The Wrangle for Tax Day (and Teabaggin' Week)

AKA the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly Round-Up.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme noticed Fort Bend County was slapped by the DOJ for actual election integrity problems. Voters were illegally denied provisional ballots and Spanish speakers were not accommodated. Betty Brown probably wishes those voters would make life easier for English-speaking poll workers.

BossKitty at TruthHugger cannot accept that tax laws, tax jegislation and lawmakers are ignorant to the fact that keeping the taxpayer clueless brings in more revenue. Intentional vagueness and contradiction guarantee more tax dollars collected. This country has brainwashed its taxpayers; it is easier to waste their money on sleazy preparers and tax software than to learn what taxes are all about. Taxpayers are complicit in their own misery, even though the government really tries to make the facts available. We've been convinced that taxes are just a necessary evil ... "Death and Taxes". But today, Can You Trust Your Tax Software When It Can't Keep Up.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted a video using Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush dolls to illustrate the recent liberal ascendancy in the United States.

We all had some fun at Rep. Betty Brown's expense last week, but Off the Kuff noted that there was a bill pending before Rep. Brown's Elections Committee that would actually help alleviate some of the problems that prevent eligible citizens from casting their ballots.

At Texas Kaos, it's been a bemusing week of watching Glenn Beck prepare to storm the Alamo City with Tea Bags. But nothing could have prepared us for Rick Perry linking his fortunes with Beck after his gasoline-drenched performance Apparently a primary threat in the Texas Republican Party means you double down on the batshit crazy lies. Who knew?

Kim Jong Il wasn't the only person to fire a missile this week. McBlogger went ballistic over that dapper Senator Watson.

The Employee Free Choice Act met the Democratic Senator from the Great State of Wal-Mart and is headed down to defeat as a result. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more on the Senate's caving in once again to the corporations.

Asian American Action Fund Blog has extensive coverage of Betty Brown's ridiculous questioning of Ramey Ko, from our first report to Brown's apology and Ko's description of their conversation. In addition, there are link roundups of most coverage of the incident from April 9th and 10th. And don't miss law professor Frank Wu's exploration of the matter.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the 20 Republicans in the Texas House who voted against education benefits for veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Teabagging Parties, sponsored by FOX

The Right's latest grassroots gaffe, coming to a conservative media show near you this week, demonstrates once more that astroturf has no root system. Steve Benen:

Media Matters' Karl Frisch notes Glenn Beck's role in this week's Tea-bagging events. It points to a larger truth that often goes overlooked.

Beck isn't just helping with turnout. Discussing his participation in the upcoming protest at the Alamo in San Antonio on his syndicated radio program, Beck announced, "I'm going to do a fundraiser for them" to help defray costs. "So you can come and you can have lunch with me. ... I don't know any of the details, but I've heard it's like $500 a plate or something like that."

How much to throw up on Glenn Beck's shoes? What do you say to buying Colbert and Stewart a couple of seats at the head table?

While the notion of someone paying $500 to have lunch near Glenn Beck is itself amusing, I think Oliver Willis captures the broader significance: "When people were protesting the Iraq war, they didn't have $500-a-plate fundraisers. Then again, they didn't have sponsorship from Fox News, the backing of corporate lobbyists and the attendance of prominent conspiracy theorists like Alan Keyes."

Right. Even after all the teaching moments of the last decade or so, it seems the right still doesn't quite get the meaning of the word "grassroots." Conservatives still seem wedded to a top-down model.

We've seen this play out several times of late. Remember "Freedom's Watch"? Conservatives decided they needed their own version of MoveOn.org, so some loyal Bushies went to a right-wing billionaire for seed money, and the top-down game was in motion. The result, despite considerable hype, was a bust, and the far-right group has already folded.

There's some evidence to suggest the Tea Parties are following a similar trajectory. These right-wing events aren't just coming together naturally; they're the product of Fox News and corporate lobbyists. This is practically a textbook example of "astroturf." That Glenn Beck is charging $500 a plate to have lunch with him to help subsidize the effort only helps reinforce the larger dynamic.

Conservatives too often think, "We'll get some money together, deliver a right-wing message, and the grassroots will come together. It'll be awesome." Except it never is.

This isn't to say turnout will necessarily be low on Wednesday; I wouldn't be surprised if far-right voters turned out in substantial numbers. The point is, corporate-sponsored events thrown together with no clear purpose or specific aims are not the foundation for a political movement or effective activism.

Any group who protests lower taxes on themselves and a 3% higher marginal tax increase on the wealthy deserves all of the respect they get.

But you know what these people really need? A community organizer. ;^)

A gathering of expensive douchebags

At a committee meeting in Austin -- where else:


Or as Susan Peterson of the Texas Observer more delicately phrased it, "a million dollars in billable hours".

Easter Bunny Calls on Congress to Rethink Afghanistan

As the White House conducts its traditional Easter egg roll, Brave New Foundation's Rethink Afghanistan campaign will have several Easter Bunnies distributing and hiding more than 6,000 Easter eggs in New York City and Washington DC. The eggs will be stuffed with toy soldiers serving as a reminder of the troops currently stationed in Afghanistan along with a series of poignant questions that have yet to be raised about the war on Afghanistan.

Thousands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan will be away from their families this Easter. These soldiers will soon be joined by an additional 21,000 troops. Congress has yet to call substantial oversight hearings on whether the troop escalation makes sense.

"Easter is a time for renewal. As American Christian families celebrate this holiday, we must renew our commitment to one of Jesus Christ's most important commitments: peace. We must to re-engage our country in a national debate and ask the questions that have yet to be raised about the Afghanistan war."

In a recent trip to Kabul, Hollywood director and activist Robert Greenwald interviewed local Afghans who consistently expressed a desire for the US to end its seven-year occupation in Afghanistan. Many of them cited the American occupation as fueling pro-Taliban sentiment in Afghanistan.

"Congress needs to assert its role in critical oversight as we continue to add troops and money to a war that has already cost billions of dollars. The American people deserves answers to important questions such as: are we really helping in Afghanistan if human rights are getting worse."

View the 'Rethink Afghanistan' documentary here.

Count me in opposition to another of President Obama's recent policies: escalation in Ahghanistan.

