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Thursday, June 7, 2007
Katrina fraud; Atlanta crime; and rail lines
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s Friday free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• Give state School Superintendent Kathy Cox and the state board credit for the better performance on a more rigorous curriculum and tests. “We’re seeing success because the kids are better prepared, the teachers are better prepared and we’re doing some of the right stuff,” she said. When competent leaders are on the right course, my advice is to leave them be.
• Thousands of state and local employees in Louisiana got both their regular paychecks and unemployment compensation after Hurricane Katrina, according to a state audit, which put the numbers at 5,439 and $10 million. And, by the way, New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, a Washington culture-of-corruption Democrat, was indicted Monday on charges of racketeering, money-laundering and soliciting bribes. I’m beginning to see how and why crooks such as Edwin Edwards get elected.
• No problem here with laws that prohibit registered sex offenders from lingering, living or working near where children congregate. But when a day care center locates where offenders live or work, it should be the owner’s burden to find out and notify parents, not the offender’s to quit his job or move. The exception would be that once the public is notified that the site will be a day care center, no offender can move or take a job nearby. This case is before the Georgia Supreme Court. It’s the airport test: You move in on it, the noise is your problem. It moves to you, it’s theirs.
• If activists succeed in using the courts to force Medicaid to pay for abortions when the woman’s “health” is at risk, it’ll be a clear-cut example of judges legislating from the bench. The standard now is “life” of the woman. “Health” is the loophole that guts abortion restrictions. The Georgia Supreme Court is hearing activists’ appeal from a Fulton Superior Court judge’s decision to toss their claim.
• Georgia Big Labor leader Richard Ray expresses the sentiments of us all in sizing up politicians — in this case, Dale Cardwell, a TV journalist running as a Democrat against DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination. Said Ray of Cardwell: “He’s got some good ideas. Some I’m kind of shaky on.” Journalists who seek public affirmation of our unpopularity are trolling for rejection.
• Set a withdrawal deadline to get the people out of Atlanta: 110 of them were killed last year.
• An Atlanta area group visiting Vancouver, British Columbia, to discover how to deal with gridlock in Atlanta heard leaders say traffic “congestion is our friend,” reports one of the participants. For those in public office who agree, the ballot box is our friend. Fix it or go.
• A better use for rail lines is not to haul people short distances — say from here to Lovejoy or Athens — but to haul trucks. Norfolk Southern plans a $2 billion-plus rail corridor stretching from New Jersey to Louisiana, through Georgia, to divert truck traffic from highways. If I’m asked to pay a subsidy, my choice would be one like this that could actually reduce highway congestion. Virginia’s kicking in $40 million in seed money.
• Don’t know the mayor of Doraville, Ray Jenkins, but he’s earned a warm place in my heart for his handling of a petition from a group of residents opposed to a proposed Asian shopping center. Residents want stores that sell “traditional American food,” said the petition-gatherer. It’s the kind of phrase that’ll get you pilloried in a politically correct world. When the woman tried to read the petition at a council meeting, Jenkins stopped her. “They meant well,” he said. “I think they just didn’t research before wording.” The petition is no reason to deny the development, of course. I hate it when an ordinary citizen’s ill-chosen words are used to represent a class or a community as bigoted.
• Gov. Sonny Perdue and Faith & Values section columnist Lorraine V. Murray are right in the advice they offer: Pray for rain. But surely somebody will insist that Sonny is guilty of some church-and-state crime or of poor leadership for failing to find a government solution to the drought and wildfires.
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Fox apologizes, apologizes, apolo…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fox News Channel — the one commonly regarded as the conservative alternative to CNN and the major networks — felt it necessary to issue a second on-air apology Wednesday for mistakenly airing tape of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) while reporting the indictment of U.S. Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) on bribery and other charges.
Both are black. Conyers, according to news accounts, was upset that Fox’s first apology was not specific enough. In the second apology, anchor Martha MacCallum again expressed regret. “We in no way meant to suggest that there was any connection between the Jefferson indictment and Congressman Conyers,” she said, noting that a private apology had been extended as well.
The mistake occurred, MacCallum explained, because a production assistant picked up a tape about a meeting concerning Jefferson. So while reporting the indictment, the image on the screen was of Conyers.
Ho hum. The explanation is perfectly believable and a second round of apologies would ordinarily be unnecessary. But we are talking here about liberals reacting to an institution many of them associate with conservatives.
Democratic presidential candidates, in fact, have been dropping like lemmings over the cliff from a debate Fox is co-sponsoring with the Congressional Black Caucus on Sept. 23 in Detroit. At least five — Hillary, Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Christopher Dodd — have bailed. Only Edwards has given a reason. He thinks the fair-and-balanced network tilts Republican. Liberals of the Moveon.org variety have pressured the Dems to avoid Fox. It should be noted, however, that none of the Republicans skipped debates sponsored by networks they believe to tilt Democratic.
Had the Conyers-Jefferson mix-up occurred on any other network, it’s unlikely that it would have risen to anything more than a media tidbit. But since it plays into the liberal myth that Republicans stereotype blacks and don’t bother to distinguish among them, Fox is forced to up the apology from mere contrition for a routine production error to something that suggests denial of the other implied guilt.
It’s hard to image, given the nature of the offense, that the second apology would have been required of any other network.
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