Monthly Archives: February 2014

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Academic credentials needed for chancellor?

Paul Burka poses an interesting question about someone who appears to be in line to become the next chancellor of the University of Texas System.

Does he have the proper academic credentials for the job?

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/next-ut-chancellor

Burka is talking about former legislator-turned-lobbyist Kyle Janek, who appears to be Gov. Rick Perry’s top choice for the job of UT System chancellor. Burka writes on his blog that Janek doesn’t have “any academic credentials.”

The actual choice, of course, belongs to the UT regents. Perry, though, will apply pressure for the board to select Janek, who’s a good friend and close ally of the governor.

But I have to wonder about the “academic credentials” aspect of this appointment.

Burka doesn’t specify what kind of credentials are required. He believes John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, has the academic credentials for his job. Does he? Sharp served in the Texas Senate, on the Texas Railroad Commission, as state comptroller and ran two unsuccessful campaigns for lieutenant governor.

How about Kent Hance, who’s leaving later this year as head of the Texas Tech University System. He served in the Legislature, in Congress, on the Railroad Commission and lost a Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate.

Do either of these men’s credentials stack up academically?

I agree that academic “cred” is important. One of the chancellor’s main tasks, however, is to raise money for the university. Sharp is good at it, as is Hance — and as was former state Sen. John Montford, who was one of Hance’s predecessors at Texas Tech.

The current UT chancellor, Francisco Cigarroa seems to be a prodigious fundraiser as well; he also is a medical doctor, which I believe qualifies him as having superb academic credentials.

Burka suggests that Janek’s legislative career was undistinguished.

If he doesn’t have the stroke within the Legislature to obtain more money for the massive university system, then perhaps that — not a lack of academic credentials — should be the measuring stick.

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Cornyn’s tea party challenge goes kaput

So much for a serious challenge to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn from the tea party wing of the Texas Republican Party.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Loony Bin, had been counted on by many within the GOP to mount a stout bid to unseat the veteran lawmaker.

Silly them. It didn’t happen. It won’t happen.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/texas-steve-stockman-john-cornyn-republican-senate-primary-elections-2014-103754.html?hp=f2

The tea party wing of the reliably Republican Party of Texas has abandoned Stockman, who’s vanished from the campaign trail — yet again. He’s been a no-show at campaign events. His dismal campaign effort has been described as “horrible” by Texas tea party bigwig JoAnn Fleming.

I’m still trying to figure out why the righties dislike Cornyn so much. He’s racked up a generally conservative voting record in the Senate. He’s led the Senate campaign committee effort to recruit solid GOP candidates for Congress’s upper chamber. He’s been pretty darn critical of his Senate Democratic colleagues and the Democrat who lives in the White House.

What brought about this idiotic challenge — from the likes of Steve Stockman, no less?

They disliked his vote to avoid going over the “fiscal cliff.” He didn’t stand with tea party favorite U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. And just recently he voted to extend the nation’s borrowing limit without attaching any spending limits.

In other words, he ain’t vicious enough.

Stockman emerged as the leading challenge to Cornyn within the Republican Party. The congressman held true to his form, however, in acting weirdly in public. He invited has-been rocker and Second Amendment firebrand Ted Nugent to the State of the Union speech in January. He’s faced questions about his staff’s campaign activities — but has disappeared for days and weeks on end to avoid answering them.

Sen. Cornyn will be re-nominated in a few days. He’ll go to on face a Democrat this fall. He’ll likely be re-elected.

I was hoping for a more serious challenge for Cornyn. Sigh. It wasn’t meant to be.

So long, Rep. Stockman.

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Medal of Honor shocks recipient

You’re a 72-year-old Army Special Forces veteran. You’ve seen combat up close and personal. You’ve been injured on the battlefield and you performed so heroically in September 1969 that the Army awarded you the Distinguished Service Cross for valor.

But something was missing. Some of the brass thought you deserved the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. You didn’t get it because, reportedly, someone high up in the chain of command didn’t want to grant the honor to an African-American.

