Wake Up and Do Something About It!

Madame Justice Challenges
Bill O'Reilly
To Smear Her Like He Has Others

Dear Friends and Voters:

I have been occupied with matters that required my attention at work and, after working all day, there was little time or energy to write. Much has been happening since I last wrote.

But I have been paying attention to events. I don't like what has been happening, especially to Cindy Sheehan. For those of you who don't know, she is the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. She also has begun to turn her grief to anger, so that other mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and friends will not have to lose their loved ones or have their family members maimed in this nonsensical war.

We are told that it is for a "noble cause." What "noble cause" is that? To kill innocent Iraqis? We are told its for our "freedom." That's nice that we are SO concerned about freedom in Iraq when our own freedoms at home are daily being eroded. We have a Supreme Court that does not respect the ownership of private property. And we do not have a government that any longer respects our rights to liberty. There are cameras everywhere. The government already has systems to read your email. And thanks to the misnamed Patriot Act, they can visit your library or home and search your belongings without a warrant. The government can accuse you of being a "person of interest," destroy your life or lock you up and hold you indefinitely without access to counsel. Life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness are all in jeopardy. We are on the slippery slope to fascism or worse.

But back to Ms. Sheehan. There has been a growing effort by the neo-cons in Washington to silence her. They are doing to her what the state neo-cons did to me on a local level. They have called out their usual attack dogs and willing accomplices in the media. They have attempted to portray her as part of the lunatic fringe, as some dupe controlled by these groups. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Before this controversy started, I had written to Ms. Sheehan to voice my support. I also put her and her group, Gold Star Families for Peace, up on my website. If she has not been removed and, if my health permits me to travel such a distance, I will visit her in Texas. But anyone who knows her knows that she is not a tool.

There is an old saying that politics often makes strange bedfellows. I was a loyal Republican for many years. I am not a communist or socialist. I do not agree with Michael Moore on many things. But I think the war is wrong. So does he. Does that mean I am linked with him? Or with Code Pink?

No, it does not. It just means that we can agree on this one issue. It makes sense for these groups to combine their efforts and resources on the anti-war issue. So it does not surprise me that such groups are supporting Ms. Sheehan's effort to oppose this war. And Fox News, Bill O'Reilly (who sexually harassed his own co-workers) or any other talk show host can attempt to smear me, as they do Ms. Sheehan, as being part of these groups. But is not of true of me. And it is not true of her either.

Fortunately, the neo-cons' plan is unraveling. Support for Ms. Sheehan is growing. And there is overwhelming support among the people that this war was based on untruths and that it is time to end it. The war is going so badly for the neo-cons that they may not do well in the elections next year. If there is any proof of this, one can see it in a recent election in a Republican stronghold in Ohio. Yes, the incumbent may have won, but the race between her and her Democratic opponent, who was himself in Iraq as a soldier and campaigned against the war, was a lot closer than anyone thought it would be.

To counter this anti-war feeling, the neo-cons have announced that there might be a reduction in troops. While a reduction would be welcome, I don't see how they can possibly train enough Iraqi troops to seal the border. There was never a terrorist in Iraq before this war started. Now, not only are they pouring in over the border, but many of them have been newly created. The war has caused those who wouldn't have been terrorists, to be such. And if we leave, civil war may break out among the various factions. At the same time, there is talk of bombing Iran. Why? Simply because we can.

We were told that the war would provide oil. And yet gas prices are on the rise. I have not been to the gas station today, but the price is already over $2.15 per gallon here and over $3.00 per gallon in California. We are told that it is because of the refineries and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Huh? Like we never had hurricanes before? Meanwhile, the oil companies are reporting record profits.

And there were millions that have gone unaccounted for in Iraq. The word is actually embezzled. Someone took the money. And you and I, the American taxpayer, will be left with paying the bills.

Just like we are supposed to pay the legal fees for the alleged re-districting case. It seems incongruous for the state party GOP chairman, Ferrell Blount, to argue that these fees should be paid by the taxpayer while he rails at other taxes on cigarettes and slush funds. If you are against these things and are a true Republican, you would not be for having the taxpayer pay your legal tab, Mr. Blount. The legal fees should be paid by the party that hired them. Like it or not, its the American system.

Appeals judge Barbara Jackson and NC Right-to-Life recently sued the state over judicial financing. They have it right that its a bad thing, but for the wrong reasons. What is wrong is that it takes taxpayer dollars and uses it to benefit a few select individuals. Individuals must raise sufficient funds to get the money, making sure that the little people who cannot do so are kept out. In other words, only the "right" people will end up getting a handout from the taxpayers. The lucky few who get the money will spend it in all the wrong places, as they did in the last election. And all to save individuals from the odious task of raising money. The whole system should be scrapped, not because it has a chilling right on speech, but because it is flawed.

The Republican party used to stand for smaller taxes, more individual responsibility and less government. What it has become is the party of the neo-cons. They are all set to use government for their own ends. And the faction now in control are absolutely ruthless. They have taken to heart Goebbels' philosophy of repeating a lie often enough and it will become the truth, whether the lie is about Cindy Sheehan, oil or anything else. That is why I left this party. Or I should say, the party left me. I do not recognize this crowd any more. They have given up true Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican ideals and replaced it with an agenda of nationalism and big government. They are using the power of the state to force their view of religion and their version of how the world ought to be down our throats.

Are we going to just lie back and take it? Or will we wake up and do something about it? I am running to do something about it.

Best wishes,

Rachel Lea Hunter
Candidate for NC Supreme Court Associate Justice