Which breed are you?

Via Gary, and from this book. Take the test:

1. Which bumper sticker would you most likely put on your car?
   1. I’m Already Against the Next War
   2. Nice Hummer—Sorry About Your Penis
   3. America: One Nation Under Surveillance
   4. Of Course It Hurts, You’re Getting Screwed by an Elephant
   5. Evolution Is Just a Theory . . . Kind of Like Gravity
   6. May the Fetus You Save Be Gay
   
   
2. A second civil war has just broken out in America. Who is to blame?
   1. Imperialistic neocons—for launching simultaneous wars against Iran, North Korea, and France
   2. Global warming deniers—for bringing us an eco-apocalypse
   3. The South—for never having gotten over the fact that they lost the first War of Northern Aggression
   4. Corporate greedmongers—for outsourcing every last American job to Bangalore
   5. FOX News—for fomenting a war with a flashy “March to Civil War” logo and theme music
   6. Bible-thumping puritans—for banning abortion, gay people, and sex
   
   
3. An asteroid is headed for Earth. You have a seat on the last shuttle off the planet. If you could bring only one book with which to build a future civilization, what would it be?
   1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
   2. An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore
   3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
   4. A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
   5. Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
   6. America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, by Jon Stewart
   
   
4. If the Founding Fathers were alive today, they would be most appalled by which of the following?
   1. The Republicans’ blatant manipulation of terror fears for partisan gain
   2. America’s crack-like addiction to Saudi oil
   3. President Bush’s blatant dictatorial power grab
   4. Government of, by, and for corporate cronies
   5. The hijacking of government by radical Christian wackjobs
   6. That hemp is illegal. Come on, what wasn't clear about the "pursuit of happiness"?
   
   
5. If you could time-travel back to any historical event and bring one thing with you, what would you choose?
   1. The 1967 Summer of Love—with a truckload of condoms
   2. The dawn of the Industrial Revolution—with a copy of the Kyoto Protocol
   3. The day before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans—with FEMA
   4. The day Monica Lewinsky brought Bill Clinton pizza—with a copy of the Starr Report
   5. Election Day 2000 in Palm Beach County—with non-butterfly ballots
   6. The night of Howard Dean’s 2004 Iowa concession speech—with a tranquilizer dart
   
   
6. If you were a candidate for political office, what would your theme song be?
   1. “Peace Train,” by Cat Stevens
   2. “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” by Kermit the Frog
   3. “Fight the Power,” by Public Enemy
   4. “Born in the U.S.A.,” by Bruce Springsteen
   5. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” by U2
   6. “Not Ready to Make Nice,” by the Dixie Chicks
   
   
7. If you could pile any three people into a naked pyramid, who would you choose?
   1. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld
   2. The CEOs of Exxon, Chevron, and Shell
   3. Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito
   4. Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow,and the ghost of Ken Lay
   5. Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh
   6. Revs. Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Ted Haggard

It ain't about who has the fatter wallet.

But who has the most supporters.

Lt Col. Rick Noriega is our candidate and we aren't asking for big money; we are only asking for an expression of your support.

800 donors in 4 weeks. 200 donors a week. 29 a day. That's our lofty goal. What we have -- you have -- is an opportunity to change the equation. And power a political revolution.

800 donors is a statement that we are tired of politics as usual in Texas.

You are invited to be one of the first 800 to change Texas forever. Donate any amount today.

Candidates should not be able to buy elections or allow special interests to buy the nomination $1,000 at a time. "800 donors" sends a message that we are ready to crash the gate and take back our party.

You can tell Texas, and the powers that be, that you are ready right now for a change by donating any amount. We are joining forces to say that, when it comes to people-powered politics, one dollar is as important as one thousand.

Donate today.

Texas progressive bloggers throughout the state are working together to support Rick Noriega, not by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, but by declaring their support for a populist revolution.

Now all we need is you.

Change the equation with any donation.

We're asking you to sign up with the team, not buy influence. Campaigns should be about people and ideas, not bank accounts and millionaires. With your donation in any amount we can not only stop Cornyn, but we will change Texas forever.

Donate today.

Round 'em up

Edit update: I believe the broken links have all been repaired, but please leave a comment if you find one.)

