"I'm really sick. I think I need a pain pill."
The first time you hear those words come from the young woman in the bed next to yours while you're in the hospital, you feel sorry for that person.
Especially when she's only her early 30s and seems pretty sick.
I was in the hospital a few weeks ago, after going to the emergency room for what I thought was a routine kidney stone passage. I have those every few months, and they land me in the emergency room for a shot of strong pain killers and a reminder to drink more water.
This time, though, it wasn't a kidney stone. At least that's not all that was wrong. I was a hotbed of infection that went through my bladder and kidneys and into my blood, and was complicated by an ecoli illness.
I was a pretty sick lady.
But with all my ailments, I didn't feel all that poorly, once the doctors started pumping the antibiotics in. I felt pretty good, as a matter of fact, even if my medical team (and I'm still laughing at THAT!) kept me there five days.
But I felt even better when my roommate told me she had been there for two and a half weeks, and that she had surgery and that the doctors still didn't know what was wrong with her.
Two and a half weeks! Could it be cancer? The poor girl.
My pity lasted about an hour or so, until I realized that the pains she was suffering were, shall we say, selective.
She was in intense pain as long as there was a nurse there to check my blood pressure or IV. When the nurse left, the pain left. Amazing.
My suspicions climbed more when I overheard her asking a young man on the phone if he'd like her better if she gave up the "stuff."
Then nightfall came on that first night. She wanted pain pills every hour; she wanted a snack or something for her nausea. The food was bad so she sent it back to the kitchen. She rang the nurses every 10 minutes or so.
"I need a pillow...a drink...my slippers...a magazine..."
I still had no inkling, just annoyance that this girl was sick and whiny and I wanted to sleep in a position that wouldn't cause me to rip my IV out.
I finally fell asleep, despite her moaning and groaning.
Then day two came. She was supposed to leave, but since she had had surgery, of course you have to urinate and have a bowel movement before they will let you out of the hospital.
She couldn't. Plus her "pain" was at an all-time high.
There is no privacy in a hospital room. Those curtains don't hide anything.
So I laid there on my side of the curtain and turned up the television while they gave her an enema.
She couldn't go.
They gave her another one.
She still couldn't go.
They gave her another one.
She still couldn't shit.
So they took her for an x-ray. When she came back, she told me, in a self-satisfied way, "they'll probably have to open me up."
In a few minutes, the verdict of the x-rays came back.
She was doing it to herself. Somehow, some way, she was holding all that in. Plus she was not urinating...that's right, she was holding all that in, too.
By this point, her aunt came to visit. They sat there and complained to each other about how this girl's children had been taken away and how the hospital wasn't helping her and how she was not being treated fairly and how she should call the AMA and sue everyone.
By then, I needed headphones. My kids couldn't find any to bring me. So I got up frequently, took my IV cart and walked the hallways to get away from her. By then, I was about to give this bitch a reason to whine.
And that's when one of the nurses told me.
This girl was a jail inmate. A JAIL INMATE! And she had been there for two weeks and she was bring all the ailments on herself so she wouldn't have to go back!
All I wanted to do from the time I got there was to go home. I have a dear friend who has battled cancer not once, but twice and won this past year.
When I was wandering the halls, I heard children crying in some of the rooms. I heard others puking. I saw elderly ladies who smiled at me despite their illnesses and one poor fellow who couldn't stand up straight because he had had an operation.
And my stupid cow of a roommate was faking to stay out of jail!
So that night, I laid on my side of the room and listened to her moan and groan. I enjoyed the extra attention of the nurses, who sneaked me in extra Sprites and ice cream just to spite Miss Illness.
It was a bravura performance she put on. And she did shit, eventually. I heard her...and ratted her out.
I also heard her stick her finger down her throat during the night to get sick.
The next morning, her doctor was there very early, right after the nurses woke her up at 6 a.m. and made her urinate. He was short with her and told her she was fine. I found his bedside manner very odd.
Then, during breakfast, one of the nurses called me out to the hall. She asked me to be out of the room at 8:45 a.m., because sheriff's deputies were coming to collect the actress.
I wanted to stay...I'm a news person and I've been there when they arrested murderers and drug dealers, for the love of God. But I left...because they didn't want me to get hurt if she resisted arrest.
The deputies came and got her and she gave up without a struggle or a noise that I could hear.
I assume she's still in jail, and I hope she stays there a long time. I learned after she left that her other acts included smacking her head on the bathroom wall and acting like she had fallen and holding her pillow over her head to induce illness.
