Monthly Archives: August 2016

national news, political news

Race mattered in ’64, but LBJ and Goldwater kept it on ice

lbj and goldwater

Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton are engaging in a most extraordinary political fire fight.

Republican presidential nominee Trump and Democratic nominee Clinton are accusing each other of racial bigotry.

Race is an issue in this campaign? It must be so.

It also was an issue back in 1964. The major-party candidates then, though, took a different course.

President Lyndon Johnson and his Republican Party challenger, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, decided to keep race out of the campaign.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/goldwater-lbj-racism-campaign-trump-bigotry-214191

The two men met at the White House in July 1964 and agreed that they wouldn’t interject the highly charged issue of race relations into their quest for the White House.

Sen. Goldwater was never known to curb his own tongue. He was a fiery conservative who was prone to making provocative statements. He opposed the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.

President Johnson, the Texan known for his excesses and his occasional crudeness, had taken office amid profound national tragedy the previous November. He decided it was time to move his party away from its segregationist past, a decision that would cost the party dearly throughout the South.

As Politico reports:

“In 2016, many observers have suggested similarities between Trump and Senator Goldwater. In some ways, they are analogous: Both were outsiders who won the nomination of a deeply divided Republican Party after defeating the preferred, more moderate candidates of the GOP establishment. And Goldwater, like Trump, had a habit of impolitic comments, as in his clarion call that ‘extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.’ It was a central part of Goldwater’s appeal: He tells it like it is, political correctness be damned—’In your heart, you know he’s right,’ just like his campaign slogan said.

“But there’s a big difference between the quixotic campaign of Goldwater and the spectacularly flawed campaign of Trump: Goldwater abhorred racist rhetoric, whereas Trump may have sealed his fate with it in two major turning points. First came Trump’s assertion that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not fairly rule in the Trump University case because the Indiana-born Curiel is of Mexican ancestry while Trump has pledged to build a wall on the Mexican border. Then, Trump’s attack on Ghazala and Khizr Khan, the Muslim-American Gold Star parents who appeared at the Democratic National Convention. Trump insinuated that Ghazala Khan, who stood silently by as her husband spoke, was ‘not allowed’ to speak due to their Islamic religion.”

It’s not that we should sweep the race issue away, pretend it doesn’t exist. My concern in 2016 is that the invective has poisoned reasonable, rational and responsible discussion.

President Johnson and Sen. Goldwater perhaps had the same fear 52 years ago when they decided to keep their hands off a live political grenade.

national news, political news

Final statement on illegal immigration is due

donaldtrumpgetty

Donald J. Trump promises to make a “major speech” dealing with illegal immigration.

It’ll occur on Wednesday. It will be in Arizona. The Republican presidential nominee is looking for a “larger venue.”

Is this it? Is this going to be Trump’s final, definitive, cast-in-stone statement on illegal immigration? No more waffling? No more flip-flopping?

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293619-trump-promises-immigration-speech-wednesday

I am one voter who isn’t sure we’ve heard the last change in Trump’s evolving view on the subject.

And even if this is going to be the final installment, how is Trump going to take back all those things he has said before?

You see, the public record has this way of sticking with politicians who seek to present various forms of their ideological “evolution.” Every politician of every stripe has learned it the hard way.

Trump is learning it now as he campaigns for the first political office he’s ever sought.

Sports news, Uncategorized

Even chumps have the right to speak out

founders

Colin Kaepernick is a bozo. A chump.

He’s become a poster boy of sorts for all kinds of issues stemming from his decision to remain seated during the playing of the National Anthem before a pro football exhibition game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.

Kaepernick, a quarterback for the 49ers, said he can’t stand in support of a flag that represents a country that oppresses “people of color.” Kaepernick is half black and half white.

Hmm. OK. I wasn’t aware of Kaepernick’s social conscience. I don’t recall him ever speaking out before. But I guess one has to start somewhere. Thus, Kaepernick chose to make this profound political statement in this highly visible fashion.

I just want to make one comparison with Kaepernick’s demonstration. He reminds me of the flag burners, the goofballs who think burning Old Glory in public to protest this or that cause is going to win them support.

It won’t. It hardly ever does.

However, it’s protected “speech.” The U.S. Constitution allows Americans to make such statements against government policy. Kaepernick chose to mount his grievance with a lousy demonstration of defiance.

