We’re at the dock, waiting for the fireworks.
We’re on the venerable Cherokee Queen II, a slightly shabby passenger cruise boat. It’s little more than four decks and a pilot house set on a barge-like hull amidst phony smokestacks and in front of a fake paddle wheel (that keeps turning even when Cherokee Queen is stopped). There’s a dance floor and a few bars and the intense drumming of diesel engines when one is in the restrooms. There are perhaps 150 souls on board.
It’s late afternoon and boats are everywhere as we look across the channel and at the up and downstream portions of the inlet we are on. There are high-powered boats, sailboats, yachts. Nearly all of them are new except a little old 1950s or 60s cabin cruiser piloted by a guy holding a trumpet. We remember him from last year — he paced alongside our Cherokee Queen playing tunes in the dark while our passengers applauded. “Just throw money,” he cried.
He’s here this year, cruising through the marina area, lifting his trumpet to his lips and letting out some notes. Our passengers applaud.
There is a sailboat whose deck is in the form of an old sailing ship, complete with two masts. It’s lashed together with another half-dozen or so sailboats of all sizes anchored in the marina.
Meanwhile, young, trim men and women cruise through the marina amidst the sharp muffled burble of hundreds of horsepower beneath the decks of their sleek crafts. They’re making a statement -- it’s a display of youth, power, and beauty — of the boats and of the kids on board.
We had boarded Cherokee Queen about 5 p.m., leaving around 6. It’s a perfect end-of-the-day — perhaps 80 degrees — and the only weather distraction is an intense sun but we’ve got straw hats and an umbrella to shade us. We’re on the third deck right on the bow and we enjoy the late afternoon cruise across the lake. Eventually we enter the inlet and, given our size, are provided escort by a police boat as a parade develops of hundreds of boats going toward the fireworks area.
Oklahoma is a poor state, but Grand Lake of the Cherokees where we are is a magnet of wealth. Beautiful homes are along the inlet. Someone has decorated a gazebo in red-white-and-blue bunting. It’s very 19th century and it looks great. Yachts into six and seven figures cruise the lake. Looking at one of those beauties a fellow passenger comments: “It must take $500 to fuel that thing.” I think he’s wrong — by multiples of two, three, maybe four.
We arrive at our dock at 7 p.m. While going across the lake we had supper — a buffet of hot dogs and cold hamburgers. Nothing fancy on the Cherokee Queen II, but we didn’t come for eating. There was dancing on the third deck. The patter of the boat’s disc jockey tells us what’s happening on the dance floor and we see an escaped conga line winding its way past us to go up the stairs to Deck Four.
It’s nearly a three hour wait at the dock before it’s dark enough for fireworks. But it’s fun. Boat- and people-watching are a high art here and there’s always something going on. Suddenly, a roar develops and four World War II fighters fly by in formation about a hundred feet overhead. They’re followed by two World War II bombers, a twin engine B-25, I think, and a four-engine plane which I believe is a B-24. They are loud.
Item: I watch the fighter planes drop in over the water and the boats and I think how Japanese bombers and torpedo planes swooped into Pearl Harbor just like this on December 7, 1941, and what people on the ground and the men on the ships were thinking. Like them we were taken by surprise.
Item: I always wondered in watching old movies about World War II how the machine guns of planes coming at high speed could accurately strafe people on the ground and on ships. Couldn’t you just run out of the way faster than the pilot could maneuver the plane to follow you with his shots? But as I observe a fighter plane coming in low aimed almost directly at the Cherokee Queen I see how easily he can yaw the plane just so and take out someone. No wonder the old movies show sailors diving into the water while being strafed.
After buzzing the boats for awhile, the old planes leave. The smell of steak comes from a nearby on-board barbecue. People are jumping and diving off some boats, swimming in the lake. Children on a nearby yacht are dancing to tunes off the Cherokee Queen. The sun is an irritant as it slowly, slowly makes its way down.
Finally, the sun is down and the lights of hundreds of boats play across the lake. Running lights — white on stern, red on port, green to starboard — glide through water as boats seek positions or just pass through. Police boats are visible with continuously flashing red, blue and purple lights.