The battle occurred 45 years ago, in Vietnam. Your name is Melvin Morris and when the phone rang one day this past year, you picked it up and the president of the United States was on the other end of the call.

He invited you to the White House to receive the honor you richly deserve. You and several others from will be honored. It is late, but no less deserved.

http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/02/florida_man_shocked_to_learn_o.html

Morris is one of only three Vietnam War veterans who will be present to receive their Medals of Honor. All told, eight living veterans will be on hand. The rest of them are now deceased. Some of them died on the battlefield. Some of the veterans date back to World War II and the Korean War.

It will be an unusual ceremony, honoring veterans of African-American, Hispanic or Jewish heritage who were denied the honor because of their race, ethnicity or faith. President Obama and the Pentagon want to make it right and have scheduled this event for March 18.

Melvin Morris said he was shocked when he got the phone call. He said he fell to his knees.

But like virtually all heroes, he had gone on with his life. “I never really did worry about decorations,” Morris said.

Well done, Mr. Morris — and welcome home.

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Gov. Walker’s now the tainted one

Now that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s Republican star appears to be fading, establishment GOP kingmakers have been looking for someone who can head off the tea party express in advance of the 2016 presidential campaign.

They thought they had one in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Until now.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/178464/e-mails-charges-probes-chris-christie-no-scott-walker#

It turns out Walker’s office is in a bit of a jam on two fronts.

First, emails have surfaced that show Walker’s staffers conducting political business on public — meaning government — time. Which is against Wisconsin election law, as it is in Texas and all the rest of these United States, for that matter. The emails purport to show communication between Walker’s official staff and campaign staffers.

That, by itself, is a crime. People could get prosecuted and sent to jail if convicted.

Then there is the other, equally troubling, aspect of the governor’s staff behavior.

It involves some amazingly hateful emails the governor’s staffers shared with each other, also while they’re on the clock. They illustrate an outright disdain and near-hatred for, oh, gay people, immigrants, African-Americans, Jews, Muslims and, oh yes, Democrats.

These are the various demographic groups who reside in Wisconsin and who are subject to the laws enacted by the state’s government, which is led by their governor, Scott Walker.

That the governor would condone such behavior is utterly beyond my understanding. How could staffers feel emboldened to send these message to each other using public communications equipment? Is it because the governor has given his blessing, or has he chosen to ignore it?

Let’s not be coy about this. The feeding frenzy has started among those who are critical of the governor. It likely won’t end until Walker decides (a) fire those involved, (b) apologize to Wisconsin residents, or (c) announce he won’t run for president in 2016.

I’m thinking he’s got to do all the above.

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New guy joins GOP Senate nut brigade

It looks like Steve Stockman has company in the nut house corps seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

The new guy is Chris Mapp, a Port O’Connor businessman who is running for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate, right along with Stockman.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/GOP-Senate-candidate-from-South-Texas-slammed-for-5255976.php#src=fb

Mapp said that South Texas ranchers should shoot “wetbacks” and called President Obama a “socialist son of a bitch.”

Well.

Cornyn said this in response: “I recognize this is a free country but that’s not the sort of way to gain people’s confidence that you care about them and you want to represent their concerns in the halls of Congress.”

Do you think, Sen. Cornyn?

I almost am speechless. But not quite.

It seems as though the debate keeps taking these intermittent radical right turns. Candidates keep popping up — and popping off — with these off-the-wall comments. They want us to take them seriously.

It’s impossible to believe they expect Texans or any Americans for that matter to believe they have the country’s best interests at heart when they advocate such idiocy in public.

As Robert Stovall, Bexar County GOP chairman, said of Mapp’s comments: “That is way out of bounds and I can’t imagine many people in Texas, much less Texas Republicans, voting for that guy.”

I hope he’s correct.

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Minimum wage hike not really a killer

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner is on record as saying he’d rather kill himself than vote for an increase in the federal minimum wage.

