Name one, Culberson

John Culberson (R-TX): ...it contains provisions that have nothing to do with our troop's survival and safety in the field. To burden our troops with pork, with tax increases, with special provisions that have nothing to do with the war, adds to, I think, the obvious misuse of the process and I urge members to vote against the pork and support our troops.

David Obey (D-WI): I yield myself 30 seconds...I'd like the gentleman from Texas to point out a single piece of member pork in this bill.

Culberson: Does the gentleman yield?

Obey: Yes.

Culberson: Mr., Mr. Chairman, there's a number of un-un-unnecessary provisions in this...

Obey: Name one.

Culberson: Well, why are we separating out, sir, why aren't we just passing...

Obey: (nearly yelling) Name one.

Culberson: Why are we...

Obey: (yelling, finger pointing) Can you name one or can't you? The fact is there is not a single piece of member pork in this bill. You ought to...

(pounding gavel, "time expired")

Culberson: (inaudible)...why are we passing provisions in this bill with tax increases?

(pounding gavel)

"The gentlemen will cease their conversation. The time of 30 seconds has expired. All members are asked to address their remarks through the chair."

Obey: I yield myself one additional minute....and through the chair, I would invite the member to name a specific piece of congressional pork in this bill. He cannot because there is none. He's at least had enough time to read the bill to know that.

Everybody who has been represented by Culberson for the past few years knows that he doesn't read anything except the GOP Talking Points for the Day.

Let's please replace this worthless gasbag with a real Congressman.

John Edwards, and the coup de grace for unity

In a little over one hour from now John Edwards will arrive in Grand Rapids, MI and endorse Barack Obama for president.

Few endorsements were more sought after by both candidates:

Both Obama and Clinton immediately asked Edwards for his endorsement, but he stayed mum for more than four months. A person close to Edwards, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he wanted to get involved now to begin unifying the party. Obama also signed on to Edwards' poverty initiative, which was a major cause for Edwards in his campaign and since he left. When he made his decision, Edwards didn't even tell many of his former top advisers because he wanted to make sure that he personally talked to Clinton to give her the news, said the person close to him.

How much longer now before all of us together, as one, begin to focus on November?

And will Edwards be the keynote speaker at the Texas Democratic Party state convention at the beginning of June?

Bush has made sacrifices because of the war

He doesn't play golf any more.

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.

“I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It's just not worth it anymore to do.’"

Please don't be confused: sport fishing from the family yacht at Kennebunkport is acceptable. Throwing out the first pitch at baseball games is acceptable. Starring in comedy routines that trivialize the lies you told which led to the deaths of 4,000 American soldiers is acceptable.

Playing golf crosses the line and is NOT acceptable.

Update: And it turns out that Bush couldn't even tell the truth about this, neither when he quit playing nor why. Absolutely despicable.

Ron Paul quietly planning revolt at GOP convention

Is Rush Limbloat talking about this?

Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.

But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in St. Paul at the beginning of September.

Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated a month ago in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.

McSame has a Nader problem. Times two.

Just take a look at recent Republican primary results, largely overlooked because McCain locked up the necessary 1,191 delegates long ago. In Indiana, McCain got 77% of the recent Republican primary vote, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who've each long ago quit and endorsed McCain, still got 10% and 5% respectively, while Paul took 8%.

On the same May 6 in North Carolina, McCain received less than three-quarters of Republican votes (74%), while Huckabee got 12%, Paul 7% and Alan Keyes and No Preference took a total of 7%.

Pennsylvania was even slightly worse for the GOP's presumptive nominee, who got only 73% to a combined 27% for Paul (16%) and Huckabee (11%).

As Politico.com's Jonathan Martin noted recently, at least some of these results are temporary protest votes in meaningless primaries built on lingering affection for Huckabee and suspicion of McCain.

You know, this strikes me as kind of a big deal. A little more from the source:

The last three months Paul's forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upwards of one million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates.

So some questions, besides the one that leads above ...

-- How long before we a whole lot more about this? The corporate media loves intrigue, after all.

-- Suppose a talk show host on Air America or Pacifica were to start something called Operation Chaos and urge their listeners to vote Paul, and then threaten to start a riot at the Republican convention. Do you think they'd get away with it scot-free without the FBI showing up at the studio with leg irons, the way Rush did? I somehow doubt it very much.

-- Y'all let me know if you see or hear anything Faux about it, willya?

The Weekly Wrangle

It's Monday, and that means it's time to show some love for the best posts from the members of the Texas Progressive Alliance for the preceding week. Check out the best that the Alliance has to offer, brought to you this week by refinish69 at Doing My Part For The Left.


McBlogger has some advice for state convention delegates aspiring to a seat on the floor in Denver.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says all the fuss over 'wrongful' health care benefits in Brownsville, Corpus Christi and the Texas House is misplaced. Universal health care makes that problem disappear!

