Rick Mckee's Cartoon is a Lie...Again

Rick McKee's cartoon today (March 6th) shows a donkey, the symbol of the democratic party, saying that democrats used to call reconciliation the "nuclear option."

This is entirely false. Democrats never referred to the reconciliation process as the "nuclear option." The "nuclear option" is a term originating when republicans had the majority and they were considering doing away with the filibuster.

Using reconciliation (a process the republicans have used more than the democrats) is not the same as eliminating the filibuster. Reconciliation can only be used on budget-related items. No one has ever called it the nuclear option, until maybe now when conservative pundits on Fox News make ridiculous exaggerations about it. And it's not a parliamentary trick. It's simply a majority vote.

BTW, they should get rid of the antiquated filibuster rule. The filibuster is one of the roadblocks stopping the Senate from getting anything done.

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About two weeks ago, the Chronicle ran a news analysis in which the writer basically called Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver a pussy. A few days later, Michael Ryan regurgitated this opinion in his unsigned daily column.

I'm not particularly interested in local politics, but I found this kind of interesting.

Basically, the Chronicle news reporter and the editorial page writer were upset with the mayor because he didn't stand up and get all twisted like a pretzel because of a planned gay pride march in downtown Augusta.

Mr. Ryan suggested the major should meet with organizers of the gay pride event and convince them to have the march somewhere else because the march supposedly will hurt businesses.

What a bunch of bologna! One day's march isn't going to hurt businesses. No one's going to avoid going downtown because of a gay pride march that they may or may not have heard about. Don't gay people have money? I'm sure their dollars are just as good as straight people's money, and I'm sure they'll spend just as much as heterosexual customers.

In truth downtown Augusta has got nothing worthwhile in the first place besides a few old titty bars. The lack of good parking, a fact of everyday life for downtown businesses, hurts these establishments far more than a one day gay pride march.