U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy calls the approval of a $1.7 trillion spending bill a “shameful new low” in Congress.
I damn near did a spit take when I read that.
Then I practically nodded visibly when I read House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s response to McCarthy’s overreaction to a bill that keeps the government running.
“Does he not remember Jan. 6?” Pelosi asked.
Indeed. Now that was a “shameful low” for all of us, Mr. GOP Leader.
I declared more than once prior to the start of the 2020 presidential campaign that Joe Biden was not my first pick to be nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Donald Trump.
My preference then was that Democrats should go with a new voice, a fresh face, some new approaches to good government. It didn’t work out that way.
The former vice president ended up as the man for Democrats around whom they would rally. I joined that crowd when it became clear that Biden would win the nomination.
That all stipulated, the president remains my first choice for the next presidential election. He should be re-elected and my hope is that he would win a second term by an even more handsome margin than he won the first time.
I have long admired the man’s tenacity. Yes, he is ambitious. He ran for president the first time in 1988, only to pull out after he got caught plagiarizing speeches delivered by a British Labor Party pol. He went after the Democratic nomination 20 years later, only to get steamrolled by a young senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who then selected Biden to serve as VPOTUS; they won the 2008 election.
Biden has scored enough legislative victories to signal a successful term as president. Gun legislation, infrastructure rebuilding, climate change investments, tax cuts, deficit reduction, alliances are strengthened … and lastly, his steadfast support of the Ukrainians in their struggle against the Russian invaders.
Indeed, President Biden’s stance against the Russian goons who attacked Ukraine has helped strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO has held together more tightly than ever before.
Joe Biden appears to be getting ready for an announcement that is coming not long into the new year that looms just ahead.
The man is hitting his stride as president. Joe Biden needs to stay on the job.
My optimistic wellspring isn’t bottomless, but it remains quite full. Thus, I want to share briefly my holiday wish for two levels of government: state and federal.
Two new legislative assemblies are about to take office. The Texas Legislature and Congress will be seated soon after New Year’s Day. They’ll take oaths to protect the Constitution and defend it against enemies “foreign and domestic.”
My hope for them both is that every one of the 535 members of the U.S. Senate and House, along with every one of the 181 members of the Texas Senate and House remain faithful to the letter of those oaths.
Accordingly, my hope is that two chief political executives, one Democrat and one Republican, work to bridge the chasm that divides the major parties within those legislative chambers.
I am acutely aware of President Biden’s demonstrated ability to do so. He served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before becoming vice president in 2009, where he served ably for two terms. He has boasted of his ability to work with even the most conservative members of Congress. In fact, he was able to do so while serving as VP during the Obama administration.
So far as president, his legislative acumen has produced limited results. Biden has had to rely on Democrats in the House and Senate to carry legislation through to becoming law.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s legislative skill is less pronounced and less demonstrable. He did not serve in the Texas Legislature before becoming governor. He cut his government teeth as a trial court judge, as a Texas Supreme Court justice and as state attorney general.
As governor, he has toed a sometimes-harsh party line. My hope for Abbott is that he finds it within himself to seek common ground with legislative Democrats. I am not going to wait breathlessly for that to happen, but I will retain a glimmer of hope that he’ll deliver the goods.
These are not ambitious wishes from some chump sitting out here in the cheap seats. What I am asking is pretty minimal. Sometimes, even minimal requests can produce monumental results.
So, my hope continues into the new year.
It is tempting to unlimber my typing fingers and write something critical of someone, doing something and doing it somewhere.
But, hey. This is the Christmas season and the way I look at it, we have much for which we can be grateful. Truth be told, I am not in the mood — at least for the next day or so — to pile on to those who deserve a serious piling on.
Those of you who read this blog know of whom I refer. I won’t mention his name. Just know that he’s in a heap of trouble and I believe he will pay for the misery he has brought to this nation.
The holiday is a time to rejoice. Christians are celebrating Jesus’s birth and the promise he brought to change the world. Those who don’t necessarily cling to the religious significance of the holiday still celebrate the joy of the season.
I even have received Christmas greetings from friends in places like Israel and Thailand, from Jews and Buddhists, who bestow their good wishes on their friends. How can one harbor negative thoughts when cheerful greetings come from afar?
We are going through tumultuous times in this great nation. Some of us fear for the future of our representative democracy. They believe the forces of evil will dismantle what our nation’s founders built from scratch in the 18th century. Their fears are overstated … in my humble view.
I am going to cling tightly to my own belief that our system will withstand the onslaught and will emerge on the other side at least as strong as it is today. Maybe even stronger!
I plan to cheer mightily for the strength of our governing system.
Moreover, my wife and I plan as well to laugh and carry on as we open gifts from our family members and as we watch them enjoy the cheer we have given them in this season of joy.
Very soon I will return to what I believe is my task of keeping politicians alert to the criticism of their sometimes-foolish behavior.
Just not for the next couple of days.
Princeton is a city on the move, given its explosive growth in leading North Texas’s population boom. It just so happens to be the fastest-growing city in the fast-growing county in Texas.
Think of that for just a moment. Think also of Collin County’s future as it grapples with the flow of migrants moving here from hither and yon. My wife and I are among those who have found our new “forever home” in Princeton and, boy howdy, we are glad to be here.
I want to mention an aspect of the city’s planning that I never thought of until just a moments ago. It is the proactive move the city made to relocate from its cramped “city hall” into a spacious new complex about a mile and a half east along U.S. Highway 380.
The city was able to purchase the property on the north side of 380 through an agreement with a developer. It then issued $20 million in certificates of obligation to build a shiny new Municipal Center that for the first time brings virtually all the city’s administrative functions under one roof.