On October 2, 2002, Barack Obama -- then an Illinois state senator -- gave a speech opposing going to war in Iraq. That speech, at that time, would prove crucial to his election, first as a US Senator two years later, and then as President, four years after that. Democrats who equivocated were a dime a dozen. Obama stood out, because he stood up when others did not, and said, “This is wrong.”

He did not oppose all wars. He cited the Civil War and World War II as specific examples of necessary ones. But, he said, “I’m opposed to dumb wars.” Yet on January 23, his third full day as President, Obama ordered two separate air strikes in Pakistan, killing 14 civilians, along with four suspected terrorists. One strike killed six civilians along with four suspected terrorists staying in their home, the other simply hit the wrong target, the home of a pro-government tribal elder, Malik Deen Faraz in the Gangikhel area of South Waziristan, killing him, his three sons and a grandson, along with three others.

Now President Obama has made it official: in addition to another 17,000 troops promised early, he made an additional pledge of 4,000 more on Friday, March 27. It was reportedly a ‘carefully calibrated’ decision, these would be trainers not combat troops, we were told. But Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran, whose career included long stretches preparing security briefs for Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr., was not impressed with such fine distinctions.

“I was wrong,” McGovern wrote about his belief that Obama’s campaign rhetoric regarding escalation in Afghanistan would not be followed through. “I kept thinking to myself that when he got briefed on the history of Afghanistan and the oft-proven ability of Afghan ‘militants’ to drive out foreign invaders - from Alexander the Great, to the Persians, the Mongolians, Indians, British, Russians - he would be sure to understand why they call mountainous Afghanistan the ‘graveyard of empires.’”

Perhaps Obama got that briefing, perhaps he didn’t. But one thing is certain, McGovern went on to explain: he did not get the kind of intelligence briefing that used to be standard before the Bush regime consigned them to irrelevancy. Traditionally, the national intelligence estimate (NIE) had been the core intelligence product used to summarize the collective advice of the intelligence community, but as USA Today reported on September 11, 2002 (”Iraq Course Set From Tight White House Circle”), no NIE had been prepared on the topic of invading Iraq.

“An intelligence official says that’s because the White House doesn’t want to detail the uncertainties that persist about Iraq’s arsenal and Saddam’s intentions. A senior administration official says such an assessment simply wasn’t seen as helpful,” USA Today reported, adding, “Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, calls that ’stunning.’

‘If we are about to make a decision that could risk American lives, we need full and accurate information on which to base that decision,’ he says in a letter sent Tuesday to leaders of the committee and CIA Director George Tenet.”

Easter Sunday Funnies

Betty Brown converts entire wardrobe to wash-and-wear over lack of "American" dry cleaners

No one could have predicted that she would be able to find enough stretch polyester in Terrell and Athens and even the vintage clothing stores in Austin to have five different outfits to wear each week for the rest of the legislative session. But she did. Former representative Ron Wilson has graciously donated a couple of his old jogging suits for her to wear around the house -- not the House, of course.

I understand some of her frustration; I have a stain on one of my nice white shirts that nobody can seem to get out.

-- Which begs the question: what's Betty going to wear to her Teabaggin' Party next week? Thank you, MOMocrats, for writing the post (and linking to the Urban Dic), including the video from Rachel Maddow last night. This is truly going to be a national movement, all right. Hilarity factor already red-lining.

Does it occur to anyone else that Sen. Larry Craig could have explained it to all of them -- if they had not sent him back into exile in Idaho, that is?

A few other archive-clearing items to revisit ...

-- Andrew Sullivan brought us the sad story of another dead stoner.

-- My sister Sharon made the MSM.

-- This says that the economy, using corporate bond markets as the indicator, has almost 8 million additional jobs to shed (on top of the 5 million already lost). You just have to hope that's not accurate. On top of the news that the Fed pumped over a trillion dollars into the monetary system because of deflation paranoia, and the stress-test for banks that nobody is talking about publicly, there appears to be great fear behind the curtains about where we are going to bottom out.

-- Old dogs are the best dogs? I don't know about that yet, but my two three-year-olds are pretty much the shiznet.

Brown: Asians need names "easier for Americans to deal with"

Frustrated that Asians insist on naming their children after the sounds made when throwing pots and pans against a wall, Rep. Betty Brown lashed out at a representative of the community by demanding that his people name all future children after her ancestors ...

Myrtle, Gertrude, Hortense,and Genevieve:

A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.

The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Can't you see that you are a nasty bigoted ass, Representative Brown?

No, of course you can't.

Off you go to the Leo Berman Hall of Shame.

Update: My Betty Brown-Approved Name is Roy "Golden Corral" Brown. Find yours.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D - Wal-Mart)

The gentlelady from Arkansas has announced she cannot vote for the Employee Free Choice Act:

"I cannot support that bill," Lincoln said, according to Arkansas Business. "Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form."

Labor forces can ill-afford to lose any Democrats in this legislative battle, given the partisan lines of the EFCA vote in 2007. Already, Sen. Arlen Specter, the lone Senate Republican to vote for cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act back then, has indicated he will oppose cloture if the bill were to be brought up in this Congress.

Lincoln, long considered a crucial Democratic vote on EFCA, was the focus of intense political pressure. Union groups were courting her support while the business community had made her a primary target for defection. Indeed, Wal-Mart hired her former chief of staff for the precise purpose of lobbying on EFCA. Lincoln is up for re-election in 2010.

Count also endangered Republican Arlen Specter, Dianne Feinstein, and a wavering Mark Warner of Virginia as declaring themselves in favor of Big Bidness over the little guy. Expect more of the god-damned Senate Blue Dogs to slink out from under the porch and lie down in the lap of their corporate masters.

This is bullshit. This action defies the attempts of the middle class to resurrect itself in the face of the worst economic times in three generations.

And it makes me feel like sharpening my pitchfork.

Don't forget those Tea Bagger Parties next week!

Click on the toon to read it larger. Be sure and stock up on extra guns and ammo for the celebration, too (if you can find any, that is).

