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Hamas inviting disaster

Try putting yourself into the heart and mind of an Israeli citizen.

Imagine living in a country surrounded by people who at one time or another have sworn to eradicate your country from the face of the planet. Imagine that those neighboring countries are so close to each other — let alone to your neighborhood — that a supersonic jet can go from point to point in a matter of a few minutes.

Think also of how you might react if one of your neighbors, governed by a known terrorist group that retains your country’s destruction as its main objective, begins firing missiles into your community. The missiles are targeting civilians, children and their parents.

How in the world would you react if you had the means to respond aggressively? You would use whatever force you had at your disposal to put down the attacks.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israels-netanyahu-world-pressure-wont-stop-gaza-offensive-n153671

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. Why? Because Hamas — the governing authority in the Palestinian Authority — has launched attacks on his country.

Netanyahu has made no apology for the ferocity of his country’s response.

I do not blame him one single bit.

Hamas needs to end its campaign to eliminate Israel. Same for Hezbollah, which operates in Lebanon, on Israel’s northern border. How about ISIS, which is waging a civil war in Syria, yet another neighboring country?

They’re all deadly serious about their intent to eradicate Israel.

Should the Israeli government do nothing when its people are being threatened with ordnance falling from the sky from multiple directions?

Not for an instant.

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Let it flow from Lake Meredith?

News that the Texas Panhandle’s leading water authority is going to resume pumping water from Lake Meredith leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings.

http://www.kcbd.com/story/25982194/crmwa-to-resume-pumping-from-lake-meredith

The lake is up to 41 feet, about 15 feet higher than its lowest ebb during the late winter months. Lake Meredith now measures 2 percent full, according to state water planners, compared to the zero percent it was registering.

The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority is going to blend lake water with well water underground. The idea is to relieve pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer.

OK. So is it time to tap the lake?

Two percent capacity still isn’t very much, correct? What’s more, the drought that has held in this chokehold for the past four to five years isn’t letting up. Amarillo remains right about at normal precipitation to date for the year. A few weeks of prolonged dryness in these parts and we’ll see counties resuming burn bans.

The water planners at CRMWA are smarter than I am about these things, so I guess I should accept that they know what they’re doing by deciding to pump water from Lake Meredith.

As a layperson who’s watched the lake evaporate over the nearly two decades my wife and I have lived here, it’s a bit troubling to see CRMWA acting so quickly to tap into a water supply that — as we have learned to our dismay — is a finite resource.

Then again, if it relieves pressure on the aquifer, which is another finite resource, then the region’s thirst for water will remain quenched.

Oh, these conflicting emotions about water.

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Will the Heat fans boo LeBron?

Darn. I was hoping LeBron James would schedule another ridiculous TV special to inform his legions of fans — of which I am not — that he would “take my talents back to Lake Erie.”

The NBA’s premier basketball player didn’t do any of that needless publicity stunt work, which he performed when he went from Cleveland to Miami. It was just a simple announcement.

Am I going to blather on about what this means for the Cavaliers and the Heat? No. I haven’t a clue. I do like to watch the occasional pro basketball game, but James’s basketball future isn’t high on my priority list. Nor do I know enough about basketball to venture a wild guess on which team benefits from this signing and why.

I do wonder about a single aspect of this decision, however.

Since James is going home to Ohio — he hails from Akron — the return to Cleveland seems oddly fitting. When he left the Cavaliers to play for the Heat, the fans back home booed the former hometown hero mercilessly whenever he touched the ball during a game in their presence.

Will the Heat fans return the favor when the Cavs venture into Miami to play the former NBA champs?

I don’t believe so. Nor do I believe they should give him grief.

The young man is returning home, he says, to finish his stellar NBA career. What can be so wrong with that? He said that the decision just felt right to him, that he always knew he’d finish his career in Cleveland.

You go for it, LeBron.

And by the way, I’m actually glad you didn’t treat us to another idiotic TV special.

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Photo ops do have some value

Allow me to stipulate one final time: I believe President Obama should have gone to The Valley, along the border with Mexico, to see first hand the humanitarian crisis unfolding down there.

Why? Because I believe a demonstration of presidential presence there could be of some benefit. I cannot exactly measure it, but he needed to go.

OK, so he didn’t. It’s not the end of the world.

