All posts by kanelis2012

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A 'higher standard,' indeed

The kissing congressman, Vance McAllister, R-La., needs to follow a “higher standard” than what he’s exhibited so far, says the chairman of the U.S. House Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.

Greg Walden, R-Ore., whose job is to ensure the election of Republicans to the House of Representatives, stopped short of saying McAllister should quit his House seat over the makeout video that was released showing him planting a wet kiss on a female staffer.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/04/walden-declines-to-say-whether-mcallister-should-resign-186791.html?hp=r15

I kind of believe McAllister also needs to answer another tough question: Is he — or is he not — the devoted Christian family man he portrayed in his campaign ads prior to winning election to the House seat in 2013?

There are several victims in this escapade. One is McAllister’s wife, the mother of the couple’s five children. Another is Heath Peacock, the husband of the staffer with whom McAllister was seen making out.

The husband said something quite interesting the other day in response to the blowback from the video. He said his marriage is essentially destroyed and then questioned whether McAllister actually was as devoted to faith as he presented himself in his campaign ads. Mr. Peacock said the McAllister he knew prior to the campaign was a “non-religious” individual and that McAllister told him he had found religion as a way to win votes.

So … which is it, congressman? Just what kind of individual did your constituents elect to represent their interests in Congress, to enact federal laws that apply to all Americans — even those of us far away from your congressional district?

Therein lies the reason the rest of the country should take an interest in what’s happening down on the bayou.

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Hate crime brings emotion to full boil

A known Ku Klux Klan leader stands accused of killing three people in Overland Park, Kan.

The term “hate crime” has returned to the national discussion.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=1030997#.U0yg8lJOWt8

Frazier Glenn Cross is now 73 years of age. Police arrested him after a gunman shot a teenager and his grandfather to death at the Jewish Community Center. The gunman shot a woman later at a retirement community a few blocks away.

Police took Cross into custody and while he was being driven away, the suspect shouted “Heil Hitler!”

Let’s see. Do you think police have the gunman in custody?

I don’t want to prejudge this case, but Cross’s outburst suggests guilt far more than innocence.

One cruel aspect of this case is that none of the victims is Jewish, even though Cross is know to hold deep anti-Semitic views. That’s really beside the point.

Police and prosecutors have decided to file hate-crime charges against Cross. The crime to be prosecuted is going to receive attention that it might not get had it not been labeled a hate crime.

Well, it should receive the nation’s attention. The suspect who’s charged with this hideous act is an unrepentant hater. If he’s convicted of this hideous act, how can a court show mercy for someone like that?

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Enough of the plane coverage already!

Gosh, this is hard to admit, but Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column is on target: CNN is overdosing on the plight of the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

http://amarillo.com/opinion/opinion-columnist/weekly-opinion-columnist/2014-04-13/pitts-cnns-credibility-goes-down-plane

I tune in to CNN to catch on the latest headlines and breaking news. The problem with the news network, though, is that it has redefined “breaking news” to include any tiny tidbit about an on-going story that doesn’t break any new ground.

CNN’s commentators have been among the worst in trying to determine the fate of the Boeing 777 that disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It now appears to have crashed into the Indian Ocean somewhere off the western Australia coast. An international search team has deployed an unmanned submersible vehicle to look for the wreckage on the ocean floor.

But for the past month, CNN has been speculating out loud about the plane’s fate. “Experts” have actually suggested it was hijacked by someone and landed safely, or that it crashed on the Asian mainland in a forest so dense that no one can spot it.

The all-time best question, though, came from CNN anchor Don Lemon, who wondered out loud whether the plane might have flown into a black hole. Someone reminded him that a black hole would have swallowed the entire solar system … so that theory is out.

My heart breaks for the families of those who wonder about the fate of the 239 people on board the still-missing jetliner.

This incessant reporting — and repeating, actually — of what we already know, however, is getting to be too much for me to handle.

As Leonard Pitts writes in an open letter to CNN: “Granted, the missing jetliner is not an unimportant story. But neither is it a story deserving of the kind of round-the-clock-man-on-the-moon-war-is-over-presidential-assassination coverage you have given it.”

Tell us when you have something new to report.

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Burwell a lock for HHS boss, but first …

Sylvia Mathews Burwell should be able to skate easily from her job as head of the Office of Management and Budget into her new post as health and human services secretary.

She’ll likely get there, but it will be far from an smooth ride from one high-powered government job to another.

You see, the U.S. Senate — which already has confirmed her to the OMB job — will have this other issue to continue litigating. It’s called the Affordable Care Act. Burwell is now the newest woman on the hot seat in that matter, given that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has resigned and is likely headed back to Kansas.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/sylvia-mathews-burwell-democrats-obamacare-affordable-care-act-105641.html?hp=l4

Sebelius came under intense fire for the handling of the ACA rollout and the collapse of the Healthcare.gov website when the enrollment opened up in January. It all happened on her watch at HHS and she deserved a lot of the pounding she received.

