Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/710175
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Unlike their Republican counterparts, Democrats tend not to wallow in the sewer with infantile chants like "Lock her up." In- stead, they simply whacked Donald Trump with substance throughout their four day convention in Philadelphia. TakeforinstanceNew York congressman Joe Crow- ley, who assailed Trump for grabbing federal money that was intended to help small businesses crippled by 9/11. Crowley's indictment has the added advantage of being true. "Where was Donald Trump in the days and months and the years after 9/11? He didn't stand at the pile, he didn't lobby Congress for help, he didn't fight for the first re- sponders," Crowley noted. "Nope, he cashed in, collect- ing $150,000 in government funds intended to help small businesses recover — even though days after the attack Trump said his properties were not affected." One goal of the Demo- cratic National Convention was to draw stark charac- ter contrasts between Hill- ary Clinton and Trump. Case in point, their divergent reac- tions after the planes leveled the towers. Clinton, as a newbie sen- ator, worked successfully on health legislation to address the needs of first respond- ers who'd spent weeks breath- ing toxic PCBs. In '04, the re- sponders staged a ceremony to thank her. Trump, on the other hand, did precisely what Crowley described. He made money off the attack. This has been well-doc- umented by the New York Daily News, and seconded by two conservative media outlets, Red State and The Weekly Standard. A state grant program was set up to help small businesses re- cover and rebuild. But be- cause the rules were so loose, Trump and some big corpo- rations jumped in. The state program defined "small busi- ness" as 500 employes or less; Trump, in his applica- tion, said that his building at 40 Wall Street had 28 em- ployes. Voila, he got $150,000 — even though, as he told German TV shortly after the 9/11, his property "wasn't, fortunately, affected by what happened to the World Trade Center." Did he break any laws? Nope. Instead, as the conser- vative Weekly Standard wrote last winter, "through a loop- hole in the rules, Trump was able to squeeze $150,000 of money from taxpayers." Is this a character issue? Absolutely. As the Red State site wrote last winter — and it's great to see these conser- vative outlets in sync with a Democratic congressman — we're talking here about a de- spicable human being: "This simply goes to Trump's sense of entitlement. If he wants your house for a limousine parking lot, well, he's entitled .... Support abor- tion and then expect to be be- lieved when he changes his tune? Entitled. Money for small businesses affected by 9/11? Entitled. He took this grant money, and I'm sure he'd tell you that $150K is chump change .... He didn't need it. But he wanted it." And sure enough, Trump does think it's chump change. Two months ago, when The New York Times asked him about it, he described it as "this small amount of money." That's probably news to the median American household, which, according to the Cen- sus Bureau, posts an annual tally of $54,000. Still, the odds are high that compared to the many other faults and failures of the Re- publican presidential nomi- nee, this episode of "Donald Trump, 9/11 Leech" will look like chump change. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Donald Trump profited from 9/11 Cartoonist's take There are some revealing, even disturbing, aspects of the curious but adamant stance on domestic Islamic terrorism appar- ently adopted by Barack Obama. I write this in June but Obama's pol- icies will be with Americans un- til a new pres- ident is sworn in. I hope at this point it will be Donald Trump rather than Hillary Clinton because I would have far greater trust in his instincts rather than the Clinton record you've read about in the last two columns. Recall, if you will, the phony controversy over what Obama derisively called "magic words"; he said, "There's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam.' It's a talking point." I doubt even his defenders can dismiss the idea that Islamic radicalism is what guides and motivates widespread terror- ism, faced with airport bomb- ings, mass murder with guns or, as we've seen in Israel, Germany and China, slaugh- ter with knives, axes and ma- chetes. Obama, media elites and the politically correct devotees of inoffensive conclusions can shut their eyes, plug their ears and close their mouths about the subject. However, the most revered, knowledgeable and authoritative imams and Is- lamic scholars in the world are exponents of the extremist, shariah-adhering death-to-in- fidels branch of "the religion of peace." Granted, most Muslims that come to America, certainly large numbers in Muslim-ma- jority nations, adhere to the precepts of Islam that make them responsible American citizens and non-threatening members of the human race. And yet, some of their