What do you think Lou Dobbs will be wailing about tomorrow?

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said illegal immigration is not a crime, prompting rival Mitt Romney to accuse him of not taking the problem seriously. The two have clashed for weeks over illegal immigration, an issue that inflames GOP conservatives who influence primary elections. The irony is that both candidates have in the past taken more liberal stands on the issue.

"It's not a crime," Giuliani said Friday. "I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime."

Not just Dobbs of course but all the conservative mouths on Houston's radio, the xenophobes who post at Chron.com (even in the previously-linked story about kolaches), this moron -- in short about 30% of the Republican party's rapidly-eroding base. Because the story broke late Friday they've all had plenty of time for their hatred soup to bubble and fester.

Giuliani has really done it this time. If this doesn't ruin him then I suppose nothing can. But I still don't see the Republicans nominating a Mormon.

No, despite his ties to the Libyan bombers of Pan Am Flight 103, notwithstanding his statement yesterday that al-Qaeda's ban on smoking turned Iraqi public sentiment against them and to the US, I believe it's going to be Frederick of Hollywood.

Sunday Funnies (Working Surge edition)

VX (nerve gas) in Port Arthur

I've blogged previously about the environmental challenges in Southeast Texas, as well as the efforts of local activists (scroll to the end) to push back against the corporations and their lackeys in local government. Two developments in the past few weeks merit updating; first, the soon-to-be-terminated manager of the BP facility in Texas City was shocked to learn how many people had been killed in the plant over the years, and how few people even knew about it. Don Parus, still on BP's payroll at $279K annually, also told the court in the trial of the fifteen BP workers killed in the 2005 explosion at the facility, that a flaring system costing $150,000 was rejected by corporate management as too expensive. Be sure and read the comments at the end.

Secondly, from CLEAN, a waste byproduct of the chemical nerve agent VX is -- without community hearings and in the dead of night -- being transferred to and incinerated in Port Arthur, Texas:

To date, more than 350,000 gallons of VXH have been shipped and incinerated in Port Arthur. Has Veolia Environmental Services, the company receiving at least $49 million from the U.S. Army for incinerated VXH, offered to monitor emissions or conduct soil testing to make sure there is no nerve gas or other toxin being emitted in the process? Has any federal, state or local authority called for this testing? What does a community have to do to get the protection it deserves?

Judge Larry J. McKinney of Indiana's Southern (federal) district court ruled that the shipments from Indiana to Port Arthur should continue despite two rather frightening facts:

1. The neutralization process of VX nerve gas does not destroy all of the VX, some of the nerve gas remains in layers of organic matter. Pure VX nerve gas is in the shipments now traveling across eight states and being incinerated in Port Arthur, Texas.

2. The Army’s method to demonstrate that no nerve gas was present in the VXH was inept and failed to prove the absence of nerve gas in the waste produce as verified in testimony of the Army’s own 3rd party expert and a forensic chemist’s testimony at the hearing.

The TCEQ signed off on both the shipment and the incineration, and though the governors of both Ohio and New Jersey refused to take the shipments, naturally Governor 39% took no action to safeguard the health of Texans. He was busy in California this weekend saying stupid shit like this:

"Since when did the field of science become the sole purview of left-wing politicians?" Perry said. He added, to loud applause and laughter, that he has heard Al Gore talk about global warming so often, "I'm starting to think his mouth may be the lead cause."

I'll let Jane Dale Owen, a Blaffer/Humble Oil heir, ask the closing question:

... where are our elected officials and the governmental agencies whose job it is to protect us when we need them?

Sunday Funnies (if Larry Craig had only gone away quietly...)

Seven hundred, and fifty-four thousand

There's only ninety-nine seats remaining -- as of this posting -- on the Noriega Express. Are you on board yet?

See the endorsement by the Texas Democratic Party's stalwarts, including Sens. Rodney Ellis, John Whitmire, and Mario Gallegos here:



And see Rick's remarks on Senator Box Turtle here:

DOJ opposes net neutrality

Bad news:

The Justice Department said today that Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.

The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.

This is another example of how our pervasive the neo-fascism has grown: government has again taken the side of the corporations over the people.

It's mobilization time.

