WHY THIS REPORTER WAS EJECTED
Tallahassee
Democrat senior writer Stephen Price on Friday
was singled out and asked to leave a media area at the Panama City rally of presidential candidate
Sen. John McCain.
Price was among
at least three other reporters, and the
only black reporter, surrounding McCain's campaign bus — Gov. Charlie Crist and his fiancee, Carole
Rome, were already aboard — when a member of the Arizona senator's security detail asked the
reporter to identify himself. Price had shown his media credentials to enter
the area.
Price showed his
employee identification as well as his credentials for the Friday event.
"I explained
I was with the state press, but the Secret Service man said that didn't matter
and that I would have to go," Price said.
When another
reporter asked why Price was being removed, she too was led out of the area.
Other state reporters remained. . . .
F The McCain campaign explained it was just
a coincidence that the one reporter targeted for ejection was also the one
reporter who was black.
As it happens, this incident took place just hours after McCain
campaign manager Rick Davis said on the Today Show, “John McCain has fought his
entire life for equal rights for everyone” (not including people like me and
Charles, whose equal rights, as noted Friday, he fights
to suppress).
WHY EVEN A McCAIN BACKER THINKS McCAIN’S
ALL WET ON TAXES
Because – advocating a third term for Bush’s tax policy – he is all wet on taxes (wetter still in proposing to cut the gasoline
tax); but it’s rare to find a McCain backer who will make the case publicly, as
Ben Stein does for the New York Times
here:
. . .
Mr. McCain wants to extend many of
President Bush’s income tax cuts and to reduce taxes on corporations. But the facts of life are that we have a large
budget deficit . . .
[and] every category of federal spending is likely to grow. . . .
The question is
simply this: Do we want to step up to the plate like responsible people — I
hate to say this, but the last responsible people who actually did this were
named Bill and Bob (Clinton and Rubin) — and shoulder our responsibilities? Or
do we just kick the can down the road a bit and leave the mess for our children
and their children?
And if we do raise taxes, should people who are barely getting
by pay them or should people who are getting by very nicely pay them?
I don’t like taxing rich people or anyone I like. But our government — run by the people we
elected — needs the revenue. Do we pay
it or do we make our children pay it? Dwight
D. Eisenhower — and Bill Clinton — knew the
answer: You behave responsibly and balance the budget except in rare circumstances.
Somehow, Republicans
(and I am a Republican) have forgotten this basic lesson of adulthood. . . .
SO TELL ME AGAIN WHY YOU’RE A REPUBLICAN?
I agree with a lot of what Ben Stein writes and admire the way he
writes it. (And who didn’t love Ferris Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?) So, as I argue
in the Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin, people like Ben Stein may only think they’re Republicans. They are welcome on our side any time.
(One
place I disagree with Stein: you don’t
need to balance the budget, you just need to have our National Debt grow slower, in most years, than the economy as a
whole. The borrow-and-spend Republicans seem
not to get this. When Reagan/Bush took
over, the Debt was a manageable 30% of our GDP. When this Bush leaves office, it will be a
scary 75% – and headed higher. They have
taken us trillions into hock . . . not
to make investments that cry out to be made (like repairing our bridges or
encouraging alternative energy research) but, rather, to give the rich a
massive tax cut and to invade Iraq.
There was no crying need to give the
rich a tax cut. There was no crying need
to invade Iraq. But we borrowed trillions to do both anyway.)
WHY ALL THE McCAIN BASHING?
Jason T.: “Please
stop the political onslaught. I’m losing
enthusiasm for someone who beats me over the head constantly with their
politics.”
F I’m sick of it, too. But with only 13% of the country thinking we’re
on the right track, it seems to me it’s worth our doing all we can to get back
on the RIGHT track.
After 5 billion years of evolution, this miracle we call humankind
faces its make-or-break century. I
think we owe it to the thousands of generations preceding us, who had it far
less easy . . . and to the generations we hope will follow and thrive . . . to
be informed and make good choices.
Citizenship is hard work.
I know this sounds corny or sanctimonious or melodramatic or
preachy or just way too serious. But too
much is at stake not to participate.
Tomorrow: Why We Might Lose Anyway