The Hell Week Wrangle

The thoughts and prayers of the Texas Progressive Alliance are with the people of Boston and West as we bring you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff explains what electric car makers and microbreweries have in common.

There's always a price for stupidity and it's usually steep, especially when it comes to the stupid decision not the regulate key industries. McBlogger observes that the bill for Rick Perry's low regulation heaven came due last week in West.

Before all of the other things happened last week, Swift Boat Bob Perry passed on to his greater reward. Which, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs hopes, is a low-paying job in an extremely warm climate.  

WCNews at Eye on Williamson posts about the former Williamson County DA being charged with a crime: Ken Anderson will be charged with criminal wrongdoing in Michael Morton case.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw reminds us that there are no signs of Rick Perry become a human being anytime soon. Check out Rick Perry's Texas: Tax Cuts for Businesses. No Mercy for the Poor.

===============

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

TFN Insider reminds us that the creationists are still at work in the Legislature.

The Great God Pan Is Dead joins with the Houston Art Alliance to paint some trees blue.

Concerned Citizens warns about a teabagger group that targets progressive municipal candidates with nuisance ethics complaints.

Jason Stanford doesn't believe in miracles, at least not as far as test scores are concerned.

Mark Bennett illustrates how spousal privilege may come into play in the Kaufman County murder trials.

Texpatriate finds a reason to be proud of his (Republican) Senator.

Texas Watch offers some tips for dealing with your insurance company after a disaster.

 Texas Leftist gives his impressions of the Gang of Eight immigration bill.

And finally, Flavia Isabel has some helpful hints for domestic bliss.

Sunday Funnies

Earth Day and Record Store Day

Because we all need a little stress relief, right?

(In addition, there is a fundraiser today for SDEC-6 committeeman Phillip McNutt. My friend Phil, a longtime Democratic activist, was battling spinal meningitis last month when he suffered a stroke. As a small businessman without health insurance, you can imagine the crushing financial burden that joins these health concerns. Phil's pal, Susie Loucks, has put together a silent auction benefiting Phil's family this afternoon; click the link for details.)

Record Store Day

This annual celebration of independent music stores will again stuff retailers with brightly colored, limited-edition vinyl in various sizes. Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Fela Kuti, Willie Nelson, Moby, Captain Beefheart, the Grateful Dead, the Dave Matthews Band, Big Star, Cream, Bob Dylan, Roky Erickson and Houston's own Jandek are among the dozens of artists represented by RSD exclusives.

Here, courtesy the Houston Chronicle, are some of the special hours, festivities and such that some local retailers will be presenting today.

Black Dog Records: Starting at 10 a.m., the venerable vinyl shop will celebrate its first RSD at its new location with select titles and refreshments that will begin to flow at 3 p.m. 4900 Bissonnet, No. 102; 713-522-6001

Cactus Music: The store will open at 10 a.m. with select RSD titles. At 2 p.m., author David Ensminger will read from "Mojo Hand," the book he co-wrote about Lightnin' Hopkins; John Egan and the Mighty Orq also will perform. At 5 p.m. the Virginmarys will perform. There will be giveaways and drawings, including a Bowie print proof and a poster signed by most of the acts that have taken part in Cactus in-store performances in the past year. More than 2,000 hip-hop 12-inch recordings will be on sale at two for $1. Refreshments from Saint Arnold Brewery also will be served. At 7 p.m. Friday, Cactus will host a screening of "Last Shop Standing," a short film about independent record stores. 2110 Portsmouth; 713-526-9272.

Heights Vinyl: Doors will open at 11 a.m., giving customers extra time to visit other stores beforehand. In addition to RSD releases, the Tontons will perform at 1 p.m. and Come See My Dead Person will perform at 3 p.m. There will be giveaways, refreshments from Karbach Brewing Co. and a limited-edition "Weird Beard" screen print. 3122 White Oak; 281-974-1234.

Sig's Lagoon: In addition to RSD releases, the store - which received a formidable vinyl infusion from San Marcos' Sundance Records last year - will have food from around the 3600 and 3700 blocks of Main, and select local businesses will offer discounts with a Sig's receipt. 3622-E Main; 713-533-9525.

Vinal Edge: Having relocated to the Heights, the store will open at 9 a.m. (one hour early) and offer select RSD titles. Owner Chuck Roast also will be selling rare punk 45s from his personal collection from his "Funhouse Radio" show days. Singer Really Red also will be selling LPs from his collection. As for drink, Boomtown Coffee will provide some samples. 239 W. 19th; 281-537-2575. 

And a couple more from the Houston Press. By the way, and if you haven't already read about it in Rolling Stone, the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Rush, Heart, Public Enemy, Randy Newman, Donna Summer, Albert King, Lou Adler, and Quincy Jones had their jam this past week and that will be shown on HBO tonight next month. It's a don't-miss.

