I’m often intrigued by squabbles within a political party, particularly among those in the dominant party.

Take the Republicans who rule everything in Texas.

With so few Democrats in power to kick around, Republicans are turning on each other. Look at state Sens. Tommy Williams and Dan Patrick, both of whom hail from the Houston area.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/21/feud-between-patrick-and-williams-escalates/

Williams chairs the Senate Finance Committee and Patrick runs the Education Committee. They’re powerful in their respective rights. Patrick voted against the state budget, which angered Williams. Patrick supposedly voted against the budget because it lacked money for public education programs. Williams wrote in a column that Patrick’s no vote is intended to position himself in a possible run against Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Patrick said Williams’s attacks have been “personal in nature” and he takes great offense at them.

Poor guys.

This kind of in-fighting mirrors in a way the fight that’s under way at the national level in the U.S. House of Representatives. Tea party Republicans dislike the “establishment” wing of their party, and the feeling appears to be quite mutual. Since the Republicans control the House, many of them are turning on their speaker, John Boehner of Ohio, who has lost control of his caucus.

I’m trying to imagine such a thing happening under the leadership of legendary Democratic U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas. I kind of think Mr. Sam would take any rogue Democrat to the proverbial woodshed for an old-fashioned political whuppin’.

The Texas Senate is run by Republicans, along with the Texas House and every statewide office in Texas. Meanwhile, Texas Democrats who’ve had good reason to be demoralized at their loss of power, now have something to smile about as they watch two powerful Texas Senate committee chairs beat each other senseless.

Keep fighting, boys.

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has lined up right alongside the likes of former Vice President Dick Cheney in convicting someone who hasn’t even been tried – yet – for committing a crime against the state.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/nancy-pelosi-booed_n_3484062.html?show_comment_id=263057168#comment_263057168sb=1147791b=facebook

Pelosi, a California Democrat, drew boos and heckling when she said Edward Snowden, the man behind the leaking of National Security Agency secrets, has broken the law. Pelosi’s comments came not many days after Cheney called Snowden a “traitor” because, the ex-VP said, he has spilled the beans on vital national security secrets.

I haven’t yet fully grasped the entire story here, but were I come from, every human being on the planet – in the eyes of U.S. law and our very own Constitution – enjoys a presumption of innocence before any court hands down a conviction. That doesn’t seem to apply to Snowden, who’s apparently hiding in Hong Kong to avoid the long arm of U.S. law.

Snowden has been charged by the feds with espionage. He faces a very lengthy prison term if he’s convicted. But he’s not yet been tried, let alone sent up the river for any crime.

The law is supposed to provide a suspect a bit of protection against those willing to tighten the noose.

I’m happy to report that some travel nightmares can – and do – end well.

Mine came to a satisfactory conclusion overnight. I discovered it in my email inbox this morning.

It came in the form of a note from United Airlines customer service department and informed me that I would be getting a $250 travel voucher in three to five days as a token of the airline’s regret over what happened to me on a flight I took on June 6 from Amarillo, with a connecting flight in Houston en route to Portland.

I wrote about it in some detail the other day.

http://www.johnkanelis.com/2013/06/travel-nightmare-continues.html

The message I received said, in part:

“Please understand that we do work hard to minimize flight problems. Of course the safety and well being of our passengers must always be our first priority so some delays or cancellations are unavoidable. Flight irregularities of any kind do cause major inconveniences for our customers, we realize, and we certainly don’t question the feelings of frustration that can arise as a result. Unfortunately, our industry is vulnerable to a number of challenges that can, and do, affect our operation on a daily basis. Inclement weather, mechanical problems, industry regulations and air traffic situations issues all affect our ability to meet our on-time performance goals each day. From what you describe, on this occasion we failed to meet your expectations for providing good service and for that I am truly sorry.”

It’s going to be some time before either my wife and I take United up on the offer. Still, $250 shaves a good bit off any domestic trip we might have in mind.

I am gratified, though, that United Airlines sought fit to make good on my request for some financial payback for the misery that occurred the evening of June 6 and well into the next day. Was it as much of a payback as I would have liked? Oh, probably not. Nevertheless, it was a nice way to start my weekend.

This saga has come to a happy conclusion.

I was utterly amazed when I saw the story published in the Texas Tribune about the late Audie Murphy.

It said that Murphy, a native of Hunt County in Northeast Texas, has yet to receive the state’s highest military honor, the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/21/audie-murphy-hero-still-missing-one-medal/

What an outrage!

Murphy died in 1971 at the age of 45 in a plane crash. But some 26 years before that he distinguished himself on the battlefield in a way that almost defies one’s imagination. He held off an entire Germany company – about 200 soldiers – in January 1945. Those who witnessed the action said Murphy killed about 50 enemy soldiers while manning a machine gun atop an armored vehicle.

