Monthly Archives: March 2024

media news, national news, political news

Can it get worse for speaker?

I have asked a question in the headline atop this post that I believe I can answer.

Yes. It can get worse. It seems to be worsening daily for U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose majority in the congressional chamber is now down to a single member. Meaning that the dude has virtually no governing majority.

Johnson is facing an insurrection — if you’ll pardon the use of the term — within his own party. The MAGA caucus led by Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him booted out. The reason escapes me. The guy is one of them! Still, MTG wants him gone, but hasn’t yet taken the final legislative step to get him removed, which would be to call for a vote of House members.

GOP congressmen are fleeing the chamber. Ken Buck of Colorado said so long, saying he can’t work in such a chaotic atmosphere.

The late Sen. John McCain used to demand that the Senate follow “regular order.” He should have spoken those words to the House, too. Regular order establishes a procedure for legislating that can seem boring, cumbersome and arcane. It sure beats the hell out of the madness we are witnessing these days with MAGA nitwits blathering constantly about how the House cannot allow Democrats to have any say in how the place functions.

The MAGA clowns are not interested in governing. Their only interest appears to be seeing their names in bold print in headlines across the country.

Speaker Johnson is presiding over all of this. He cannot control the House. The MAGA cultists are running amok and are running roughshod over the guy they chose when they booted his immediate predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, out of the speaker’s office.

Boy howdy, Mike Johnson is occupying the worst political office in D.C. It’s likely to get even worse.

media news, national news, political news

NBC makes a bad hire

Ronna Romney McDaniel once held the job as chair of the Republican National Committee, which by definition is a legitimate political occupation.

Were she just the RNC chair before NBC News hired her as a paid consultant, I would be fine with it, as would other journalists who today are howling like wolves at news of this hiring decision.

However, she brings some serious baggage to her new gig. You see, she also fomented the Big Lie put forth by the 45th president, who lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but who has refused to accept his defeat in a free, fair and legal election.

Oh, there’s more to untangle in McDaniel’s background.

She also was a co-conspirator in the 1/6 assault on our government, calling the traitorous mob’s smashing of windows and threats against Vice President Mike Pence a form of “legitimate political discussion.”

McDaniel worked hand in glove with the outgoing administration to undermine the results of the election.

Now she is employed by a major television network as a “paid political consultant.” This is a travesty of the first order.

Veteran NBC journalist Chuck Todd took his network to task over the weekend, asking out loud whether McDaniel will be speaking for herself or for her employer. She has said she “took one for the team” by endorsing The Big Lie and only now says that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States.

It’s one thing for a network to hire political contributors of varying points of view. Liberal-leaning networks have conservatives on the air frequently and conservative-leaning networks do the same with liberal commentators.

It’s quite another for a network to give credibility to a known liar and purveyor of hideous falsehoods.

Ronna McDaniel has no business offering points of view on matters where she has displayed a disgraceful willingness to lie to the public.

local news

He was a consummate pro

A friend and former colleague told me a brief story about a man whom I saluted with an earlier blog post that I want to share here.

John Ward died recently at the age of 70. He served for 22 years as Amarillo’s city manager, which by itself is an astonishing length of time, given the brutal and unforgiving nature of the work one must do. He had to work with governing councils comprising individuals of vastly different priorities and personalities … led by mayors with widely divergent points of view.

Ward got into a snit with a reporter at the Amarillo Globe-News over some information the reporter sought, my friend said. Ward resisted handing it over, apparently believing it wasn’t public information. Ward was mistaken.

He turned the info over to the reporter after my friend insisted he do so. My friend noted this about Ward: He could have held a grudge over being shown up by the media, but he didn’t. He put it aside and carried on in his role as city manager and worked with the newspaper on all matters the paper was reporting on as it regarded city affairs.

That’s what a trained professional does. He might resist a request. If he comes out on the short end of that kerfuffle, he forgets about it and goes about his or her job.

Indeed, it is the kind of public official who earns the respect of those who take it upon themselves to seek information that could be sensitive in nature. I have known too many folks in public life who take these dust-ups personally.

Their lingering anger serves them, the media that cover them — and the public to whom they answer — poorly in the end.

John Ward knew that intuitively and served the city with competence and devotion to the tasks he undertook.

local news, media news

Blogging invigorates me

I feel invigorated this morning. Why is that? For starters, I slept well overnight. Also, I have this blog to keep me fired up.

For sure I hit a spell when I wasn’t feeling really “into it.” I didn’t have writers’ block … exactly. To be truthful, I don’t think I’ve ever suffered from the ailment that plagues people who write for a living.

