Monthly Archives: October 2015

local news, political news

How does ‘Speaker Thornberry’ sound?

mac

Mac Thornberry’s name popped into my noggin today around noon when I heard that Kevin McCarthy had dropped out of the race to become the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Then I got onto other matters.

Now it turns out that at least one blogger, writing for a major American newspaper, thinks Thornberry would be a good fit as the Man of the House.

Tod Robberson’s blog for the Dallas Morning News seeks to make the case that Thornberry, a Clarendon Republican who’s represented the 13th Congressional District since 1995, might be the man to (a) heal the fractious House GOP caucus and (b) work with President Obama on some of the key issues that need to be resolved.

I happen to like Thornberry on a personal level. We’ve always had a good professional relationship as well. He and I have something in common: We assumed our new Texas Panhandle duties on the same week; I came to work at the Amarillo Globe-News in January 1995 just as Thornberry was taking his oath of office in Washington.

That’s about all we have in common — except that we belong to the same Presbyterian church congregation in Amarillo. But, hey, I thought I’d mention it.

I don’t really buy into the notion that Thornberry even wants to be speaker. He’s never struck me as a media frontrunner, which is what the speaker must be if he or she is to be an effective congressional leader.

Thornberry had long aspired to chair the House Armed Services Committee, which would take yank him off the back bench and into the limelight. He became chairman this year when Buck McKeon retired from the House.

Prior to becoming chairman of the committee, though, Thornberry was one of those lawmakers few folks outside of his West and North Texas district ever saw.

My strong sense is that Thornberry — who is a strong conservative and loyal Republican — simply isn’t wired for the harsh, bright lights that shine on the individual who is third in line to become president of the United States.

However, in this wild and crazy political time in Washington, anything can happen.

Anything!

State news

Hideous coincidence follows campus-carry law

UT-Tower3

On Aug. 1, 2016, Texas is going to mark two important events.

One of them will be when the state law allowing anyone to carry a weapon onto college and university campuses takes effect.

I dislike the new law, although I am not vehemently opposed to it. The campus carry law gives me the heebie-jeebies, given the outbreak of violence that occurs on campuses throughout the country.

Now, for the next event.

Next Aug. 1 marks the 50th year since Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the Texas Tower on the University of Texas-Austin campus and opened fire with his high-powered rifle, killing 16 people before being gunned down by police.

The campus-carry law takes effect on the very same day that Texas will mark what’s been called commonly as the first such tragic incident of its kind in the nation.

Tower shooting

Erica Greider, writing a blog for Texas Monthly, poses this thought: “This is just a comically lurid coincidence that led me to ask myself whether the Lege should lose its lawmaking privileges, and probably raises more substantive questions for many of you.”

Could the Texas Legislature have picked a more ghastly date for this law to take effect? I think not.

***

On a side note, one of my sisters recently expressed her dismay over the use of the term “anniversary” to remember events such as these. The term, she said, ought to be reserved for occasions that recall joy and happiness.

This date ain’t an “anniversary.”

national news, political news

Does anyone want the speaker’s job?

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., talks about the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, part of the House GOP energy agenda, Wednesday, June 6,2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

When a politician becomes the butt of late-night comics’ jokes, well, that quite often spells the end of his of political ambition.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy had the bad form to suggest that the House Benghazi committee was formed — in effect — to torpedo Hillary Clinton’s chances of becoming president. He then followed that with a string of nonsensical statements about the former secretary of state’s tenure.

The joke machine was then turned on … full blast.

Today, McCarthy said he is dropping out of the race to become the next speaker of the House; John Boehner wants to leave Congress and the speakership at the end of the month.

It now looks as though he’s going to stay on a while longer.

Why? Because, his Republican Party leadership team is in shambles.

McCarthy bows out

Some of us out here are utterly dumbstruck by what’s happened back in our nation’s capital.

McCarthy had a fight on his hands to become speaker. Two TEA Party insurgents, Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Daniel Webster of Virginia, were running against him for speaker.

It’s true that McCarthy didn’t help himself when he made the statement about the Benghazi committee’s mission. In truth, he merely muttered what many of us out here beyond the Beltway believed all along, which is that the GOP formed the panel precisely to undercut Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Boehner, McCarthy, Benghazi panel chairman Trey Gowdy all deny that is their intent.

Uh, huh. Whatever you say, gentlemen.

Meantime, the lower congressional chamber is looking for a new Man of the House.

