Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Rain in Seattle is not news; the news is when rain fails to fall, as it has been doing lately. Likewise, what is conspicuous about the aftermath of the school shootings in Red Lake, Minn., last week was what didn’t occur — a torrent of calls for new gun-control legislation. The attack was the worst at a school since Columbine six years ago. It came on the heels of some other publicized eruptions of gun violence — including a rampage by a defendant at an Atlanta courthouse and a mass shooting at a worship service in a Milwa...
Last week, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill banning the sale of violent or raunchy video games to minors, after a debate that reached its high point when one member said, “I am going to vote for this bill knowing it’s unconstitutional.” Score a point for truth in government. The Legislature was acting on a proposal from Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is alarmed that some games feature violence, criminality, profanity and nudity. He particularly objects to “Grand Theft Auto,” where players can supervise...
Steve Chapman: CNJ columnist The news media have sided strongly with reporters Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper, who are threatened with jail unless they disclose their sources in the Valerie Plame case. Right now, that decision is starting to look like Custer’s Last Stand. It’s a battle the press can’t win and doesn’t deserve to win. The investigation stems from a column written by Robert Novak in which he blew the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame. She is the wife of a former ambassador who had been critical of the U.S...
It’s only the third quarter, but right now the scoreboard reads: Axis of Evil 2, Bush 1. While Saddam Hussein may be in jail, North Korea has announced it has nuclear weapons and Iran is moving briskly in that direction. The administration, which has all the trouble it can handle coping with its “catastrophic success” in Iraq, doesn’t know what to do about either Kim Jong Il or the ayatollahs in Tehran. In all fairness, there may not be much anyone can do to stop or undo these nuclear programs. Doomsday weapons can be an inva...
Listening to liberals and conservatives bicker about Social Security is like hearing someone talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Their perceptions are so different that it’s hard to remember they are both talking about the same thing. Liberals see it as a sacred social welfare program that shields the elderly and therefore must be protected at all costs. Conservatives see it as a grossly overstretched entitlement that punishes the young and thus needs to be fundamentally reshaped. Liberals say the system can be preserved w...
The state of Florida is not ridiculously selective when it comes to letting people adopt children — and with some 4,200 kids in need of adoption, it can't afford to be. It allows single adults to adopt. It accepts people with serious illnesses and disabilities. It leaves the door open to drug addicts. It is even willing to consider people who are known to have neglected, abandoned or abused children. It doesn't accept homosexuals. That's the law in Florida, the only state that singles out gays and lesbians in this way. And a...
The Internet is an amazing creation, but not an entirely benign one. The upside is that you can post and find material that is accessible to countless people around the world. The downside is that you can post and find material that is accessible to countless people around the world. That drawback is no longer a secret to the Navy wife whose husband, a member of the elite Seals, brought back photos of Seals with Iraqi prisoners, some of which suggested that the inmates were being abused. She posted the photos on a Web site...
Judges are often accused of “activism” — a desire to extend their reach from interpreting the law and resolving cases to making policy on matters that are none of their darn business. So they deserve credit when they resist invitations to override democracy. That’s what the Illinois Supreme Court did by a unanimous vote Thursday, in a decision with repercussions beyond the state’s borders. The cases involved lawsuits against gun dealers and manufacturers who offer weaponry in Illinois. The city of Chicago has a strict ba...
At the age of 50, I get few chances to try something entirely new. Come Tuesday, I plan to take one of those rare opportunities. I’m going to vote for a Democrat for president. I’ve never done it before, and I hope I never have to do it again. But George W. Bush has made an irresistible case against his own re-election. His first term has been one of the most dismal and costly failures of any presidency. His second promises to be even worse. I know there are people for whom voting Democratic comes easily. Not me. Con...
In legislating, ignorance is no bliss Congress has just passed one of the most important pieces of legislation of the year, dealing with corporate taxes. As a concerned citizen, you may feel slightly uninformed for not knowing what’s in it. But don’t be too hard on yourself: Your representatives don’t know, either. How could they? At 650 pages, the measure is longer and heavier than a Swedish film festival — and about as intelligible to the average American. Unless, that is, the average American has an advanced degree...
We can all remember, with shock, the first time we caught sight of a bare breast on network television. It happened just eight months ago, during the Super Bowl halftime show, when singer Justin Timberlake yanked down Janet Jackson’s top and exposed, for a fleeting instant, an item of flesh never before seen by a broadcast audience. What’s that you say? That wasn’t the first time? Hmm. I take it viewers got a glimpse of an unmistakably female chest back in 2002, on CBS’ “C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation.” Which would make Ja...
In its final report, the 9/11 commission reached an obvious conclusion that explains how terrorists were able to kill nearly 3,000 Americans: “Terrorism was not the overriding national security concern for the U.S. government under either the Clinton or the pre-9/11 Bush administration.” And guess what: it still isn’t. In the aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks in our history, the president did the right thing — going after al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, who helped plan and finance the hijackings, and the Taliban...
On his first day campaigning as John Kerry’s running mate, John Edwards put on his most sincere expression and informed a crowd in Cleveland, “I can tell you one thing you can take to the bank: He will always tell the truth to the American people.” I don’t greatly resent politicians who stretch the truth, but I like them to keep the fibs at least minimally plausible. Yet here was Edwards announcing that a Kerry presidency will deliver the most unlikely miracle since the Virgin Birth. It is no surprise that in a race for the...