He’s not going to win many converts to his cause any more than the flag burners manage to make friends and allies when they do the things they do to protest government policy.

The Constitution, though, gives even chumps like Colin Kaepernick the right to speak out as he has done.

I honor and cherish that right, even if I detest the way some of us exercise it.

national news, political news

Trump makes those records the issue

Health-Care-Records

Consider these four factors …

* Donald J. Trump boasts about his fabulous wealth.

* He questions whether his opponent for the presidency, Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, is fit enough for the job she seeks.

* Trump has questioned President Obama’s constitutional eligibility to hold the office he and Clinton want.

* Trump also has asked out loud about whether the president really was an academic star at Harvard University and at Columbia University.

Those four circumstances have created an issue where none should exist. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, won’t release his tax returns to show us that he is as rich as he says he is. Nor will he release his complete medical records to prove, as his doctor said, that he would be the healthiest man ever to serve as president.

Why are these things relevant? They are relevant because Trump made them so!

He’s the one who’s raised the issue. Trump seeks to be the first major-party candidate for president since 1976 to refuse to release his complete tax returns. And he does all this after making other people’s records an issue.

Trump’s supporters say the tax records are irrelevant. They don’t matter. So what if we learn he pays little in taxes? Other Americans do the very same thing, seeking to pay as little in tax as is legally permissible.

OK, fine. Then let’s see just what he pays. Let’s see if he’s as rich as he keeps telling us he is.

The medical records? Those, too, need to be made public. A goofy letter written in the span of five minutes by a physician isn’t enough.

All this stuff matters because Donald Trump has turned our attention to it.

local news

Expand and improve Civic Center? Absolutely!

ama civic center

“SHALL the City Council of the City of Amarillo, Texas, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds of the City in the principal amount of $83,430,000 for permanent public improvements and public purposes, to wit:  constructing, improving, expanding, renovating and equipping civic center facilities and the acquisition of land therefor; such bonds to mature serially or otherwise over a period not to exceed twenty-five (25) years from their date, to be issued and sold in one or more series at any price or prices and to bear interest at any rate or rates (fixed, floating, variable or otherwise) as shall be determined within the discretion of the City Council at the time of issuance or sale of the bonds; and whether ad valorem taxes shall be levied upon all taxable property in the City sufficient to pay the annual interest and provide a sinking fund to pay the bonds at maturity?”

* Proposition 5 on the Nov. 8 Amarillo municipal ballot

That might be the longest sentence ever written in English. Ever!

But it speaks directly to an issue that has been on the top of Amarillo residents’ minds ever since, oh, we began talking about building the multipurpose event venue across the street from City Hall.

Amarillo City Council has put forward seven ballot propositions. This one, No. 5, deals directly with the Civic Center.

This is the first in a series of blog posts — as I promised earlier — commenting on the propositions coming to us this November.

The city asks residents to spend $83 million and change to improve, rehabilitate and “expand” the Civic Center.

Those who objected to the MPEV said the Civic Center ought to be a higher priority for the city than building a new ballpark. They cited the city’s lack of convention meeting space. Meanwhile, pro-MPEV forces argued that the new venue would be a great attraction for people to venture downtown for an evening of entertainment — which doesn’t argue directly against Civic Center improvements.

The Civic Center is a decent venue for conventions. Sure, it could stand some improvements. The Cal Farley Coliseum isn’t exactly a first-rate sports venue. It’s cramped, with limited seating for hockey and indoor football, although fairness requires me to say that neither the hockey team or the football team play to many sellout crowds during their respective seasons.

Still, an $83 million price tag would seem to do quite a bit for the Civic Center, which has been standing along Buchanan Street since the late 1960s.

Here’s our chance, then, to improve this venue to make it an even better draw for convention business.

Hey, we’ve got that five-star Embassy Suites hotel going up across the street. The folks staying there ought to be able to do their business in a first-cabin convention center as well.

local news, media news

Anniversary reminds me of how things can work out

retirement.pic_

This is another in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

Everything happens for a reason. Is that too cliché to repeat here? Probably, but I just did it anyway.

An anniversary is fast approaching that reminds me of how life can throw you curve balls. You just have to be patient, keep the faith, rely on the love of others — and by golly, things can have this way of working out.

Later this week marks the fourth year since my full-time journalism career came to a sudden end. I wasn’t quite ready for it to conclude in that manner. It did, though.

