business news, International news

Sanctions seek to punish North Korea

It turns out President Obama is going to be up front and visible as he responds to North Korea’s alleged cyber attack on a major American company.

He took time from his vacation in Hawaii to sign an executive order slapping economic sanctions on North Korea.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-sanctions-north-korea-sony-cyberattack/story?id=27965524

I’m still thinking the president had a hand in North Korea’s Internet crash shortly after dictator Kim Jong-Un bullied Sony Pictures into holding back release of “The Interview,” a fictional story about a plot to assassinate the North Korean dictator. The bullying included the alleged hacking into Sony’s emails and other communications.

Obama threatened a “proportional” response.

Now we have the sanctions. They’re sweeping and designed to bring serious economic pain to a government known for bringing plenty of pain of its own to its people.

According to ABC News: “The order authorizes the Treasury Department to shutdown access to the U.S. financial system, prohibiting transactions and freezing assets, for specific officials  and entities of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and anyone who supports them.”

Further, according to ABC: “‘The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the Government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others,’ Obama wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell notifying them of the action.”

Will the sanctions work? Well, Kim Jong-Un ought to ask Soviet strongman/president Vladimir Putin about the effectiveness of these sanctions.

Yes, they’ll work.

 

political news, State news

Davis's political future is clouded … at best

This is tough for a Texas liberal such as yours truly to acknowledge, but a well-known political observer is likely correct about Wendy Davis’s future in state politics.

She doesn’t appear to have one.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/wendy-daviss-future

Texas Monthly blogger Paul Burka notes in a brief post that Davis, a Democrat, managed to parlay a thought-to-be-competitive governor’s race in 2014 into a rout — for the Republican, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott.

Her loss in the governor’s race was worse than the percentage Tony Sanchez rang up against Rick Perry in 2002. Hey, whatever happened to Sanchez?

Burka said Davis is making some noise about seeking another public office. Where? Doing what?

I’m not prone to piling on here, but Davis ought to take a bit of a break from seeking to serve in some public capacity. She is a lawyer, after all, and she can kick-start a private practice in Tarrant County.

I was one of those Texans who had hope that Davis at least could make a race of the contest for governor. She entered the campaign with the wind at her back. She then managed to do a 180 and turned a tailwind into a headwind. Her campaign never got traction.

She lost the contest by 20-some percentage points.

Should she run again? No, Wendy. No!

At least not for a while.

 

 

national news

PETA gets its dander up again

I’ve posted plenty of negative comments about the former half-term Alaska governor, and one-time Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Does she deserve the beating she’s getting over her son’s treatment of a family pet?

I don’t believe so.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/sarah-palin-peta-criticism-113928.html?hp=l1_3

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has criticized Palin because her son, Trig, is using the dog as a step-stool. Why, it’s just cruel, PETA says. Palin should teach her son how to treat animals. It’s irresponsible of her to allow young Trig to brutalize the family pet.

“It’s odd that anyone — let alone a mother — would find it appropriate to post such a thing, with no apparent sympathy for the dog in the photo,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to POLITICO.

Come on.

Trig has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. He’s a special needs child. What’s more — and perhaps this is most critical — he is a child. A boy.

I posted some commentary on this blog how right-wingers should refrain from criticizing President Obama’s daughters. The kids are off limits.

The same rule ought to apply to Trig Palin.

When I first heard of this dust-up my thoughts turned immediately to President Lyndon Johnson’s (in)famous incident in which he lifted his beagles — Him and Her — off the ground by their ears. PETA would have raised a lot of hell back then as well. If memory serves, the pooches enjoyed long lives after LBJ hoisted them by their ears.

Sarah Palin continues to be a prime target for criticism almost every time she opens her mouth. But on this issue? Leave her son alone.

 

 

Sports news

Looks like the Buckeyes belonged after all

I’ll be candid. I was one of those who thought a team other than Ohio State should have rounded out the four-school playoff bracket to determine the best team in college football.

My favorite for the No. 4 seed was Baylor.

It didn’t happen. Ohio State got in, I guess, on the strength of its schedule.

I’m no expert on this, but it appears that the selection committee that picked the Final Four got it right.

OK, so I’m basking a bit in the glow of my Oregon Ducks’ big win over defending national champ Florida State in the Rose Bowl. Oh, did I mention it was a serious beat-down of a very good football team — by an even better football team?

Well, I digress.

Ohio State finished off the night of playoff football by defeating the top seed, Alabama, which was representing the vaunted Southeastern Conference, where loyalists proclaim it to be the premier football conference in the nation.

Maybe it is. However, on New Year’s Night, the Crimson Tide failed to do the one thing it needed to do, which was score more points than the Buckeyes.

The No. 1 seed proved to be, well, quite mortal.

I am not going to try to dissect what happened in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes outplayed the Crimson Tide on the one night that it counted. And on that night — last night — Ohio State proved that it belonged in the Final Four.

What now? Well, Ohio State will play the Oregon Ducks for the national championship.

