Hold On a Minute

You hear a lot of things in the radio news business--some of which make you say "Hold on a minute."

One of those came in a press release from the state Democratic Party on Tuesday.  The headline was "Walker Budget Drastically Cuts Funding For Sexual Assault Victims".  The release was in response to stories this week that the Department of Justice let sexual assault crisis centers know that it will be handing out 42% less money in grants next year.  According to the Democrats, Governor Walker cut that funding to pay for tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy.

But hold on a minute--the grants handed out from the DOJ come from a segregated fund that sees its revenue come from surcharges on criminal offenders as part of their sentences.  Fewer people paid those surcharges last year--meaning less revenue came into the segregated fund.  So I have to ask Democrats, should Governor Walker have been out there encouraging more people to commit crimes so there were more surcharges to fund sexual assault crisis centers?  It kind of reminds me of when the state jacked up the tobacco tax on the premise of funding "smoking related healthcare expenses".  But when a lot of people quit the habit, the revenues actually declined--leaving the state even farther in its hole.

The other "Hold On a Minute" moment came Monday afternoon when Rush Limbaugh (heard from 11 to 2 Monday thru Friday and from Noon to 3 on Saturdays) took the talking heads at ESPN to task for tearing down Tim Tebow.  It's Rush's belief that analysts have to denegrate Tebow because he is an Evangelical Christian who leads an exemplary life and who once did a pro-life commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.

Hold on a minute, Rush.  Aren't you the guy who claimed the very same analysts were boosting up Donovan McNabb--who had far superior passing numbers and just as many wins as Tim Tebow--because "they wanted a Black quarterback to succeed"?  Like those experts, I don't care if a quarterback is a Wiccan who sacrifices a live chicken in his locker before a game--if he can't play the position, he can't play the position!  If anything, Tebow is getting a boost from fellow Evangelicals in the media--namely Skip Bayless at ESPN http://beaconblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/beacon-sports-espns-skip-bayless-reflects-on-god-sports-and-lebron-james/ who continue to tout his "intangibles" (code for "devout religious beliefs"?) as the reason he is the Second Coming of God......Johnny Unitas.