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| OBAMA: Self-preservation? |
So
perhaps first lady Michelle Obama thought she was doing her part to support “the
cause” this week when, during an interview with the “Good Morning America”
program, she pointed out that the recent shooting death of Hadiya Pendleton was
caused by an “automatic” weapon.
JUST
ONE PROBLEM. Chicago police have said they don’t have the weapon, and based on
evidence at the crime scene, they think it was more likely a pistol used when
two young men trying to shoot at someone else wound up hitting Hadiya instead.
So
when the interview aired on ABC affiliates across the nation, Michelle’s answer
had a line blipped out of existence. The bit about “automatic” weapons.
The
ideologues are convinced this is some sort of effort to protect the first lady
from her own mistake, although broadcasters said it was merely a matter of
making her answer fit into the couple of seconds of time that was available.
I’m
not sure whether there’s any truth to that, although the idea that the
ideologues are p-o’ed strikes me as a whole lot of hooey. Those people are
always upset. I can’t take them all too seriously, particularly when their
obsession is Obama-related.
PERSONALLY,
I LIKE the idea of a quotation with a factual inaccuracy being deleted. I know
there are times I have refused to use comments from people because they didn’t
fully comprehend what they were talking about.
But
I doubt that ABC editors were thinking in such high-level terms when they
edited this particular interview. Editing on deadline often arouses the
practical over the proper.
So
Michelle Obama being spared the embarrassment of having said “automatic”
weapons were involved in the death of Pendleton? Not a conspiracy by any means.
More dumb luck than anything else!
What
other issues are of concern along the shores of Lake Michigan?
A
DELAY? OR HARBINGER OF THINGS TO COME?: I’m wondering if the conservative
ideologues amongst us thought they achieved a victory of sorts this week when
an Illinois House committee didn’t act when it was supposed to on the issue of
gay marriage.
The
matter was postponed for several hours, although the Illinois House executive
committee (a committee whose membership consists of party leadership and is the
place where bills of special interest to House Speaker Michael Madigan are
sent) eventually reconvened and gave their recommendation late Tuesday.
Officials
say that when the issue of gun control came up before the full House of
Representatives on Tuesday, it wound up angering Republican types so much that
committee officials felt that pushing for an immediate vote on gay marriage
might backfire.
Yes,
political people have been known to base their votes not on the merits of the
issue, but on a willingness to “get back” at someone or something totally
unrelated. Now, the full House of Representatives will get its say in coming
weeks. And the Republican Party will consider dumping their chairman because he
implied that perhaps the ideologues are wrong.
COURT’S
CLOSED?!?: We’re getting a lot of “scare tactics” reports these days about the
local effects of sequestration – the mandated federal budget cuts that will
have to take effect Friday because our political officials can’t reach a
long-term agreement through negotiation.
The
one that caught my attention the most was that the U.S. District courts in
Chicago would have to scale back and would only be open four days a week
(instead of five). I’m sure that would do devastation to the already-crowded
courts.
I
also noticed a report saying that the control tower at Gary/Chicago
International Airport would have to be shut down. The air traffic controllers
would be laid off.
Which
sounds scary, until one realizes that most smaller airports (the “International”
in the airport’s name is so distortive) do not have controllers, thereby
putting pilots on their honor to regulate themselves and control their own
landings and takeoffs.
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