SBYNews Interviews

Hello Joe,

    

This coming election I believe voters will be going to the voting booth with more information about each candidate than ever before. This is all because of the time and effort by SBY News. I know that because of work it is difficult for me to get to all the public forums. Now I can simply go to SBY News and view them at my leisure. What is especially good about this is that if you weren't quite sure about what the candidate said you just go back and listen again. Your recent interview with former councilmen Ed Taylor brought back some memories that I almost forgot about. When you asked about the possibility of any tax breaks for the citizens Mr. Taylor made it quite clear that in this current economic climate this was not the time for any tax reductions.  I wish you could have followed up and asked Mr. Taylor exactly what kind of economic conditions would be suitable for him to give the taxpayers a little break. I seem to remember a time when Councilmen Mathews wanted to reduce the Piggy Back Tax from 60% to 45% after an unexpectedly large revenue windfall for the county. Mr. Taylor voted against that measure. So by watching that SBY News interview and remembering what has happened before it seems to me that there is no way a taxpayer will get any kind of tax break from him. It was also clear from the interview that Mr. Taylor is no fan of the revenue cap on property tax rates. In fact he said it cost the county 50 million dollars.I don't know about you but I would rather see that money in the hands of our county taxpayers than in the hands of many county departments. The interview also brought up something that I believe most voters have forgotten about. Wasn't Mr. Taylor on the County Council that  voted for the 24-26% increase in property tax rate and that started the push for the revenue cap? I'm sure someone will correct me on that if I'm wrong about that. Without having SBY News Interviews as a reminder a lot of this information might just have slipped into the back of my memory. Thanks Joe for the great job of keeping the voters informed informed about our county.

 

John Palmer Jr.

Vietnam And Yom Kippur Wars Were Closely Connected, Newly Released U.S. Documents Reveal

Henry Kissinger, at 50, was at the height of his powers: secretary of state and national security advisor, hero of the negotiations that led to America's withdrawal from Vietnam, master of the mediation between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Golda Meir, a woman of 75, was Israel's prime minister. When the two met, they were usually accompanied by colleagues, aides and transcribers.

Nguyen Van Thieu was a military man and a politician, the president of South Vietnam and Kissinger's contemporary. Like the prime minister of Israel, he was a cranky and ungrateful client of the United States government. On November 29, 1973, about a month after the end of the Yom Kippur War, in a meeting of the crisis management team he headed in Washington, Kissinger confessed: "I've always had this secret desire to get Golda [Meir] into negotiations with [President] Thieu. What a scene that would be! They both deserve each other."

A week later, Kissinger met with South Vietnamese foreign minister Vuong Van Bac, who asked for fighter planes and antitank weaponry.

"If you promise not to record this," Kissinger said, "I'll tell you one of my secret wishes - that is to get President Thieu into negotiations with the Israeli prime minister. That would be a match. Your president is a real pro. The Israelis also want anti-tank weapons. So let the Israeli prime minister and President Thieu negotiate to see who would get our antitank weapons. No, seriously, I appreciate your need for antitank weapons."

Kissinger hastened to reassure Bac: "[Let] me say again we will do the maximum possible to preserve your independence and integrity."

In other words, the United States would act only within the bounds of what was actually possible; the administration would do only what Congress approved.

Or as Bac heard a year later from a new president, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon's successor, "I want to reassure you we will support President Thieu in every way - economically, politically, diplomatically. Our problem is not us, but on the Hill." These are quotes from secret U.S. documents released last week, just as transcripts of Golda Meir's war cabinet from the terrible days of October 1973 were revealed. The American papers are included in the last volume of Vietnam War documents published by the U.S. State Department - extending until the fall of the regime in South Vietnam and the occupation of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City ) in April of 1975.

Last week Kissinger was the main speaker at a conference convened at the State Department, his old stomping grounds, to mark this last volume's publication.

