Down in League City, Texas, which after the next hurricane will be a coastal city, the city manager, one sparkly white guy named Rich Oller, had a little slip of the tongue.

Rich Oller

He said the N word.  In a city facility.  Out loud.  And it is suspected that he was sober at the time.  Now, I know that violates no written or unwritten canon of ethics, morality, decency and intelligence in League City, but Rich Oller stepped over the line – there were people of color present.

So to keep things from getting out of hand, the League City city council goes into a back room to discuss this.   If you’ll check, the entire city council in League City is white, which might explain why the closed session was described as “long.”  The general consensus is that you probably shouldn’t say the N word out loud at work in front of African Americans while city manager.  They decided to suspend him for a week without pay.

Dennis O'Keefe

But there was one loud dissenting voice – Councilman Dennis O’Keeffe, who describes himself as, “a strong supporter of the Constitution and a National Rifle Association Life member,” which is the bellwether qualification for public office in League City.

O’Keefe was proud to tell the assembled press —

Although he voted for the suspension, Councilman Dennis OKeeffe said he disagreed with his colleagues.

“I think that language that was stated may have been a poor selection of words,” OKeeffe said.

But, OKeeffe said, he did not think it was something for which Oller should be reprimanded.

A poor selection of words.  I was wondering if Councilman OKeeffe could tell me an acceptable word for the N word.   You know, the one that imparts the mean, hateful, belittling impact of the N word.  Is there another word for that word?

But, there’s more —

“It’s an unfortunate thing that happened,” Mayor Tim Paulissen said.

Unfortunate?  No, Mr. Mayor, unfortunate is when to stump your toe or don’t win the lottery.  This falls under the category of embarrassing and disgusting.

But, the mayor did add, “city might also look into sensitivity training for employees.”

And one lone voice, Councilman Dan Becker,  suggested that “city council members also should take the training.”

Thank you, Dan Becker, for saving me the trouble of coming to League City to kick some boney white behind.

Alabama State Senator  Shadrack McGill has given me a splittin’ headache.

McGill

In the DeKalb County Times-Journal this week, McGill says that the answer to about half the Alabama legislature being under indictment for kickbacks and bribes is to pay them more.  He says that their salary of $47,500 a year makes them susceptible to taking kickbacks and bribes.

“That played into the corruption, guys, big time,” he said. “You had your higher-ranking legislators that were connected with the lobbyists making up in the millions of dollars. They weren’t worried about that $30,000 paid salary they were getting,” McGill said.

You know, I’ve heard that argument before.  And I might tend to think he’s got a point, but he steps on his dinky in the very next sentence.  He wanders off into the fact that school teachers don’t get paid much but that’s different.  If you increase a teacher’s salary, you will not get more qualified teachers.  And how does he know that?

“It’s a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach.”

Oh wait, I didn’t mention that he was speaking at a prayer breakfast?  Well, I can’t imagine why I would miss that.

But, he hadn’t finished dancin’ with this brilliance yet. Speaking eloquently about teachers, McGill went on and on and on ….

“To go in and raise someone’s child for eight hours a day, or many people’s children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn’t want to do it, OK?

“And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It’s just in them to do. It’s the ability that God give ’em. And there are also some teachers, it wouldn’t matter how much you would pay them, they would still perform to the same capacity.

“If you don’t keep that in balance, you’re going to attract people who are not called, who don’t need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance.”

Except you, McGill.  You are unbalanced.

Let me get this straight:  we have to pay legislators more to keep them from getting corrupt, but we should pay teachers less to keep them from getting corrupt.

It’s Biblical.

Didn’t you just know it would be?

Thanks to Deb for the heads-up.

As most of you have heard by now, most experts believe that Karen Handel’s decision to dump Planned Parenthood from the Susan G. Komen Foundation has been seen as the complete destruction of all the hard work done to get the Komen Foundation a recognized and respected organization.  Overnight.  Ka-boom.

AmericaBlog has a re-tweet of Handel’s that explains a lot.

Excuse me, JadeMorey, if that is your real name, but you folks built the bomb, put the timer on it, and left the building.  You didn’t even have the courage to admit that was what you were doing.  Get yourself a mirror, woman.  And I am delighted that Handel re-tweeted it.  It’s just more evidence that she brought the fertilizer for the bomb.

All I can say is that Republicans have a habit of ruining everything they touch.  Do NOT let them near social security.   Oh hell, don’t let them near anything.

Thanks to Paul for the heads-up.

Dear Republican Party,

I’ll make you a deal.  I’ll stay out of running for President if you’ll stay out of political humor.

Love and Fried Okra
Juanita

It is beginning to look like Texas is going to sit out the election this year.

I know that comes as a relief to you folks from foreign states.

However, I wouldn’t mind having an election.  Sadly, I’ve grown accustomed to it, even though Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since Elvis died.  Lord, people, we can’t even beat Rick Perry.  Does that tell you something about the effectiveness of Texas Democrats?

Texas Republicans are determined to disenfranchise Hispanics.  So, we’re in a redistricting fight that might last until after the election in November.  We’ve moved the primary once and now it looks like we’ll have to move it again.  The DC Court says a decision is at least 30 days away, so the April 3rd primary is out the door.

I would try to explain the whole redistricting mess to you but it’s complicated and I have attention deficit dis …. oh look, a bird!  Check here if you like complication and fancy lawyer talk.  Michael Li is the aphrodisiac of lawyer-talk.

I will say this:  we Democrats have smarter lawyers than they do, but that’s not saying much because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is dumber than bean dip.