Indeed, I can recall when the writer’s floodgates opened up. It occurred right around 9/11, which is nearly 23 years ago … can you believe it?

With all that was occurring on all the continents on Earth, editorial writers and editors — such as me — were handed a plethora of topics on which to offer commentary. It hasn’t let up.

The world’s attention has turned away from the event that brought us that worldwide misery on 9/11. We have no shortage of issues on which to comment.

My noggin is full of ideas today. I don’t know if I’ll get to all of them before the sun sets tonight. Yes, I admit to hitting a bit of a slump not too long ago. I am over it now.

crime news, national news

Pardon the mobsters? Really?

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Of all the campaign promises the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee has said, the hands-down deal breaker came when he pledged to issue a presidential pardon to all the criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

So help me Almighty God in heaven, I cannot fathom how this moron can say such a thing. I cannot grasp, moreover, the mindset of those MAGA cultists who continue to endorse the view that these traitors are “hostages” being held by the federal government.

The fall campaign has begun in earnest. The former president has acquired enough GOP delegates to be nominated to run against President Biden, who’s also reeled in enough delegate votes to win the Democratic Party nod.

Indeed, that the Republicans still would even nominate this idiot makes me wonder aloud what has happened to a once-great, once-viable, once-legitimate political organization. It has been captured and “held hostage” — to borrow a phrase — by the dipsh** who is poised to be nominated for the third election cycle in a row.

The entire world witnessed what happened on 1/6. The crowd stormed into the Capitol, smashed windows, attacked D.C. police officers, defecated on the floor of our federal government, brandished signs calling for the lynching of Vice President Pence.

And yet …

We have supposedly serious individuals telling us the mob was behaving peacefully?

The 45th POTUS could have stopped the assault. He didn’t. He allowed it to continue. Now he vows to pardon those who have been arrested and in many cases convicted of felonies?

The former Liar in Chief is getting some pushback from the former chair of the GOP, Ronna Romney McDaniel, who said that as RNC chair, she had to “take one for the team.” Now, she said she is able to “be myself” as a former party chair.

What utter crap!

The former POTUS has sown the seeds of anarchy within the once-great political party.

The list of reasons why this moron should never be elected POTUS is long and getting longer. For my money, the pledge to pardon the traitors who sh** on the Capitol floor is more than enough reason — all by itself — to reject this idiot’s lunacy.

Joe Biden, national news

Compromise: it works

President Biden signed into a law a $1.2 trillion spending bill that arrived at his desk after a deadline had lapsed.

The president didn’t hesitate for a nano-second to sign the bill and issued a statement that stated the obvious: Not everyone is totally pleased with what’s in it, but Congress got the job done thanks to some serious compromise.

Therein lies at the heart of what I call “good government.” Compromise works. It results in laws being enacted that are going to anger some folks, make others happy but in the end will keep our government running so that it can deliver needed services to those who need it.

The current rabble-rousers who seek to control Congress — the MAGA cultists who insist that it’s their way or the highway — don’t follow that truism. Oh, no. They continue to resist things in this latest spending package that threaten our allies, such as Israel or the Ukrainians who are fighting against Russian invaders.

Joe Biden sees government through an entirely different prism. He is, in reality, a creature of the government over which he now presides. He has worked in the federal system since January 1973, when he took office as a 30-year-old U.S. senator from Delaware. He served in the Senate until 2009, when he moved into the vice president’s office, where he worked for another eight years. He took four years off and then was elected president in 2000.

I am going to continue to embrace the view that compromise need not be synonymous with surrender of one’s principles.

If only the MAGA cultists and, yes, the far-left progressives would learn that there are times when they can accept compromise as an avenue to keep government functioning for the betterment of all Americans.

national news

Shut the hell up, MTG!

A follower of High Plains Blogger has posited an interesting theory on how we might rid ourselves of the nonsensical blather that flies out of the mouths of inexperienced members of Congress.

This individual writes: ” … perhaps it’s time for us to have some actual criteria other than residency and age in order to run for a seat in Congress (or the presidency). Perhaps some relevant education and experience would be nice? And I am all for making them take a lie detector test before taking their oath of office!”

Fascinating, yes? Well, I think so. I will add this caveat, though, to what this reader believes we should do: We already are able to judge candidates’ educational and professional backgrounds before decided for whom to vote.

The person under discussion happens to be one of the MAGA queens of Congress, Margorie Taylor-Greene of Georgia. She is running for just her third term in Congress. She was elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2022. Third time’s a charm perhaps to get her booted out of Congress?

