The word has gone out that the Latin Grammy Award ceremony will be moved from Miami, Florida to Los Angeles, California in the wake of threatened protests by Cuban exiles.
"We have people coming from all over the world," the Grammy president said. "Having them run the gantlet [of protesters] is demeaning at best and dangerous at worst."
Yes. I can see that. Having people with purple and orange hair, displaying body parts pierced with crowbars, wearing clothing which looks like it was reclaimed from the trash can Gary Condit used for that watch box, giving us something called "music" containing lyrics more suited as graffiti on a stall in a high school boy's bathroom than on a soon-to-be-platinum CD "run the gauntlet" MIGHT, upon reflection, be demeaning.
To the protesters.
One assumes Los Angelinos have promised the there will not be any protests by any group for any purpose? And, one assumes, a very, very tall wall will be built along California's eastern border to prevent anyone who had been planning to demonstrate in Miami from getting into Los Angeles for the same purpose? What have I missed?
Back in 1996, welfare reform - if you had listened to the same geniuses who are unalterably opposed to any reductions in income tax rates, any changes in the 65-year-old Social Security system, or any improvements to our public school system - was going to lead to an America which would look like Calcutta after a rainstorm.
Here's just one paragraph from a release from the office of HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson:
"Since August 1996, the welfare caseload has fallen from 12.2 million recipients to 5.8 million - the largest decline in history and the lowest percentage of the population on welfare since 1965."
Oh. Ok. One more:
"Released on the fifth anniversary of the signing of the welfare reform legislation [Mullster's note: Which Bill Clinton vetoed not just once, but TWICE], the 'Indicators of Welfare Dependence' annual report to Congress shows that the poverty rate has fallen, more former welfare recipients are working and the number of Americans dependent on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is down."
Don't you just hate it when those pesky GOP initiatives actually work?
Speaking of pesky, ABC's Connie Chung will interview Gary Condit on Thursday night. This will be great. A discussion between absolute peers: Two people who, by exercising unbelievably bad judgment, wrecked their own careers.
From the Lisa de Moraes piece in the Washington Post:
"Chung is a somewhat surprising choice to many. She's still living down the infamous 'rhymes-with-witch' incident of '95, in which she got Newt Gingrich's mom to tell how her son described then-first lady Hillary Clinton. (Chung cozied up to Kathleen Gingrich, saying: 'Why don't you just whisper it to me? Just between you and me?')"
Even The Brethren of the National Press Corps who previously had exhibited no love for Newt, were outraged by Chung's taking unfair advantage of an elderly woman, justly proud of her son, who was about to become the Speaker of the House.
The question: Why now? The answer: Condit HAS to begin to position himself as an aggrieved party in this matter. The Levy's are too sympathetic. So, watch for Condit's media and legal team attempting to spin this into something like Good Gary vs. Bad Bob Barr.
Could it be that super attorney Abbe Lowell has received hints of an impending grand jury or, worse yet, a targeting letter? Perhaps between now and Thursday one of The Brethren will ask.
The Governor of West Virginia, should be seriously considering holding an annual "Thank You, Florida" day in Charleston. All those jokes which were known under the general heading of "West Virginia Jokes" will hereafter be known as "Florida Jokes."
Nine months ago we treated to the sight of a bunch of wealthy Florida voters who couldn't, read a ballot, couldn't punch out the holes properly, and then complained it was everyone else's fault.
That bit of lunacy has been followed by people who now insist upon jumping into the ocean where they know that sharks are nibbling on surfers like U.S. Senators munching on free jumbo shrimp at a soft-money fund raiser.
So all those old "West Virginia Jokes," are now going to start with lines like: So, this guy from Florida decides to go swimming when a shark spots his hanging chad �
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