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Friday, March 23, 2007
Delta’s CEO; Dem’s political PeachCare ploy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right for this week:
• Amazing how much Delta’s CEO Gerald Grinstein has done right — topping it off with an exit plan from bankruptcy and from the company. No stock, no cash for him and anything he might have gotten will fund hardship and education grants for Delta workers, who get cash and stock for hanging with the company through tough times. Some things are more important than money. Class is one. And Grinstein’s got it.
• Anybody inclined to think Republicans are hard-hearted should have heard state Rep. Larry O’Neal of Warner Robins pitch the House in support of $1.2 million in reparations to Robert Clark, who spent 23 years or “8,393 nights in prison” for a rape he did not commit. The resolution passed, 132-25. O’Neal’s sorrow sounded genuine, as was the admiration he expressed for Clark’s “demeanor and attitude” in the face of a wrong.
• Headline: “High court considers student rights.” That would be going to school, behaving and minding the adults. It would not be unfurling a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner at a school-sanctioned event, in this case an Olympic Torch Relay in Juneau, Alaska. The principal took action; litigation ensued.
• Does anybody think handing over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will satisfy the sharks? Of course not. The Dems’ Washington, D.C., game is to destroy the administration, not to find truth. It’s politics by subpoena. Fire the crooks, stand by the besieged.
• The state House is extending the Jekyll Island Authority’s lease over the island another 50 years, from 2049 to 2099. Any single parcel, residential or commercial, extended beyond 2049 should be extended at market rates. Why would the state wish to give away public property of considerable value — which is what it could be tempted to do in extending individual property leases on Jekyll Island beyond their scheduled 2049 expiration? A 50-year lease on any parcel there has to be golden.
• As pictured in the AJC, the Atlanta Presbyterians for Peace and Justice marching in Washington, D.C., against the war, look old. Maybe to reciprocate appreciatively, the 20-somethings should march to protest food at the nursing home.
• ‘Tis a mystery to me how run-of-the-mill soil and water conservation district supervisors became “erosion watchdogs” at the center of a dispute over whether they should be appointed or elected. Only nine of 174 up for election last year were contested; in 27, nobody qualified. So appoint. Avoid ballot clutter.
• Rep. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) is among that wave of solid young conservatives beginning to surface in the state House and Senate. He objected to and voted against a bill that would ban the sale of marijuana-flavored candy to children. Who could oppose that? A good conservative who recognizes that “taste” is not a standard judges can, or should try, to employ in deciding what’s legal.
• Sorry, but payday lending is not a Republican or a conservative issue. Doesn’t reduce the size of government, promote personal responsibility, strengthen the family or reduce taxes.
• Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, whose indecisiveness walloped her state during the Katrina disaster, won’t seek re-election this fall. U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who represents southeastern Louisiana in Congress, would be a good replacement. Actually, it is selfless of Blanco to step aside and give her party a chance to hold the governor’s mansion.
• The manufacturer who produces 95 different brands of pet food confirms it: Price sells dog food to me.
• The supplemental budget, the source of the spat between the state House and the Senate, should be a supplemental — for adjusting sums in the current budget to reflect student enrollment increases and the like, not for introducing new spending and pork. The GOP needs to remember what they objected to when they were in the minority. And not take ownership.
• Cynical. How else to describe a U.S. House that adds money for veterans and children’s medical care (PeachCare) to a $100 billion funding bill for troops in Iraq, to which they’ve attached a surrender-and-go timetable. Some $20 billion in domestic spending is added to buy votes and to give Democrats political fodder when the president vetoes this bill, as he must. Cynicism reigns in the district.
• Metro Atlanta has 5 million people, up a million in less than six years. No more relocation permits should be issued until the region adds road capacity — especially permits to people who insist on calling Coca-Cola and other soft drinks “sodas.” Learn the language. Or speak Spanish.
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