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Thursday, October 12, 2006
Babs, Darfur, North Korea, runaway bride
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• Tolerant, these liberals. Imagine my shock, then, when Babs dropped the f-word on a member of the audience protesting her anti-Bush politicking during the New York stop on her latest farewell tour. Streisand reaches Atlanta on Nov. 2. Tickets are priced at up to $752. A liberal with that kind of money would have to have an inheritance, a government consulting contract or a love relationship with a free-enterprise conservative.
• Another instance where government should rely on faith-based organizations: rehab housing. Atlanta’s grossly mismanaged program spent $5 million in federal taxpayers’ money over five years with little to show for it. Such programs, if they are to exist, need somebody who cares representing the elderly poor — and the poor taxpayer whose money is being frittered away.
• Republicans are thought hypocrites because they preach morality and an occasional Mark Foley fails. Democrats aren’t, presumably because they don’t.
• Marvelous advice from, of all places, a San Francisco-based state appeals court. It upheld California’s ban on same-sex unions and warned judges to avoid the temptation to impose an outcome, leaving the matter to voters and legislators. Maybe the national campaign against judicial activism is beginning to sink in.
• There ought to be a constitutional amendment prohibiting settlements of suits filed against taxpayers until terms are approved by the body charged with levying the taxes any proposed settlement would require. In the case of a lawsuit rolling around the country that would force states to funnel more money to some local systems, that would be the Georgia General Assembly. The lawsuit is an attempt to use the courts to decide an issue that should be left to voters and their legislators. A settlement is hinted.
• Either I’m insensitive or my friends are. Gasper the Georgia Aquarium whale’s health has never come up once in any of our conversations.
• The runaway bride, who filed suit against her former beau for a share of the money paid for their story, is 18 minutes into her 15 minutes of fame.
• Darfur is a reason to have the United Nations. The United States has no strategic interest there. It has its hands full militarily elsewhere. The African Union and the United Nations are the powers to look to for troops and for solutions. We are not the world’s policeman.
• North Korean nukes? See above. One-on-one talks, as Condi Rice noted, have been tried. Didn’t work. The world that’s threatened should lead the search for a solution. Our obligation is to make certain our allies, Japan and South Korea, aren’t left defenseless. But that is a parallel concern.
• The mixed emotions of a conservative: U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob comes uncomfortably close to being the bureaucrat-in-charge of the Fulton County Jail. But the people’s elected agent does appear to be incapable of doing the job himself. There has to be a third way — and the General Assembly should provide it. Either give the job to the County Commission or to a specially created unit of the State Department of Corrections that would manage the facility until the next sheriff’s election.
• When labor unions that support Democrats endorse nonpartisan judicial candidates, as the state AFL-CIO and the National Education Association have done with incumbent Supreme Court Justice Carol Hunstein, you’ve got to conclude that she’s the Democrat and her challenger, Mike Wiggins, is the Republican.
• The Bush administration was accused of failing to plan for the aftermath of victory over Saddam Hussein. Surely nobody will now criticize contingency plans to retain forces in Iraq through 2010. May not be necessary, but enemies size us up on the basis of our history in Vietnam and Somalia. Squeeze us and we’ll run. Throw in domestic political debate over timetables for withdrawal, which can be misinterpreted as evidence that our national will is brittle, and the 2010 planning is a vital, balancing message.
• Three years ahead of schedule, the president’s promise to cut the budget deficit in half is fulfilled. Frightening. Get the books in shape and voters might think it’s safe to return the more proficient big spenders to office.
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Blacks and Hispanics together politically?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most likely, it’s nothing more than an election-seaon “what if” speech by a nostalgic old guy who longs for the spirit, intensity and power of days gone by. But the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery’s plea at a luncheon celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month for blacks and Latinos to join forces does warrant notice.
What the two have in common is that both are significant minority blocs in this country. Significant numbers of both, too, have not yet joined the middle class. In a crowd of whites, each would most likely be recognizable by skin color. Both could point, too, to discrimination as a shared concern. Other common interests, concerns and characteristic may exist as well.
But by and large, it’s not a natural fit. Take preferences in admissions, hiring and contracting, for example. One minority’s ancestors suffered government-sanctioned or directed discrimination. Lowery’s generation therefore could make a legitimate claim to government preferences as compensation. But no Hispanic has ever been in that position and therefore has no legitimate claim to go to the head of the line. Too, the workforce in many industries, like agriculture, landscaping and construction, is becoming heavily Hispanic. As with the minimum-wage, those who start on the bottom don’t stay on the bottom. They gain skills and move up. They become contractors and then owners. Unless the government presumes to further segment preferences so that some jobs are held aside for different minorities, a willingness to work undesirable jobs to acquire the skills to move up will determine which minority gains advantage.
And there is, furthermore, the reality that blacks are spread over the economic spectrum and there’s no reason to think that the suit-wearers have any more in common politically with the lettuce-pickers than they would if they were all white, all Hispanic or all black. Nope. Interesting suggestion on the surface. But I don’t see it happening.
