God didn't want to wait until Oct. 23

And apparently wasn't going to be happy with Kenny Boy spending the rest of his life behind bars. Though Judge Sim Lake is well-known for conducting the business in his courtroom quickly, nothing beats Divine Retribution.

Perhaps Pat Robertson will inform us in the next few days if God told him that Ken Lay died for his many sins against man. That would be one of the only things I would take His (not Pat's) word for.

Indoctrinating the children

The foul stench of conservative fundamentalism is now going to be force-fed to Texas schoolchildren, thanks to the packing of the state school board by the Talibaptists:

The State Board of Education, an elected body with a history of fierce ideological debates about textbook content, now wants to put its stamp on the curriculum that guides the instruction of 4.4 million Texas schoolchildren.

At its meeting Thursday, the 15-member board is expected to scrap a curriculum revision process dominated by teachers and the Texas Education Agency and discuss a new timetable for revising the English reading and writing standards.

Many on the board want to replace a student-centered curriculum that calls on students to use their own attitudes and ethics to interpret texts with teacher-centered instruction that emphasizes the basics of spelling, grammar and punctuation.

It was a fight social conservatives on the board lost in 1997, when moderates and liberals adopted the curriculum for all subjects. Now, with social conservatives expected to have a majority on the board for the first time after the November elections, the plan to rewrite the English standards is viewed by some as the opening shot in an effort to put a conservative imprint on the state's curriculum.

"This is really going to be the big battle in public education over the next few years — what is it our students are going to learn," said Dan Quinn, a spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, a group that monitors the state board for influence by the religious right. "We could see a lot of textbooks that are based on personal and political beliefs of a majority of the state board rather than on facts that students need to learn."

And as Stephen Colbert has pointed out, the facts have a well-known liberal bias.

There's a lot more to the article linked above, much of the rest presented as mitigating the dangers of allowing the John Birch Society to write public school curricula, but the truth is this process has been well under way for over a decade.

The Republicans will continue to claim, as they did when they gerrymandered Congressional districts into the shape of fajita strips to ensure a GOP takeover, that this is 'the will of the people' -- or at least of those in Texas who can be bothered to vote.

I think there is a different will of the people, ready and impatiently waiting to be expressed at the polls, that may change their thinking.

Or not...

We know a million bucks ain't enough

How much is? How much money would it take for the current Attorney General of Texas, Greg Abbott, to say: "My moral values preclude me from making a ruling in this case":

One thing you have to like about Texas politicians is their resistance to embarrassment.

Take the case of Attorney General Greg Abbott. Last Dec. 15 he received $100,000 in campaign contributions from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and his wife. The next day, he received a letter from Rep. David Swinford of Dumas, chairman of the House Committee on State Affairs.

Swinford wanted Abbott to issue a formal opinion on whether Grandma, a.k.a. state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, had the authority to conduct a review of the performance of the newly created and controversial Texas Residential Construction Commission.

...

But the notion that the attorney general can take $100,000 from someone with a direct interest in his ruling is outrageous. And it's actually worse. Since 2001, Abbott has received $1.1 million from Mr. and Mrs. Perry.

Memo to Rep. Swinford: Don't bother asking the attorney general for an opinion on that. I phoned and e-mailed his press office Friday to discuss the issue but received no response.

Since the Attorney General and his staff likely started their holiday weekend early last Friday and couldn't get back to Casey with a response, we'll just have to answer for him:

"There IS no limit, according to my well-documented Christian principles. There is NO MAXIMUM amount of money I will accept that would prevent me from passing legal judgment in favor of my largest campaign contributors.

"After all, billion-dollar corporations are people, too."

Update: John Cobarruvias of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings is personally offended. And muse adds more.

A pause in the political action

... to once more tip the cap to the Astros' one certain Hall-of-Famer, who has the Babe in his rearview mirror after yesterday:

Only big names remain. Craig Biggio passed Babe Ruth for 37th on the all-time hit list Sunday with his 2,874th. Next is Mel Ott, a Hall of Famer, and after that Frankie Frisch, a Hall of Famer, too, and following him a list of luminaries leading up to one of the few numbers in baseball with any gravitas.