Update: From the comments section of the Chron link above ...

How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?

Small businesses — The little guy will be left in the "slow lane" with inferior Internet service, unable to compete.

Innovators with the next big idea — Startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay Internet providers for the top spots on the Web.

Bloggers — Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

Google users — Another search engine could pay dominant Internet providers like AT&T to guarantee another search engine opens faster than Google on your computer.

I-pod listeners — A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service it owns.

Online shoppers — Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choices as a consumer.

Telecommuters — When Internet companies like AT&T favor their own services, you won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.

Parents and retirees — Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.

Political groups — Political organizing could be slowed by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to pay "protection money" for their Web sites and online features to work correctly.

Nonprofits — A charity's website could open at snail-like speeds, and online contributions could grind to a halt if nonprofits don't pay Internet providers for access to "the fast lane."
What They've Got Planned

The threat to an open internet isn't just speculation -- we've seen what happens when the Internet's gatekeepers get too much control. These companies, even, have said as much about their plans to discriminate online. According to the Washington Post:

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

He's not alone. Ed Whitacre of AT&T told BusinessWeek in late 2005:

Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

By far the most significant evidence regarding the network owners' plans to discriminate is their stated intent to do so. As Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg told the Wall Street Journal:

We have to make sure they don't sit on our network and chew up our capacity. We need to pay for the pipe.

Network Neutrality advocates are not imagining a doomsday scenario. We are taking the telecom execs at their word.

Such corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent ideas that we've come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don't like:

In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.

Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.

In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

This is just the beginning. Cable and telco giants want to eliminate the Internet's open road in favor of a tollway that protects their status quo while stifling new ideas and innovation. If they get their way, they'll shut down the free flow of information and dictate how you use the Internet.

Who wants kolaches? Czech it out

Clearing the weekend schedule so we can go to Caldwell:

(I)n an age of kolache innovation that has resulted in the jalapeño cheese sausage - a taste that might have been as foreign as text messaging to the Czech immigrants who introduced the doughy pastry to the farmlands of Burleson County - tradition remains important.

It is a guiding principle of the annual Kolache Festival, which will be held for the 23rd year Saturday. In Caldwell, the Kolache Capital of Texas by act of the Legislature, the kolache has become a symbol of tradition.

As Caldwell Mayor Bernard Rychlik sees it, the kolache is a gift from the Czech immigrants who settled in the Burleson County area, bringing with them the pastry and a sense of hospitality that provided ample chance to offer them by the dozens to visitors.

For many in the Houston area, the doughy pastry topped with fruit or stuffed with sausage comes courtesy of chain stores. But in Caldwell and the Fausts' hometown of nearby Snook, a call remains for homemade.

"I'm 68 years old, and I haven't met a bad one,'' said Rychlik, the festival chairman. "I've met some that weren't as good as others, but I haven't turned down any.''

The pastry is part of a tradition that Rychlik inherited from grandparents who immigrated in 1883-85. His first language was the Czech spoken in his childhood home five miles outside Caldwell. He maintains a collection of Czech polka music in his GMC Yukon.

For 15 years he has served as the mayor of the city of about 4,000 that many might recognize as they pass the intersection of Texas 21 and Texas 36 on the way over the Brazos River, along cotton and corn fields, to Bryan or College Station.

Although the Legislature dubbed Caldwell the state's "kolache capital," lawmakers have been generous with their recognition of the pastry's role in other former Czech communities. West, for example, home to three bakeries that serve kolaches to its 2,750 residents, was bestowed the title of "home of the official Kolache of the Texas Legislature."

The 23rd annual Kolache Festival will be held this Saturday in Caldwell.

• Where: The main county courthouse square of Caldwell, a city at the intersection of Texas 21 and Texas 36 (directions from Houston, about a two-hour drive).

• When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Highlights:

• 11:30 a.m.: Kolache-eating contest

• 12:15 p.m.: The Czech Heritage Singers of Houston

• 3 p.m.: Mark Halata and Texavia, a Houston-based Czech polka band

• 4 p.m.: Bake Show competition awards ceremony

• 8 a.m.-3 p.m.: Car show

• Information: www.burlesoncountytx.com or 979-567-0000