Monthly Archives: February 2014

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Do as we say, not as we do

What a revoltin’ development!

It turns out that five men seeking to become Texas’s next agriculture commissioner all are highly critical of federal “intrusion” into state affairs, all the while taking money from those dreaded feds in the form of farm subsidies.

Who knew?

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/14/farm-subisides-go-anti-federal-govt-candidiates/

The Texas Tribune reports that the five Republican ag commissioner candidates received $1.3 million in payments from the feds during the past 20 years.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

President Obama recently signed the new farm bill into law, which reduces aid for food stamp recipients by $8 billion. Two of the GOP candidates, Sid Miller and Eric Opiela, said the food stamps cuts didn’t go far enough, according to the Tribune.

Miller told the Tribune that he favors “good legislation, not expedient legislation,” and that the farm bill fails the “good” standard.

He and several other candidates said they would have voted against the farm bill. I wonder.

A fellow with some farm and legislative experience of his own, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, sees it differently. “I’ve had this request made to me many times. Farmers say, ‘Charlie, just separate the farm portion from the food stamp portion.’ I say, great, we’ll have no farm bill,” Stenholm told the Tribune.

The salient point, though, is that these individuals seeking to run the Texas Department of Agriculture are talking a good game but are playing a different one. I am fully aware that politicians of all stripes do one thing and say another. Hypocrisy doesn’t adhere to a political monopoly.

However, if you’re going to campaign on a pledge to keep the federal government out of the state’s business, shouldn’t you at least have the courage to reject the feds’ money when they seek to fatten your own bank account?

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‘There isn’t a Republican Party’

Vice President Joe Biden occasionally gets mocked and ridiculed because he tends to say some off-the-wall things.

This link contains a curious truth about the state of a once-great Republican Party.

http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/biden-republican-party

It is that, as Biden noted, the Republican Party has morphed into perhaps three sub-parties.

If you watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech and then listened intently to the so-called “Republican response” to it, you heard three responses.

One came from a Washington state member of Congress, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, speaking for the “mainstream” or “establishment” wing of the party; another came from a senator, Mike Lee of Utah, who spoke for the tea party wing of the GOP; then came the response from Rand Paul of Kentucky who spoke for, well, the Rand Paul wing of the Republican Party.

The budget deal that was worked out by the Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., divided the party along two fissures.

Then this week we saw Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, force fellow Republicans to cast a vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling without strings, which he did to embarrass members of his own party — and in the process he incurred the wrath of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s facing a tough primary challenge from the tea party wing at home.

The vice president said, “I wish there was a Republican Party. I wish there was one person who would sit across the table from us, make a deal, make a compromise, and know when you got up from that table, it was done.”

He added, “All you had to do is look at the response to the State of the Union. What were there, three or four?”

A Texas Panhandle Republican, the late state Sen. Teel Bivins, used to lament how Republicans occasionally would “eat their young.”

Bon appetit, GOP.

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We’ve got your drought right here, Mr. President

Dear Mr. President:

I see that you and your team are visiting California to talk up a drought-relief package for regions ravaged by the lack of rainfall.

That’s a good thing. But let me offer this invitation: Come see us in West Texas too.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/198393-obama-to-launch-administration-wide-drought-response

I know what you might be thinking: They despise me in that part of the country.

Let’s agree that you didn’t poll too well here in the past two presidential elections, but you are the president of all the United States of America and that includes Texas — and that includes the western region of this big state.

The California drought is serious and is cause for huge concern. I get that the Golden State is the most populous of them all and that the central part of California is known as America’s Food Basket.

Texans, too, produce a lot of grain and beef. Some of the grain farmers rely exclusively on rainfall, which hasn’t been falling here the past couple of years. Much of the grain they grow feeds cattle. So, as you understand, with no grain to feed the cattle, ranchers have to sell their livestock that are under weight, producing less income for them.

I hope you can find time in your schedule to come here to see for yourself how the drought is hurting this region of the country just as much as it is hurting the folks in California.

I’ll concede that there some folks here won’t welcome you with open arms. However, we likely won’t bite.

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Kerry cannot possibly be an anti-Semite

An interesting development has emerged in Secretary of State John Kerry’s difficult struggle to find peace in the Middle East.

It turns out that the angry charges leveled at him by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet members — that Kerry’s promoting “anti-Semitic” notions — cannot possibly be true. Kerry’s family name originally was Kohn and that Kerry’s family has Jewish origins.

Grandpa Kerry/Kohn changed his name and his religion, from Jewish to Catholic, which John Kerry learned shortly before announcing his presidential candidacy in 2003.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kerrys-brother-johns-not-anti-semitic-were-jewish-n30576

In fact, Cameron Kerry — the secretary of state’s brother — is a practicing Jew to this day, having married a Jewish woman.

Israeli foreign ministry officials, of course, are quite sensitive to any comments they construe to be against their interests. John Kerry said recently that “The risks are very high for Israel” after meeting with Iranian officials about plans to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli officials took that to mean Israel needed to watch its step if it continued to threaten Iran with military action.

