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Wipe out dry precincts

An idea for a Texas constitutional amendment came to me today as I read a newspaper story about a petition to allow for beer and wine sales at a retail outlet planned for a Potter County justice of the peace precinct.

Let’s call for an amendment to the Texas Constitution that allows Potter County to get rid of the prohibition.

For that matter, why not vote statewide on eliminating all dry county precincts?

Are we up for it?

At issue is a petition to allow a proposed Sam’s Club box store planned for a site in far west Amarillo. It sits in JP Precinct 3, which is dry. To buy a mixed drink or a cold beer in JP 3, you have to join a private “club.” I found this out when I first moved to Amarillo in January 1995. I went to dinner one night, ordered a beer at Hoffbrau on Interstate 40 and Coulter, but had to join a club to buy a drink.

What a joke.

I’ve never quite understood, to be candid, how dry precincts and counties continue to have any relevance in this mobile society of ours.

As for the Sam’s Club petition, to deny the retailer the chance to sell alcoholic beverages — beer and wine — is to deny the company a chance to enhance its profit, earn more revenue, thrive in a growing business climate. Why not allow the sale?

I’m guessing it would require a constitutional amendment to enact the change, given that Texas counties are governed by state statute. Under state law, any constitutional amendment — no matter how “local” its implication — requires a vote of all Texans.

The entire notion of dry justice of the peace precincts is an archaic notion that needs to be tossed aside.

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Stop laughing, Mr. President

A friend of mine got upset early today at a picture.

The picture showed President Obama sharing a light moment with someone at a conference table. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also is present. He’s not laughing. At the moment the picture was snapped, he appeared to be scowling. I doubt that was the emotion he was expressing.

Pictures such as the one to which I refer serve to inflame partisans. My pal was angry that the picture showed Obama laughing at a meeting called to discuss the border crisis involving those tens of thousands of children who are fleeing into the United States from Central America.

I have no clue what caused Obama to chuckle at that moment. Neither does my friend.

Strangely enough, I understand why he would be upset. He’s angry about the crisis. He thinks the president should do something to stop it. There’s nothing funny at the meeting, my friend believes.

Well, maybe someone said something that tickled Barack Obama’s fancy. Maybe the governor of Texas cracked a joke later, or perhaps he’d done so earlier.

Pictures, as they say, can tell a thousand words. This one, though, tells just a few. The president of the United States had the temerity to actually laugh.

God have mercy if this kind of thing is going to get us upset.

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Abuse of power allegation may spell trouble

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is looking and sounding more and more like a candidate for president in 2016.

That is, unless he gets indicted by a Travis County grand jury for abusing the power of his office.

If he faces criminal charges, all bets are off for the lame-duck governor.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/25998425/grand-jury-decides-if-perry-abused-power

The panel is expected to decide soon whether Perry abused his power when he vetoed money for the Travis County district attorney’s office after DA Rosemary Lehmberg pleaded guilty to drunken driving. Perry demanded her resignation, which was justified, given that the DA lost her moral authority to prosecute drunken drivers.

Then he allegedly went a step too far by threatening to veto $7.5 million that was earmarked for the Travis County DA’s public integrity unit, which is charged with investigating charges of ethical lapses by state officials.

Oh, did I mention that Lehmberg is a Democrat and Perry is a Republican? That distinction seems to matter.

Lehmberg refused to quit and Perry pulled the money.

Now he’s being investigated for abusing his power.

So, what does this mean for his budding presidential campaign? Plenty. He cannot possibly campaign as a Mr. Clean Governor if he’s about to stand trial for a felony offense related to the performance of the office he’s occupied since The Flood.

Then again, if the grand jury no-bills the governor — which of course is a possibility — then he’s back in the presidential sweepstakes once again.

But if the indictment arrives, well, if you’ll pardon the expression: Oops.

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You go, Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio — the one-time Rust Belt symbol of urban decay, crime and corruption — suddenly has become the most talked-about city in America.

And for all the right reasons, to boot.

First, the city landed the 2016 Republican National Convention. It’ll take place in the summer, when the weather hopefully is pleasant. Lake Erie will be full of activity. The waterfront will be bustling. Thousands of convention delegates, political activists, media representatives, spectators and vendors will descend on the city, pumping millions of dollars into the local and state economy.

Does it get any better than that?

Well, yes.

Then came news that its Prodigal Son (of sorts) has returned to play professional basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers. You’ve heard of LeBron James, correct? He’s at this moment the most skilled basketball player on the planet — in many people’s opinion.

He said four years he was “taking my talents to South Beach.” He went to Miami and led the Heat to a couple of NBA titles. Now he’s coming back to his home state; “King James” hails from Akron, just down the road from Cleveland.

