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Thursday, July 12, 2007
Of snitches, change agents, spinelessness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s Friday free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• Words to be banned from civilized conversation: a) “Snitch,” as spoken by British Admiral Sir Alan West, in urging Britons to share information on those suspected of terrorism. Jailhouse clothing styles are merely unattractive; a jailhouse vocabulary involves terms that are demeaning. b) “Going forward,” a cliche-in-the-making going forward. c) “Change agents,” as in Grady Hospital’s CEO Otis Story’s assertion that consultants will examine how the hospital functions. “They are change agents,” said he.
• Ah, yes, this is the George Bush we know and love having in the White House in a world where Islamofascists are trying to kill us: “When we start drawing down our forces in Iraq, it will (be) because our military commanders say the conditions on the ground are right, not because pollsters say it’ll be good politics.” Memo to poll-watchers Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Gordon Smith (R-Orgon) and others: Get a backbone.
• John Mark Karr should next appear in the news in 2035 when some enterprising young reporter is assigned to find out “what ever happened to … ” Until then, no more. Please.
• Headline: “What’s the use of Fulton County?” Easy. To run courts and the jail and to keep DeKalb from bumping into Douglas.
• The problem with hate crime legislation is demonstrated by the unprovoked assault by 10 or more thugs on young Joshua Martin outside Six Flags Over Georgia. All are the same race, but suppose otherwise. So when is it a hate crime? By the way, wonder how many of the gang have fathers in the home?
• Republicans should be champions of open records and open government. One reason is that many of its functions should be farmed out to the private sector. To avoid suspicion, embrace full and timely disclosure. In that vein, the Georgia Public Service Commission should adopt a proposed rule prohibiting utilities and the interest groups that stalk the halls from closed-door meetings with commissioners deliberating on a rate case.
• Gosh a’mighty, the whole country’s in therapy. We’re not good at staying any difficult course — the war, in particular. Not surprising. The new north Fulton city of Milton is paying a therapist $6,400 and claiming “doctor-client privilege” to help City Council members with “conflict resolution.” Therapists now sort through issues that were once dealt with by mommas and daddies, preachers, teachers and wise aunts and uncles. We are not a nation that ought to be making long-term commitments requiring sacrifice until we figure out who we are.
• American politicians are able to play partisan political games with the war. Imagine them in the role of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, constantly the target of assassination attempts, and yet he has the courage to confront — and kill — hard-line pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and dozens of his die-hard followers. Or of Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud, whose troops are in a bloody fight with al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants who have taken over a refugee camp north of Tripoli, in a to-the-death struggle to claim a nation. They fail, they die. Our politicians fail, they sip latte.
• DaimlerChrysler’s tiny new Smart car is coming to the U.S. from Europe next year. It may be ideal for congested urban streets filled with bicycles and motor scooters, but micro-cars shouldn’t be allowed on interstates, where there are big cars and trucks, without an SUV escort.
• Between Mark Taylor and the trial lawyers the Democratic Party of Georgia remains afloat. Better sue a few more manufacturers, guys. This need could go on for awhile.
• The plot for my latest novel, entitled “When Good People Do Stupid Things,” features a renegade board member from a major urban hospital who shows up at a neighboring county demanding $4 million, thereby sabotaging any charitable impulse that might have existed to help the neighbor solve his problem. In Chapter 2, he goes to three more neighbors demanding money — where he is arrested by the short sheriff in Slayton (this is fiction) for panhandling.
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In search of “good news, but…” king
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hillary and Barack won’t mention this. Nancy and Harry won’t tell you either, but the economy is on a good, sustainable, roll. Employers added 190,000 jobs in May and 132,000 in June. Unemployment is a low 4.5 percent, where it’s stood for three months. And wages average $17.38 per hour, up 3.9 percent from a year ago.
With higher tax collections, the budget deficit’s now projected to be $205 billion in September, down from the $244 billion projected by the President in February. Last year the deficit was $248 billion. Three years ago it was $413 billion. Thank tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 that are now due to expire in 2010.
Democrats are eager to recapture those “lost” revenues, but they’ve been politically astute in managing to avoid calling a great deal of attention to their tax-raising ambitions. That’s smart because they’re so in danger of overplaying their hand on Iraq and on the confrontation with the Bush Administration over executive privilege, specifically related to the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. (Even 84-year-old George McGovern, the anti-war candidate in 1972, doubts an anti-war candidate can win. “Some people point to the fact that the war in Vietnam was dreadfully unpopular,” he told Politico, “but that when I came out for an immediate withdrawal, it helped me win the nomination but not the general election. And there may be some truth about that.”
Iraq and the painful and high-profile, but necessary, effort to restore competitiveness to the American auto industry put people in a gloomier mood than economic conditions warrant. But all of us know that Harry and Hillary would be shouting economic gloom from the rooftops if the numbers offered them the opportunity.
In fact, after getting reports of a lower projected deficit, Democrats responded by brushing over it with the warning that there’s no way “Bush’s policies” could produce a balanced budget in 5 years, as promised.
This should prompt a national contest to select the “But King and Queen” from all the Dick and Debbie Downers who are determined to find the downside of good news. The King and Queen will reign over the “Sure it’s good news, but…” festival to be held in prime time at the next Democratic National Convention.