It’s 9:15 p.m. and dark, except for a bit of twilight glow. Our on-board disc jockey signs off and we anxiously await the fireworks. After all, we’ve been on Cherokee Queen for nearly four hours, the planes are gone, the people-watching is getting old, and we’re ready for what we came for.
It’s not until nearly 10 o’clock before the show begins. And what a show it is. These are not your father’s fireworks. Computers now control the rocketry and there are new pyrotechnics this year as compared to last. Accompanying the fireworks is patriotic music broadcast by the local radio station and piped through Cherokee Queen’s speakers. With the bombs bursting in air, it’s hard sometimes to hear the music, but strains of “Born in the USA” come through. And John Phillip Sousa marches. Ray Charles sings “America,” there’s a good version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” With each firework burst, people yell. Including the Cutest Community Organizer to Whom I am Married when she’s not singing with the radio. She’s into it. Having been raised where her grandmother sold fireworks every Fourth of July, she has gunpowder and solid rocket fuel in her genes. “Whoa!” she exclaims, as color fills the sky. “My grandmother would have loved to have seen something like this!”
People are cheering. A yell of “U-S-A!” comes from a young man on a boat nearby, although sometimes the same boat produces shouts of “NASCAR!!!”
The first celebration of the Fourth of July — in 1777— was observed by church bells and fireworks. The signing of the Declaration of Independence the previous year had been marked by ringing bells on July 8. Now as Grand Lake explodes in lights I’m thinking that this is going on all across the country: in Boston (where I believe at one time -- maybe still -- fireworks would be accompanied by live concerts by the Boston Pops Orchestra), Los Angeles, San Francisco. Everywhere.
Writer Paul Greenberg has asked how a nation can be so presumptuous as to set aside a day of Thanksgiving if not for its faith in God. I think about a country that celebrates — really celebrates — the concept of freedom. Surely God has blessed this land.
At times the darkened boats seem briefly to be in daylight when fireworks burst open everywhere. The lake glows red with reflections from the sky. Rockets continuously launch above yellow flames on the barges. In the distance, silhouetted before the light from the barge and the fireworks, a young man stands waving for all he’s worth an enormous flag. One moment he’s just a shadow, the next he’s visible with the Stars and Stripes back and forth against the exploded sky.
Everyone is really into this now.
Of course, there’s the grand finale. The barges give it their all. The sky is aglow with flares, flower patterns, explosions. If the music’s still playing, no one can tell.
And it’s over.
Silence.
The crowd cheers.
Oklahoma may be O-K.
But their firework shows are the best.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I'm to Curse Sarah Palin, But Can Only Bless Her
In the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament is a funny story of a false prophet named Balaam who is hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel. Three times Balaam attempts to make pronouncement upon the Israelis but under the direction of God he can only bless them. Balak, king of Moab, gets frustrated big-time.
I was reminded of the Balaam story while watching a clip of a CNN report on the sifting through of 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial e-mails. Posted by http://www.therightscoop.com/, the CNN piece features Drew Griffin of the CNN Special Investigation Unit discussing the findings to date in the Palin e-mails. He says the e-mails show Palin to have been a hard-working governor dealing with Alaska policy, taxes, budget cuts and mundane items. Griffin says the e-mails reflect Palin’s evolution as a politician. He, in effect, defends her against criticisms of being secretive because leaks, according to the e-mails, prompt her to have fewer people in the loop while “thinking out loud.”
Of course, this doesn’t seem to sit well with CNN anchor T.J. Holmes – after all, we can’t have a witch hunt if we can’t find the witch. As a result, Holmes prods Griffin, asking about allegations of Palin being thin-skinned with the media and he inquires about the whole issue of “Troopergate” involving her ex-brother-in-law. Holmes, by his questions, seems to be seeking a curse on Palin. Griffin gives a blessing instead, saying there is nothing about Troopergate uncovered so far and there were no cheap shots against the press. If anything, upon hearing criticism of her staff on a radio talk show, Griffin says Palin wrote that she wished the criticisms were directed at her instead of her staff.
