GOP picks Steele
National Republicans have a new chairman. Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was elected chairman of the national committee — and becomes the party’s first African-American leader. Steele’s selection clearly signals a party that has been drubbed in two successive national elections (2006, ’08) is seeking new direction, new inspiration and a different public face.
Steele is a polished speaker who is conservative enough to appeal to the party’s base and moderate enough to broaden it. He has been a frequent guest on Fox News and other cable networks and should be an effective communicator for the party as it tries to counter the Obama administration and the Democratic majority on national issues.
Steele told the national committeemen and state party chairmen who elected him he can’t bring the GOP back to majority status alone. He’s got a tough job ahead with the party losing the White House last year and seeing its numbers in Congress shrink.
The age of foolishness
This is a tale of two Arkansas River cities and we’ll get to the moral immediately rather than saving it for last: Let sleeping rocks lie! The capital of Arkansas, named for a rock, wants to showcase the piece of sandstone that once served as a river dock. The Wall Street Journal reports that over the years the rock was whittled away, hidden by weeds and mud and covered by graffiti. Planned is a $650,000 restoration project to give the rock its due. The problem is there might not be much left to see after excavation. Upriver from Little Rock is Tulsa, which unearthed its own buried treasure 18 months ago. A 1957 automobile, encased in a time capsule for 50 years, was pulled out of the ground amid much fanfare but the Plymouth (the car, not the Rock) was a veritable rust bucket. Whether in the best of times or the worst of times, nature doesn’t give the dickens about things of value to people.
Gene Roddenberry’s last frontier
Pithy commentary is difficult to avoid when it comes to Star Trek stars wanting to make space their final resting place. It is, after all, the final frontier. And while they’re not quite going where no man has gone before, they are planning to stay there. Part of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s remains was launched into space in 1997. His wife, Majel, died last year. Her remains and the rest of her husband’s will be sent into space in 2012, via a rocket-launched spacecraft, according to a message from the couple’s son left on the Web site of Celestis Memorial Spaceflights. The company said the mission fulfills Majel Roddenberry’s wish for the couple’s own “personal star trek … deep into the final frontier.” We wonder if the price list that ranges from about $700 to more than $37,000 includes a frequent flyer discount.
Gene Roddenberry’s last frontier
Pithy commentary is difficult to avoid when it comes to Star Trek stars wanting to make space their final resting place. It is, after all, the final frontier. And while they’re not quite going where no man has gone before, they are planning to stay there. Part of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s remains was launched into space in 1997. His wife, Majel, died last year. Her remains and the rest of her husband’s will be sent into space in 2012, via a rocket-launched spacecraft, according to a message from the couple’s son left on the Web site of Celestis Memorial Spaceflights. The company said the mission fulfills Majel Roddenberry’s wish for the couple’s own “personal star trek … deep into the final frontier.” We wonder if the price list that ranges from about $700 to more than $37,000 includes a frequent flyer discount.
Generous students
Teenagers aren’t all bad. We know this, of course. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. Students in the DECA club at Edmond North High School raised $2,400 for the Coffee Creek Riding Club. The club has provided free therapeutic riding to children and adults with varied disabilities for nearly three decades. Most of the club’s students range from toddlers to pre-teens. It’s a worthy program and the Edmond North students deserve applause for making sure it lives on. Job well done.
Under the influence
Filmmaker Oliver Stone is working on a documentary about Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez. Certainly, Stone isn’t obliged to be critical of Chavez. He’s an artist, not a historian. Still, people who one day may pay money to see Stone’s take on Chavez should go in with their eyes open.
According to an Associated Press report, Stone sees the former strong man as energetic and principled, a level of flattery that probably wouldn’t be used by private interests that had their assets nationalized by Chavez’s government. Stone said he also interviewed Chavez allies in Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia, which the movie man said have participated in the region’s “liberation from the United States.”
“The pure energy of the man is intoxicating,” Stone told AP, sounding quite under the influence. Give this to Stone: For a guy who often acts like he can’t stand his own country, he’s taken full advantage of its freedoms and capitalistic economy to do alright for himself.
