COLUMN | D.Cs venerable greasy spoon needs to rethink its association with the comic.
Bens Chili Bowl in Washington, DC, has a problem, a Bill Cosby problem. Cosby is a hero at Bens. He ate there when he attended Howard University nearby (long ago) and he has returned for special events honoring the informal restaurant and its owners. Now at age 77, Cosby is in one of the worst hot seats a man can find himself in, accused of drugging and raping numerous women over many years. So far, Bens is sticking by Cosby, telling WUSA-TV Cosby can still get a free meal anytime he shows up.
Bickering could threaten the GOPs mission to appeal to a broader electorate and maintain stable governance.
Okay, how terrible and dictatorial are Obamas announced steps on immigration? Depends on which side of the fence you sit on, of course. He says he is merely prioritizing law enforcement, something that happens every day as the police go after bigger crimes, passing over small ones. The Republicans will be having a fit, of course, and they will say that this ruins any chance of cooperation once they take over the Senate. Well, they can say anything they want and they are going to have to cooperate on some things, like keeping the government open, if they dont want to look like jerks to most of the American public. Here is President Obamas speech as presented by the White House and offered here as a public service by http://terryreport.com
One of the grand ironies of American politics and elections is that those people who appear to need the most help from government, those who live in the poorer states with higher unemployment and lower wages, oppose what the government tries to do. Voters consistently vote Republican for smaller government in the southern and western states out of fear that their taxes will go up. (In turn, citizens of those states benefit much more from programs like unemployment compensation, food stamps (SNAP) and Social Security. In fact, without federal support, the poor in the southern states might either be starving or in open revolt.)
This counter trend in politics is illustrated starkly in a new data map showing who is benefitting from Obamacare and where they live. About 10 million more people have health insurance now than did before the law went into effect, with the distribution higher in southern Texas (a poor area), the state of Arkansas (a poor state), eastern Oklahoma (same) and in Kentucky and West Virginia, where Obama is very unpopular because people have been convinced he is working against the coal industry.
The southern states, among the most solidly Republican, are near the bottom on measure after measure of economic well being: education, health, obesity, wages, numbers imprisoned, foreclosures, debt problems and the number of people without health insurance and many more. In earlier times, it was racism that united voters. Now, the population has been told that the federal government is a giant conspiracy against them and even determined to take away their freedom. Looking to taxes as the great fear, people turn away from demanding higher wages.
Eugene Robinson in the Wash Post writing about the late Ben Bradlee, once his boss at the paper:
He made you understand that journalism was not a career but a mission. He made you feel that how well you did your job was not just important to your own ambitions but had a real impact on society. He demanded more than you thought you could possibly deliver, and you moved heaven and earth not to disappoint him.
How wonderful that there have been, and are, people in the cynical business of news who believe such things and believe them wholeheartedly, without reserve. I have to say this: I would have given my left one to have worked for such a man. (A favorite Bradlee expression.)
New data provide a clearer picture of who gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Note: Whenever possible, The TerryReport endeavors to offer open links to sites that are locked behind a paywall. This is the case with the above link to the Times.
Running up the so called Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lots of steps to the top. It is unknown how many heart attacks have occurred there since the 1980s. It is very uncool to raise your arms in triumph at the top, but lots of people still do it. Anyone over the age of 11 who does that should be ashamed of themselves, unless they are over 80 and survive.
Ebola fears are really getting out of hand. We all need to back up, slow down and look at facts, not rumor and not rely so much on our doubts rather than our minds. Here is a clip from the Dallas Morning News about the reaction in their area, where, naturally, fears are at their highest:
Across the nation, schools announced closures, released students early, asked employees and students to stay at home and stepped up cleaning efforts after learning that students and staff may have been exposed to confirmed Ebola patients.
In Texas, Royse City ISD announced two schools would be closed Friday after being told a health care worker with two children in the district helped care for at least one of the Dallas Ebola patients. The Royse City mother has been classified as “low risk,” the district said.
Other districts ranging from Fort Worth to Garland said schools would be temporarily closed and/or disinfected because employees, parents, staff or students had been on a flight with Vinson.
In Fort Worth, the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD asked a family to isolate itself for three weeks because a family member had been on Vinsons flight.
Center City Philadelphia, as seen from the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum, October, 2014
When you are asked for your phone number or email address when buying something in a store, do you willingly comply? Do you provide other personal information just because the clerk asks for it? WARNING: anything at all can be done with that information. Once you freely give it out, you have no control over it. Compiled into a data base, the information could someday prevent you from getting a job, from getting credit or even affect your family. Here are some suggestions on how to handle these inquiries.
1. Ebola won't spread in rich countries. Until nurse Teresa Romero Ramos contracted Ebola in Madrid, the wealthy countries of Europe, North...(continued in the Post)
The New York Times editorializes against Republican efforts to suppress voting and defeat the democratic process:
THE BIG LIE BEHIND VOTER I.D. LAWS:
Election Day is three weeks off, and Republican officials and legislators around the country are battling down to the wire to preserve strict and discriminatory new voting laws that could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court, no friend to expansive voting rights, stepped in and blocked one of the worst laws, a Wisconsin statute requiring voters to show a photo ID to cast a ballot. A federal judge had struck it down in April, saying it would disproportionately prevent voting by poorer and minority citizens. Last month, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit allowed it to go into effect, even though thousands of absentee ballots had been sent out under the old rules.
The editorial continues:
Similar laws have been aggressively pushed in many states by Republican lawmakers who say they are preventing voter fraud, promoting electoral integrity and increasing voter turnout. None of that is true. There is virtually no in-person voter fraud; the purpose of these laws is to suppress voting.
TerryReport comment: Where are Americas investigative journalists? If this is what it appears to be, an open conspiracy to stop people who are likely to vote for the Democrats, then finding the proof and presenting it to the public should not be that difficult.
Two security beaches at the White House two days. Now, they are talking about screening everyone who walks on the street near the White House. This sounds crazy. There is a much easier, simpler solution.
QUOTE FOR THIS DAY from Bob Dole, 90, touring Kansas to say thank you to the people who supported him as U.S. senator, vice presidential and presidential nominee of his party. (from the Washington Post)
Some people say compromise is a bad word. he said. That means you must be a liberal. Well, Ronald Reagan told me one day, Get me 70 percent and Ill get the rest next year. He was pragmatic and he was Mr. Conservative.
Just when you think things could never get worse in terms of airline discomfort...Airbus, the big Euro consortium that makes the worlds largest commercial airliner, is trying to patent a bicycle type seat. Its real, its a possibility, its really scary. More on the airlines trying to squash the human body into smaller places at BUSINESSWEEK.
The above drawing is from a patent application submitted by Airbus. We normally attribute everything possible to the point of origin, though this story has been reported around the net on numerous publications and we arent able to provide credit to any organization that originated the story. Businessweek, credited above left, mentioned the bicycle type seat in an article about shrinking space on airliners.