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Page 4 - STAR- FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 2007
State should act quickly
on senior tax-freeze issue
One of the first items on
the agenda of the General
Assembly this year should
be to set the guidelines for
the new senior property-tax
relief approved by voters in
November.
The legislature should
give local governments a
sensible set of parameters
with which to work. The
concept has the potential to
help many senior citizens.
Tennesseans overwhelmingly
approved the constitutional
amendment that allows
local governments to
limit the property taxes of
people 65 and older. The
highly popular move is seen
as a way to bring some tax
relief particularly to older
citizens living on fixed incomes.
Frequently, property-tax
increases put an especially
burdensome squeeze on older
homeowners. People
sometimes have financial
trouble hanging on to their
houses when property taxes
rise.
DEBRA SAUNDERS
Within hours of Saddam
Hussein’s hanging, the
drumbeat began — as cablenews
sages pronounced that
the Iraqi scourge’s execution
will not improve the situation
in Iraq. Or, as
Newsweek intoned,
“Little
is gained by
Saddam’s demise.”
These days,
the first rule of
war coverage
is that nothing
— not even
military victory
— will improve
Iraq’s
prospects.
The second rule is that
everything is botched. So
Hussein’s trial was not fair,
the appeals process was too
swift and the execution was
insufficiently solemn.
In the 24-hour news cycle,
you can kill your own
citizens with impunity, subject
them to starvation and
lead them into an avoidable
war. But, if later you are
brought to justice, coverage
of your trial will be not so
much about the carnage as
about the “deeply-flawed”
trial.
It won’t much matter that
the defendant admitted that
he ordered the deaths of 148
Shiite men and boys in Dujail
in 1982. To the American
press, justice would have
been better served if it had
moved with the slothfulness
To comment…
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Now that the amendment
has passed, the legislature
has to set a ceiling on the level
of income that will qualify
OPINION
for the tax relief. The higher
the threshold, the greater the
number of seniors who
could qualify for the freeze.
Whatever the ceiling is, it
will be local governments
who will have to make tough
decisions when they consider
property tax increases. It is
one thing to do the politically
popular thing and declare
the most seniors possible to
be eligible for the freeze.
But for every dollar seniors
get to keep, that’s a dollar
a local government will
have to make up somewhere
else. And that could translate
into higher taxes for other
property owners.
Lawmakers will have to
balance the desire to help
of a California death-penalty
appeal. You would think
it a good thing for Iraq if
Hussein had more time to
foment insurgency and
thumb his nose at the families
of his victims.
Indeed, critics are so busy
trying to transform Iraqi
prosecutions into an O.J.
Simpson trial that they fail
to notice that the families of
Kurds and Shiites who were
tortured and murdered for
rebelling against Hussein
now know that the Butcher
of Baghdad can no longer
hurt them. That’s why there
was dancing in Dearborn,
Mich., home to a large community
of Iraqi Americans
who fled their homeland
while under Hussein’s rule.
Hussein cannot come back,
as he did in 1963 after he
fled to Syria and Egypt. He
will never terrorize his
countrymen again. He will
hold no more power on this
earth. Somehow, that’s no
biggie.
When you think of all the
innocent people who have
perished during the war in
Iraq, there is something refreshing
about seeing the
most guilty Iraqi meet his
maker. Opinion Journal’s
James Taranto used the
headline: “The World’s
Smallest Violin.”
Oddly, some humanrights
groups have their big
fiddles out. Or as Richard
Dicker, director of Human
Rights Watch’s International
seniors and the need to raise
revenues at a level to meet
local government needs.
Younger owners should be
aware that the freeze that
helps their grandparents
could deflect the burden to
them. Local lawmakers will
have to make delicate decisions.
The tax relief allows local
governments to participate
in the tax-freeze concept if
they choose to opt in. Tennesseans
have certainly
tapped into a key issue involving
seniors. No one
wants to see property taxes
rise, and when they do rise
no one wants to see the increase
hurt senior homeowners
the most.
It is clear that the issue
has wide appeal, but the details
of making it work will
be tricky. If and when the
plan is hammered out in a
workable way, and communities
actually see the tax-relief
plan take effect, it will be
a good day for seniors.
—The Nashville Tennessean
Saddam Hussein’s last negotiation
Debra
Saunders
MILD TALK
Hershey’s Kisses are
called that because the machine
that makes them looks
like it’s kissing the conveyor
belt.
————
Gatorade was named for
the University of Florida
Gators where it was first developed.
————
Ancient Rome had a rent-
EDITORIAL & COMMENTARY
Justice Program, said in a
press statement: “The test of
a government’s commitment
to human rights is
measured by the way it
treats its worst offenders.
History will judge these actions
harshly.”
What nonsense. The
measure of a government’s
commitment should be in
how it treats its citizens.
Hussein had countless
Iraqis killed without a trial.
He ordered the death of an
11-year-old boy because he
thought it was “the right of
the head of state.” History
will focus on his misdeeds,
not the timely execution of a
guilty despot.
As for “little is gained” —
do not think that homicidal
tinpot dictators do not look
at Hussein’s fate and shudder.
They’ve just found out
that, if deposed, they are not
guaranteed final years of
luxurious living abroad.
Now, they know, there are
forces at large who want
them to face death before the
very people whom they had
terrorized and beaten down.
This is not the end desired
by men for whom dominion
over others trumped all.
If this execution were the
martyr’s end he sought,
Hussein would not have
greeted U.S. troops who
found him in a hole in the
ground three years ago with
these words: “I am Saddam
Hussein, president of Iraq. I
want to negotiate.”