On another issue, perhaps one might think Palin may be showing a sharpness when she writes about something as being “unacceptable.” What is unacceptable? It’s that she has not been getting timely information about the times of troop deployments from Alaska nor funerals of Alaskans killed in the wars. As a result, Palin complained that she had not been able to attend the funerals, nor see the troops off. “I do want to get to those,” she wrote.
So there it was: the Big Report on Sarah Palin from the CNN Special Investigation Unit. The whole thing, of course, was designed to curse Sarah Palin. But Drew Griffin could only bless. I wonder if anchor T. J. Holmes was thinking what Balak, king of Moab, said after his encounters with Baalam: “I called you to curse my enemies and, behold, you have altogether blessed them these three times.”
I was reminded of the Balaam story while watching a clip of a CNN report on the sifting through of 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial e-mails. Posted by http://www.therightscoop.com/, the CNN piece features Drew Griffin of the CNN Special Investigation Unit discussing the findings to date in the Palin e-mails. He says the e-mails show Palin to have been a hard-working governor dealing with Alaska policy, taxes, budget cuts and mundane items. Griffin says the e-mails reflect Palin’s evolution as a politician. He, in effect, defends her against criticisms of being secretive because leaks, according to the e-mails, prompt her to have fewer people in the loop while “thinking out loud.”
Of course, this doesn’t seem to sit well with CNN anchor T.J. Holmes – after all, we can’t have a witch hunt if we can’t find the witch. As a result, Holmes prods Griffin, asking about allegations of Palin being thin-skinned with the media and he inquires about the whole issue of “Troopergate” involving her ex-brother-in-law. Holmes, by his questions, seems to be seeking a curse on Palin. Griffin gives a blessing instead, saying there is nothing about Troopergate uncovered so far and there were no cheap shots against the press. If anything, upon hearing criticism of her staff on a radio talk show, Griffin says Palin wrote that she wished the criticisms were directed at her instead of her staff.
On another issue, perhaps one might think Palin may be showing a sharpness when she writes about something as being “unacceptable.” What is unacceptable? It’s that she has not been getting timely information about the times of troop deployments from Alaska nor funerals of Alaskans killed in the wars. As a result, Palin complained that she had not been able to attend the funerals, nor see the troops off. “I do want to get to those,” she wrote.
So there it was: the Big Report on Sarah Palin from the CNN Special Investigation Unit. The whole thing, of course, was designed to curse Sarah Palin. But Drew Griffin could only bless. I wonder if anchor T. J. Holmes was thinking what Balak, king of Moab, said after his encounters with Baalam: “I called you to curse my enemies and, behold, you have altogether blessed them these three times.”
Friday, June 3, 2011
Joplin. Again.
Second trip to Joplin with a group from our church. Teamed up with my friend Byron Morgan and about eight other guys to remove downed trees. Operated out of Calvary Baptist Church near Joplin, whose facilities have become a warehouse: classrooms filled with food, paper goods, bottled water, etc. Eight semi trailers in the parking lot being unloaded with supplies.
Our team went to an address where we were supposed to remove a tree that had fallen against a house but couldn’t help there: found we needed aerial equipment and professional skills to do the job without causing more damage. Cruised the streets a bit to see if anyone needed tree removal – those that did declined our help because they were waiting for insurance adjusters to view damage. Came upon a family in distinctive Mennonite or Amish dress and assisted them in their efforts to clean up someone’s residential property: cutting up and removing damaged garage walls, removing debris from yard. About 20-25% of the roof of the house was gone and contents of the kitchen and probably more had been sucked up through the hole. Despite the destruction of his property, the homeowner repeatedly said others in the city were much worse off. Tough Ozarkers…
In the afternoon we went to what was left of an apartment complex in the real ground zero of the tornado path. We were supposed to help a woman by lifting walls so she could find personal items. If you think it’s hard to find the right unit in an unfamiliar apartment complex, try doing it when the complex is rubble. Finally found the place and waded through debris, unstable boards, nails, and trash to get to where we could cut and lift the walls. There was little for the former resident to find: a few kitchen items, a child’s toy. But she was positive, thanked us for our help and said she would continue working through the heat and dust to find what she could. Meanwhile, in the same apartment complex we tried to remove some debris so an old gentleman could retrieve a buried file cabinet but he said we would probably need heavy equipment to do the job. He was right – dangerous situation on the second floor of what was left of the building. However, one of our guys managed to rescue some military medals from under the debris.
