... because if they haven't done anything wrong, why do they need to be shielded from crimes that haven't been committed?
Of course, they did. Spy on us, that is. All of us. All of e-mail, our phone calls, everything. Everybody. You, me, your mother, every single American, every single phone call you made, every single e-mail you sent or received.
Chris Dodd has a nifty little tool you can use to see which Senators are for, against, or wavering:
Most haven't decided, so a call today would really be helpful. I called Senator Box Turtle's office, but since he has never represented my views in any way in the past six years, I also called Sen. Leahy.
I told his staffer that since I had no representation in the US Senate, if he would be so kind as to represent me (and all Texas Democratic voters, and several thousand independents and maybe even a few Republicans) by opposing the FISA law granting retroactive immunity to AT&T, et. al. for the blanket spying they did on us.
I was on the phone for ten minutes for anyone in Sen. Schumer's office before I hung up.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Welcome to Houston, Mr. President
Cheney in Dallas last week, Bush in Houston and San Antonio today. You think they're worried about their little box turtle? As political uber-guru Richard Murray noted: "I hope they can raise some money, that's about all they can do for Cornyn."
And as our beloved Pretzledent prepares to do that little fund-raising event here this evening for his bestest buddy in the US Senate, we're going to do a little raising of our own.
And you can join Democracy for America, Wes Clark, John Kerry and many more in giving Dubya a poke in the eye with a $50,000 stick.
The Rick Noriega Express is rolling again today; jump on board. More from my blogsista Share.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
The Democrat Party vs. the Democratic Party
I'm officially ready to adopt the Republican terminology of denigration to those who have chosen to wear the label proudly. I'm not going to call them Blue Dogs or moderates or conservative Dems any longer. They are Democrats.
They are not Democratic.
The distinctions have been demonstrated several times just this week, brought into sharp focus by the conduct of Democrats and Democratics regarding the attorney general's imminent confirmation in the Senate and the vote to impeach the vice-president yesterday in the House.
See if you can predict where this goes:
Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are Democrats; Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy are Democratic. Steny Hoyer's definitely a Democrat. Dennis Kucinich is obviously a member of the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton? Democrat. John Edwards? Democratic.
Democrats kow-tow, appease, relent, capitulate, quaver, acquiesce, give in, and give up. They vote to fund the war in Iraq, they vote for torture, for wiretapping, for immunity for wiretappers, and against S-CHIP and impeaching Cheney.
Democratics do not.
Members of the Democratic Party stand for the people against the powerful. Democrats take a poll to figure out where they stand. Democratics want campaign finance reform, as in publicly funded elections; Democrats crowd up to the corporate trough to suck swill right alongside their conservative swine-brothers.
The thing is that some Democrats are occasionally Democratic, but you nearly never find a Democratic going Democrat. It's a matter of principle that no poll, no lobbyist, no check in any amount can influence. And the other thing is that a Democrat is capable of being made into -- or back into -- a member of the Democratic Party, essentially because of that knack they have of being easily influenced.
I'm only supporting and voting for the Democratic Party from now on.
They are not Democratic.
The distinctions have been demonstrated several times just this week, brought into sharp focus by the conduct of Democrats and Democratics regarding the attorney general's imminent confirmation in the Senate and the vote to impeach the vice-president yesterday in the House.
See if you can predict where this goes:
Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are Democrats; Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy are Democratic. Steny Hoyer's definitely a Democrat. Dennis Kucinich is obviously a member of the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton? Democrat. John Edwards? Democratic.
Democrats kow-tow, appease, relent, capitulate, quaver, acquiesce, give in, and give up. They vote to fund the war in Iraq, they vote for torture, for wiretapping, for immunity for wiretappers, and against S-CHIP and impeaching Cheney.
Democratics do not.
Members of the Democratic Party stand for the people against the powerful. Democrats take a poll to figure out where they stand. Democratics want campaign finance reform, as in publicly funded elections; Democrats crowd up to the corporate trough to suck swill right alongside their conservative swine-brothers.
The thing is that some Democrats are occasionally Democratic, but you nearly never find a Democratic going Democrat. It's a matter of principle that no poll, no lobbyist, no check in any amount can influence. And the other thing is that a Democrat is capable of being made into -- or back into -- a member of the Democratic Party, essentially because of that knack they have of being easily influenced.
I'm only supporting and voting for the Democratic Party from now on.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Mukasey, Musharraf, and more bloggerrhea
The two items of national and global concern that emerged over the past week were the Democratic capitulation on the attorney general-designate and the political crisis in Pakistan. Both left me apoplectic. So let me just point to the snark and the precision analysis of others ...
-- CodePink demonstrates waterboarding to Dianne Feinstein as she enters the CNN building Sunday past for her turn on Late Edition. Keith Olbermann again put the wood to Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, the Democrats, etc., over the reasons for Mukasey's prevarication: because someone is going to have to try them for war crimes, it just isn't going to be anybody currently in charge.
-- Musharraf is nothing more than a tin-pot dictator imposing Chinese-style crackdowns on the judiciary, the media, and the people of his country. But he's Bush's boy -- or more to the point, Cheney's puppet, so "American" support to the tune of a billion dollars a year will continue.
Hey, Pakistan has both nuclear weapons and Osama bin Laden hiding nearby, right?
-- Following on my earlier post which alluded to the rise of Ron Paul and the particular strain of conservatism he appeals to, the man set a fund-raising record yesterday: $4.3 million. That was in part due to the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes was believed to be the inspiration for the character in the film "V for Vendetta", which tells a story of blowing up a neofascist regime in order to start government over fresh.
And I thought that was Howard Dean's job. Oh well, I'm certain Hillary Clinton won't do anything remotely meeting that description ...
-- House Judiciary chairman John Conyers has asked the Bush adminstration's lawyer, Fred Fielding, nine times to cooperate with the investigation into the US attorneys scandal. Yesterday he filed criminal contempt of Congress citations against former White House counsel Harriet Myers and current chief of staff Josh Bolton.
--Today is Election Day and in Texas we have constitutional amendments to vote on, and in Houston a mayor and city council and several bond issues to decide. I'll be doing my regular gig down at the Central Counting Office and missing all the good election night parties.
Vote if you already haven't and hoist a frosty for me.
-- CodePink demonstrates waterboarding to Dianne Feinstein as she enters the CNN building Sunday past for her turn on Late Edition. Keith Olbermann again put the wood to Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, the Democrats, etc., over the reasons for Mukasey's prevarication: because someone is going to have to try them for war crimes, it just isn't going to be anybody currently in charge.
-- Musharraf is nothing more than a tin-pot dictator imposing Chinese-style crackdowns on the judiciary, the media, and the people of his country. But he's Bush's boy -- or more to the point, Cheney's puppet, so "American" support to the tune of a billion dollars a year will continue.
Hey, Pakistan has both nuclear weapons and Osama bin Laden hiding nearby, right?
-- Following on my earlier post which alluded to the rise of Ron Paul and the particular strain of conservatism he appeals to, the man set a fund-raising record yesterday: $4.3 million. That was in part due to the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes was believed to be the inspiration for the character in the film "V for Vendetta", which tells a story of blowing up a neofascist regime in order to start government over fresh.
And I thought that was Howard Dean's job. Oh well, I'm certain Hillary Clinton won't do anything remotely meeting that description ...
-- House Judiciary chairman John Conyers has asked the Bush adminstration's lawyer, Fred Fielding, nine times to cooperate with the investigation into the US attorneys scandal. Yesterday he filed criminal contempt of Congress citations against former White House counsel Harriet Myers and current chief of staff Josh Bolton.
--Today is Election Day and in Texas we have constitutional amendments to vote on, and in Houston a mayor and city council and several bond issues to decide. I'll be doing my regular gig down at the Central Counting Office and missing all the good election night parties.
Vote if you already haven't and hoist a frosty for me.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The Weekly Wrangle
Before we get to this week's edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Texas Blog Round-Up, we want to encourage all of our readers to vote for two member blogs in the 2007 Weblog Awards: cast a ballot for Three Wise Men here and The Agonist here.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the final installment of Trinity Trickery and implores Dallas residents to vote yes on Prop 1 on November 6th!
At Bluedaze we learn from TXsharon that the FWISD participates in a web of deceit with Barnett Shale producers and how the school district helps spread oil company propaganda at the expense of education.
