Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Rain becomes talking point

We’ve been mired here along the Texas Panhandle Caprock in this hideous drought.

Dry land farmers can’t grow crops, given that they depend on rainfall to irrigate their land.

It’s been tough around here for, oh, about four years.

So, when the weather forecasters keep harping on the prospects for rain, well, we want to believe them. Heaven knows they keep saying it’ll change, that moisture will return eventually. We want to believe them, but the longer we went without any relief, the harder it has become to put faith in their words.

That has changed in the past day or two.

Wednesday produced the first actual thunderstorm I can remember in a good while in our Amarillo neighborhood. More of it came today. The rain gauge hasn’t moved much yet, but it’s gotten pretty wet out there.

I ran some errands today, visited with folks and overheard others talking about, that’s right, the rain. Nothing else. No politics. I didn’t hear much about the VA scandal, or the upcoming Texas elections, or whether Hillary Clinton will run for president in two years.

Rain. That was the topic.

I ventured out this morning and so help me I thought the birds were chattering with more gusto than I’ve heard them for as long as I can remember.

Do we want the kind of rain that has flooded other parts of the state or the country? No thanks, of course. But some more of this moisture surely gives us something more pleasant to discuss with our friends and neighbors than what we’re getting out of Austin or Washington.

Uncategorized

Russian oil dependence? Here? In Texas?

This tidbit just popped in over the transom from a conservative friend of mine who lives in up yonder in Gray County, Texas.

He received an invitation from Ryan Sitton, a Republican candidate for Texas railroad commissioner, to attend an event in which Sitton was going to extol his efforts to wean the nation of its “dependence on Russian oil.”

My friend is perplexed. So am I.

Neither of us was aware that Texas and the United States had a “dependence” on Russian crude.

He flashed the invitation to me electronically. Sure enough, that’s what Sitton said.

I looked at the list of Sitton endorsements and saw some familiar names. Former Amarillo oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens is on it; so is Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman and former RRC chair Elizabeth Ames Jones.

Do they know something the rest of the world doesn’t know, that we have grown dependent on Russian oil?

I looked it up. The information from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is a bit dated, but in 2007, 3.4 percent of U.S. oil imports came from Russia. Our biggest supplier then was Canada, with whom we share the world’s longest unprotected border.

I’ve been pondering this for a bit. Since 2007, our oil imports have declined. The United States is now consuming more domestic oil than it is importing. The oil boom that exploded in West Texas has reignited here. Try getting a hotel room in the Permian Basin. You’ll be paying through the news for a room at a Motel 6. Why is that? Drilling contractors have gobbled up lodging space.

I haven’t even mentioned the shale oil boom in North Dakota, which is remaking life as they’ve known in that rural part of America.

So, what’s Ryan Sitton talking about? Russian oil dependence? The young man needs some counseling.

Thanks, my friend in Gray County, for bringing this to light.

Uncategorized

Texas right wing at war with itself

If you think the conservative wing of the Texas Republican Party — which is pretty conservative from top to bottom as it is — is locking arms in a unified battle … think again.

Some mail I received yesterday and today suggests a serious civil war within the party. Now I will explain.

Four campaign fliers have come to our house in the past two days. They involve Ryan Sitton and Wayne Christian, two men running for the GOP nomination for Texas railroad commissioner.

Sitton and Christian both proclaim themselves to be proud conservatives, one of whom will be nominated next Tuesday when the statewide runoff election occurs.

They both feature themselves standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the current conservative pooh bah of Texas political officeholders, Sen. Ted Cruz. Sitton’s material implies a Cruz endorsement. But wait. Christian’s card today implied more or less the same thing. “Wayne Christian stood with Ted Cruz when others would not,” Christian’s campaign card declares right over a picture with Christian and Cruz standing closely together while grinning for the camera.

Another flier today came from the Young Conservatives of Texas, which listed its preferred candidates for the May 27 GOP runoff. Who’s name is listed under railroad commissioner? Wayne Christian.

OK, that settles it. Right? Wrong.

Another flier also arrived today from … Conservative Republicans of Texas.

That group, based out of Houston, says Christian is “wrong on energy and wrong for Texas.” The flier also notes that Christian is “under fire for pushing green energy mandates and Solyndra-like subsidies.” The text on the flier says that “Christian’s mandate effort received support from liberal tree huggers.”

Green energy mandates? Oh … my … goodness. We can’t have that. We simply cannot have a railroad commissioner advocating for environmentally friendly energy sources to, um, protect the planet.

Whatever.

Christian still is buddies with Ted Cruz. So is Sitton.

Both of these candidates proclaim themselves ready to out-conservative the other guy.

Hurry up and get here, Runoff Election Day. I’m ready for some real knock-downs between actual conservatives and actual liberals.

Uncategorized

Tea party takes it on the chin

Those silly tea party insurgents keep getting their heads handed to them.

Then they keep coming back for more.