But she's back in jail, and I hope she doesn't get sick again. I'd like to say it was the humanitarian part of me, but...after all, I have my own medical bills to worry about...and now my tax dollars have to go to paying this woman's, too.
I still don't know why the hospital thought it would be perfectly okay to put a normal person in a room with a jail inmate...but I did enjoy the peace the following day.
And I learned that nurses really are saints.
I would have smacked her around with a bedpan. A really dirty one.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Editorials
Katrina: A turning point
It’s hard to believe two years have gone by.
Two years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near Buras, La.
More than 1,800 people in the region died after the resulting floods devastated the beautiful, historic city of New Orleans.
The hurricane and its flooding did more than claim the lives of those victims, however. It marked the end of the innocence for many Americans, not only those in the path of the storm.
Before Katrina, Americans retained much of their faith in the government to protect them from harm.
Sept. 11 rocked that faith, but Americans united in their grief and made it through those dark days, and most believed that steps would always be taken to protect them.
Katrina, however, was different.
All across the United States, viewers watched as the giant storm made its way to the Gulf Coast. Even people who didn’t know much about radar and weather forecasting knew that this storm was different.
The questions are still out there, and it’s still horrible to watch the film footage from the days after the storm.
Nobody thought that they would ever see fellow Americans lined up like refugees. Stranded on roofs. Babies and old people dying in the streets because there was no water or food.
But there they were.
The arguments will continue for decades about who was to blame for those people losing their lives.
The debate over whether taking items from stores was a matter of survival if food was being stolen, or whether it was looting when televisions and such were being carted away will go on.
So will the ugly accusations of racism in the United States — for many of those stranded and who died in the days after Hurricane Katrina were New Orleans’ poorest residents. And they were black.
There were stories of heroism that came from New Orleans. The National Guardsmen and Coast Guard, who came in and plucked survivors from the rooftops, will always be heroes.
However, what will always stand out in minds will be the utter failure of the United States government to help in a real way, when help was most needed.
When President Bush, who had appointed former FEMA Director Michael Brown in 2003, praised Brown shortly after the storm hit, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," everyone knew better.
It was obvious by then that Brownie — or the government — wasn’t doing a heck of a job. People were dying by the hundreds.
The hurricane not only destroyed New Orleans, but was the turning point in the Bush presidency.
After Sept. 11, Americans looked to Bush for hope. After Katrina, many looked at him, rightly or not, as the person who was to blame for the lives lost in New Orleans.
And now, two years later, the tragedy of Katrina continues.
Many of New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods are destroyed, and will not be rebuilt. Others are being snapped up by wealthy developers.
The birthplace of jazz will never be the same again, and many of those people who made New Orleans what it was — a center of unique cultural traditions —are now gone.
And all of that began on Aug. 29, 2005 — just two years ago today.
Section: Editorials Posted: 8/29/2007
The Republican senator, who was captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese while serving in the Vietnam War, is the leading supporter of a provision banning inhumane treatment and torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Terrorists are "the quintessence of evil," he said on a weekend news program. "But it's not about them; it's about us. This battle we're in is about the things we stand for and believe in and practice. And that is an observance of human rights, no matter how terrible our adversaries may be."
Republicans in Washington D.C. have embraced McCain's stance against the sanctioned use of torture, in a clear stand against the Bush White House.
According to officials, Bush plans to veto any bill that comes through that does not allow the use of torture against detainees, because of concerns that failure to get information from the detainees might lead to a terror attack.
While capturing a few of those people involved in the 9-11 attacks and pulling out their fingernails one by one until they turned in the slime that attacked our country might sound pretty good -- this is still America.
None of us are naive enough to believe that there is not strong handling of prisoners on any level, it should not be sanctioned by our government.
This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, a place where all are innocent until proven guilty.
How do we expect people in other countries to obey international humanitarian law, when the strongest nation in the world just flaunts it?
McCain's right. The sanctioned use of torture is not something that should come from the country for which he nearly died. This is the United States. We should be above that kind of thing.
Terrorists gain ground and power mainly by taking away our freedoms, one by one.
Keep up the good fight, Sen. McCain. This bill is vital to the image of the United States and the ongoing international efforts.
Democrat, Republican, the party lines don't matter here. What matters is what's right.
We're encouraging our government to follow McCain's lead and do the right thing.
THERE'S A bridge to nowhere in Bellaire, and pretty much anyone you ask on the streets of that village -- and in Belmont County -- has the same opinion about it.
To roughly quote the late President Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Barack, tear down that bridge."