Does anyone want this job? Can anyone do the job?

national news, political news

Husband ‘doesn’t read’; watches Fox News

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 16: Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich testifies before the Joint Economic Committee January 16, 2014 in Washington, DC. Reich joined a panel testifying on the topic of "Income Inequality in the United States.Ó (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

This item just showed up on my Facebook news feed.

It comes from former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. I believe this actually happened. I wish it hadn’t. I’ll just share it here.

***

Just now in the St. Louis airport (where I’m heading to Cincinnati):

Lady: Are you Robert Reich?

Me: Yes.

Lady: So what do you think is going to happen?

Me: About what?

Lady: The election, the economy, everything.

Me: I don’t know.

Lady: I’m voting for Bernie (Sanders).

Me: Why?

Lady: He tells it straight. He’s not a politician. But my husband likes (Donald) Trump.

Me: Why?

Lady: Same reasons. My husband says Trump can’t be bought because he’s a billionaire.

Me: Trump just buys other politicians.

Lady: My husband says Trump will get things done.

Me: But will he get things done for billionaires like himself or for regular people?

Lady: I’ll ask my husband.

Me: You should give your husband my new book.

Lady: What book?

Me (pulling a copy out of my briefcase): “Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the few.” Here, you can have this copy. I have more.

Lady (taking book): Well, thank you. I’ll give it to him, (laughing) but he won’t read it.

Me: Why?

Lady: He doesn’t read. He watches Fox News.

Me: Put it on his pillow tonight with a Hershey kiss on top.

Uncategorized

This apology was needed, Mr. President

afghan hosp

War can be a tragically imprecise endeavor.

Mistakes happen and when they do the consequences can be dire in the extreme. Such was the case when an AC-130 gunship strafed and bombed a building that turned out to be a hospital in Afghanistan run by the medical organization Doctors Without Borders.

Several patients and staff members died.

What was President Obama’s reaction? After some hesitation initially, he has apologized to Doctors Without Borders. Of course, as the New York Times reported, the president’s apology possibly could draw some of the criticism from those who have ridiculed him during his entire time in office for being an “apologist in chief.”

This time, though, there should be none of that sniping.

Hospital bombed

It’s not the first time that a commander in chief has issued an apology for actions that occur on the field of battle. The Times points out that President Bush did so in 2004 in response to treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Iraq.

There once was a time, before the era of precision ordnance, that military powers didn’t feel the need to apologize for killing innocent civilians. The Allies deployed air power without such regard in Europe and over Japan during World War II. In the years since, though, we’ve come to expect much greater accuracy and an insistence that our forces take aim only at military targets.

Doctors Without Borders insists on an independent investigation into what happened in this instance. I’m OK with that, too. In its grief over the loss of life, DWB called the attack a “war crime.”

President Obama said the attack was a mistake. He has apologized on behalf of the huge military apparatus he commands.

Let’s get to the truth before leveling accusations.

 

local news

Positive message goes out on MPEV

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Paul Matney is a positive man.

He spent his lengthy and distinguished public life telling the community that our glass was half full, not half empty. I’m sure he’s said a negative thing a time or two — or maybe three. In public, though, he offers a serene sense of optimism.

Taking the high ground

A group that Matney chairs has begun airing a 30-second spot on TV and on social media extolling the virtues of the proposed $32 million multipurpose event venue — which includes a ballpark — that Amarillo voters will decide on Nov. 3.

I’ve heard Matney say — again in public — that Vote FOR Amarillo will not resort to negative campaigning to sell the MPEV to the skeptics out there.

I believe he intends to be faithful to that pledge.

My hope is that the other side can do the same, although realistically it is impossible to argue against something without saying something negative about it.

I heard Matney over the course of many years stand before audiences and sing the praises of the educational institution he led. Amarillo College has enjoyed a remarkably high public standing in Amarillo while other public institutions — Amarillo City Hall, Randall and Potter counties, even the Amarillo public school system — occasionally have taken broadsides from constituents who are disaffected at some level.

Matney, of course, doesn’t deserve all the credit for AC’s high standing.

Look, I’m not a Pollyanna. I get that politics can be tough. It can get negative. The late U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen called politics a “contact sport.”

I do hope, though, that the MPEV campaign that’s unfolding doesn’t drive a huge wedge between disparate community elements.  I am heartened to see that one side of that campaign has pledged to take the high ground.

If the other side is destined to go negative, then my hope is that they do so with honesty and integrity … and with an absence of demagoguery.

 

national news, political news

RFK spoke of gun control … in Roseburg!

RFK's last speech

This story freaked me out when it became known.

The late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — who had some intimate knowledge of gun violence — made some remarks on May 27, 1968. His topic? Gun control.

