Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Let the wind keep blowing

Hey, it’s been windy lately.

You know what? The wind has produced at least one amazing positive result: an increase in megawatts, meaning electricity, meaning less use of fossil fuels.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/a-beneficial-blow-wind-energy-surpasses-10k-megawatt-mark.html/

The Electrical Reliability Council of Texas announced that on March 28, it passed the 10,000-megawatt barrier for the first time ever. Texas, which has been the leader in wind energy in the nation, set the record nationally.

We’re No. 1!

I get that not everyone is enamored with wind energy. It’s expensive to generate electricity from all those turbines planted all across our High Plains plateau. However, the more electricity created by wind, the less of it is created by fossil fuels that, last I heard, remain a finite source of energy. The stuff is going to run out eventually.

The wind? We’ll have it forever and ever.

It’ll keep blowing, sometimes at great velocity. It’ll annoy the daylights out of us, blowing dirt into our motor vehicle air filters and wafting its way into our homes.

But as ERCOT notes, wind can heat and cool our dwellings with a virtually infinite energy supply.

Let it blow.

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Lt. gov. runoff will tell us plenty about Texas GOP

The upcoming runoff between Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state Sen. Dan Patrick is going to send a stark message about the state of the Texas Republican Party.

If Dewhurst wins the runoff — which is beginning to look unlikely — the so-called “establishment wing” of the state party will have fended off a major uprising with the GOP ranks. If Patrick wins, well, Katy bar the door.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/31/analysis-gop-year-hunter/

It still is a bit of a stunner to me that Dewhurst is in this position. He lost the U.S. Senate Republican primary contest in 2012 to Ted Cruz. He then staked out a far more conservative posture during the 2013 Texas legislative session, seeking to avoid another challenge from his right. It didn’t work, as Patrick emerged as the favorite to defeat Dewhurst in the runoff set for May 27.

Dewhurst is an establishment kind of guy. He’s wealthy, well-connected with big-time donors and has shown an ability to work with Texas Senate Democrats as well as Republicans. He’s a conservative, but under the new rules that define conservatism, he isn’t conservative enough.

Patrick is another kind of Republican. He’s thrown down the gauntlet to moderates within his party and to Democrats that, by golly, Texas is a conservative state and he intends to run the state Senate that way. He has blasted Dewhurst for giving key Senate committee chairmanships to Democrats.

It appears to be working. Patrick is a pistol and he’s firing live political ammo at the other guy constantly.

If Dewhurst can hold on to this party’s nomination, he’ll get to face one of his Senate colleagues, Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, in the fall. I am not familiar with their relationship, but something tells me he’ll be a kinder, gentler Republican nominee than Patrick.

If it’s Patrick vs. Van de Putte, look for another kind of fall campaign altogether.

My choice in this runoff? I’m going to pull for Dewhurst.

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Rand Paul makes sense on outreach

Listen up, tea party wing of the Republican Party.

One of your own is making sense on ways your party can reach out more effectively to a growing minority of voters in the United States.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/rand-paul-gop-must-get-beyond-deportation-105241.html

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a possible candidate for president in 2016, says the GOP must get “beyond deportation” if it hopes to attract Latino voters.

Think about that. So many leading Republicans were saying during the 2012 presidential campaign that deportation — or “self-deportation,” as Mitt Romney called it — was one way to rid the country of illegal immigrants.

“The bottom line is, the Hispanic community, the Latino community is not going to hear us until we get beyond that issue,” Paul said this week.

Who wants to wager whether the Republican Party is going to heed this sound advice? I’m not yet willing to believe the tea party wing of the GOP — the minority within the party with the loudest voice — is going to take the bait.

I do admire Paul, though, for telling the harsh truth to his GOP tea party brethren. Indeed, another key member of that wing of the party — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — is an immigrant himself. The Texas Cruz Missile, though, keeps talking tough on immigration, brushing off efforts to reform the system in a comprehensive, constructive way.

Keep driving home the message, Sen. Paul. Maybe one day they’ll get it. Then again, maybe they won’t.

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Big government takes over in Louisiana

Can it be that big-government know-it-alls are running amok in the Louisiana Legislature?

And isn’t Louisiana a bastion of small-government, local-control ideology that prides itself on letting communities decide for themselves what’s best for their constituents?

Welcome to paternalistic, big-government (dare I say it?) socialism over yonder in Louisiana.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/home/8778876-172/bill-to-curb-traffic-cameras

A Louisiana House committee has passed a bill that would enable the state to ban the use of electronic cameras to regulate traffic. You know, it’s those dreaded red-light cameras … kind of like those currently deployed right here in Amarillo.

According to the New Orleans Advocate, “The bill would ban local governments from using traffic cameras to issue tickets on state highways, including those within city limits, unless motorists are traveling more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.”

It passed the Louisiana House Transportation Committee by an 8-7 vote and now heads to the full House for what is likely to be a raucous debate.

The Texas Legislature once had a ban on cities deploying red-light cameras. Then it relented. Some cities now use them with varying degrees of success. Some cities have yanked them, citing public unhappiness over them.

State Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, a critic of the cameras, said, “We are here to stand up for the citizens.”

Well, OK. But what if some cities want the option of deploying them while allowing other cities to forgo them? Isn’t that the essence of small-government legislation? Let communities make these calls for themselves.

That’s not how some folks see it. Some in the Texas Legislature continue to harp on keeping the state’s hands wrapped tightly around these traffic enforcement policies. Meanwhile, mayors and senior city law enforcement authorities say they can use the electronic assistance in helping them enforce traffic laws.

Big government is supposed to be anathema in these so-called “red states,” right? But is it? Really?

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ACA deadline passes, the sun rose this morning

What do you know? The Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment deadline passed and Planet Earth didn’t spin off its axis.

Here’s another tidbit: The White House announced that it met its enrollment goal of 7 million Americans signed up for health insurance. Was the deadline glitch-free? No. But it came, it’s history and millions of Americans who didn’t have health insurance before have it now.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/obamacare-enrollment-deadline-special-enrollment-105239.html?hp=t1

Let’s remember, though, that critics will continue to declare the law a total failure. They’ll continue to assert that the president runs the most “lawless” administration in the history of the Republic. They’ll suggest the White House “cooked the books” on the ACA enrollment numbers. They’ll likely have more votes in Congress to seek to repeal the law.

President Obama asserted the following today in a White House Rose Garden ceremony: “There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived. Instead, this law is helping millions of Americans.”

We’ll need to remember that many of the ACA’s basic tenets came from Republicans. One of them, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, helped push through a health care law in the Bay State that became a significant model for the federal law that was enacted in 2010. Romney would try to distance himself from his own creation as he ran for president in 2012. The strategy didn’t work, as Americans re-elected Barack Obama.

Yes, some Americans got an extension on the deadline. Those are the folks who got hung up in the application process. The White House gave them a few extra days to finish it up.

Where this law goes from here remains a bit of an open question. It shouldn’t be repealed. It needs tweaking, just as Medicare needed it when it was created in 1965. That program has been a godsend to elderly Americans.

Of course, GOP efforts to toss out the ACA will continue. However, as more Americans sign up for health insurance and report back the positive impact of that coverage, there might be enough of a reaction that sends a stern message to ACA critics: Back off; the law is working.

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Global warming risks mount up

The United Nations says that global warming is putting billions of Earth residents at risk.

OK. Earth’s climate is changing and we’d better do something about it. Or else. That settles it, right?

Not even close.

http://news.msn.com/world/global-warming-dials-up-our-risks-un-report-says

You see, what’s going to happen now is that global warming-climate change deniers are going to take dead aim at the authors of this report. They will say the U.N. is nothing but a bunch of politically correct greeners, lefties whose major intent is to destroy industry as we’ve known it and, while they’re at it, destroy our way of life.

“We’re now in an era where climate change isn’t some kind of future hypothetical,” said the lead author of the report, Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science in California. “We live in an area where impacts from climate change are already widespread and consequential.”

I happen to concur with what the basic outline of the report, which is that the planet’s climate is changing. I’m trying to keep something of an open mind as to the cause: manmade or part of the planet’s ecological cycle.

But let’s assume for a moment that the change in Earth’s climate is all part the planet’s cycle, that there’s nothing we can do about it. Does that mean, then, that we should just sit back and let nature take its course? I think not, given that the very lives of billions of people are going to be affected by things such as sea level increases and possible loss of livelihood as natural resources diminish and possibly disappear.

Extreme weather is getting more extreme. The planet is getting warmer, believe it or not. Yes, we had a chilly winter with lots of snow and ice. The bigger picture tells us that average temperatures continue to rise.

Would reductions in greenhouse gas emissions matter? Must we end the massive deforestation in the tropics? Yes to both. Is there a relationship between the deforestation and the increase in greenhouse gas? Duh!

That’s one example of how humans can affect the change in climate. The report is much more comprehensive and should be taken seriously.

Yes, especially if it comes from the United Nations.

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Change in sign-off adds to confusion

Faith in the Malaysian government’s ability to communicate clearly what might have happened to a still-missing Boeing 777 jetliner might be about to vanish into thin air.

Consider this: The government now has changed its findings into what allegedly was said aboard the Malaysian Air Flight 370 moments before it went silent and then apparently crashed into the Indian Ocean.

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-changes-version-last-words-missing-flights-cockpit-171941224–sector.html

Someone on the flight deck had supposedly said “All right, good night” on March 8. Not so, says the government, which issued a statement Monday that said the more formal final sign off was, “Good night Malaysian three seven zero.”

Why is this important?

From where I sit, if the government cannot get straight something so simple and declarative as the crew’s final message — which had been received by the control tower in Kuala Lumpur — then its ability to transmit any information to the grieving families and the rest of the world is now in serious doubt.

Malaysian authorities have been pounded by critics over the way it has handled this tragic event. It notified family members via text message that the plane likely was lost and that all 239 people aboard were “lost.” They have been slow to inform China — given that two-thirds of the people aboard MH 370 were Chinese nationals — of the progress of the search, which has angered the government in Beijing. They changed the search area to a spot 700 miles north of where they thought the plane went down, saying that it traveled faster than earlier thought, burned fuel more quickly and went down sooner than they had thought.

