Monday, September 15, 2014

More Democrats that no one should vote for

The first installment of this continuing series began with Junior Samples Jim Hogan, who is running -- well, ambling anyway -- for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.  The second chapter discussed the position of Harris County Judge, where the Democrat (sic) suddenly quit and endorsed the Republican incumbent, leaving only the Green, David Collins, standing up to Hunker Down Emmett.

It's time once again to remind Texas Democrats that there are better options than a straight ticket.

-- Henry Cuellar: the lousiest Democrat in Congress.  I have a little hesitation in seconding this evaluation from Down With Tyranny!... but not a lot.

An anti-choice, anti-gay reactionary and corporate whore, Cuellar has one of the worst records of any Democrat in Congress and the worst when you take the partisan lean of the district into account. According to ProgressivePunch his lifetime crucial vote score is 40.96. Of the 7 Democrats with more Republican voting records than Cuellar, all come from Republican-Leaning districts. He was the co-founder and co-chairman, with Buck McKeon of the infamous House Drone Caucus, which pays him off with gigantic legalistic bribes every two years. He's always one of the handful of Democrats backed by Republican organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Club for Growth, and the NRA.

More from Mother Jones.  Cuellar has no Republican challenger in CD-28.  He does have a Libertarian one, and also a Green, and an independent.  South Texas progressives: you gotta start somewhere.

-- I only hesitated to call Cuellar the worst Democrat in Congress because if (by some unpredictable expression of dissatisfaction with the incumbent, John Culberson) the predominant Republican voters of CD-7 were to elect James Cargas, then Cargas would most certainly and very quickly become the worst Democrat in Congress.

I have blogged so many times about my disgust for this guy that I'm worn out reading about him from myself.  Cargas does not live in the district and doesn't know who does live in the district.  Cargas is a lackey and a stooge for the elites who may or may not live, work, and vote in the district.  Cargas isn't only a sneak and a creep; he employs sneaks and creeps to do his dirty work.  And on and on and on.

On two occasions at the Texas Democratic Party convention this past June, I turned around to have the scowling visage of the Democratic nominee for the Seventh Congressional District of Texas standing too close to me, staring at me.  Once was at the breakfast reception for Texas Railroad Commission nominee Steve Brown, and the other was at my -- our -- Senate District meeting.  Actually he didn't quite sneak up on me that time; I watched as he made his way from well across a large convention room, matriculating through and around several dozen people so he could stand beside me.  Just as weird as it sounds, considering my very obvious, very public derogatory opinion of him.  He never attempted to speak to me, nor I him.  In fact he never has.

So I have to guess that this was some pathetic little attempt to try to intimidate me.  He certainly must have thought this sort of thing worked well in his primary battles with Lissa Squiers.  He doesn't seem to understand that if he would just ignore me, I might stop blogging about what a bitter, flaky, resentful, creepy sneaky weirdo he is.  Some Democrats like him; it seems to be a 'lesser of two evils' rationalization on both their parts.  No thanks.

Cargas has found his niche, and it isn't electoral politics.  There will be no Peter Principle at work in his race; he'll be lucky if he gets 33% of the vote.  He should get satisfied with his very comfortable station in life.  He's the kind of Democrat that can be at ease voting for Republicans like Ed Emmett.  Or Jim Hogan.  Or Henry Cuellar... if he were to relocate himself to the southern suburbs of San Antonio, or perhaps Laredo.

Maybe if he did move there, he could challenge Cuellar.  From barely to the left.

One more observation: it is a reflection of the same kind of conservative, corporate, pro-business and anti-99% Democrat that Annise Parker is that she hired (or signed off on the hiring of) Cargas to work at City Hall once again.

I so cannot vote for James Cargas that for the second cycle in a row, I have to vote for either nobody or the Libertarian as my representative to Congress.  That's how foul the conservative crap is in my district.  Yes, I know some of you have it much worse.  Good on you for tolerating it better than me.

The First Cool Snap Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is thankful for cool air and no hurricanes this season as it once again brings you the best lefty blog posts from last week.

Off the Kuff looked at the Wendy Davis internal poll and the thought process behind it.

Harold Cook demonstrates the dangers of posting in ignorance to official Facebook pages.

Libby Shaw, now writing at Daily Kos, hopes the smart sector of Texas wins over the purposely ignorant. The battle over text books rages on, in An Educated, Diverse and Tolerant Texas vs. the Far Right and the Willfully Stupid.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson -- born and raised in Palestine, Texas and now living in The Woodlands -- found himself outside his community's standards for child discipline (as determined by a Montgomery County grand jury). It was another black eye -- bad pun intended -- for the NFL. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs sarcastically wondered why fans of a violent game played by men with violent tendencies in a country that worships violence would have a problem with a four-year-old boy getting whooped with a switch.