I won’t belabor you again with the particulars, except to say that at the moment I learned that the job I’d been doing at the Amarillo Globe-News for nearly 18 years would be handed over to someone else was like being punched in the gut — and the face — at the same time.

I collected myself, went home, decided in the car on the way to the house that I would quit, came back the next day, cleared out my office, had an awkward conversation with my soon-to-be former employer and then left.

My wife and I departed Amarillo that very day for an eight-day vacation back east. We had a wonderful time seeing friends in Charlotte, N.C., and in Roanoke, Va.

We came home and started thinking about what we would do next.

I was too old — 63 years of age at the time — to seriously consider going back to work full time. I knew I couldn’t get hired because of my age.

Oh, sure, employers said they didn’t consider that. I know better. Ageism exists, man.

I decided to start the transition into retirement.

I’ve been working a number of part-time jobs in the four years since my departure from the craft that in many ways had defined me over the span of nearly 37 years. I was able to keep my hand in the profession I love so much: writing news features for KFDA News Channel 10, blogs (until recently) for Panhandle PBS and helping produce the Quay County Sun weekly newspaper in Tucumcari, N.M.

Along the way I made a startling discovery.

It was that while I didn’t want my career to end when it did and in the manner that it did — I am now happy that it did end.

We’re continuing that transition into full-time retirement. We plan to travel more. We plan to be our own bosses. We intend to see this continent of ours up close. All of those plans are proceeding.

We’ll have some more major changes in our life coming up. I won’t divulge them here. Our family and closest friends know what they are … so I’ll leave it at that.

My wife has told me I seem less stressed out these days. Hmmm. Imagine that.

The Associated Press and United Press International style books always instructed us to “avoid clichés like the plague.”

Thus, the cliché about things happening for a reason seems so trite.

Except that in this case, it’s flat-out true.

national news, political news

Is it ‘Dr.’ David Plouffe these days?

plouffe

Now, now, now, David Plouffe.

Let’s not venture where we do not belong.

Not long ago, I — among others out here in the peanut gallery — got all over Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Donald J. Trump, for issuing what amounted to a medical diagnosis of Hillary Clinton.

Pierson said the Democratic presidential nominee suffers from “dysphasia,” a neurological disorder.

“Ugghh!” we all thought. Knock it off, Ms. Pierson, we said.

Now it’s Plouffe weighing in, declaring that Trump — the Republican nominee — is a “psychopath” and that he “meets the clinical definition” of psychopathic behavior.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/08/28/david_plouffe_donald_trump_is_a_psychopath_–_he_meets_the_clinical_definition.html

To his credit, “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd called Plouffe down for issuing his own diagnosis, pointing out that he doesn’t have a medical degree or a degree “in psychology.”

Plouffe kind of shrugged and admitted he isn’t trained as a shrink.

David Plouffe is a brilliant political strategist, having engineered Barack Obama’s winning presidential campaign in 2008 and later serving as a senior political adviser in the White House.

He’s no doctor. So, let’s cease the medical diagnoses.

As Todd told Plouffe, “This is what gets voters so frustrated.”

legal news, national news, political news

Flash, GOP: Hillary didn’t commit any crimes

FILE-In this Jan. 24, 2014 file photo, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is seen at the RNC winter meeting in Washington. Having fallen short twice recently, Ohio is making a big push to land the 2016 Republican National Convention with three cities bidding as finalists, eager to reassert its Midwestern political clout to a party that may be slowly moving away from it. In interviews, RNC chairman Reince Priebus and members of the selection committee including chairwoman Enid Mickelsen downplayed swing state status as a top factor in their decision, emphasizing that having at least $55 million in private fundraising, as well as hotel space and creating a good "delegate experience" were more important. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said it again this morning.

Hillary Rodham Clinton committed crimes while she was secretary of state, he told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” The Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, he said, is a criminal over her use of a personal e-mail server. He said Clinton sent “highly classified” material out on that server, implying I guess that the material could have fallen into enemy hands.

I expressed long ago some concern over the use of the personal server. Secretaries of state or anyone charged with handling top-secret material need to ensure it’s distributed along highly encrypted channels.

Now, did she commit a crime?

Let’s see. The FBI investigated this matter thoroughly. The agency is run by a Republican, a guy named James Comey, who is as thorough an investigator as they come. He’s also a former federal prosecutor. The man knows the law.