Obama joins Bush in "states secrets" club

In the matter of extraordinary rendition as well as warrantless wiretapping:

In the Mohamed v. Jeppesen extraordinary rendition case, the Obama administration reiterated the Bush administration argument that the case should be dismissed to preserve "states secrets." Likewise, in the Al-Haramain wiretapping case, Obama's DOJ used the arguments of the Bush administration to argue, again, that state secrets should prevent the Al-Haramain case -- in which the only secret isn't a secret because it was inadvertently shared with plaintiff's attorneys -- from moving forward.

Late Friday, the Obama DOJ actually went the Bush administration one argument further, in a third case. In Jewel v. NSA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is "suing the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records." The Obama administration filed its first response [pdf] to the suit Friday, demanding dismissal of the entire suit.

Just a reminder, as pointed out by Glenn; one of the rationales provided by all of those Senators who supported the FISAAA that granted immunity to the telcos was the the avenue of suing the government was still open. Jello Jay wrote: "If administration officials abused their power or improperly violated the privacy of innocent people, they must be held accountable. That is exactly why we rejected the White House's year-long push for blanket immunity covering government officials."

Needless for me to say, what's good for the goose (Bush) is NOT good for the gander (Obama). I expected more and much better from a Democratic president than this, and expect now that either a Democratic Congress or the Supreme Court will limit these illegal powers claimed by the most recent head of the executive branch.

Stop laughing. Back to mcjoan:

It's difficult to read the administration's brief in any other way than a reinforcement -- even an inflation of -- the unitary executive, or to attribute it to Bush holdovers. This is first of the cases in which the DOJ attorneys aren't carrying over arguments from the previous administration -- they are initiating this case. And it appears that the promises of last summer and fall when FISAAA was being argued were pretty damned empty. As EFF points out:

"President Obama promised the American people a new era of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil liberties," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "But with the Obama Justice Department continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans, and insisting that the much-publicized warrantless wiretapping program is still a 'secret' that cannot be reviewed by the courts, it feels like deja vu all over again."

Yesterday at Fenway's Opening Day

Rather than make their first entrance from the dugout, each player on the roster came through the stands, most high-fiving with fans all the way down.

The national anthem was originally to be performed by the singer Seal, but yesterday's rainout meant that Seal had to leave for a concert tour, and the Boston Pops stepped in to fill the gap.

A giant American flag hung over the Green Monster, and color guards from each of the Armed Service branches stood on the Fenway Grass as the anthem played.

As the national anthem reached its final stanzas, four F-15 fighters from Barnes Air National Guard base thundered over the stadium, and the day's two special guests arrived to throw out the first pitch. Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-Mass) rode out of the outfield wall on a golf cart with newly minted Hall of Famer Jim Rice, and the pair walked up to the mound to kick off the season.

Kennedy, who has struggled with health problems of late, set up on the mound perhaps six feet from Rice, who would catch the ceremonial pitch. Kennedy missed with his first effort, tossing the ball to the ground. But the proud Senator asked for a do-over, and on his second try, got the ball into Rice's glove, to warm applause.

Once Kennedy motored off, Johnny Pesky declared 'play ball,' the flag was pulled down from the Monster, and the players took the field.

Christ, that brings a tear to my eye just reading it.

Opening Day/NCAA championship Wrangle

Today is one of my very favorite sports days of the year: the opening of the major league baseball season and the collegiate basketball championship game. Later this week, the Masters; next month, the Kentucky Derby.

I love April (especially when it's not hot also). Here's your TPA round-up of the best blog posts from last week ...

Neil at Texas Liberal writes about a voting rights case in Austin-Area Voting Rights Case Headed To Supreme Court/Idea For Lawsuit Against Democratic Party and suggests another idea for a voting rights suit.

Somewhat quietly, a bill that would amend Texas' unemployment insurance laws in a way that would make them compliant with the requirements to get federal stimulus dollars passed out of a Senate committee. Off the Kuff takes a look.

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog writes about the Pew study indicating Asian-American students in Fort Bend and Pasadena ISDs face some of the highest segregation rates in the nation.

At McBlogger, we take a look at Ag Commissioner Todd Staples' efforts to make people sick. Nice work, Todd!

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is thoroughly disgusted with the crony-loving Texas Supreme Court which is hereby officially renamed the Texas Cronies' Protection Agency. Workers beware!

Labor gets its own television talk show, as MSNBC prepares to introduce Ed Schultz as part of its evening progressive lineup.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has a round-up of the state of the stimulus money in Texas.

WhosPlayin's MexicoBob took time to poke fun at the Republican Tax Day Tea Parties, wondering what other necessary evils that Republicans might protest next.

BossKitty at TruthHugger was struck by a single line on the news describing an Austin man turned away from medical care for lack of insurance, then going on a violent rampage, in No Insurance, Meds Denied, Tate Mayhem and Perryman Murder - Op Ed. On a lighter note, it is amusing to watch opponents to gay marriage wring their hands in despair every time a court reverses the ban. Read Gay Marriage Apocalypse - Really Now.

Over at TexasKaos Libby Shaw updates us on Houston KBR corporation's onging legal problems. It seems they got paid and paid and paid to create electrical death traps for our troops. As one civilian expert put it, "It was horrible -- some of the worst electrical work I have ever seen." Read the rest: Lawsuit Claims KBR Responsible for Deaths of US Troops in Iraq.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston wonders if the Democrats will save Bob Perry's Commission.

AT&T, CWA square off over healthcare benefits

Dallas-based AT&T says compensation for 112,500 of its employees who are members of the Communications Workers of America is unsustainable because the company has lost 15.3 million access lines, or 21 percent of its traditional core business, in the past three years. Competitors are largely nonunion, with benefits that cost less, AT&T says.

How many people do you know under the age of thirty that have a land line? Telephones with cords plugged into the wall are getting as rare as a dead-tree version of a newspaper. AT&T -- the former Southwestern Bell that swallowed up a couple of its spun-off-in-the-'80's rivals -- remains a very profitable company. Like the newspapers, though, they see a slumping economic environment as an opportunity to bust their union.

The company is engaging in "retrogressive bargaining" according to a CWA advertisement in Friday’s Star-Telegram. Although the company compares CWA healthcare benefits to those of union employees at struggling Detroit automakers, the situations are far different, a local union representative said.

"AT&T is a very healthy company," said Georgia Day-Thomas, executive vice president of CWA Local 6201 in Fort Worth. "We’re not talking about automakers.

