A Shoe on the Freeway

Hello from Espressions, just off the square in Aurora, Nebraska, but for my money and caffeine (actually I’m having a decaf Americano, two shots) the place could be on Melrose Blvd. in my old Los Angeles neighborhood. Not only is the coffee good and the pastry sweet, I have good music and a hot spot to conduct my blogribusiness.

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I skipped the $2,100 photo op with the Veep when he was in GI, preferring to educate my kid at a later date, make a house payment next month and fill up the beast for the rest of the summer. Like I was invited. Besides, DC is one of my least favorite public people. The questions about who pays the overtime for the police are reasonable. In my mind if the vice president was making a major policy speech, you could argue the extra pay would be warranted. A fundraiser cuts a different path. Yes, he is the VP and I suppose that brings some notoriety to the city, but after Fortenberry left Lincoln with a huge bill under some similar circumstances, the question is not out of line. Last Cheney thought: So Adrian Smith beats Grand Island Mayor Jay Vavricek in the primary and then shows up at the Holiday Inn with the vice president in tow to raise some cash in the defeated mayor’s backyard. Ouch! Smith’s hometown Gering was booked?

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There’s a Murtha evisceration making the rounds on the Web. I got one yesterday. John Murtha is the veteran who was the first in Congress who had supported the Iraq invasion to say it was time to brings the troops home. Now his record as a soldier is being pounded. This is what passes for argument these days. Don’t like the guy’s point? Attack him personally, question his manhood, gut his reputation, make fun of his family. There, that ought to do it. Showed him. Some people call it swiftboating, after the clobbering John Kerry took in 2004 election about his military service aboard a Navy swiftboat. (Kerry is preparing a lawsuit to refute the questioning of military service.) It was an ugly time. Looks like it may be continuing.

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I will write about this more in print, but Grand Island has to be at the top of the list for a Congressional hearing on immigration. We have experienced seemingly part of the immigration issue, every nuance, every bit of misinformation, every polarization, every attempt to bring newcomers into the community, every opportunity to see the changes happen. Whatever side of the immigration question you find yourself, you deserve a hearing in your backyard because the story is in our backyard.

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Here’s the quote of the day from Espressions: “Procrastinate now. Don’t put it off.”
That works. Wait, maybe it doesn’t. Anyway I see menus and ice cream, so Espressions is definitely on the blog tour.

Posted by George Ayoub at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the deep recesses —

Could we construe Congress’ no call on immigration as a dither? Part of me is doing that as I write. Come on boys and girls, make a decision.

After a deep breath, consider this: Hearings across the country will reveal what seems to be taken for granted — that 90 percent of Americans are ready to send all 11 million illegal aliens back. I’m not buying that. Aside from a gauge on what we’re thinking, House and Senate members in hearings need also to consider what is the right thing to do. If we want to enforce the law down to the last immigrant, then let’s apply the law with the same vigor to tax cheats, deadbeat parents and those knuckleheads on the freeways who drive as if it’s their own private highway.

I’m not making light of our laws, but a combination of fines, deportments, better border control, and reformed paths to citizenship is more realistic. If the naturalization process takes six years or longer and is so riddled with bureaucratic nonsense, no wonder so many skip it. A better system would also ferret out bad players. A bigger fence will change only ways of beating the border, not immigration.

I’ve talked myself into thinking hearings are good thing. Let’s see who shows up and let’s hope they have a hearing here. Letting this thing fester helps no one.
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Does it seem to anyone else that the city of Grand Island simply showed up one night and claimed poverty? Three words come to mind: long range planning. I say that as a supporter of the Heartland Events Center, the primary suspect in the shortfall. It’s not that simple, I suspect.

I only wonder because by any number of other measures (receipts, construction, enthusiasm) the city seems to be bustling along. Now we’re told our middle name will be austerity for the near and far future, the place where long-range planning lives.
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Maybe I’m reading this all wrong, but the initial reception to Vice President Cheney’s visit has been a little tepid. Here in redder than red Nebraska? Go figure.

Posted by George Ayoub at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t want to wear a helmet when he rides his serious, powerful crotch rocket. Fair enough. It’s his call and he’s a grown-up, I guess.

He was splattered on the windshield of a Chrysler yesterday in downtown Pittsburgh when a 62-year old woman turned left in front of his motorcycle.

I find a little irony in the idea that Big Ben refuses to wear his motorcycle helmet but puts one on when he plays football.

His crash did give Web sites and television news programs their poll question of the evening: “Should athletes be able to ride motorcycles?” I suppose that would be the business of the team and the player and the agent and the union.