Naftali Bennett, an industry minister, said, “We expect of our friends in the world to stand by our side against the attempts to impose an anti-Semitic boycott on Israel, and not to be their mouthpiece.”

I understand fully the Israelis’ angst over negotiating with a country that has declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the planet. Let us take care, though, to avoid throwing around pejorative terms like “anti-Semitic” where it regards someone whose family roots run deep in the Holy Land.

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Reliving old scandal scars a familiar victim

Now that Rand Paul has dug up an old political scandal in an effort to score points in a possible pending new political campaign, it’s good to recall one of the principals in that long-ago event.

Monica Lewinsky was “that woman” with whom President Clinton said he “did not have sexual relations.”

She was a 20-something White House intern to whom the married president became attracted in the late 1990s. He fooled around with her. A special prosecutor who had been assigned to cover another story — the Whitewater real estate investment matter — stumbled upon reports of indiscretion. The president was forced to testify before a federal grand jury and then he lied under oath about what he did with the young woman.

The House of Representatives impeached him for it. The Senate tried him, but he was acquitted.

Sen. Paul may seek the Republican presidential nomination in two years and now he is suggesting that possible Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton — the wife of the former president — isn’t trustworthy because she’s married to a “sexual predator.”

But what about Lewinsky?

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/monica-lewinsky-reconsidered-103513.html?hp=t1#.Uv4Hc1KYat8

She’s been leading a fairly private life since those bad ol’ days. Few of us out here have heard or seen a thing about her. I don’t even know how she’s making a living these days.

Frankly, I had hoped never to see her face again. It looks as though those hopes have been dashed now that Rand Paul has dredged that sordid story from the trash heap.

What’s more, I feel a kind of sympathy for her now that she’s about to be dragged through the media arena once again. Maybe she just wants to be left alone. Perhaps she has turned the page on that hideous chapter in her life and her infamous activities that led to the second presidential impeachment in U.S. history.

Surely she cannot welcome this kind of attention yet again. Can she?

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UAW gets the shaft from Tennessee pol

A Tennessee politician — a self-proclaimed pro-business conservative — is doing something that simply boggles the mind.

He is trying to use government muscle to coerce a major automaker from allowing its workers to unionize.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/12/sen-bob-corker-cant-stand-the-united-auto-workers-an-annotated-interview/

The politician is U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican and a former mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn. The automaker is Volkswagen, which years ago built a huge auto assembly plant in that fine city. The United Auto Workers is now trying to get a toehold in the plant by unionizing its 1,500 employees. The company says it won’t fight the idea. The autoworkers appear ready to join the UAW.

A business is entitled to conduct its affairs as it sees fit, according to many conservative Republicans. Except, apparently, when it involves the introduction of unions that historically have favored Democratic politicians.

So, enter Sen. Corker, the aforementioned pro-business conservative. He doesn’t want the UAW involved. To make his point, Corker is threatening to deny Volkswagen tax incentives that go normally to businesses seeking to expand. The threat is meant to dissuade the employees from voting to join the union.

What gives here? Is Corker a true conservative or has he become a closet — dare I say it — socialist who believes in government interference in private businesses’ affairs? Which is it, senator?

This interference is unconscionable.

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Gov. Martinez says ‘no’ to CPAC

If you get way up on your tippy-toes, you almost can see New Mexico from Amarillo.

Which makes me wish I could feel the angst among Republican conservatives in the eastern part of that state over news that GOP Gov. Susana Martinez — contrary to earlier reports — is skipping next month’s Conservative Political Action Confernce meeting in Maryland.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/02/13/susana_martinez_will_not_attend_cpac_121579.html

Martinez is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016. CPAC had announced she would make a major speech at the convention. Today, Martinez said it would happen.

Tea party conservatives and other right-wingers had hoped Martinez would be a presence there, burnishing their image among the party’s more, um, ideological members.

This is a big loss for CPAC. Martinez is considered a big Republican star, being the first Hispanic Republican governor in the country. Indeed, the party still has work to do to improve its image among Hispanic voters, who turned out in huge numbers in 2012 for President Obama.

The GOP had considered Martinez’s participation at CPAC as a potentially major event. She gave a rousing speech at the 2012 Republican convention, whetting the appetites of those who want to hear more from her.

CPAC will not lack for bomb-throwers: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum all are among the speakers scheduled for the event.

They’ll all spew enough nonsense so that no one will miss Gov. Martinez.

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Jeter has joined ranks of all-time Yankee greats

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

Those four men, in order, became the respective faces of the New York Yankees, without question the most storied franchise in Major League Baseball and arguably the most storied, revered and hated franchise in all of professional sports.

Let’s add another name that list of all-timers: Derek Jeter.

Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop for the past two decades, has announced he will retire at the end of the upcoming season.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/67703036/derek-jeter-new-york-yankees-announces-retirement-in-2014

He’s going out on top, on his terms, with his head held high and proud and with his standing intact as one of the game’s greatest players.

Think about the four men whose ranks he’s already joined. Ruth didn’t play his entire career in New York; he started out as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, had his greatest years as a Yankee, then was traded to the Boston Braves. Still, does anyone doubt he belongs as the charter member of the Yankee pantheon? Hardly. Gehrig played his entire career with the Yankees, alongside both Ruth and DiMaggio, who came along near the end of the Iron Horse’s stellar career. DiMaggio fashioned his own standing among the Yankee greats over 15 seasons. Then came the Mick — the guy I grew up watching. He was star-crossed, injury-riddled, but still managed a career that would be the envy of virtually every player who’s ever suited up.

Derek Jeter’s career numbers already reflect stratospheric status in hits, games played, at-bats, runs scored.

And he did it all with class and grace, becoming the Yankees’ captain and the go-to guy in the clubhouse.

Pretenders would come along to become the next great Yankee hitter, only to fall short. Alex Rodriguez, the disgraced third baseman who’s going to sit out the 2014 season as punishment for his use of performance enhancing drugs, has more home runs over his career. He’s now been sent to the sidelines, possibly never to return to the game. Let’s not forget that relief pitching ace Mariano Rivera retired at the end of the 2013 season and he, just like Jeter, is headed for the Hall of Fame.

All that said, Jeter will get to take the bows on his own, without the shadow of his cheating teammate — A-Rod — looming in the background.

That, too, is as it should be.

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Yes, Mr. Justice, racism is a serious problem

Someone, somewhere, somehow must tell Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to stop looking at the world through his own narrow prism.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s essay takes the justice to task over some remarks he made about what he described as an undeserved fixation about race in America.

Thomas, of course, is the second African-American picked to serve on the nation’s highest court. President George H.W. Bush appointed him in 1991 after the first black justice, Thurgood Marshall, retired from the bench. President Bush called Thomas “the most qualified man” in the country to take the seat, which has turned out to be more than a bit of an overstatement.

Thomas’s road to the court was strewn with obstacles. He faced charges of sexual harassment that surfaced many years after the alleged incidents occurred — and during his confirmation hearings before the Senate.

Do you remember his reference to the “high-tech lynching” he said was occurring in an effort to scuttle his nomination?

He now has said that growing up in Savannah, Ga., he didn’t feel racism and asserts, astoundingly, that it somehow wasn’t a problem in the South.

Umm, yes it was, sir.

Here is what he told a university audience on Tuesday:

“My sadness is that we are probably today more race- and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Ga., to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up.

“Now, name a day it doesn’t come up. Differences in race, differences in sex, somebody doesn’t look at you right, somebody says something. Everybody is sensitive. If I had been as sensitive as that in the 1960s, I’d still be in Savannah. Every person in this room has endured a slight. Every person. Somebody has said something that has hurt their feelings or did something to them — left them out.”

Then he said this: “The worst I have been treated was by northern liberal elites. The absolute worst I have ever been treated.”

That all might have been true in young Clarence’s case. Who am I to dispute someone else’s personal recollection?

That doesn’t translate to others’ experiences. Many millions of African-Americans have endured so much hatred and bigotry on the basis of their race that it defies my imagination to believe that one prominent black American could be so dismissive of the pain brought to so many others.

As Blow asks in his column, Thomas either suffers from serious amnesia or is “contemporaneously oblivious.”

The one justice who never speaks during oral arguments before the Supreme Court has spoken out now. He’s said a mouthful.

Unbelievable.

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Right-wing media go fishing for anti-Obama grist

It long has been clear that the right-wing mainstream media cannot find enough material with which to batter their foes in the White House.

This item came to light this afternoon on the Fox News Channel.

Fox News talking heads were critical of — get this — the calorie count of the meal served at the White House state dinner that President and Mrs. Obama hosted in honor of visiting French President Francois Hollande.

They were yapping that the meal contained 2,500 calories. I didn’t hear precisely what they served at the White House, but I’m quite sure it was mighty sumptuous.

Why target the meal?

Well, first lady Michelle Obama has taken up the cause of healthy eating. She’s counseled parents about how to serve healthier food to their children, campaigned for schools to quit serving carbonated soda and fatty food and encouraged other institutions to dispense with “junk food” in favor of fruit and vegetables.

The Obamas’ critics on the right, of course, have accused the first lady of seeking to make it “illegal” to serve fatty food, which she has not done.

Then the White House chef turns out some gaudy meal for the Obamas to serve at the White House, which according to the right-wing mainstream media amounts to evidence of hypocrisy.

Allow me to add that the president noted in his State of the Union speech recently that his wife’s campaign to fight childhood obesity is working. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an actual decline in the number of obese children since 2009.

So, let the first couple indulge a little for a visiting head of state.

They can get back on their own healthy-eating routine tomorrow.