It’s great to be in Cleveland these days. No more jokes about Lake Erie catching fire from pollutants.

One more thing: former Texas A&M star Johnny “Football” Manziel is going to play for the Cleveland Browns this fall. That’s not too shabby, either.

Cue up the guitars at the Rock ‘n Roll Museum. The city is ready to dance.

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Akin: the gift that keeps on giving

Bless that good ol’ Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin. He just can’t keep quiet about things that got him and his political party into trouble.

Akin, a Republican, has written a book with a mouthful of a title: “Firing back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith.” It’s going to be released in a few days.

Democrats’ mouths are watering at the prospect of raising money using this man’s pearls of wisdom as the lure.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/todd-akin-book-firing-back-democrats-reaction-108823.html?hp=l2

Akin sought to win election to the U.S. Senate seat from Missouri. He was considered a strong candidate until he sought to differentiate between “legitimate rape” and, well, other kinds of rape. He was trying to explain how some women become pregnant as they are being sexually assaulted, explaining that “the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.”

Akin, I hasten to add, is not a physician.

He didn’t win the Senate seat in the 2012 election and his comments — along with those uttered by other GOP candidates that year — helped fuel the perception that his party has declared war on women.

Akin is just the gift that keeps on giving, apparently, with the publication of his book. I’m not sure if I’m going to read it. I might catch an excerpt or two when they show up online.

Democrats and their political-action committee pals — such as Emily’s List — likely are going to reap some benefit from this guy’s memoir.

And why not? Akin provided a tremendous case study on the troubles politicians — particularly those of the male persuasion — find when they speak of things of which they know zero intimate knowledge.

Pregnancy comes to mind.

Akin told Politico that his “only regret is apologizing for his comments about rape and pregnancy.”

Let the fun begin all over again.

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Obamacare is — what? — working? Who knew?

The Affordable Care Act has done what? It has reduced the number of uninsured Americans?

Goodness, gracious. That must mean the act — aka Obamacare — is working. It’s doing its job. It’s providing health security for millions of Americans.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/obamacare-lowers-uninsured-108789.html?hp=l1

A story on Politico.com by David Nather reports: “Survey after survey is showing that the number of uninsured people has been going down since the start of enrollment last fall. The numbers don’t all match, and health care experts say they’re not precise enough to give more than a general idea of the trend.”

And yet, House Speaker John Boehner is suing President Obama because the president allegedly changed a law by postponing the mandatory employer mandate provision in the law — which I believe is what Boehner and his Republican colleagues actually wanted done.

My head is spinning.

The numbers being reported aren’t yet rock-solid. Nather reports there remains a “lot of variation” in the statistics of uninsured Americans. Still, the bottom line is that fewer Americans are uninsured today than when the Affordable Care Act was rolled out.

As expected, Republicans continue to call the ACA a failure. Sen. Ted Cruz told Politico: “Four years ago, before the law was implemented, it was possible to have good-faith disagreements about whether the law would work. Today, seeing the utter disaster that has played out … to me, it is the essence of pragmatism to realize that the law isn’t working, and to repeal it and start over.”

Wait a minute, senator. The law is working. The number of uninsured has declined. Isn’t that the goal?

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Meanwhile … the budget deficit keeps shrinking

Bad news tends to run laps around good news.

People are drawn to negativity in a curious way. Positive developments? Oh, forget about it. We’ll get to the good stuff later — if we remember to think about it.

I hereby want to present a bit of cheer amid all the tumult over child refugees, Israel vs. Hamas, Iraqi insurgents, impeachment, congressional lawsuit and anything else of late.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/wh-budget-deficit-will-drop-to-583-billion-108822.html?hp=l9

The federal ran a surplus of $71 billion in June. There’s more. The annual budget deficit is going to hit — at most by some estimates — $583 billion for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30; indeed, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $492 billion.

It’s that surplus business that has me most intrigued.

Could it be the spurt of new jobs, which reached 288,000 in June, producing more tax revenue for the Treasury? Might it be accompanied by a burst of new business activity, which generates even more revenue?

Why, you would think we’d hear cheers from both sides of the political aisle.

Didn’t happen. Nope. We’ve been fixated by that negativity thing. We respond to the bad news and shrug at the good news.

I’m no Pollyanna. I know we’ve got problems at home. We damn sure have them around the world. Our government is coping as best as it can, or one should hope.

The budget deficit, which once was the Bogeyman of the Right, is being slain. It’s not gone yet. It’s still too great. It’s less than half of what it was when the current administration took over.

I think I’ll hoist a cold one in honor of the good news.

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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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