Republican racism has its price. Too bad that the Rio Grande Valley is having to pay it. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know that Rick Perry's deployment of the Texas National Guard is not just a racist stunt to boast Perry's batshit crazy bonafides.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson helpfully points out that if we aren't getting the government we want, we still must vote: As Bad As Things Might Seem, Not Voting Only Makes It Worse.

Neil at Blog About Our Failing Money Owned American Political System posted about the strong race run by Zephyr Teachout against corrupt business-as-usual Governor Andrew Cuomo in the New York State Democratic Primary. BAOFMOAPS is one of a number of worthy pages to view at NeilAquino.com.

Dos Centavos has the lame response from a TXGOP official making excuses for why Dan Patrick didn't show up for a debate with Leticia Van de Putte on Univision.

Texpatriate has a passel of endorsements in statehouse races.

And Egberto Willies had the HuffPo Live interview with Wendy Davis.

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

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

The Texas Election Law Blog expresses its outrage at the "Greg Abbott crushes Houston Votes" story, and jobsanger circulates SAEN cartoonist John Branch's interpretation of Abbott's message.

Juanita Jean has the most recent example of how Republicans run things when they're the only ones in charge: as illegal as they wanna be.

Socratic Gadfly has a take on the "whooping" Adrian Peterson gave his 4-year-old son.

Grits for Breakfast explores the criminal justice implications of driverless cars.

Hair Balls observes that the demographics of Houston's suburbs and the police departments of Houston's suburbs are not alike.

Unfair Park thinks it may have found the greatest Rick Perry photo of all time.

The TSTA blog has a beef with Todd Staples over Meatless Mondays.

Keep Austin Wonky sees little parallel between the rail proposition on Austin's ballot and Houston's existing light rail lines.

Texas Clean Air Matters explains Elon Musk's love-hate relationship with our state.

Nancy Sims is talking about domestic violence and what we need to do about it.

Nonsequiteuse has three ways to help Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte even if you don't live in Texas.

The Lunch Tray has a problem with how "bake sales" are used to undermine efforts to improve the nutrition of food offered in schools.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Sunday Funnies


"And hold back a little when you whoop your four-year-old sons with a switch."


Saturday, September 13, 2014

Since when do we prosecute anyone for war crimes?

To paraphrase Alberto Gonzales... that would be quaint.

The parents of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff were told by a White House counterterrorism official at a meeting last May that they could face criminal prosecution if they paid ransom to try to free their son, a spokesman for the family told Yahoo News Friday night.

"The family felt completely and utterly helpless when they heard this," said Barak Barfi, a friend of Sotloff who is serving as a spokesman for his family. "The Sotloffs felt there was nothing they could do to get Steve out."

The journalist's father, Art, was "shaking" after the meeting with the official, who works for the National Security Council, Barfi said. The families of three other hostages being held by the militant group Islamic State were also at the White House meeting, sources told Yahoo News.

Did you read that correctly?  I'm just asking because I did not, on first read.

The Sotloff family issued their statement after Diane Foley, the mother of murdered journalist James Foley, told ABC News that her family took statements by the White House counterterrorism official about legal bars to paying ransom as a "threat, and it was appalling. ... We were horrified he would say that. He just told us we would be prosecuted."

[...]

Sources close to the families say that at the time of the White House meeting the Sotloffs and Foleys — after receiving direct threats from IS — were exploring lining up donors who would help pay multimillion-dollar ransoms to free their sons. But after the meeting those efforts collapsed, one source said, because of concerns that "donors could expose themselves to prosecution." 

Although European hostages have been freed through ransom payments that have run into the millions of dollars, the Obama administration has taken a hard line against any such payments, viewing the transfer of cash as a violation of federal laws that forbid providing "material support" to a terrorist organization.

Barfi said that within a few hours of the White House meeting, he was at a separate meeting with State Department officials. One of those officials repeatedly mentioned the "material support" law and made it "clear," said Barfi, that criminal prosecutions could result if ransoms to the IS terrorists were paid.

So here's the message I'm getting from our government's leaders (elected and appointed):

If you use enhanced interrogation techniques on torture detainees prisoners of war, or if you authorize the use of enhanced interrogation techniques torture of detainees prisoners of war, you will not be prosecuted.  In fact, you may very well have a second career as a military strategist on teevee.

If you make a donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars to your favorite politician through his or her super PAC, you don't even have to disclose your name or the name of your company, much less worry about violating the law.

But if you make a donation to a family whose loved one has been kidnapped by terrorists for the purpose of having the terrorists release that person... your government wants you to clearly understand that you will be prosecuted for that crime.

What. A. Country.