Hal and some friends attended Nick Lampson's (TX-22) NCLB town hall meeting this past week and reports from Half Empty.
Bill Howell of Stoutdemblog links to the firestorm over Barack Obama's knowing use of a homophobe as emcee of a campaign rally in I Love A Tirade.
Are you upset about the enthusiasm of some in Congress for an AG that thinks torture is OK and views constitutional checks and balances as 'quaint'? So is McBlogger.
Off the Kuff looks at the fate of the Astrodome now that the Texans and the Rodeo have come out against a plan to redevelop it as a hotel/convention center.
North Texas Liberal's Texas Toad tells us a Halloween horror story about global warming deniers Fred Singer, Don Erler, and their ilk in Planet Purgatory Parts One and Two.
Would you feel honored if a city named a street after you? What if the street was broken into non-continuous segments and wound its way through backwater sidestreets of town? What if no one even knew where the street was? Well, that's how Lubbock has "honored" Cesar Chavez, notes Blue 19th.
Over at Texas Kaos, there's a report on Texans giving Darth Cheney a well deserved reception up in Dallas. Succinctly put, Don't Iraq Iran!
David Van Os has an opposing viewpoint of several of the constitutional amendments on Tuesday's ballot, and shares it at Brains and Eggs.
Over at Three Wise Men, Nat Wu analyzes the situation in Africa, particularly renewed talk of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, while Xanthippas takes on Scott Horton's view that being "grown-up" Democrat when it comes to foreign policy is giving Bush what he asks for.
Vince at Capitol Annex notes that if screwing the middle class was a Congressional sex scandal, Texas' GOP congress critters would be making serious headlines.
NYTexan at BlueBloggin explores Bush's endless veto pen and his continued disregard for the Katrina victims.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson asks why every former Bush administration official from Texas is always rumored to running for public office in Texas in The Definition of Insanity.
This week's episode of TheTexas Blue's Who's Blue interview series features former Texas attorney general Jim Mattox, who shares his observations on Texas campaigns throughout his career and how the national mood may affect the coming election cycle.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the final installment of Trinity Trickery and implores Dallas residents to vote yes on Prop 1 on November 6th!
At Bluedaze we learn from TXsharon that the FWISD participates in a web of deceit with Barnett Shale producers and how the school district helps spread oil company propaganda at the expense of education.
Hal and some friends attended Nick Lampson's (TX-22) NCLB town hall meeting this past week and reports from Half Empty.
Bill Howell of Stoutdemblog links to the firestorm over Barack Obama's knowing use of a homophobe as emcee of a campaign rally in I Love A Tirade.
Are you upset about the enthusiasm of some in Congress for an AG that thinks torture is OK and views constitutional checks and balances as 'quaint'? So is McBlogger.
Off the Kuff looks at the fate of the Astrodome now that the Texans and the Rodeo have come out against a plan to redevelop it as a hotel/convention center.
North Texas Liberal's Texas Toad tells us a Halloween horror story about global warming deniers Fred Singer, Don Erler, and their ilk in Planet Purgatory Parts One and Two.
Would you feel honored if a city named a street after you? What if the street was broken into non-continuous segments and wound its way through backwater sidestreets of town? What if no one even knew where the street was? Well, that's how Lubbock has "honored" Cesar Chavez, notes Blue 19th.
Over at Texas Kaos, there's a report on Texans giving Darth Cheney a well deserved reception up in Dallas. Succinctly put, Don't Iraq Iran!
David Van Os has an opposing viewpoint of several of the constitutional amendments on Tuesday's ballot, and shares it at Brains and Eggs.
Over at Three Wise Men, Nat Wu analyzes the situation in Africa, particularly renewed talk of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, while Xanthippas takes on Scott Horton's view that being "grown-up" Democrat when it comes to foreign policy is giving Bush what he asks for.
Vince at Capitol Annex notes that if screwing the middle class was a Congressional sex scandal, Texas' GOP congress critters would be making serious headlines.
NYTexan at BlueBloggin explores Bush's endless veto pen and his continued disregard for the Katrina victims.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson asks why every former Bush administration official from Texas is always rumored to running for public office in Texas in The Definition of Insanity.
This week's episode of TheTexas Blue's Who's Blue interview series features former Texas attorney general Jim Mattox, who shares his observations on Texas campaigns throughout his career and how the national mood may affect the coming election cycle.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
John Edwards on the "politics of parsing"
More Edwards:
Edwards' campaign has seen a surge of online support of late, often a barometer of how well any candidate is doing. They've raised $500,000 in the last two weeks over the Internet, $200,000 of it the day after the Philadelphia debate, at which Edwards was by most accounts the clear winner. Even more importantly, the campaign says 40% of recent donors were new to the campaign. The cash infusion comes on the heels of a series of important union endorsements for Edwards, who trails in overall fundraising behind both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by more than $50 million. Edwards has won support from seven Iowa unions — a huge boon to the campaign because it effectively shuts out Obama from bringing in any outside organized labor support. Obama has no Iowa union endorsements; Hillary leads the field with eight.
And from a recent speech, "The Moral Test of Our Generation":
It's time to tell the truth. And the truth is the system in Washington is corrupt. It is rigged by the powerful special interests to benefit they very few at the expense of the many. And as a result, the American people have lost faith in our broken system in Washington, and believe it no longer works for ordinary Americans. They're right.As I look across the political landscape of both parties today -- what I see are politicians too afraid to tell the truth -- good people caught in a bad system that overwhelms their good intentions and requires them to chase millions of dollars in campaign contributions in order to perpetuate their careers and continue their climb to higher office. ...
And a few weeks ago, around the sixth anniversary of 9/11, a leading presidential candidate held a fundraiser that was billed as a Homeland Security themed event in Washington, D.C. targeted to homeland security lobbyists and contractors for $1,000 a plate. These lobbyists, for the price of a ticket, would get a special "treat" -- the opportunity to participate in small, hour long breakout sessions with key Democratic lawmakers, many of whom chair important sub committees of the homeland security committee. That presidential candidate was Senator Clinton.
Senator Clinton's road to the middle class takes a major detour right through the deep canyon of corporate lobbyists and the hidden bidding of K Street in Washington -- and history tells us that when that bus stops there it is the middle class that loses.
When I asked Hillary Clinton to join me in not taking money from Washington lobbyists -- she refused. Not only did she say that she would continue to take their money, she defended them.
Today Hillary Clinton has taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any candidate from either party -- more money than any Republican candidate.
She has taken more money from the defense industry than any other candidate from either party as well.
She took more money from Wall Street last quarter than Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama combined.
The long slow slide of our democracy into the corporate abyss continues unabated regardless of party, regardless of the best interests of America.
We have a duty -- a duty to end this.
I believe you cannot be for change and take money from the lobbyists who prevent change. You cannot take on the entrenched interests in Washington if you choose to defend the broken system. It will not work. And I believe that, if Americans have a choice, and candidate who takes their money -- Democrat or Republican -- will lose this election.
For us to continue down this path all we have to do is suspend all that we believe in. As Democrats, we continue down this path only if we believe the party of the people is no more.
As Americans, we continue down this path only if we fail to heed Lincoln's warning to us all.
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected," he asked, "if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot -- we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by suicide."
A rather spectacular Saturday
if you're a college football fan:
LSU wins "Saban Bowl" 41-34 over Alabama
Navy defeats Notre Dame after 44 years and three overtimes
Longhorns beat Cowboys on last-second field goal
Arkansas' McFadden rushes for 323, passes for TD
And there's more. Allegedly there will also be a pretty good pro game played this afternoon, though we in Houston won't get to see it (without a satellite dish and the NFL Sunday Ticket package).
LSU wins "Saban Bowl" 41-34 over Alabama
The game fully delivered on its buildup, the two teams going at each other like heavyweights throwing nothing but bombs. There were numerous big plays and amazing swings in momentum, but LSU came through when it mattered.
Navy defeats Notre Dame after 44 years and three overtimes
Roger Staubach was quarterback for the Midshipmen in 1963 when they beat Notre Dame 35-14. Since then, the Irish have had their way -- that is until Saturday.
