(Photo by Diane Bondareff for SUBWAY)

Graphic by Steve Boaldin

A single adult with one child needs a “living wage” of $16.74 an hour in Oklahoma County, where the state’s Democratic Party organization is based. The party touts itself as “a voice for workers’ rights and respectable wages, at both the state and national levels.” So how much does the party pay its own employees? The lowest wage at party headquarters is $11.63 an hour, which is more than the “living wage” for a single adult but considerably less than the rate for a single adult with one child. Also, in a list of 22 occupations, only three are typically compensated at a lower rate than the party pays. The party seeks to offer “competitively-priced options” for employee insurance. Not only is there a disconnect between what the party pays and what it thinks others should pay, but it seems to like competition in the health insurance field — something that its all-out support for Obamacare doesn’t jibe with.

AP Photo

AP Photo

When is the exercise of religion on public property not an invitation to an injunction? When Indian culture is involved. The latest example among many is a Utah tribe’s snow dance to benefit ski resorts in Colorado. Seems the Great Spirit has been a bit stingy with the white stuff this year. Colorado isn’t the only state where snow dances have been held this year. While ski resorts are private property, the rites have also been held at a state park near Lake Tahoe. These are religious exercises. Oklahoma’s car tags carry a depiction of the “Sacred Rain Arrow,” a religious image. In the past few years, groundbreakings for Oklahoma projects involving public funds have included Indian religious rites. While neither Judaism nor Christianity originated on this continent, they have a long history here and are part of the culture. Why is it OK for one culture to be overtly religious in the public square but not another?

Now comes a report from Tacoma, Wash., that the father of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan was told Obama doesn’t regularly phone individual families of war dead. Ouch. Here’s how it looks: The commander-in-chief can chit-chat with an NFL owner about resuscitating Michael Vick’s football career but can’t find the time to talk to the grieving parents of a dead soldier. “That burns,” said Patrick Collins, father of U.S. Army Sgt. Sean Collins, who was laid to rest recently.  “Any soldier that gets killed in action, you’d think the president would be calling someone in the family,” Collins told the Tacoma News Tribune.  “There’s no politics in it. His predecessor did it.” Double ouch.

Unfortunately, the newspaper reports, the Collins family suffered another slight when a sympathy letter arrived from the office of  U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Good intentions, poor execution: The News Tribune reports the last paragraph of the letter misidentified the fallen soldier.

Yeah, that’s strong — too strong! But here’s some context: In addition to his work as a conservative pundit, Carlson is an animal rights defender. Earlier this year he recorded a public service spot for the Washington Animal Rescue League. He was talking about Vick in connection with President Obama’s phone call to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, reportedly thanking Lurie for signing Vick in 2009 after the player served 21 months in federal prison for his involvement in an illegal dog-fighting ring. Carlson said Obama’s support for “someone who murdered dogs” was “kind of beyond the pale.” He’s got a point about Obama but not about Vick and the death penalty. Tucker Carlson is a thoughtful, interesting commentator, but that one got away from him.

It’s hard to predict what will happen if the policy is changed. Most likely, some chaplains will welcome the change, others will adjust and still others will leave the service rather than do anything they would consider a faith compromise. “If there’s no protection for the chaplain to be able to speak according to his faith group, that might affect the number of chaplains we recruit or our ability to do our duty for the troops,” the Rev. Douglas Lee, a retired Presbyterian Air Force chaplain and brigadier general, told The Post.

The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn penned a funny column recently describing her angst as Palin survived week after week while better dancers got sent home. “This could be a metaphor for things to come,” Quinn wrote. “Sarah Palin is a force to be reckoned with and if her supporters can influence a TV show of 23 million viewers they can have more serious influence on elections. And if they can mobilize the religious right then the Democrats better pay attention and start dancing as fast as they can.” Ultimately, Grey prevailed. Of course, Grey is a ringer. Her dad is famed danceman Joel Grey and she starred in “Dirty Dancing” with Patrick Swayze in 1987. Takes a lot more than the mythical RWC to overcome bloodlines and professional talent.

He should’ve stopped while he was ahead. In the next breath, trying to credit his former economics adviser, Obama teed up a line no professional funny man could miss if he tried: “Larry Summers did a heckuva job …” As the studio audience started cracking up, Stewart pounced, deadpanning: “You don’t wanna use that phrase, dude!” Obama tried to yuk it off as an intended pun, but inadvertently comparing his performance on the economy to President Bush’s on Hurricane Katrina — using the same word to reference an ineffective underling — surely wasn’t the objective in what was supposed to be a friendly sit-down with Stewart.

Some of the back-and-forth over Williams is interesting, some is silly — like The (London) Guardian’s Michael Tomasky, who blogs that Williams basically had it coming. No self-respecting liberal would ever appear on Fox, Tomasky writes. “Fox News wants liberalism to perish from the face of the earth,” Tomasky writes. “Going on their air on a regular basis and lending your name and reputation to their ideological razzle-dazzle is like agreeing to be the regular kulak guest columnist at Pravda in 1929. For ‘balance’.” Here’s the silly part: Several paragraphs earlier in the same post, Tomasky writes he doesn’t watch Fox. So, you might ask, how would Tomasky know anything about Fox’s “balance” or Williams’ role as a contributor? Good question.