off- spring—as well schooled and comfortably middle class as they may be—find inspiration on the Internet and its ready access to those preaching the other, the violent terrorism- fomenting kind of Islam. It is not an insane, an aberrant, nor an extremist splinter of their faith. The above observations should not be controversial, but should rather constitute a base of proper understand- ing of the enemy terrorizing our nation and the world with dozens of attacks over the last year. However, it is demonstra- bly not Obama's understand- ing and should be the cause, not for conspiracy theories, but for dispassionate analysis of why his approach has failed to protect us. Much can be learned about Obama's mindset from "The Obama Doctrine," by Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg made the case that the president almost pathologically refuses to view the threats posed by these in- cidents as major national-secu- rity issues: "He (Obama) has never be- lieved that terrorism poses a threat to America commensu- rate with the fear it generates. Even during the period in 2014 when ISIS was executing its American captives in Syria, his emotions were in check. Val- erie Jarrett, Obama's closest adviser, told him people were worried that the group would soon take its beheading cam- paign to the U.S. 'They're not coming here to chop our heads off,' he reassured her. "Obama frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs. Several years ago, he expressed to me his admiration for Israelis' 'resil- ience' in the face of constant terrorism, and it is clear that he would like to see resilience replace panic in American so- ciety. Nevertheless, his advis- ers are fighting a constant re- arguard action to keep Obama from placing terrorism in what he considers its 'proper' per- spective, out of concern that he will seem insensitive to the fears of the American people." John Podhoretz: "Of course, they are coming here to chop our heads off, only they're not doing it one by one with kid- napped Americans. They're shooting up their fellow work- ers in San Bernardino and a bar in Orlando (DP: and sol- diers at Fort Hood and Chatta- nooga). They may or may not be under foreign direction, but they are self-proclaimed jihad- ists." Then look up "How Not to Counter Domestic Terror- ism," by Paul Mirengoff (6/16). It places the "Countering Vi- olent Extremism (CVE)" pro- gram in perspective as it re- flects the Obama doctrine. You might not be surprised, given its title, to find that CVE has nothing to do with Islamic ter- rorism. It makes no mention of the term, asserts that some Muslims can be paid to argue with other Muslims on social media, and reduces terrorism from a military problem to a law enforcement issue or even a civilian social problem. The Muslim Brotherhood, Coun- cil on American-Islamic Rela- tions, Islamic Society of North America and ISIS are no doubt grateful. Daniel Greenfield: "CVE not only doesn't fight terrorism, it perpetuates the whole reason for it by outsourcing our inter- action with domestic Muslims to the Saudis and the Mus- lim Brotherhood. That's a big part of how we got a terror- ism problem in the first place. CVE's promoters have con- vinced us that the best way to fight Islamic terrorism is by partnering with Islamic ter- rorists… "A sensible counter terror- ism strategy at home will not aim at parsing different flavors of Islam, but at distinguishing between those citizens whose allegiance we have and those whose allegiance we do not… CVE rejects the idea that Mus- lims should be expected to show their allegiance [to the U.S.] and instead demands that the United States show its allegiance to them. It inverts the balance of citizenship and invests the United States in an unspoken religious debate." Former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer John Schindler wrote a column, "The Road to Orlando," describing what he witnessed in Obama's first term: "a thorough purge of personnel in the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department who were unwill- ing to follow the new party line." Obama's policies, agen- cies, his obedient staff, and sy- cophants in government, his party and news media have given us dead Americans from Islamic terrorists. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Obama's clueless on radical Islam A state grant program was set up to help small businesses recover and rebuild. But because the rules were so loose, Trump and some big corporations jumped in. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Oh my God, give my love, hugs and prayers to everyone. Vicki Leigh: On the drowning of a kayaker Saturday at China Rapids Such a loss to his family... Anne Milton Roades: On the drowning of a kayaker Saturday at China Rapids Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials PLEASERECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thankyou! OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, August 2, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6