Health permitting, Biggio, a spindly kid from Long Island whose uniform has seen more dirt than Pigpen, will reach 3,000 hits early next season. He is, remember, 40 years old, and though he has not taken to pounding prune juice, his days no longer resemble June 29, 1988, the one on which Biggio singled off Orel Hershiser, in the midst of a Cy Young season, for his first big-league hit.

"Now," Biggio said, "you wake up and you go to the bathroom more – and you hurt more when you walk to the bathroom."

Brother Biggio, I can relate to that last part. I hope you keep pounding 'em out all the way to Cooperstown.

"If our enemies know what we're doing, why can't we?"

The buzz about the New York Times revealing the Bush administration's spying on financial transactions reached entirely new levels of preposterousness in the week since the story was published.

Glenn Greenwald discloses the many conservatives who have gone beyond being offended to summoning Nazi-style thuggery against the people who wrote and published the story. His post reveals details that are simply appalling to everyone who values democracy. If someone gets injured as a result of these lunatics inciting violence, God help them.

But the reaction from the MSM has been more than pushback; they are hitting back -- hard.

Richard Orr, a blast from my personal past, is responsible for the headline above. He continues:

Correct me, but in all the stories I've seen and read on the Times' "exposure" that the government has been dogging al-Qaida's financial network, I have yet to see one concrete example of who or what is being harmed by it.

What's more, the 9-11 commission has publicly said such surveillance is necessary to choke off the money that feeds their terrorist operations.

So if al-Qaida wasn't aware their financial transactions are being tracked, we have nothing to fear from them. They're too stupid to worry about.

What we do have to fear are the mindless calls for prosecuting the news media for informing us of what the most secretive administration in memory is doing in the apparent belief they're running a private corporation instead of a democratic republic that requires an informed electorate.

They're the same cries that went up with publication of the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon era - the exposure of which led to the revelation that Nixon operatives had broken into a psychiatrist's office to find damaging personal information on Daniel Elsberg, the man who exposed what the administration was up to in Vietnam and elsewhere.

In Watergate, Nixon argued that the Pentagon Papers and the tapes from the Oval Office, if made public, would compromise national security when, in fact, it was national embarrassment and the fear of prosecution that really concerned them.

If our enemies know what we're doing, why can't we?

And this morning on Meet the Press, Dana Priest crushed Bill Bennett like a peanut -- with the Moral Gambler sitting right next to her. If you want to see it, McBlogger has it.

Update (7/3): Greenwald follows up. The right-wingers have disgraced temselves once again -- not that this atrocious display will stem their bile.

Chris Bell has Courage

In the Mapchangers contest (click also on the link at the top right) Bell has endorsed the man challenging Lamar Smith in CD-21, John Courage:

Now as we start the final round, there are ten candidates from across the country vying to win a fundraiser with Governor Warner. Voting runs through July 10th, and you can only vote for one candidate. It's a testament to the strength of the Texas netroots that we have two Texans into final ten, and we'll need every bit of that strength to bring Mark Warner to Texas. That's why we need to work together to make sure we do not split our votes.

I've talked with John Courage and we've decided that, in the spirit of Texas unity, and on behalf of all Democratic candidates and activists across Texas, we will ask all of our supporters to join together:

Please vote for John Courage in this contest.

http://www.forwardtogetherpac.com/mapchangers

Our new field director, Glen Maxey, is working with activists and campaigns all across the state to build a website at TrueBlueAction.com that will offer netroots organizing tools that will help Democrats win in November and beyond. If we can put John Courage over the top, he has agreed to use the first $15,000 raised at the Mark Warner fundraiser to underwrite the development of these tools and this website. These tools will help us across the state for years to come, and they will only get better as we build and improve on them.

