Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Uninsured rate is falling

Politicians of all stripes have this way of spinning news in their favor and against their opponents’ interests.

That’s how the game is played. Take the Affordable Care Act. President Obama has declared something of a victory in that 7.1 million Americans signed up for the ACA before the March 31 open enrollment deadline; he had set a goal of 7 million signups. Republicans on the other hand declared the signup period a failure because of the rollout snafus and clumsiness that followed.

Now comes some interesting news from the Gallup Poll organization. The rate of uninsured Americans is the lowest since 2008, the final full year of George W. Bush’s presidency.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/168248/uninsured-rate-lowest-2008.aspx

What does that mean?

Let’s see. The president said when he took office in 2009 that he intended to make health insurance available to more Americans and to bite into the number of uninsured Americans, which stood at 40 million or so, give or take.

The ACA passed. The enrollment period opened up. Americans got signed up through the exchanges. More Americans now have health insurance than before enactment of the law and, according to Gallup, the rate of uninsured Americans is at a six-year low.

The improvement is greatest among poor Americans and African-Americans, says Gallup. The rate of uninsured among all age groups has declined.

Is this an unqualified success for the Obama administration? It is not. The president made a couple of promises he couldn’t keep, such as the infamous “you can keep your doctor” pledge. The law will need to be tweaked, fine-tuned and improved along the way — which is the norm for almost all major pieces of legislation.

However, to say the ACA has “failed” and that it is going to “bankrupt the country” and create “death panels” to determine who lives is dishonest in the extreme.

The survey noted here suggests that the administration’s major goal — to provide health insurance to more Americans — has been met.

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Good news from Afghanistan?

Might there be a glimmer of hope finally in Afghanistan?

The Afghans have conducted an election to choose their next president. The top two candidates, according to National Public Radio, are pro-Western in their leanings and are not allies of the outgoing — and unpredictable — Afghan President Hamid Karzai; indeed, Karzai’s hand-picked successor is running far behind the top two candidates.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304819004579485482622918584

A runoff appears to be in the offing between opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah and former World Bank executive Ashraf Ghani.

What’s more, the election produced a stunning 60 percent turnout in the face of attacks from Taliban terrorists who, of course, oppose elections of any stripe.

Can this be a tipping point in the evolution of Afghanistan from a lawless, tribal society into one that is governed under the rule of laws that the rest of the civilized world understands?

Hope should spring eternal.

The United States already has ended its major combat role in Afghanistan after fighting an all-out war there against the Taliban since shortly after the 9/11 attacks. More than a dozen years have passed. Too much American blood has been spilled in what had been thought to be a lost cause.

It’s too early certainly to declare victory in a land with no known history of representative democracy. But with the impending election of either Ghani or Abdullah, the country appears to be headed toward a leadership that will tilt in our direction rather than toward the forces of evil.

It’s now time for the world to begin holding its breath.

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President/Rev. Huckabee?

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A thought just occurred to me, so I reckon I’ll share it here.

It involves former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran for the Republican nomination for president once and who might do so again. Some recent polling puts him near the front rank of a large gaggle of GOP contenders for the White House.

Huckabee on religion

Here’s the thought.

Back in 1960, when Sen. John F. Kennedy, was running for president, critics of the young lawmaker were dubious about his Catholic faith. They actually expressed some fear that a President Kennedy would be taking his orders from the Vatican, that he couldn’t separate his constitutional responsibility from his faith.

The candidate ended up making a speech in Texas in which he said, in effect, that he would swear to uphold the Constitution and that the oath never would play second fiddle to anything or anyone, period, end of discussion.

Should we ask similar questions of Gov. Huckabee, who in an earlier life was a Baptist preacher?

Indeed, the question might come if Huckabee decides to seek the presidency. Imagine someone asking: “Governor, will you govern according to the Constitution or will you base your policy decisions on what Scripture says?” I’ll point out once more that the Constitution is a totally secular document that states Congress shall make no law establishing a state religion and that there shall be no religious litmus test for office seekers.

Still, the issue might find its way to the table if Rev. Huckabee decides to run for the presidency.

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Mozilla boss done in by intolerance

Brendan Eich was under some illusion, apparently, that the First Amendment means people are free to express their political beliefs without retribution.

I guess not.

Eich was canned by Mozilla, the Internet browser, because he gave some money in 2008 to political organizations that favored a ban in California of gay marriage. Proposition 8 became a battle cry for those seeking “marriage equality.”

I do not care to comment on the merits of Prop 8. I do care, though, to suggest that Eich got the shaft by his company.

Whatever this man thinks of gay marriage, Prop 8, or whether the moon is made of green cheese has zero relevance to the company he runs.

Is he smart enough to be chief executive officer of a multi-bazillion-dollar Internet company? Apparently so. The company reportedly is in good financial shape in the cut-throat world of big business and matters relating to the Internet.