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On September 11th 2002,
exactly one year after the terrorist
attacks, the New York
State Lotto drew the numbers
9-1-1 on the daily draw.
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saved $40,000 by eliminating
one olive from First Class
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CAL THOMAS
How to reach us
Karen Hughes is not as
visible as when she worked
at the White House, or on
two presidential campaigns,
but her 16 months as undersecretary
of
state for public
diplomacy and
public affairs
have given her
opportunities
to counter
what she calls
Cal
Thomas
www.starhq.com
the “propaganda”
that the
media in many
Arab and Mus-
lim countries convey to their
people about the United
States.
In a meeting (Dec. 19) in
her State Department office,
Hughes told me she recognizes
the difference between
the Cold War, when “we
were trying to get information
into largely closed societies
whose people were hungry
to hear from us,” and today,
when “we’re competing
for attention and credibility
in a very crowded communications
environment.”
She points to three big areas
on which she is focusing:
(1) exchanges that allow people
who have never been to
America to come and see for
themselves what we are like;
(2) communications, which
promote the policies of the
American government in nations
where they have been
mostly unheard, or twisted
for the political ends of the
rulers; and (3) what she calls
“the diplomacy of deeds,”
that is, focusing on America’s
actions that help people improve
their lives.
Hughes has told American
ambassadors around the
world to get on local television
more and articulate official
policy to counter propa-
————
Hummingbirds are the
only birds that can fly backwards.
————
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was
published March 20, 1852. It
was the first American novel
to sell one million copies.
————
Wrigley’s first two
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HE’S BEEN THAT WAY EVER SINCE
SABAN TOOK THE ALABAMA JOB!
A conversation with Karen Hughes
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ganda that communicates a
false view of America. That’s
all well and good, but would
most Americans accept the
pronouncements of an ambassador
from, say, Iran? The
United States continues to
believe that because we see
ourselves as objectively
good, the rest of the world
can be persuaded of our
goodness and not take up
arms against us. I’m sure
some can be so persuaded,
but probably not nearly
enough and very likely not
soon enough to prevent more
attacks.
Hughes mentions a group
of Saudi clerics who made
their first visit to America at
the State Department’s invitation.
She says she had been
told their Friday sermons
“had been very negative,
very anti-American.” They
visited American synagogues,
mosques and
churches. Hughes says she
was told by “our people on
the ground” in Saudi Arabia
that the clerics now have a
“much different and changed
view of our country.”
I ask if Hughes has
checked on the content of
their sermons since their return
to Saudi Arabia. She
says she has not, but has received
reports that there has
been a “difference” and that
the clerics have a different
view of America. I wonder if
this is part of the propaganda
ploy, to tell us what we want
to hear so we will let down
our guard. Can they be converted,
if not to our point of
view, than at least to
foreswear violence in pursuit
of their political objectives?
Hughes concedes that the
Muslim world mostly regards
our freedom as licentiousness.
They get their im-
brands of chewing gum
were named Lotta and Vassar.
Juicy Fruit and
Spearmint were introduced
in 1893.
————
The first toothbrush was
developed in China in 1498.
————
Ketchup was originally
sold as a medicine under
the name of Dr. Miles Com-
Frank Robinson
Publisher
frobinson@starhq.com
Rozella Hardin
Editor
rhardin@starhq.com
pressions of the U.S. through
our media, which mostly
consists of immodestly
dressed women, violence and
car chases. That’s the “entertainment”
and image we export,
so why should they not
conclude this is who we are?
Hughes is particularly
fond of the exchange program
that allows students
and others to come to the
U.S. to study and to observe
Muslims and others able to
dress, worship and associate
as they please. Again, I wonder
if this approach is a Cold
War relic. The 9/11 hijackers
lived, worked, worshiped
and observed our way of
life, and they killed 3,000 of
us. Following the British
bombings two summers ago,
the British public expressed
shock that “home grown”
young Muslim men could
turn on their fellow countrymen.
The reason is that they
did not see Britain as their
country, but heaven as their
destination and jihad as
their vehicle for getting
there.
Hughes also speaks of a
coming “major Western
Hemisphere initiative” to do
more and communicate
more with Latin American
countries. She says the Bush
administration has nearly
doubled U.S. assistance to
the region, but most don’t
know about it because their
media don’t tell them.
I wouldn’t stop what
Karen Hughes is doing, but I
do wonder and worry
whether this outreach to the
Arab and Muslim world, in
particular, will make a significant
difference in a war
between cultures that is fueled
by religious zeal. Even
Hughes acknowledges,
“This is a long struggle.”
pound Extract of Tomato.
————
The first women’s college,
Troy Female Seminary,
was founded by Emma
Willard in 1821.
————
Chocolate contains
phenylethylamine, a natural
substance that is reputed to
stimulate the same reaction
in the body as falling in love.
Where we began …
The history of the Elizabethton STAR traces
back to the Mountaineer, established in 1864. The
Mountaineer was the first newspaper in Upper
East Tennessee, changing hands and names numerous
times over the years. On Oct. 1, 1955,
Frank Robinson was named publisher. He purchased
the paper in 1977. On Oct. 1, 1980, his
son, Charles Robinson, was named publisher.
Kathy Scalf
Circulation Manager
kscalf@starhq.com
Harvey Prichard
Associate Publisher
hprichard@starhq.com
Delaney Scalf
Operations Manager
dscalf@starhq.com