When I was a lad, my family spent a couple of summer vacations at a pleasant lake in central Texas called Granite Shoals. But in 1965, during the prime of my boyhood, it was renamed for a local product who had risen to the White House — Lyndon Johnson. It became Lake LBJ. From a distinctive, well-loved name that evoked the natural terrain of the region to a charmless label advertising a major politician — it wasn’t my idea of progress. The change had the odd effect of not only increasing my dislike of Johnson but reduc...
You can rarely go wrong by assuming the government is lying. Right now, the Pentagon denies any plans to restore the draft, even though the military clearly has too few soldiers. I’m the sort of person who grabs an umbrella whenever Donald Rumsfeld says the sun is shining. But in this case, the administration faces disbelief even though it’s telling the truth. Allowing for all the uncertainties of this world, the chances of conscription being revived are roughly the same as the chances of William Shatner winning a Gra...
Steve Chapman: Syndicated columnist Some newcomers are planning to move to Chicago, and the invasion sounds as though it will be a grim affair. “They're a negative for the city,” said one fearful alderman. They’re guilty of “treating people wrong,” said an angry minister. They exploit a “slave mentality,” charged another clergyman. You’d think Genghis Khan was riding in our direction, with his marauding hordes in tow. In fact, the would-be migrants are from Wal-Mart, whose chief crime is to become one of the most successful...
Steve Chapman: Syndicated columnist In the heyday of communism, lots of countries held regular elections but never seemed to vote anyone out of office. The people in power always won. The “democratic” procedures were just a facade disguising the irrelevance of the people. Back then, Americans felt our system was superior, because we could actually remove our lawmakers. But like the Cold War, that system is just a dim memory. Americans continue to have the forms of democracy, but the substance has mostly evaporated. And tha...
Steve Chapman: Syndicated columnist The good news for opponents of the war in Iraq is that President Bush’s challenger has finally called for a rapid American withdrawal. “Every day the U.S. military remains in Iraq,” he said, “we imperil U.S. security, drain our economy, ignore our nation’s domestic needs and prevent democratic self-rule from developing in Iraq.” The bad news is the challenger’s name is Ralph Nader. John Kerry, by contrast, sounds as though he thinks the only thing worse than making a mistake is correcting...
Steve Chapman: Syndicated columnist John Kerry is looking for a running mate, and he’s getting lots of advice: Pick John Edwards to make the ticket competitive in the South. Pick Dick Gephardt to energize organized labor. Pick Bob Graham to bolster support in the key swing state of Florida. Here’s my advice to Kerry on choosing a running mate: Don’t. It’s an inescapable fact that a presidential nominee has to have a vice-presidential nominee, though many would have been happy to do without. But there is no reason Kerry h...
I read a grim news story about the economy the other day, which noted the strange phenomenon of “a nearly jobless recovery.” Reported the Chicago Tribune, “If this were a normal recovery, the economy would have added 3.5 million jobs since it hit bottom 22 months ago. … Instead, it has missed that goal by 3 million.” The job market has been particularly bleak for white-collar workers, it said. And the economic weakness, everyone agreed, presented a major challenge for President Clinton. Yes, President Clinton. The story ran...
On Monday, after the approval of an interim constitution by the Iraqi Governing Council, one member proclaimed, “This is a great day in the history of Iraq, an unforgettable day.” Tuesday became unforgettable as well when suicide bombers at Shiite Muslim shrines killed well over 100 people, making it the deadliest day of the U.S. occupation. The new constitution is advertised as laying the foundation for democracy, human rights and harmony among Iraq’s contending groups. But it’s hard to lay a foundation in a minefie...
Saddam Hussein was trapped in a tight, unpleasant space — angry but impotent, armed but no longer dangerous. Though he might have been dreaming of triumphs, he was powerless to realize them. Then the United States invaded Iraq. It’s easy to forget that we had Hussein pretty well confined long before he ducked into a hole in the ground last weekend, trying to evade the American net. In the years leading up to Gulf War II, he hadn’t invaded anyone, hadn’t threatened to invade anyone, hadn’t carried out attacks on American...
Forty years later, there are still unanswered questions about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But one is unanswered only because it has never been asked: If Lee Harvey Oswald were alive today, would we let him walk the streets a free man? The question hasn’t been considered because it seems preposterous to think anyone would propose releasing a man who shot a president with the intention of killing him. But that is just what is being proposed in the case of John Hinckley Jr., who enjoys less notoriety than Oswald o...
When Lyndon Johnson was pushing to create Medicare, an aide approached him about adding a provision to win approval in the House of Representatives. The problem was that it would cost the federal government $500 million a year. “Five hundred million,” snorted an incredulous Johnson. “Is that all? Do it. Move that damn bill now, before we lose it.” Today, $500 million looks just as trivial as LBJ made it out to be. When it was established, Medicare was projected to cost $7 billion a year by 1985. But when 1985 rolled around,...
Faced with escalating turmoil in Iraq, George W. Bush spurns any talk of pulling out. “America will never run,” he vows. Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, disagrees: “This disastrous mission must be ended before any more lives are lost. It is time to bring our troops home.” Given that Bush is president and Kucinich is not, American troops will be staying in Iraq for the foreseeable future. Most likely, though, Kucinich’s mistake is not being wrong but being prematurely right. T...