Now that he’s gotten that off his chest, I surely hope he was just being melodramatic, trying to make some rhetorical point.

However, now the issue ought to turn to whether the House should vote on it. I say, “Why not?”

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/198856-boehner-id-rather-kill-myself-than-raise-the-minimum-wage

At issue is a proposal to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. President Obama wants it, as do congressional Democrats. So might a majority of congressional Republicans. Polling indicates most rank-and-file Americans support an increase from the current rate of $7.25 per hour.

Who’s opposed to it? As my late mother would say, I’ll give you three guesses — but the first two don’t count.

It’s the tea party cabal within the Republican Party congressional caucus, the individuals who have whipsawed Boehner and other establishment Republicans into backing much of their agenda.

Boehner isn’t likely to allow a vote to increase the minimum wage because he’s been buffaloed.

Therein lies the question of leadership. Is the speaker the Man of the House or isn’t he?

As speaker, he isn’t beholden just to a minority within his own caucus. He ought to be looking out for the interests of the entire body, all 435 members — and that includes Democrats as well as Republicans.

I’m not necessarily arguing here for a “clean” minimum wage bill, one that doesn’t have some sweeteners, such as spending cuts or tax breaks. Indeed, White House brass and congressional Democrats ought to be stop digging in their heels by insisting on a clean bill.

What’s more, economic data differ on whether a minimum wage increase is going to cause mass layoffs because employers cannot afford to pay employee wages.

I do know, though, that families cannot rely on minimum-wage income to sustain themselves. They need a boost.

So, Mr. Speaker, allow a vote. It won’t kill you.

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That was some ‘apology,’ Ted

Ted “The Motor City Madman” Nugent issued the kind of so-called “apology” a lot of us figured he would.

Which is to say he didn’t apologize to the target of some amazingly hateful remarks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/ted-nugent-apology_n_4832012.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013

Nugent had called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” Today he went on a radio talk show and said he was sorry for using that terminology on the president.

But he put it this way: “I do apologize — not necessarily to the president — but on behalf of much better men than myself,” Nugent said, calling the comments “streetfighter terminology.”

I’ve been spending a little bit of time trying to parse those remarks. It seems now that he’s saying “sorry” to others who have criticized the president, only using more dignified language than that which flies out Nugent’s mouth.

So, there you have it.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called on Nugent to apologize. Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, said he had “a problem” with Nugent’s remarks. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has enlisted Nugent to appear with him in his campaign for governor, so far hasn’t said anything about the remarks Nugent made a month ago.

And they get a non-apologetic apology.

This is the kind of fare we can expect, apparently, from The Madman.

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Would Texas be next to split?

A California venture capitalist has just received permission to start gathering signatures to petition his state to split into six new states.

Can Texas be next?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/petition-to-split-california-into-six-states-gets-green-light/

California is too big to govern, say supporters of the movement to split the state up. So they intend to gather about 800,000 signatures to put the issue on the state ballot. My guess right at this moment is that it wouldn’t pass, but that’s just me.

All this hoo-hah in California reminds me of the constant grumbling here in Texas to split the Lone Star State into five states. Depending on who you ask, the state has the political authority to do so under the terms of its joining the Union in 1845. I haven’t studied the issue carefully enough to comment intelligently on what the state can or cannot do.

Back in 1991, a freshman state representative from Dumas, David Swinford, proposed breaking the Panhandle off from the rest of the state. I learned about it from my perch way down yonder in Beaumont. My initial thought was, “That is just plain nuts.”

Then I moved here in 1995 and when I got the chance I asked Swinford about his idea. He was only half-joking, he told me. He was concerned that Austin didn’t care enough about the Panhandle’s affairs. Besides — and this is hilarious — Swinford said he was unhappy that the official state map didn’t include the Panhandle on the same page as the rest of the state; you have to turn the map over to look for locations within the Panhandle.