Earth Day

Here's a list of Earth Day events all across Texas from the Texas Drought Project.

Abilene-Saturday, April 20th-9AM to 12:30PM, McGlothlin Campus Center-exhibitors. 1PM, Crutcher Scott Field, a tree planting demonstration and workshop will begin and will continue until 5 p.m. The workshop will be led by Byron Patterson, ACU's director of physical resources, and representatives from the Texas Forest Service will participate as well. The trees and the organic material to be used in the planting have been grown at ACU's tree farm.

Austin-Saturday, April 20 2013,noon-7pm, Old Mueller Airport , Browning Hangar. Speakers, kid zone, environmental organizations exhibits, gardening, sustainability and rainwater harvesting. 

Special note: Presentation of the "How to become carbon positive" manual, compiled by the Energy Action Team of the Interfaith Environmental Network, Stage 2, at noon. Also--Join our 5:00pm Rhythmic Rally Finale,"The Story of Energy in Texas"with "Austin Beyond Coal", with Jim Hightower.

http://www.earthdayaustin.com

Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange--April 19th, 20th, and 21st--Trail Between the Lakes Hike. Contact Phil Rogers, philarogers@gmail.com or 409-543-4616, or Bruce Walker, bwalker@gt.rr.com, 409-782-3486.

www.texas.sierraclub.org/triangle/pages/trail.html

Boerne--Friday, Apr 26 6:30 PM, Movie in the Park, Dr. Seuss "The Lorax" and Earth Day Family Drum Circle. Main Plaza. Free.

Brownsville--Saturday, April 27th, 10AM to 2PM, Linear Park. Food vendors, live music,
recycling, gardening, exhibitors, kids' activities. Free. 

Bryan-College Station--Saturday, April 20th, 11AM to 6PM. Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater. 

Eighteenth Annual Brazos Valley Earth Day. Educational booths--rainwater harvesting, composting, "green" lawn care techniques, alternative transportation. Kids' zone, including obstacle course, inflatable bounce and environmental story times. Live entertainment performs throughout the day.  

www.brazosvalleyearthday.com 

   

Canyon Lake--Saturday, April 20th, 10AM to 4PM. Tye Preston Library, 40 exhibits and displays, rainwater catchment, children's activities, native plants, birding. Free.  

Corpus Christi--Saturday, April 20th, Adopt-a-Beach on Earth Day! Two locations, Cole Park  and North Beach, both 9 to noon. Check with Carolyn Moon for additional info cmoon4920@att.net. 

Then, on Monday, April 22nd, 2:30 to 5:PM--Earth Day events at Del Mar College, featuring comments by the iconic environmentalist Pat Suter, and a tree planting. East Campus Peace Pole between Heritage Hall and the Harvin Center, near Baldwin Blvd. All are welcome.

Dallas--Saturday, April 20, 21st. One of the country's largest Earth Day events. Fair Park in the heart of Dallas, with 500,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space. Six hundred exhibitors. The Eco Expo will teach attendees how to take environmentally responsible action by better utilizing resources, switching to eco-friendly products or joining their organizations.

http://www.earthdaydallas.org/  

Edinburg--April 27th, 9AM to 1PM. Earth/Arbor Day Festival at the Edinburg World Birding Center. Includes a one-mile family walk and a "Bicycle Rodeo." See more at: 

 http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=496129070453227&set=a.136022163130588.26197.135992229800248&type=1&theater

  

El Paso--April 20, 9AM to 1PM. El Paso's Earth Day, Union Plaza District. Organized by the City of El Paso's Environmental Services Department.

http://www.downtownelpaso.com/el-pasos-earth-day-celebration-2013/ 

Galveston--Saturday, April 20th, 10AM to 4PM. Moody Gardens. Visit their exhibitions and other awesome Earth Day activities, like their herb garden with the Galveston County Master Gardeners and make-and-take butterfly-garden-in-a-pot.

Houston--April 20,21 from 9-3, Houston Zoo at 6200 Hermann Park Drive. All the Earth Day activities are paid for by your admissions ticket. Scavenger hunt, Mother Earth maze, reusable mural for your little Mondrians, and an Earth Day DJ for those who like to move their bodies. Other cool and educational activities include a Ladybug Release and Bear Awareness Day (on Sunday only).

Children's Museum of Houston: April 20th, 10 AM to 6PM Earth Day Extravaganza is a celebration of Mother Nature, 1500 Binz. Activities that will get the children involved in discovering what this day is all about. Water Bottle Birdfeeders, reusing and recycling, and planting take-home seedings. For kids of all ages.

Kerrville--Saturday, April 20th, 8AM to 3PM. Sponsored by the Kerrville Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas, along with the Riverside Nature Center. 150 Francisco Lemos Street. Displays and lectures, rainwater harvesting, guided trail walk, butterfly presentation, kids' activities. 