Sights around Joplin:
--Although the scene is becoming more familiar, it is impossible to adjust to it. One cannot get used to such destruction.
--Got close to St. John’s hospital. Like others have said, it looks like an internal bomb had gone off. Hanging on the side of the building, however, is a giant American flag. There are flags flying throughout the tornado’s path and on one block someone had placed tiny American flags in front of each heavily damaged home.
--Plywood sheets in front of destroyed homes are spray-painted with messages like “All OK,” or “We’re OK.”
--Some homes look like the backs of doll houses: a wall is ripped away and one can see rooms inside, including one residence where items on kitchen cabinets are visible, although jumbled.
A Boston Globe column by Kevin Cullen quoted FEMA Deputy Administrator Richie Serino saying he had never seen anything like what he has seen in Joplin. And that’s from a guy who is a self-described former “street medic” to tough areas of Boston. Yet Serino was amazed by the resilience of people and how a family who had lost everything, including a great-grandmother, told him to go help other people because they were hurting more.
That’s the spirit of tough Ozarkers: thanks for the help but others are worse off.
Our team went to an address where we were supposed to remove a tree that had fallen against a house but couldn’t help there: found we needed aerial equipment and professional skills to do the job without causing more damage. Cruised the streets a bit to see if anyone needed tree removal – those that did declined our help because they were waiting for insurance adjusters to view damage. Came upon a family in distinctive Mennonite or Amish dress and assisted them in their efforts to clean up someone’s residential property: cutting up and removing damaged garage walls, removing debris from yard. About 20-25% of the roof of the house was gone and contents of the kitchen and probably more had been sucked up through the hole. Despite the destruction of his property, the homeowner repeatedly said others in the city were much worse off. Tough Ozarkers…
In the afternoon we went to what was left of an apartment complex in the real ground zero of the tornado path. We were supposed to help a woman by lifting walls so she could find personal items. If you think it’s hard to find the right unit in an unfamiliar apartment complex, try doing it when the complex is rubble. Finally found the place and waded through debris, unstable boards, nails, and trash to get to where we could cut and lift the walls. There was little for the former resident to find: a few kitchen items, a child’s toy. But she was positive, thanked us for our help and said she would continue working through the heat and dust to find what she could. Meanwhile, in the same apartment complex we tried to remove some debris so an old gentleman could retrieve a buried file cabinet but he said we would probably need heavy equipment to do the job. He was right – dangerous situation on the second floor of what was left of the building. However, one of our guys managed to rescue some military medals from under the debris.
Sights around Joplin:
--Although the scene is becoming more familiar, it is impossible to adjust to it. One cannot get used to such destruction.
--Got close to St. John’s hospital. Like others have said, it looks like an internal bomb had gone off. Hanging on the side of the building, however, is a giant American flag. There are flags flying throughout the tornado’s path and on one block someone had placed tiny American flags in front of each heavily damaged home.
--Plywood sheets in front of destroyed homes are spray-painted with messages like “All OK,” or “We’re OK.”
--Some homes look like the backs of doll houses: a wall is ripped away and one can see rooms inside, including one residence where items on kitchen cabinets are visible, although jumbled.
A Boston Globe column by Kevin Cullen quoted FEMA Deputy Administrator Richie Serino saying he had never seen anything like what he has seen in Joplin. And that’s from a guy who is a self-described former “street medic” to tough areas of Boston. Yet Serino was amazed by the resilience of people and how a family who had lost everything, including a great-grandmother, told him to go help other people because they were hurting more.
That’s the spirit of tough Ozarkers: thanks for the help but others are worse off.
Joplin...
Went with a group from our church to do disaster relief in Joplin today. The scene is unbelievable. Unbelievable. Photos do not do it justice. Looks like Nagasaki and Hiroshima following the atomic bombs. Or the old photos of World War I forests decimated by artillery fire – same thing in Joplin except with toothpicks (lumber) scattered around the bases of the stripped trees.