Longhorns beat Cowboys on last-second field goal
Between the first and second quarter, a livid (Texas coach Mack) Brown gathered his players in a huddle and screamed at them. Initially, Brown's outburst didn't seem to have much effect. Less than a minute into the second quarter, (Oklahoma State quarterback Zac) Robinson capped an 88-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown run, putting Oklahoma State ahead 21-0.
Arkansas' McFadden rushes for 323, passes for TD
With the ball at the South Carolina 23, McFadden dropped a pitchout, then picked up the ball and threw to the end zone for Robert Johnson, who wasn't open. Johnson outjumped defensive back Carlos Thomas and came down with the ball for a touchdown.
And there's more. Allegedly there will also be a pretty good pro game played this afternoon, though we in Houston won't get to see it (without a satellite dish and the NFL Sunday Ticket package).
Friday, November 02, 2007
On the continuing splintering of the GOP
Much has been written already of the pending divorce of the Christians from the Republicans, and I've posted the most articulate report previously.
One of the more fascinating things about watching the fracturing of the various coalitions comprising the Republican Party has been the story behind the phenomenon of the rise of Ron Paul. Primarily viral and online, he has captured a toehold on the conservative psyche like few have in the past several years:
Even when Dr. No ran as a Libertarian for president in 1988 he wasn't as popular a figure as he is today. In truth he speaks to the strain of conservatives who do not favor the corporate brand Bush and Cheney have made so (un)popular. These anti-establishment conservatives are represented in polling as being in the majority with many of us on the left: they don't favor endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, don't favor government surveillance and expanded executive branch authority, and they do not support local issues that give government and huge corporations more public assets (like the the Trans-Texas Corridor). They remain beholders of much of Republican orthodoxy, such as a Grover Norquist opinion of government and a xenophobic worldview, but they part company in so many places that it's fair to view them as a distinct and growing subset within the conservative ranks.
(Pausing to discuss the labeling: "anti-establishment" and "establishment" Republicans are clumsy terms and don't do descriptive justice to the dividing groups. They defy compartmentalization, but I'll still use the labels for the ease of making this observation.)
Make no mistake, though: the establishment Republicans -- corporate, pro-war, supportive of Bush and Cheney's assault on the Constitution via the unitary executive concept -- remain in the vanguard of Republican party control. They are represented by the concentric circles occupied by Rudy Giuliani and Rick Perry; it's worth observing that the international law firm of Bracewell Giuliani represents the Spanish corporation CINTRA, which is one of the primary contractors of the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is Rick Perry's prized "public/private initiative".
Now that's fascism at its finest. But I won't digress.
What's really amusing is to observe the two factions calling each other RINOS. If, for example, Kay Bailey Hutchison votes for SCHIP, she's a RINO. If Chuck Hagel doesn't support the war, he doesn't support the troops and he's a traitor and so on. If John McCain can't buy Attorney General-designate Mike Mukasey's quavering on the definition of torture any better than any of the Democratic senators on the Judiciary committee, but still wants to follow Osama to the gates of hell and shoot him ... well, you get the picture.
That last example is just so confusing for most Republican voters.
Fortunately though many people left and right do get it, and the rejection of corporate politics is fast growing within the Democratic ranks as well (and a bit ahead of the GOP, naturally).
Still, Republicans were the ruling party in this country for too many years. They aren't any longer, and just over a year from now will really have a lot to to whine about, but the majority party won't be the Democratic Party, either; the majority will be the Democrats and Republicans who continue to represent the special interests rather than the public interest. They will take millions from corporate lobbyists and pass tort reform and earmark pork for useless projects back home and claim to be something they are not -- representative of the people. And the people understand this: it's why you regularly hear "both parties are just the same", "why can't you guys just get along", "my vote doesn't matter" and so on and so forth. Usually these words are coming out of the mouths of people who don't vote, naturally.
And this goes to the heart of my inability to support Hillary Clinton as the nominee: she's politics as business as usual, the same as Giuliani. Because people on both sides of the spectrum get this, that's why there will be independent and third-party presidential challengers in 2008 if we wind up with those two as the nominees. Not because they aren't different enough -- certainly they are -- but because they're too much alike.
A rather substantial number of Americans don't favor the status quo, or the America the Republicans and Democrats have given them. They want fundamental change, not a mouthpiece.
They still may not get that kind of change next year, but it certainly looks like they'll have more choices for change than we've had in a long time. And not John-Anderson, Ross-Perot, Ralph Nader-style choices. Real legitimate choices.
At least I hope they -- we -- do.
One of the more fascinating things about watching the fracturing of the various coalitions comprising the Republican Party has been the story behind the phenomenon of the rise of Ron Paul. Primarily viral and online, he has captured a toehold on the conservative psyche like few have in the past several years:
... Paul's popularity can't necessarily be explained by a previously undetected craving for gold-standard debates on college campuses. His message, even if packaged in obscure economic lectures, is that there is something very corrupt, very Halliburton-Blackwatery going on with our military-industrial complex, and that can attract some pretty weird followers. At the Iowa State event, a student stood outside in a tricornered hat and Revolutionary War–era suit, ringing a bell. Representative Tom Tancredo, another long-shot G.O.P. candidate, tells me that after a debate in New Hampshire, one of his staffers walked up to a guy in a shark costume and asked him if he was a Ron Paul supporter. "No. They're all nuts," replied the shark. "I'm just a guy in a shark suit." There is a subset of Paul supporters who believe 9/11 was an inside job by the U.S. government. And there are anarchists as well: They've picked Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes Day, for a fund-raising drive.
Even when Dr. No ran as a Libertarian for president in 1988 he wasn't as popular a figure as he is today. In truth he speaks to the strain of conservatives who do not favor the corporate brand Bush and Cheney have made so (un)popular. These anti-establishment conservatives are represented in polling as being in the majority with many of us on the left: they don't favor endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, don't favor government surveillance and expanded executive branch authority, and they do not support local issues that give government and huge corporations more public assets (like the the Trans-Texas Corridor). They remain beholders of much of Republican orthodoxy, such as a Grover Norquist opinion of government and a xenophobic worldview, but they part company in so many places that it's fair to view them as a distinct and growing subset within the conservative ranks.
(Pausing to discuss the labeling: "anti-establishment" and "establishment" Republicans are clumsy terms and don't do descriptive justice to the dividing groups. They defy compartmentalization, but I'll still use the labels for the ease of making this observation.)
Make no mistake, though: the establishment Republicans -- corporate, pro-war, supportive of Bush and Cheney's assault on the Constitution via the unitary executive concept -- remain in the vanguard of Republican party control. They are represented by the concentric circles occupied by Rudy Giuliani and Rick Perry; it's worth observing that the international law firm of Bracewell Giuliani represents the Spanish corporation CINTRA, which is one of the primary contractors of the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is Rick Perry's prized "public/private initiative".
Now that's fascism at its finest. But I won't digress.
What's really amusing is to observe the two factions calling each other RINOS. If, for example, Kay Bailey Hutchison votes for SCHIP, she's a RINO. If Chuck Hagel doesn't support the war, he doesn't support the troops and he's a traitor and so on. If John McCain can't buy Attorney General-designate Mike Mukasey's quavering on the definition of torture any better than any of the Democratic senators on the Judiciary committee, but still wants to follow Osama to the gates of hell and shoot him ... well, you get the picture.
That last example is just so confusing for most Republican voters.
Fortunately though many people left and right do get it, and the rejection of corporate politics is fast growing within the Democratic ranks as well (and a bit ahead of the GOP, naturally).
Still, Republicans were the ruling party in this country for too many years. They aren't any longer, and just over a year from now will really have a lot to to whine about, but the majority party won't be the Democratic Party, either; the majority will be the Democrats and Republicans who continue to represent the special interests rather than the public interest. They will take millions from corporate lobbyists and pass tort reform and earmark pork for useless projects back home and claim to be something they are not -- representative of the people. And the people understand this: it's why you regularly hear "both parties are just the same", "why can't you guys just get along", "my vote doesn't matter" and so on and so forth. Usually these words are coming out of the mouths of people who don't vote, naturally.
And this goes to the heart of my inability to support Hillary Clinton as the nominee: she's politics as business as usual, the same as Giuliani. Because people on both sides of the spectrum get this, that's why there will be independent and third-party presidential challengers in 2008 if we wind up with those two as the nominees. Not because they aren't different enough -- certainly they are -- but because they're too much alike.