"There are so many take-backs on the table, it’s just insulting to us," Day-Thomas said.

"We’re not asking for any more than what we already have."

Negotiations for the CWA’s District 6, which covers five states and 71,382 union members, are taking place in Austin. It is one of six CWA districts across the country, and one of five facing the same contract deadline.

Local 6201 has 2,579 members, including 2,130 members covered by the AT&T contract, Day-Thomas said. ...

"I think we’re going to the wire," Day-Thomas said. "I’m hoping that cooler heads prevail. I’m hoping that we don’t go on strike."

The last time the same set of contracts had to be negotiated, five years ago, an impasse resulted in a four-day strike.

Richter pointed out that even if the contract expires without an agreement at midnight, union workers could decide to continue working under the old contract, as they have in similar situations in the past.

The deadline is midnight tonight was midnight last night but the negotiations continue today ...

AT&T and unions for its landline workers were working past a strike deadline Sunday to try to reach agreement on a new contract.

Core wireline contracts across the country expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, but union-represented employees covered by those contracts continued to work under the old agreements, the two parties said.

Issues such as employment security and health care have yet to be resolved, but union members will report to work, "although that can change at any time," the Communications Workers of America said on its Web site Sunday. ...

AT&T earned a $12.9 billion profit for 2008, up from $12 billion in 2007. Its fourth-quarter profit fell 24 percent from the prior year, though, paradoxically because of its success in selling more of Apple's iPhones than expected. AT&T subsidizes the upfront expense of the iPhone, aiming to make the money back over the two-year service contract.

Sunday Funnies (Epic Fail edition)

Palm Sunday includes comedy and gambling

over in Louisiana.


Light posting ahead but back with some Funnies tomorrow.

The New Yankee Stadium

I never made it to the old one, finally rationalizing -- with the assist from Derek Jeter -- that the ghosts only had to relocate about a hundred yards.

And sure enough, what ghost wouldn't want to.


My friend Lyn the Mets fan wants to get up to Citi Field sometime this year, so in the interest of fairness and balance here's some computerized renderings of the Amazin's new playpen, including a video of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

Update: More from tonight's opening festivities:

Eager New York fans turned out Friday to watch the Yankees and Mets test their plush and pricey new ballparks in exhibition games, a double debut in a city that hasn’t had a new Major League Baseball stadium in 45 years.

The faithful were awed. Given what these places cost, maybe they ought to be.

“When I pass, I want my ashes to be buried here. That’s how beautiful it is,” John Zozzaro of Glen Cove said as he admired $800 million Citi Field in Queens, where fans lavished praise on everything from the brilliant green of the outfield to the cup holders in front of the seats.

Across town, Frank Sinatra songs played as fans took in the new Yankee Stadium, bedecked with old Yankees memorabilia and pictures of team titans such as Babe Ruth. At $1.5 billion, it is the costliest baseball stadium ever built.

“It looks great. I think the word is ‘majestic.’ It’s awesome,” said 39-year-old Mike Generose. He and his wife, Lori, 24, had driven to the game from their home in Allentown, Pa.

Labor gets a TV show

Radio progressive talker Ed Schultz was given the 5 p.m. Central time slot by MSNBC yesterday.

Talking with Keith Olbermann last night on Countdown, Schultz said the show's focus would be on working people, the middle class, and labor unions. From an interview with AFSCME two years ago:

"This has been the most anti-labor administration in the history of the country. They want cheap labor: that's the conservatives' mission. They don't think the middle class — and unions — are important. I'm a staunch supporter of unions. If we're going to save the middle class, we've got to strengthen unions. They stand for quality of life, quality of wages, quality and fairness of benefits. All of those things are being attacked by the neo-cons. The only thing that's going to be able to push back at Corporate America is unions."

And in a recent audition on the network he will be working full-time for starting next week, Schultz gives the Democratic leadership in Congress some advice about the Employee Free Choice Act:



Conservatism's successful marketing of organized labor as demonic -- going all the way back to when former union boss Reagan disbanded the air traffic controllers -- has proceeded apace for nearly thirty years, dove-tailing nicely with declines in union membership, wages, benefits, and the erosion of the middle class in general. Even poor working stiffs bought into the 'one day you will be management, too!' BS notion that kept themselves oppressed by corporations all of this time.

Read any comment board where unions are mentioned and see for yourself.

Schultz's conversations about the benefits of organized labor is a welcome breath of fresh air in the soon-to-be post-corporate-controlled environment.

Colbert destroys Glenn Beck

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10/31 Project
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

"We weren't told how to behave that day after 9/11, we just knew," Beck says to describe the project. "It was right, it was the opposite of what we feel today. Are you ready to be the person you were that day after 9/11, on 9/12?"

"Ready!" Colbert shouted, decked out in a gas mask, holding a gun, and wearing adult diapers.

Next up for profound ridicule: the Tea Baggers gatherings on April 14.

Fascism and socialism have conservatives confused

This has been covered previously, but since it is the Republican brain we're dealing with here, more explanation is required. They still won't understand it, but you will.

Some very abridged recent history is in order. The 20th century saw the rise of two significant offshoots of totalitarianism: communism and fascism. Communism represented the far left and fascism, the far right. The American left and right can sometimes resemble, faintly, the excesses of 20th century totalitarians, but neither willingly choose to be associated with them. Now it's a shame that Adolph Hitler's party was named the National Socialist German Workers' Party because this terribly confuses American conservatives. They see the words 'socialist' and 'worker's party' and they think that the Nazis were some kind of party of the proletariat.

In fact they were anything but:

The Nazi Party presented its program in the 25-point National Socialist Program in 1920. Among the key elements of Nazism were anti-parliamentarism, Pan-Germanism, racism, collectivism, eugenics, anti-semitism, anti-communism, totalitarianism and opposition to economic liberalism and political liberalism.

That's not to say that the Nazis didn't engage in populist demagoguery. They equated finance capitalism with a Jewish conspiracy to screw regular working folks. They proposed nationalizing all corporations.