The most troubling aspect of this man’s dismissal — to my way of thinking — is that it suggests an intolerance of views that don’t comport with progressive thinkers. My understanding of the term progressive, which is synonymous with “liberal,” is that one should keep an open mind and judge everyone’s views on their merits. An unwritten element here is that the view should be relevant to something broader and more far-reaching than merely the individual who has expressed that view.

So what if the guy gave money to Prop 8 supporters? Does that make him less qualified to run his company? The link attached here suggests that his view restricts Mozilla’s ability to hire first-rate engineers and other geeks who might be dissuaded from working for someone who believes as he does about gay marriage.

Come on!

It pains me to say that we have a case of political correctness running amok. The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment has been stomped on in the process.

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Look far and wide, Amarillo College

Now that Paul Matney has announced his intention to retire as president of Amarillo College, it’s not too early to light a fire under the school’s governing board of regents.

Cast a wide net, AC regents, in your search for someone to succeed Matney.

The AC president, arguably one of the most highly regarded public officials anywhere in the Texas Panhandle, rose from the ranks to the presidency in 2009. He had served as acting president while the late Steve Jones battled cancer. Matney had served three decades at AC in various faculty and administrative capacities. The school would have been wise then to look outside for a successor to Jones, but it chose instead to stay in-house.

The decision turned out to be a brilliant one.

Matney’s replacement, though, will need to be someone special. Matney’s mark is indelible. Foremost among his accomplishments has been his relentless advocacy of Amarillo College and the astonishing loyalty and ease with which he argues the virtues of the institution that has set student enrollment records for several of the past academic years.

Should regents look solely within the ranks of current administrators? I think not. Amarillo College has established an enough of a stellar reputation among other junior colleges — indeed, among universities — in Texas that qualified administrators would scramble to apply for this office the moment it is posted.

Paul Matney set a high bar for his successor and in the process has created a “headache” most college regents would love to have. They likely will have the chore of poring through a mountain of applications from high-quality candidates seeking to fill some mighty large shoes.

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Texas's next governor will …

Wendy Davis created quite a stir by visiting the Texas Panhandle this week.

Much of it was positive. Much of it was not. The Fort Worth state senator and Democratic nominee for governor ventured into some hostile territory just by setting foot in this heavily Republican region of a heavily Republican state.

Good for her.

Let’s look ahead to the next election. Just suppose …

Davis wins. Or just suppose Republican nominee Greg Abbott wins — as most observers think will happen.

The next Texas governor will be stripped almost immediately of the kind of power that Republican Rick Perry acquired during his umpteen years as the state’s top elected official.

It’s been said zillions of times over the years that the Texas governor is a relatively weak office. The real power rests with the lieutenant governor, as he/she presides over the state Senate. The governor’s power lies in his appointments. Given that Perry has been governor seemingly forever, he’s had ample opportunity to fill all key state boards and commissions with people friendly to his policies.

He’s also been successful at using the governor’s office as a bully pulpit. Has that always worked well for him? No. Consider his purported pro-secession language that energized the tea party faction within his party. Many of the rest of us were quite turned off by the careless talk.

The next governor will lose much of the aura that Perry acquired, for better or worse.

You can bet that Abbott will show up in the Panhandle — perhaps many times — before the election occurs. Davis’s next visit isn’t yet set.

My hope is that the gubernatorial candidates don’t fall victim to what I’ve noticed over many years watching and covering Texas politics from my perch on the top end of our vast state. It is that Republicans take us for granted, given our region’s bias in their favor, while Democrats have all but given up the fight for our votes.

Y’all come back.

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Pope's influence makes its mark

If Pope Francis has any influence on some of the bishops who do his bidding, then there’s hope for a major Christian denomination’s future.

A recent story involving the archbishop of Atlanta comes to mind. Archbishop Wilton Gregory is moving out of his $2.2 million mansion, which was built on land donated by descendants of Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With the Wind.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/05/archbishop-of-atlanta-to-vacate-2-2-million-mansion-in-early-may/?hpt=hp_c2

Parishioners took exception to the archbishop living in such sumptuous quarters while the Holy Father himself lives in a small guest apartment in Vatican City. What’s more, parishioners give their money to the church while sacrificing many material things of their own.

The firestorm was fierce.

Archbishop Gregory isn’t the only Catholic cleric to feel the heat. Others around the country are hearing from members of their own flocks for adopting lifestyles that belie (a) church teachings about taking vows of poverty and (b) Pope Francis’s humble lifestyle.

I am not a practicing Catholic. I am a Presbyterian, which had its beginnings about the time of the Protestant Reformation. I was baptized, though, in the Greek Orthodox Church, which has its own long history of animus toward the “Western church.” Thus, I am not qualified to comment theologically on how the Atlanta archbishop messed up.

I am qualified to say, though, that it just plain looks bad when your church’s earthly leader preaches daily about caring for the poor and lives in such Spartan quarters while those under him erect quarters that would make many billionaires blush.

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Closure may be at hand

Could this be it?

A Chinese warship that has joined the intensive search for Malaysian Air Flight MH 370 has detected a signal from the floor of the Indian Ocean. Authorities say the signal is being broadcast on a frequency used by flight data recorders.

http://news.msn.com/world/china-ship-detects-pulse-signal-in-indian-ocean

There might be — quite possibly — a good chance that the end of a gripping mystery is about to arrive.