The Bellaire Bridge was not always the hulking chunk of rust that looms over Bellaire and Benwood. For many years, especially before the I-470 bridge was built, it was the nearest link for shoppers, steelworkers and anyone who wanted to get from Ohio to West Virginia and back.
IT was a toll bridge, so if you paid a quarter or so, you earned the right to easily travel back and forth.
I'm not so old that I forget that bridge. Besides, I grew up in New Martinsville, where we also had a toll bridge over the Ohio River. That bridge is still there, but no tolls are collected anymore.
For several years, the Bellaire Bridge was a viable, important part of the community.
However, time moves on, and progress is made. In Bellaire, that progress came in the form of a modern four-lane highway.
The highway took several decades to complete, taking out many beautiful Victorian-era homes with its growth. It also took out any chance for a new ramp to the Bellaire Bridge.
The Ohio Department of Transportation came to an agreement with shareholders for the bridge, and not long after that, the shareholders came to an agreement with Roger Barack, a Bellaire businessman.
For reasons none of us are too clear about, Barack took over responsibility for the bridge. While at one point ideas for building a ramp to the bridge were bantered about, the ramp never came. The bridge, once a proud link between two communities, began to rot.
It's now going on 15 years later. The bridge is still rotting -- and it's going to keep rotting.
We all know now the news that while U.S. Rep. Bob Ney had requested funding for the bridge to be placed on the Federal Transportation Bill, he's pulled back on that idea.
He blamed the pulling on a malicious local media intent on reporting vicious, incorrect news. The transportation bill was already several millions of dollars beyond where it should be, according to President Bush, so the $1.2 million earmarked is now gone.
I'm thinking the outcry from residents who did not want their tax dollars used to finance the obligations of a private citizen had a lot to do with the decision.
So I'm asking, just what happens now?
Do we wait for the bridge to just keep rotting away? Maybe a barge will come through and knock it off its pillars. Or maybe a good strong wind _ or someone spitting on it _ will be the straw that broke the bridge's back.
I had a great idea the other day. People travel for miles around to see movie memorabilia.
The Bellaire Bridge was the bridge used in Silence of the Lambs. I thought maybe we could market the bridge as a national landmark and make it a tourism destination.
The only maintenance it would need then would be a nice sign and maybe a snack shop. Fava beans, anyone? People will travel from anywhere to see something from their favorite movie. Send those people up to Big Reds field for a ball game, or over to the Imperial Plaza for a little shopping, and you've got a nice money maker.
Then the money it makes can be used to -- you guessed it -- tear down that bridge.
All kidding aside, it's about as good an idea as anyone else has had lately.
I'd just like to know _ what do you think, Mr. Barack?
I've had reporters trying hard to reach you to ask you about that -- and we're waiting for your anwswer. What are you going to do next? Anything? Nothing?
The people of Bellaire -- and the Ohio Valley -- are waiting to hear your thoughts and plans.
We're guessing you'd just like to be well rid of that bridge yourself.
Hey, they moved the London Bridge to Arizona, didn't they? Maybe you can move the Bellaire Bridge out to Neffs.
It’s hard to believe two years have gone by.
Two years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near Buras, La.
More than 1,800 people in the region died after the resulting floods devastated the beautiful, historic city of New Orleans.
The hurricane and its flooding did more than claim the lives of those victims, however. It marked the end of the innocence for many Americans, not only those in the path of the storm.
Before Katrina, Americans retained much of their faith in the government to protect them from harm.
Sept. 11 rocked that faith, but Americans united in their grief and made it through those dark days, and most believed that steps would always be taken to protect them.
Katrina, however, was different.
All across the United States, viewers watched as the giant storm made its way to the Gulf Coast. Even people who didn’t know much about radar and weather forecasting knew that this storm was different.
The questions are still out there, and it’s still horrible to watch the film footage from the days after the storm.
Nobody thought that they would ever see fellow Americans lined up like refugees. Stranded on roofs. Babies and old people dying in the streets because there was no water or food.
But there they were.
The arguments will continue for decades about who was to blame for those people losing their lives.
The debate over whether taking items from stores was a matter of survival if food was being stolen, or whether it was looting when televisions and such were being carted away will go on.
So will the ugly accusations of racism in the United States — for many of those stranded and who died in the days after Hurricane Katrina were New Orleans’ poorest residents. And they were black.
There were stories of heroism that came from New Orleans. The National Guardsmen and Coast Guard, who came in and plucked survivors from the rooftops, will always be heroes.
However, what will always stand out in minds will be the utter failure of the United States government to help in a real way, when help was most needed.
When President Bush, who had appointed former FEMA Director Michael Brown in 2003, praised Brown shortly after the storm hit, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," everyone knew better.
