Monthly Archives: February 2017

local news, political news

That is some platform, Mayoral Candidate Nelson

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I have just examined the platform on which Ginger Nelson is running for Amarillo mayor.

Three words come to mind: W. O. W!

My sense is that Nelson either possesses the greatest memory known to humankind or she is going to keep this position paper with her 24/7 if she get elected on May 6.

The Amarillo lawyer has presented an impressive array of issues, policies and strategies to implement them.

She is focusing, quite naturally, on economic development. No surprise, given that she once served on the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation board and is invested heavily in some commercial property downtown.

She breaks down her platform into six essential planks: job creation and economic development; neighborhood safety; street and highway improvement; communication and participation; customer service; and fiscal responsibility.

At the surface level, it’s impossible to disagree with any of the policies she has targeted for enhancement and/or improvement. I mean, who doesn’t want more jobs, better streets, better communication, better customer service, safe neighborhoods and sound fiscal management?

To be honest, Nelson’s platform is the most detailed and expansive I’ve seen from any Amarillo mayoral candidate in the 22 years I’ve lived here. Most of that time — when I was working for a living — my job as a journalist was to keep tabs on what candidates for public office were pledging to do.

I noticed a holdover from one of Mayor Paul Harpole’s priorities: graffiti abatement. Harpole took aim at the defacing of private property by assorted juvenile delinquents or gang members. He claims progress in that effort and I’m glad to see Nelson pledging to continue that effort.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Nelson’s platform is that she’s pledging to do all this while earning virtually nothing to serve as mayor. The job pays a whopping $10 per public meeting; oh, yes, there are some assorted expense reimbursements along the way. But this is basically a volunteer job, a labor of love.

She’s talking about better outreach to the community, cutting red tape, business recruitment, working with local colleges and our university on various partnerships, making utility billing more efficient and — I presume — more accurate, working to improve emergency response times … and on it goes.

She has two opponents in this race for mayor. I’ve already declared my preference for who I think should succeed Harpole, who’s not running for re-election. It happens to be Nelson.

I will await the platforms to be crafted by candidates Renea Dauntes and Jim Lowder II. Dauntes told the Amarillo Globe-News she wants to “improve civic pride”; Lowder plans to deal with conflicts of interest. I am confident their full platform statements won’t be as detailed as the one Nelson has presented. But, hey, if they prove me wrong, I’ll welcome their contributions to the public discussion.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, that Nelson has gone into great detail, check it out here.

If Nelson becomes our next mayor — and I hope she does — I strongly suggest she keep the platform document handy.

legal news, local news

‘Bestiality problem’ in Amarillo? Who knew?

Here’s a community problem no one wants to talk about in polite company. To be candid, this issue sickens me to the core.

Amarillo officials are looking at a way to make bestiality illegal.

What, you say? You mean it’s OK for a human being to have sex with an animal? According to a report on NewsChannel 10, bestiality is not an illegal act in Texas, which is one of about a dozen states with no such law on the books.

Yeah, I think the city ought to enact such an ordinance. In a hurry!

If only the punishment could be harsh.

The city apparently is hindered by statute. According to NewsChannel 10: “Animal Management & Welfare has been working to create a city ordinance that would make bestiality in city limits a Class C Misdemeanor. That’s the highest charge the department can give, and would mean a citation and fine for offenders.”

Jumpin’ jiminy, man! Citation and a fine? That’s it?

Although bestiality per se is not illegal in Texas, someone can be charged with “animal abuse” that covers apparently other acts of cruelty against animals. A man is being held in Potter County’s Detention Center on an animal abuse charge.

More from NewsChannel 10: “‘If someone does an act to an animal that is sexual in nature, and in the event the animal is hurt during the course of that act and they fail to render vet care to it is when the crime actually occurs that we can prosecute that individual,’ said Richard Havens, Director of Amarillo Animal Management & Welfare.”

Let’s try something else. How about petitioning our state legislative delegation to draft a bill that makes this hideous behavior illegal throughout the state? Oh, and let’s also make sure our City Council approves an ordinance that would punish an offender to the extent that it can.

Good ever-lovin’ grief. I feel dirty just writing about this.

legal news

Witnessing some good in a trial courtroom

Trial courts aren’t usually the place where one finds warmth and happiness.

But we found it today and we were glad to have witnessed it.

Some friends of ours — a young couple — adopted a little boy this morning in a Randall County Court-at-Law courtroom in Canyon, Texas. The judge issued the oath that instructed them to tell “nothing but the truth” in answering questions.

They did as the judge instructed. Then the judge declared that the little boy is now a member of this lovely young family, which includes a big brother.

