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Candidate: Make Israel A Secular State
Beth LaMontagne | Portsmouth Herald News | 08/07/06

Republican Michael Callis said if he becomes the party's 1st Congressional District candidate instead of Jeb Bradley this fall, he will support making Israel a secular state and funding health care by legalizing marijuana.

Callis is from Eaton Center, near Conway, and is a stonemason and musician by profession. He attended high school at Manchester Central, and said he is well versed in New Hampshire history. He ran for office in 2003 against President Bush in the Republican primary, taking issue with the president's stance on Iraq and allegations of corruption within the party.

Callis spoke little about his primary opponent Bradley during a meeting with the Herald editorial board Thursday, instead largely focusing on international issues.

It is vital for the United States to push for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Callis said, adding we cannot fix problems in Iraq and Iran until peace in Israel is achieved. Callis said he has long felt it was a mistake for the United Nations to make Israel a Jewish state more than 50 years ago, and said one way to begin to broker peace is to push the U.N. to make Israel a secular state.

"That would show we are being objective, that we are being fair, that we are being logical," he said.

Callis had harsh words for Israel when it came to sending troops into Lebanon, stopping short of calling the bombing raids terrorism, but rather "inappropriate actions."

When it comes to addressing the war in Iraq, however, Callis said there is too much conflicting information coming from the media to make an educated conclusion now about what should be done.

Legalizing marijuana is seen by Callis as a way to address a number of problems facing the country. Encouraging farmers in Afghanistan to grow cannabis instead of poppies -- used to make heroin-- would be one way for the country's many poor people to make a living, he said.

By legalizing the drug in America, selling it only in state-run liquor stores and taxing it, Callis said marijuana would provide funding for health care. He blames today's escalating health-care costs on people living longer, and said the "individual needs to take a certain amount of responsibility (for paying for health care)."

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Buzzby

Wake up Callis! Israel is a sovereign nation with a nuclear arsenal. The U.N. has no power to "make" Israel do anything. After a couple of millennia of being abused and expelled by one "host" nation after another, the attempted genocide by Nazi Germany was the last straw. The Jewish people finally have a homeland and the power to challenge further abuse. Nobody is going to take that away from them without a fight.

In the spirit of "the punishment fits the crime", tobacco and liquor taxes should be jacked up to support health care. They cause the problems and should, therefore, bear the costs.

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dedbr

What is wrong with the Israeli's hitting Hezbollah=terrorists, when we do the same thing to two other countries?

Nothing as far as I'm concerned.....

Hezbollah and whats the other one, hold my ass?, their terrorists! They use suicide bomber's to say Israel has no right to be where they are. Terror tactics. Our nation has been screaming that we need to get those damn terrorists, and when someone else does it, it's, "Oh, let's get them to calm down a bit, mustn't wound any civilians.... "

Screw that, we pounded about thirty or forty thousand over in Iraq in the last three years or so, so who are we to tell them anything? I say sell them more arms and make money off of both sides.....

It's the capitolistic thing to do, by god......

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"Starry, starry night, Paint your pallet blue and gray, Look out on a summers day,
With eyes that know the darkness of my soul, Shadows on the hills, Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chill, In colors in the snowy linen land......"

Vincent.... Don Mclean


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