It was obvious by then that Brownie — or the government — wasn’t doing a heck of a job. People were dying by the hundreds.
The hurricane not only destroyed New Orleans, but was the turning point in the Bush presidency.
After Sept. 11, Americans looked to Bush for hope. After Katrina, many looked at him, rightly or not, as the person who was to blame for the lives lost in New Orleans.
And now, two years later, the tragedy of Katrina continues.
Many of New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods are destroyed, and will not be rebuilt. Others are being snapped up by wealthy developers.
The birthplace of jazz will never be the same again, and many of those people who made New Orleans what it was — a center of unique cultural traditions —are now gone.
And all of that began on Aug. 29, 2005 — just two years ago today.
Section: Editorials Posted: 8/29/2007
----------
U.S. Sen. John McCain, perhaps this country's most famous former prisoner of war, knows what it's like to be tortured.The Republican senator, who was captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese while serving in the Vietnam War, is the leading supporter of a provision banning inhumane treatment and torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Terrorists are "the quintessence of evil," he said on a weekend news program. "But it's not about them; it's about us. This battle we're in is about the things we stand for and believe in and practice. And that is an observance of human rights, no matter how terrible our adversaries may be."
Republicans in Washington D.C. have embraced McCain's stance against the sanctioned use of torture, in a clear stand against the Bush White House.
According to officials, Bush plans to veto any bill that comes through that does not allow the use of torture against detainees, because of concerns that failure to get information from the detainees might lead to a terror attack.
While capturing a few of those people involved in the 9-11 attacks and pulling out their fingernails one by one until they turned in the slime that attacked our country might sound pretty good -- this is still America.
None of us are naive enough to believe that there is not strong handling of prisoners on any level, it should not be sanctioned by our government.
This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, a place where all are innocent until proven guilty.
How do we expect people in other countries to obey international humanitarian law, when the strongest nation in the world just flaunts it?
McCain's right. The sanctioned use of torture is not something that should come from the country for which he nearly died. This is the United States. We should be above that kind of thing.
Terrorists gain ground and power mainly by taking away our freedoms, one by one.
Keep up the good fight, Sen. McCain. This bill is vital to the image of the United States and the ongoing international efforts.
Democrat, Republican, the party lines don't matter here. What matters is what's right.
We're encouraging our government to follow McCain's lead and do the right thing.
-------
Mr. Barack, tear down that bridgeTHERE'S A bridge to nowhere in Bellaire, and pretty much anyone you ask on the streets of that village -- and in Belmont County -- has the same opinion about it.
To roughly quote the late President Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Barack, tear down that bridge."
The Bellaire Bridge was not always the hulking chunk of rust that looms over Bellaire and Benwood. For many years, especially before the I-470 bridge was built, it was the nearest link for shoppers, steelworkers and anyone who wanted to get from Ohio to West Virginia and back.
IT was a toll bridge, so if you paid a quarter or so, you earned the right to easily travel back and forth.
I'm not so old that I forget that bridge. Besides, I grew up in New Martinsville, where we also had a toll bridge over the Ohio River. That bridge is still there, but no tolls are collected anymore.
For several years, the Bellaire Bridge was a viable, important part of the community.
However, time moves on, and progress is made. In Bellaire, that progress came in the form of a modern four-lane highway.
The highway took several decades to complete, taking out many beautiful Victorian-era homes with its growth. It also took out any chance for a new ramp to the Bellaire Bridge.
The Ohio Department of Transportation came to an agreement with shareholders for the bridge, and not long after that, the shareholders came to an agreement with Roger Barack, a Bellaire businessman.
For reasons none of us are too clear about, Barack took over responsibility for the bridge. While at one point ideas for building a ramp to the bridge were bantered about, the ramp never came. The bridge, once a proud link between two communities, began to rot.
It's now going on 15 years later. The bridge is still rotting -- and it's going to keep rotting.
We all know now the news that while U.S. Rep. Bob Ney had requested funding for the bridge to be placed on the Federal Transportation Bill, he's pulled back on that idea.
He blamed the pulling on a malicious local media intent on reporting vicious, incorrect news. The transportation bill was already several millions of dollars beyond where it should be, according to President Bush, so the $1.2 million earmarked is now gone.
I'm thinking the outcry from residents who did not want their tax dollars used to finance the obligations of a private citizen had a lot to do with the decision.
So I'm asking, just what happens now?
Do we wait for the bridge to just keep rotting away? Maybe a barge will come through and knock it off its pillars. Or maybe a good strong wind _ or someone spitting on it _ will be the straw that broke the bridge's back.