Laredo--Saturday,April 20, 7:30AM to 1PM -- Earth Day Cleanup at Lake Casa Blanca, a partnership with the The Rio Grande International Study Center and the Texas Army National Guard. Join us as we clean and beautify Lake Casa Blanca, including the berm/dam that faces Loop 20. Students can earn community service hours at the cleanup. Meet at the entrance to Lake Casa Blance. Entrance fee will be waived, but you must sign in at the entrance. ATTIRE: Closed toe shoes; long-sleeve shirt; long-sleeve pants; hat; gloves. Please bring your reusable water bottle.

McAllen--April 20th, 9AM to 4PM, Vida Verde Earth Day Festival. Quinta Mazatlan. 

Organized by the City of McAllen.

http://www.quintamazatlan.com/events/special/vidaverde.aspx

Rockport-Fulton, April 27th, 7AM to 9:30 (run) and festival, 10AM to 2PM. 

5k and 2-mile fun run to benefit Rockport Heritage District Association's beautification efforts, 7AM to 9:30. Festival: 10AM to 2PM., 111 North Austin Street, in the Heritage Downtown district. Products & services for healthy living, artists, native plants, local food, kids' activities, and so much more! Local gardeners & farmers are encouraged to bring your excess produce for our Crop Swap. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockport-Earth-Day-Redfish-Run/225496214255527

San Antonio--multiple locations, multiple times. See below for more information 

and consult HEB website.

April 18: "Earth Day" NW Vista College (9 A.M. - 1 P.M.)

April 22: "Earth Day" San Antonio College (10 A.M. - 2 P.M.)

April 23: "EarthFest" UTSA 1604 (11 A.M. - 2 P.M.)  

Earth Day San Antonio-April 20th, 10AM to 2PM. Woodlawn Lake, organized by Build San Antonio Green.

  

http://www.heb.com/page/about-us/community/events/san-antonio/earth-day-2013 

San Marcos--Earth Day, 7PM, Aquarena Center, San Marcos

Come to celebrate all of the natural things that make our earth beautiful on the headwaters of the San Marcos River--Spring Lake!

Sugar Land--April 20th, 2PM to 6PM. The City of Sugar Land is celebrating Earth Day at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk, Suite 250. There will be interactive booths to educate the public about recycling, waste reduction, tree care, nature appreciation and more.

  

Texoma--April 20th, 7:30AM to 5PM, Municipal Ballroom and Grounds, Sherman, Texas. Texoma Earth Day.

http://www.earthdaytexoma.org

  

Waco--April 20th, Cameron Park Zoo, 1701 North 4th. It's "Beasts and Blooms and Earth Day too!" Come and party for the planet at the annual Earth Day celebration. Walk through the zoo and talk with exhibitors from environmental groups in the area. Family fun activities for all to enjoy.

Whitehouse (East Texas regional)--April 20, 11AM. Camp Tyler Outdoor School at 15143 Camp Tyler Road, on the beautiful shores of Lake Tyler. Earth Day is a FREE event for the community and features earth-friendly businesses, organizations, activities--and lots of food and fun!

Update: OK man, like, Happy 420 Day, too.  I don't partake any longer but I can sure laugh about it. Together with Earth Day and Record Store Day, everything should be peaceful.

Shit been gettin' real this week

So... these things happened just while we were sleeping.

With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives out the window in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News.

The second suspect — the one in the white hat in photos released by the FBI — was on the loose, and police ordered people in the Boston suburbs to stay inside and businesses not to open. Boston shut down its buses and subway system for the hunt.

The suspects are Chechen brothers with the last name Tsarnaev, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The suspect at large, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, is 19 and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that both men are legal permanent residents of the United States, had been here about a year and had military experience.

Oh yeah, Texas also blew up the day before yesterday. (I'll come back to that.)

When an Elvis impersonator in Mississippi gets arrested for sending letters with ricin to his senator and President Obama, and that barely makes the news crawl... you know some serious shit has gone down during the week. Oh, and Pete Williams is winning the Internet has been crowned the new King of All Media.

First things first.

-- So are Chechens Muslim? Why yes, very likely so. Are people of Chechnya "dark-skinned"? That probably depends on several biases, including those of a white, conservative news editor at the New York Post. Since the country is in the region of the Caucasus mountains, I think it's safe to say that Chechens are Caucasian.

This is going to seriously confuse a lot of people, Glenn Beck among them. And chaos, as we all know, leads to fear.

-- West, Texas. Kolaches and fertilizer bombs plants. When Rick Perry brags about the booming state economy, this isn't exactly what he means. It is, however, what he gets. More importantly, it's what we get.