Random scenes:
Looking onto a valley and a hillside: destruction as far as the eye can see.
A Burger King leveled except for the playground in the front which was still standing.
The landscape flattened except for a few stripped trees and utility bucket cranes attempting to put power lines back together.
Demolished shopping centers. How many survivors now without work at this intersection? Hundreds? A thousand?
The sheer length of the path of total destruction – miles and miles.
Helping a family move out of their condemned house. On their block was typical tornado damage: torn roofs, broken windows, downed trees. But stand in the street and look two blocks away: a sea of lumber and a few naked trees, the Nagasaki and Hiroshima of Joplin. I’ve seen tornado havoc but nothing like this.
We’re stopped in traffic and I gaze at a pile of debris by the roadside. I spot what looks like a commercial grade sink in the mess. And a large roof fan. And classic old wooden white chairs mixed in the rubble. Was this a restaurant? Somebody’s nice old time family-style restaurant?
A boarded up house has “Thanks 4 the help” spray painted on one of the sheets of plywood. And it flies an American flag. Another pile of rubble has a Texas flag draped on it.
Food, supplies pouring in from everywhere. Calvary Baptist Church, our base of operations, hosted a Tyson’s semi truck which unloaded chicken to be grilled in the church parking lot then distributed throughout the community.
Lots of volunteers, many from Northwest Arkansas. Lots of college-age and high school age people pitching in.
My wife, a nurse, talked with another local nurse or two: horrifying stories of how the tornado sucked nurses and patients out of St. Johns Hospital. Local radio station running ongoing coverage: people calling in looking for missing loved ones.
A big need for Joplin: cash.
And prayer.
Random scenes:
Looking onto a valley and a hillside: destruction as far as the eye can see.
A Burger King leveled except for the playground in the front which was still standing.
The landscape flattened except for a few stripped trees and utility bucket cranes attempting to put power lines back together.
Demolished shopping centers. How many survivors now without work at this intersection? Hundreds? A thousand?
The sheer length of the path of total destruction – miles and miles.
Helping a family move out of their condemned house. On their block was typical tornado damage: torn roofs, broken windows, downed trees. But stand in the street and look two blocks away: a sea of lumber and a few naked trees, the Nagasaki and Hiroshima of Joplin. I’ve seen tornado havoc but nothing like this.
We’re stopped in traffic and I gaze at a pile of debris by the roadside. I spot what looks like a commercial grade sink in the mess. And a large roof fan. And classic old wooden white chairs mixed in the rubble. Was this a restaurant? Somebody’s nice old time family-style restaurant?
A boarded up house has “Thanks 4 the help” spray painted on one of the sheets of plywood. And it flies an American flag. Another pile of rubble has a Texas flag draped on it.
Food, supplies pouring in from everywhere. Calvary Baptist Church, our base of operations, hosted a Tyson’s semi truck which unloaded chicken to be grilled in the church parking lot then distributed throughout the community.
Lots of volunteers, many from Northwest Arkansas. Lots of college-age and high school age people pitching in.
My wife, a nurse, talked with another local nurse or two: horrifying stories of how the tornado sucked nurses and patients out of St. Johns Hospital. Local radio station running ongoing coverage: people calling in looking for missing loved ones.
A big need for Joplin: cash.
And prayer.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Creek of Consciousness
We still have a drive in movie theater here in Northwest Arkansas. Of course, their triple feature of every winter is about to endits annual run. By the way, that’s not a wrong spelling you see: it’s art. I’m sure everyone would say so if it played at the festivals at Sundance, Telluride, and Warsaw…Top o’ the mornin’ for St. Patricks Day today. Looking at some old 8mm movies last night from the ‘50s and there were shots of my great-grandmother and great aunt: two delightful sisters from Ireland…Netflix has been providing me with some old Route 66 TV shows from some fifty years ago. Two guys drifting around the country in a Corvette. Amazingly literate show with incredible location shots from the country we used to be. Speaking of which, the show demonstrates how times have changed: crisis of an episode I recently watched was whether or not a boy of about 12 would lose faith in God because his father died…Speaking of a 12-year-old boy, I met a bright sixth grader yesterday who has been labeled a “troublemaker” by his teachers. Why? Drugs? Smart mouth? No, worse. This polite honor student is a conservative. He got sent to the principal’s office a few days ago because he voiced opinions contrary to the Establishment’s view on multiculturalism…Meanwhile, I see President Obama has come out against school bullies. And yet he continues to support the teachers unions…
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Mr. Harris Goes to Little Rock
Justin Harris is a nice guy.
