Category Archives: Random Blogging

They Even Eat Their Own

As Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels considers whether to run for President, I can think of lots of reasons not to support him. Despite his focus on fiscal responsibility, he presided over the Bush Administration’s profligacy, helping fritter away the healthy economy left by Bill Clinton. While he’s never been a “hater,” neither has he demonstrated any moral compunctions against playing to the prejudices of the GOP base–if we had any doubts about his willingness to let personal ambition trump any tendency to do the right thing, those doubts were put to rest when he signed the bill de-funding Planned Parenthood, and effectively denied medical care to more than 20 thousand poor women.

What is certainly NOT a reason to oppose him, however, is his Syrian ancestry.

The same sorts of people who insist that Obama couldn’t possibly be a “real” American (he’s black, you know) are now throwing stones at Daniels because he received an award from an Arab-American group. Daniels’ family background is Syrian, and–like Jewish groups, African-American organizations, etc., this organization recognizes members of its community who have achieved. Bloggers have reacted by connecting the Governor to every anti-American act ever associated with any Arabs anywhere.

This has to stop. Being American means evaluating people based upon who they are and what they do, not on the basis of their “tribes”–their race, religion or national origin. Like Obama or Daniels–or dislike them–based upon their policies and behaviors, and cut the ugly crap out.

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Primary Day

Today is Primary Election day, and the party faithful (and very few others) will select candidates for the November municipal elections. The outcomes of the mayoral races are predetermined: Greg Ballard (aka the “accidental mayor”) will be the Republican nominee, and Melina Kennedy (no relation) will represent the Democrats.

Anyone who was sentient four years ago understands how Greg Ballard got elected. (Well, with the possible exception of Ballard himself; I understand from those who know him that he really believes he defeated Bart Peterson, i.e., that people knowingly voted FOR him, as opposed to venting their spleen on the incumbent.) As our daughter said the day after the election, twenty-five percent of eligible voters went to the polls. Twelve percent voted for Peterson, thirteen percent voted against Peterson, and we got whatsisname.

From all accounts, Greg Ballard is a nice man who has been hopelessly over his head. His unfamiliarity with both the actual city of Indianapolis (he was a Marine who served elsewhere for most of his adult life) and the idea of a city–how it works, what elements/policies make a city successful, how it is financed, how it relates to state government, etc.–explains the last three and a half years, during which “advisors” have run the show (and done rather well for themselves in the process).

The Indianapolis electorate tends to support incumbents when they do a reasonable job. In a city that even then had majority Democratic registrations, Bill Hudnut won re-election four times, usually with well over 60% of the vote (and if memory serves, with 80% at least once). On the other hand, they react negatively to arrogance. Goldsmith saw the writing on the wall–and Sue Ann Gilroy, who ran a campaign promising to be  “another Steve” lost badly.

What we don’t yet know is how Indianapolis voters react to well-meaning incompetence. But we’re about to find out.

No Deep Thoughts Today…

…but maybe someone can answer a very unimportant question that has been nagging at me for some time: Why don’t men like Donald Trump and Pat Bauer change their haircuts/toupees? Both have been mocked incessantly. They have to know that people think they look ridiculous. If they really want to be taken seriously, why wouldn’t they ditch the dos?

And yes, the constant rain has turned my brain to mush…..

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When Will We Ever Learn?

I wasn’t one of those people who believed the election of Barack Obama was a sign we’d entered a “post-racial” society. But I also failed to appreciate the extent of racism that still festers in this country. The unremitting attacks on Obama personally–attacks utterly unconnected to any policy disputes and clearly motivated by outrage over his very existence–have shocked me.

Donald Trump’s racially-motivated slurs don’t just reflect his own long-standing bigotry (in the 1970s, the Department of Justice sued him for refusing to rent to African-Americans); they also are tacit recognition that a large percentage of the remaining hard-core GOP base is racist. Periodically, leaked emails and “jokes” from Republican officeholders and party officials confirm our worst suspicions: the Obama family portrayed as monkeys, the White House shown in the middle of a watermelon patch. Pretty disgusting stuff.

As if we needed added confirmation, yesterday the Tulsa World reported that during a debate on a bill to eliminate Affirmative Action in state government, Oklahoma State Senator Sally Kern testified in favor of the bill, saying : “We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school?  I’ve taught school and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

As appalling as her testimony was, the thought of this woman teaching is arguably more frightening. But of course, she is still teaching, and so are all of the people who pretend that their attacks on the President–their insistence that he is not a “real” citizen, their denial of his academic achievements–are just political differences of opinion. Those of us who enable them by refusing to call these attacks what they are, are also teaching. And the lesson is an ugly one.

What was the refrain from that old song from South Pacific? You’ve got to be taught to hate.

The Inmates and the Asylum….

Every morning I wake up to additional evidence that America has lost its collective mind. Just a brief sample from the morning news:

  • Obama finally got so fed up with the birther nonsense that he posted the long-form birth certificate that Hawaii normally declines to provide. As we might have guessed, that simply moved the target, with crackpots claiming it was never about the place of his birth, but the fact that his father was Kenyan. This, despite clear language in the 14th Amendment that makes any child born in the U.S. a citizen. We know the crazies are aware of that language, because they want to change it in order to deny automatic citizenship to children of immigrants. The Onion was right: next the “afterbirthers” will demand to see the umbilical cord. (Stephen Colbert has already called for Obama to release his grade school report card…but how do you satirize people who are already walking self-parodies?)
  • John Yoo–author of the infamous Bush Administration memos–says the President doesn’t have the authority to require businesses bidding on government contracts to disclose their political contributions. According to Yoo, U.S. Presidents can authorize torture, issue Signing Statements that invalidate duly-enacted legislation (and by implication invalidate the Constitutionally-required Separation of Powers), but in his alternate universe, they can’t require people who want to do business with the government to provide information that might disclose improper influence-peddling.
  • Donald Trump is still on my teevee.

I rest my case.