West Fertilizer Co.'s plans for a "worst case scenario" didn't predict the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the plant and neighboring homes Wednesday and killed at least five people.

Oops.

"The company said the plant had no alarms, automatic shutoff system or firewall."

That's two. Can you think of a third one?

(T)he Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reports that it has pursued seven investigations of the fertilizer plant since 2002, both routine and in response to complaints. The last recorded investigation occurred in 2007, 10 months after the agency dealt with an odor complaint.

The Texas Tribune notes that this probably means the facility hadn't been inspected in the past five years. This would be consistent with a steep decline in the TCEQ's investigations in the past few years. The agency's last annual enforcement report showed that the number of complaints investigated has plummeted by 20 percent since 2007, though it is unclear it has been receiving fewer complaints. Its total number of investigations has fallen by more than 7 percent since 2007. Since 2008, the agency's operating budget has been slashed by nearly 40 percent. The TCEQ has not responded to a request for comment on its investigations and whether it was familiar with the West plant's 2011 risk report.

Turning to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for information on the plant's safety record turns up little. The plant's last OSHA inspection was in 1985—not surprising considering that it would take the short-staffed agency 98 years for the agency to inspect each of the state's workplaces. (It would take 130 years for OSHA to inspect every workplace in the United States.)

Strike three. Oh well, the governor can just ask Uncle Sam for a bailout.

At a press conference, the governor thanked President Barack Obama for calling for offer quick action after Wednesday night’s explosion.

“Last night was truly a nightmare scenario for that community,” Perry said. “President Obama called from Air Force One as he was en route to Boston… We greatly appreciate his call, and his gracious offer of support, of course, and the quick turnaround of the emergency declaration that will be forthcoming, and his offer of prayers.”

"Thanks in advance, buddy, for a quick turnaround on that federal aid that I ain't made a formal request fer yet. And nemmind that crap I talked aboutcher birth certificate and suckseedin' and all."

West's Congresscritter, Rep. Bill Flores -- who voted against federal aid for the victims of Sandy -- pledged to line up at the trough with his hat in hand. He's never been to the fertilizer plant but he's driven past it "scores of times"; he's not going down there now because he'd just get in the way, he IS leading prayers and updating his Facebook and Twitter frequently with updates on how the residents can seek the help they need.

Now for a conservative Republican, that's true leadership. Meanwhile, local blogman Charles Kuffner got out ahead of the congressman. That doesn't surprise me one bit.

I don't think I have time to keep up with the rest of what's going on, but I am going to keep my eyes peeled for a Friday document dump trying to get lost in the noise. And if I were you, I wouldn't watch my teevee or even read my Twitter feed. Trust me: you'll get scared, and not just because some of what it's telling you is accurate.

Question Everything

Because the accuracy of what you're seeing, hearing, and reading is just ghastly.

The New York Post was derided Tuesday for apparent inaccuracies in its reporting on the bombing at the Boston Marathon. And now, its rival tabloid, the Daily News, is facing criticism over an apparent photo touch-up.

On yesterday's cover wrap, the News ran a photo taken by John Tlumacki of The Boston Globe showing an injured woman lying in a pool of blood while being tended to by a civilian.
 
It was one of many widely circulated images capturing the moments after explosives were detonated near the finish line of the marathon on Monday afternoon, killing as least three and wounding more than 170 in a likely terrorist attack about which police are still scrambling to scare up leads.

But the version published by the News seemed to erase a gory wound to the woman's leg that was visible in other publications that used the photo. On Tuesday evening, a link to a blog post exposing the manipulation began circulating among News journalists, some of whom were none-too-pleased about the situation, multiple newsroom sources told Capital. 

The graphic photo -- before and after Photoshopping -- is at that last link.

We should remind ourselves that this sort of thing happens constantly, and not just on our Facebook pages. If you're like me, you barely have ingrained a Snopes habit of verifying everything you read. Now you have to add "photographs often lie" to the list, right behind politicians and car salesmen.

-- Andy Kroll at Mother Jones with the emphasis expressed in the title above. Richard Jewell, the Atlanta Olympics "bomber", was innocent. (Eric Rudolph was guilty.) There was no fire on the National Mall on the morning of 9/11/01 as CNN claimed. It wasn't Muslim jihadists that slew dozens of Norwegians two years ago; a James Holmes shot and killed people in an Aurora movie theater but not that Jim Holmes; and poor Ryan Lanza initially got the blame for what his brother, Adam, did at Sandy Hook Elementary.

These are just a few hideous examples of the damage that the race to break first has done. As I wrote earlier in the week, our increasing reliance on social media is making it worse.

I'm with Eileen.

I miss the days when you had to wait until the next morning to get the news.
— EileenDSmith (@EileenDSmith) April 17, 2013

Update: One serious, one not so much. You decide which is which.