A rather substantial number of Americans don't favor the status quo, or the America the Republicans and Democrats have given them. They want fundamental change, not a mouthpiece.
They still may not get that kind of change next year, but it certainly looks like they'll have more choices for change than we've had in a long time. And not John-Anderson, Ross-Perot, Ralph Nader-style choices. Real legitimate choices.
At least I hope they -- we -- do.
The latest right-wing e-mail smear
Remember the e-mail strings of lies we were talking about earlier, the ones that continually circulate through your brother-in-law's inbox? Here's the latest, and yes, it's regarding Hillary Clinton:
Now most of the people who receive e-mail of this kind are on dial-up connections, so they won't be able to view the video. But you can read about Peter Paul at his Wiki entry. I'll summarize:
Peter Paul, a career criminal, sues everyone that he gets even remotely involved with -- or else he steals from them and then sues them. The GOP has been reduced to using a chronic and habitual felon to carry their latest message of hate, lies and distraction.
Has the supply of honest Republicans been exhausted by their 15-year smear machine? I'm surprised the inventory lasted as long as it did.
Fw: "INDICTMENT OF HILLARY CLINTON"
"I would share the following link that came to me from a friend. Taking for granted that he's not particularly a Clinton enthusiast, still the accompanying video is worth your investment of 13 minutes. Taken as a whole it is incredible nearly to the point of unbelievability. I checked it out on Snopes but there is no reference whatever to this story, the Paul lawsuit, the 2000 $1.2MM fund raiser, or any part of what you'll see. In light of the magnitude of the story, that fact alone is puzzling."
"Whatever, watch it and make up your own mind whether it's relevant to you and your potential choice for President of the United States or not. Or even whether it's worth sharing with others who might find it interesting."
"I suggest you watch this immediately before the Clintons have it removed from the internet..."
Hillary Uncensored - Banned by the Media
Now most of the people who receive e-mail of this kind are on dial-up connections, so they won't be able to view the video. But you can read about Peter Paul at his Wiki entry. I'll summarize:
Paul emerged in 2000 as the largest contributor to Senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton. Paul and his attorneys have at various times offered two explanations for this. First, that he was trying to attract her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, to serve on the board of Stan Lee Media after leaving office. Second, that he hoped to negotiate a pardon for his previous criminal convictions.[21][22] Paul produced and underwrote what he described as the largest fund raising event ever held for a federal candidate [23], in Los Angeles, days before the 2000 Democratic Convention began. The Hollywood Farewell Gala Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton featured prominent entertainers singing for the President, while raising over $1 million for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.[24] The event cost $1.9 million to organize according to Paul and $500,000 according to the Federal Election Commission filing, much of it borrowed fraudulently by Paul from Merrill Lynch. Later indictments would state that Merrill Lynch lost about $5 million it had lent to Paul.[22]
Two days after the gala, the Washington Post publicized Paul's criminal record, and Hillary Clinton denied knowing Paul and "vowed not to take any contributions from him". Through her official spokesman, Howard Wolfson, Hillary stated on August 16, 2000 that she would return $2,000 she reported receiving from Paul in June 2000,[22] and would not have anything further to do with him.
Paul alleged that Clinton was deceitful in this,[25] and retained public interest law firm, and frequent Clinton opponent, Judicial Watch to represent him in a series of civil and criminal lawsuits against the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, and ultimately the Federal Election Commission (which he charged was negligent in failing to convict Mrs. Clinton).[26][27][28][29] These charges were delayed, as courts held that Paul could not bring charges against the Clintons as he fought extradition from Brazil,[30] but proceeded once he was returned to the States.[31]
The Clinton campaign was ultimately asked to pay $35,000 in fines for having underreported the cost of the gala.[32] Paul's suit against the FEC was thrown out; his attempt to bring ethics charges against Clinton were rejected,[33] and his fraud charges against Senator Clinton were tossed out in April 2006.[34] As of April 2007[35], Paul's civil charges against Senator Clinton and former President Clinton for "looting"[36] his business remained outstanding.
Peter Paul, a career criminal, sues everyone that he gets even remotely involved with -- or else he steals from them and then sues them. The GOP has been reduced to using a chronic and habitual felon to carry their latest message of hate, lies and distraction.
Has the supply of honest Republicans been exhausted by their 15-year smear machine? I'm surprised the inventory lasted as long as it did.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
CNN examines noose displays
In a special report broadcast this evening at 7 p.m. (Central) CNN will air "The Noose: An American Nightmare":
Do all the incidents of hanging nooses -- many with hateful notes to their intended black audience -- reveal an ugly truth about race relations in the United States, or are they just stupid pranks by a few foolish, attention-starved people?
Oh, Jesus. I hope this isn't going to be a 'fair and balanced' account.
And days before Halloween, a Stratford, Connecticut, woman reluctantly removed from her yard a dark-hued figure hanging from a noose. It was among numerous innocuous lawn decorations, such as ghosts and a plastic grave marker. "It's unfortunate that now, we're goingto have to think twice about what we display because someone might be offended," Jennifer Cervero told CNN.
Yes, how unfortunate for you to be inconvenienced by tolerance, Ms. Cervero. Back to some actual news:
Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, said that the apparent increase in noose incidents is, in part, reaction to the news coverage of the "Jena 6".
Since September, the SPLC has recorded between 40 and 50 suspected hate crimes involving nooses, one involving two people traveling the road to Jena during the protests in a pickup truck with nooses affixed to the bumper.
"Tens of thousands of white people, if not more, feel that the events in Jena were grossly misportrayed by a politically correct media that twisted what was [to them], really, a six-on-one, black-on-white hate crime into an instance of the oppression of black people," Potok said. "That accounts, in part, for a backlash."
And then there's the well-documented effect in the "corporate" environment:
While the Department of Justice doesn't keep track of noose-specific offenses, the government published a report in 2000 showing an increase of nooses in professional environments.And The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the race-baiting technique still creeps up in professional environments. There have been at least 20 lawsuits involving nooses in the workplace since 2001.
Of the 5,500 racial harassment charge filings in 2006, anecdotal information from EEOC field offices suggests that some involved nooses, but the agency is unable to quantify that data, according to EEOC spokesman David Grinberg.
On Wednesday, seven black workers employed by an Oklahoma-based drilling company won a $290,000 settlement in a discrimination lawsuit which claimed they felt threatened by the display of a noose on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig.
"It's time for corporate America to be more proactive in preventing and eliminating racist behavior," said EEOC Chairwoman Naomi C. Earp. "The EEOC intends to make clear that race and color discrimination in the workplace, whether verbal or behavioral, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Don't miss the special broadcast this evening.
Constitutional amendments: an opposing viewpoint
My man David offers a his usual cogent opinion on the Texas constitutional amendments appearing on next Tuesday's ballot -- or sooner than that if you're an early voter. He endorses several 'against' votes, including Propositions 12 ($5 billion in bonds to be issued to the TxDOT for road maintenance) and 15 ($3 billion for a new cancer research and prevention facility). I'll excerpt his analysis on those two below and refer you to Bluedaze, who has the full list:
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Proposition 12 – I begin with Proposition 12 because it is the worst of the worst. In this proposition, we are being asked to amend Article III, Section 49 of the Constitution in order to permit the Texas Department of Transportation to sell 5 billion dollars worth of bonds. This is the same agency that today, this very day, is cynically and arrogantly using your and my tax dollars in a high-pressure marketing campaign designed by a political consulting firm to convince us that we want toll roads; in complete disregard of the fact that government is supposed to follow the will of the people, not the other way around. This is the same agency that intends to tear up our beautiful
Proposition 15 – This Amendment of Article III of the Texas Constitution would authorize the issuance of up to 3 billion dollars in bonds for a new Cancer Prevention and Research Institute, to research the causes and prevention of cancer. There is no doubt in my mind that it would a good thing to have this. However, I object to the borrow-and-spend philosophy. The State of
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Again, read all of the Van Os endorsements at Bluedaze.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
"Hillary bled all over the carpets"
Booman has observations. I'll jump to the end:
That sounds about right to me.
Update (11/1):
So, where do we stand? The one thing that needed to happen, happened. Hillary bled all over the carpets from beginning to especially the end. If there is any movement in the polls from this debate it will be away from her. Yet, no one set themselves up to be the main recipient of her loss of support.
