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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Of trailers, cleavage and Vick — oh my
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• Almost two years after Hurricane Katrina, 78,000 house and travel trailers are still occupied. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is being accused by a Democratic congressman, Henry Waxman of California, of ignoring the dangers of living in trailers that reportedly “may be contaminated with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde gas.” During those two years, probably more than 300,000 homes have been built. But it’s easier to bash the administration by concentrating on the Katrina trailers. Congress doesn’t govern. It politics.
• More politics: The House Judiciary Committee’s party-line vote to approve contempt citations against the president’s chief of staff and former counsel for refusing to testify in its fishing expedition into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. They’re political appointees who can be fired at any time; Bill Clinton fired almost every one of them when he took office.
• Headline: “Poor families run out of rental options as costs eat up checks.” Featured is a 23-year-old mother of two, in a story suggesting that taxpayers are providing too little housing assistance to the poor. And the father or fathers contributing? No mention. Men don’t matter in stories about poverty, crime or the suffering of children.
• It is simply amazing that DeKalb County would limit the options of parents exercising their right under No Child Left Behind to flee bad schools to either technical/vocation schools or online courses. If the Georgia General Assembly ever needed an incentive to offer parents of children in nonperforming public schools real choice — vouchers —DeKalb should provide it. Bad options are no options. It’s what educators do to defeat reforms they hate.
• Women excoriate male reporters and commentators for making a to-do over what women — but not men — in politics and business wear. So what dunder-headed man went on and on about Hillary Clinton wearing a dress on the Senate floor that revealed a hint of cleavage? Oops, it’s a female, Robin Givhan. Come to think of it, just about everybody writing about what political women wear is female.
• One lesson from the Genarlow Wilson case: Hire media-savvy spinmeisters as lawyers. There are two court systems in America. One does law. The other does emotion. Sometimes the latter trumps the former.
• Henceforth when attending arts and crafts festivals, my new line — stolen from a New York arts dealer attending the National Black Arts Festival — will be this: “If that were a Jackson Pollock that would be going for $10 million.”
• The federal minimum wage got a 70-cent hike this week to $5.85. But, as the AJC reports, “it’s relatively hard to find people earning” the $5.15 wage in metro Atlanta. The real minimum wage is zero. If your skills are not worth $5.85, you’re unemployed. And if you’re still making minimum wage after a few months, you need to rethink school.
• If U.S. Sen. Joe Biden had a real shot at getting the Democratic presidential nomination, I’d be concerned. But fortunately he’ll never be in a position to follow through on his willingness to commit American troops to humanitarian police missions. “Where we can, America must. Why Darfur? Because we can.” Once again, some problem are the United Nations’ or the European Union’s or regional players. Others — those that pose a threat to us — are ours.
• Michael Vick needs legal/public relations help. Somebody better be gathering information that those fighting dogs bit children, snapped at grandmothers or were engaged in consensual misbehavior, or Michael Vick is in real trouble. Better yet, his campaign should make it clear that whatever happened between him and those two dogs was consensual.
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No way to run a railroad
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today’s assignment for Thinking Right contributors is to help this nation solve its dilemma with rail — Amtrak in particular.
Over the objections of President Bush and House conservatives, the U.S. House has rejected efforts to cut taxpayer subsidies for Amtrak. The vote was 268-153, enough to uphold the promised veto by President Bush. The bill obligates $1.5 billion to Amtrak, with $925 million for track and train improvements and for debt service.
The key vote came on an amendment by U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a good fiscal conservative, to end Amtrak’s taxpayer subsidy of almost $500 million. On its most inefficient money-losing routes, taxpayers provide subsidies of more than $400 per passenger, he said, arguing that cross-country train travel no longer makes economic sense. He lost 328-94.
The biggest money-losing route is the Sunset Limited train between New Orleans and Los Angeles, which loses 62 cents per passenger mile, said U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). He lost a vote to kill it, 283-139.
Amtrak has survived the same way that manufacturers, contractors and others relying on Congress for taxpayer dollars do: by touching as many states and congressional districts as possible. Amtrak operates trains in almost every state, but continues at the public trough despite the operating inefficiencies of cross-country trains and high labor costs.
The questions today are these: Have you ridden a train in the past five years? How many times have you gone to a city — New Orleans or Washington, for example — where trains would have been an attractive option. If plane and train fare are equal, which would you take? Do cross-country or regional-service trains have a future? Would you pay a premium to ride the train. And finally, do you object — as I do — to the taxpayer subsidy?
You have 20 minutes for this quiz. Grading will be on a curve. Mid-South Philosopher is designated test monitor. No iPods, cell-phones or other electronic devices. Time starts now.