“After monitoring every minute of CNN’s broadcast since Monday, we have found hearsay, rumors, falsehoods, and a steady stream of inane commentary,” one authority said. “Everything but information.”

“I fear we have permanently entered the Age of the Retraction. All the lessons of the past — from Richard Jewell to NPR’s announcement of the death of Gabby Giffords to CNN’s erroneous report on the Supreme Court Ruling on ObamaCare — fail to inform the present. The rush to be first has so thoroughly swallowed up the principle of being right and first that it seems a little egg on the face is now deemed worth the risk.” 

What's Wrong with US Media, Part 5,439,826

Just now on HuffPo...

Says all that needs saying, doesn't it?

Update: The humiliation of a journalistic reputation...

Wednesday afternoon has seen a flurry of contradictory reports about the status of an alleged suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, but for the past hour or so, CNN has been going all-in with sources that said an arrest had already been made. A few minutes ago, though, CNN’s chyron went from “Sources: Arrest In Boston Bombing” to “Defcon: Oh, Crap,” as CNN contributor Tom Fuentes came on the air to tell Anderson Cooper that two “highly-placed sources” say there has been no arrest, followed by Fran Townsend reporting that “two administration officials” have confirmed that there has been no arrest.

[...]

It’s still possible that CNN’s first source was correct, but if their reporting on the arrest turns out to have been positively wrong, it will be a black eye that makes their SCOTUS decision flub feel like a backrub. With the Boston Police Dept. now refuting even CNN’s local sources, that appears likely now.

Update II: The excruciating play-by-play.

For Boston

First, the Dropkick Murphys...



Beantown will be just fine. It's America I'm worried about.

Our United States always seems to screw these things up. I'm talking about the present and future overreaction, no matter who the perpetrators turn out to be. Our wonderful social media, the driver now of all things buzzworthy, opened the bidding yesterday afternoon.

"When tragedy strikes America, Twitter remembers bad reporting." Yes it does. There was Ari Fleischer, Bush's Baghdad Bob, reminding everyone how to conduct themselves during these moments. Gratefully, there also was TBogg of firedoglake...

.‏@arifleischer is advising people to NOT report rumors as fact.Unless, of course, they are about WMDs in Iraq ...in which case it's cool
— TBogg (@tbogg) April 15, 2013

If you click on the Slate link above, you'll see that one of the morons continuing to Tweet out their auto-propaganda was our very own Rick Perry...

You don’t want to be tweeting about the tax benefits of the state of Texas while limbs are being amputated in Boston if you’re @GovPerry ...

Eh, he's too stupid to know and too obnoxious to give a shit anyway.

And wading through the bramble of prayers, statements of solidarity, updates from friends who had family members at or near the scene and the like, the casual observer struggled to find a kernel of wheat amidst all that chaff. One did not turn out to be the Murdoch-owned New York Post, which is still reporting the death toll as "12" and said that initially there was a "Saudi national" in custody, and then "a person of interest under guard at the hospital" after the Boston PD knocked that down.

Update: The Onion skewered the NYP over their "reporting". And Media Matters wonders if this is the end of the line for the ailing paper.

And let's ignore -- well, let's try to, anyway - the conspiracy theories blooming like 'shrooms in bullshit.

Fox News contributor Erik Rush tweeted, then deleted: “Everybody do the National Security Ankle Grab! Let’s bring more Saudis in without screening them! C’mon! #bostonmarathon,” then responded to a tweet asking if he was “already blaming Muslims”: “Yes, they’re evil. Kill them all.”

You can see screenshots of his tweets here.

It got worse than that. Hard to believe, right? Then there were the local news outlets left to trolling Twitter for news.

(I)nstead of doing the traditional leg-work that, you know, delineates the media's responsibilities and activities, a handful of local news outlets have outsourced their work to the readership that is attempting to turn to them for a fuller perspective on the story. Over a half-dozen outlets across the state have decided that now was the right time to turn over their reportage to their reader- and viewership, instead of, or at least in addition to, attempting to flesh out something carrying the dimensions of a terrorist attack.

It's one thing to crowd-source, guys. It's one thing to ask what your audience's "worst pet peeves!" or "favorite kind of ice cream!" or "all-time best Astrodome memories!" are. There's a time and place for all of that. But this -- with the dead, and the wounded, and the blood and viscera and video still redounding on each and every channel and feed across the nation -- this isn't the time. This is the time to do some damn work on your own.

"Tweet us your details because we just don't know how to do journalism any more". There, fixed it for ya, Chron.

This ought to be completely embarrassing, but it won't be. Our media's disgraceful conduct at times like these is nothing short of atrocious. I won't even go into what was talked about on the teevee, because I never turned it on. Teevee news accounts during these events are even worse, as you already know. Oh wait; yes, I will, because somebody else watched it for me.

