Salsa quick, but Salsa good and tasty: GOP Chairman needs to apologize now

I'm hitting the ground quickly today with a community speech. So here is Salsa in an abbreviated, early form:

WILLIAMSON COUNTY POLITICO NEEDS TO APOLOGIZE, NOW!: Local TV news reported Thursday night that the website for the Williamson County Republican Party featured a blog post from party chairman Doug Grindstaff claiming Kurdish-Americans were repaying America's hospitality by "robbing us and dealing drugs." A few Kurds do not constitute the largest such ethnic population in the nation. Rightly, Kurdish officials have asked for an apology. Each day that apology is delayed, the insult grows larger. Grindstaff's bigotry was removed from the website. But that is far from enough. One of the several good people I know on the county GOP board including Mayor Rogers Andersen will make sure this wrong is righted quickly.

PALIN GRADES BETTER: GOP VP pick Sarah Palin made no big gaffes or committed no big bobbles in the second night of her interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. And she got in a great dig in the end about Sen. Obama's failure to pick Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. She was quite explicit on her abortion stance, and Gibson pointed out how it differed from McCain. As for whether she is ready at this moment to be president, no. Are many VP candidates at this point in the campaign ready to be president; no. Remember, Sen. Dan Quayle was almost VP twice, if had not been for Ross Perot in 1992. So does that the Obama ticket the better choice; yes -- if Biden was in the top spot, not second.

TSU'S OUSTER OF STUDENTS GETS CRAZIER: Reports from parents and clergy have produced a picture of a greatly disorganized and unreceptive TSU administration during the fiasco that originally threatened the ouster of 1,400 students who could not pay their bills. A charitable response reduced the ouster to 400. But it sure did not have to be this way. Phone calls were not returned to many parents, who then had to take off work and stand in long lines to try and straighten things out. And several clergy who have been most supportive of the institution did not even get their phone calls returned. An independent investigation by the Board of Regents is needed to get ot the bottom of this mess. Basic and decent levels of communication from the TSU administration could have produced even more of a charitable response from the community to save all these young people and their futures. Now, we really don't know what will happen to them without college in their lives for the next several months and an economic recession bearing down like Hurricane Ike. This outcome is totally unacceptable.


GO 'DORES!!!: A win today over Rice will be a big momentum-builder to finally get our heroes in gold and black into a bowl game. A record of 3-0 to start the season over some good opponents is enough to build faith in fans for good fortune to come.