Sunday, March 13, 2011
The mess is here.
A sad yet brutal truth about our beloved Great State, the 17-year one-party Republican rule of it, and the state of the opposition. The Texas Tribune:
As the Trib notes, Berg hosts "Partisan Gridlock" on Houston's KPFT radio and is accurately described as a political southpaw with a mostly low opinion of the Democrats in general and the Texas Democratic Party specifically. He floated this idea three weeks ago in his blog post at the Chron. Continuing with the Trib...
In recent weeks, an idea of Houston attorney Geoff Berg's turned into a Facebook page and then became a website that he hopes might spark a movement. The message: "Draft Tommy Lee Jones for Senate."
Berg, a left-leaning commentator and host of the radio show Partisan Gridlock on KPFT, says he is "absolutely serious."
"I can't think of another Democrat in Texas," Berg says, "that has the necessary name ID, that has positive name ID, that would be able to raise money, and that would have at least the potential to attract swing voters and a substantial number of Republicans."
Berg says he would "love" to see former Comptroller John Sharp or former U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The only problem, he says, "neither one of them can win, and I'm certain they know that."
As the Trib notes, Berg hosts "Partisan Gridlock" on Houston's KPFT radio and is accurately described as a political southpaw with a mostly low opinion of the Democrats in general and the Texas Democratic Party specifically. He floated this idea three weeks ago in his blog post at the Chron. Continuing with the Trib...
Assuming Berg's right, does that say more about Jones or the state of the Democratic Party? "It probably says a lot about both," Berg says, "and it also says a lot about the state of our politics."
So far, Berg does not believe the Republican field for 2012 is particularly inspiring either — but "whatever right-wing extremist they nominate is going to waltz right in if the Democrats don't have a credible candidate."
A legitimate Democratic star could change that, he believes. Think of it this way: the three-plus minute YouTube video former Republican Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert released after jumping in the race doesn't hold a candle to Jones' The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
To make this point, Berg recently released a YouTube video of his own:
Berg is, as usual, dead solid perfect in his analysis. The Texas Democratic Party is in the same shape as the California Republican Party: impotent, toothless, and all but extinct. There's lots of excited liberals and progressives throughout Texas -- just look at the rallies taking place yesterday and next Tuesday -- but the TDP has spectacularly weak management at the top, little money, less enthusiasm, and no improved prospects for the future. All that after seventeen years of 100% Republican rule at the statewide level, all nine SCOTX justices, and in the wake of the 2010 Red Tea Tide, near-supermajorities in the Texas House and Senate. The Texas Green Party achieved ballot status for 2012 based initially on the impotence of Boyd Richie failing to recruit a candidate to run for Comptroller in 2010, an inexcusable mistake (yet he continues to head the TDP to only the most perfunctory objection and with nothing but a handful of opposition).
Personally I support a Jones candidacy for all of these reasons, but deplore the Schwarzneggar-ization of American politics. The only way the CA GOP managed to get someone in the governor's office was to recruit a movie star, and he was of course an epic failure. Every time a famous person's name gets floated for office anywhere, it makes me cringe.
Still, seventeen years wandering in the desert is too long. It's past time for a saviour, and Jones will do until one gets here.
Austin's "Save Our Schools" rally draws thousands
That's correct, Big Jolly; thousands. And thousands.
Thousands of teachers, parents and students swarmed the state Capitol grounds Saturday to protest the sharp education cuts that Gov. Rick Perry and many Texas lawmakers are pushing to close a budget shortfall.
The rowdy but peaceful gathering, which organizers said numbered at least 11,000, focused on some simple messages: Don't abandon children. Don't lay off teachers. Don't increase class sizes. Don't cut music, theater and art classes.
Chau Tran, selected as Teacher of the Year in 2010 at her elementary school in Austin, told the crowd she learned recently that she might get laid off next year.
"I was stunned and devastated," she told the crowd. "I love teaching. It's my passion. We are not numbers, we are not positions. We are people."
Increasing class sizes, cutting programs and firings educators could be toxic to the state's future, Tran said.
Dalton Sherman, 12, a Dallas student whose talks about hope and opportunity have earned him a television spot on Oprah, drew frenzied applause.