I’m sorry Roethlisberger crashed and from every indication he’s a good guy. I hope he heals and returns to the field whole and complete. But the question becomes how much of an investment the guy is if his employer allows him to do what he wants, thereby compromising his profit-making potential. It would seem professional athletes have a small window to return their enormous salaries as profit for their employers. Frankly, if Roethlisberger and his team are cool with no helmet, they are reaping the benefits of their investment. No need for anyone to wring his hands.

CNN is reporting as I write this that Bush advisor Karl Rove will not be charged in the Valerie Palme outing. Rove has testified four times in front of a grand jury about the Plame case. One indictment — that against Scooter Libby, Cheney’s right hand man — has already been returned.

Rove is a political advisor, which in and of itself may not be indictable, but some among that fraternity has stubbed its legal toe over the years. I can think of couple that should have. A few went to jail. That’s because they took the bromide “politics is a dirty business” to its lowest floor.

Rove is a champ at getting his man elected — in this case Bush — but then so what? As we have seen in the last 30 years winning has supplanted governing as the focus in Washington. Until we put the interests of more Americans before those who can foot the bill for a what passes for a winning campaign these days, we’ll probably be seeing more grand juries.

This is my third blog from out in the community, the idea being writing where the public traffics will mean good ideas and an exchange I don’t get parked at my Dilbert station in the newsroom.

That works. Most of what people want to talk about is what’s going on in their lives: family, work, weather. Policy makers in Washington, Lincoln, and around here should come out and listen.

This morning, with those I know and those I don’t, I have discussed the vagaries of coaching Little League, Mediterranean recipes, and historical interpretation. What policy makers would find is obvious: everyone is different and their ideas of what is important, while similar, are as individual as a fingerprint.

Posted by George Ayoub at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I passed on a couple opportunities to do 6-6-6 stories on Tuesday, one a birthday, the other a piece on the notoriety of the three numbers and their potential for damage.

I’m not buying it or rather didn’t. Not that I disregard all superstition. I’m as hinky as the next guy. You know, noticing black cats in my path; aware of Friday the 13th more than is probably necessary; standing too close to the hygienically-challenged. You get the picture.

Of course, 6-6-6, with its biblical origins carries more weight than walking under a ladder (not smart simply for the physics involved) and losing your rabbit’s foot.

The world already has enough evil that we needn’t read the tea leaves or turn the Tarots to see what’s up. Kind of reminds me of the current debate in Senate. If that august group would open a window, it would find war, high fuel costs, and immigration issues about to spill. So what are they talking about? Whom you can marry. Please. This has no chance of passing because too many Americans see it for what it is: a political ploy to deflect criticism of a messy run of policies. We’ve already decided this anyway.

We can see the forest but wonder if those in the political arena (the Senate in this case) keep planting trees.

Maybe they see something in the pattern or the numbers or the different shades of green. Maybe it’s policy making by superstition.

Or maybe they simply don’t get it. Happy 6-6-6.

Posted by George Ayoub at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The coffee is strong and tasty as I blog from Grounds to Go, my second office. Nothing like a Friday to dredge from the deep recesses. To whit:

Central Nebraska forgot to put its free admission where its votes were. “Forrest Gump” won the Independent’s Movie Madness tournament, but of the three shows than ran for free at the Grand last weekend, the Gumpster attracted the fewest folks. Don’t look a gift movie in the mouth.

We reversed out fortunes, actually. The Grand’s three choices were “Gump," “The Shawshank Redemption,” which was second, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which came in third. But at the box office (it was free!) “Raiders” nearly doubled “Gump” and was well ahead of a runner-up “Shawshank.”

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Pete Letheby’s Friday column cut to the chase about those using the immigration issue to traffic in hate. His reference to Woody Guthrie’s music reminded me of the haunting beauty of Nancy Griffith’s rendition of Guthrie and Martin Hoffman’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” Read the piece. Listen to the music. I wrote a few weeks ago about keeping the debate in the reasonable range the president called the “rational middle.” Pete’s column reminds us that some of loudest voices will be neither.

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In my Friday column I recommended some summer reading including “Hippo Eats Dwarf,” which details the hoaxes and other crap floating in cyberspace that often take on not only lives of their own but a patina of truth. Readers often send me stories they have found or have been sent to them. These tales are often spectacular, gruesome, or exceedingly graphic. And completely false. Those of us who use the Internet extensively (or anyone for that matter) need to develop what the book calls “Reality Rules,” guides to sanity and the truth. Maybe we should even throw in some principles of logic along the way. Alex Boese, who wrote “Hippo,” reminds us that just because it is on the Internet does not make it the truth. To which I would add the 1,000 Person Rule: If 1,000 people say a stupid thing, it’s still a stupid thing. Yes, I know. This is on the Internet.

I’ll be blogging from Scooter’s next Tuesday afternoon.

Posted by George Ayoub at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)