He spoke about the polar differences between the two sides at the end of the 1960s and the start of the '70s. The Americans sought a compromise; the North Vietnamese a victory, to replace the regime in the south and to unite the two halves of Vietnam under their rule. When they became stronger militarily, they attacked; when they were blocked, they agreed to bargain; when they signed an agreement, they waited for an opportunity to break it and win.
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IDF Confirms Attack On Northern Gaza

One Palestinian was killed and two other injured in an IDF strike in northern Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian sources report.

A statement by the Israel Defense Forces said that Israel Air Force attacked a terrorist cells planning to launch Qassam rockets or mortar bombs at Israel.

According to Palestinian reports, Israel Navy attacked a Hamas training facility north of Gaza city. Gaza hospital confirmed that one man was killed and two other were wounded, one of whom in critical condition.

"The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers, and will continue to act firmly against terror," an army statement said Sunday, adding that Israel held "Hamas solely responsible for the situation in Gaza and for maintaining the peace there.

According to the Israeli military spokesman's office, a total of 165 rockets and mortars have been launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel so far this year.

More here

DHS: 'Assassins? We'll Put Up Warning Signs'

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned Arizona law enforcement officials in May that Mexican drug cartels were deploying assassins to kill bandits highjacking their drug loads in the Vekol Valley, 70 miles inside Arizona. Then the federal government set up signs in the region to warn American citizens away from this area of U.S. sovereign territory.  

That local law enforcement would be left to confront agents of a foreign cartel coming across the international border of the United States to carry out a deadly drug war on U.S. soil is further evidence that the federal government is not doing its duty to secure the border, said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

“This is confirmed intelligence that Mexican drug cartels are now working in concert to protect their drug loads in the United States, literally, to send well-armed, military trained--even with ballistic vests--up to my county,” Babeu told CNSNews.com.

“This clearly is no longer a public safety issue,” he said. “This is a national security issue. The violence is bleeding into America and we must stop it.”

The DHS sent an e-mail on May 13, 2010 to several law enforcement agencies warning that Mexican drug cartels were deploying “sicarios” (assassins) into the western part of Pinal County, Ariz., to “take out” bandits that were robbing drug smugglers who had entered the United States from Mexico through the Arizona desert.

The e-mail was made public this past Friday, Oct. 15 (five months later), after local media in Arizona obtained the e-mail and questioned local law enforcement about it.
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Frau Merkel States The Obvious

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.

Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.

A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

"This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel said.

Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

Mrs Merkel told the gathering on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country... We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality.

In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism.

While acknowledging that this was the case, Mrs Merkel stressed that immigrants living in Germany needed to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.

"Anyone who does not immediately speak German", she said, "is not welcome".
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Christine O'Donnell: Where’s My Party?

Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell ratcheted up her frustration with the National Republican Senatorial Committee Thursday for its reluctance to help finance her campaign to defeat Democratic challenger Chris Coons, according to Fox News.

“The Republican Party on the state level or on the national level, neither have come in to help me close the gap in the polls,” O’Donnell said, noting the Democratic Party has upped the ante by running more ads against her. “And my opponent…there’s so much to attack him on, yet the NRSC refuses to play, and that baffles me because he’s a sitting duck. There’s a lot to go after him [on].”

During her debate with Coons Wednesday night, O’Donnell acknowledged the difficulties she’s had with Republican leadership ever since she launched her campaign against party favorite Rep. Mike Castle, whom O’Donnell defeated in the state GOP primary.

“I've had to fight my party to be here on this stage to win the nomination, and to some extent I am still fighting my party,” she said.

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MSP Press Release

DATE & TIME: 10-16-10 @ 0855hrs
LOCATION: Pittsville, Wicomico Co., MD. 21801
CASE NUMBER: 1054-009245
CRIME: 1. 2nd Degree Assault
Accused: Joseph Worley Sr of Pittsville, MD

BRIEF RESUME: On the above date and time, Tfc Goldman responded to an assault in Pittsville, Md. Investigation revealed Joseph Worley Sr had assaulted his stepdaughter at the residence. The step daughter received minor injuries as a result of this incident. Joseph Worley was placed under arrest for assault and transported to the Wicomico County Detention Center for Processing.