The onset of the Great Depression, which preceded the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis, greatly discredited capitalism in the eyes of the world. The Nazis were not capitalists, but (at least on economic policy) tried to establish a middle ground between capitalism and Soviet communism. So if you are a late 20th century-educated American right-wing laissez-faire capitalist, much of the rhetoric and many of the actions of the Nazis are going to appear in retrospect to be left-wing in nature. But the economic policies of the Nazis, of course, are not what earned them eternal condemnation. Take a look at the following terms -- from the first excerpted link above -- and tell me if they better describe America's right-wing or left-wing.

--Anti-parliamentarism (anti-Congress)
-- Pan-Americanism
-- Racism
-- Anti-semitism
-- Anti-communism
-- Opposition to economic liberalism
-- Opposition to political liberalism

On those last two, 'liberalism' doesn't mean left-wing per se but more like principles of free markets, private property, and human and political rights.

The modern-day American right supports economic liberalism but they're pretty weak on political liberalism. There's a reason, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood, ACORN, etc. are considered enemies by the Republican Party.

In any case, nationalizing the auto industry is something Nazis might do. But you know what else they might do?

1. Demonize ethnic and religious minorities like Hispanics and Muslims.
2. Discriminate against homosexuals.
3. Exalt female fertility and discourage female employment in the work force.
4. Characterize the homeland as the rightful property of ethnically pure (white) citizens.
5. Promote a nationalistic and imperialistic foreign policy.
6. Call all of their opponents 'communists' or 'fifth-column communist sympathizers'.
7. Suppress the black vote.
8. Call President Obama a 'magic negro'.
9. Support torture and do warrantless surveillance on political enemies and reporters.
10. Exalt an idealized past when the 'United States was the greatest country on Earth'.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

Shorter version -- when Obama fires the CEO of General Motors, that's more socialism than it is fascism. Try to keep this straight, Sparkle: Bush is the fascist. Right down to his multi-hectare hideaway in Paraguay.

Obama fires GM's Wagoner

On the heels of the news yesterday that the White House is requiring the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, to step down as part of any restructuring needing federal funds, there's this news this morning:

The White House says neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive more bailout money, setting the stage for a crisis in Detroit and putting in motion what could be the final two months of two American auto giants.

US President Barack Obama and his top advisers have determined that neither company is viable and that taxpayers will not spend untold billions more to keep the pair of automakers open forever.

In a last-ditch effort, the administration gave each company a brief deadline to try one last time to convince Washington it is worth saving, said senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to more bluntly discuss the decision.

Obama was set to make the announcement on Monday in the White House's foyer.

This bothers me, but not in some kind of conservative capitalist let-the-market-work kind of way. Bailing out AIG and the Citi and B of A while they pay everybody bonuses is "OK", but bailing out companies that manufacture a product isn't?

The auto manufacturers and their suppliers employ millions of Americans in living-wage jobs with good benefits. The afore-mentioned money managers employ millions of Americans with about 90% of those jobs being low-wage clerks and customer service personnel, and 10% white-collar executives who expect executive compensation tied to performance no matter how badly they perform.

One of these things is just not like the other.

On the other hand, if Obama fires a couple of bank presidents in April, I might feel a little better about it.

Update (4/5): Heh.

The government may require new faces in executive suites at banks requiring “exceptional assistance” in the future, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Critics of the Obama administration’s move last weekend to force out the chairman of General Motors Corp., Rick Wagoner, as a condition for possible additional federal loans say that strong government intervention contrasts with measures placed on the financial industry in return for billions in infusions.

Geithner denied there was a double standard and put banks on notice that they may need to change leadership teams in exchange for accepting more money in the future.

The Weekly Final Four Wrangle

North Carolina, UConn, Villanova and Michigan State -- with the home court advantage -- will play next weekend for college basketball's national championship. Major league baseball's teams break spring training in Florida and Arizona as they prepare to open the season. And there's still lots of large, fresh crawfish to be eaten.

Spring is a beautiful thing (besides the flowers and the green leaves everywhere). Here's your round-up from the Texas Progressive Alliance's member blogs from the past week.

Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report is feeling proud to have a Democrat in the Oval Office in his post, President Barack Obama: How He Won & Early Successes.

McBlogger's Harry Balczak has some great news about a new movie coming out.

Off the Kuff examines the economic claims made by the gambling industry, and also prints a response from the racetracks.

BossKitty at TruthHugger recognizes the pattern of disaster cycles; why is everyone surprised when their world is turned upside down? America must pull its pants up and be ready for the unexpected, because it should be expected ... So Many Red Rivers - What Have We Learned. Speaking about learning, What Else Can We Cut Besides Cost ...

The GOP declares doomsday if Obama's budget is enacted. Let's hope they don't pre-emptively invade the White House to try to stop it, as if a Democratic federal budget were equivalent to Saddam's WMD. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reminds us that the Republicans tend to hyperventilate when they exaggerate.

Neil at Texas Liberal writes about Houston City Council candidate Noel Freeman and is hopeful that Mr. Freeman will address some questions about how the Democratic Party regards some of its most loyal voters.

At Texas Kaos, Libby Shaw keeps an eye on the best government that political contributions can buy -- TRCC edition, in Fat Cat The Business Owner Sticks It to Joe the Consumer.

nytexan at BlueBloggin is not surprised by the GOP's latest stunt; The Party of NO: GOP Budget Has No Numbers And No Plan. The GOP leadership offered “The Republican Road To Recovery,” a 19-page joke which took them 27 days to write. It actually sounds like a book title for Alcoholics Anonymous. The best part of the GOP budget is there are “no” numbers in it. Page numbers don’t count.

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog urges readers to call state representative Angie Chen Button to condemn state representative Leo Berman's Leo Berman.

The Texas Cloverleaf explains why it is going into hibernation.

Also on Burnt Orange Report, Todd Hill had an interview with Tom Schieffer, potential Democratic candidate for governor, about his vision for Texas, his friendship with George W. Bush, and why he thinks he can win in the general election.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on President Obama’s first budget - a primer.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is glad that the cowboy Bush administration is no longer in charge of diplomacy.

Bills to abolish Bob Perry's Builder Commssion will be heard on Tuesday, March 31 in a Business and Industry Subcommittee meeting of the Texas Legislature at 10:00 a.m., according to John Coby at Bay Area Houston.

Health insurers blacklist millions with common ailments

Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.

What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.

These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won't be rejected for insurance.

More.