What is most striking, though, has been the criticism of his no-show from the conservative media, namely the gasbags at the Fox News Channel.

Fox’s main gasbag, Sean Hannity, was quite critical of the president’s photo op appearance in October 2012 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Other Fox News talking heads have gotten all revved up over White House photo ops showing the president meeting with physicians and with military personnel.

https://www.facebook.com/Mediamatters/photos/pcb.10152203928506167/10152203927696167/?type=1&theater

Why, they just couldn’t understand why the president would stoop to such grandstanding in front of TV cameras.

This week, it’s different. They cannot understand why he failed to do the very thing for which they have criticized him.

I don’t recall getting all worked up in 2005 when President Bush flew over New Orleans rather than walking among the storm-soaked wreckage brought by Hurricane Katrina. I suppose it would have been better for the president to hug a few necks and to tell stricken victims that their government was behind them — just as President Obama did on the Jersey Shore in 2012.

However, let’s be consistent, you folks in the conservative mainstream media. The least you can do is stay on message. If a photo op isn’t worth doing in one instance, then keep your traps shut when the object of your scorn decides it’s not worth doing at another time.

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Boehner lawsuit comes into focus

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So, now we know the basis for Speaker John Boehner’s desire to sue the president of the United States.

He is angry because the president unilaterally postponed the employer mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans want to eliminate altogether, but they’re mad because they didn’t the chance to do it.

I believe that’s what I heard Boehner say today.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/211912-boehner-to-sue-over-obamacare-delay

It’s not that Barack Obama has used executive authority excessively. He hasn’t. Boehner wants to sue the president because of a single act that he had the authority to perform as chief executive of the United States of America.

This foolishness is going to proceed while:

* Veterans health care issues remain unresolved.

* Highway infrastructure plans remain unattended.

* Immigration reform is stuck in the mud.

* The president’s $3.7 billion request for emergency spending on the border crisis remains in limbo.

I’m sure I’m missing some other issues, but you get my drift.

Instead, the speaker of the House wants to ask for permission from his colleagues to sue the president because of action he took that seeks to give employers some flexibility in following through on the ACA.

This is baffling in the extreme.

Here is what former White House press secretary Jay Carney said: “The ability to postpone the deadline is clear,” Carney said. He urged reporters to “read the Federal Register,” the official docket for federal regulations, to survey similar examples of delays.

“The fact of the matter is this is not unusual, and it is evidence of the kind of flexibility and deference to the concerns and interests of, in this case, a small percentage of American businesses with more than 50 employees that you would think Republicans would support,” Carney said.

I concur with Barack Obama’s assertion that Congress wants to sue him for doing his job while the legislative branch dawdles.

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Who said anything about 'blank check'?

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner says Congress won’t give President Obama a “blank check” to spend as he sees fit on trying to solve the border crisis.

Interesting, yes?

Who on God’s Green Earth said anything about writing a blank check?

“I’ll tell you this, we’re not giving the president a blank check,” Boehner said of Obama’s request for a $3.7 billion emergency fund for the humanitarian crisis. “Beyond that, we will await further discussions with our members before we make any final decisions.”

OK, Mr. Speaker. Set the ground rules for how the money should be spent if you wish.

If I heard the president correctly, all he’s asking is for you and your congressional colleagues to approve the spending request so he can deploy the resources he needs to help solve the problem of all those kids coming here from Central America.

The speaker and others in Congress — mainly Republicans — are critical of Obama for failing to act. Well, he cannot act on his own — right, Mr. Speaker? So he’s asking for money that only Congress can appropriate.

Meantime, let’s stop the sniping and get down to doing the people’s work.

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What about the children?

There’s plenty to upset many Americans about the crisis that has erupted on our southern border with Mexico.

The most troubling to me is how some Americans are reacting to the children who are streaming across our border.

I don’t want our government to be responsible for these children until they reach adulthood. They need to be sent back as soon as it is possible to do so while ensuring their safety once they return.

Therein lies the rub with this mess.

The children who are coming to Texas and other border states are refugees fleeing lives of misery in places like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They aren’t drug smugglers or killers sneaking into the Land of Opportunity to do evil things to people. They’re frightened because their parents, for crying out loud, have sent them here unaccompanied. Some of the kids have been smuggled here by “coyotes,” thugs who deal in human trafficking.