Last week, member blogs in the Texas Progressive Alliance premiered a new feature, the Texas Blog Round Up, modeled after the 50 State Blog Round Up. We plan to bring this to readers every Monday. Without further ado, here is this week's installment, brought to you by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Lady Bird Was Ours

Among many Texas blogs authoring poignant posts about the passing of Lady Bird Johnson was Fort Bend-based Musings. In Lady Bird Was Ours, Muse offers personal reflections about the former first lady and reminds us that, though Lady Bird now belongs to the ages, she still belongs to us.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Can you see any progress in Iraq? Chances are you can't, but Texas Senator John Cornyn can (evidently through rose-colored glasses). In Cornyn Sees Progress In Iraq, Texas Toad of Denton County-based North Texas Liberal explores how Rubberstamping Republican Cornyn's recent votes fail to support our troops.

Who Is For Whom?

Though we're months away from the Democratic primary, the race to determine which Democrat will take on Cornyn is already heating up on the blogs. In Watts v. Noriega In The Blogosphere, Hal at Fort Bend-based Half Empty explores the various blogs to determine which ones are supporting Rep. Rick Noriega's exploration and which are in support of attorney Mikal Watts. And he asks the important question: "where are all the pro-Watts bloggers?"

Need Birth Control? Better Have Cash.

Could Be True at SouthTexas Chisme explores difficulties Houston-area female college students (and others around the state) may be having when it comes to obtaining birth control from their college health services department, thanks to changes in Medicaid reimbursement policies in Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. College Health Centers To Charge More For Birth Control.

Craddick Stands By His Man

Austin-based McBlogger tells us that House Speaker Tom Craddick is standing by his man and keeping former state representative Terry Keel (R-Austin) on as House Parliamentarian... all the while trying to find a challenger for Travis County Constable Richard McCain, who defeated Keel's brother for that post in 2004. Check it out in Speaking of People We Don't Like.

Even Right Wingers Know When To Pull Out

Bay Area Houston explores the fact that, according to a recent poll, even the listeners of one of the most right-wing radio stations in Houston are in favor of pulling out from war-torn Iraq in Right-Wing Radio Listeners Want Out of Iraq.

What Can You Buy With $900 Million?

Though Harris County is proposing a $900 million bond package for various courthouse and jail projects, Charles Kuffner at Houston-based Off The Kuff has serious concerns about whether the bond package will do anything to alleviate a serious guard shortage at the county jail. Though it is now being discussed in the media, Charles says he's still not satisfied the issue is being addressed in County Bonds and Staffing Issues.

A Closer Look At Terry Keel

Matt Glazer of Burnt Orange Report takes a closer look at some ethical issues facing new House parliamentarian Terry Keel, such as potential conflicts of interest concerning Keel's future rulings as well as maintaining a private law practice while working for the state. Matt also closely examines the timing of Keel's Capitol ID card in Keel's Conflict Of Interest.

Rick Perry v. Community Colleges

Few of Rick Perry's recent vetoes have garnered more attention than the one of community college employee health insurance appropriations. Marc G. at Marc's Miscellany explores the issue further, and takes issue with Perry's accusation that community colleges have essentially falsified their appropriations requests in More On Perry's Battle With Community Colleges.

Perry's Defiant Response To Congress

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes a closer look at a letter Texas Governor Rick Perry recently sent to Congressional leaders who criticized public-private partnerships to build transportation projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor in Governor Perry Uses Fuzzy Math In Letter To Congress.

TYC Still Plagued With Difficulties

Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex takes a look at the fact that the Texas Youth Commission remains plagued with difficulties concerning a recent incident in which violent juveniles were set for release with little or no review in Texas Youth Commission Can't Seem To Get Its Act Together.

'I Couldn't Make It' Is No Excuse

Matt Glazer at Stop Cornyn reveals the excuse the junior senator from Texas offered for missing the funeral of Lady Bird Johnson in Cornyn Refuses To Honor Lady Bird.