I had a great idea the other day. People travel for miles around to see movie memorabilia.
The Bellaire Bridge was the bridge used in Silence of the Lambs. I thought maybe we could market the bridge as a national landmark and make it a tourism destination.
The only maintenance it would need then would be a nice sign and maybe a snack shop. Fava beans, anyone? People will travel from anywhere to see something from their favorite movie. Send those people up to Big Reds field for a ball game, or over to the Imperial Plaza for a little shopping, and you've got a nice money maker.
Then the money it makes can be used to -- you guessed it -- tear down that bridge.
All kidding aside, it's about as good an idea as anyone else has had lately.
I'd just like to know _ what do you think, Mr. Barack?
I've had reporters trying hard to reach you to ask you about that -- and we're waiting for your anwswer. What are you going to do next? Anything? Nothing?
The people of Bellaire -- and the Ohio Valley -- are waiting to hear your thoughts and plans.
We're guessing you'd just like to be well rid of that bridge yourself.
Hey, they moved the London Bridge to Arizona, didn't they? Maybe you can move the Bellaire Bridge out to Neffs.
-------
WHEN ALL else fails, kill the messenger.
Ever since the politicians from the ancient days, it seems to be a policy that's served well -- and continues to do so.
We just got a fine sample of it this past week, when U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, announced his intentions to run again for office.
For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past year or so, or those who just really don't care about the whole way of life that makes up our politicial system, Ney's once-good name has been tarnished through his associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Abramoff pleaded guilty in recent months to meeting the financial dreams of politicians throughout Capitol Hill by spreading money, luxury trips, skybox fundraisers, campaign contributions, jobs for politicians' spouses, and meals at Signatures, his upscale restaurant in exchange for a lighter prison sentence.
He's singing like a canary, naming names and performing for his captors. And the one name that's been at the top of his hit list has been Ney's.
The charges have been wide and varied -- and I'm sure we're just hearing the tip of the iceberg on them.
The main thing that Abramoff has claimed against Ney is that he's placed comments in the Congressional Record backing Abramoff's efforts to gain control of a Florida gambling company, Sun Cruz Casinos, and also offered language to reopen a American Indian tribe's casino in Texas.
Abramoff said he and his associate, Michael Scanlon, showered Ney with many "favors," including a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, free dinners and events and campaign donations.
Ney hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing so far. However, the black clouds are gathering over his head, and his protestations that he was "duped" by Abramoff, who he says he considered as a friend, are being looked at with skepticism.
While the investigations are going on, Ney has stepped down from his House Administration Committee chairmanship, but still remains a powerful force in Congress.
Meanwhile, Ney's not the only one who was on Abramoff's gift list. Lots of politicians, Democrats and Republicans and all the way up to President Bush, received campaign contributions. Some have given the money back; some have not.
It's a far-reaching scandal that threatens to rival the Watergate break-ins that brought down President Richard Nixon. It's complicated and confusing to say the least, but it is a serious matter.
Despite the scandals, this past week, Ney announced his intentions to run for another term in Congress.
He's still a popular candidate throughout the local area, and many voters haven't forgotten the good he has done for the area.
His list of good deeds are many, even his detractors admit. He's gone against his party's line often when it came to legislation backing steelworkers and industry and when it could keep our workers at their jobs.
He's a staunch believer in the military and its service and a passionate voice for the "working poor."
Ney has literally steered millions of dollars in road construction to this area, not to mention millions of dollars that has helped many a local community with projects that are too numerous to mention.
There's many people around these parts who will tell you that when all else failed, they called Ney and he helped them with their problems.
Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that Ney has helped the local area with its needs.
WIthout the Abramoff matter hanging over his head, Ney would be a shoe-in for Congress.
However, what is leaving a sour taste in voters' mouths is his ongoing refusal to admit that anything is wrong with his accepting anything from Abramoff.
Even when he was announcing his campaign, Ney blamed the whole Abramoff scandal on "the national media."
"I have seen my name savaged by the national media. . . But I am here to make several things clear. Fiction will soon be separated from fact. My name will be cleared. I will be vindicated at the end of the day."
This isn't the first time Ney -- or any other Congressman -- has blamed the media for problems and controversy.
Last year, Ney had added $1.7 million into the Federal Transportation Bill for the demolition of the Bellaire Bridge. However, the addition was withdrawn after many complaints were voiced from people who opposed using federal money to demolish a structure that is privately owned.
Ney complained that "misleading" news stories in local newspapers and a local television statement brought about his decision.
