poorly regarded by many Muslims while bin Laden is considered a hero.
"We've got to ask, why is this man (bin Laden) so popular around the world?" Murray was quoted as saying in The (Vancouver) Columbian newspaper. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries that are riddled with poverty?"
Murray said the answer may be unpopular, but worth considering.
"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."
She added: "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 Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"
The response was relentless.
Murray's office was inundated with calls for her to appear on conservative television and radio talk shows.
The issue was featured prominently on the online Drudge Report.
Rush Limbaugh did a piece on Murray's comments. State GOP Chairman Chris Vance issued two news releases demanding an apology.
"It is absolutely outrageous and despicable to imply that the American government should learn a lesson from the madman who murdered thousands of American citizens," Vance said."I know Senator Murray has a habit of sticking her foot in her mouth, but this goes way beyond a simple gaffe."
Vance was particularly critical of her for saying bin Laden had helped build day-care centers, pointing out that fundamentalist Islamic women don't work, so there's no need for day-care centers.
Nethercutt, sounding like a candidate, called Murray's comments "shocking, bizarre and uninformed. You have to wonder where Senator Murray has been living since September 11th."
Murray, who in October voted against a resolution authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq, said she considered bin Laden an "evil terrorist," and said bringing him to justice and dismantling his al-Qaida terrorist network should be the U.S. government's top priority.
But Murray said while the United States tracks down bin Laden and members of his terrorist organization, U.S. leaders also should consider the longer-term issue of improving relations with the Arab world.
She noted that the White House has created a special office, headed by a Madison Avenue advertising executive, to improve America's image.
"Having a challenging and thoughtful discussion about America's future reflects the best values of a free democracy," she said.
"To sensationalize and distort in an attempt to divide is not."
Exactly how much bin Laden has done to support schools, medical facilities and infrastructure remains conjecture in the intelligence community, though there is evidence he engaged in such activities, particularly in Afghanistan and Sudan.
A Defense Department fact sheet indicated bin Laden had imported heavy equipment to build roads, tunnels, hospitals and storage facilities in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation and in connection with the establishment of paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mark Burgess, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan group that tracks defense issues, said bin Laden spent five years in Sudan using his own money to fund a number of infrastructure projects for the government.
"He and his organization have been involved in various welfare-type projects and charitable work," Burgess said.
Michael Swetnam, a terrorism expert who co-wrote a book on bin Laden and al-Qaida, told The Associated Press that the terrorist leader has been on a mission to build schools, roads and even homes for widows of those killed in the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
But Swetnam said the schools he financed taught mostly fundamentalist Islam that preaches hatred for the West.
Les Blumenthal: 1-202-383-0008
lblumenthal@mcclatchydc.com
(Published 12:30AM, December 21st, 2002)
For Moseley-Braun, It May Be Time for a Rematch
Washington Post - 5 hours ago
... Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that charitable works made Osama bin Laden popular in
poor countries -- and her challenge to the United States to do the same. ...
Senator cites bin Laden's 'popularity'
Chicago Sun Times, IL - 5 minutes ago
Perhaps, said Washington state's senior senator, Democrat Patty Murray, it's because
he and his supporters have spent years building goodwill in poor nations ...
Senator's explanation of bin Laden's popularity draws fire%)
WKYT, KY - 20 Dec 2002
Washington-AP -- Washington Senator Patty Murray is drawing a lot of heat for
her explanation of why Osama bin Laden is popular in poor countries. ...
Potomac Watch: Senators take a break, but office mail never stops
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - 20 Dec 2002
In the back offices of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell where the
mail is collected and sorted, however, there's never a slow period. ...
Dems Already Attack Frist , Santorum , McConnell . . .
NewsMax.com - 20 Dec 2002
... Patty Murray. Republicans are the only ones stupid enough to feed on their own.
Nor were any national Republicans seen having news conferences about Murray. ...
Sound Transit hires lobbyists - By Jeff Switzer - Journal ...
King County Journal Newspapers, WA - 20 Dec 2002
... I don't think they're strong enough, and I don't think we need somebody to inform
Patty Murray.'' McIver added that County Executive Ron Sims himself kept Sen. ...
Immigration: Where is the OUTRAGE??
