Row over cartoons, execution hypocritical

Has anyone pointed out the irony of Muslims all over the world getting terribly upset with the recent Danish cartoons, but when the West gets upset at persecution for converting to Christianity, the Muslim world wants us to mind our own business? Well, how about you stay out of our free society and we’ll leave you to your free society? I’m sick of the hypocrisy on all sides, including mine in this letter. If only Frost wasn’t being ironic when he said that good fences make good neighbors!

House bill promotes discrimination on campuses

The Arizona House of Representatives Committee on Universities, Community Colleges and Technology did a great disservice to the people of Arizona and students in this state. By advancing SB 1153, a majority of committee members (with the exception of representatives Ted Downing and Dave Bradley) endorsed publicly funded discrimination on college campuses.

As somebody who serves Arizona college students, I feel it is important that we create a safe and inclusive environment on our college campuses. This bill will hurt targeted communities, allowing student groups to discriminate based on age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and veteran status. That means student organizations will be allowed to exclude others from participating in publicly funded programs based solely on their identity. That is wrong. Arizonans don’t believe in discrimination. We certainly don’t want to fund it.

I urge all voters to write their representatives and insist that they vote against this bill that creates a system of taxpayer-funded discrimination before it is too late.

Times article reveals president did lie

I am writing in response to Michael Huston’s column yesterday, “”When Bush speaks, people listen.”” According to Mr. Huston, “”the majority of the people just refuse to believe that the president lied in order to take the country to war or that a war in Iraq was the goal of the administration from the beginning.””

I invite the majority of the people to read the New York Times article, “”Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says.””

The Times recently obtained a memo leaked from the British government, which detailed a meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair on Jan. 31, 2003. Bush had made up his mind that he would invade Iraq, regardless of whether inspectors found any weapons of mass destruction. According to the Times, Bush “”made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second (UN) resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons.”” A date was even set for the war in Iraq to begin. “”The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,”” Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. “”This was when the bombing would begin.”” The war in Iraq started only nine days after the date that Bush had initially scheduled.

What is especially telling is that Bush had considered ways to trigger a war. The Times article states, “”The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.””

Anyone who still believes that Bush acted in good faith when he led us into war is immune to reality.