Final bell
Not for 20 years had the bell sounded. Not until last week, when a wife and two little girls said a final goodbye to a husband and father that the rest of us knew as a hero. Cpl. Christopher Dill was a 15-year-veteran of the Oklahoma City Fire Department and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corp. He died March 4 after collapsing while fighting at three-alarm apartment fire and was buried last week. The bell signaling a fallen firefighter sounded at his funeral for the first time since three firefighters died in 1989. All we can say is thank you to him and his family, and yet that hardly seems sufficient for a man who not once but twice took on jobs to protect others. Thank you, and God bless the loved ones left behind.
Another sole survivor
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can’t walk in former President George W. Bush’s shoes, but he now knows what it’s like to dodge one. During a recent trip to the Iranian city of Urmia, Ahmadinejad had a shoe hurled his way in an incident reminiscent of the attack on Bush during a press conference in Iraq in December. The Urmia News Web site reported Ahmadinejad was traveling to an election rally when the shoe was thrown. Of course, in the Middle East throwing your shoe at someone is a high form of insult. No word on the identity or fate of the Urmia shoe-thrower. Meanwhile, Bush’s attacker, 30-year-old TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, was sentenced to three years in jail by a court in Baghdad — obviously too late to deter Ahmadinejad’s assailant.
A vote for free trade
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva has some advice for the Obama administration about protectionism: Don’t do it. “Lula,” as da Silva is known, is coming to the U.S. for a visit and told The Wall Street Journal nations that have been free traders should resist the urge to set up trade barriers because of faltering economies. “Protectionism can seem beneficial at first, but in the long term it wounds countries, above all the poor countries, which need to sell their goods to the rich countries in the global economy,” he said.
That Lula, who governs mostly as a leftist, plans to use part of his visit to push for a proposed U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement that would benefit a competitor in the U.S. market says a lot about his belief in the overall good that results from trade. Lula is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama, but he needs to take his pro-trade message to Congress, where majority Democrats under pressure from organized labor have the Colombia trade deal and others on hold.
Drew who?
He’s no Willie Stark, but Drew Edmondson seems to be going populist in a big way. Will it help him in his quest to be the next governor? That he needs some help is shown by a new poll in which 35 percent of those surveyed said they’ve never heard of the state’s long-time attorney general. That’s a better recognition rate than his potential rival for the Democratic nomination, Lt. Gov. Jari Askins, but worse by 10 percentage points than GOP front-runner Mary Fallin. Edmondson’s visibility may have risen with his recent attacks on the state Department of Health over the cause of an E. coli outbreak in Locust Grove last summer. With his ongoing lawsuit against and outrage toward the poultry industry, Edmondson is ramping up the populist thing that sometimes makes a difference in elections but sometimes leads to disenchantment with the message and the messenger.
Can’t vouch for it
One under-reported feature in the $410 billion catch-all spending bill being debated in the U.S. Senate is a provision that would eliminate the District of Columbia’s school voucher program. The experimental program currently serves 1,900 children of low-income families, providing $7,500 “opportunity scholarships” to attend private schools instead of the public schools, which in the nation’s capital are notoriously poor.
Majority Democrats say cutting the program would save $14 million a year, which is laughable in a $410-billion bill that increases spending 8 percent over last year. The real reason the program is under attack is because the teachers’ unions feel threatened by voucher programs that let poor kids escape crummy public schools.
If the provision survives it would be a shame. Vouchers might not be the answer everywhere. But in D.C., where the unions’ lowest-common-denominator thinking consigns too many children to lives with limited opportunity, the program is immensely popular and seems like the least official Washington, which sends a lot of its children to private schools, could do.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan doesn’t think vouchers are the ultimate answer, but he recently told the Associated Press it doesn’t make sense “to take kids out of a school where they’re happy and safe and satisfied and learning” — a memo congressional Democrats apparently didn’t get.
A fur piece
What’s a PETA-loving liberal to do? Just as the warm glow of Barack Obama’s election reached its zenith, many of his black supporters at the inauguration were keeping themselves warm by wearing fur coats. Seems fur is making a comeback after years of being demonized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and its celebrity supporters. The fur industry says fur is a traditional symbol of status, luxury and beauty, but warmth and practicality are two key reasons for its popularity. Fur is particularly popular in the Chicago area, from whence Barack Obama ran for president. Blacks are “disproportionately big fur buyers,” the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Michelle Obama doesn’t wear fur, but we doubt she’d advocate pelting red paint on those who do, some of whom are her husband’s biggest supporters.
‘Sir Tedward’
Ailing Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy has been chosen to receive an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced it during his address to a joint session of Congress, citing Kennedy’s role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and work on health care and education.
Honorary knighthoods are given to recognize special achievement, and most go to British citizens. Kennedy joins a group of less than 100 Americans to receive the honor since the queen took the throne in 1952, including presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Actually, the honorary title doesn’t call for Kennedy to be addressed as “sir,” as Brown did in his speech to Congress. Still, it’s a gracious gesture from a people known for such things.
Having it both ways
We’ve long observed how obsessed liberals are with hypocrisy, while noting that their own variety seems exempt from self-evaluation and that the word “hypocrisy” is often inaccurately applied when the word “inconsistent” is more apt. The literal meaning of hypocrisy is “actor” - portraying oneself as something he’s not. We found a trace of hypocrisy and a ton of inconsistency in a recent letter-to-the-editor submission. A clip-art note at the end, in green type, urged the receiver not to print the email if at all possible. We presume this is to save trees and ink. Yet the writer wanted his letter printed in a newspaper, using paper and ink. Not to mention electricity.
You’d be nervous, too
A tidbit Detroit’s Big Three automakers can’t be thrilled about: Of the eight people named to President Barack Obama’s auto industry task force, and the 10 senior policy aides who will help them, just two own American cars, the Detroit News reports.
Information wasn’t available for every task force member’s car, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, the panel’s co-chairs, own foreign-made vehicles. Geithner’s is a 2008 Acura TSX, the News reports, while Summers owns a 1995 Mazda Protege.
For those keeping score, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag owns a 2008 Honda Odyssey and a 2004 Volvo S60. Carol Browner, the White House global warming chief, doesn’t own a car right now but previously had a 1999 Saab 9-5 SE. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson owns a 2008 Toyota Prius and a Honda Odyssey.
Significant? Maybe not — except that as CEOs from GM, Ford and Chrysler seek empathy and federal dollars from Washington, no doubt they’d like it better if there was an Envoy or Explorer owner sitting on the other side of the conference table.
Party time’s over
It’s no secret that Angela Monson is one of the most well-known and respected women in the state’s Democratic Party. Good for her. But her position as the new chairman of the Oklahoma City School Board is nonpartisan, and she must avoid any appearance to the contrary. Oklahoma County’s Democratic Party was active in her election. She was even scheduled to be a “special guest” at a party-sponsored fundraising event this week. Monson was only sworn into the post on Monday; she hasn’t had time to set the tone for the board she now leads. The county party isn’t at fault for inviting Monson. Only she can make clear that she’ll keep party politics or her affiliation with any agenda-specific groups at arm’s length. She must do just that, in reality and perception.