Sunday Funnies (Beware Bad Dogma edition)

When banks rob people

This time the banks are zeroing in on Geithner's cash giveaway bonanza, the "Public Private Investment Partnership" (PPIP). As expected, Bank of America and Citigroup have angled their way to the front of the herd, thrusting their snouts into the public trough and extracting whatever morsels they can find amid a din of gurgling and sucking sounds. Here's the story from the New York Post:

"As Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner orchestrated a plan to help the nation's largest banks purge themselves of toxic mortgage assets, Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively scooping up those same securities in the secondary market, sources told The Post...

But the banks' purchase of so-called AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities, including some that use alt-A and option ARM as collateral, is raising eyebrows among even the most seasoned traders. Alt-A and option ARM loans have widely been seen as the next mortgage type to see increases in defaults.

One Wall Street trader told The Post that what's been most puzzling about the purchases is how aggressive both banks have been in their buying, sometimes paying higher prices than competing bidders are willing to pay.

Recently, securities rated AAA have changed hands for roughly 30 cents on the dollar, and most of the buyers have been hedge funds acting opportunistically on a bet that prices will rise over time. However, sources said Citi and BofA have trumped those bids."("Double Dippers; Citi and B of A buy laundered loans at lower rates", Mark DeCambre, New York Post)

Thus begins the next taxpayer-subsidized feeding frenzy, featuring all the usual suspects. The race is on to vacuum up as much toxic mortgage paper as possible so it can be dumped on Uncle Sam at a hefty profit. These are the same miscreants the Obama administration is so dead-set on rescuing. Better to let them sink from their own bad bets.

More here.

Harris County's plan for voter registration

I like the sound of this, so let's keep an eye out for how effectively it is implemented:

County Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez has put together a coalition of private organizations and large employers to make sure that residents who move within or to the county get an on-the-spot chance to fill out fresh voter registration applications.

Moving into an apartment or buying a dwelling involves signing lots of papers. Now the Houston Apartment Association and the Texas Land Title Association will make sure the papers include voter registration forms, Vasquez said Wednesday.

Continental Airlines and the Houston Independent School District are the first employers to join the coalition by ensuring that registration forms go to workers who update their personnel records with new addresses.

“Let’s hit people when they are trying to make one of those moves,” said Vasquez, who was appointed in December to succeed fellow Republican Paul Bettencourt, who resigned from his elected post.

Some poor word choices there, Leo, but the effort seems to be well-directed:

Vasquez said he created the voter registration coalition without regard to such controversies. He also said he does not plan to play a partisan role.

Registered voters who move without updating their registrations can, in most cases, vote on Election Day at the polling place for the precinct where they formerly lived. With the rise of early voting participation, where voters live within the county matters less because they can vote at any early voting station.

Having to return to an old neighborhood to vote sometimes discourages voters from casting ballots, Vasquez pointed out, so updated registrations make participation easier.

Vasquez also hopes the program will make the volume of voter registrations more consistent through the year. Typically, address changes and other registrations peak a few weeks before each election. These spikes lead to last-minute errors by those who fill out the cards and a processing backlog at the voter registrars’ office, according to Vasquez.

Fair enough. Let's see how it goes.

John Hope Franklin 1915 - 2009

As an author, his book ''From Slavery to Freedom'' was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of ''separate but equal'' in the nation's public schools.

''It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer,'' Franklin later wrote. ''For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating.''

Franklin himself broke numerous color barriers. He was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association.

He often regarded his country like an exasperated relative, frustrated by racism's stubborn power, yet refusing to give up. ''I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live,'' Franklin told The Associated Press in 2005.

In November, after Barack Obama broke the ultimate racial barrier in American politics, Franklin called his ascension to the White House ''one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment, in the history of this country.''

''Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people,'' Obama said in a statement. ''Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure.''

More bad newspaper news

-- The Houston Chronicle canned 12% of its staff yesterday (and today), including Clay Robison in the Austin bureau and Richard Stewart, whose East Texas columns I've read for thirty years, going back to when he wrote them in the Beaumont Enterprise-Journal. Hair Balls and Banjo Jones have more.

It looks like Steve Swartz is really determined to earn a bonus in his first year.

-- There is no longer a newspaper in Ann Arbor and three other small Michigan cities.

-- Gannett is furloughing employees and cutting pay rather than go through another round of layoffs -- for the time being:

The pall looming over U.S. newspapers grew even darker Monday as Gannett Co. informed most of its employees that they will have to take another week of unpaid leave this spring, while a Michigan daily unveiled plans to close its print edition after 174 years.

And The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, also ordered pay cuts and 10-day furloughs for nonunion employees Monday to cut costs as advertising revenue drops.

The moves were just the latest sign of the distress afflicting newspapers across the country as they try to cope with a dramatic shift in advertising that is forcing publishers to figure out how to survive with substantially less revenue.

Signaling it doesn't see an upturn anytime soon, Gannett wants virtually all of its U.S. employees to stay at home and forgo at least one week's pay before July. About 6,600 workers outside the United States won't be affected by the furloughs.

Executives and many workers making more than $90,000 annually will sacrifice two weeks pay in hopes that Gannett _ the owner of USA Today and more than 80 daily newspapers _ will be able to avoid more layoffs after jettisoning 4,000 jobs last year.

This will mark Gannett's second round of furloughs this year. The company, which employs about 41,500 people, saved about $20 million by imposing one-week furloughs during the first three months of this year.

No end in sight.

Update: The NYT and the WaPo as well ...

Two of the most respected U.S. newspaper publishers, The Washington Post Co and The New York Times Co, are embarking on new cost cuts in the face of dramatic declines in advertising revenue.

The Times said it laid off 100 workers and is cutting non-union salaries. It is also asking unionized employees to accept similar concessions to avoid layoffs in the newsroom.

The Post is offering a new round of buyouts to newsroom, production and circulation employees, and said it could not rule out laying off staff.

"This was a very difficult decision to make," said a memo signed by Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson. "The environment we are in is the toughest we have seen in our years in business."

The moves come as a host of other U.S. newspaper publishers have reduced staff, declared bankruptcy or shuttered once-vaunted newspapers, as readers seek news online and elsewhere and as the recession crimps advertising spending.

GOP predicts "doomsday" if Obama budget passed

They really did use the word "doomsday".