As for the issue of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants: regardless of the merits, it will now be used against Hillary with a breathtaking relentlessness not seen since they found out that her husband let his peter out of his pocket. Clinton, if she supports this initiative, needed to stand tall on it, be aggressive, and explain the rationale...which is certainly a hard one to explain in a sound byte. Instead, she said she was for it even though it is a really bad idea, but she is not for it, but it is a gotcha question, but what the hell else can we do, but she doesn't endorse it. It was the worst of all worlds. And it will make Kerry's flip-flop look like peanuts.
If I were advising Hillary, and I'm not, I'd get her out front tomorrow to give a speech about the urgent need to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, because there is no going back now. Either she convinces people she is right, or she is going to get destroyed on that issue in the general election.
That sounds about right to me.
Update (11/1):
A day after she appeared to struggle to give her views on the subject, Hillary Rodham Clinton offered support today for Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s effort to award New York driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, as her campaign sought to contain potentially damaging fallout from what her own supporters saw as a tense and listless debate performance.
Nooses in the news in Houston
I just have to wonder what these people have displayed at home, if this is what they think is OK for work:
And on and on it goes. But hey, there's some good news:
Four contract workers were banned from FMC Technologies after they hung nooses at one of the firm's Houston facilities, the company announced Tuesday.The three men and one woman also were fired from their jobs with the contractors for FMC, an oil-field services equipment manufacturer, said Maryann Seaman, FMC spokeswoman.
"FMC has zero tolerance for workplace harassment," Seaman said.
Seaman said about a month ago an employee notified company officials that he had seen a noose hanging in the FMC's Gears Road facility.
Three workers were banned from FMC after they were discovered to have been involved in placing the noose, she said.
Last week, another noose was seen hanging in the same facility, Seaman said, and another person was banned from the firm because she was involved in placing that noose.
And on and on it goes. But hey, there's some good news:
The number of lawsuits the EEOC filed related to nooses has dropped steadily from 10 in 2001 to two so far this year, said James Ryan, EEOC spokesman.The EEOC recently won settlements in three harassment cases related to nooses, including one in the Houston area, Ryan said.
In May, the EEOC reached a $390,000 racial harassment litigation settlement with Pemco Aeroplex of Birmingham on behalf of a class of black employees who were subjected to racist graffiti, slurs and the display of nooses, Ryan said.
The EEOC settled a racial harassment suit in January for $600,000 against AK Steel Corp. of Butler, Pa., Ryan added, after nooses were displayed and Klu Klux Klan videos were shown in employee lounges.
In March 2006, Ryan said, the EEOC obtained more than $1 million in a case against Commercial Coating Service, Inc. of Conroe, Texas, in which a black worker was racially harassed and choked with a noose by his coworkers in a company bathroom.
Read the comments from a few enlightened locals who just still don't see anything wrong with this sort of thing.
Hillary Flip-floppery?
Not a pleasant evening on the hustings for the front-runner:
John Edwards and not Barack Obama led the way:
And there was also this:
Boom. Thud.
But Clinton had moments of her own undoing, as witnessed by this:
"Not her decision to make". How thoroughly disingenuous. An excerpt from Christopher Hayes' article about Rudy Giuliani identifies the former mayor as the candidate most likely to advance the secrecy of the presidency down the trail Bush and Cheney have blazed. Mrs. Clinton now grades out as the salutatorian in that contest.
Back-runner Bill Richardson, in the most obvious display of pandering for the vice-presidential slot ever witnessed, tried to defend Hillary:
As Chris Matthews noted in the post-debate spinning, in his forty years of covering elections, never has he observed a candidate at the back of the pack take up for the person at the front. That's simply not a strategy for victory ... if you're running for the presidential nomination.
And Senator Clinton is going to have some 'splainin' to do about that illegal immigrant/driver's license thingie. That could actually be the pivot upon which the worm turns for her. We'll see how things play out in the days ahead.
Finally, which line did you like best; Joe Biden's:
Or Dennis Kucinich's:
A good time was had by all -- with the exception of Hillary Clinton and her supporters, that is.
Update: Meant to insert the Dodd Talk Clock...
Mrs. Clinton was attacked for not offering specific plans on what she might do with Social Security. She was challenged for voting to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization. She was assailed at one moment as being disingenuous, the next as a symbol of tired Washington establishment and the next for being unelectable.
At one point, she appeared to say she supported an attempt by Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, a plan he abandoned in the face of fierce opposition. A moment later she backed off, leading her opponents to denounce her again for obfuscating.
John Edwards and not Barack Obama led the way:
But for all the attention Mr. Obama drew to himself coming into the debate, he was frequently overshadowed by former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who — speaking more intensely — repeatedly challenged Mrs. Clinton’s credentials and credibility, and frequently seemed to make the case against Mrs. Clinton that Mr. Obama had promised to make.
“Senator Clinton says that she believes she can be the candidate for change, but she defends a broken system that’s corrupt in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Edwards said.
He added, “I think the American people, given this historic moment in our country’s history, deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth, and won’t say one thing one time and something different at a different time.”
And there was also this:
Mr. Edwards offered a similar line of attack. “I mean, another perspective on why the Republicans keep talking about Senator Clinton is, Senator, she — they may actually want to run against you, and that’s the reason they keep bringing you up,” he said, adding, “I think that if people want the status quo — Senator Clinton’s your candidate."
Boom. Thud.
But Clinton had moments of her own undoing, as witnessed by this:
In an exchange with Mr. Russert, arguably her third toughest opponent on the stage, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly declined to say whether she would push the National Archives to release correspondence from Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Clinton in the White House when he was president. Mr. Russert held up a copy of a letter from Mr. Clinton asking the Archives not to release any of those documents until 2012.
“Well, that’s not my decision to make,” she said. “And I don’t believe that any president or first lady has. But certainly we’ll move as quickly as our circumstances and the processes of the National Archives permits.”
Mr. Obama raised his hand, asking for a response. “We have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history, and not releasing, I think, these records at the same time, Hillary, as you’re making the claim that this is the basis for your experience, I think, is a problem,” he said.
"Not her decision to make". How thoroughly disingenuous. An excerpt from Christopher Hayes' article about Rudy Giuliani identifies the former mayor as the candidate most likely to advance the secrecy of the presidency down the trail Bush and Cheney have blazed. Mrs. Clinton now grades out as the salutatorian in that contest.
Back-runner Bill Richardson, in the most obvious display of pandering for the vice-presidential slot ever witnessed, tried to defend Hillary:
“You know what I’m hearing here, I’m hearing this holier-than-thou attitude toward Senator Clinton,” he said. “It’s bothering me because it’s pretty close to personal attacks that we don’t need.”
As Chris Matthews noted in the post-debate spinning, in his forty years of covering elections, never has he observed a candidate at the back of the pack take up for the person at the front. That's simply not a strategy for victory ... if you're running for the presidential nomination.
And Senator Clinton is going to have some 'splainin' to do about that illegal immigrant/driver's license thingie. That could actually be the pivot upon which the worm turns for her. We'll see how things play out in the days ahead.
Finally, which line did you like best; Joe Biden's:
There's only three things (Giuliani) mentions in a sentence, "a noun, a verb, and 9/11."
Or Dennis Kucinich's:
"I believe more people have seen UFOs than approve of Bush's presidency."
A good time was had by all -- with the exception of Hillary Clinton and her supporters, that is.
Update: Meant to insert the Dodd Talk Clock...
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A Voter's Guide Wrangle
(This collection of election news and endorsement posts is brought to you by the Texas Progressive Alliance in anticipation of the November 6 general election. Some of the blogs and sites included in this round-up are not member sites of the Texas Progressive Alliance, but are included to give a wider picture of the many issues facing voters in local races around the state. The round-up was compiled by Vince at Capitol Annex.)
On November 6, Texans will go to the polls to vote on a variety of state and local issues. First and foremost, voters decide on 16 amendments to the Texas Constitution including Proposition 15, the much-touted amendment to fund cancer research in the state.
In addition voters in some municipalities, most prominently Houston, will be casting votes for city officials including mayors and city council members. College districts, independent school districts, and special districts across the state will also hold elections for their leaders. A number of cities and school districts will also hold bond elections to fund everything from jail construction to parks and recreation and school facilities. Some school districts will also hold elections to authorize tax rates higher than those allowed by the tax reform plan passed by the Texas Legislature in special session in 2006.