Now she’s on her way out, apparently with few expressions of regret from the White House at her departure.

Burwell is known to be a cool customer who will be able to handle Republican senators’ expected tough grilling during her confirmation hearing. She’ll need all the coolness she can muster, as GOP senators likely are going to beat the daylights out of her over how she intends to implement an established law that Republicans still hate with a passion.

So, as with everything political these days, what’s supposed to be an easy transition will resemble something quite different. Hold on tightly, Ms. Burwell.

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Ingraham joins ABC … so what?

Media Matters is a left-wing journalism watchdog group that takes great delight in exposing Fox News Channel’s big lie that it is the “fair and balanced” cable news network.

I agree — usually — with Media Matters’s take on Fox.

However, I think the group if off base in attacking ABC News for hiring conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham as its newest “contributor.”

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/13/meet-abc-news-newest-contributor-laura-ingraham/198871

Why go after Media Matters on this one?

Well, I am one who likes to see news/commentary outlets offer wide-ranging points of view. Do I agree with Ingraham’s world view? No. However, she isn’t the first conservative voice to be heard on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday news talk show. Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol is a regular on the show, as was syndicated conservative columnist George Will before he left ABC to join the Fox News Channel’s Sunday talk show as a contributor.

ABC, as does NBC’s “Meet the Press,” quite often invites conservatives and liberals to sit at the same round table to discuss issues of the day. They debate. They even argue.

What is so wrong with that?

CNN, arguably the pioneer news network, does much the same thing on any of its myriad political talk shows. Newt Gingrich and Van Jones — a rightie and a leftie, respectively — are regulars on CNN’s revamped “Crossfire” program.

I don’t see why ABC is getting so worked up over Ingraham. Yes, she’s provocative and she occasionally crosses — what I consider, at least — the line of good taste and decency in making her points.

You’ve heard the old term about the “marketplace of ideas.” It’s broad, wide, deep and varied. Let all voices be heard. We’ll be the judges of who’s right or wrong.

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In need of a blog intervention

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement.

My name is John and I am a blogaholic.

There. It’s out there for all the world to see and read. How do I know this?

Well, I have just returned from a four-night vacation in one of the most beautiful regions of Texas and I was in and out (mostly out) of Internet service for the entire time. It drove me crazy. Nuts. I was getting fidgety, nervous, looking for things to occupy my time when we weren’t touring cool sites or just relaxing in a spring-fed pool.

My wife and I ventured to the Davis Mountains region. We stayed at a first-class state park in Balmorhea. We met many nice and helpful folks.

We parked our fifth wheel, set up camp and went about enjoying our time away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Except that I am a blogger. I do it for myself and for Panhandle PBS, the local Amarillo public television outlet based at Amarillo College.

I did get three blogs posted during those four nights on the road. It was, however, a challenge.

I figured out that I could write my text on a Word document and save it to my laptop, which now goes with me wherever my wife and I go. I couldn’t get any Internet connection inside the fifth wheel, but I could get it outdoors. So, I would write my text on the Word document, then try to connect to the ‘Net outside and get this stuff posted. It would work — some of the time.

But here’s where it gets sticky and where I can justify a possible need for an intervention: I spent a fairly fruitful, extremely rewarding and modestly successful career in daily print journalism. For nearly 37 years I cranked out copy like there was no tomorrow. I got pretty good at it.

Then, on Aug. 30, 2012, it all came to a crashing halt. The skills I had applied for more than three decades were deemed by the higher ups at the newspaper where I worked to be no longer relevant in today’s changing media environment. They called it a “company reorganization.” I’ll call it something else that is not suitable for this venue, as I shy away from four-letter-word profanity.

My point is that after a lengthy career of writing text and then getting it published immediately, I cannot shake the desire to do that very thing — even as my wife and I evolve into fully retired folks. We’re not quite there, but we’re well on the way.

But if I’m going to continue blogging on politics and other things under my own High Plains Blogger and provide public affairs TV commentary for PanhandlePBS.org, I’ve got to figure out how to cope with traveling into regions of the country that aren’t as well connected as others.

Do I need help? I’m all ears.

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No visa for Iranian U.N. envoy

Hamid Aboutalebi is Iran’s latest pariah in the eyes of the U.S. State Department.

He is the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations and the United States has denied him a visa to enter this country, which is headquarters for the U.N. The reason for his banishment? He was part of the gang of thugs that took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and began a 444-day hostage crisis 35 years ago.

Iran says it will appeal the ban.

Let the Iranians complain all they want.

The State Department is acting within its rights.