You know where my heart lies. Go Ducks!

***

And while I’m on the subject of the Ducks, take a look at John Canzano’s excellent column in The Oregonian about the post-game press conference featuring college football’s two most recent Heisman Trophy winners. I believe it will explain a lot why the Ducks belong in the playoffs, too.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2015/01/canzano_jameis_winston_vs_marc.html#incart_maj-story-1

 

environmental news, State news

Perry builds wind energy in Texas

Let it never be said that I am such a blind partisan that I fail to recognize the good things that politicians of the “other party” have accomplished.

Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry is about to leave office and the Texas Tribune is doing a great job of looking back at the governor’s huge legacy.

All those wind turbines one sees turning along the High Plains or along the South Plains and the Rolling Plains down yonder? They’re a big part of the Perry legacy, to which I will provide high praise.

http://apps.texastribune.org/perry-legacy/energy/

The Tribune notes that most of the turbines didn’t exist when Perry took his initial oath of office in December 2000. They do now, in a big way.

As the Tribune notes: “In 2000, wind farms composed just 116 megawatts of capacity on the state’s main electric grid. That number has since soared to more than 11,000 megawatts, while wind fuels about 10 percent of all generation. (On average, one megawatt-hour of wind energy can power 260 typical Texas homes for an hour.)

“’His legacy on the fossil side of things is very sound, but on the wind side, he’s done tremendous things to move the state forward,’ said Jeff Clark, executive director of the Austin-based Wind Coalition, an advocacy group. ‘Under Rick Perry, wind in Texas has moved from alternative energy to being a mainstream component of our power supply.’”

Think of how vast this supply of energy is in Texas, particularly along the Caprock, where the wind blows incessantly — and where it will blow for as long as Planet Earth exists. I reckon that’ll be a good while, agreed?

Texas has become the nation’s No. 1 wind-energy-producing state, supplanting California at the top of the heap.

Perry’s predecessor as governor, George W. Bush, signed a bill in 1999 that deregulated the electric sector, opening the door for the development of wind energy. Perry would later sign legislation mandating an increase in wind energy production. The state has delivered in a big way.

Here’s the Tribune: “’That we were able to build thousands of miles of high-capacity transmission from West Texas to the Panhandle without landowners marching on the Capitol with pitchforks, it’s pretty remarkable,’ said Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman, whom Perry appointed to the Public Utility Commission in 2004 and reappointed in 2007. ‘And the governor had our back on that.’”

Rick Perry isn’t known as an environmentalist, but the wind energy that has developed on his watch has gone a long way toward conserving fossil fuels. It’s also producing arguably the cleanest energy possible.

Well done, governor.

 

national news, political news

Gov. Cuomo told the harsh truth

A progressive voice is gone. Too bad for the nation he leaves behind.

Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo — who died Thursday at age 82 — once was thought to be a possible candidate for president. Why, he even might have become president one day, perhaps a good or great president at that.

He chose instead to stay in Albany, N.Y., and govern his state. Cuomo would lose his governor’s job eventually in that 1994 Republican sweep, the one that took control of Congress and tossed out a number of governors. Cuomo was gone from public office, as was, say, his friend and colleague Ann Richards here in Texas.

But take a listen to a speech this good man delivered a decade earlier, at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. He told of a “tale of two cities.” One was the “shining city on the hill” envisioned by President Reagan. But there was another city that Gov. Cuomo sought to lift up.

He sought to bring attention to the suffering he said the president was dismissing.

Cuomo’s brand of progressiveness wasn’t the knee-jerk brand. He spoke from his heart. No, his politics didn’t play well in much of the country in 1984. Was his progressive brand popular here, in Texas — and in this part of the Lone Star State? Not even close.

As he told the DNC delegates in San Francisco that evening, he wanted the nation to know that while, yes, the nation did symbolize the shining city, it was — and is — a more complex place. People who are suffering need help from the government.

After all, he said, it is their government, too.

Rest in peace, governor.

 

 

Sports news

Sportsmanship lacking on both sides

Collegiate student-athletes must lose with class and they must win with it, too.

The Oregon-Florida State college football playoff semifinal game was fun to watch — particularly if you’re an Oregon Ducks fan, as I am. The Ducks blew out the Seminoles 59-20, ending FSU’s 29-game winning streak and dispelling the notion that the Ducks aren’t tough enough to play at this level of collegiate football.

The end of the game, though, produced some decidedly unattractive behavior.

With about a half-minute to go in the game, about two-thirds of the Seminoles walked off the field toward their locker room. They didn’t stay to shake the Ducks players’ hands, wish them well, congratulation them on the game they played. They skulked off the field, shaken by the battering they had taken.

You need to lose with class, yes?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/02/oregon-jameis-winston-no-chant_n_6405182.html

Then came the Ducks’ display of bad manners. About three Oregon players began some kind of chant about “No means no,” referring to FSU quarterback Jameis Winston’s off-the-field trouble involving a woman who accused him of raping her. Winston was never charged with a crime.