Snow bound
It’s common knowledge in Washington, D.C., that the mere presence of a snowflake is sufficient for schools to cancel classes and for the entire region to go into a panic. Check that. Even a weather forecast mentioning the possibility of snow causes a conniption in the capital.
Tuesday brought Washington its first snowfall this winter, two to four inches in some places, which was followed by some sleet overnight. The list of cancellations would make you think the Capitol dome was buried under a drift. The hysteria caught the attention Wednesday of President Barack Obama, who said Washington could use some of Chicago’s flinty resolve when it comes to weathering the winter elements.
Obama’s daughters stayed home from school, “Because of what?” the president asked, “some ice?” Schools in Chicago not only have classes in bad weather, he said, they have recess outdoors. The Washington Post did some checking, and the last time Chicago’s public schools were closed because of the weather was 1999. Alas, the Obamas and other newcomers to Washington soon will learn something else about their new city: It’s mostly impervious to shame.
Works both ways
Turnabout is fair play. In response to a lawmaker’s ill-advised proposal to crack down on homeschoolers, Russell E. Spiars of Zionsville, Ind., suggests that a pro-homeschool legislator author a bill to let homeschool parents crack down on public schools. A pending bill would require parents to alert local school districts of their homeschool plans and offer academic progress reports. Spiars, in a letter to The Oklahoman, says, “I have observed many kids from both homeschools and government schools, and it is apparent to me that the most effective means of improving educational achievement would be to give homeschooling officials oversight over government schools.” Of course there’s not enough homeschool parents to go around, but it’s apparent that public schools need more oversight than homeschooling parents. Indiana has fairly lax homeschooling regulations, but it’s not as free of government interference as is Oklahoma. The proposed bill would change that.
Osage Nation gets rebuffed
A federal judge essentially said “nice try” to the Osage Nation in rejecting the tribe’s claim that its members who live in Osage County should be exempt from state income taxes.
The tribe filed suit in Tulsa in 2001, saying all of Osage County should be considered Indian Country because Congress never formally did away with the Osage Reservation. In his ruling last week, U.S. District Judge James Payne said the tribe was offering “an unprecedented challenge” that “disregards established law.”
Payne said Congress and the courts have held for more than a century that there are no reservations in Oklahoma. And, he noted that according to 2000 Census figures, only 20.7 percent of Osage County residents were American Indian and just 5.4 percent identified themselves as Osage.
Exempting Osage tribal members “would have significant practical consequences not only for income taxation but potentiall for civil, criminal and regulatory jurisdiction in Osage County,” Payne wrote.
Here’s hoping the ruling will cause Chief Jim Gray, who pursued the case from the outset, to drop this fight and spend his time in a more productive way.
And it’s … Gillibrand?
In settling on U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand from upstate New York to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate, Gov. David Paterson appears to have rung the bell for the race to fill the seat on a permanent basis. Gillibrand is described as moderate to liberal, having first won election to the House in 2006 from a previously Republican district near Albany. She supports Second Amendment gun rights for individuals and middle-class tax cuts and opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants. Yet she’s also considered a protege of New York’s other senator, Charles Schumer, who’s definitely a liberal.
Depending on what you read, Gillibrand either was Paterson’s choice for some time — the governor believing popular pick Caroline Kennedy wasn’t ready for prime time — or moved to the top of the heap when Kennedy first gave hints of bowing out earlier this week.
More certain is that Gillibrand’s got her work cut out for her to keep the seat. She must run in a special election in 2010 to complete Clinton’s term and then again in 2012 for a full six-year term of her own. New York Democrats who weren’t bashful about opposing Kennedy probably aren’t any more sanguine about a relative newcomer landing the plum. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Railroad massacre, says she’ll challenge Gillibrand because of her support for gun rights. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has interest in higher office, as do a number of other Democrats on New York’s congressional delegation. Republicans also may see Gillibrand as vulnerable. Rep. Peter King is known to be interested in running. And, they’re off!