That crisis, which erupted in November 1979, still sticks in the craw of many Americans. Aboutalebi supposedly was one of the “students” who stormed the embassy and took 53 Americans captive. The crisis ended U.S.-Iranian diplomatic relations, although likely not forever.

The hostage-taking was part of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the shah of Iran earlier that year and reportedly was in response to this country’s long-standing support of the shah’s regime.

Civilized countries, though, do not allow for the takeover of another nation’s sovereign territory, which is what describes embassy compounds.

This visa denial, of course, does complicate the on-going negotiations between Iran and six industrialized nations that are seeking to persuade the Iranians to abandon its nuclear program – which many governments around the world believe is intended to develop an atomic bomb. Iran insists its nuke program is meant for “peaceful” means.

Sure thing, Tehran.

One diplomatic action need not relate to another.

The Iranians ought to propose someone else to represent their country at the United Nations. Surely they can find someone whose hands aren’t stained by that disgraceful deed at the U.S. Embassy in Iran.

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Soldiers made of stern stuff

This is the latest in an occasional series of blogs commenting on impending retirement.

FORT DAVIS, Texas — I think I’ve discovered the ultimate hypothetical question.

Could I do what these guys did?

“These guys” were soldiers stationed at a rugged outpost in the Davis Mountains of far West Texas. They served from 1854 until 1891. They were charged with protecting settlers emigrating westward into New Mexico. They lived in harsh, desperate conditions far from anything resembling “civilization.”

The garrison comprised Buffalo Soldiers of African-American descent. They were rugged and they had to make do with provisions that came mostly from San Antonio, which required several days of travel.

What remains of the post has been turned into a National Historic Place administered by the U.S. National Park Service. Its hospital has been restored and replicated where possible, as have the enlisted men’s barracks. What used to serve as the chapel now consists of just two walls against rock cliffs.

My wife and I spent a day there touring the place and trying to come to grips with how difficult it must be for men called to serve in what had have been considered a God forsaken place far from anything they’d ever know. It was, after all, in the middle of the 19th century.

One of the more interesting exhibits taught us how the men coped with disease. Dysentery was a common affliction. One man died after being kicked in the stomach by a horse. Toothaches could present a serious and potentially deadly problem.

The men were sturdy, stout and tough as nails.

Back to the question: Could I do this?

Well, given the hypothetical nature of the question, I cannot come close to answering it. I came along a century later and grew up enjoying the creature comforts of life. I never knew such hardship.

I’ll just settle, therefore, for saluting the men who served our country under conditions we only can imagine.

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Messing with the message

The Texas General Land Office has come up with a far superior anti-littering slogan than the one that’s been taken hostage by right-wing politicians in our fair state.

The sign, which my wife and I saw on a weekend trip to the Davis Mountains region of far West Texas, reads “Drive Clean Across Texas.”

Excellent message, don’t you think?

The previous message, which still appears on some signs, states “Don’t Mess With Texas.” Taken literally, it, too, offers a nice admonition to drivers who might be inclined to toss an empty longneck beer bottle or a potato chip bag out the window of a speeding motor vehicle.

It no longer means what it was created to mean back when Garry Mauro was land commissioner and when his office adopted the campaign to fight littering in the state. Instead, the slogan has been perverted to represent some kind of misplaced machismo.

Gov. Rick Perry and other right-wingers have used the message as a warning to the federal government, telling them nasty feds to “don’t mess with Texas” by making us obey all those meddlesome federal laws enacted from the halls of Capitol Hill.

Now the state has a new slogan to remind motorists to keep their trash inside their vehicles. “Drive Clean Across Texas” has a sort of Texas-style slang feel to it. Plus, taken literally, it means what it says, although I know a few English teachers who would argue that it would be better to encourage motorists to drive “cleanly” across Texas.

Whatever. The new message is less prone to be used as a cheap political gimmick.

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Boehner: glutton for punishment

Word now is that U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is going to seek the speakership once again … if the Republicans gain control of the Senate and strengthen their control of the House.

Is this guy a glutton for punishment or what?

Members: Boehner will stay on

I had heard from someone close to the speaker some months ago that he’d had it up to here with the tea party wing of his party. Boehner, who hails from the so-called “establishment wing” of the GOP, has been fighting with the insurgents within his GOP caucus. He’s expressed growing frustration with their intransigence that, according to those who know him, goes against the speaker’s instincts to compromise when the opportunity presents itself.

Now comes word that he’s all in for the next Congress particularly if Republicans win control of the Senate and perhaps strengthen their grip on the reins of power in the House.

But will any of that make life easier for Boehner, who’ll have to carry the water for the tea party that could be emboldened even more in their efforts to stymie legislation?

I’m thinking not.

Which is why I’m also thinking that he just might call it a career after he’s re-elected from his Ohio congressional district.

This little back story just turn into a major act.