A freshman Arkansas state representative, Justin is unassuming, speaks rather quietly, and looks younger than his actual age in his mid-30s. When approached by a constituent or someone else, Justin’s eyes are directly on the individual –you won’t see them darting around the room looking for someone more important to sidle up to.
He cares about people and he’s a genuinely nice guy.
Yet, Nice Guy Justin had his picture on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Times twice this week, both times as the result of controversy.
That’s because he has gone to Little Rock to act on his convictions. Make those Convictions, with a capital C. And he won’t be pushed around because of it.
One would think as a legislative newbie Justin would play it safe and introduce bills about repainting highway welcome centers or placing new historical markers. Stuff like that.
Not Justin. He was barely unpacked in Little Rock when he introduced a bill that would ban illegal immigrants from receiving state funding except in emergencies. How’s that for a first pitch in the AAA league of politics?
The bill made a splash in the House. Proponents burned up phone lines and e-mail channels cajoling, pressuring, and in at least one case, even trying to shame Republican legislators to be co-sponsors. But the bill died in a party line vote in committee.
But not without repercussions to Justin -- he learned Democrats were poking around in his business affairs. He and his wife operate a Christian pre-school in West Fork. Last year, during the election, his opponent attempted to paint the Harrises as skimming off and pocketing big amounts of tuition the state provides for poor students. Of course, the money actually went to things like teachers’ salaries, operating expenses, things like that, but why let the facts get in the way of a juicy scandal story?
As a result of the immigrant bill, pressure increased on Justin. He was approached by a high-powered lobbyist who told him word was going around that there were a dozen children of illegal immigrants in the pre- school. Justin took that as a threat and told the lobbyist in no uncertain terms that by law Justin could not inquire about the legal status of children in his school. One witness to the encounter reported never recalling the lobbyist being dressed down like that.
Justin later learned that Sen. Sue Madison (D-Fayetteville) had been poking around the Department of Human Services to see if Justin’s school had any illegal aliens.
In response, Justin is introducing a bill that would require any state office to make a disclosure when a legislator inquires about the business affairs of another legislator.
Is Justin playing hardball? Not really
Despite the controversies in recent days, he reports discussing possible areas of agreement with Senator Madison on legislation. And, without backing down on his position, he apologized to the lobbyist for the tone he took in their encounter.
After all, Justin Harris went to Little Rock as a man of conviction.
But he’s still a nice guy.
A freshman Arkansas state representative, Justin is unassuming, speaks rather quietly, and looks younger than his actual age in his mid-30s. When approached by a constituent or someone else, Justin’s eyes are directly on the individual –you won’t see them darting around the room looking for someone more important to sidle up to.
He cares about people and he’s a genuinely nice guy.
Yet, Nice Guy Justin had his picture on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Times twice this week, both times as the result of controversy.
That’s because he has gone to Little Rock to act on his convictions. Make those Convictions, with a capital C. And he won’t be pushed around because of it.
One would think as a legislative newbie Justin would play it safe and introduce bills about repainting highway welcome centers or placing new historical markers. Stuff like that.
Not Justin. He was barely unpacked in Little Rock when he introduced a bill that would ban illegal immigrants from receiving state funding except in emergencies. How’s that for a first pitch in the AAA league of politics?
The bill made a splash in the House. Proponents burned up phone lines and e-mail channels cajoling, pressuring, and in at least one case, even trying to shame Republican legislators to be co-sponsors. But the bill died in a party line vote in committee.
But not without repercussions to Justin -- he learned Democrats were poking around in his business affairs. He and his wife operate a Christian pre-school in West Fork. Last year, during the election, his opponent attempted to paint the Harrises as skimming off and pocketing big amounts of tuition the state provides for poor students. Of course, the money actually went to things like teachers’ salaries, operating expenses, things like that, but why let the facts get in the way of a juicy scandal story?