The TrueBlueAction.com web site is under construction and is being developed as a open access site with lots of organizing tools for candidates and activists to use to register and turn out Democratic votes. It will be open for the use of local, state and federal candidates. It will be open for the use on any individual wanting to help the Democratic ticket or a candidate.

That's why winning this contest is bigger than John Courage or me. It's about what all Texas Democrats can accomplish if we work together. By voting for John Courage in the Map Changer contest, you will be helping all Democratic candidates in Texas.

Unity is a wonderful thing. You'll see much more of this kind of synergy among candidates and campaigns in the coming days. Oh yeah, the Texas Progressive Alliance is the official online endorser of this blogswarm.

So many Funnies this Sunday

I had to put up three editions:

Cut and Run

So much to laugh at

Not quite so funny

Happy Independence Day weekend. Try not to shoot anyone in the face.

Republicans making chicken salad

And they're using chickenshit again to make it:

Republicans yesterday looked to wrest a political victory from a legal defeat in the Supreme Court, serving notice to Democrats that they must back President Bush on how to try suspects at Guantanamo Bay or risk being branded as weak on terrorism.

In striking down the military commissions Bush sought for trials of suspected members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, the high court Thursday invited Congress to establish new rules and put the issue prominently before the public four months before the midterm elections. As the White House and lawmakers weighed next steps, House GOP leaders signaled they are ready to use this week's turn of events as a political weapon.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comment Thursday that the court decision "affirms the American ideal that all are entitled to the basic guarantees of our justice system." That statement, Boehner said, amounted to Pelosi's advocating "special privileges for terrorists."

Similar views ricocheted around conservative talk radio -- Rush Limbaugh called Pelosi's comments "deranged" on his show Thursday -- and Republican strategists said they believed that the decision presented Bush a chance to put Democrats on the spot while uniting a Republican coalition that lately has been splintered on immigration, spending and other issues.

As usual, there's so much that's so ridiculous that's it's difficult to know where to begin, but let's start with their own words:

The right to a fair trial as guaranteed in the Constitution, described by the House Majority Leader as "special privileges for terrorists".

Rush Limbaugh calling someone -- anyone besides himself -- "deranged".

You know, it's just beyond even their standard-issue bullshit. The sad thing is that there are actually people -- some in the media -- who will swallow this. Tom Tommorrow's cartoon about the shit sandwich describes this mental deficiency perfectly.

And their supporters, who have been crying for months as the GOP's political futures have swirled the drain, can now latch onto this as a brave stand for America. 'Bold', they will say.

Fascists, I say. Xenophobic to the point of paranoia.

Of course there is some benefit to the nation in this course of action by the Republicans, and that is that they will be marginalized once more as a political party. Removed permanently to the minority, where they belong.

There are already too many of their former majority who refuse to be terrorized by them any longer.

Judges want redistricting maps in two weeks

The Lone Star Project has it:

The three-judge Federal District Court has issued an order and provided a schedule for determining a remedy in response to the recently released opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court on Texas redistricting.

July 14, 2006 - All parties (plaintiffs and defendants) required to file remedial proposals including briefs and proposed maps.

July 21, 2006 - responses to remedial proposals must be filed.

August 3, 2006 - 9:00 a.m. - Oral arguments on proposals before the three-judge panel in Austin, Texas

That answers the question as to whether the judicial trio or the Lege will approve the maps. Judges Higginbotham, Rosenthal, and Ward aren't fooling around. But with a sixty-day period for DOJ review, new districts will require a special election.

In November?!? Does that mean that those elected in a special will serve a regular two-year term? Does it mean Cuellar or Doggett, with no GOP opponent in the general, can draw additional challengers -- from either the right or left?

My goodness, this gets curiouser and curiouser.

Update: Charles Kuffner seems to think there's plenty of time to pull off an open primary. (Color me skeptical.)

Update II (6/30): The Valley Politico seems to have it all figured out. His scenario posits a politician on the ballot for, say, state legislature in the regularly-scheduled general election on November 7, and the same politician on a special election ballot for Congress. The same person running for two different offices at the same time, a la LBJ and Lloyd Bentsen. At this point I feel as if I must confess to a learning disability regarding this issue.

