My wife and I drove this past weekend to Lubbock and noticed something we hadn’t seen in some time.

It’s tempting to turn the radio dial over to KGNC 710 AM to listen to Rush “Daddy Dittohead” Limbaugh as he bloviates against the Obama administration.

I’m going to resist the temptation, because I fear that Big Daddy is going to find some pretext to criticize the administration’s handling of the failed Times Square terror attack — and the arrest of the suspect who apparently is singing like a canary to his captors. If I were to hear such idiotic rantings from this clown, I just might go apoplectic — literally.

President Obama cannot buy a break with these right-wing blowhards. They find fault even where none exists.

Let’s see: Surveillance cameras catch grainy images two days ago of some guy acting nervously in front of his vehicle in NYC’s Times Square. He scurries away. Police swoop in and discover a bomb on the vehicle, which is loaded with physical evidence to help the authorities track down the suspect.

The Justice Department calls in its crack FBI terrorism unit. The good guys run all the traps quickly and then apprehend the suspect at JFK airport as he was preparing to fly to Dubai. He’s a newly minted U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan; the would-be bomber’s motive is not yet determined.

Well, I give the administration extremely high marks for nabbing a suspect so quickly. Indeed, the president has made it clear since the beginning of his administration that he intends to pursue bad guys just as relentlessly as President Bush did. And yet, none of that seems to matter to his critics.

We have responsible critics, people with important public service jobs — such as Rep. Mac Thornberry. Then we have the entertainment yahoos, such as Daddy Dittohead.

I won’t listen to Limbaugh. Perhaps he’ll keep his trap shut on this issue, given that he might not have anything critical to say about Obama. Indeed, Limbaugh turns an old cliche on its ear by adhering to the notion that “If you can’t say anything bad about someone, don’t say anything at all.”

May he suffer in golden silence.

Texas transportation officials have a new fan: me.

I’m not a bettor, but I’ll wager this: We aren’t going to have a “heck of a job, Brownie” moment as President Obama looks for a way to stop that huge oil spill off the Louisiana coast.

Brownie, of course, is the former Federal Emergency Management Agency head, Michael Brown, who drew high praise from President Bush — while he was making a mess of the recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s savage attack in August 2005 on the Gulf Coast.

The president’s comments have drawn widespread scorn ever since he uttered them. Brown quit his FEMA job and New Orleans — which suffered the brunt of Katrina’s fury — hasn’t recovered fully yet.

Now a new president is facing a mammoth manmade disaster off the Louisiana coast. Barack Obama generally is more careful with his language than his immediate predecessor. He’ll need to be more than just circumspect, however. He’ll need to pull together all the forces he can, along with the neighboring states and the oil company (British Petroleum) that owns the rig that exploded and collapsed, to stop this ecological catastrophe.

Events such as this make me absolutely certain that the 400 grand we pay the president each year isn’t nearly enough.

Picking the next 47th District judge well might be a pro forma procedure for three political leaders, the Republican chairmen of Randall, Potter and Armstrong counties.

It was explained to me this afternoon by one of them:

The party chairmen are going to interview all the candidates for the judge’s seat. They are seeking to replace the late Hal Miner, who died in March. The chairmen will choose one of the candidates, or they might recommend two or more of them. They’ll send the name or names to Gov. Rick Perry’s office. The governor then will have the final say on who gets picked.

OK, suppose the best candidate of all time also happens to have been a supporter of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who lost to Perry in the bitter GOP primary for governor. Well, that candidate — who could be the second coming of John Marshall — would be passed over. Why? This person did not support Perry in the primary.

So, the appointment of next 47th District judge will fall on the governor’s shoulders. The party chairmen have been hamstrung in their search for the best candidate possible for this critical job. They’re limiting their search only to Perry supporters, rather than being able to find the best possible candidate for the job.

I asked this chairman if the political realities create a litmus test for judicial candidates — you know, the kind of thing that politicians say they never apply. He didn’t deny it.

He also then said that a Hutchison supporter who doesn’t stand a chance of getting the appointment can run for the office in four years.

But until then, political loyalty matters more than judicial qualifications or philosophy in selecting someone for this critical state district judgeship.

What a shame.

Dusty McGuire is a force of nature.

And that description is intended precisely because of what is going to happen on Arbor Day, which falls on Friday. We note Arbor Day often by planting a tree. But this year we’ll honor it by dedicating a section of Ellwood Park for neighborhood residents to use for their recreation.

McGuire is a driving force behind the walking and jogging and exercise area near the retirement homes on the east end of Ellwood Park. The area also will include an Amarillo Police Department substation, which will be staffed by officers on the lookout for potential trouble.

Ellwood Senior Park will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Friday. It will include a welcome from Mayor Debra McCartt, who also will present an Arbor Day proclamation. State forester Brian Scott will present the city with a Tree City USA Award. The event will feature tours and demonstrations of the exercise equipment that’s been installed at the park.

All in all, this is a wonderful addition to Ellwood Park. And Dusty McGuire, who’s been working tirelessly for many years to Keep Amarillo Beautiful, deserves high praise for her effort.

President Obama is facing a huge decision soon. He’ll get to select another justice for the U.S. Supreme Court. Sure, he’s getting lots of advice, most of it unsolicited. Here’s some more, Mr. President.

Don’t pick yet another Ivy Leaguer for the court. Look beyond — way beyond — that axis for the next court appointment. He’s already been getting advice from Texas to look, ahem, at the Lone Star State’s myriad law schools and courts for the next justice.

The current court lineup contains justices with Harvard and Yale pedigrees. They’re great schools, right? But the University of Texas has a great law school, too. Same for Texas Tech, Southern Methodist University and St. Mary’s University.

The decision confronting the president is somewhat similar to those facing governors, such as Rick Perry, who have to pick Supreme Court justices from time to time. Perry a few years ago broke through the Interstate 35/45 “cabal” on the Supreme Court when he reached out to Amarillo to select Phil Johnson, chief justice of the 7th Court of Appeals, for a spot on the high court. That decision illustrated Perry’s understanding that not all legal knowledge resides in that swath of real estate between those two major north-south interstate highways.

President Obama needs to look all across this vast country to find the next justice, replacing John Paul Stevens, who is retiring this summer. We’re rich in intellectual firepower, Mr. President.

I don’t condone cities breaking state law, but there’s something appealing — to me, mind you — about Las Cruces, N.M. officials continuing to operate red-light cameras at intersections controlled by the state of New Mexico.

The New Mexico Transportation Commission voted recently to give cities two months to remove the cameras. Las Cruces isn’t budging, apparently. Good for the folks there!

Texas transportation regulators haven’t yet done such a thing here, which gives Amarillo the authority to operate the red-light cams if the city deems that running red lights poses a safety hazard for motorists.

I concur with the city’s assessment that, yes indeed, red-light runners are a menace. Therefore, the city has acted in an effort to deter the motorists from running the lights. Traffic engineers have placed the cams at six intersections around the city.

I’ll admit to one close call at the corner of I-40 West and Coulter. I was making a left turn once onto Coulter and got stopped in the middle of the intersection by traffic that had stalled in front of me. I made the turn while the light was turning from amber to red. I saw the camera light flash behind me, but the city must have caught the guy in back of me sneaking through the intersection. Good for me; bad for him.

It’s troubling that the state deems it necessary to govern how cities seek to control local traffic problems. If Amarillo City Hall determines it has a traffic safety issue to resolve — and it installs red-light cams to correct the problem within its corporate boundaries — then the city has the right to act on its own.

Therefore, I applaud Las Cruces City Hall.

Bruce Beck had a standard greeting for those he would meet.