Monthly Archives: May 2015

national news, political news

Dr. Carson: I wouldn't have invaded Iraq

There you have it.

The growing field of Republican presidential candidates is being sprinkled with individuals who actually are breaking with a key policy of the most recent GOP president.

Dr. Ben Carson said this week he would not have “gone into Iraq.” He said the United States could have employed other means to get rid of the late Saddam Hussein. He said the nation lacked a clear long-term strategy once Saddam had been toppled.

Carson says Iraq invasion was a mistake

“When you go into a situation with so many factions and such a complex history, unless you know what you’re doing or have a long-term strategy, it just creates more problems,” Carson told The Hill in a telephone interview.

He becomes the second major Republican figure to put daylight between himself and former President George W. Bush. The other one, more or less, was the former president’s younger brother, Jeb, who took a more awkward approach to trying to take back what he said initially in a clumsy response to a TV reporter’s direct question.

There well might be others GOP candidates who will realize the folly of going to war on what is now known to have been faulty intelligence regarding Iraq’s supposed possession of chemical weapons.

The Iraq War was a mistake. It’s good to hear Dr. Carson acknowledge as much.

I’m now waiting for former Vice President Dick Cheney — who’s been blasting Democratic officials’ criticism of the war — to weigh in against his fellow Republicans.

Well, Mr. Vice President?

 

International news

Bin Laden's death foiled huge plot against U.S.

What’s this? You mean Osama bin Laden was planning another spectacular terror attack on the United States before those SEALs blew him away in May 2011?

That might be the least surprising news to come out of the declassification and release of information from documents seized from the scene of bin Laden’s death.

It’s welcome news to know the order to kill bin Laden saved potentially more American lives.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bin-laden-bent-on-spectacular-us-attack-until-the-end-files/ar-BBk06oq

According to AFP: “Documents that were declassified on Wednesday shed new light on the mindset of Al-Qaeda’s founder, his debates over tactics, his anxiety over Western spying and his fixation with the group’s media image. ‘The focus should be on killing and fighting the American people and their representatives,’ the late Al-Qaeda figurehead wrote.”

So, he wanted to keep taking the fight to the United States.

What his followers should understand — but likely won’t ever get — is that attacks such as what occurred on 9/11 only steel Americans’ resolve. Yes, our nation was wounded seriously by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But it took a mere nanosecond in time for us to collect our emotions and set about the task of taking the fight straight to the terrorists who fired the first shots.

This might be a war without end. Most folks now understand that as well. Will we ever be able to kill or capture every terrorist in the world who seeks to do us harm? It’s highly unlikely.

Bin Laden and his minions only awakened us.

 

 

State news

Say 'no' to 'Tim Tebow Bill'

Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy while playing quarterback at the University of Florida.

His pro football career has been something, well, less than stellar. Still, he remains an icon for his off-the-field endeavors, mainly due to his faith and, get this, because he was home-schooled during his high school years.

Tebow was allowed to take part in extracurricular activities in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., even though he didn’t attend school in the traditional sense.

Some Texas lawmakers want the University Interscholastic League to lift its ban on home-school students taking part in extracurricular activities.

Don’t to it, UIL and the Texas Legislature.

https://www.thsc.org/about-thsc/lobby-the-texas-legislature/tim-tebow-bill/

Parents are certainly entitled to educate their children the way they see fit. If they don’t want to enroll their kids in public or private school, they can teach them at home. Millions of students are taught at home as it is.

The idea, though, of allowing home-schooled children to take part in activities in actual schools shouldn’t sit well with the parents of children who are actual students in those schools.

The Texas Home School Coalition Association notes that parents who home-school their children pay property taxes that funds school activities and, thus, are entitled to have their children partake in them.

Is it fair, though, to allow parents to cherry-pick how they reap the benefits of the taxes they pay?

They don’t want their children educated by public school teachers, but insist that they be allowed to play football (as young Tim Tebow’s parents were allowed to do), march in the band, or perform in dramatic productions?

No. Those parents have made their choice on behalf of their children.