John Coby at Bay Area Houston reported on Bob Perry's attempted take over of a local city water authority in order to develop a golf course. The developers lose big in Clear Lake.

Off the Kuff continues his series of countywide race previews with a look at the race for Harris County Tax Assessor.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at right wing blowhards on tour, coming to a local amphitheater near you.

Doing My Part for The Left is thrilled that another poll Shows Rick Noriega just 4 points behind Senator Box Turtle.

WhosPlayin notes that along with many more Republicans, Michael Burgess (TX-26) voted AGAINST supporting Mothers Day.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson has the latest on Rick Noriega's run for the US Senate with this post: Republican machine grinding for Cornyn.

The sinkhole in Liberty County catches PDiddie's attention -- not literally, thankfully -- and he blogs about it at Brains and Eggs in "Rural Texas finally collapses from GOP 'Leadership' ".

Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex ponders the civil liberties thicket that Texas AG Greg Abbott could wander into if he allows the Texas Lottery Commission to use the electronic strip on Texas driver's licenses to verify the age of gamblers at lottery vending machines.

nytexan at BlueBloggin points out the racism In the Secret Service and wonders how can they perform their jobs when supervisors write and send racist emails to one another regarding interracial sex, killing Jessie Jackson and his wife, and ridiculing African-American slang.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News talked to a friend of his that received a GOP push poll against local Democratic judges in "GOP running ccared in Harris County". He also wondered if this picture is of a Pasadena neighbor who can't spell.

Lightseeker takes a look at What Rick Perry Promised, What the Republicans Delivered over at Texas Kaos.



Don't forget to check out all the Texas Progressive Alliance blogs, too:

B & B
Bay Area Houston
Blue 19th

Blue Bloggin
Bluedaze
Brains & Eggs
Burnt Orange Report
Capitol Annex
Common Sense
Doing My Part For The Left
Dos Centavos
Easter Lemming Liberal News
Eye on Williamson
Feet To Fire
Grassroots News U Can Use

Half Empty
In The Pink Texas
Marc's Miscellany
McBlogger
MindSpeak
Musings

North Texas Liberal
Off The Kuff
Para Justicia y Libertad
People's Republic of Seabrook
South Texas Chisme
StoutDemBlog

Texas Kaos
Texas Truth Serum
The Agonist
The Caucus Blog
The Jeffersonian
The Red State

The Texas Blue
The Texas Clover Leaf
Three Wise Men
Who's Playin'?
Winding Road in Urban Area

Sunday Evening Funnies (With Deepest Condolences...)

... to my friends Vince, Stace, and Martha, who need to take their fingers out of their ears and stop singing "tra-la-la-la-la, I can't hear you". Come on, ya'll; even Greg woke up and smelled the coffee some time ago.

And now, on with the toons ...

Obama in Oregon, Clinton in West Virginia

First place first:

... As his bus pulled up, he strode onto the handsome old track just as the women's 5K was ending. A murmur went through the crowd, the public-address announcer confirmed his arrival, and the action came to a halt as 5,000 track fans rose as one to cheer the senator from Illinois who appears suddenly on the verge of claiming his party's presidential nomination. The javelin hurlers dropped their equipment, and the 400-meter hurdlers paused in their warm-ups as a waving Obama made his way around one of the country's most famous tracks bathed in late-afternoon sunlight -- a victory lap.

"You guys are just so fast. I congratulate you," Obama said as he reached the finish line, where the 5K runners still waited -- as if the applause was for anyone but him.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia:

They traveled here from New York, Pennsylvania and Indiana last week to stand in the rain on a rural street corner, at a four-way intersection of winding mountain roads. One woman, a doctor, took vacation time from her job to make the trip. Another, a mother of three, hired a babysitter for the first time in months.

The 10 volunteers, linked by a resolve to keep Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign alive by helping her win Tuesday's West Virginia primary, met to wave campaign signs patched together with duct tape. They cheered as the first car, a beat-up white Volvo, rolled toward the intersection, and a young man in aviator sunglasses leaned out his driver's-side window.

"Hey," he said. "Don't you think you're wasting your time?"

In West Virginia (and next week in Kentucky), the old Democratic Party gets one last chance to have their say. They will say 'no' to change in a resounding voice. They will not ratify this sea-change in the American power structure.

And that's okay. We've been here before.

Every progressive movement in this country has been accompanied by bitter-enders who clung to the old way, the way things used to be. Right now the Clinton supporters' lack of consent for change is preventing the Obama movement from getting in gear and speeding off down the track. But Oregon will be the moment when everything finally snaps into place, and the race for the White House will begin in earnest.

Obama will, despite what occurs in WV and KY, win the necessary number of delegates to secure the Democratic nomination on May 21, in Oregon. Yes, because they violated the rules early on, the delegations from Florida and Michigan aren't included in the tally. Too bad for them.