Texas bloggers have dedicated a considerable amount of coverage to election issues across the state, from the statewide constitutional amendment election to local issues. Much of this coverage is highlighted below.
Local Elections, Bonds, & Referendums
Charles Kuffner at Off The Kuff has exhaustive coverage of local elections in Houston from city council elections to college district elections and city bonds. There are a large number of posts, but mosts can be found in two categories, here and here.
Bill Howell in Stoutdemblog recommends a 'Yes' on the Dallas referendum on the Trinity River in River Don't You Weep.
Texas Cloverleaf has a round-up of campaign spending on the Trinity River campaign.
Grits for Breakfast has a collection of jail-related propositions on the ballot across the state, including in Smith County (Tyler).
North Texas Liberal explores the pros and cons of the Trinity River referendum in Dallas.
Other Key Local Election Coverage:
Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race (Doing My Part For The Left)
Endorsements & Voters Guides: Statewide Amendments & Local Races
Non-partisan voter's guides on the 16 statewide Constitutional Amendments: Texas League of Women Voters, Texas Legislative Council (full version), Texas Legislative Council (condensed version--warning, this is a .doc file), Texas House Research Organization.
Newspaper Endorsements For Constitutional Amendments: Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Waco Tribune-Herald (split editorials: here, here, here, here, here), El Paso Times (Prop. 4) Lufkin Daily News, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Antonio Express-News.
Bill Howell at Stoutdemblog provides links to analyses of the amendments, then compares different stands taken on them by some other bloggers and Republicans and Libertarians, then gives his personal stands on each at Web Resources On The Endless Amendments.
Muse at Musings urges voters to just vote the opposite of the Harris County Republican Party's endorsements.
Capitol Annex has endorsements of the 16 Constitutional Amendments with detailed information behind the reasons for their picks in their four endorsement posts.
Gary at Easter Lemming News in Harris County has his thoughts on all the propositions, amendments and bonds to follow his election page.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson has "Early Voting in formation for Williamson County" along with several guides and couple of opinions on the amendments .
Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme points at some resources to decipher the proposed Texas constitutional amendments.
Other Notable Statewide Amendment Coverage:
Proposition 4 (Off The Kuff)
Proposition 15 Ramps Up (Off The Kuff)
On November 6, Texans will go to the polls to vote on a variety of state and local issues. First and foremost, voters decide on 16 amendments to the Texas Constitution including Proposition 15, the much-touted amendment to fund cancer research in the state.
In addition voters in some municipalities, most prominently Houston, will be casting votes for city officials including mayors and city council members. College districts, independent school districts, and special districts across the state will also hold elections for their leaders. A number of cities and school districts will also hold bond elections to fund everything from jail construction to parks and recreation and school facilities. Some school districts will also hold elections to authorize tax rates higher than those allowed by the tax reform plan passed by the Texas Legislature in special session in 2006.
Texas bloggers have dedicated a considerable amount of coverage to election issues across the state, from the statewide constitutional amendment election to local issues. Much of this coverage is highlighted below.
Local Elections, Bonds, & Referendums
Charles Kuffner at Off The Kuff has exhaustive coverage of local elections in Houston from city council elections to college district elections and city bonds. There are a large number of posts, but mosts can be found in two categories, here and here.
Bill Howell in Stoutdemblog recommends a 'Yes' on the Dallas referendum on the Trinity River in River Don't You Weep.
Texas Cloverleaf has a round-up of campaign spending on the Trinity River campaign.
Grits for Breakfast has a collection of jail-related propositions on the ballot across the state, including in Smith County (Tyler).
North Texas Liberal explores the pros and cons of the Trinity River referendum in Dallas.
Other Key Local Election Coverage:
Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race (Doing My Part For The Left)
Endorsements & Voters Guides: Statewide Amendments & Local Races
Non-partisan voter's guides on the 16 statewide Constitutional Amendments: Texas League of Women Voters, Texas Legislative Council (full version), Texas Legislative Council (condensed version--warning, this is a .doc file), Texas House Research Organization.
Newspaper Endorsements For Constitutional Amendments: Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Waco Tribune-Herald (split editorials: here, here, here, here, here), El Paso Times (Prop. 4) Lufkin Daily News, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Antonio Express-News.
Bill Howell at Stoutdemblog provides links to analyses of the amendments, then compares different stands taken on them by some other bloggers and Republicans and Libertarians, then gives his personal stands on each at Web Resources On The Endless Amendments.
Muse at Musings urges voters to just vote the opposite of the Harris County Republican Party's endorsements.
Capitol Annex has endorsements of the 16 Constitutional Amendments with detailed information behind the reasons for their picks in their four endorsement posts.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson has "Early Voting in formation for Williamson County" along with several guides and couple of opinions on the amendments .
Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme points at some resources to decipher the proposed Texas constitutional amendments.
Other Notable Statewide Amendment Coverage:
Proposition 4 (Off The Kuff)
Proposition 15 Ramps Up (Off The Kuff)
Monday, October 29, 2007
The Weekly Wrangle
Once again it's time for the Texas Progressive Alliance blog round-up, wrangled each week by Vince from Capitol Annex.
Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left is outraged with certain politicians in Fort Worth. Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race tells who is being a jerk and how to contact one of them.
Muse was at Armando Walle’s campaign kick-off and reports why it’s time for a change in Texas House District 140. Kevin Bailey (D-Craddick) has been serving the speaker and not his constituents. Walle, who grew up in the district and has a proven track record of service and leadership, already has a large group of supporters lined up to help him take back 140 for the people.
Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report provides a detailed chart and analysis updating what's going on with the Craddick D's. The post brought forth an interesting reader response as well.
TXsharon at Bluedaze gives the Texas Railroad Commission Protection Money Breakdown, and makes it easy for you to take action. So please take that action before you become the next victim of RRC malpractice.
Hal at Half Empty wonders whether FEMA has finally taken a page out of George Orwell's book when they held a 'news conference' this past week without a single journalist in attendance.
WhosPlayin notes that he would gladly pay the $13.30 per year per person to pay for SCHIP.
McBlogger takes a look at the strange world of Focus on the Family and the very odd people that attended their Values Voters conference.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that Gov. Perry appointed a public corruption figure to the UT System board of regents.
Johncoby at Bay Area Houston finds the highest and lowest costs for electricity in the Houston area in his post entitled "Power Watch: Highest and lowest rates for November".
Stace at DosCentavos features the trailer to the upcoming Jesse Salmeron film "This Is America", the story of a family torn apart by deportation.
NatWu at Three Wise Men exposes the truth about why we need net neutrality, especially with all the recent telecom shenanigans.
North Texas Liberal's Texas Toad gives a breakdown on the factions of the 'Trinity Vote' in his post entitled "Dallas Weighs Pros and Cons of Trinity Toll Road".
WCNews at Eye On Williamson wonders: What Will John Carter's Excuse Be This Time For Voting Against Health Care For Children?
Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.
NYTexan at BlueBloggin asks how many wars and how many enemies can Bush have?
Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Tom Craddick has borrowed a page from Warren Chisum in announcing that trial lawyers were behind efforts to remove him during the 8oth legislative session and wonders why, since he reported it some months ago, it is suddenly "news" to the mainstream media.
In the wake of the Houston Chronicle's announcement of a "position-elimination program", PDiddie at Brains and Eggs recounts his personal experience with Hearst newspapers, budgets, and staff cutbacks in The Trouble with the Newspaper Bidness.
Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left is outraged with certain politicians in Fort Worth. Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race tells who is being a jerk and how to contact one of them.
Muse was at Armando Walle’s campaign kick-off and reports why it’s time for a change in Texas House District 140. Kevin Bailey (D-Craddick) has been serving the speaker and not his constituents. Walle, who grew up in the district and has a proven track record of service and leadership, already has a large group of supporters lined up to help him take back 140 for the people.
Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report provides a detailed chart and analysis updating what's going on with the Craddick D's. The post brought forth an interesting reader response as well.
TXsharon at Bluedaze gives the Texas Railroad Commission Protection Money Breakdown, and makes it easy for you to take action. So please take that action before you become the next victim of RRC malpractice.
Hal at Half Empty wonders whether FEMA has finally taken a page out of George Orwell's book when they held a 'news conference' this past week without a single journalist in attendance.