I’ve been to the new center a time or three and have found it to be (a) beautifully designed, (b) fully functional and (c) fully occupied with city staffers doing their jobs on our behalf.
While this project was being conceived, planned and then built, the city’s population has continued to spiral upward.
The state recently posted the new “entering Princeton” signs listing the population 17,027, which is nearly triple the amount of people listed on the previous sign. The population numbers reflect the count delivered by the U.S. Census Bureau. The reality with which city administrators must deal is that the latest figure is significantly outdated. The population has far outstripped the 17,027 number posted on the latest sign
All of this is my way of congratulating the city for taking a proactive approach to serving the exploding number of people who now are calling Princeton their home.
My wife and I are delighted to be among them.
Aaron Dean lost his job as a Fort Worth police officer because he shot a woman to death while investigating an alleged disturbance.
Now he gets to spend some time in a Texas prison, thanks to a sentencing decision handed down by the jury that convicted him of manslaughter in Atatania Jefferson’s death in 2019.
The sentence all told will be for 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison. It’s a curious sentence, to be sure. But the 10-month 12-day portion of the sentence is meant to memorialize the date of Jefferson’s death, Oct. 12, 2019.
Defense counsel argued for a probationary sentence. That would have been a mighty slap to a community wanted some measure of “real punishment” the white officer who shot a Black woman to death. Prosecutors wanted a 20-year maximum sentence.
I’ll accept that jurors settled on an interesting compromise, which comprises a little more than half the prison time that Dean could have gotten.
He’ll be eligible for parole after about five years. What happens then is anyone’s guess.
For now, the ex-Fort Worth police officer has received the punishment he deserves for the crime he committed.
Admission time … I haven’t read the 800-page-long report issued by the House select 1/6 committee on the crimes committed by the former president of the United States and many of his minions.
I’ll get around to reading the executive summary, which I understand is about 150 pages.
But … from what I understand this is the gift that keeps giving for those of us who are repulsed by Donald Trump’s conduct during the 1/6 insurrection and the efforts he undertook to keep The Big Lie alive in the minds of the traitors who stormed the capitol building two weeks before Trump left office.
What’s more, the committee appears to have wrapped its findings up in a tidy — albeit voluminous — bundle of information that it will turn over to the special counsel, Jack Smith, who has been assigned by Attorney General Merrick Garland to pore through the evidence and decide whether to indict the former POTUS.
I believe the AG has enough evidence to proceed. The question for me is whether he has the guts to do what he must, which is indict Donald Trump and put this crooked, corrupt, immoral narcissist on trial for violating the oath of office he took to “protect and defend” the Constitution.
Political boorishness is a remarkable trait to witness unfolding in real time, especially when it is aimed at a visiting head of state.
Consider what happened Wednesday night as most members of Congress stood and applauded the entry of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into the House chamber to speak to a joint session of Congress.
At least two Republican House members — members of should be called the MAGA Cult Cabal — chose to sit on their hands. I refer to Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida.
Think for just a moment about the man they were snubbing. President Zelenskyy came to this country at considerable risk to his safety to speak to Americans about the struggle he is fighting against the illegal and immoral invasion of his country by Russian military forces.
He spoke to us from the podium in the House chamber in English. He offered his profound and heartfelt thanks for the support shown by President Biden and by members of both parties serving in the House and Senate. He told us the money we are spending for Ukrainian defense is “not charity,” but it is an “investment” in Ukraine’s struggle on behalf of democratic principles.
Not everyone is on board with that, obviously. Boebert and Gaetz represent a segment of Congress that prefers to attach strings to our aid to Ukraine. However, for these two nimrods to sit on their hands and not extend to a heroic head of state the courtesy of their applause is reprehensible on its face.
They sat there intending to make some sort of idiotic statement.
It is fair to wonder whether the likes of Boebert and Gaetz will ever condemn in loud voices the war crimes that are occurring in Ukraine as Russian thug Vladimir Putin orders his troops to fire on schools, hospitals and residential developments, inflicting casualties on women and children.
They remain silent on those events while demonstrating their boorishness in the presence of a hero.
Sickening.
The winter blast that is beginning to pummel North Texas — and the rest of the region — reminds me of a story I like telling about the late O.A. “Bum” Phillips, the legendary football coach of the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.
My old haunts in the Panhandle already are shivering.
I cannot prove Bum said this. Even if he didn’t, it sounds like something Bum would have said.
He took the Oilers to Buffalo to play the Bills in a late-season game. The weather was hideous. Wind, rain, snow, ice, bone-chilling temps. The Oilers won the game.
Afterward, Bum delivered — I believe — a classic answer to the question from the reporter: “How did you like coaching in the cold weather.”
Bum said: “Cold? This ain’t cold! I used to coach in Amarillo, Texas.”Â
Almost with exception, great speeches produce phrases or sentences that those who hear them will remember and perhaps repeat in conversation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tonight delivered one of those great speeches.
In it he told a joint session of Congress and the nation that sends these lawmakers to serve there: “Your money is not charity. It is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”
And so, with that the Ukrainian president who is leading his nation in the fight for its life against Russian invaders delivered a statesmanlike rebuke against those in Congress who are resisting the effort to fund Ukraine’s courageous effort.
He spoke to a joint congressional session not in his native language, but in English. He spoke from his valiant heart and with the conviction of a man dedicated to standing against tyranny, just as his forebears — and ours, too — did eight decades ago in the struggle against Nazism.
Yes, this brave leader delivered a speech for the ages.