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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Obama and the ‘Black House?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s national reputation took a hit with all of those stories about the T-shirts likening Barack Obama to a banana-eating “Curious George.” But never fear, Texas has our back, as The Dallas Morning News reports.
Further reporting here.
Strange how nobody actually attending the convention thought it noteworthy, yet party officials now claim to be properly offended.
UPDATE: Let’s try a little thought experiment. Imagine that, say, Colin Powell or Condi Rice had been nominated as the Republican candidate. Could you then imagine that such a button would be sold at Democratic state conventions? No, you could not. And therein lies the difference.
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Bob Barr’s marriage of convenience
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All I gotta say is, if Bob Barr is the answer, it must have been a helluva odd question.
A friend recommended this piece in The New Republic describing the Libertarian Party convention that ended up nominating Barr for president. It’s pretty funny, and pretty sad too.
As the piece demonstrates, “Libertarian Party” is almost a contradiction in terms, because having a party means having some rules and organization. But Libertarians aren’t much into the rules thing, and they see organization as a fascist concept.
Hilarity ensues…
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“Can Georgia Be Obama’s Ohio?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That’s the headline of a new piece in Time magazine.
“In briefings last week with former Hillary Clinton supporters, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said he is focusing on Georgia and Virginia as potential swing states and, depending on the outcomes of voter registration drives, he’s also keeping an eye on Mississippi and Louisiana. In Georgia, the Obama campaign has wasted no time, launching massive voter registration drives before the primaries had even ended….. Obama has 15 full-time paid staffers who have been in Georgia for over a month.”
The crux of the Obama strategy is to make Georgia competitive by significantly increasing black turnout. If he succeeds, that would also make the Democrats competitive in other races here, such as the U.S. Senate.
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First-class passengers, but not first-class citizens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The company that wants to put fast-paced, paid security lanes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is teaming with Delta Air Lines in a move that could bring the so-called Clear lanes to Atlanta by late summer.
Delta had initially opposed the paid express lanes, primarily aimed at business travelers willing to fork over $128 a year for a faster trip through security checkpoints. The airline feared they might interfere with Delta’s own lines for premium passengers.
But the Atlanta-based carrier Monday said that after further study it will partner with Clear Inc. to operate its fast lanes in Delta terminals at New York’s JFK International and LaGuardia airports and Los Angeles International Airport beginning this summer. Hartsfield-Jackson could begin testing the paid lanes as early as August.
Clear promises a five-minute trip through security.”
I’m sure I’m in the minority on this, but the whole idea here bothers me. Yes, going through airport security is a real pain. But it is also a government-imposed requirement. And I just don’t think that more affluent Americans should be able to purchase a way around a government-imposed requirement that is not available to those of lesser means.
I can hear it already: “It’s socialism!! Communism!!” Wrong, it’s Americanism.
If you have the means and desire to buy a seat in first-class, fine. Having more money allows you to buy more things, including better service. That’s what makes the world go around and a capitalist economy hum. That’s all great. It gives those in the back of the plane something to strive for. I understand all that.
But before government, we are all supposed to be equal under the law, one citizen no better than another. That’s a bedrock American principle. Or at least it used to be.
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