Second-year Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said the players would be “disciplined internally,” adding that their conduct reflects poorly on the school and the football program.

Yes, you also need to win with class.

 

Sports news

Did one team just 'quit' tonight?

First things first. I’ll stipulate up front that I am no expert on college football. I’m just a fan who likes to cheer for my favorite teams.

The Oregon Ducks currently are my favorite team and they did not disappoint this big-time fan with a 59-20 demolition of the Florida State Seminoles. The Ducks are Rose Bowl champs for the second time in four years.

It’s a huge deal. Now they’ll await the winner of the next football playoff semifinal game between Alabama and Ohio State. I have zero preference in that game.

I think the most stunning thing said tonight by the ESPN announcing crew came late in the game when Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, accused FSU of quitting. He said it twice after the Ducks went up 52-20.

I know that Herbstreit is an expert on football. Again, I am not. I’m betting that once the fellow’s statement finds its way to FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher’s ears that the coach and the announcer are going to have a few four-letter words.

It’s hard for me to put myself in the minds and hearts of dedicated athletes who’ve just been blown apart by a superior foe on the field. Did the Seminoles quit? Did they lie down and give up? Or was that defensive unit just plain exhausted after trying — mostly in vain — to stop the Oregon offense led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota.

It might be that Florida State simply had nothing left.

Do I pity the Seminoles? Hardly. It’s tough to feel sympathy for a team in which 75 percent of its members walk off the field after a game without congratulating the winners, which the FSU players did tonight after the Ducks put that serious beat-down on them. You need to win and lose with class.

Still, to call them quitters? That’s a very tough thing to say. Kirk Herbstreit had better be ready to defend himself.

But … what the heck. My team won tonight — huge! One more game is left to play.

Go Ducks!

 

political news

'Candidate' Jeb quits boards

Jeb Bush sure looks like a presidential candidate to me.

The former Florida governor has announced he is quitting all the for-profit boards on which he is a member in preparation for his now-expected run for the presidency in 2016.

Smart move, Jeb.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/jeb-bush-quits-all-private-sector-non-profit-boards-113914.html?hp=l1_3

Another possible Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, has expressed concern about Bush’s financial dealings. Hey, if anyone knows something about personal financial controversy, it’s Mitt — with his own Bain Capital history serving as something of a drag on his own 2012 presidential campaign.

Bush has been out of public life for more than a decade. He’s got that “Bush brand” with which he must contend. Not the one set by his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, but the one of his brother, George Dubya, the 43rd president.

Is the nation ready for yet another Bush in the White House? I think not.

But Jeb is doing what he needs to do to start setting the stage for another Bush candidacy.

Actually, he’s a pretty good Republican wannabe-candidate, particularly on immigration. He’s a moderate on that issue, presenting a far different approach to immigration reform than his TEA party rivals within the GOP.

My hunch is that he’s going to run. Will he be nominated? I won’t predict that outcome.

If nominated, can he beat the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton? I most assuredly won’t go there, either.

Stay tuned.

 

political news, State news

Jobs vs. 'Oops' for ex-Gov. Perry

The task awaiting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry — gosh, it feels nice to write “former” in front of his name — will be to erase a singular moment from his first run for president.

He thinks “jobs” will replace “oops” in voters’ memory if and when he declares his intention to run for president in 2016.

(OK, he’s not yet a “former” governor, but the moment is close enough that I’ll take the liberty of using it here.)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/12/31/perry_hopes_texas_jobs_record_can_trump_oops_from_2012_125105.html

He’ll have to sell the Texas jobs record to voters looking for an economic medicine man among the Republicans who’ll be seeking to replace Barack Obama in the White House.

But that one moment still stands out as the definition of Perry’s first run for president. As Real Clear Politics reported: “It all boils down to the moment when Perry, in the midst of a 2011 presidential debate, was unable to recall the third of three federal agencies he’d promised to shutter, finally muttering ‘oops.’ Asked about it in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Perry said, ‘That’s like going back and asking a football player who dropped a pass to win the Super Bowl: ‘Did that bother you?’ ”

His campaign staff and close friends said the governor didn’t prepare sufficiently for the 2012 nomination campaign. He had a sore back and was medicated heavily to relieve the pain, they say. There was little staff preparation and development, they contend.

It all added up to a political disaster in the making.

It arrived on that debate stage in late 2011.

Can the governor take the credit for all those Texas jobs? Should he take credit? Well, they occurred on his watch.

But by the same token, millions of jobs were added nationally to company payrolls during the Obama administration. Does the president deserve credit for those numbers as well? My trick knee tells me that ex-Gov. Perry won’t give the president a nickel’s worth of credit for what happened nationally, but he’ll scarf up all the credit he can find for the Texas job growth.

It should produce an interesting tale that Rick Perry will be more than glad to spin in his favor.

First, he’ll have to purge our memory of the “oops” moment.

 

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