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Another stupid story sinks amid death and destruction

It’s funny — not in the “ha-ha” way but in the sad way — how it takes total devastation and thousands of lives to knock a stupid, nothing story off the front page and off cable news.

But that is just what the tragic and ultra-destructive earthquake in Haiti did to “Negrogate,” the furor over the slip of the tongue among friends that was never meant as a malignant comment. Look even on the Web page of the most politically polarizing cable news network, Fox, and you don’t see anything about Harry Reid on the main page — or at least I didn’t this afternoon. There are hardly any political stories on there at all. It’s all Haiti, where it rightfully should be.

The all-Harry-Reid-beating-all-the-time has stopped, for now. That is even though the stupidity of “the message” has become all politics. It has to have political polarization or it is not on cable news, at least. But such stupid stories haven’t always been limited to party politics. Remember Chandra Levy?

I have mentioned here before but I think it is worth mentioning again the worst “sort-of-true” prediction I ever made.

In August 2001, when Gee Dubya was out cutting brush all day on the Crawford ranch, not much was in the news. That is except for the Chandra Levy-Gary Condit story.

During that time I was sitting in a holding room at an airport in Waco awaiting Air Force One’s arrival. I forget the occasion. I was among a group of reporters and news photographers who were waiting to be screened, mostly for the photographer’s camera equipment, by the Secret Service and the then ATF. Our conversations ended up on the Chandra-gate, I mean no disrespect to the murdered woman, but the story did not merit the media’s shock and awe it was given.

One news photographer, predictably from CNN, said he thought the Levy story was a great one. I said I thought it was a dud, but I added, “It will probably stay as the lead until someone crashes an airliner into the Empire State Building.”

We were just journalists talking. We engaged in gallows humor and idiocy because of what we’ve experienced or because we were just a bunch of geeks. Never did I ever imagine something similar as I predicted would happen in less than a month. I really did feel bad about making that comment after 9/11.

In reality, the Harry Reid story is even less compelling, and certainly even less dramatic and interesting than the Levy story. Reid was being just like I was among those geeks in Waco. He didn’t mean anything by it. But for good measure and the sake of the black vote, Reed apologized and President Obama said “de nada.”

The semantics of the Senate Majority Leader’s verbal faux pas — sorry I didn’t mean to have to chi-chi foreign words so close together — are about the only thing interesting in this whole mess. It’s not like Reid used the “N” word, or as the little ol’ white ladies I grew up around used to say politely, “Nigra.” He didn’t even say “colored.” If some blacks are offended, I’m sorry. But if they are, I think they could more constructively put that upset toward being used by the Republicans to  put one more hole in the Democrats’ big tent.

I am no Harry Reid fan. Ditto for Nancy Pelosi. I would rather see decent Democrats elected than both of those whatevers. But sometimes I just wish stupidity could be abolished, at least just for a little while. Maybe it can be put aside to help some folks, mostly “of color,” who are hurting really bad in Haiti.

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First endorsement of the year: Texas House District 9

Democrat Kenneth Franks will once again challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Wayne Christian for the Texas House, District 9, race in November.

Franks, a retired teacher and now rancher and businessman from Pineland, announced his candidacy in an e-mail to eight feet deep sent Tuesday. Christian was first elected to the House in 1995. Christian is a financial advisor from Center. He has served six terms in the Texas House. Christian advises potential investors on his Web site: “Those wanting to “play the market” might want to move on to another site. Our clients provide us their “serious” dollars they don’t desire to lose.” A staunch conservative, Christian said he was honored to be named one of the “worst legislators” by Texas Monthly. So proud is he.

Both state Democratic and Republican party Web sites, checked today, indicated Franks and Christian will have no primary election challengers. The filing deadline was Monday.

District 9 encompasses the Pineywoods counties of Shelby, Nacogdoches, Jasper, San Augustine and Sabine with a total population of almost 140,000 residents, according to the 2000 Census.

Christian defeated Franks by 62-35 percent during the November 2008 General Election. He is president of the Texas Conservative Coalition, which its Web site says is for individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise and traditional family values.

But even though Rep. Christian might espouse some of those virtues, Christian does not seem bothered by favors askew with these values when it serves the Representative or his friends. One wonders if  Wayne Christian was thinking limited government and individual liberty when he sneaked in a last-minute bill  allowing reconstruction of  his beach house on Bolivar Peninsula — out of his legislative district — which was considered by the state as open beach after the property was rearranged by Hurricane Ike. Perhaps Christian and his ilk see limited government as good government … just as long as it is good for Rep. Christian and his beach neighbors.

