Yes, the “under God” portion of the Pledge of Allegiance was inserted during the Red Scare. And the origin of the rest of the pledge is suspect, too. But it’s a stretch to claim that asking schoolkids to recite the pledge (and not forcing them to say “under God”) is a “coercive requirement to affirm God,” as U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled Wednesday. Nonetheless, here is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court — likely led by John Roberts — will resolve this dispute and not dismiss the challenge on a technicality, as it did with an earlier case.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here is conservative commentator Peggy Noonan’s take on the federal response to Katrina from today’s Wall Street Journal:
“When an American city descends into lawlessness, and as in this case that lawlessness hampers or prevents the rescue of innocents, you send in the 82nd Airborne. You move your troops. You impose and sustain order. You protect life and property. Then you leave. That’s what government is for. It’s what Republicans are for. The White House didn’t move quickly, and that was the failure from which all failure flowed. The administration was slow to see the size, scope, variations and implications of the disaster because it was not receiving and responding to reliable reports from military staff on the ground. Because they weren’t there. When the administration moved, it moved, and well. But it took too long.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Maybe because it’s been 11 years since the last time the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings for a Supreme Court opening, the crushing monotony of this week’s proceeding has come as a surprise. Neither party’s senators have distinguished themselves (except maybe as brownnosers, bullies and windbags). After many hours of what Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., called “this Kabuki dance,” little is still known about what a John Roberts court would be like. But Roberts certainly deserves a prize for his stamina and patience, as well as his ability to say “no comment” in so many elegantly varied ways.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Before he lost his assignment last week and gave up his job as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Monday, Michael Brown wrote in an e-mail to relatives and friends: “I don’t mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it) but it is really wearing out the family. No wonder people don’t go into public service. This country is devouring itself, the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves.” Yes, it’s regrettable that public servants’ families get singed by the heat. But Brown’s problem wasn’t that he tried to serve the public and got clobbered for doing his job. He simply didn’t do his job.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
I’m glad that the owners of St. Rita’s Nursing Home near New Orleans, where 34 residents died awaiting evacuation, have been charged with negligent homicide. So should some other nursing-home operators and businesses who were entrusted to care for vulnerable citizens, yet didn’t. An estimated 70 percent of the New Orleans area’s nursing homes were not evacuated, The New York Times reported, even though they are required by law to have detailed evacuation plans and signed evacuation contracts with private transportation companies. Throw the book at them.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
When it comes to farm subsidies, overwhelmingly Republican rural Kansas has always been willing to set aside the GOP principle favoring free markets over government handouts. But a new W.K. Kellogg Foundation poll of voters in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota shows a strong willingness to draw the line on subsidies at $250,000 per farm, with 67 percent supporting payment limits (as a majority oppose cuts in USDA jobs, nutrition, environmental and commodity subsidies programs). Despite the Kansas Farm Bureau’s opposition to caps, the time may well be up on these quarter-million-dollar payouts from Uncle Sam. Good riddance.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
While New Orleans residents were suffering and dying in the Superdome and convention center, the National Guard took Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., to his house and waited for about an hour while he gathered personal belongings, ABC News reported. Then after the 5-ton military truck got stuck in Jefferson’s yard and a helicopter spent 45 minutes deciding whether to do an air rescue, a second truck had to come to get the congressman and his belongings.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