(This is) cable news (doing) what it does best: Shift the narrative from straight news (what happened, how many were killed and injured, possible suspects, etc) to shameless, unfounded, ludicrous blame (President Obama, Congress, sequester cuts, the NRA, the Tea Party, foreign policy…you name it).

In fact, New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof is already leader of the idiot pack, blaming the attack on Senate Republicans on blocking the appointment of an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) Director in the tweet below.

All class… and, of course, having an ATF director in place absolutely would have prevented these attacks in Boston — right, Nicolas? (He has since walked back that Tweet, but some myopic ideologues just can’t seem to put their hatred aside even for five minutes during a time we should be unified as a nation). And winners like Kristof won’t be the last. On cue, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen told host Jake Tapper that the attack was either the work of al Qaeda or “right-wing extremists,” while sitting in a studio 1,000 miles away just hours after the attack. And NBC’s Luke Russert took to Twitter to speculate about a “possible” connection to the ATF deadly siege on Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas…which happened 20 years ago and 2,000 miles away. FOX and CNN also wondered about that possible (flimsy) connection. 

Bombs in Boston on Tax Day, April 15, Patriots Day -- which used to be celebrated on April 19 but is now the third Monday in April -- the same day the Oklahoma City federal building was destroyed by a fertilizer bomb, because Timothy McVeigh was angered by the fed's involvement in the Waco/Branch Davidian compound invasion which ended in flames on April 19. Oh, and also Columbine, which happened the day after...

Yes, a thick juicy stew for the conspiracy theorists. My advice? Keep calm and carry on.

Update: Cong. Michael McCaul's ignorance is not helping. 

Bob Perry dead

It's just a slow Swift Boat ride down the River Styx, made faster by the fact that there will be no pause in Purgatory.

Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, a major Republican campaign contributor and a leader of the successful drive to limit lawsuit awards in Texas, has died, a spokesman confirmed late Sunday.

He was 80.

There really isn't a single solitary thing about Republican politics in Texas over the past ten or twenty years -- and for a while there, the entire country -- that Perry did not have a hand (read: his money) in. The TXGOP, several sessions' worth of conservative legislators, and even the US presidency bear the mark of his financial legacy: $32 million to candidates and causes since 2000.

Update: I thought that sounded low. "Since 2004, Perry has given a total of at least $45 million in federal contributions — excluding direct donations to candidates, according to Federal Elections Commission records, a 2012 AP analysis and figures tabulated by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."

The Center for Public Integrity ranked Perry third in its list of super donors, noting he contributed $23.5 million to Super PACs in 2011 and 2012. In the 2004 presidential campaign, he was a top donor to the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, which fervently questioned the accuracy of John Kerry's description of his military service in Vietnam.

Perry was a pragmatic Republican who became a kingmaker as "the most prolific political donor in the state of Texas," said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones, who predicted Perry's death "is going to have a profound impact on Texas politics."

"Pragmatic" is definitely not the word I would choose. But Jones is, after all, a big fan of the man. (Jones is also credited with the underestimate of Perry's spending; the $32 million figure above is now attributed to Perry's donations statewide.)

He did sometimes donate to Democrats - like state representatives Eddie Lucio of Brownsville and Mike Villarreal of San Antonio - so long as they championed "education, economic liberty and tort reform," (spokesman Anthony) Holm told the Dallas Morning News last fall.

[...]

For example, he bankrolled the successful 2005 effort to pass a state constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage but stunted a 2011 effort to expand the authority of police inquiring about the immigration status of people they detain.

Yeah, Swift Boat Bob earned the enmity from the Xenophobe Caucus for his lasting support of cheap labor, but not for the same reasons others would (like refusing to raise the minimum wage, for example).

I think there is something serendipitous about the timing: Perry, and the generation of Texas Republicans who rose to power in the Reagan years, are being carried now to the cemetery just as the children of all those day laborers come of voting age, and the Democrats in Texas poise themselves for a renaissance. The locals sure are scared; there are at least two different reports of Battleground Texas meetings in Houston that Republicans have attended and reported on. And in reading that, the sheep seem real nervous.

Rest without peace, Bob.  Your epitaph is what it is. Nobody will actually miss you that wasn't depositing your checks.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is settling in for another long hurricane season as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff offered his thoughts on the Battleground Texas kickoff meeting in Houston.  

WCNews at Eye on Williamson says the cheaters are winning: Wage theft in Texas.

Republicans have kind of a fetish thing going on with hangman's nooses, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has noticed.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains the 24/7 embrassment that Ted Carnival Cruz is by exploring his latest foray into the "outer limits" of sanity. Check it out: TX U.S. Senator Carnival Cruz Gets FiliBusted.