Those heroics resulted in his receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. All told, he received more than 20 medals and citations for valor in combat during World War II.

He went on to make some movies, including one film – “To Hell and Back” – that depicted his own heroism. Murphy died much too young, of course.

But back to this Texas Legislative Medal of Honor. Gov. Rick Perry was supposed to have it delivered to his desk this legislative session, but according to the Tribune, there was some kind of mixup. Perry didn’t get it in time.

My question, though, is this: Why wasn’t Murphy the first honoree when the Legislature began awarding the medal in 1997?

It’s an absolute travesty that someone who arguably is Texas’s most decorated warrior hasn’t been honored by his home state. The Legislature has gone through nine cycles since the Legislative Medal of Honor was created. I think it ought to get it right when No. 10 rolls around in January 2015.

Audie Murphy, of all those from Texas who was a member of the Greatest Generation, deserves this honor.

Howard Kurtz is joining the Fox News Channel as its latest on-air star after working for several years at CNN, the flagship news network of the hated “mainstream media” that Fox news hounds love to bash.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/howard-kurtz-leaves-cnn-for-fox-93109.html?hp=r14

This is an interesting development.

Kurtz wrote for years as media critic for the Washington Post, also while serving as host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” which covered media issues for the news network.

I’ll actually watch Fox when Kurtz joins the network and I’ll listen for any hint that Kurtz joins the pack of “mainstream media” bashers who routinely stick it in the eye of Fox’s more “liberal” competitors.

As Politico reports, Kurtz wasn’t a member of the anti-Fox pack of journalists that have blasted Fox for the rightward slant in its news coverage. He would ding Fox occasionally, but he also took shots at the other networks and media organizations. I’ve always found Kurtz to be a fair critic.

Now he’ll become a part of network that keeps touting its “fair and balanced” approach to reporting, which actually is a ruse. The network isn’t fair or balanced, so I just wish it would stop making the false claim. And no, it’s no more unbalanced than, say, MSNBC, which tilts leftward in its reporting and commentary. The difference is that MSNBC makes no claims of fairness and “balance.”

I’m anxious to see what kind of conversion Kurtz makes when he joins Fox. I hope he stays true to his record as an equal-opportunity critic.

A group aiming to turn Texas into a “battleground state” in future presidential elections is planning a fundraiser next month.

Good luck with that, folks.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/battleground-texas-plans-dc-fundraiser-93132.html?hp=l6

Battleground Texas believes the Lone Star State’s changing demographic makeup is going to turn the state from a reliably Republican stronghold into a more competitive state with the influx of Latino voters who normally vote Democratic.

My advice the Battleground Texas brass? Be patient … be very patient.

The upcoming 2014 midterm election suggests – to me, at least – that the Texas Democratic Party has yet to find its footing.

All the pre-election attention so far has been on the Republican side of the aisle. Imagine that. The most recent Democrat to win a statewide office in Texas was John Sharp, who was re-elected state comptroller in … 1994! It’s been all Republican all the time ever since.

The 2014 circumstance doesn’t look any brighter.

Battleground Texas does tout some shining lights among its ranks. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro perhaps shines the most brightly at the moment. His Honor gave the keynote address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and hit it out of the park with his stirring story of growing up poor and, along with his identical twin brother, Joaquin – who’s now serving in Congress – obtaining a college education and a law degree.

The Castro brothers are young. They have time to build the coalitions they seek. Many old-line Texas Democrats who are a bit longer in the tooth may not live long enough to see the transformation take place.

I’m hoping to see it happen, if only to witness Texas take its place among those states – such as Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania – where presidential candidates every four years fight tooth and nail for votes.

I’ve always maintained that one-party rule – be it Democratic or Republican – breeds arrogance. In Texas, Republicans have run roughshod over the system just as Democrats used to do when they ran the place.

Good luck, Battleground Texas. Just remember to be patient.

News out of my hometown of Portland, Ore. punched me in the gut.

The Oregonian, once considered one of the nation’s great newspapers, is going to publish three print editions a week. It’s going to lay off scores of newsroom staffers, move from its iconic downtown building and promote its digital presence to the hilt.

Some folks call it “progress.” I call it pitiful.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-30341-oregonian_publisher_says_paper_is_reducing_home_de.html

I almost don’t know where to begin sorting this out.

Advance Publications owns the Oregonian. Advance has done similar things to newspapers it owns across the nation. The most notable scaling back occurred in New Orleans, where the Times-Picayune – another great publication – went to a thrice-weekly print cycle, only to return to a seven-day cycle when it realized its readers and advertisers were abandoning the Picayune in favor of the Baton Rouge Advocate.

The Oregonian experienced a tremendous resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s. A new executive editor took over a newsroom that had gotten flabby. She retooled beats, reorganized the operation from stem to stern. The result was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism that the paper hadn’t seen since the 1950s.

