The Gadfly Hits The Wall

Obama's Recession? Radio/TV talker Sean Hannity regularly refers to the "Obama recession." Locally, a former Republican legislator makes the same reference. While President Obama, now past the 100-day mark in office, deserves lots of derisive labels for some of his decisions and criticism for staffing the government with way-out lefties and his plans for dealing with the recession, it is beyond a stretch to label the recession as his. Recessions are like ocean liners (trite cliche coming now); takes a long time for them to turn and a long time for them to turn again. Truth is it began on George Bush's watch and it's been like (trite cliche again) a snowball rolling downhill for at least eight months.

Media Hysteria: It's as if our neighbors are dropping dead on their doorsteps by the hour. The news media hysteria over the "swine flu" is beyond silly. And when the first diagnosed case in Oklahoma was found, it was cause for "breaking news" bulletins. It's as bad as the young anchorette referring not long ago to a lever-action hunting rifle as "an assault weapon," her facial expression and tone indicating the end of the world is near. Or the from-another-state anchor referring to "Stand Waddie" instead of "Stand Waitie." Dumbing down seems to aptly describe the state of TV news these days.

Stuff It: Some Democrats are of the opinion that conservative bloggers (is that a trite cliche?), radio talk show hosts, Republican members of Congress and others all take their discussion points from a huge GOP list written, some of them believe, by Rush Limbaugh. That's a crock. These nattering nabobs of conspiracy (now, that's a cliche), despite having helped put their man Obama into The White House, spend much of their time savaging George Bush just as the British did to the body of William "Braveheart" Wallace of Scottish legend.

Turn The Saddle Around: Local Democrats now calling for Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee's head need to turn the saddles on their donkeys around and reflect on their silence when serious crimes by Democrats were revealed. Where were these now-advocates-of-total-disclosure, for example, when Jeff McMahan was revealed as a scoundrel? And Mike Mass. And Gene Stipe. And Carroll Fisher. You'll find no defense of Republican Coffee's questionable handling of his taxes due and his traffic tickets here, but nothing in his case rises anywhere near the level of a crime. If we convicted politicians for poor judgement, there'd been no end to the procession.

Loves It: While we can be confident that former Congressman J. C. Watts loves the media attention about a possible run for the GOP nomination for governor, there's reason to believe the speculation is just that...speculation. Watts left Congress seven years ago, he said, to make more money for his family. By all accounts, he has done that, parlaying his celebrity into a lobbying company with numerous clients and seats on the boards of companies that pay directors for serving. He's in the midst of trying to launch a black television network (labeled by some as "Obamacam"). So now he's going to give all that up to again seek office, one that pays ($147,000) less than a member of Congress is paid ($174,000)? Speaking of Watts: How many stories can the newspapers print that quote him as saying, "I haven't decided yet?"

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