To hear Ney talk, you'd think members of the media meet in their little secret chambers every day, wringing their hands and devising ways to ruin his life.
And since many people get their impressions of life within the media from cheesy movies filled with dramatic people yelling things like "stop the presses," they tend to believe him.
Here's a little inside secret -- it's not like that at all. I don't know about the folks at places like the Washington Post, but there's a lot more that goes on at even smaller papers like ours than constant plots to ruin politicians' lives. We don't meet in little back rooms and form our plots.
In fact, sometimes the most important topic of the day is where we're getting our lunch.
But when a politician is included in a scandal or investigation, yes, we will report it. It doesn't have to be a congressman. If a township trustee is dipping into the creek dredging funds, we'll tell you about that too.
We'll run the headline big and a picture of the person so nobody will forget what that man or woman looks like. We'll present it as fairly as we can, and when we call the politician to get his side of the story and he refuses to return our calls, we'll tell everyone that too.
We're the ones that try to get voters the answers that they need to make their decisions. It's a job we take seriously, and our desk drawers filled with heartburn and headache remedies prove it.
And when we make a mistake, as humans can do, we'll tell you that we did -- and we'll take it to heart and do all we can to make things right again.
Sometimes it's just tough to be the messenger. Most of the time, though, I can't imagine anything else I'd rather be.
Ever since the politicians from the ancient days, it seems to be a policy that's served well -- and continues to do so.
We just got a fine sample of it this past week, when U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, announced his intentions to run again for office.
For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past year or so, or those who just really don't care about the whole way of life that makes up our politicial system, Ney's once-good name has been tarnished through his associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Abramoff pleaded guilty in recent months to meeting the financial dreams of politicians throughout Capitol Hill by spreading money, luxury trips, skybox fundraisers, campaign contributions, jobs for politicians' spouses, and meals at Signatures, his upscale restaurant in exchange for a lighter prison sentence.
He's singing like a canary, naming names and performing for his captors. And the one name that's been at the top of his hit list has been Ney's.
The charges have been wide and varied -- and I'm sure we're just hearing the tip of the iceberg on them.
The main thing that Abramoff has claimed against Ney is that he's placed comments in the Congressional Record backing Abramoff's efforts to gain control of a Florida gambling company, Sun Cruz Casinos, and also offered language to reopen a American Indian tribe's casino in Texas.
Abramoff said he and his associate, Michael Scanlon, showered Ney with many "favors," including a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, free dinners and events and campaign donations.
Ney hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing so far. However, the black clouds are gathering over his head, and his protestations that he was "duped" by Abramoff, who he says he considered as a friend, are being looked at with skepticism.
While the investigations are going on, Ney has stepped down from his House Administration Committee chairmanship, but still remains a powerful force in Congress.
Meanwhile, Ney's not the only one who was on Abramoff's gift list. Lots of politicians, Democrats and Republicans and all the way up to President Bush, received campaign contributions. Some have given the money back; some have not.
It's a far-reaching scandal that threatens to rival the Watergate break-ins that brought down President Richard Nixon. It's complicated and confusing to say the least, but it is a serious matter.
Despite the scandals, this past week, Ney announced his intentions to run for another term in Congress.
He's still a popular candidate throughout the local area, and many voters haven't forgotten the good he has done for the area.
His list of good deeds are many, even his detractors admit. He's gone against his party's line often when it came to legislation backing steelworkers and industry and when it could keep our workers at their jobs.
He's a staunch believer in the military and its service and a passionate voice for the "working poor."
Ney has literally steered millions of dollars in road construction to this area, not to mention millions of dollars that has helped many a local community with projects that are too numerous to mention.
There's many people around these parts who will tell you that when all else failed, they called Ney and he helped them with their problems.
Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that Ney has helped the local area with its needs.
WIthout the Abramoff matter hanging over his head, Ney would be a shoe-in for Congress.
However, what is leaving a sour taste in voters' mouths is his ongoing refusal to admit that anything is wrong with his accepting anything from Abramoff.
Even when he was announcing his campaign, Ney blamed the whole Abramoff scandal on "the national media."
"I have seen my name savaged by the national media. . . But I am here to make several things clear. Fiction will soon be separated from fact. My name will be cleared. I will be vindicated at the end of the day."
This isn't the first time Ney -- or any other Congressman -- has blamed the media for problems and controversy.
Last year, Ney had added $1.7 million into the Federal Transportation Bill for the demolition of the Bellaire Bridge. However, the addition was withdrawn after many complaints were voiced from people who opposed using federal money to demolish a structure that is privately owned.