WhosPlayin notes that he would gladly pay the $13.30 per year per person to pay for SCHIP.
McBlogger takes a look at the strange world of Focus on the Family and the very odd people that attended their Values Voters conference.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that Gov. Perry appointed a public corruption figure to the UT System board of regents.
Johncoby at Bay Area Houston finds the highest and lowest costs for electricity in the Houston area in his post entitled "Power Watch: Highest and lowest rates for November".
Stace at DosCentavos features the trailer to the upcoming Jesse Salmeron film "This Is America", the story of a family torn apart by deportation.
NatWu at Three Wise Men exposes the truth about why we need net neutrality, especially with all the recent telecom shenanigans.
North Texas Liberal's Texas Toad gives a breakdown on the factions of the 'Trinity Vote' in his post entitled "Dallas Weighs Pros and Cons of Trinity Toll Road".
WCNews at Eye On Williamson wonders: What Will John Carter's Excuse Be This Time For Voting Against Health Care For Children?
Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.
NYTexan at BlueBloggin asks how many wars and how many enemies can Bush have?
Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Tom Craddick has borrowed a page from Warren Chisum in announcing that trial lawyers were behind efforts to remove him during the 8oth legislative session and wonders why, since he reported it some months ago, it is suddenly "news" to the mainstream media.
In the wake of the Houston Chronicle's announcement of a "position-elimination program", PDiddie at Brains and Eggs recounts his personal experience with Hearst newspapers, budgets, and staff cutbacks in The Trouble with the Newspaper Bidness.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
How conservatives use e-mail to advance smears and lies
Two more premises from the previous posting on the Christians and the Republicans deserve some further examination. First, the widely advanced postulate that Hillary hurts Democrats in ways that other candidates do not:
That last part is where we pause and consider just what conservative blind hatred blended with garlic-strength stupidity hath wrought: have you heard the one about Barack Obama being a Muslim? That he attended a "madrassa", a school for children associated with the radical Wahhabist sect?
Yes, despite the e-mail that continues to be forwarded today, and the FOX and Friends news analysis (sic) and the Insight magazine article and the Townhall.com BS, Barack Obama did not ever attend a madrassa. Snopes.com painstakingly details how wild this exaggeration became (similar to Nigerian yellowcake, for example). CNN debunked it, and even FOX themselves corrected the smear, but the damage to fragile conservative minds, as you can see above, remains done:
Heard the one about Hillary Clinton snubbing the Gold Star Mothers? That John Kerry didn't earn his medals in Vietnam? That Al Gore invented the Internet?
The profoundly uninformed, relying almost entirely on FOX and Limbaugh and Hannity for their "news", is at greatest risk for this kind of glaring ignorance:
Do you have a Republican relative who forwards these, and other messages of similar intellectual laziness, to your inbox once a week or so -- which may be the only time they turn on their computer? Well, you're not alone:
And that, as The Nation's Christopher Hayes notes, is the problem.
Did you ever get the one about the Senator questioning Oliver North about a terrorist (who was named Osama bin Laden in the e-mail but in reality named Abu Nidal -- hey, they all sound alike, right?) In 2000, it was Gore; in 2004 it was Kerry.
So what can we expect for the next twelve months? Hillary's a lesbian? Check. Her husband still catting around? Roger that. Barack Osama hates America? John Edwards got an expensive haircut, and he and Al Gore are both gay and live together in a 40,000 square-foot house with a $10,000 monthly utility bill?
The next time you get one of these howlers in your inbox from you-know-which-relative, do two things: check out whether it's accurate at Snopes, and then send it back to the forwarder correcting their understanding.
Our republican democracy thanks you in advance.
Many conservative Christian leaders say they can count on the specter of a second Clinton presidency to fire up their constituents. But the prospect of an Obama-Giuliani race is another matter. “You would have a bunch of people who traditionally vote Republican going over to Obama,” said the Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder of the Christian conservative American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., known for its consumer boycotts over obscenity or gay issues.In the Wichita churches this summer, Obama was the Democrat who drew the most interest. Several mentioned that he had spoken at Warren’s Saddleback church and said they were intrigued. But just as many people ruled out Obama because they suspected that he was not Christian at all but in fact a crypto-Muslim — a rumor that spread around the Internet earlier this year. “There is just that ill feeling, and part of it is his faith,” Welsh said. “Is his faith anti-Christian? Is he a Muslim? And what about the school where he was raised?”
“Obama sounds too much like Osama,” said Kayla Nickel of Westlink. “When he says his name, I am like, ‘I am not voting for a Muslim!’ ”
That last part is where we pause and consider just what conservative blind hatred blended with garlic-strength stupidity hath wrought: have you heard the one about Barack Obama being a Muslim? That he attended a "madrassa", a school for children associated with the radical Wahhabist sect?
On August 10, 2004, just two weeks after Obama had given his much-heralded keynote speech at the DNC in Boston, a perennial Republican Senate candidate and self-described "independent contrarian columnist" named Andy Martin issued a press release. In it, he announced a press conference in which he would expose Obama for having "lied to the American people" and "misrepresent[ed] his own heritage."Martin raised all kinds of strange allegations about Obama but focused on him attempting to hide his Muslim past. "It may well be that his concealment is meant to endanger Israel," read Martin's statement. "His Muslim religion would obviously raise serious questions in many Jewish circles where Obama now enjoys support."
There's more about Andy Martin, but you can go to the link for that. We'll continue:
Within a few days of Martin's press conference, the conservative site Free Republic had picked it up, attracting a long comment thread, but after that small blip the specious "questions" about Obama's background disappeared. Then, in the fall of 2006, as word got out that Obama was considering a presidential run, murmurs on the Internet resumed. In October a conservative blog called Infidel Bloggers Alliance reposted the Andy Martin press release under the title "Is Barack Obama Lying About His Life Story?" A few days later the online RumorMillNews also reposted the Andy Martin press release in response to a reader's inquiry about whether Obama was a Muslim. Then in December fringe right-wing activist Ted Sampley posted a column on the web raising the possibility that Obama was a secret Muslim. Sampley, who co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and once accused John McCain of having been a KGB asset, quoted heavily from Martin's original press release. "When Obama was six," Sampley wrote, "his mother, an atheist, married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian Muslim, and moved to Jakarta, Indonesia.... Soetoro enrolled his stepson in one of Jakarta's Muslim Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the rest of the world."On December 29, 2006, the very same day that Sampley posted his column, Snopes received its first copy of the e-mail forward, which contains an identical charge in strikingly similar language. Given the timing, it seems likely that it was a distillation of Sampley's work.
Yes, despite the e-mail that continues to be forwarded today, and the FOX and Friends news analysis (sic) and the Insight magazine article and the Townhall.com BS, Barack Obama did not ever attend a madrassa. Snopes.com painstakingly details how wild this exaggeration became (similar to Nigerian yellowcake, for example). CNN debunked it, and even FOX themselves corrected the smear, but the damage to fragile conservative minds, as you can see above, remains done:
Despite the fact that CNN and others have thoroughly debunked the smear, the original false accusation has clearly sunk into people's consciousness. One Obama organizer told me recently that every day, while calling prospective voters, he gets at least one or two people who tell him they won't be voting for Obama because he's a Muslim. According to Google, "Barack Obama Muslim" is the third most-searched term for the Illinois senator. And an August CBS poll found that when voters were asked to give Obama's religion, as many said Muslim as correctly answered Protestant.Oh yeah. And the e-mail continues to circulate.
"Everybody started calling me" when the e-mail first made the rounds, Andy Martin told me. "They said, 'Hey, did you write this?' My answer was 'they are all my children.' "
Heard the one about Hillary Clinton snubbing the Gold Star Mothers? That John Kerry didn't earn his medals in Vietnam? That Al Gore invented the Internet?
Such is the power of the right-wing smear forward, a vehicle for the dissemination of character assassination that has escaped the scrutiny directed at the Limbaughs and Coulters and O'Reillys but one that is as potent as it is invisible. In 2004 putative firsthand accounts of Kerry's performance in Vietnam traveled through e-mail in right-wing circles, presaging the Swift Boat attacks. Last winter a forward began circulating accusing Barack Obama of being a secret Muslim schooled in a radical madrassa (about which more later). While the story was later fed through familiar right-wing megaphones, even making it onto Fox, it has continued to circulate via e-mail long after being definitively debunked by CNN. In other words, the few weeks the smear spent in the glare of the mainstream media was just a tiny portion of a long life cycle, most of which has been spent darting from inbox to inbox.