RFK was responding to a sign in the crowd about the right to “keep and bear arms.”

He said: “With all the violence and murder and killings we’ve had in the United States, I think you will agree that we must keep firearms from people who have no business with guns or rifles.”

Sen. Kennedy was not advocating disarming Americans. He wasn’t calling for the feds to take people’s firearms away. He was speaking as one whose own brother, President John F. Kennedy, was killed by a man with a rifle in Dallas less than five years earlier.

The place where he made the remarks is in the news again. He spoke in Roseburg, Ore., as he campaigned for the presidency of the United States. Today, Roseburg is reeling from the shock of the massacre at Umpqua Community College by a maniac who then killed himself.

Late the next day — it was nearly midnight, as I recall — RFK pulled into a Portland restaurant next door to where I was working. I ran across the parking lot, extended a piece of paper and a pen to the senator and asked him for his autograph.

He signed the paper, “RF Kennedy,” and then went inside.

The next day, Oregon primary voters delivered him a stunning defeat when they cast most of their Democratic Party votes for Sen. Gene McCarthy.

RFK trudged off to California, won that state’s primary the next week — and then was murdered by Sirhan B. Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

 

 

national news

How can they live with themselves?

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Lindsey Graham’s home state of South Carolina is in dire peril in the wake of record-setting floods.

The U.S. senator wants the federal government to assist his constituents in helping them recover from the tragedy … as he should.

Graham, a Republican candidate for president, wasn’t so generous when it came to providing aid to help Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey. He voted against that request.

Graham voted no on Sandy

He’s not alone.

Remember that tornado that tore through Joplin, Mo., in 2011? Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Congress needed to cut money from other agencies to pay for the relief effort.

Tom Cotton was a Republican House member from Arkansas when the Sandy relief package came to a vote. He voted “no,” declaring that Arkansas shouldn’t have to bail out a Northeast state.

This kind of duplicitous thinking is common in Congress.

As for Graham, he’s just the latest in a long and infamous line of politicians who demand help for their own constituents while giving other Americans the back of their hand.

 

national news, political news

President serving role as ‘comforter in chief’

4 Comments

roseburg

Presidents of the United States have a number of unwritten roles in their job description.

The current president, Barack H. Obama, is going to perform one of them Friday when he stops in Roseburg, Ore., to throw his arms around a community shattered by an unspeakable tragedy.

However, at least one of his critics, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, thinks such a task is too political and that Americans are “sick and tired” of politicians who “politicize everything.”

Give me a break.

Dr. Carson is wrong, period.

Roseburg was stunned by the deaths of nine people at Umpqua Community College by a gunman who then took his own life. It was yet another case of gun violence that resulted in the massacre of innocent victims. Is the president enraged by what happened? Of course he is … as I’m sure Dr. Carson is angered as well.

But this task of offering comfort to the stricken is part of the job description that the president inherits whenever he takes the oath of office.

Presidents of both parties have been called upon to perform the task of comforter in chief. However, Carson told “Fox and Friends” today: “When do we get to the point where we have people who actually want to solve our problems rather than just politicize everything? I think that’s what the American people are so sick and tired of.”

Well, as the president said the other day in the wake of the Roseburg massacre, if a tragedy calls out for a political solution, then so be it.

 

 

Sports news

What if the Cubs win the Series?

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Baseball fans everywhere — and I include myself in that category of Americans — have taken note that the Chicago Cubs are going to participate in Major League Baseball’s playoffs.

Eventually, they’ll get down to two teams — one from the National League and one from the American League.

I guess there’s a fascination with the Cubs’ chances of making it to the Big Show.

I’m not a big Cubs fan. Indeed, it seems that whenever the Cubs get close to taking part in the World Series, their fan base seems to grow by many times. Baseball fans who didn’t care a bit about the Cubs then start rooting for them.

Why is that? Well, it’s been 70 years since the Cubs last played in the World Series; they lost the Series in 1945 to the Detroit Tigers.

Moreover, it’s been 117 since the Cubs won the World Series; they beat those Detroit Tigers in 1908. It’s the longest-lasting frustration streak in the history of professional sports, I reckon.

I believe it was a Cubs follower who coined the phrase “Wait’ll next year” because of the Cubs’ inability to win, let alone win the World Series.

I fear what might happen if the Cubs actually win the 2015 World Series. Hell will freeze over, Earth will spin off its axis, the sun will rise in the West and Martians will actually land at Area 51.

If only Mr. Cub, the great Ernie Banks, could be around to see it.