The vessel has detected the “pinger” signal about 1,000 west of Perth, Australia. The idea now is to locate the precise origin of the signal, which the ships gathered across the ocean are able to do.

Meanwhile, the families of those lost aboard the flight await word.

I can vouch for their anxiety in the month since the plane disappeared after it took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing. My family and I went through something like this once ourselves many years ago. The family members’ minds and hearts have been playing cruel tricks on them as they wait for any word at all about the fate of the 239 people on board the Boeing 777.

As cruel as one’s mind can become in times like these, perhaps the worst cruelty has been perpetrated by those who have suggested out loud that the plane didn’t crash at all, that it was hijacked and spirited away somewhere.

Let us hope that — finally — searchers can find the precise source of the signal they’ve heard, can retrieve that recorder and reveal to the world precisely what happened aboard that doomed airplane.

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Pro-choice does not equal pro-abortion

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I’ve just finished reading a blistering series of social media responses to state Sen. Wendy Davis’s visit to the Texas Panhandle.

The Fort Worth Democrat — her party’s nominee to be the next governor of Texas — became an instant political celebrity at the end of the 2013 Legislature when she filibustered a bill that would restrict abortions in Texas. The bill became law after a subsequent special legislative session, but Davis made her mark by filibustering the bill to death in an earlier session.

She’s become the No. 1 target of “social conservatives” who will not forgive her — not ever — for taking the position she took. She opposed the law making abortion illegal after the 20th week of pregnancy. Indeed, she opposes government telling a woman that she must complete a pregnancy. She believes that choice belongs to the woman, her physician, her partner and God.

The tirades I’ve read about Davis seem to harp on a single point, which is that Davis condones abortion, that she’s a “baby killer.”

I know this is not going to go over well with some of the more conservative readers of this blog, but I feel the need to make this point.

A pro-choice policy on abortion does not equal being pro-abortion.

A pregnant woman always has the choice on whether to give birth. If she is unable to rear a child, the law enables her to terminate the pregnancy. She also has the choice of delivering that child and allowing someone else to adopt the child. The woman also has the choice of delivering the child and rearing the child herself, or with her husband or partner, or with her parents or some other family member or close friend.

These are choices the woman makes. To suggest that a pro-choice policy on abortion equates to being pro-abortion takes demagoguery to a new level.

My hope is that the campaign for Texas governor will avoid that kind of rhetoric in the months to come. My fear, based on what I’ve seen just today, is that it won’t.

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Sen. Davis ventures into lion's den

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis today is venturing into places where few Democrats dare to go.

She’s in the Texas Panhandle, the virtual birthplace of the modern Texas conservative political movement, the place that according to lore voted overwhelmingly for Barry Goldwater over Texan Lyndon Johnson in 1964. (In truth, only eight of 26 Panhandle counties voted for Sen. Goldwater, but I digress.)

Davis was in Dumas today to speak to the Panhandle Press Association and is set to appear at an Amarillo restaurant, Fernando’s, for another public appearance set for around 5 p.m.

This is a notable campaign stop for a key reason: It might demonstrate that the Democratic nominee for Texas governor is going to wage a 254-county campaign for the state’s top office, although I doubt she’ll actually show up in every one of the state’s counties; for that matter, I doubt Republican nominee Greg Abbott will, either.

I’m glad she’s here. I hope she returns. You can bet that Abbott will be here, although his own time might be spent better in more populated and perhaps less reliably Republican regions of the state.

As for Davis, the Fort Worth Democrat, she has a chance to woo potentially skeptical audiences here with a solid message centering on bolstering public education and seeking income equality for all Texans — which was the theme of her message today in Dumas. These are serious topics that require serious consideration by all Texans, not just those who are wedded to one political party or the other.

A friend of mine who attended the Dumas event is one of those reliable Republicans. He wanted to hear Davis’s message and he tells me he came away impressed by her demeanor, her seriousness and her ability to articulate her message clearly. He says he’s keeping an open mind during this campaign — although it would shock the daylights out of me if he actually votes for her this fall.

I’ve long been advocate for a strong two-party system in Texas. Back in the days when Democrats ran everything, they proved to be just as arrogant and unforgiving as Republicans have turned out to be once they claimed supremacy over every statewide political office. A vibrant two-party system means both parties need to stay accountable for their beliefs.

Davis’s hope, I am presuming perhaps at my own peril, is that her message will not fall on deaf ears in the part of Texas that helped lead the way for a Republican takeover of the state’s political apparatus. Will she carry the day this November in this part of the state? I strongly doubt it.

Davis at least can hope — at this stage of the still-developing campaign — to make the race competitive. If she can pique the interest of at least one Panhandle Republican who vows to keep an open mind, Davis is sure to find others who are equally interested in listening to what she plans to do if she’s elected governor.

It’s a long slog, senator. Hurry back, OK?