 

media news, political news

Clinton needs to do more of this: answer questions

Hillary Clinton has been keeping a low profile of late, steering clear of nosy reporters whose job is to inform the public about the men and women who seek to lead the powerful nation in the world.

But she relented — finally — to reporters’ curiosity about a number of issues that have dogged the presidential candidate of late.

She spent time answering questions, jousting on occasion.

There must be much more of this as Clinton’s campaign continues to develop.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/20/reporters_press_clinton_on_25m_speaker_fees_emails.html

Clinton’s Republican foes have chided her for her absence in front of reporters. They have needled her because she’s answered so few questions relating to private emails, her enormous speaking fees, her participation in the Clinton Foundation — all these matters that speak to a number of questions people have about the Democratic Party candidate.

It goes with the territory, which Clinton surely knows already.

She spent eight years as first lady, six years as a U.S. senator and four years as secretary of state. Every one of those posts requires accessibility for the media, which act as the agents for the public.

Alex Semindinger writes for RealClearPolitics: “The former secretary of state is a practiced communicator. Most of what she told the scrum of national media echoed what she’s said before. Nevertheless, her words ricocheted through social media and cable television in an instant, revisiting subjects she’s strained to bury.”

Clinton needs to toss the shovel aside and stop seeking to bury these issues. They’re out there and she needs to explain herself.

 

local news

Maybe those prayers have brought the rain

amarillo rain

A few years ago, just as the 2012 presidential campaign was getting under way, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry called on Texans to pray for rain.

The state’s drought was crippling farmers and ranchers. The prayer request drew some barbs from Perry foes. They thought it was silly and some said they thought Perry offered up a too-simple solution to a complex problem.

Well, churches around the state responded. Clergy offered prayers. Their congregants did as well.

Prayer is a difficult thing to quantify or to analyze in worldly terms. It depends on whether one believes in the power of prayer.

Farmers and ranchers certainly do. Indeed, when you earn your livelihood based on the whims of Mother Nature or the power of Almighty, then prayer is your best defense against the elements working against you.

Did the prayers work?

Well, Amarillo is experiencing one of its wettest months of May in recorded history. Its year-to-date precipitation levels are far greater than normal and even greater than that over what it was a year ago.

People have been photographed kayaking through flash-flood water. Fish have jumped out of playas. Storm drains haven’t been able to move the water quickly enough to avoid flooding along busy thoroughfares.

Are those simple requests for prayer responsible for our good fortune?

How does one prove they had no impact?

national news, Uncategorized

Rep. Hastings wants a raise … from 174 grand a year!

Roll Call has the right term for what U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings is demanding.

The newspaper calls the Florida Democrat “tone deaf.”

That’s likely going to be one of the more charitable descriptions the man with the checkered past is going to hear about his demand for a raise for members of Congress.

http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/hastings-members-of-congress-need-a-pay-raise/

House members and senators earn $174,000 annually. Hastings complains that the cost of living in the District of Columbia is too high and that lawmakers cannot afford to live there on their meager six-figure salary.

Hastings has lost touch with what most of us out here, beyond the Beltway, are enduring. Granted, the economy is in full recovery mode and lives are better for many millions of Americans. But in the eyes of us working stiffs, 174 grand a year to make laws is a pretty fair wage.

I should point out that lawmakers take extended breaks from the rigors of studying and voting on issues. They jet off to exotic locations on junkets, er, “fact-finding trips” to learn about pressing issues of the day.

Allow me to say this out loud and clearly: I do not feel one tiny bit of sympathy for the salary we taxpayers shell out for our members of Congress.

Furthermore, that someone such as Alcee Hastings would make this demand/request is even more galling. I call it that because before he was elected to Congress, Hastings had the bad form of being impeached and then removed from his post as a federal judge in Florida on allegations of corruption.

Now this man says he wants more money?  “We aren’t being paid properly,” Hastings said after a congressional hearing.

Maybe Hastings and his colleagues would deserve a raise if Congress demonstrated an ability to govern.

Maybe …

 

State news

Biker thugs' mugs getting shown

1 Comment

Do you recall in recent days the notion what some folks had suggested about the use of the term “thugs” to describe the looters and rioters in Baltimore?