Ney complained that "misleading" news stories in local newspapers and a local television statement brought about his decision.
To hear Ney talk, you'd think members of the media meet in their little secret chambers every day, wringing their hands and devising ways to ruin his life.
And since many people get their impressions of life within the media from cheesy movies filled with dramatic people yelling things like "stop the presses," they tend to believe him.
Here's a little inside secret -- it's not like that at all. I don't know about the folks at places like the Washington Post, but there's a lot more that goes on at even smaller papers like ours than constant plots to ruin politicians' lives. We don't meet in little back rooms and form our plots.
In fact, sometimes the most important topic of the day is where we're getting our lunch.
But when a politician is included in a scandal or investigation, yes, we will report it. It doesn't have to be a congressman. If a township trustee is dipping into the creek dredging funds, we'll tell you about that too.
We'll run the headline big and a picture of the person so nobody will forget what that man or woman looks like. We'll present it as fairly as we can, and when we call the politician to get his side of the story and he refuses to return our calls, we'll tell everyone that too.
We're the ones that try to get voters the answers that they need to make their decisions. It's a job we take seriously, and our desk drawers filled with heartburn and headache remedies prove it.
And when we make a mistake, as humans can do, we'll tell you that we did -- and we'll take it to heart and do all we can to make things right again.
Sometimes it's just tough to be the messenger. Most of the time, though, I can't imagine anything else I'd rather be.
--------
AMERICANS ARE often accused of having short memories, but I'm still often amazed by just how little we remember.
After all, it's been less than five years since terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Less than five years since the brave passengers of Flight 93 forced yet another terrorist-held airplane into crashing before it could wreak even more havoc in Washington D.C.
It's been less than five years since we all sat in horror and tears as we watched our nation's capital and its largest city, held in the grip of fear, even if it does seem like a lifetime ago.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, there's the beautiful city of Dubai.
It's part of the United Arab Emirates, and according to travel guides, it's quite a progressive place. Its oil money is spent in modernization and it's a beautiful tourism destination, complete with discos and beaches and low crime rates and every thing anyone could want. It's open and modern and amazing, the tour guides say.
Those same qualities, other experts believe, are ones that lead Al Qaeda operatives to come and play and plot.
Here in 2006, why do I have so much concern about a city that's part of a country that by all accounts that has admittedly taken steps to fight terrorism?
Well, Dubai was also the last stopover in the Middle East for the terrorists who headed to America to sacrifice themselves in the name of a bloody Jihad.
Citizens of places such as Saudi Arabia can come to Dubai without visas. The Saudis involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. government experts, came through Dubai during the time between April and June, 2001 on their way to the United States and flight school.
According to a government report, quoted in USA Today back in Sept. 2004, the hijackers traveled in groups of two or three, leaving from Dubai and arriving at airports in Miami, Orlando or New York City.
It's also been determined that the money used to finance the Sept. 11 terror attacks was funneled through Dubai.
Now let's fast forward five years, to 2006. In a small article by The Associated Press this past week, it was reported that a deal has been brokered that will turn over control of the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to the Dubai Ports World.
And yes, Dubai Ports World is owned by the government of Dubai.
The London company owns ports throughout several parts of the world, or at least it did until Monday, when British shareholders approved its sale to Dubai Ports World -- which goes by DP World in official communications.
Here's what's really shocking. The London company, which until the sale was described as the world's fourth-largest operator of ports, ran commercial operations all over the world -- including shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
That's right. Dubai, the same country that allows terrorists to come on in and fly out of its airports, without so much as a security check first, is now in charge of port terminals in six of the United States' most prominent metropolitan locations.
Let me repeat those places again. New York. New Jersey. Baltimore. New Orleans. Miami. Philadelphia.
According to The Associated Press, U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he spoke to senior White House officials, whom he declined to identify, and urged them to review national security concerns about the purchase.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviewed the transaction and did not object, The Associated Press reported. The committee, run by the Treasury Department, also includes officials from the departments of Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security.
"The White House can stop this deal ultimately, and I've asked them to go very slow and look at it very carefully," King told The Associated Press.
Let's just hope that President Bush does just that, and ends this madness now.
Because, since terrorists can apparently get through the airports of Dubai so easily, who's to say they can't get through port terminals owned by Dubai just as easily?
Ports, again, that lead to our largest metropolitan areas.
I know that money talks, and often speaks more loudly than reason. It's said the Dubai company paid nearly $6 billion to buy the British company. That doesn't matter. No amount of money should have been enough.
Let's just pray that the United States doesn't pay for this sale with the blood of our citizens.