The profoundly uninformed, relying almost entirely on FOX and Limbaugh and Hannity for their "news", is at greatest risk for this kind of glaring ignorance:
For a certain kind of conservative, these e-mails, along with talk radio, are an informational staple, a means of getting the real stories that the mainstream media ignore. "I get a million of them!" says Gerald DeSimone, a 74-year-old veteran from Ridgewood, New Jersey, who describes his politics as "to the right of Attila the Hun." "If I forwarded every one on, everyone would hate me.... I'm trying to cut back. I try to send no more than two or three a day. I must get thirty or forty a day."
Do you have a Republican relative who forwards these, and other messages of similar intellectual laziness, to your inbox once a week or so -- which may be the only time they turn on their computer? Well, you're not alone:
Mike D'Asto, a 29-year-old assistant cameraman living in New York, received so many forwards from his conservative father he started a blog called MyRightWingDad.net, where he shares them with other unwitting recipients. "I suddenly have connected to all these people who receive these right-wing forwards from their brothers-in-law," D'Asto told me. "Surprisingly, a very large number of people receive these."
And that, as The Nation's Christopher Hayes notes, is the problem.
For conservatives, these e-mails neatly reinforce preconceptions, bending the facts of the world in line with their ideological framework: liberals, immigrants, hippies and celebrities are always the enemy; soldiers and conservatives, the besieged heroes. The stories of the former's perfidy and the latter's heroism are, of course, never told by the liberal media. So it's left to the conservative underground to get the truth out. And since the general story and the roles stay the same, often the actual characters are interchangeable.
Did you ever get the one about the Senator questioning Oliver North about a terrorist (who was named Osama bin Laden in the e-mail but in reality named Abu Nidal -- hey, they all sound alike, right?) In 2000, it was Gore; in 2004 it was Kerry.
"A lot of the chain letters that were accusing Al Gore of things in 2000 were recycled in 2004 and changed to Kerry," says John Ratliff, who runs a site called BreakTheChain.org, which, like Snopes, devotes itself to debunking chain e-mails. One e-mail falsely described a Senate committee hearing in the 1980s where Oliver North offered an impassioned Cassandra-like warning about the threat of Osama bin Laden, only to be dismissed by a condescending Democratic senator. Originally it was Al Gore who played the role of the senator, but by 2004 it had changed to John Kerry. "You just plug in your political front-runner du jour," Ratliff says.
So what can we expect for the next twelve months? Hillary's a lesbian? Check. Her husband still catting around? Roger that. Barack Osama hates America? John Edwards got an expensive haircut, and he and Al Gore are both gay and live together in a 40,000 square-foot house with a $10,000 monthly utility bill?
The next time you get one of these howlers in your inbox from you-know-which-relative, do two things: check out whether it's accurate at Snopes, and then send it back to the forwarder correcting their understanding.
Our republican democracy thanks you in advance.
The flock begins to scatter
The Christians are breaking up faster than the polar ice cap:
Today the president’s support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. Once close to 90 percent, the president’s approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the Pew Research Center. White evangelicals under 30 — the future of the church — were once Bush’s biggest fans; now they are less supportive than their elders. And the dissatisfaction extends beyond Bush. For the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the Republican Party has dipped below 50 percent, with the sharpest falloff again among the young, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow at Pew and an expert on religion and politics. (The defectors by and large say they’ve become independents, not Democrats, according to the polls.)
Some claim the falloff in support for Bush reflects the unrealistic expectations pumped up by conservative Christian leaders. But no one denies the war is a factor. Christianity Today, the evangelical journal, has even posed the question of whether evangelicals should “repent” for their swift support of invading Iraq.
“Even in evangelical circles, we are tired of the war, tired of the body bags,” the Rev. David Welsh, who took over late last year as senior pastor of Wichita’s large Central Christian Church, told me. “I think it is to the point where they are saying: ‘O.K., we have done as much good as we can. Now let’s just get out of there.’ ”
This news may contain the fallen dry leaves of the GOP dynasty, or it may contain the seeds of John McCain's revival. Lots of insights; read it all.
Greg similarly recommends and suggests he may have more to say on the subject.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Rudy Awakening
Many Giuliani watchers already understand that Rudy is a hothead and a grandstander, even a bit of a dictator at times. These qualities have dominated the story of his mayoralty that most people know. As that drama was unfolding, however, so was a quieter story, driven by Giuliani's instinct and capacity for manipulating the levers of government. His methods, like those of the current White House, included appointments of yes-men, aggressive tests of legal limits, strategic lawbreaking, resistance to oversight, and obsessive secrecy. As was also the case with the White House, the events of 9/11 solidified the mindset underlying his worst tendencies. Embedded in his operating style is a belief that rules don't apply to him, and a ruthless gift for exploiting the intrinsic weaknesses in the system of checks and balances. That's why, of all the presidential candidates, Giuliani is most likely to take the expansions of the executive branch made by the Bush administration and push them further still. The blueprint can be found in the often-overlooked corners of his mayoralty.
Perhaps you better go read the whole thing.
Friday, October 26, 2007
DOJ to investigate CPS Energy (hangman's noose)
On the heels of the discovery of a hangman's noose in the cubicle of a supervisor at municipally-owned CPS Energy in San Antonio, the US Department of Justice will investigate the allegations of ... oh, let's be charitable and call it "decades-long racial insensitivity".
Specifically the Community Relations Service division of the USDOJ. From their mission statement:
CRS was in Jena, Louisiana in September of this year, and went to Jasper, Texas in the wake of the death of James Byrd in 1998.
David Van Os, the attorney for the IBEW, which brought the original complaints of unfair work practices against the company, is contemplating litigation on a handful of fronts by a number of former CPS employees, union and non-. Quote:
So there will likely be more about this to be blogged in the future.
Update (10/27): Sharon has more on the other nooses in the news.
Specifically the Community Relations Service division of the USDOJ. From their mission statement:
The Community Relations Service is the Department's "peacemaker" for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS is the only Federal agency dedicated to assist State and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups with preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony. CRS facilitates the development of viable, mutual understandings and agreements as alternatives to coercion, violence, or litigation. It also assists communities in developing local mechanisms, conducting training, and other proactive measures to prevent or reduce racial/ethnic tension. CRS does not take sides among disputing parties and, in promoting the principles and ideals of non-discrimination, applies skills that allow parties to come to their own agreement. In performing this mission, CRS deploys highly skilled professional conciliators, who are able to assist people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.
CRS was in Jena, Louisiana in September of this year, and went to Jasper, Texas in the wake of the death of James Byrd in 1998.
David Van Os, the attorney for the IBEW, which brought the original complaints of unfair work practices against the company, is contemplating litigation on a handful of fronts by a number of former CPS employees, union and non-. Quote:
"The situation is intolerable and we intend to do everything possible to clean it up."
So there will likely be more about this to be blogged in the future.
Update (10/27): Sharon has more on the other nooses in the news.
TexBlog PAC event Monday, 10/29
So our merry little band of bloggers is going to start doing more than just writing about the outrageous things the Republican-and-Blue-Dog-led Texas House does: we're going to begin influencing it by electing more (and better) Democrats.
Come to our Houston fundraising event next Monday evening:
Join TexBlog PAC
with special guests:
State Representatives
| Senfronia Thompson | Garnet Coleman |
| Dora Olivo | Jessica Farrar |
| Rick Noriega | Ana Hernandez |
| Ellen Cohen |
State Senators
Mario Gallegos
Rodney Ellis
Special thanks to our sponsors who include:
| The Texas Democratic Party | The House Democratic Campaign Committee |
| Congressman Chris Bell | Congressman Nick Lampson |
| Council Member Melissa Noriega | Barbara Radnofsky |
| Jim Henley | Joe Jaworski |
Monday, October 29th, 2007 5:30 to 7:30 pm
At the Home of David Mincberg
5406 Braeburn, Bellaire, 77401
For additional information, or to sponsor the event, call Charles Kuffner at 713-825-0013.
Or throw a little in our kitty here.
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