Columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. Ridiculously Rips President-elect Barack Obama

Columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. is really upset because he feels that somehow President-elect Barack Obama has dissed the Latino community. How has the president-elect dissed the Latino community? Well, according to Navarrette Jr., Obama did this by not appointing or nominating Bill Richardson as secretary of state and instead (apparently) picking Hillary Clinton for this post. It appears that Richardson is headed toward becoming the secretary of commerce. This, to this member of the Latino community, is a slap in the face to Latinos who he feels “deserved better.”

Here is a passage from Navarrette Jr. in his column:

This isn’t about Richardson, who might be very happy heading for ribbon cuttings in Toledo while Clinton heads for blue-ribbon summits in Tel Aviv. This is about something larger. Richardson is the nation’s only Hispanic governor and the most prominent Hispanic elected official in the country. And the way he was treated doesn’t say much about Obama’s respect for the Hispanic community. Nor does the fact that Obama seems to have filled his top four Cabinet posts – Justice, Treasury, Defense and State – and couldn’t find a single Hispanic to put in any of them. America’s largest minority took a chance on Obama despite the fact that the president-elect had no track record in reaching out to them and didn’t break a sweat trying to win their votes. They deserve better.

It seems awfully premature for Navarrette Jr. or anyone else to be whine about being snubbed by the President-elect Obama … particularly when he has not even officially taken office or assumed the duties of the presidency. So, according to Navarrette Jr., because Richardson was apparently not given the secretary of state position that it was Obama’s way of snubbing the Hispanic community. According to this author, it seems to mean he does not care about the Hispanic community. How can Navarrette Jr., who acts as if he is the spokesman for the Hispanic community, put so much stock in this one appointment. To say Obama “didn’t break a sweat trying to win their (Hispanics) votes” is also a ridiculous statement. We all deserve better than someone who is already whining and throwing the president elect under the bus nearly two months before he has even taken office.

San Diego Union-Tribune:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/navarrette/20081126-9999-lz1e26navarre.html

Gay Marriage Issues Not The Same As Civil Rights Movement

A column written by Merlene Davis in the Lexington Herald-Leader reignites the issue of gay marriage by linking it to the Civil Rights Movement. Her column seems to be written with good intention. This is, of course, a misguided effort on the part of those who support a worthwhile cause. Many people are in favor of gay civil unions (which should be granted the same rights as legal marriages of heterosexual couples). I am one of those individuals.  But, this consistent attempt to try and legitimize the gay marriage initiative by piggy-backing the civil rights movement is just plain wrong. As a nation, we’re moving far closer to acceptance of and comfort with the gays and lesbians. Are we there yet? No. But, some times progress is a slow process that can drive even the most patient of us into impatient madness. A woman written about in the column, University of Kentucky professor Joan Callahan, made this statement about civil unions instead of marriage: “That is separate-but-equal thinking.” Again, this is an attempt to link homosexuality to race. A lot of us simply are not comfortable with that. Many people still consider homosexuality to be a lifestyle, some consider homosexuality to be a choice and some consider it to be a lifestyle based on life experiences that served as a guide. Added Callahan, “The state has a role to play here. Whether the majority agreed or didn’t agree with the abolition of slavery, the abolition of slavery needed to exist. It affected the will of the majority without affecting the fundamental rights of the minority. Suppose the majority decided these blacks have gone too far. Make them ride in the back of the bus again. Suppose that under some conditions, we decided to persecute blacks like we used to.” I agree that the majority should not always be allowed to rule with an iron fist. But, to link homosexuality to race or gender is wrong. I understand that it is a tactic (I believe designed to force many whites to view homosexuality as another minority and to nudge blacks, Asians, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities to join the cause to support “one of their own” in this fight). But, the tactic is a bad one, and it must be reconsidered.  The better goal is to fight to make civil unions for gay couples strong and on equal footing with marriage. Gay marriage should be treated equally with so-called traditional marriage. This is the next logical step for gays, and if they want to turn their hopes and dreams into reality this is the step they will take. Otherwise, it’s a strong possibility these obstacles will continue to impede this progress.

Lexington Herald-Leader:
http://www.kentucky.com/139/story/602737.html

Michelle Malkin Column A Bit Misguided in Blackberry/E-Mail Issue With Barack Obama, Sarah Palin

We’ve had numerous stories in the media about President-elect Barack Obama supposedly wanting to continue normal/personal use of his Blackberry device. A part of me can understand the desire to want to maintain a sense of privacy. But, as we know, politicians sacrifice a lot of privacy a lot of people hold dear when they take on this responsibility (particularly as a national politician). It’s the nature of the beast. With this as the backdrop, I happened to stumble across an itemwritten by conservative columnist/blogger/commentator Michelle Malkin, who is known to be just slightly outspoken and opinionated. In this item, she discussed Obama’s Blackberry (the president-elect’s desire to maintain use of it vs. public access to the records as such a high-ranking official). A Malkin “Afterthought” read this way:

“Afterthought: Will the same people who lambasted Sarah Palin for keeping a personal Yahoo! account and using her Blackberry attack Obama for ‘evading public disclosure,’ too?”

One thing that is worth noting is that Sarah Palin’s trouble was self-inflicted. The controversy with Palin (certainly, she was no stranger to controversy and continues to be a magnet for controversy) was that she was using her personal Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state government business and possibly trying to use personal privacy as a shield from the media and the public.

From Time Magazine:

“The Alaska governor could also face charges for conducting official state business using her personal, unarchived e-mail account (a crime); some critics accuse her of skirting freedom-of-information laws in doing so. An Alaska Republican activist is trying to force Palin to release more than 1,100 e-mails she withheld from a public-records request, the Washington Post reported last week.”

So, Malkin is not being particularly clear or straight up when attempting to draw the comparison between the two controversies (as far as the e-mail aspect is concerned). If the device or technology is being used to conduct government business than a politician can hardly expect a level of privacy. But, if a device is of a personal nature then there should be some flexibility for politicians (as long as it is not used for official government business). I am not familiar with the controversy Palin may have had with a Blackberry, but the e-mail issue was an issue that was publicly vetted.

Time Magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html

Michelle Malkin:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/26/obama-wants-his-blackberry-back/