After all, it's been less than five years since terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Less than five years since the brave passengers of Flight 93 forced yet another terrorist-held airplane into crashing before it could wreak even more havoc in Washington D.C.
It's been less than five years since we all sat in horror and tears as we watched our nation's capital and its largest city, held in the grip of fear, even if it does seem like a lifetime ago.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, there's the beautiful city of Dubai.
It's part of the United Arab Emirates, and according to travel guides, it's quite a progressive place. Its oil money is spent in modernization and it's a beautiful tourism destination, complete with discos and beaches and low crime rates and every thing anyone could want. It's open and modern and amazing, the tour guides say.
Those same qualities, other experts believe, are ones that lead Al Qaeda operatives to come and play and plot.
Here in 2006, why do I have so much concern about a city that's part of a country that by all accounts that has admittedly taken steps to fight terrorism?
Well, Dubai was also the last stopover in the Middle East for the terrorists who headed to America to sacrifice themselves in the name of a bloody Jihad.
Citizens of places such as Saudi Arabia can come to Dubai without visas. The Saudis involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. government experts, came through Dubai during the time between April and June, 2001 on their way to the United States and flight school.
According to a government report, quoted in USA Today back in Sept. 2004, the hijackers traveled in groups of two or three, leaving from Dubai and arriving at airports in Miami, Orlando or New York City.
It's also been determined that the money used to finance the Sept. 11 terror attacks was funneled through Dubai.
Now let's fast forward five years, to 2006. In a small article by The Associated Press this past week, it was reported that a deal has been brokered that will turn over control of the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to the Dubai Ports World.
And yes, Dubai Ports World is owned by the government of Dubai.
The London company owns ports throughout several parts of the world, or at least it did until Monday, when British shareholders approved its sale to Dubai Ports World -- which goes by DP World in official communications.
Here's what's really shocking. The London company, which until the sale was described as the world's fourth-largest operator of ports, ran commercial operations all over the world -- including shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
That's right. Dubai, the same country that allows terrorists to come on in and fly out of its airports, without so much as a security check first, is now in charge of port terminals in six of the United States' most prominent metropolitan locations.
Let me repeat those places again. New York. New Jersey. Baltimore. New Orleans. Miami. Philadelphia.
According to The Associated Press, U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he spoke to senior White House officials, whom he declined to identify, and urged them to review national security concerns about the purchase.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviewed the transaction and did not object, The Associated Press reported. The committee, run by the Treasury Department, also includes officials from the departments of Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security.
"The White House can stop this deal ultimately, and I've asked them to go very slow and look at it very carefully," King told The Associated Press.
Let's just hope that President Bush does just that, and ends this madness now.
Because, since terrorists can apparently get through the airports of Dubai so easily, who's to say they can't get through port terminals owned by Dubai just as easily?
Ports, again, that lead to our largest metropolitan areas.
I know that money talks, and often speaks more loudly than reason. It's said the Dubai company paid nearly $6 billion to buy the British company. That doesn't matter. No amount of money should have been enough.
Let's just pray that the United States doesn't pay for this sale with the blood of our citizens.
An introduction
Hello.
I have been a writer and editor for several years. Since I want to have a freelance career, I decided that creating a blog and putting some of my writing on it would be the easiest way to get the word out there -- I think I'm pretty good!
Most of these writings are from when I was at various newspapers throughout the Ohio Valley, and they are all copyrighted by those papers. Therefore, you cannot use them without permission from that newspaper. Not at all! If you like what you see, contact me and I'll tell you how to get that permission. Remember, nobody likes plagiarists. Not even their moms.
I'll also be adding writing to this blog. Some may be a little personal; some will probably be reflections of what I'm going through at various times in my life. If you want to comment, please do, but remember, if you're mean or swear a lot, I'll probably remove your comment. I can do that. This is my blog!
I have been a writer and editor for several years. Since I want to have a freelance career, I decided that creating a blog and putting some of my writing on it would be the easiest way to get the word out there -- I think I'm pretty good!
Most of these writings are from when I was at various newspapers throughout the Ohio Valley, and they are all copyrighted by those papers. Therefore, you cannot use them without permission from that newspaper. Not at all! If you like what you see, contact me and I'll tell you how to get that permission. Remember, nobody likes plagiarists. Not even their moms.
I'll also be adding writing to this blog. Some may be a little personal; some will probably be reflections of what I'm going through at various times in my life. If you want to comment, please do, but remember, if you're mean or swear a lot, I'll probably remove your comment. I can do that. This is my blog!
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