They contended the term contained racist intent, given that the rioters were reacting to the death of a black man who was being arrested by police officers.

Well, it didn’t … at least as far as I am concerned.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/crime/article/Faces-of-Twin-Peaks-biker-shooting-in-Waco-begin-6271042.php

Check out the pictures of the thugs being identified in the wake of the Waco biker gang shootout. Thugs are thugs, no matter the color of their skin.

Yes, the bikers — all of whom are white guys — are every bit the thugs that the Baltimore looters are thugs.

Heck, the biker gang members likely are more thuggish than the rioters, if you consider that the biker gang members spend many of their waking hours committing acts of thuggery. Many of the looters in Baltimore might lead otherwise normal lives. Maybe their behavior was an anomaly. Their behavior was thuggish nevertheless.

Not these guys. The Bandidos, the Hell’s Angels, the Outsiders and a whole host of other gangs conduct themselves quite badly — all the time.

You didn’t see it here first. However, I’m happy to call these guys what they are — garden-variety thugs.

 

Uncategorized

Pleasant surprise surfaces in closet

Surprises, by definition, come unexpectedly.

So it was when my wife and I had our master bathroom remodeled recently.

The contractor installed a new shower stall, a new vanity, bathtub fixtures, tore off the wallpaper and painted the walls. We had to empty our closets and we slept for several nights in our guest bedroom.

The surprise?

Well, buried deep in my closet — yes, I still have a closet all to myself — was a raincoat that I received in August 1968. The U.S. Army gave me the “gift” upon my induction and arrival at Fort Lewis, Wash., for basic training.

I’ve kept it for nearly 47 years.

Well, this morning I put the coat on as I got ready to venture into the downpour that was flooding our streets and alleys and continuing to fill our playas.

The best surprise of all is that raincoat still fits!

It’s not the most stylish article of clothing you’ll ever see. After all, it is “OD in color,” olive drab. But the material is still water-resistant. It’s functional. Besides, my wife never has accused me of being a fashion-conscious clothes horse.

My next surprise will be to fit into some of those “skinny slacks” that have been hanging in there.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

 

local news

Let's guard against drought smugness

The latest downpour that drenched the Texas Panhandle this morning likely means a couple of things.

One: Our year-to-date precipitation total is more than double the normal amount at this time of the year. Normal is around 5 inches; I’m betting our total now exceeds 10 inches of precipitation for the year.

Two: Our total precipitation for this year is now about 10 times the amount of moisture that fell a year ago to date.

OK, here’s a third thing this abundant rain means: Our drought is far from being over.

I trust you understand that.

The drought we’ve endured on the Texas Tundra has been years in the making. It’s going to take years — and I mean several years — of abundant rain and snowfall to abate this drought.

What does it mean? It means we ought to still take care when watering our lawns and washing our vehicles.

I know we city folks cannot control how farmers irrigate their crops. Then again, they know better than we do about the value of the water that runs underground and are likely to ensure they have enough of it to keep irrigating their crops.

The rain is welcome. As always.

Let’s not get too smug, though, about the drought. It’s still with us.

media news

Welcome to the Twitter-verse, Mr. President

Barack Obama wanted, I guess, to show the world how hip he has become.

So he opened a Twitter account and tweeted a message out there.

What follows below is a small sample of the “welcome” responses received by the president of the United States of America, leader of the Free World and the most well-known and easily recognized individual on Planet Earth:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/05/18/welcome-to-twitter-ngger-righties-go-full-racist-potus-twitter-account-tweets/

Were there other messages like that? Oh, more than likely.

Racism lives on. Probably forever.

I won’t even summarize what’s contained in the messages shown on the link. Just seeing the operative word — let alone hearing it — makes me shudder.

Yes, the president did get some actual welcome messages. Indeed, as soon as I finish this brief post, I’m likely to send one myself.

But as the link notes, the president and his family are handling this display of hate: “If this doesn’t tell you that Barack Obama has handled the unprecedented disrespect and outright hatred directed at him from right-wing racists with the utmost grace and dignity, I don’t know what will.”