Well, actually they said 'this country will go bankrupt' and 'fast road to ruin'; our liberal media translated that as "doomsday".

Where were Judd Gregg and Richard Shelby when Bush was spending $4 trillion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? In the Senate heartily voting 'aye', of course.

Anyway, this is a repeat of 1993, and does anyone remember what kind of economy we got after the Republicans finished whining and the United States finally got a budget?

Then I don't suppose anyone can recall that Clinton's '93 budget, which raised taxes, reduced the federal deficit significantly either.

Seriously though, let's allay their deficit concerns and raise taxes on the wealthiest 5% NOW, instead of 2011.

"Heavens to Murgatroyd! That would be Socialism!"

Continuing to provide a forum -- some would say, 'outlet' -- for the bleatings of the naysayers isn't quite as stupid as ascribing drops in the Dow to the president speaking -- indeed, lying about it --or writing an article about the Employee Free Choice Act without ever seeking a comment from a representative of labor.

If we're going to play 'point/counterpoint or 'tit-for-tat' then it needs to be a two-way-street all the time.

The Weekly Sweet Sixteen Wrangle

With the arrival of spring, a legislative session in Austin, municipal campaigns revving up around the state and Texas' primaries less than a year away, the blogs of the Texas Progressive Alliance continue to bring you insights from our members around the state. Here's a roundup of what we've been reporting:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is now saying that the economic downturn has landed full force in Texas. Spared from the worst job losses during the first 6 months of the current recession, Texas is shedding jobs at an alarming pace. Wcnews at Eye On Williamson looks at the trends and offers a sobering assessment of the hard-line-let-'em-crash mentality of Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas GOP.

Off the Kuff points to a bill by state Rep. Dwayne Bohac to demonstrate that the push for voter ID really is about vote suppression.

If Republicans really cared about election integrity, then why do we still have non-auditable electronic voting machines? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees an opportunity to get a degree in the dark arts in If Texas HB-2800 Passes, I Want A Masters Degree In VooDoo.

In a post that took some work and came out well, Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about what Google searches miss. Also, Neil read the bird sermon of St. Francis to a dancing duck chicken.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston writes about Why Ethics Reform is Needed in Texas.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at a few local Twits in the GOP. Twittering Republicans, that is.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw tells us that in Hutchinson's world, "It's All About Me". So she is going to run for governor, keep her Senate seat and give the people of Texas absentee representation. Whatever makes her happy. Heaven forbid she should put her constituents first.

WhosPlayin examined HB 4441, an attempt by Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles to solve some problems related to pipelines.

nytexan at BlueBloggin is stunned that Obama Taps CitiGroup Economist For Treasury Spot. So, how does Washington's logic work? They offer a job, at the Treasury Department, to Lewis Alexander of CitiGroup. The Global Marketing Division that Alexander heads up was just fined $2 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for trade-reporting violations, including publishing flawed quotations. Let me know how that works out for you!

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men has some thoughts on the goals of American foreign policy, and is wondering if the war in Afghanistan is winnable, at least as we appear to be defining victory.

Molly Ivins warned us years ago about AIG, "too big to fail", and Phil Gramm. So says PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

McBlogger takes a look at the valuations being placed on the evil CDO's. Lots of laughs, of course, follow.

Sunday Spring has Sproing Funnies

Mudbug, brewdogs, and college basketball

The order of the day. In alternating importance. Appropriate self-indulgence should include a dash of schadenfreude at the plight of the Right these days, though:

-- The conservative hypocrisy reaches dizzying new heights with each passing week. If it's not Rush Limbaugh then it's Glenn Beck or Jim Cramer; if it isn't John Cornyn then it's Eric Cantor. This week, it's Sarah Palin following on the heels of Rick Perry, Mark Sanford, and Piyush Jindal in rejecting large portions of the federal stimulus funds apportioned for their respective states. From the Anchrage Daily News (emphasis is mine):

The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is "shocked and very disappointed" that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it. ...

Sarah Palin, you may recall, has a special needs child of her own. And during the presidential campaign last year, she pointedly claimed that special-needs children would have an advocate in the White House.

But snce she didn't make it to Washington, I suppose that doesn't apply any more.

Acting Anchorage Mayor Matt Claman said he's disappointed Palin chose to turn down funding that would create jobs and maintain services. "Her rationale is like turning down a gift card because it expires in two years," Claman said in a written statement.

Palin is turning down money for weatherization, energy efficiency grants, immunizations, air quality grants, emergency food assistance, homeless grants, senior meals, child care development grants, nutrition programs, homeless grants, arts, unemployment services, air quality, justice assistance grants and other programs.

No surprise that Palin -- along with Governors Sanford and Jindal -- are whispered as aspirants for the Republican 2012 prez nom:

It's probably not a coincidence that each of the Republican governors who have showboated taken public stands on not accepting federal stimulus money are thought to be contenders for a future GOP presidential run. It's also true that the state legislatures in each of the states are able to overturn the governors decision.

Which, of course, would be the best of all worlds for these governors. They would get the Rush LImbaugh butt-kissing bonus points for claiming they will refuse the funds and later be able to claim the state legislatures overruled them. And everything worked out happily ever after.

Remind me again ...what was one of the conservative poutrages this week? Oh yeah, Obama said "Special Olympics" on Leno.

-- AIG bonuses ruled the airwaves all week long, but the GOP got confused over which direction they were supposed to scream about them. 87 of 172 House Republicans voted to tax the bonuses at 90%, but senators on the Right plan to slow-walk the legislation until the furor dies down. Very conflicting decision for the welfare-only-for-corporations representatives in the Congress.

-- Norm Coleman's lawyer says "I'm done":

According to a transcript of a radio appearance this week by former Senator Norm Coleman's attorney, Joe Friedberg, the Republican will most likely lose his election contest against Al Franken for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota.

Hotline's Jennifer Skalka quotes Friedberg as conceding that Coleman will "probably" lose when the 3-judge panel currently deliberating the case, which both sides rested last week, announce their verdict.

"I think it's probably correct that Franken will still be ahead and probably by a little bit more," Friedberg admitted, after announcing that he was "done" with the case.

Senator Al Franken will be seated as soon as the court issues its ruling. Suck on that, John Cornyn.