The California saga will play out in due course. I rather doubt the state really is too big to govern effectively. And do you think the U.S. Senate will be able to grow by 10 new members if the state adds five more political subdivisions?

Consider, too, that California is heavily Democratic. Do you really think congressional Republicans are going to allow the Senate to add more Democrats to the Senate?

And we haven’t even talked yet about the House of Representatives.

Stay tuned to see how this most interesting political drama ends.

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Memo to China: Butt out!

China has told President Obama that he should forgo a meeting today with the Dalai Lama, saying such a meeting with the spiritual leader would “impair” U.S.-China relations.

Hmmm. I think the president should ignore the Chinese.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/world/asia/china-us-dalai-lama/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

China has been subjugating the Tibetans for decades. The Dalai Lama represents Tibetans’ hopes for a free society. The People’s Republic believes the Dalai Lama is a “traitor” to the cause of whatever control the PRC wants to exert on the Tibetans.

Perhaps the president can remind the Chinese government that as the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, he is free to meet with whomever he wishes. And, perhaps, he can turn the tables on the Chinese despots by reminding them of their reaction to demands that they stop the repression Tibet and that they cease trying to bully Taiwan into coming back into the Chinese fold.

What do the Chinese say to these demands? These are internal matters and that the world should mind its own business. Never mind, of course, that Taiwan has flourished as an independent nation since its government were chased off the mainland by communists who fought with Nationalist forces in a bloody civil war.

Have your meeting with the Dalai Lama, Mr. President.

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Being gay isn’t a lifestyle choice

Arizona’s state Senate has approved a bill that allows people to use their religion to deny services to gay people.

Just the other day, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was asked whether he thought gay marriage posed a threat to heterosexual marriage. He expressed concern about that so-called potential threat.

And throughout the nation, all these discussions seem to rely on the assumption that homosexuality is a decision that people make.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/19/ariz-senate-oks-bill-boosting-service-refusal-based-on-religion/

It’s as if they awaken one day and decide: “I think I’m going to ‘become’ gay and start being attracted to people of my own gender.” Were that the case, wouldn’t it follow that straight people would make the same conscious decision?

In the interest of disclosure, I now will stipulate that at no time in my life did I ever decide to date girls. My attraction to people of the opposite sex was wired into my DNA the moment I was born, or so I always have assumed. I accepted the notion long ago that others are wired differently, and that their DNA wiring resulted in an attraction of a different kind.

I want to tell you a brief version of a long and moving story involving a friend and former colleague of mine.

His name was Tim. We worked together for several years at a newspaper in Beaumont. In the late 1980s, Tim’s appearance began to change. He was losing weight and his skin color was looking a bit pallid, but he kept working as an education reporter for the newspaper. Then, in 1988, my phone rang at home; it was a Sunday afternoon. Tim called and asked to meet with me at the newspaper. He had something he wanted to tell me.

I drove downtown and Tim and I met privately in my office.

He disclosed at that moment that he had contracted AIDS. He wanted my advice on how he should disclose that news to others. We talked about him writing an essay for the paper. He agreed to do it. He asked, “You know, of course, that I’m gay, right?” I didn’t know how to answer him. I said that I didn’t know it because we never discussed it. I, along with our other colleagues, only assumed it.

We published Tim’s essay. The response was overwhelming in the kindness expressed by those who read it. And from that moment in my office, when he revealed his medical condition, our conversational candor changed dramatically. We talked about private matters.

Tim said something later that stuck with me. “Why would I choose a lifestyle knowing I would be scorned and ridiculed?” he asked, rhetorically. That was his way of saying he was born gay and that there was nothing he could do to change that part of his life.

Tim died in 1994 of AIDS-related complications.

And I think of him often these days when current discussions turn to issues of whether gay marriage would have an adverse effect on the more traditional version of marriage and of laws lawmakers approve that give people the right to discriminate openly against people simply because of who they are.

The Arizona Senate has dishonored itself with its cold-hearted measure by allowing people to scorn others because of who they love.