Here in Texas, there will be a state Democratic convention in Austin held the first weekend in June, and a whole passel of Clinton delegates will trudge through the formalities of electing a few people to go to Denver to watch the coronation of Barack Hussein Obama near the end of August.

(There's much more important Texas Democratic Party elections for both they and the Obama delegates, but that's grist for a future posting.)

And come November, Democrats are going to be competitive almost everywhere in the United States (although perhaps not in West Virginia and Kentucky). In North Carolina, the Democratic senate candidate is actually leading Senator Elizabeth Dole. Here in good ol' Deep-In-The-Hearta, Rick Noriega is trailing John Cornyn by just 4 points. In Oregon the Democratic candidates are in a dead heat with long-time incumbent Republican Gordon Smith. We are winning special elections in deep red districts in Illinois, Louisiana, and (hopefully) Mississippi. Even seemingly safe seats in places like Staten Island are succumbing to scandal. There are almost no safe seats, and no safe states, for the GOP in 2008.

We are on the way to a realignment not seen since 1964.

More Funnies (a Clinton-free edition, thankfully)

Voter ID : the 21st-century poll tax

Despite innuendo, there actually is no proof of any widespread fraud in Texas, at least not the kind that government ID would take care of. In fact, there are far greater possibilities of fraud or malfunction with Texas’ paperless electronic voting machines.

That's the moneyshot from James Harrington, the director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

This government ID scheme works against older voters who no longer drive or travel (as we saw with the old nuns denied the ballot in the recent Indiana primary), students in college, voters with disabilities, minority and poor people, new voters who recently became citizens, and homeless individuals. No matter whether people have voted in their precinct, are known to election staff, or have other ID, they still must get a driver’s license or specified government ID.

Texas Republicans lead by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state Rep. Leo Berman (Tyler) want to impose the same burden on Texas voters. Surely, although they would deny it, their real agenda is to dilute the electoral strength of individuals, who tend to vote Democratic. There is no other viable explanation.

That's not going to slow them down, though.

Texas originally started out enabling people to vote, rather than impeding them. The delegates to the 1875 convention, which gave us our current constitution, lead by Grangers and progressive Republicans, rejected a variety of electoral impediments: poll taxes, literacy tests, property taxes, and multi-member legislative and judicial districts.

The delegates rejected schemes to limit suffrage because they understood that denying the franchise to African-Americans inevitably would deprive them of the political power they needed to break state government's unholy alliance with big business, railroads, and monopolies.

The 1876 Constitution reflects a populist revolt that gave Texas some of the broadest suffrage rights in the nation. For example, until 1919 non-citizens could vote if they met the residency requirement and declared their intent to become citizens.

Anti-voting laws came into Texas in the early 1900s to disenfranchise African-Americans who voted in significantly higher proportions than did the whites. In fact, African-American voter turn out reached 80 percent in some areas. The poll tax, the white primary, and multi-member districts all became law. Even those tricks didn’t work totally, and the KKK used a violent campaign to suppress black voter turnout. Similar tactics kept down Mexican-American voting. This all lead Texas further down the path of racism and segregation.

The Voting Rights Act and Supreme Court decisions undid much of that history, and minority electoral strength increased dramatically. The Republican Party’s reaction since has been to send “poll watchers” to minority precincts around the state to depress voter turnout through intimidation, even though there was no recent election malfeasance history. Dewhurst and Berman want to add yet another hurdle to people voting.

The Republicans decry voter fraud as a problem akin to illegal immigration; the only difference is that they have failed to figure out how to exploit it for profit as they have the undocumented worker.

Voting is a fundamental right, the cornerstone of our democracy. Our legal system should break down barriers to the polling place, not build them up. Let’s help the Legislature remember this when it meets in 2009.

Yes, let's.

Update: Chris Bell piles on ...

Under the Republican proposal, photo identification would be required. Since there’s no problem, there’s nothing to fix; however, two Hispanic state senators, Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) and Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio), point out there are a lot of elderly voters in their heavily Hispanic districts who don’t have driver’s licenses because they never drove a car.

And that’s just what the Republicans are counting on. Voters like those would have to get some other form of photo identification. That’s obviously going to be a major inconvenience, and since it’s hard enough just to get people to register to vote in the first place, chances are they might not vote at all. ...

(S)some people might be a little concerned what happens with real problems like public school education and health care if Republicans are spending so much time on non-problems.

That argument overlooks the most recent census data which shows the number of Hispanics in the United States rose by 1.4 million in just the last year alone and every study shows that Hispanics now lean Democratic by an overwhelming margin.

So see, if you’re a Republican, this really isn’t a non-problem at all.

Sunday Funnies (Going, going, ...)

Some cars must be seen AND heard

Houston's Art Car Parade

is today. Mrs. Diddie insists on going this year (and taking the dog).


(The Car of a Thousand Chairs, from last year's parade.)