And lastly, women's health services are under perennial assault here in Texas -- but it's not just Dan Patrick, Warren Chisum, and the odd mad bomber who want to control women's health choices. Texas Kaos' Moiv is keeping an eye on them, and in Operation Rescue's Back--Not a Secret Anymore she covers just how widespread is this open conspiracy against women -- involving politicians, fringe religious figures, and Ricky Skagg's "shofar."

Noriega for Senate, tomorrow

Formal campaign announcement at the Heroes of the Alamo monument near the Texas Capitol's south steps.

You may steal the banner above for your blogs and websites. The website is still under construction, but contributions may be made securely online through ActBlue or mailed to PO Box 231163, Houston, TX 77223-1163.

Sunday Funnies (late edition)

Another letter to to the president (sic)

With the help of the ACLU, I wrote the following letter to to Bush this past week:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has asked you nine times to tell them the full truth about the domestic spying program. Now they have issued subpoenas demanding the legal justification behind the program.

You should comply with the subpoenas.

They are not asking for sensitive operational details about the program. All the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know is your legal rationale for spying on Americans without warrants.

As a taxpayer and a voter, I want to know if my government is spying on me without a warrant, and I want to know your legal justification for ordering spying without warrants on any American.

This program has been in the media since 2005. We know you have the documents, and we know the program exists because you publicly admitted it. It's time for you to release these documents to the public.

I am proud to be an American. I love my country, and I believe we can be both safe and free. But only if everyone follows the law, including you.

What I didn't include in this letter -- what I was thinking as I wrote it, was:

What I would really like to see is a well-organized group of proud American patriots drag your sorry ass -- and Dick Cheney's and Karl Rove's, too -- out of the White House and hanged upside down from the flagpoles, like Mussolini in 1945. That or maybe just a plain old firing squad against the wall of the West Wing's brand-new pressroom.

But I'll settle for your compliance with the subpoenas.

But I didn't write that; I only thought it.

Sunday Funnies (early edition)

'The example she set for us'

Admirers paused at her closed casket, which was draped in a gold-toned pall with multi-colored embroidery. The pall is an official church drape used in Episcopal funerals.

A pillar stood to the right memorializing former President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society social programs, while windows above displayed red and gold-sealed binders containing 45 million presidential documents. ...

Earlier Friday, Johnson's body was carried for a last trip to her beloved wildflower center in southwest Austin, where family and friends gathered for a private church service ... A large portrait of Johnson wearing a hat and surrounded by wildflowers adorned the wall behind her oak casket. On a table nearby were two vases of bluebells, reportedly her favorite flower. The limestone gallery, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooked a spectacular Central Texas vista.

She was remembered for her "graceful elegance" and "radiant presence."

"She was a picture of what it looks like to be fully alive," said the Rev. Stephen Kinney, former rector of the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, where Johnson worshipped.

He added: "We are here to let Lady Bird go and to celebrate her glad release. This is our time to say goodbye."

This was another Lady Bird spring we had, wasn't it?

Confident and lush and defiantly gorgeous, this spring burst out of an ugly winter in such glory because of Lady Bird Johnson. ... How could she have known how much we would come to count on her annual spring show in Washington and her wildflower stands along the interstates, more than 40 years later? Hers is a simple and steadfast legacy, unparalleled among first ladies. She took her lifelong love affair with nature and strewed it across a huge country, where it could cheer generations of Americans without regard to class or creed or age. She sowed an explosion of color to please the loner trucker barreling down the highway and the poor child skipping past urban trash.

She was a great liberal, when being a liberal and a woman was far, far from cool. It was tough being a liberal in Texas too, then as it is now. She did it with grace, magnanimity and charm.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Paraskevi means Friday, dekatria means thirteen and phobia, of course, means phobia.

What is the original reason Friday the 13th is associated with bad luck?

There have been a number of events known as "Black Fridays" in history. Usually these were devastating. Some historians propose that the origin of the "Black Friday" was the simultaneous arrest of hundreds of Knights Templars on October 13, 1307 (Friday), to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.

