Painless state budget postpones pain — so what else is new? When was the last time an elected state official — whether state legislator or governor — considered the longterm impact of their budgeting?
I can’t remember either.
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A reminder from The Baltimore Sun that draconian measures taken against immigrants and noncitizens — whether we are talking about denial of rights or denial of benefits — always seem to come back to bite the least fortunate among us:
Just as feared, a hateful effort to prevent illegal immigrants from getting health care through Medicaid has taken its greatest toll instead on Americans.
Hundreds of thousands of needy people, many of them children, are believed to have been denied Medicaid coverage or dumped from the Medicaid rolls over the past year because they can’t produce the documents now required to prove eligibility, according to The Sun’s Gady A. Epstein.
The absurdity of this requirement played out in agonizing detail for Renell Francine Ray, a 50-year resident of West Baltimore, who lost her Medicaid benefits because she couldn’t get her birth certificate from Virginia without a valid state ID – and couldn’t get a valid state ID without her birth certificate.
Congress, with the most virulent anti-illegal-immigrant lawmakers no longer in control, should move quickly to repeal this outrage. It was a poorly crafted solution to a problem more fantasy than fact that hurt the people it was supposed to protect.
Doesn’t it always work out this way?
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Is Roger Clemens the only ballplayer left with a decent nickname? Rocket may not be imaginative, but it’s better than listening to Joe Torre call Jorge Posada “Georgie.”
So what happened? Back in the day, nearly ever player had a cool nickname.
Tom Seaver, still the greatest player in Mets’ history, was “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise.”
Ron Guidry? “Gator” or “Louisiana Lightning.” Whitey Ford (as if a guy named Whitey needed a nickname) was “The Chairman of the Board.”
Bake McBride — his real name was Arnold, his nickname “Shake ‘n’ Bake” was shortened to Bake and an average singles hitter with speed, became one of the cooler players around.
And John Milton Rivers — Micky or, much better, “Mick the Quick.” And, of course, Ozzie “The Wizard of Oz” Smith.
“Say Hey” Willie Mays, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, Joe “Ducky” Medwick, Enos “Country” Slaughter, Pee Wee Reese, Stan “The Man” Musial, Tommy “Old Reliable” Henrich, Catfish Hunter, Reggie “Mr. October” Jackson and so on.
There are a handful of good ones now: David Ortiz — “Big Papi” — and Slammin’ Sammy Sosa. There’s A-Rod and Pudge, (Ivan Rodriguez sharing a nickname with Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk).
And Randy Johnson is the Big Unit.
But the majority of players just go by their given names and the game itself is a little less colorful for it.
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My Progressive Populist column is online here. It’s on the need for political realignment.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Five of the six candidates for Senate and Assembly in the 14th District have crossed the first Clean Elections threshold, qualifying for public financing and it appears that the second threshold — 800 $10 contributions — maybe within reach soon.
The only candidate not to qualify — as far as public reports go — is Democrat Wayne D’Angelo, who was away and unavailable when we tried to reach him on a separate question earlier this week.
It looks like the program will be a success and it will be interesting to see how the election plays out once everyone is on board. Maybe there is a chance that the amount of money given to each candidate can be reduced in the future?
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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