The results from this past Tuesday showed that the Republican Party “establishment” is getting stronger while the tea party wing of the GOP is losing its punch.

http://thehill.com/opinion/ab-stoddard/206894-ab-stoddard-tea-party-left-in-the-dark

Tea party challenges lost Senate races in Kentucky, Oregon, Idaho and Georgia. Those equally nutty Republican primary voters decided to go with more “business-friendly” candidates, according to A.B. Stoddard, writing for The Hill.

The tea party has shown this amazing ability to present candidates who become true wack jobs. Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock sought Senate nominations and then made bizarre statements about women, rape and abortion. Remember Christine O’Donnell, the loon who ran for the Senate in Delaware? She proclaimed some fascination with witchcraft. You cannot possibly forget Sharron Angle in Nevada, who proved to be unsuitable at every level possible to serve in the U.S. Senate.

I don’t know what this means for the Republicans down the road. My hope is that sanity may be reasserting itself within the once-great political party.

House Speaker John Boehner in recent months has expressed his disgust with the clowns who have taken his House caucus hostage. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell actually has had the “temerity” to broker a budget deal with Democratic Vice President Joe Biden.

The tea party wing of the GOP has no shortage of goofballs. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tops the list; Cruz actually is making fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a fellow Texan, look and sound reasonable.

I am longing for a return of the mood in Washington when Democrats and Republicans could work together to solve national problems. Bring back the spirits of Republican Everett Dirksen and Democrat Lyndon Johnson.

Uncategorized

VA boss Shinseki on his way out?

Maybe I’m reading too much into things at this moment, but my trick knee is throbbing and it’s telling me Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s time in public life might be nearing an end.

Congressional Democrats have joined their Republican colleagues in urging his ouster in light of the veterans’ health care scandal that is mushrooming across the country. Vets have died while waiting for health care; VA officials reportedly have doctored waiting times to make themselves look good.

All this has been done on Shinseki’s watch.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/206869-dems-break-with-obama-call-for-shinsekis-sacking

President Obama made a strong statement Wednesday in which he condemned the activities about which we already know. He called them “disgraceful” and said they “will not be tolerated.”

He had met with Shinseki privately at the White House and, as The Hill notes, the former Army general was not at the president’s side when he lowered the boom on the agency Shinseki runs.

I refuse to accept the criticism that Obama was too timid in his response. He is looking for all the facts before making any firm decisions. Congressional Republicans, therefore, need to zip it before popping off about what the president should do.

It’s the call for Shinseki’s ouster from congressional Democrats, though, that should have the president’s ear. He did say Wednesday that the outrage spans political partisanship and that all Americans should be angry over the deaths of veterans who were awaiting health care from an agency that made a vow to provide them the best care possible.

This controversy won’t go away until the president gets all the answers he demands — and then acts on the recommendations he receives.

It’s looking to me, though, as if one recommendation — to show the Vets Affairs secretary the door — already is on the table.

Uncategorized

Weather need not be boring

When I was a kid, I’d gripe incessantly about the weather.

It rained seemingly forever in my hometown of Portland, Ore. I’d whine to my parents. “I hate the raaiiin,” I’d say in the whiniest voice I could muster.

Dad’s response was usually the same: “Go talk to God.”

Gee, thanks Dad.

Over the years, I moved away from home. I went into the Army, traveling to Virginia, to Vietnam, then back to the Pacific Northwest to finish my two-year hitch. ‘Nam produced some interesting weather: buckets of rain, followed by stifling heat, then more buckets.

Years after that, my career took me to the Texas Gulf Coast. It rained a lot there, in heavy quantities all at once. Then the clouds would break, the sun would come out. The humidity was, shall we say, stifling.

Then we came to the Texas Panhandle.

Unlike the Gulf Coast, where the weather routinely changes day to day, the weather patterns here have fallen into the same kind of sameness that the rain did when I was a kid.

Then it occurred to me some years ago: It wasn’t the rain that bothered me in Portland, it was the monotony of it. A similar monotony has settled over the Panhandle in recent years. All that damn sunshine is making me whine, “I wish it would raaiiin.”

Fortunately, my wife hasn’t told me to talk to the Almighty, at least not yet.

Well, today the weather turned. It’s pouring rain as I write this. The TV weather folks say it’ll be raining for the next few days.

Bring it! Our farmers and ranchers need it. My neighbors and I need for our lawns and gardens. A brief downpour, followed by sunshine, followed by more rain … that would be heaven for us.

Uncategorized

Duncan to lead Tech … who knew?

This might be the least-surprising story to come out of West Texas since, oh, the revelation that the cotton can get mighty tall at times.

State Sen. Bob Duncan is the sole finalist to become Texas Tech University’s next chancellor.

Who’da thunk it?

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/19/robert-duncan-be-next-texas-tech-chancellor/

Duncan is going to replace Kent Hance as head of the Tech university system. He’ll have to wait 21 days before Texas Tech’s regents can make the formal announcement. Then Gov. Rick Perry will call for a special election to select someone who’ll replace one of the Legislature’s shining lights.

This is an excellent development for the Texas Tech University System.