As a result of the immigrant bill, pressure increased on Justin. He was approached by a high-powered lobbyist who told him word was going around that there were a dozen children of illegal immigrants in the pre- school. Justin took that as a threat and told the lobbyist in no uncertain terms that by law Justin could not inquire about the legal status of children in his school. One witness to the encounter reported never recalling the lobbyist being dressed down like that.
Justin later learned that Sen. Sue Madison (D-Fayetteville) had been poking around the Department of Human Services to see if Justin’s school had any illegal aliens.
In response, Justin is introducing a bill that would require any state office to make a disclosure when a legislator inquires about the business affairs of another legislator.
Is Justin playing hardball? Not really
Despite the controversies in recent days, he reports discussing possible areas of agreement with Senator Madison on legislation. And, without backing down on his position, he apologized to the lobbyist for the tone he took in their encounter.
After all, Justin Harris went to Little Rock as a man of conviction.
But he’s still a nice guy.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Conservatives and Sarah Palin
James Lewis has an excellent article in today's American Thinker entitled "Sarah Palin's Charisma."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/sarah_palins_charisma.html
Under the name of "Motown Mike," I posted the following in the comments section:
Leftist attacks on Sarah Palin are to be expected; I am concerned about the uninformed slights from conservatives:
“She’s a quitter. Look what she did with her governorship.” Oh? Did you read her book to learn why? Did you hear what she said on the day she announced her resignation? People don’t understand that people like Sarah actually say what they mean.
“She has no experience.” In 2008, Governor Palin’s experience outweighed Obama’s. And she’s been politically active since, credited with lifting several dozen Republicans to victory in the recent election.
“She has no gravitas.” Is that what you mean or is it that maybe you really have an issue with a president who is a beautiful and feminine woman? True, she’s not an intellectual. But unlike many Ivy League posers, she is smart.
“She’s another Barry Goldwater.” Please. It’s not 1964. That’s Democratic retrothinking -- that we live in those days of three TV networks, dominant Time and Newsweek, strong unions, and everyone shopping at Sears and grabbing their lunch pails to trudge off to work at Ford or put on their suits to go downtown to a sterile office. Times have changed. Besides, Goldwater never Twittered.
“The media will eat her alive.” When? She’s been beating them at their own game: she coined the term “death panels” and now leftists like Paul Krugman are using it. And when David Letterman went after her daughter, Momma Grizzly did a pretty good job of making him look like a dirty old man.
“She’s not electable.” That is the key question. And within the past week or so she herself said she is studying that issue. That’s political realism. That’s the mark of a real leader.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/sarah_palins_charisma.html
Under the name of "Motown Mike," I posted the following in the comments section:
Leftist attacks on Sarah Palin are to be expected; I am concerned about the uninformed slights from conservatives:
“She’s a quitter. Look what she did with her governorship.” Oh? Did you read her book to learn why? Did you hear what she said on the day she announced her resignation? People don’t understand that people like Sarah actually say what they mean.
“She has no experience.” In 2008, Governor Palin’s experience outweighed Obama’s. And she’s been politically active since, credited with lifting several dozen Republicans to victory in the recent election.
“She has no gravitas.” Is that what you mean or is it that maybe you really have an issue with a president who is a beautiful and feminine woman? True, she’s not an intellectual. But unlike many Ivy League posers, she is smart.
“She’s another Barry Goldwater.” Please. It’s not 1964. That’s Democratic retrothinking -- that we live in those days of three TV networks, dominant Time and Newsweek, strong unions, and everyone shopping at Sears and grabbing their lunch pails to trudge off to work at Ford or put on their suits to go downtown to a sterile office. Times have changed. Besides, Goldwater never Twittered.
“The media will eat her alive.” When? She’s been beating them at their own game: she coined the term “death panels” and now leftists like Paul Krugman are using it. And when David Letterman went after her daughter, Momma Grizzly did a pretty good job of making him look like a dirty old man.
“She’s not electable.” That is the key question. And within the past week or so she herself said she is studying that issue. That’s political realism. That’s the mark of a real leader.
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