Wading In

Eating the messenger By Kelvin Wade February 24, 2011 Did Rush Limbaugh really call Michelle Obama fat? If Rush Limbaugh cut himself, I suspect he might bleed Krispy Kreme. As someone who commands way too much gravity myself, I would never step into a fight over healthy eating. Well, perhaps I would, but I'd be on the side of the double cheeseburger. Limbaugh criticized Mrs. Obama for taking her girls out to a restaurant for a rib dinner after a day of skiing in Vail. The First Lady is heading a campaign called Let's Move to combat obesity. The plan is to get Americans to eat a more balanced diet and get more exercise. On his radio show this week, Limbaugh went on to say, '. . . our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.' The owner of the restaurant pointed out that the meal came in at 600 calories, not the widely ...

Let us vote on taxes By Kelvin Wade February 17, 2011 Two weeks ago, in his State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown might have better dramatized our fiscal plight by setting what's left of his hair on fire and running up and down the aisles in the Capitol. Brown's budget takes a light saber to redevelopment agencies, social services, health care and higher education to the tune of $12.5 billion. And he wants to place a measure on the ballot to extend temporary tax increases another five years to raise an additional $12 billion. Of course, if Republicans don't agree to put the tax measure on the ballot or if voters reject it, more massive cuts will have to be made. At the time of the State of the State, Mayor Harry Price said, 'If I were the governor I would lay out the scenario very clearly.' While the governor has been reluctant to do so, the Legislative Analyst's Office just did. It's virtual budget Armageddon. More than $5 billion would be cut out of...

Death row is an expensive sham By Kelvin Wade February 10, 2011 On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel toured the new execution chamber at San Quentin Prison. It's the one you spent $900,000 building because critics said the old one was cramped, had lighting problems and other problems that amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in the mind of the judge. The judge halted executions five years ago. Now comes word that six inmates will sue because the old U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in executions, no longer makes it. California has purchased the drug from a British manufacturer and inmates' attorneys will argue the FDA hasn't approved the European-made replacement. They're seriously going to argue that the European-made death penalty drug may not be safe? This would all be funny if it wasn't a kick to the stomach of the families of murder victims awaiting justice and a fleecing of California taxpayers. It's time California...

A visit with a man called Dutch By Kelvin Wade February 03, 2011 This Sunday would be Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday. Fittingly, I just finished his son Ron Reagan's new book, 'My Father at 100.' At 228 pages, it's a brisk read and a pleasant walk down memory lane. Truth be told, I was never a fan of President Reagan. I was first eligible to vote in 1984 and I, along with the state of Minnesota, voted for Walter Mondale. While I give him credit for reviving America's spirit and his role in helping end the Cold War, I hold him accountable for infecting the Republican Party with a voodoo economics theory of tax cuts and spending that has metastasized under a Republican Party that has moved much further to the right than he ever was. But 'My Father at 100' isn't a book about politics. The book is a memoir of the man. It starts in Ireland with the president's ancestor, Thomas O'Regan, and takes us to England and then to America in the 19th centur...