What’s more, the paper was a cash cow for Newhouse Corp., which owned the paper. Then the bottom fell out of the newspaper business around, oh, 2006, thanks largely to the Internet. Newspapers didn’t know how to handle the new wave of information transmission. I’m guessing the Oregonian is like a lot of big media companies that struggled to find its way.

The three-day print edition idea is going to upset a lot of folks who once considered the Oregonian to be the premier news source in Oregon and a good chunk of Washington state.

I once had a grand dream of working for my hometown paper. I actually did work for a time at the late Oregon Journal, the afternoon paper that Newhouse also owned. The Journal shared the same building as the Oregonian, but it had a separate newsroom staff that competed intently against the bigger morning paper. Newhouse eventually gave up on the Journal and closed it in the early 1980s. That was a sad day for everyone who loved newspapers.

The news out of Portland today, though, is downright tragic.

I will need more time to process this news. I might have more to say on it later. Right now, I’m going to sip on my beer at home here in Texas and wonder what the future holds for what we used to know as daily print journalism.

Gov. Rick Perry says he hasn’t yet decided whether to seek his zillionth term as Texas governor.

State Attorney General Greg Abbott says he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for Perry’s office.

I don’t believe either man. They’ve both decided. They’ve talked it over. They’re just waiting for the right time to spill the beans.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/20/speculation-mounts-decision-nears-perry/

Abbott’s already running for governor. He’s out raising money and trying to position himself as the heir apparent to the longest-serving governor in Texas history. Perry, meanwhile, hasn’t not been raising money and instead is touring the Northeast to talk about how business-friendly Texas is, especially to companies toiling in high-tax, high-regulation states such as New York and Connecticut. Those activities don’t sound like someone getting ready to run for re-election.

Perry’s time as governor has run out. He reportedly wants to run again – that’s right – for president of the United States. Apparently the humiliation he suffered during his first run in early 2012 wasn’t enough to dissuade him of his high ambition. So, by stepping away from the governor’s office in January 2015 he can spend time cobbling together a presidential campaign that he hopes will take him farther than the first one did.

The Texas Tribune reports, though, that the early reviews for Presidential Campaign No. 2 aren’t so hot. He flubbed a reference to Libya by calling it Lebanon when talking about the Benghazi fire fight that killed four U.S. diplomats in September 2012.

To borrow a word: Oops.

I am one of many Texans who has grown tired of Rick Perry. Actually, I was tired of him long ago … about the time he took office after G.W. Bush’s election as president.

Here’s hoping the tea leaves are giving us good news in the days ahead.

It’s been more than two weeks since I sent United Airlines a note complaining about a nightmarish travel experience.

I’m still waiting for a response.

http://www.johnkanelis.com/2013/06/travel-nightmare-continues.html

I don’t believe I’m making an unreasonable request. I want some kind of compensation for ground crew incompetence and mechanical failure that made me miss two connections to my vacation destination on June 6. The delays put me on the ground at my destination nearly 24 hours after my planned arrival. I’m seeking either a refund or a travel voucher. Is that too much to ask?

The most frustrating thing about this wait is the difficulty in being able to speak to a human being at the airline. These automated systems drive me crazy. Whenever I seek to speak to an “agent,” I keep getting asked more robo-questions, as if the system doesn’t hear me ask to speak to a living human being. After a particularly lengthy journey through the automated system recently, I finally did talk to an agent who – of course – had no specific information regarding my complaint.

The good news? She told me the email responses I received regarding my complaints means the airline’s “system” has them in its data base. She promised I’ll hear – eventually – from the airline.

I’ll keep you posted.

How quickly the tide can turn atop Capitol Hill.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., went to D.C. in early 2011 as one of the tea party’s golden boys. Now he’s one of the GOP wing’s chief targets. Why? Because the young man has the temerity to push for immigration reform that provides undocumented immigrants a “path to citizenship.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/306717-right-rips-rubio-as-gop-votes-slip-away

Rubio has this idea – along with several other senators of both major political parties – that giving hard-working people who happen to be in this country illegally a path to becoming citizens amounts to “amnesty” for breaking the law.

That’s a non-starter, according to the tea party wing of the Republican Party. Senators have brokered a deal to beef up border security and finish building a 700-mile wall along the southern border, which is seen as a sop to conservatives who dislike the notion of immigration reform in the first place.

I believe another key Senate Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has it right. Graham – hardly a wild-eyed liberal – is on board with immigration reform. He said this week his party is condemning itself to a “demographic spiral” if it doesn’t agree to immigration reform. Indeed, with racial and ethnic minorities changing the face of America – and of its voting bloc – Republicans continue to be seen as the party of “old white men” who have no appreciation for the inexorable change that is taking place in front of their very eyes.

What in the world is happening to a once-great political party?