SierraTimes.com - 20 Dec 2002
... I can hardly wait for Sen. 'Chatty' Patty Murray of Washington to hold a press conference
exclaiming how Fox & Coyotes have built schools and all those same ...
Well, Patty, you and your Dem friends didn't give Trent Lott the courtesy, so why should you get a pass?
I disagree. She is hailing him in the best way she can, and as far as she can. The threat of allowing the populace to understand that an enemy of America is bad and dangerous and his acts not a cogent response to alleged American evils is disheartening to them. Their world view is constructed on anti-americanism. They won't learn or grow because the intellectual pose is their identity, not just opinion. For example, what lefty media outlets attempt to address Islamism in the present crisis? They don't, which is one reason why they sound so dissonant with reality. They tried the "root causes" innuendo, but that failed when the "root causes" turned out not to be what they hoped.
She's a hater. Yet, she has gained a place in history. She will be cited as "proof" and "evidence" in the radical world that Osama wasn't such a bad guy. From abroad she has the authority of being a U.S. Senator - she must know the truth, mustn't she? We know that doesn't mean the Senator is not a moron, but nevertheless she will be quoted as an authority.
To a dimo, a "thoughtful discussion" consists of you listening to their lies.
LOL! And Merry Christmas, MeeknMan, You're allright!
Of course, not that Lott's gone, the dims now insist that the "politics of personal destruction" must end.
Add, for clarification for Senator Moron: infidels = us.
Oh yes, freedom of thought. I wonder if Ms. Murray applied the same standard to Trent Lott recently.
"I am astonished the Republican Party would try to spin out of control a conversation with high school students," she said. "Republicans have been trying for six months to use the war on terrorism for political purposes."
The silly bitch just doesn't seem to learn, does she?
Thank you, my FRiend !
Merry Christmas to you !
Sure. They wanna get the 'last' word.
To: MeeknMing
Democrats are a strange bunch especially their leaders. They complain about politics of personnel destruction when that is how they try to divide the country. They have little pride in America, it seems that the American people serve for their pleasure only. If you don't cotton to the democratic line, you aren't American. They used the surplus for other countries and other people when there was much to do here at home. They take our best technologies and sell them to nations that will use the knowledge against us. They lack an enormous amount of integrity and don't seem to care as they flaunt sleazy ethics and morality in our faces.
We didn't have a government for the people under the Clinton administration, what we had was a Democrats Only need apply type of government and now they are attempting to replace a People's Government with their tired old arguments about an education system they didn't fix in 8 years, a health care program they messed up and couldn't fix in 8 years, a social security system they say needs fixing and did nothing about it in 8 years when in reality that system is fine as long as lawmakers don't spend the money that social security is meant for; they spent 8 years hiring federal workers with no qualifications as long as it meant a democratic vote leaving behind a dumbed down, bloated army of sleazy federal laborers who have plundered their departments of millions in dollars and equipment.
Democrats seem to have no respect, no real base from which true justice can spring, only justice that bends for them. They have no enthusiasm for country/nation, no pride, just the spoils from a rich nation for the DNC. They continue to huddle with shady and corrupt people both here in America and abroad for reasons that only benefit them. They are elitists and exclude the real Americans as they race for the Marxist Utopia they have dreamed about...where individual successes are discouraged in favor of a commune like population. They have learned nothing from failed socialism or failed communism; they still want to live like kings all the while painting a glowing picture of togetherness for the masses who work for them. It is called Slavery, servitude to a few at the top, domination over the people through higher taxes and rules and regulations. Democrats want a Unionized nation/world of bondage and they can surely have it by dividing the country with the deceptive lies they and the press propagandize with daily.
Stand tall Americans and stand firmly for the principals of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, both of which are like the fabled Vampires silver cross or spike to the leading democrats, they don't want you to have either; it is these people who would return this country to the quagmire of corruption of the Clinton/Gore/Reno years.
You too?
Well, I think you will be even more suprised to find out that most of her votes come from the Seattle area and they do like and trust Bin Laden more than Bush. Ask Representative McDermott who just won re-election with over 70% of the vote. They live in a different world than real people do.
What is amazing is that the good liberal sinator from Washington expects that no one, least wise Republicans, will take umbrage at her traitorous words.
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