Tuesday Roundup: Stuff Is Expensive

It seems that just about everyone's running some piece on their hindsight insight about Rove's resignation, but hey — I have
editorial privilege, and I want to lead off with this: I guess that overextended wars we never should have been in can temporarily take the news eye away from petty, non-democracy-saving things like the economy, but eventually they'll come back to bite you.

Yes, no matter how we try, we can't seem to get rid of the inevitability of inflation. Chalk it up there with death and taxes. And though overall inflation is at a not-too-shabby 2.7 percent, food prices rose 4.1 percent overall, with double-digit (!) percentage increases for basic staples like chicken, milk, juice, and eggs. White bread is up 9.6%. This is no news to those who have been shopping on tight budgets in the past year, of course, and combined with current gas prices it makes for a pretty good reason to be very down about the economy. Add to this the fact that fewer than half of eligible families get food stamps, and the economic picture for the lower class isn't exactly rosy.

From the McClatchy article:

Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.

“They cite inflation?” Bush asked, adding that, “I happen to believe the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism.”

I don't doubt that the war has clouded people's optimism. But there's an immediacy to the struggle to feed your family that over half a decade of being beat down by a fake war can't quite match. It may not be as violent or as bloody, but the fight fought every day by the vast majority of America that makes up the middle and lower classes to keep their family fed is just as present.

So, anyway, apparently this Karl Rove character is leaving office at the end of the month. My first instinct wasn't overly excited. What, the Republican chief strategist has now left an advisory position at a lame-duck presidency? Great, just what I wanted: Bush's architect available as a free agent to whatever Republican wants him. You'll pardon me if I don't throw a party at his departure.

Well, turns out the Chron was not only thinking what I was thinking, but they came up with a name to add to the suspicion. They tied together Karl Rove's three recent appearances at fundraisers for the man he helped elect to the Texas Attorney General's Office and state Supreme Court: junior Senator John Cornyn. Time to worry? Perhaps not.

"I don't see him taking on any sort of regular efforts, but I do plan on calling him from time to time and asking his advice. He's a friend and somebody whose advice I welcome," Cornyn said.

So most likely, the two Chron stories in as many days trying to make Rep. Rick Noriega look bad, one citing a fairly innocuous financial report mistake made by many Texas legislators with the title, "Dozens of lawmakers failing to meet ethics rules," and another zinging him for calling himself a "regular Texan, of middle-class means," after which they report that he not only makes over three times the state median income, but more than John Cornyn as well, are just coincidences. Along with Cornyn getting good press for a bill strengthening the Freedom of Information Act from the same newspaper. Coincidences. Right?

I don't know if those are flukes or not, but it's certainly time to buckle down if we're going to have a shot at replacing Cornyn with someone who will better represent Texas in the Senate. This is the big leagues; we better stop playing AAA ball, not just in this race but in every contested race.

To finish off this topic with a quote from McClatchy:

Although the White House dismissed the possibility that Rove will work for any candidate next year, Mark McKinnon, a former Bush media strategist, said Rove likely will become "guru-in-chief" for Republicans in 2008.

"I think Karl has done all that he can do for this White House, and he can now step out and have an impact on the 2008 election," said McKinnon, vice chairman of Public Strategies, an Austin-based consulting firm. "All the campaigns will be seeking his counsel."

To go back to the topic of "things that everyone but Republicans in government knows aren't going well" — a rich tapestry of a topic if I've ever seen one — Texas charter schools are, once again, doing remarkably poorly compared to state public schools. 16 percent of charter schools were rated "academically unacceptable" by the Texas Education Agency this year, as compared to four percent of regular public schools. And this is even while the same charter schools are the most egregious offenders when it comes to cheating on state tests. Isn't it odd how so much emphasis is put on closing down underperforming public schools, and yet underperforming charter schools, which the state government has always had the power to review and close down based on underperformance, don't get closed down? I suppose a cynic would say that's less "odd" and more "a two-faced attempt to undermine the public school system," but hey — we're positive guys here at the Blue.

Finally today, an Arlington church decided to rescind their offer to host a funeral service for Cecil H. Sinclair, a Navy veteran of Desert Storm who died after a procedure preparing him for a heart transplant. Oh, and did I mention he was gay? The church balked at the service, which they claimed would have a slide show with images of men "hugging and kissing" (the family denies that there were any such images, and you'd think they'd know), and would have had a performance by the Turtle Creek Chorale, an award-winning chorus of which Sinclair was a member — oh, yeah, and I keep forgetting, which cites as part of their mission statement, "celebrating a positive image of the gay community." The church's pastor was quoted in the Star-Telegram story as saying, ""... We love the homosexual but cannot condone the homosexual lifestyle. We could not allow homosexuality to be glorified in this house of worship." I don't know, but it sounds to me like the funeral was going to be conducted like, well, a funeral. This isn't "love the homosexual but disapprove of the lifestyle." This is a little more like "love the homosexual — but not in my backyard."

I ran into an old friend yesterday, and the issue of gay rights in Texas came up. I mentioned that Texas wasn't exactly the richest soil for GLBT rights, and that if any change were to come from that, it would be over a long period of changing hearts and minds. She voiced confidence that we'd see that change in our lifetimes, though: "It's not just going away." That stuck in my mind. Whereas, say, the issue of gun rights is one that Texans are just as adamant on as they were fifty years ago, Dallas came within inches of electing an openly gay mayor just a few months back. Change is happening. It is inevitable that, at some point, Texans will have to acknowledge that society includes the GLBT contingent, just as it does Hispanics, blacks, and a number of other minority groups, and that no matter what their feelings about those minority groups, functioning in society means accepting them as equal members. Here's to hoping.