I don’t know Kenneth Franks very well, mostly our conversations have been via e-mail. We do have some friends and relatives in common. I also wouldn’t be honest if I said I knew all of the policy positions of either Mr. Franks or Rep. Christian. But I do know a little of the non-policy side of Kenneth Franks.

Kenneth grew up in the home of an educator and he spent almost 30 years as a teacher. He was in the inaugural class at Angelina Junior College — now Angelina College — in Lufkin. He transferred to The University of Texas in Austin where he received his undergraduate degree. He later received a Master’s of Education from Stephen F. Austin, back in the Pineywoods, in Nacogdoches. He has taught in schools from 5A to Class A classification.  After retiring from teaching, Kenneth now ranches and operates a car wash.

It is perhaps the education side that drives Kenneth to want student testing to be meaningful and not puntative. Kenneth, according to campaign information on his Web site, supports pay that will actually provide  better lives for teachers and support staffs. He also supports fully funding mandates that will make college tuition more affordable for all eligible students and to help potential teachers  with more financial assistance.

I spent a lot of time in several of the counties of District 9. Add up the three times I lived  there, and I would have lived roughly a quarter of my life in Nacogdoches County. It’s been awhile since I lived there but it will always feel like a “second hometown” to me. That is one reason I want a good Democratic state representative for District 9. The other reason is Texas needs more Democrats in the Legislature. I’m talking Dems who will actually represent and do the state’s business and not those Dems or GOP-ers who are only interested in better positioning themselves.

I think Kenneth will be a fine state representative who happens to be a Democrat. So my first official endorsement of 2010, for what it’s worth, is for Kenneth Franks for District 9, Texas House of Representatives.

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Congressional panels: Improving government or political grandstanding?

 It is difficult for me to recall but I am almost certain that I did not go to the bathroom during my only visit to the U.S. Capitol some five or six years ago. I feel pretty sure about that fact because I have not yet been investigated by a congressional committee.

 I did have something I wrote in a newspaper column once read into the Congressional Record. That was nice. But, no, I have never been grilled by Congress for using the bathroom at the Capitol or anywhere else for that matter.

 The reason I bring the matter up is because Congress seems primed for an publicized inquiry anytime they catch someone using the Capitol water closets. Now that is pure hyperbole but I use the statement because large-scale congressional investigations sometimes seem as if they are more often than not disproportionate to the importance of the subject under scrutiny.

 Now I certainly believe that an inquiry might be warranted into how the glam couple and perhaps future reality TV stars, the Salahis, allegedly crashed the White House state dinner for the Indian prime minister. However, the fact that the show in Congress seems to be amplified by Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, the ranking opposition member of the Homeland Security Committee, makes it obvious that King might just be more interested in hurting Obama and  his staff members than worrying about the safety of the President himself. King now has beat that dead horse to the point that he is willing to hear from the White House social director while she is not under oath or before cameras.  It looks as if that reprobate King might have just drilled himself a dry hole. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m not a big fan of Peter King. I think the best description of him remains that from Slate media critic Jack Shafer who called King “an explod­ing car­bun­cle mas­querad­ing as a mem­ber of Con­gress.”

 Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee is busying themselves trying to exploit examine the leak of a sensitive Transportation Security Administration document. The 90-some-odd-page manual on how to screen airline passengers was posted, for awhile, on the Internet. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said “action” has been taken against those responsible. I’m not sure what she meant by that. Perhaps they were made to stand in line at a TSA screening station for 24 hours. Or maybe they were subjected to continual body cavity searches.

 A lot of good can come from these congressional inquiries. For instance, learning about chinks (and no, I am not making a racial slur against Chinese people!) in the armor of White House security can help make the Prez’s place more secure. And surely the TSA screening process has room for improvement. They can take me off their “watch list” or whatever it was that caused me to be denied an online boarding pass during my departure from Houston to Memphis in October. This afternoon I have filled out a form to send their redress program so maybe I won’t find myself in a dark little room being manhandled in the nude by two former Russian women wrestlers who now are TSA security people. Or I might just make things worse for myself. One never knows.

 Nonetheless, if I was in charge congressional inquiries would help improve matters rather than used as a platform to bludgeon political foes. Or else, if I was in change, I might be out on a big yatch somewhere fishing. I can’t say. I’m not in charge and likely I will never rise to such a high station.

