Joshua J. Bunton August 16, 2004

Have you been paying attention to National News lately? No? Then, you haven’t heard about Governor Jim McGreevey.

For those who aren’t familiar with story we’ll begin with beginning.

On Thursday, August 12, 2004, Governor Jim McGreevey held a press conference to announce he was “resigning” effective November 15, 2004.

Accompanied by his wife, Vanessa, Governor Jim McGreevey further announced that he was a “gay American,” and that he had an affair with Golan Cipel.

In an interview with The New York Post on August 14, 2004, Golan Cipel claims that he is a heterosexual and was sexually assaulted by New Jersey governor more than a dozen times.

As concerning as this scandal is, mainstream media is applauding fact that he was “brave” to come out and ignoring more important issues.

There’s issue of Golan Cipel (an Israeli national) who Governor Jim McGreevey named as his Homeland Security adviser. Cipel has no security experience. He is a former poet and sailor who once worked as a television news reporter and a spokesman for Israeli Consulate in New York.

Cipel got job without official fanfare that typically accompanies such appointments. Cipel did not undergo a background check. Furthermore, Cipel is not an American citizen, so he could not qualify for a security clearance.

Joshua Bunton

August 30, 2004

Yesterday in New York thousands of protestors marched down seventh avenue. And, of course, C-SPAN is covering it like a big news event.

I took time to watch some of coverage. I expected to find protestors marching for one cause and one cause only to get George W Bush out of White House.

What did I find instead? What I found was a mixture of people protesting topics from around globe.

According to “United for Peace website” (organization responsible for August 29, 2004 protests in New York City) their organization will “hold an impassioned, peaceful, and legal march past Madison Square Garden, site of Republican Convention. When Republicans descend on New York City with their agenda of war, greed, hate and lies, they will be met by a massive, diverse, peaceful outpouring of dissent, as huge numbers of us join together in a spirit of nonviolence for a legal, permitted march on August 29 to say NO to their destructive and divisive policies.”

What I want to do in this week’s column is examine this organizations claim that President Bush’s policies are based on War, Greed, hate and lies.

Let’s begin with claim that President Bush’s policies are solely based on “war.” Remember President Bush went to war with Afghanistan after Islamic terrorists attacked our country on September 11, 2001.

At which time he said, “The global war on terror will be unlike any other war in our country’s history.” Some fronts of global war on terror will be visible to public and some won’t be.

In response to Iraq war President Bush challenged global community through United Nations to make Saddam Hussein disarm. The United Nations responded with resolution number 1441.