Molly Ivins warned us about AIG

More specifically, about Phil Gramm:

October 26, 1999

AUSTIN, Texas — I feel vaguely like Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady," announcing with gleefully inhumane relish: "She'll regret it, she'll regret it! Ha!"

"I can see her now, Mrs. Freddy Eynsford-Hill, in a wretched little flat above the store!

"I can see her now, not a penny in the till, and the bill collectors knocking at the door!"

Which is to say, the new banking bill is a thoroughly lousy idea, and the party most likely to regret it is us.

The 1999 Gramm-Leach Act is about to replace the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, with the result that bankers, brokers and insurance companies can all get into one another's business. It's a done deal except for the final vote on the conference-committee agreement. The inevitable result will be a wave of mergers creating gigantic financial entities.

"Too Big to Fail" will be the new order of the day. And guess who gets left holding the bag when they're too big to fail? One of these monsters goes down, and it will cost as much as the whole S&L debacle.

And Molly also warned us about Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act, a 262-page amendment which he slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill moving toward passage as Congress was preparing to head home for the Christmas recess in 2000.

December 24, 2000

Just before it left town last week, Congress passed a little horror called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, brought to us courtesy of heavy lobbying by Wall Street banks and investment brokers.

Frank Portnoy, writing in The New York Times, describes the bill thusly: "First, it lifts a long-standing ban on futures trading in individual stocks, thus allowing investors to buy shares through brokers with very little money down. Second, it protects a lucrative business for bankers — the private financial contracts known as swaps — from being regulated. ... Investors are affected by swaps because they are ... used by many mutual funds and publicly traded companies."

*heavy sigh*

Third Appeals insists 'funds' aren't checks

This has to do with Tom Delay protectorates David Puryear and Alan Waldrop, whose sordid tales of corruption have been detailed previously. Harvey Kronberg, his emphasis:

In a 3-2 ruling (yesterday), Republican Justices Pemberton, Puryear and Waldrop prevailed over Democratic Justices Patterson and Henson.

At issue was whether or not to have the full Court of Appeals rehear a controversial decision late last year that ruled, among other things, that the Texas money laundering statute was unconstitutionally vague. Their argument was the statute used the term "funds" rather than "check"

Defendants John Colyandro and Jim Ellis have been in the soup because of their role in an alleged money laundering scheme in former Majority Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. They were accused of sending unusable corporate contributions (illegal in Texas) to the Republican National Committee in DC and having identical amounts routed back as sanitized dollars.

After ignoring prosecutors request for an expedited review and sitting on the case for nearly three years, a three judge panel last year broke along party lines and raised questions about the legitimacy of the indictment.

In a scathing dissent, Democrat Justice Patterson pointed to last minute changes in court procedure and expressed amazement that the court resolved issues not before it -- like the vagueness of the money laundering statute.

Capitol Annex links to Patterson's dissent, and adds:

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Court’s opinion is that it --until overruled -- sets a precedent under which the state district courts in the 24-county region that makes up the Third Court of Appeals District could throw out all money laundering convictions involving checks prior to the 2005 law change since the court has construed the meaning of “funds” not to include checks for the purpose of Texas’ money laundering statute prior to 2005.

That's worth repeating: corporate political contributions made by check -- laundered specifically to evade the law in Texas -- don't meet the definition of the word "funds", as defined by the three GOP judges on the Third Court of Appeals.

Presumably this case will now go to the Texas Supreme Court -- where Republicans have a 9-0 "majority".

Stanford Financial and Ben Barnes -- and the big picture

Truly remarkable how he is connected to all these scandals:

From the Sharpstown banking fraud that ended his political career to the current financial collapse of his lobby client Stanford Financial Group, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes has played a constant character on the stage of state and national scandals. ...

Most recently, Barnes surfaced when the Securities and Exchange Commission last month filed a fraud lawsuit against his client Stanford Financial Group and its founder R. Allen Stanford. When Stanford was missing, Barnes was the person who confirmed that he had been served with the lawsuit.

Barnes’ lobby firm earned $1.8 million representing Stanford Financial between 2002 and 2008, working issues ranging from federal regulation of offshore banks to tax codes for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Barnes was surprised by the company’s collapse.

“It’s hard to believe. Our firm wasn’t hired to look at the books or do anything with the business,” Barnes said.

Over the years, Barnes has been associated with the 1971 Sharpstown scandal, the collapse of his real estate business with former Gov. John Connally, the GTECH lobbying controversy at the Texas lottery, and (Dan) Rather’s 60 Minutes report in 2004 on President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.

Did you know that Barnes was once labeled the "51st senator" by Tom Daschle? I didn't:

Barnes is one of the top money-raisers for Democratic U.S. senators. He and his wife, Melanie, personally gave more than $600,000 to federal Democratic candidates and committees since 2004. Barnes last month donated $1 million to the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

When the U.S. Senate was evenly divided early in this decade, then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle called Barnes the “51st senator.”

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Schumer at a New York luncheon for 250 committee donors last year singled out only two fund-raisers with exceptional praise. Barnes was one.

The clients Barnes has represented before Congress have paid his firm $24 million since 1999. They include:

• Texas top trial lawyers John Eddie Williams of Houston, Wayne Reaud of Beaumont and Harold Nix of Daingerfield.

• Ruth Parasol, an Internet gambling entrepreneur from California who first made a fortune off of Internet pornography, earning her the nickname of “Princess of Porn” in the British press.

• GloFish, an Austin company that markets genetically altered tropical fish that glow in the dark.

• The Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah for which Barnes says he obtained a $100 million appropriation for cancer research.

• Moynihan Station Developer LLC, a company renovating New York’s Penn Station, tearing down Madison Square Gardens and renovating 16 blocks of Manhattan.

Financial corruption -- or at least his nearly constant association with those who are financially corrupt -- has been a hallmark of Ben Barnes' life.

If the Democratic party wants to avoid traveling down the same path as the Republicans, it needs to end its association with Barnes and his ilk.

(Yes, I hear the peals of laughter.)

Separating fact fom blarney

No, this is not a post about the latest conservative hypocrisy. Today I am Perry Hussein O'Reilly:

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

However, the Irish soon began to realize that their great numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.

Watch "Gangs of New York" for another primer on the persecution of my people.