Courtrooms so often are the scene of misery and pain. Criminal defendants stand trial for their lives. Some of them are delivered justice and sent away to prison, causing grief for their families. Those who are acquitted are cheered by such a result, but the victims of the deed they allegedly perpetrated are left to tend to their own ongoing misery.

Civil litigants cause — and receive — their share of pain as well. Only one side can “win” in such a case. The other side loses and, well, their anger continues to fester.

Adoption is another breed of creature. The parties who stand before the judge are there to make themselves whole. Indeed, this morning a young man — an adult — was formally adopted by another couple. His happiness, and theirs, was evident as they walked out of the courtroom.

So it was with our friends. The little boy now has a new last name. The judge came down from behind his bench for some picture-taking.

We all gravitated into the hall where the family posed for more pictures.

A deputy prosecutor with the Criminal District Attorney’s office walked by. He and I are acquainted. We shook hands. He asked, “What are you doing here?” I told him we were there to attend an adoption hearing.

“That’s the only good thing that comes out of these courtrooms,” he said with a smile.

It’s not the “only good thing,” but the proceeding we witnessed this morning certainly brightened our day.

business news, International news

Tax returns, Donald; release them

Do I really have to bring up those damn tax returns again?

I guess I do. So … therefore, I shall.

Russian operatives are disputing Donald J. Trump’s denials that he had any contact with them during the 2016 presidential campaign. The president keeps saying he has “nothing to do with Russia. I have no deals there. I have no businesses there.”

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera …

We don’t know if the president is telling the truth. He does have a way of, you know, lying to us about this and that.

The tax return issue keeps popping up. The president won’t release them. We keep getting conflicting reports from senior aides who say (a) he’ll never release them, (b) he’ll do so when the Internal Revenue Service’s “routine audit” is complete or (c) he’ll do so in due course (whatever that means).

About the only way we’re going get anything approaching the full truth about whether Trump has anything to do with Russia is to see those tax returns.

It’s a reasonable request, Mr. President. You’ve said on occasion you’ll release them. Then you’ve backed away.

He would be the first president in decades to refuse to come clean with the people he represents.

The truth, sir. And yes, we can handle the truth.

political news

Robby Mook: campaign loser lands on his feet

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I occasionally become amazed at how failed political operatives have this way of continuing to land on their feet.

They lose national elections and yet the TV news networks — cable and broadcast — seek them out for their “expert analysis” on all things political.

Robby Mook is the latest such example of that.

It puzzles me a bit.

Mook managed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Clinton was the prohibitive favorite to win that election. Every pundit from coast to coast to coast said she’d clobber Donald J. Trump. Some of them predicted a landslide … for Hillary!

Well, it didn’t happen. She lost, albeit narrowly. Sure, she won the popular vote and finished ahead of Trump by about 2 percentage points, which is about where the polls had pegged it.

However, the campaign missed a number of key strategic opportunities in critical Rust Belt states. Trump captured those traditional Democratic strongholds.

Who’s to blame for all of that? You’ve got to lay it squarely in the lap of the campaign manager. Mook called the shots. He ran the show. He was supposed to ensure his candidate won. It was his job to make sure Hillary spent her time where it counted the most.

He blew it, bigly.

How does this guy hold up as an expert?

Oh, wait! He’s “telegenic.” That’s got to be it.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 32

My wife and I have discovered yet another fascinating trait about Toby the Puppy.

He is a discerning television watcher.

Here’s what I mean.

Toby likes to play “fetch” while we’re watching TV in the evening. We toss the toy, the puppy fetches it from across the room and brings it back. He’ll do this repeatedly. Then he lies down, usually on his mother’s lap.

We watch some more TV quietly while Toby relaxes for a bit, catching his breath.

Then it happens. The moment — the instant — the TV goes to commercial, Toby jumps to the floor, grabs his fetch toy and wants us to toss it some more.

Then we resume our game. It goes on and on and on.

Until the next time he takes a breather. Then the commercial.

And off we go — again!

International news, political news, State news

Hunters seek to blame ‘illegals’ for their own blunder

I can hear the chants now: only in Texas would this happen.

Maybe, maybe not. Anyhow, here’s the crux of it.

Two hunters — Michael Bryant and Walker Daughetry — have been charged with discharging deadly weapons illegally. They accidentally shot each other while on a hunting excursion in Presidio County along the Rio Grande River.

But wait! The shooting took place in early January. When they called for help, they then blamed the incident on “illegal aliens” they said were crossing the border.

It turns out they lied to investigators. There were no “illegal aliens.” They had discharged their weapons “in the direction of others,” meaning each other, which is a third-degree felony.