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My teams sink into the mud yet the World continues to turn

 A  fast-moving snow came through our normally snow-deprived area Friday and left about a 1/4 inch. Unfortunately, there was little left for a photograph as what was left on the ground was in the dark and by the time I got out of bed the next day the snow was long gone. Such are Gulf Coast snows. At least we got to share our snow with my friends up in the Northeast. My friend Sally, in Western Massachusetts told me she enjoyed the first snow of the year which was thanks to the same potent weather system.

 Otherwise the weekend was one of mostly watching all my football teams go down in flames save one. The Longhorns squeaked by Nebraska and thus will play in the National Championship against the Crimson Tide. I have to be almost apologetic in saying that I root for Texas because, as most of my friends are Republicans while I am a proud Democrat, most of my friends and relatives are also Aggies. Many are such Texas A & M fans that they will root for any team but “TU” or what they call The University of Texas (at Austin). That I don’t understand. It seems like we are all Texans and we would support a fellow Texas team fighting for the national title. But not so many Aggies.

 My high school fell in quarterfinals. I wasn’t surprised because Newton played No. 1 Daingerfield. My college alma mater, Stephen F. Austin was destroyed in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs — formerly NCAA Div. I-A — by No. 1 Montana. University of Houston was beaten by Eastern Carolina for the Conference USA championships. Last but certainly least in the NFL, my Texans got whipped by Jacksonville and slipped to 5-7.

 So yes that one-second nail-biter between the Cornhuskers and the Longhorns was my little bright light. Well, the Saints won in overtime but I didn’t get to see that because Fox cut completely the Saints’ exciting OT finish off for the Cowboys miserable loss to the Giants. I mean, I like Wade Phillips and all but give me a break.

 Needless to say it was a disappointing weekend. Not much snow. My favorite teams were mostly left trampled in the mud. My feet continue to hurt including my non-broken toe that feels now like a broken foot. Yet, the world continues to turn. One cannot watch cable TV news without everything being laid down in the context of politics. With every breath that Obama takes a new poll is released. Will his exhales excite the independent white Christian women or will his inhaling raise his numbers with the black male Muslim upper class cross dressers? Stay tuned. I’m sure we will find out eventually.

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Some observations on "Gate-gate"

 Call it business as usual. Congress has managed to politicize “Gate-gate” or whatever the media choose to call the recent White House security breach.

 The Secret Service chief told members of the House Homeland Security panel today that “appropriate procedures were not followed.” Ya think?

 The ranking Republican weasel on the House committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, wants White House staffers to testify to see if there is some blame that could be spread their way. Anything to attempt harm to the other party even if the real victims here were the White House, the President and his family. Fortunately, this was a benign incident — this time.

 Along with the Republican “gotcha machine,” the talking heads on TV have been doing their usual hand-wringing. “Oh my, what if the president got stabbed with a fork during the state dinner?” “What if the intruders tried to attack with biological warfare?” “What if someone tried to get the president with a butter knife.” Or, heavens forbid, a plastic spork.

 What these same people don’t realize, forget or just plain omit is there was probably a unit of Secret Service snipers placed strategically out of sight at all times during the dinner, just waiting for such moves. I say probably, I don’t know for sure. I have been in the presence of a presidential visit to a building — a mess hall at Fort Hood actually — and saw a team of black-suited Secret Service agents emerging afterwards carrying cases that I seriously doubt held musical instruments. I don’t think I am revealing any state secret here because these snipers were in plain sight once the president left the building (so was a Marine with a metal briefcase that I imagine contained the Nuclear “Football.” — scary stuff.) Nevertheless, the snipers were not visible inside the building when the president was inside, so you put two and two together. Similar placement of hidden  Secret Service or other police officers takes place as well wherever the president decides to pop in and say hello.

 From what I’ve seen being in close proximity to a president, on about a handful of occasions, is that the POTUS is pretty well-guarded. Whatever I think might be flaws in presidential security I will keep to myself unless asked by the Secret Service. And the flaws that I have seen were generally specific to the former president.

 Also, and this too is from my own observations dealing with and watching those in the last president’s entourage — and a traveling one at that — the White House staff does have a hand in security but it appears to be more of an administrative manner. But when the rubber meets the road, or the tires touch the Tarmac, the Secret Service is ultimately in charge of the president’s life. The buck stops with those folks who, at least I say, do an incredible job. For the most part, the Secret Service presidential detail is awesome.

 I’m sure the Secret Service will learn from this mistake and continue doing what they do well. As for the uninvited guests, if it turns out they were not invited to the White House in a legal manner I hope justice will be done and they are made an example of why fame (or infamy) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.