The LuLac Edition #2478, July 21st, 2013

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo. 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….pleasantly that the female children of popular politicians are taking a chance at the political brass ring in their respective states. Liz Cheney is going after the Senate seat in Wyoming against an entrenched incumbent Mike Enzi and Sam Nunn’s daughter Michelle has her sights on the seat in Georgia being vacated by Saxby Chambliss. Chambliss of course won election in 2002 when he ran a scurrilous campaign against disabled veteran Max Cleland. Cleland who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam while Saxby got a deferment for a bad knee was attacked for "for breaking his oath to protect and defend the Constitution." Cleland’s crime? Cleland had voted for an amendment to the Chemical Weapons Treaty that eliminated a ban on citizens of terrorist nations being on U.N. inspection teams in Iraq. Chambliss turned that into a major issue against Cleland saying in the aftermath of 911, most people in Georgia wouldn’t vote that way. He hammered the veteran on that one issue and Georgia being a southern state, well they just believed the dirt bag charge from the dirt bag politician who became a dirt bag Senator. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……..that U.S. Speaker John Boehner is insistent on trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If only this man had expended as much energy as trying to pass a Farm Bill and Immigration Reform. It is the law of the land, an act of Congress upheld by the Supreme Court. Plus the Health Care exchanges will provide found money to states that implement it. Let it go already John! 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that horses are unable to vomit. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED………at the awful commercials running on local radio with a very bad Paul Harvey imitation. There are people I’m sure who think Harvey resurrected himself from the dead to do local car commercials in LuLac land. Paul Harvey is dead, he did not record these before he shuffled off this coil. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……..that for the third time this year, WARM Radio’s signal is problematic at best. The station is almost unlistenable and station officials have assured me they are working to fix those old, tired 70 year five towers of power. What better reason to put WARM on one of Cumulus Broadcasting’s FM signals. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that 44 years ago yesterday, two men landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon but the ramifications of that step still resonate. Armstrong and Aldrin’s 22 hour visit had a very long reach with technologies that are still in use from space exploration. It is unfortunate that President Obama has all but dismantled a program that made America the nation of the possible and not the improbable. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that the best kept secret in the summer is the Wyoming Borough Farmer’s Market held every Saturday morning from 9am to 3pm on Butler Street in Wyoming. Some fresh produce and baked goods are in abundant and fresh supply. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that the city of Detroit can’t work its way out of bankruptcy because an Ingram County Court prohibited it saying it violated the Michigan Constitution. How will that city try to manage basic services and try to get out of 18 billion dollars in debt? Detroit also has to pay over 200,000 vendors. The unemployment rate is 18%, the average worth of a home in the city is just $40,000. Not surprisingly a federal judge is going to be called in to figure this all out through arbitration. The city now has about 750,000 residents after having huge populations at the peak of the auto industry. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that not many people realize that the Auto industry gave and took. Auto workers who did well in the factories fled to the suburbs to better neighborhoods. This the reason the population shifted so drastically. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that even with the landmark Supreme Court ruling by the Supreme Court on gay marriage, if you are gay here in the Commonwealth you can still be fired and cannot get benefits for your spouse if you are working in a municipal governmental job. The fight for equal rights across the board is far from over. 
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……..that President Obama can’t win when he talks about race in America. The President came out in a very good conversation Friday and he gave a perspective that was educational for most Americans. But with this issue, he can’t win. I give him accolades for his courage but I heard people like Tavis Smiley on “Meet The Press” saying he didn’t go far enough and didn’t say enough. Then people on Talk Radio, both nationally and locally said he shouldn’t have said a thing. It’s a shame but whatever he does and says, the country is so polarized…it’s impossible to have a serious conversation about race. Both sides showed that in their respective extreme reactions to the Zimmerman verdict.