The voters in her rural northeast Georgia district seem to know enough about her to give her a pass on the idiocy that keeps pouring forth from her pie hole.

She wants to boot Speaker Mike Johnson out of his office. Why? Beats me, other than he works with Democrats on occasion to prevent a government shutdown. That’s the “sin” he reportedly commits; he’s not loyal enough to the MAGA movement.

Greene is a politician in search of a stage, any stage to provide her a forum to be seen and heard far beyond her congressional district. She hasn’t authored a single piece of significant legislation. She makes herself known by her antics during presidential speeches to Congress and her behavior at committee hearings.

Of course, and this really goes without saying, a lie detector test never will occur. There must be something in the Constitution that prohibits that kind of restriction on pols running for Congress.

But, boy howdy, it is a tempting thought nevertheless.

Uncategorized

Pelosi should laugh out loud

Of all the members of the U.S. House who should be laughing out loud at the shenanigans of the MAGA cult, it is the most recent Democrat to hold the office of speaker of the House.

That is Nancy Pelosi, who now carries the title of “House speaker emerita,” which I guess is a way of declining to identify her as just another member of the House, representing her Bay Area, Calif., district.

Oh, no. She is a woman of supreme accomplishment, serving as the only (so far!) female House speaker. She served two stints as the Lady of the House, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023. Yes, she had more comfortable majorities than what the current Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, has working with him; although Pelosi’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress was just 10 seats, which gave her little wiggle room to enact legislation.

She still got the job done.

Moreover, while Speaker Johnson and his immediate predecessor in office, Kevin McCarthy, have battled the MAGA crowd in the House, Pelosi had to do battle with her own intraparty demons. They comprised an equally vocal cabal of ultra-progressives who wanted her to veer far from traditional Democratic orthodoxy. Pelosi’s response to The Squad and others on the far left? Pipe down and be quiet!

She never lost control of the House, which is happening now with Johnson having to fend off challenges to his own leadership from within his own party.

The House managed to approve many landmark bills during her watch as speaker, most notably the Affordable Care Act, when she held the Democratic caucus together to see the ACA become law.

So … let’s not vilify the speaker emerita just because she is a “liberal Democrat.” I choose to recall with admiration and respect the job she did as the No. 2 person in succession to become president of the United States.

She was a powerhouse … period and full stop!

crime news, International news

ISIS rears its evil head

Joe Biden has been handed yet another crisis … as if he needs anything else to occupy his time.

The Islamic State is taking “credit” for a massive shooting spree in Moscow that has killed at least 60 people; they were attending a music festival in the Russian capital.

What does the president do? He’s already on record opposing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. He has labeled Putin a war criminal for the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets.

He now might be forced to decide whether to send aid to Russia as it seeks to clean up the carnage left by ISIS’s ghastly goons. The victims were innocent civilians. Does the president commit U.S. intelligence professionals to help the Russians identify the source of this horrific deed?

All that said, I am left only to offer my deep sympathy to the family members and loved ones of those who were killed or injured by terrorists. As for what President Biden might do, I offer my sincere good wishes that his power of discernment doesn’t fail him now.

national news

House speaker: world’s worst job

There can be zero doubt — none whatsoever — that the worst job in the world has to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Particularly now, in this climate, with a slim Republican Party majority in the House being kicked around by a vocal minority mob of malcontents.

The malcontent in chief, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, has filed a motion to remove Speaker Mike Johnson from his tenuous seat in power. It’s not a done deal, as Greene, R-Ga., said she hasn’t yet called for a vote on whether to kick Johnson to the curb.

You’ll remember that Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was booted out because he had the stones to work with Democrats on a bipartisan government funding bill that forestalled a possible government shutdown. That didn’t suit MAGAites in the House, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who filed a motion, called for the vote and got McCarthy kicked the hell out.

Johnson emerged as a successor. It took several House votes, just as it took the House 15 ballots to select McCarthy, but Johnson got the job. He promised to adhere to the MAGA agenda.

Oh, but wait! He then just recently worked with those dreaded Democrats on another, longer-term funding bill.

Enter the QAnon queen herself, Greene, to fire a warning shot at Johnson.

My goodness, the job is difficult enough, even without the melodrama attached by the MAGA blowhards in the House. It’s a damn important job, too, as its occupant is second in line to become president.

It is aggravating to see this office being held hostage by a gaggle of troublemakers intent on disrupting the so-called “regular order” and arguing against efforts to actually govern … which is what compromise is all about.