Today, the concept of Friday the 13th has been extended through the 'black Friday' concept to incorporate anything really bad that happens on a Friday. Throughout history there have been a number of calamities known as Black Friday:

Black Friday (1869), a financial crisis in the United States
Black Friday (1889), the day of the Johnstown Flood.
Black Friday (1910), WSPU took militant action when the Conciliation Bill failed.
Black Friday (1919), a riot in Glasgow stemming from industrial unrest
Black Friday (1921), day on which British dockers' and railwaymen's union leaders announced their decision not to call for strike action against wage reductions for miners
Black Friday (1929), a stock market crash in the United States
Black Friday (1939), a day of devastating fires in Australia
Black Friday (1945), largest air battle over Norway, over Sunnfjord
Hollywood Black Friday (1945), the day the six-month-old Confederation of Studio Unions (CSU) strike boiled over into a bloody riot at the Warner Bros. studios leading to the eventual breakup of the CSU.
Black Friday (1978), a massacre of protesters in Iran
Black Friday (1982), known in Britain after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, sparking the Falklands War
Black Friday (1987), the day an hour-long F4 category tornado ran through the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Black Friday (2004), a crackdown on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé

Other uses of the term include:

"Black Friday" is the name given to the last Friday before Christmas in the United Kingdom. It is a day when widespread anti-social behaviour due to public alcohol consumption is expected to occur, and police are given additional powers to combat it
Black Friday (1940 film), a science-fiction/horror film starring Boris Karloff, Stanley Ridges and Bela Lugosi
Black Friday (2005 film), a Hindi film on the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, directed by Anurag Kashyap
"Black Friday", a title of a song by Grinspoon
"Black Friday", a title of a song by Steely Dan
"Black Friday", a title of a song by Megadeth
"Black Friday Rule", a title of a song by Flogging Molly
"Black Friday", the nickname for game 3 of the 1977 NLCS baseball championships. Philadelphia Phillies fans gave the nickname because the Phillies blew an early lead against the Los Angeles Dodgers and a controversial call was made during the game
"Black Friday", a title of a poem written by Dennis Rader, the BTK killer

Sources all excerpted from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday

Which is odd because the Greeks have an irrational fear of Tuesday the 13th (tritidekatriaphobia) for reasons unknown to this blogger.

A wildflower partisan

From my good friend Prairie Weather:

Lady Bird Johnson died this afternoon. Her flowers are still blazing outside our house though the July sun may make them go to seed soon.

She was a wildflower partisan, as all Texans know. I made so bold as to steal the drying seed head of one of her perfect, rare, Venetian red galliardias, at the old Johnson ranch, put it in my pocket, and scrunch the seeds into my garden about five years ago.

The next spring I had a beautiful single red galliardia plant.

The next year genetics took over and I had a lot of galliardia plants in the same area of the garden but they were mostly of the more common, less beautiful red-and-yellow variety. The following year, more. This year, thanks to the tremendous amount of rain, galliardia are blooming as far out as a couple of hundred feet from the house. There's still a display of pure Venetian reds right outside the sleeping porch, mixed with mealy-blue sage and some lilac skeleton flowers. The cattle and deer leave them alone.

All wildflowers native to the seven very distinct eco-regions of Texas are now popular, thanks to Lady Bird. "I want Vermont to look like Vermont, and Texas to look like Texas," she said. We may have more authentic, water-saving native gardens in this state than any other. Lady Bird won't be forgotten anytime soon.

PGA tour pro plays a muni with a weekend duffer

On the sixth tee, Marino stood behind me and watched my tee shot slice over the trees on the right side of the fairway . . . over the course fence . . . over a road . . . over a jogging trail . . . and splash into the Potomac, 150 yards out of bounds.

"I thought you said there were no water hazards on this course," Marino said.

I stepped back, too ashamed to respond, and watched Marino hammer an intentional fade that arched left to right. It soared down the middle of the fairway, cutting a path that mirrored the hole's shape, and dropped to the ground 350 yards away. One of my co-workers from the paper, out on a golf course for the first time in her life to watch this round, offered her evaluation.

"Wow," she said, "his shots even sound different than yours."

Thanks to Tom K for the link.

It depends on what the meaning of "verified" is

Hell, what are we going to do about this? Call for his resignation? Demand Bush fire him? Impeach him?

Can't prosecute him for lying to Congress because Bush will just give him a pardon:

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

What time does the tea party start?