The chancellor’s main job is to raise money for the university. Duncan’s standing in the Texas Senate — where he routinely is named among the best legislators in the state, according to Texas Monthly. He has an

Duncan is an outstanding choice. He is a Tech alumnus, earning his bachelor’s and law degrees from the Lubbock school. He built a successful law practice on the South Plain and has taken time off from that practice since the mid-1990s to legislate every other year from the Legislature.

Sen. Duncan will do very well to meet his new challenge.

Uncategorized

Partisan battle over vets' health care?

The most interesting thing President Obama said today in his remarks about the Veterans Administration health care scandal involved what he hopes will be the lack of partisan rancor in this discussion.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus didn’t hear that part of the president’s remarks … apparently.

“Why did President Obama wait to address this situation only to ask our veterans for more time and to offer nothing but words?” Priebus asked.

Nothing but words? What does the RNC chairman want Barack Obama to do? Fire everyone? Does he want the Justice Department to bring criminal charges without first knowing what the evidence is to charge someone?

For crying out loud, does he want the president to don some surgical scrubs and tend to veterans’ health needs himself?

Give me a break.

The VA scandal is huge. Veterans reportedly have died while waiting for health care that had been delayed well past what is acceptable. VA officials allegedly cooked up wait-time lists that were bogus to cover their backsides.

Let’s stipulate that this is unacceptable at every possible level imaginable.

Republicans are angry, as are Democrats. The president noted, though, that this is requires an American response that goes beyond partisan posturing. Priebus is trying to gain some kind of political advantage here.

The president vowed to turn over every stone to find out what has gone so horribly wrong with our veterans’ health care system. I am quite sure I watched an angry commander in chief offer some pointed remarks today.

Enough of the peanut-gallery remarks, Chairman Priebus.

Uncategorized

Get the truth at VA, Mr. President

It is fair to assume that President Obama is as angry as he says he is about the growing scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The mess created by what appears to be a deliberate cover-up of health care for veterans is a blight on his presidency, not to mention the reputation of the agency charged with caring for our veterans.

The president today vowed repeatedly to get to the bottom of the scandal and, while expressing support for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, has left the door open for the retired four-star Army general to leave on his own — or be fired — if the evidence takes investigators to his office.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/president-obama-eric-shinseki-va-106938.html?hp=f1

I accept the president’s declaration of outrage as sincere. This is a horrible circumstance that, according to the president, isn’t anything new. It goes back “decades,” he said. Veterans are waiting too long to receive urgent medical care and that must end.

As a Vietnam War veteran myself — but one who enjoys excellent health (knock on wood) — I couldn’t agree more with that desire.

The issue blew wide open with reports of at least 40 veterans dying while in the care of the Phoenix, Ariz., veterans hospital; what’s more, we now know of bogus documentation that fabricated the vets’ wait time that in reality went far beyond the two-week maximum required by VA policy. Now we hear of extreme delays at VA medical centers in other states, including Texas.

President Obama said these delays won’t stand. We owe it to our veterans to get the top-notch care they deserve, he said, and he vowed not to rest until he finds out the whole truth about what has gone wrong, who is responsible and who to bring to account for this outrageous circumstance.

I’m with you, Mr. President, in your search for what’s gone so terribly wrong at the VA. You’d better know, though, that millions of sets of eyes will be watching you to ensure you keep your promise to follow the trail toward the truth — no matter where it leads.

Uncategorized

Texas politics always is bloody

I’ve noted before how Texas politics is a contact sport.

The source of that description came to me from the late great Democratic U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. It’s more than mere contact, however. At times it becomes a blood sport.

Take the Republican runoff race for Texas lieutenant governor or the GOP runoff contest for state attorney general. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston are going at each other hammer and tong. It well might be that the Dan Branch-Ken Paxton contest for AG is even nastier, with Paxton running TV ads accusing Branch of being a — gulp! — “liberal Republican” who voted for third-trimester abortions and has backed the dreaded Obamacare.

This kind of campaigning isn’t new to Texas.

The Texas Tribune looked back at the 1990 Democratic race for governor as its prime example of how low it can go.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/20/analysis-politics-as-limbo–how-low-can-it-go/

Attorney General Jim Mattox squared off against State Treasurer Ann Richards. They finished at the top of the primary heap that year and faced each other in a runoff for the party nomination.

Mattox actually accused Richards of using illegal drugs. Richards, a recovering alcoholic, had been clean and sober for many years. That didn’t matter to the bulldog Mattox, who made the accusation during a live TV debate with Richards, according to the Tribune.

Richards would win the runoff and would go on to beat Republican oilman Clayton Williams in the fall after Williams (a) made that terrible gaffe about rape and how women should “just relax and enjoy it” and (b) refused to shake Richards’s hand at an event they attended jointly, instead calling her a “liar” within hearing distance of an open microphone.

Yes, we should lament the nastiness of these current campaigns. Let’s not get too overwrought about them, however. They’re hardly new creations of this new age.

This nastiness is part of what makes Texas politics so, um, invigorating.