Comey completed his probe and delivered a scathing rebuke of what Clinton did, how she handled the material through the personal server. Comey didn’t like what he found — and he said so! He described Clinton’s use of the personal server as “reckless.”

Then he also said that Clinton didn’t commit an offense for which she could be prosecuted.

End … of … story.

But wait!

Comey also gave the Republican Party a bottomless supply of ammo to fire at Clinton. He’s given the GOP plenty of grounds — or pretexts, if you will — to keep harping about the e-mail issue.

The GOP chairman this morning continued his party’s political attack.

Hillary Clinton, though, is not a criminal.

Sports news

Pro QB sits during National Anthem; a big deal? Yes, but …

the New York Giants the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on October 14, 2012 in San Francisco, California. The Giants won 26-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

I’ve been stewing for a couple of days over the news of Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit during the playing of the National Anthem prior to the start of a pro football exhibition game.

Kapernick has been reviled, vilified and called everything but a traitor for refusing to stand.

I am not going to go that far.

I wish the San Francisco 49ers quarterback had stood and paid proper respect to the flag and to the nation where he has earned a handsome living playing a kids’ game. He said he sat because he couldn’t support a nation that oppresses “people of color.”

He could have written an essay for newspapers, he could have tweeted his displeasure with American policy toward “people of color,” he could posted something on Facebook.

But no-o-o-o. He wanted to make a spectacle of himself in a stadium in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

Kaepernick obviously wasn’t talking about himself, as he’s hardly been oppressed, except perhaps by his coaches who cannot decide whether he should be the starting quarterback.

Critics have noted that in many other countries around the world, Kaepernick would have been arrested and jailed for failing to stand while the band played a national anthem.

Let’s understand this: Kaepernick is an American citizen. He refused to stand in this country, which has no law requiring Americans to get off their duffs — if they are able — while we play the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

So, he made a political statement. He’s not the first one to do so. He won’t be the last.

Sure, he’ll likely pay a price down the line. My hunch is that sports apparel shops won’t be selling many 49ers jerseys with Kaepernick’s name and No. 7 from this day forward.

The fact remains, though, that our nation’s belief in free speech and political expression gives all of us — even well-known pro athletes — the right to make fools of themselves.

local news

Meanwhile, City Hall asks for some tough decisions, too

vote1

So, perhaps you thought your tough decisions begin and end with the vote for president of the United States.

Hmm. Wrong!

Amarillo City Hall has put forward a package of seven ballot propositions. They total nearly $340 million. If we approve them all, our municipal property tax rate will increase a few cents per $100 assessed valuation on our property.

What we’ve got here is a comprehensive list of projects covering a multitude of areas involving the service that our city provides.

Here’s the link that summarizes them:

http://amarillo.gov/pdf/CIP_list_for_ballot_resolution.pdf

The package of measures represents a significant change in the process of governing at City Hall. The list is almost mind-numbing.

The list includes projects set for streets, public safety, municipal facilities, parks, the Civic Center, athletic facilities and the vehicle fleet.

My guess would be that every single one of Amarillo’s 200,000 residents partakes in at least one of those municipal services. Thus, we have a vested and tangible interest in ensuring we get the most of them.

This is a fascinating method of securing public support for these services. If voters approve all of them, they all get done — over time.

Voters, though, have the chance to decide which of these projects are the most important. If they don’t want to improve the city’s park network, they can vote no on that proposition. If voters think they’re safe enough and do not want to improve police and fire protection, well, you can say “no” to that one, too. Hey, if you like the condition of the streets, you can reject that one, too.

Here are the proposals as presented by the City Council:

http://amarillo.gov/pdf/Resolution_Callilng_November_Election_16.pdf

The total price tag, I should add, was winnowed down from an original wish list of nearly a billion bucks.

Amarillo’s elected and senior administrative leadership have boasted for as long as I can remember — and I’ve been observing City Hall for more than 21 years — about the city’s famously low municipal tax rate.

The city also carries relatively little debt, unlike other cities of comparable size around the state.

City Hall has done a thorough job of examining areas that need improvement. It has asked us — the taxpayers — to dig a little deeper to pay for them. It’s reasonable to ask those of us who partake of the services offered to pay for them.

Those agents of change who took office in the spring of 2015 promised to do things differently than what has happened before. I’ve been critical of some of the changes brought by the City Council.

This one, though, represents a positive — and proactive — new direction.

***

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be looking at some of these individual propositions and offering a comment or two on them. Until then, study up.