Now this.

Satellite pictures have indicated possible debris from the aircraft southwest of Perth, Australia. Several nations have deployed sophisticated equipment and trained personnel to look for the jetliner. They’re trying to locate the flight data recorder by listening for “pings” that authorities now believe may cease in a few days when the batteries expire.

Meanwhile, all this stumble-bumming around has created a climate for crackpot conspiracy theories that do nothing but add to waiting family members’ unimaginable grief.

Time is running out.

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Matney sets record for loyalty

If you want to craft the ideal spokesman for a public institution, someone whose love for it is beyond reproach, who speaks with intelligence and clarity, and who means every single word of what he says about the place he runs, you would use Paul Matney as your template.

Matney announced today he is retiring after more than three decades working on behalf of Amarillo College.

http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2014-03-31/acs-matney-retire

The past five years of that service have been as president of one of the premier junior colleges in Texas.

Man, what a loss for the school with which Matney has had a love affair ever since he enrolled there fresh out of high school.

Paul Matney has been one of my better friends since my arrival in Amarillo in January 1995. He was a trusted source for perspective on the school, on Amarillo, public higher education, the Panhandle, on Texas politics and occasionally on how to live a good life.

He earned the trust, respect and admiration from folks all across the spectrum.

I want to share one tidbit that, for me, testifies to the universal respect Paul has enjoyed in Amarillo.

Some years ago, I was sitting at the table with some other local residents at the Good Scout Luncheon sponsored by the Golden Spread Council of the Boy Scouts. One of them was Tom Roller, a local real estate broker and at the time the chairman of the Potter County Republican Party. I mention Roller’s partisan affiliation only because Matney is an unapologetic Democrat.

Matney was serving as acting AC president when he walked by our table. He greeted us all individually and walked on. Roller turned to the person sitting next to him and said, “That man should be the next Amarillo College president. I hope the regents appoint him to the job permanently.”

Roller’s off-the-cuff endorsement told me clearly that Matney’s credentials as an avid AC advocate and spokesman were unassailable. Indeed, over the years I have listened to Matney speak on AC’s behalf at luncheons, seminars, press conferences or in informal gatherings of individuals just standing around.

The man is a treasure to the college he loves so much and to the place he calls home.

The college board of regents will need to look hard to find someone to step into the enormous void that Paul Matney will leave.

Well done, my friend.

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Opening Day tradition lives on

There can be nothing in all of American sports quite like Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season.

Daytona 500? Indy 500? Super Bowl? Forget about it.

Opening Day has a place all its own. It usually features a presidential first pitch.

God Bless Opening Day

Some presidents, well, have better arms than others. John F. Kennedy had a pretty good arm. So did Dwight Eisenhower.

But the standard for presidential first pitches still belongs to George W. Bush. Allow me this one caveat, though: He didn’t set the standard on Opening Day. He set it instead on the first game at Yankee Stadium during the 2001 World Series, the one that had been delayed by the events of 9/11.

Baseball fans everywhere remember that night. The president strode the mound wearing a New York Fire Department jacket. The crowd roared.

Then the president took the baseball, rubbed it in his hand and from the top of the mound — not in front of it as some presidents do — he wound up and threw a perfect strike.

The crowd noise that greeted the president’s arrival on the mound? It turned into an absolute din as 56,000-plus fans erupted. The pitch symbolized the perfect tonic for a nation that had been grieving, had become enraged at the dastardly deed done to it and sought relief from the anguish.

President Bush, with a simple pitch from a baseball stadium mound, delivered the goods.

There can be nothing like it anywhere else in the world of sports.

Play ball!

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Blame the messenger, folks

In an era when Democrats and Republicans can find so little common ground, both sides seem to agree on at least one element of today’s poisonous political atmosphere: It’s the media’s fault.

GOP, Dems agree: It’s the media’s fault

Interesting. Not surprising, though.

According to The Hill newspaper, Democrats say the media are too focused on the Affordable Care Act; Republicans, meanwhile, say the media should spend more time covering corruption among Democrats at the state level of government.

There’s just no pleasing everyone, you know?

I guess Republicans wish the media would concentrate more on Democrats gone bad than focusing on Republicans. Meanwhile, the GOP has been winning the public debate over the ACA by out-shouting the other side and, therefore, snagging most of the media’s attention.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican who’s been fending off a snoopy press over the so-called “Bridgegate” controversy, has made an art form out of badgering reporters at press conferences. He calls them out by name when they ask what he considers to be unfounded questions. The public seems to eat it up, so Christie keeps delivering the goods in the form of one-line scolds that make for good sound bites on — and I love the irony here — the evening news.

As a former practitioner of daily print journalism, I harbor no particular ill will toward pols who blame the media for doing their job. It goes with the territory, just as politicians getting pounded by constituents for one issue or another goes with their territory.

When the media stop getting complaints and everyone just falls in love with reporters, well, that’s when I would start to worry.