Saturday, January 03, 2004

Look Me In the Eyes Governor

A few days ago I was in a meeting with Governor Henry. He was civil and polite as usual, but the thing that bugs me is he won't look you in the eyes. He seems uncomfortable with any extended eye contact. This is probably different with people he knows well but in our culture (American) it is not a trait that engenders trust. Averting ones eyes tends to signal that one is hiding something, not sure of himself, or intimidated. I really like humble people - can't stand aggressive a**holes - but humble does not equal meek or elusive.

Friday, January 02, 2004

Tired of the anti-Semitic Label

In a Reader's Forum article on Dec 21st in the Tulsa World Perry Simons and Robert Cohen of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa attack the Rev. Naim Ateek, the retired canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem for recent talks in Tulsa in which he gave some supportive remarks about the Palestinian people. Simons and Cohen took issue with Rev. Ateek's reported statement that he could understand the Palestinians frustration:

"Ateek doesn't understand American democracy. He claimed that America's support for Israel is because of a "large and powerful Jewish population," but such claims are now recognized simply as anti-Semitism. That's bigoted stereotyping."

I hate to break it to Simons and Cohen, but beating people who don't agree with them over the head with the nuclear anti-Semitism label is old and bound to backfire. Those of us who have legitimate complaints about Israel's policies and behavior get real tired of being charged as anti-Semites. More and more Americans who are uncomfortable with our one-sided approach to the Israel/Palestine issues are speaking their minds. The irritating refusal of pro-Israel groups to listen is bound to backfire on them as people in the middle get fed up with their obstinacy and overuse of the anti-Semite label as a means of cutting off debate.

To deny that the US politician's lop-sided support of Israel is largely attributal to a large and powerful Jewish population is a blind refusal to acknowledge reality. If Simons and Cohen can't see this reality then how can anything else they say be believed? Granted, much of the "Israel-Right or Wrong" crowd is made up of fundamentalist Christians that believe that Biblical prophecies about the restoration of Israel are coming true and must be supported - even if the means are unjust. So, to be honest, our politicians (and especially Bush) are unapologetically pro-Israel because of a large and powerful Jewish and fundamentalist Christian population in this country.

Others, including thinking Jews and Christians, think we owe the Israelis and the Palestinians (and the USA) a more objective and even-handed approach to solving the conflict. Our lop-sided support of Israel guarantees no solution will be found AND causes the US problems far beyond this one serious issue.
World on Henry

According to the Tulsa World on December 24th:

"(Governor) Henry has been in a sort of Alice in Wonderland since he won the seat in 2002. He wasn't expected to win, he keeps reminding us, and he obviously wasn't prepared to be governor."

The World, a usually pro-Democrat centrist newspaper, has admirably come down hard on Henry and Sen. Stratton Taylor over Taylor's efforts to recruit lawsuits to Oklahoma and Henry's refusal to address the awful publicity Oklahoma is getting as a result AND his refusal to address tort reform. This is very significant since if Henry loses the World's support in the next election he'll have both major papers in the state against him.

As the World states, Henry seems to be a good person but OkiePundit thinks he is not right for the job and that Oklahomans made a big mistake in selecting him. But we didn't have any great choices in the general election. But that's primarilly our own fault for not paying attention.

Monday, December 29, 2003

Day 7

It's Day 7 of the Wimp Watch - waiting for Governor Brad Henry to come down hard on Senator Stratton Taylor for bringing unwanted national attention to Oklahoma's lack of tort reform. As discussed last week in this blog a letter from Taylor (a trial lawyer and the head of the State Senate) to lawyers across the USA to do their sueing in Oklahoma caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. The paper blistered Oklahoma for its lack of reform and Taylor for inviting lawyers to take advantage of our no-caps-on-jury-awards system.

Governor Henry hasn't done a thing to respond to the conflict of interest or Taylor's shameful letter. We're waiting.