It gets even better than that.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, the loudmouth advocate for building a wall along our state’s border with Mexico, posted the bogus story on his Facebook page. Miller — who had been considered for a spot in Donald J. Trump’s Cabinet — said the incident proves the need to build the wall, per the president’s persistent mantra.

Well, the truth has come out. The hunters made it up. They were too embarrassed to tell authorities what really happened.

Miller’s Facebook post has since disappeared. The two men face some jail time if they’re convicted.

Is this what one would call “fake news”?

military news, national news, political news

‘Mad Dog’ emerges as reasonable, sane adviser

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Let me see a show of hands. Who among you ever thought that a man with a nickname “Mad Dog” would emerge as a reasoned, thoughtful and nuanced secretary of defense?

Well, me neither.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis has emerged as just that person. I want to sing the praises of the defense secretary, who over the weekend had the courage to speak reasonably — and in direct contradiction — to a reckless declaration that the president of the United States had made.

Mattis made a quick trip to Iraq and proclaimed that the United States will not seize Iraqi oil. Donald J. Trump famously said he intended to do that very thing if he were elected president. The idea, Trump said, was to deprive the Islamic State of the revenue it gleans from oil to fund its terrorist activities.

Gen. Mattis said, um, no … we aren’t going to do that.

Mattis is becoming arguably my favorite Cabinet official in the Trump administration. Heaven knows that there aren’t many of them for which I would express such admiration.

It is reasonable to wonder if Mattis is going to last for the duration of Trump’s term. Trump is known to be an impulsive, not terribly thoughtful individual. He says things that pop into his noggin without ever considering the consequences of what he says.

Seizing the Iraqi oil fields was one of those ill-considered statements. Ain’t no way we can do that cleanly and without shedding a lot of American blood.

Mattis, career military man that he is, understands a lot more about such matters than the commander in chief. I am delighted, too, that he is expressing himself with the confidence that those general’s stars have given him.

Thank you for your service, Gen. Mad Dog. Keep up the good work … if the president will allow it.

International news

Trump tells another whopper — about Sweden!

It appears that every public appearance by Donald J. Trump produces a signature line, one that provokes astonishment and disbelief.

The other day he held that wild-and-woolly press conference in which he declared he scored the greatest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan. It was false.

Then he jetted off to Melbourne, Fla., for a campaign-style rally. He baited his worshipers with more promises to end “radical Islamic terrorism.” Then he singled out Sweden — Sweden! — as a place that had been victimized by terrorists.

“You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden, who would believe this?” Trump bellowed during his rally.

The remark provoked astonished expressions from the Swedes. What? Huh? Terrorist attack? Where? By whom?

Of course, there was no such terror attack in Sweden. Trump made it up. He improvised yet another riff that produced — once again — the kind of thoughtless, careless and reckless rhetoric from the commander in chief.

Each time he does this, the president undermines the nation’s standing, let alone the standing of the high and (formerly) dignified office he occupies.

And what about our relationship with Sweden, a nation that has been famously neutral in world conflicts, but which remains an important ally of ours? Do the Swedes trust the U.S. president? Can they trust him to speak with clarity and precision?

For that matter, can we Americans trust the president?

military news, national news

Let’s hope the new security adviser stands test of time

I am more than likely able to stipulate that H.R. McMaster wasn’t privy to any conversations between Donald J. Trump’s campaign and Russian government officials prior to the president taking office.

That is one of many positive aspects of the president’s choice today of McMaster to become the new national security adviser.

McMaster is the second Army lieutenant general to take this post, succeeding retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who Trump dismissed a week ago for a whole host of reasons — some of which are likely to be fodder for ongoing investigations.

McMaster’s appointment is drawing high praise from Republicans interested in national security and defense. At first blush, Gen. McMaster looks like a great choice.

Even Trump critics are pleased. One of them, Sen. John McCain, lavished praise on the president and his national security adviser. “He is a man of genuine intellect, character and ability. I give President Trump great credit for this decision,” said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, of McMaster.

As with all of Trump’s selections, though, one must ask: Will the president rely on this man’s experience, intelligence and savvy as he presents reports on threats to our national security?

McMaster has been tested in combat, leading a cavalry regiment during the Iraq War. He was a critic of U.S. policy in the Vietnam War. His credentials as a national security expert are unquestioned.

Many of us, though, have questioned whether the president has politicized the National Security Council by placing senior political strategist Steve Bannon on the principals committee.

The national security adviser must have unfettered access to the president and must be able to deliver the truth to the commander in chief when it’s required. My hope is that Gen. McMaster will have the access he needs and my expectation would be that this no-nonsense military man demanded it of the boss before he agreed to serve.

If the president committed full access to the new man, great.

If he keeps his pledge, that’s even better.