Update III: Charles K explains it to me. (Thanks, dude.)

What the redistricting decision means

Maybe. At this point.

Having qualified my conclusions, it's still subject to lots of legal interpretation, a few more decisions still need to be made, and then a plan will be executed. By someone(s). At some near or not-so-near point in the future.

First, as backstory for those of you not paying close attention, the SCOTUS -- in a decision announced earlier today -- invalidated a portion of the Texas Congressional district maps that the Republicans in Austin redrew in 2003, according to Tom DeLay's edict. There are various interpretations of whether this was a victory for democracy or not.

Blogs and listservs are ablaze with translations. Here's a few of mine. First, the facts:

1. Two* One districts -- CD-23, currently held by Republican Henry Bonilla, and CD-25, held by Democrat Lloyd Doggett* -- were deemed in violation of the Voting Rights Act due to dilution of minority votes. They must be redrawn and submitted for approval by the USDOJ again. You may recall that the political appointees there overruled the career attorneys in approving the current boundaries several months ago. Any redrawn maps for these districts likely also change marginally the composition of CD-21 (Lamar Smith-R) and CD-28 (Henry Cuellar-D, barely).

2. The Texas district court panel of three judges which arbiters this matter now has the responsibility of deciding what to do with the map. The first and most immediate decision is when to rewrite the map -- this election or the next (my guess is the boundaries for 2006 will not change). The second decision is whether they will redraw it themselves -- accepting three maps each from Democrats and Republicans has been customary in the past -- or whether they kick it back to the Texas Legislature to redo the lines during the 80th legislative session, starting in January of 2007.

Speculation and further decisions and accompanying speculation to come. For now, I'll focus on what was won:

This ruling is a substantial victory for the Voting Rights Act, a victory that puts the Republicans in Congress (like the odious John Carter) on the spot, since they delayed VRA renewal to see what the Justices would do with Texas redistricting.

I don't think it was ever likely that the Supreme Court would have tossed out the entire plan simply because of political gerrymandering, which in this decision the Justices have largely approved. Much more interesting is that redistricting can apparently happen any time a state legislature feels like it, which opens a Pandora's Box in the short term for the GOP (in states besides Texas).

Summarizing: we don't know what the relief will be. The three-judge panel could 1) draw its own map; 2) give the Texas Lege a deadline to draw one; 3) let the current districts stand for 2006; 4) move quickly to change them.

As regards the current occupants of the affected districts, Bonilla and Cuellar can be more easily defeated in redrawn districts, but Lamar Smith would be strengthened.

Some good and some not so much, which is probably the best short conclusion of what the SC decided in this case. And there will be much more to dissect in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

*Update: Only CD-23 was declared in violation of VRA. Interestingly, in the opinion issued by the Supremes, they suggest the remedy is redraw CD-25 ...

Redrawing that district (CD-23) will force nearby District 25, the Austin-to-Mexico district held by Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin, to be redrawn, according to the court opinion. The court's majority noted that the Doggett district, which joins two distinct Latino communities 300 miles apart, is not compact enough.

Gallery of the Absurd

I've added some really interesting things in the blogroll lately, but none more so than Gallery of the Absurd. Go look around, and don't miss Celebrity Endorsement Idea No. 645.

Rush Limbaugh-Viagra humor

While we wait for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, here's some bad jokes by Grant Miller ...

What's the difference between a meeting with Republican lobbyists and a Dominican Republic sex vacation? When you meet with Republican lobbyists, you don't have to take your Viagra through customs.

I hear Daryn Kagan broke up with Rush -- apparently she only does hard news.

Limbaugh takes Viagra so he can be an even bigger dick.

I heard he was supplying Viagra to President Bush. Even the President gets tired of screwing the country all the time.

This confirms that the vast right-wing conspiracy isn't quite so vast.

He puts the "social" in "social conservative."

Limbaugh declined to comment on the drug seizure. I guess he likes to keep his privates private.

*badaboom * badabing*