This week at McBlogger, we take a look at the state of transportation funding in the Legislature (with the help of the Texas Tribune) as well as a stunning turnaround for Governor Perry.

=============================

And here are some blog posts of interest from elsewhere in Texas.

Empower The Vote warns that the RNC is seeking to get out from under the consent decree that has limited their ability to engage in voter suppression.

Texas Clean Air Matters explains what ozone action days are all about.

Texas Watch reports on a poll that says Texas voters – across all geographic, partisan, and political lines – want stronger legal protections from rogue insurance companies.

Lone Star Ma reminds us that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Jeff Balke clues you in on how to be a journalist.

Jason Stanford mocks the idea that Big John Cornyn has been nudged even farther to the right by his junior Senate colleague.

Nonsequiteuse recaps the most gruesome moments from the testimony on the so-called "fetal pain" bill.

Equality Texas has some tips for homophobic lobbyists.

Juanita Jean wonders what Smokey Joe Barton is smoking.

Texpatriate is perplexed by the state Senate's passage of the drug testing for unemployment benefits bill.

And finally, BeyondBones sings the praises of the iguana that came to them after hitching a ride to the United States.

Sunday Funnies

Republicans and hangman's nooses

Your first question might be "Why does the head of the Texas Railroad Commission -- the state agency responsible for monitoring the oil and gas industry -- have an opinion on a gun bill in the US Senate?", or "Why would it be treasonous and lynch-worthy to vote in favor of allowing debate on gun safety legislation?", but neither of those would be my first question.

My first and everlasting question remains: "WTF is it with Republicans and their noose fetish?", and my second question would be: Are they erotic asphyxiation freaks or what?

Here's the TexTrib.

Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman weighed in on the gun-control developments in Washington on Thursday, retweeting an image that showed a noose beside the names of Republican U.S. senators who had voted down a filibuster.

On Twitter, Smitherman re-posted an image and message from a user with the handle @PsychScriv, who had posted: “Make sure none of these people have seats in 2014.” The accompanying image showed a list of the 16 Republican senators whose vote had broken the filibuster that would have kept the gun-control bill off the U.S. Senate floor. A noose dangled beside the names, topped by a single word: “Treason.”

Smitherman added his own commentary, tweeting: "We are in trouble when these Rs side w/ Sen Reid." The list included Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican party's 2008 presidential nominee.

Texas Sharon at BlueDaze had it first (see the screen capture of the Tweet there), followed closely by Progress Texas.

"Barry Smitherman's reprehensible action is disturbing, disgusting, and has absolutely no place in our political discourse," said Matt Glazer, Executive Director of Progress Texas.

"To suggest that any American, let alone a U.S. Senator, deserves to be hung for a democratically cast vote is absolutely unacceptable." "A Senator's job is to debate, discuss and vote on issues of importance to our country. Obstructionism shouldn't be upheld as a priority option for doing the people's work, and when violent rhetoric and imagery is used as a tool of obstructionism, it has gone too far. Smitherman's actions call into question whether or not his job can and should be terminated.

"Progress Texas calls on Smitherman to immediately apologize, and for Governor Perry and all of Texas' Congressional delegation to admonish Smitherman for his deplorable action." 

It's fairly easy to muster the outrage on this one.

Long ago this blog broke the story of hangman's nooses in bosses' offices. A cursory Google search turns up all kinds of repetitive instances, including the prevalence of this sort of thing across the country.

Now before Matt and Greg stumble in to the comments and bluster that private and public supervisors aren't necessarily Republicans, let's establish that at least since Robert Byrd dropped out of the Klan (this shibboleth is a favorite of race-sensitive TeaBaggers, and by 'race-sensitive' I mean TeaBaggers who don't like being called out on their racism) and up through the David Duke-for-whatever years, one cannot intelligently call Klansmen Democrats. See Thurmond, Strom. And there was also this whole Southern Strategy thing that Richard Nixon developed as a result of LBJ's civil rights advances...

Anyway, Barry Smitherman. He's a Rick Perry crony from way back. But in terms of any state position for which the governor can make an appointment, though, who isn't? The sad part is that Smitherman won his election in 2012 with plenty of donations from oil and gas companies and without a Democratic opponent. You may also recall that Smitherman's middle-school-aged daughter -- and her junior-high-aged brother -- maxed out their federal contributions to Rick Perry's presidential campaign in 2011.

Barry Smitherman, among his many other faults, probably pays his children too much in allowance. Or something. But there's no doubt that he needs to find a real job, as the TRC simply doesn't execute the one job it has to any significant degree. From the Texas Observer...

In a state where property rights are considered to be on par with the right to breathe, pipeline companies can seize private land by invoking the power of eminent domain. ... (C)ommon carrier status, which means the company is carrying competitors’ products as well as its own to serve the public good, grants companies the right to take land without getting landowners’ consent. ...

