Two bad moves by Obama
AS a member of the U.S. Army, Pvt. Bradley Manning stole secret information that detailed U.S. military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and gave it to WikiLeaks for dissemination. For this act of treason, Manning was rightfully sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in a military prison.
Yet Manning, the Oklahoma native who now goes by Chelsea after declaring she was transgender, will be freed in May, the result of Barack Obama granting her clemency in the final days of his presidency.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a former Army Ranger, questioned why Obama “would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers and allies.” It’s a valid point.
Liberals loved this PC move, of course, just as they did Obama’s commutation the same day of the prison sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera. Lopez Rivera led a Puerto Rican nationalist group in terrorizing U.S. cities in the 1970s with a bombing campaign. One attack in a Manhattan tavern in 1975 killed four men.
Lopez Rivera said he was an “anticolonial combatant” who, under international law, couldn’t be prosecuted by the United States. He was given a 55-year sentence in 1981. Soon, thanks to Obama, he too will go free, having never denied his involvement nor shown any remorse for his actions. “All that mattered (to Obama), it seems, was that the cool crowd wanted Lopez Rivera to go free,” wrote Matthew Hennessey, associate editor of City Journal.
Last-minute commutations are routine with exiting U.S. presidents, and they always raise some eyebrows. But Obama’s decisions regarding Manning and Lopez Rivera were truly egregious.
Last refuge of a politician
In a recent interview with The Tulsa Voice, newly elected Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, endorsed raising taxes on energy producers as well as “a luxury tax,” and called for the state to “hand out birth control” to kids. She also bashed fellow Republicans, and said she was recruited to run by former Rep. Jeannie McDaniel, one of the most liberal Democrats in the Legislature. Needless to say, that got a lot of attention. Bush has since sent an email to House Republicans declaring, “I was not only misquoted, many of the comments were taken out of context.” The Tulsa Voice reportedly stands by the story, even offering to go over audio of the interview with Bush. Without doubt, reporters can get things wrong. But it’s also true that the last refuge of many politicians is to insist they didn’t say what they clearly said.
Student-teacher ratios
Does increased school funding actually reach the classroom? In Oklahoma, there’s reason to question that assumption. Vicki Alger, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, recently noted that there isn’t much sign of increased per-pupil funding translating into more teachers in Oklahoma classrooms. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Oklahoma’s per-pupil funding rose from $8,624 to $9,728 in inflation-adjusted dollars between 1999 and 2013 (the most recent year for which data was available). In that same time period, the number of students per teacher in Oklahoma’s public school system increased from 15.7 to 16.2. One would expect increased funding to reduce student-teacher ratios. State Question 779, a proposed tax increase for education, was soundly defeated last fall. The opposition campaign suggested Oklahoma’s school administrators would not use the money for teachers. The above-mentioned data show why that argument gained traction with the voters.
Way out there
There’s been plenty of evidence that many Democrats aren’t handling Donald Trump’s election as well as they could, but U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., still found a way to stand out from the crowd. In a recent interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Waters suggested Trump could be impeached based on her belief that Russians colluded with Trump during the campaign. “If we discover that Donald Trump or his advocates played a role in helping to devise strategy, if they are the ones who came up with ‘Crooked Hillary,’ if they are the ones who came up with ‘she’s ill,’ ‘something’s wrong with her energy,’ and the way that he basically described her in the campaign, I think that is something that would put the question squarely on the table whether or not he should be impeached,” Waters said. Do Democrats really think paranoia is the best way to reconnect with voters?
The slide continues
Oklahoma Democrats have to hope that with Barack Obama out of the White House, the party can begin to rebuild in some fashion. Obama’s election to his first term in 2008 helped lead to Republicans winning every statewide office in Oklahoma two years later. Also during Obama’s eight years in office, the number of registered Democratic voters, which had been sliding for many years, plummeted. Figures released this week by the state Election Board show that just 39.4 percent of registered voters in Oklahoma identify as Democrats. In January 2009, when Obama took office, that figure stood at 49 percent. Today in Oklahoma, Republicans make up 45.8 percent of registered voters and independents comprise 14.6. Both those percentages continue to grow at the expense of a party that continues to slide.
Folding its tent
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will fold its big top for the final time later this year. The company announced that after 146 years, the “greatest show on earth” will end in May. The circus had seen attendance fall in recent years, and company officials said ticket sales fell sharply after elephants were removed from performances in May 2016. Combined with high operating costs, the circus’ CEO said, the business model became unsustainable. This announcement is no doubt a reflection, in part, of changing tastes among consumers —going to the circus doesn’t hold the same draw for children and adults as it once did. But it’s also true that for the past 15 years or so, Ringling Bros. had been tangling in court with animal rights activists. That can impact public opinion, and it gets tiresome. At some point, the fight isn’t worth it anymore.
Could have been worse
Former President Barack Obama has often been criticized for failing to work with Congress and his unwillingness to bridge partisan divides. That criticism is given validity by the findings of the Washington Times Legislative Index. The index found Obama signed 1,227 bills into law during his eight years in office, which was fewer than former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, who each served just one term. The Times says its review concluded that “Congress spent less time in session, handled fewer business on the chamber floors and generally sputtered for much of Mr. Obama’s tenure ...” That owes much to the mismanagement of former Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada lawmaker who headed the Senate during recent years of Democratic control. Even so, given the legislative measures Obama and Reid typically did prefer, that lower productivity was likely a benefit to the nation.