Yet we’ve seen the protests along the California-Mexico border. Americans are carrying signs and shouting epithets at these children.

I’m not for an instant advocating an open-door policy that allows anyone free entry into the United States. We do have a crisis on our hands and the most helpless victims in this crisis are the children who have been detained, held in custody by various state and federal authorities.

Too many of us are condemning these kids.

If we are to direct our anger and frustration it ought to be to the authorities who run our federal and state governments for failing to protect our borders adequately. It happens to be a shared responsibility and a shared failure.

The children? They’re the pawns who deserve our care, not our scorn.

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Butt out, Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz needs to shut his pie hole.

The junior Republican senator from Texas is calling for an investigation into possible voter fraud in Mississippi. His colleague, veteran GOP Sen. Thad Cochran won the runoff there despite signals he’d lose to tea party challenger Chris McDaniel.

Cruz, the loudmouth freshman senator from way out here, thinks some fraud took place. He wanted McDaniel to win the race and he just can’t believe Cochran pulled off a victory.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/ted-cruz-mississippi-gop-primary-thad-cochran-108643.html?hp=l9

Here’s what happened, Ted.

African-American Democrats in Mississippi became alarmed that McDaniel actually might win. So they crossed over — which is as legal in Mississippi as it is in Texas — to vote for Cochran. These crossover voters aren’t exactly enamored of Cochran, but they saw him as far more palatable than the fiery McDaniel, who’s been known to utter racially tinged comments on his radio show.

Those voters put Cochran over the top and positioned him to win a seventh term as senator from the Magnolia State.

Was there actual fraud? I doubt it seriously. There instead was a concerted effort by the Cochran campaign to recruit support where no one expected to find it.

It was a brilliant strategy.

Now, Sen. Cruz, tend to business back home.

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'Dog pound' gets a new name

Remember when we used to refer animal control shelters as the “dog pound”?

It’s an unflattering nickname for what’s supposed to be a place where unwanted pets — dogs, cats and whatever else — are housed until fate comes calling.

Well, the Amarillo animal control department has a new name. It’s now called Animal Management & Welfare.

The “welfare” name perhaps is most important given the controversy that has enveloped the department in recent weeks.

A Randall County grand jury investigation looked into whether animals were being subjected to cruel treatment as they were being euthanized. The grand jury declined to indict anyone over the allegations of mistreatment. The two top animal control staffers — Mike McGee and Shannon Barlow — “retired” as a consequence of the investigation.

What is known is that staffers violated state law by failing to weigh the animals prior to administering the lethal drugs. The result reportedly was that animals indeed did suffer needlessly as they died.

The city has enacted several new policies as a result. They include: promoting transparency and compassion; using an online service to report lost and impounded animals; a new identification system for animals; improvements in customer service; improvements to the physical surroundings at the shelter.

The media reports about the manner in which the animals were being treated hit many Amarillo residents hard. That happens when animals are involved. Human beings have this inherent soft spot as it regards domestic pets.

The city also ought to be much more proactive as well in promoting spaying, neutering and vaccinating of pets. That, too, would help stem the problem of euthanizing so many animals every year.

For now the name has changed at what’s now called Amarillo’s Animal Management & Welfare Department. Let’s hope what happens inside those walls is in keeping with the new name on the building.

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Why not act on your own, Mr. President?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry reportedly posed an interesting notion to President Obama when the men met this week in Dallas to discuss the illegal immigrant/refugee border crisis on the Texas border with Mexico.

Why not take action on your own, Mr. President? Perry asked.

Interesting, yes? Obama said he responded that such executive decisiveness has produced the real threat of a lawsuit by House Speaker John Boehner, who contends Obama does too much of that kind of thing already.

No can do, governor.

Obama is pushing Congress now to act on his request for a $3.7 billion emergency spending bill to deal with the crisis that involves the flood of young immigrants coming into the United States from Central America. Congress insists the president do something about it. He has asked Congress to give him the money to do what it asks. It’s now up to Congress to, um, do what it has insisted on doing all along.

Can the president act alone? I suppose there are ways he can do a little of this and that administratively.

It’s interesting nonetheless that Gov. Perry would have made such a suggestion at a time when his Republican colleagues in Congress are considering legal action to prevent that very thing.

The ball has been kicked back to Congress. What are you going to do with it, ladies and gentlemen?

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