In Texas, there is currently no process to verify whether a company is actually carrying competitors’ products. All a company has to do is check a box on its permit application to the Texas Railroad Commission.

The commission doesn’t have the authority to ensure the company can claim the status. It does not ask for evidence or otherwise monitor the pipeline. This leaves the door open for companies that want the power of eminent domain free to do so without any oversight. The practice has resulted in a number of lawsuits across the state. Landowners who feel their land was taken unfairly (and sometimes without notice), have sued pipeline companies, and in at least one case the courts have determined that some pipeline companies “game the permitting process” to get eminent domain powers.

Yes, Barry Smitherman is a TeaBagging douchewad... but really, what Texas Republican isn't? It's really just a matter of degree, despite the smackdowns the freshman crop of crazy in the Lege keep taking at the hands of their elders. Ultimately, Republicans exactly like Smitherman are what Texas is, elects, and deserves, at least until Battleground Texas starts making a difference.

Or the Republicans in Texas come out from under the ether. I hope I live long enough to get to see one or the other (or both).

Update: Smitherman has apologized. Aware of both the media attention Smitherman's Tweet received and a desire to out-Gohmert Joe Barton from earlier this week, Steve Stockman has come up with a new bumper sticker slogan. He means 'fetuses' of course, but they don't have fingers. Or central nervous systems, or brains, or eyes.  "Babies", in other words (using Stockman's vocabulary).

A few guns, some butter

The week before the tax deadline is always the busiest for me. Here we go with some snips...

“We want to make sure … (chained CPI) is dead on arrival,” Democracy for American chairman Jim Dean told ABC News.

Dean’s organization is one of the many progressive groups that are part of the coalition to deliver the petition to the White House. Dean said that although he and his organization appreciate the president’s “forceful leadership” on issues like gun violence prevention, the CPI proposal is one that has caused them to be extremely disappointed in him.

“People understand that we are not getting everything out of this person,” Dean said. “This was never our way or the highway — even when he was elected in 2008. He’s crossed a line here.”

That was not unpleasant.

Look, it's time to end this ridiculous charade. The White House is proposing what's in the White House budget because that's what the White House wants. They'll fight just as hard to cut Social Security as they will for any of its other provisions. And that's because the White House, let's just face facts, isn't on the side of the American people. They should simply come out and speak with conviction: They don't give a shit about Social Security or anybody who is on it because they want a balanced budget with low taxes. That's the only explanation for passing another $3.4 trillion round of Bush Tax Cuts while cutting Social Security.

Chain, chain, chained...

They know it’s a loser and yet they persist.  That’s nothing I or most Democrats voted for in 2012.  There is a potential “right” way for chained CPI to be done, but there are so many caveats that it could never be done right in our current political system.

The truly stupid part is that we’re talking about debt when we’re still in a massive unemployment crisis. With the 78th anniversary of the WPA this week, that should remind us that we should be talking about jobs and not the deficit. 

Seriously, WTF?

But as always Obama negotiated against himself, made concessions without corresponding Republican ones, became the only elected official in Washington, D.C., to put Social Security benefits cuts in a formal proposal (thus owning them), and then ... what?

Republicans dismissed everything out of hand, progressive groups went to war against the White House, Congressional Democrats distanced themselves from the proposal save for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (ever the loyal lieutenant), and seniors certainly weren't impressed.

If Obama's goal was to look weak and isolate himself, generating bipartisan scorn and ridicule while giving Republicans a chance to claim Democrats want to cut Social Security during 2014 elections, then sure, mission accomplished.

If he actually thought he was accomplishing something useful, however ... the mind reels.

Maybe Democrats could stop quarreling about whether Obama is a putz or not, and perhaps get Hillary Clinton on the record about where she stands on chained CPI. I'm guessing that she won't hold a presser put up a YouTube coming out in favor.

Okay, enough of that.

-- Look, somebody borrowed my headline. Meh. It's not like I had it trade-marked or anything.

-- Maybe some action on the gun safety bill today or tomorrow.

The U.S. Senate will take up gun control starting on Thursday, with a filibuster from Republicans the first order of business before weeks of debates over background checks and other measures begin.

Majority Leader Harry Reid had asked for a compromise on background checks from two senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, by Tuesday night. Manchin and Toomey will announce the bipartisan deal on Wednesday morning.

The approval of at least eight Republicans is crucial because Reid will need 60 votes in the Senate on Thursday to have a successful cloture vote to avoid a filibuster. So far, eight Republican senators say they will not vote to support a filibuster.

A group of Republican senators including Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Jim Inhofe have said they will filibuster “any legislation that infringe[s] on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms.” 

Carnival Cruz canceled his presser this morning, whatever that means.

Back to work.