"We need our teachers. We need books. We need classrooms. We also need music, art and culture. We need these things to feed our minds," Sherman told the crowd. "We are scared about our teachers and schools and our dreams."
Courtesy to Martha Griffin and Susan Bankston, from their Facebook profiles, for some of the above photos. See more pictures at The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, and at the Statesman.
I reallly like it that BJ has only the weakest amount of snark available as a response. This indicates that conservatives are failing to recognize the strength of this progressive populist uprising ... just as we underestimated the wrath of the TeaBaggers.
Update: Eye on Williamson has another pic and some video.
I reallly like it that BJ has only the weakest amount of snark available as a response. This indicates that conservatives are failing to recognize the strength of this progressive populist uprising ... just as we underestimated the wrath of the TeaBaggers.
Update: Eye on Williamson has another pic and some video.
Madison's "Tractorcade" protest refocuses WI outrage
Clogging the Wisconsin Capitol grounds and screaming angry chants, tens of thousands of undaunted pro-labor protesters descended on Madison again Saturday and vowed to focus on future elections now that contentious cuts to public worker union rights have become law.
"This is so not the end," said protester Judy Gump, a 45-year-old English teacher at Madison Memorial High School. "This is what makes people more determined and makes them dig in."
The day began with a morning "Farmer Labor Tractorcade" that circled (Wisconsin's Capitol) Square with antique tractors and farmers who led the chants of "Show me what democracy looks like!" and “Recall Walker!"
Early afternoon saw "Art Workers March Together", aka "The Blue Tape Brigade". Lavishly decorated in the type of tape used to affix posters to the Capitol’s wall, around 100 actors, painters, musicians and others marched from the Overture Center to the gathering on the Square, beating drums and carrying possibly the largest and most elaborately constructed palm tree yet.
Of course, the highlight of the day was unquestionably the return of the 14 Senate Democrats. An overflow crowd that packed the Square and several State Street blocks greeted the returning senators like celebrities, chanting: "Thank you! Thank you!" and "Welcome home!"
Update: Tractorcade, the video.
Let me remind you of something.
When it comes to nuclear incidents (and accidents) the owners of the facility, government officials, and media all lie. If they can't cover up an incident they will minimize it.
When a serious crisis such as we are seeing in Japan occurs, the danger is repeatedly mitigated.
We've seen this pattern for decades. Minor releases of radioactive material are covered up for years, if not forever. Major incidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are downplayed, sometimes to ludicrous extents, until the extent of the devastation simply can't be hidden anymore. And even afterward reports of the event mostly marginalize the damage and the scope. Proponents of nuclear power in the United States like to point to TMI and say that no deaths occurred, all the while ignoring the fact that there are cancer clusters surrounding the downwind side of TMI, one full of thyroid cancers and childhood leukemia.
We're seeing the same game being played out in Japan. Since the reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor in Sendai, Japan exploded yesterday, the damage and worsening threat has been consistently underemphasized. Vague statements that were meant to be reassuring were issued, and all the buzz words were used. First we read that there was one reactor in danger, then two ... then five. Officials assured us that they could control the overheated core. Then we were told that a cloud of "slightly" radioactive steam was released. Radiation levels around the plant went up, then went down. All this while more and more people near the site were evacuated.
Since most people don't carry around a Geiger counter, officials feel that they can get away with minimizing the impact, and thus people nearest the accident are led to believe they can risk some amount of environmental exposure. Only later will we learn ("through the Internet" only, at first) that the damage, risks, and fallout -- literally as well as figuratively -- were much, much worse than anyone in charge disclosed. Since radiation poisoning only kills immediately with close exposure at dangerous levels, the plant and government officials will continue to say that all is well, nobody has died, the danger is over, etc. But radiation at low levels or exposure at a great distance over a long period can also kill. It just happens slowly, over a long period of time ... as in the next generation, even. Years after the incident, cancer clusters begin to pop up and people die prematurely.Particularly children.
Nuclear power has been shoved down the throats of the people in this world for the past sixty years despite the dangers, despite the threats, despite the fact that it is no longer by any reasonable measure an economical way to produce large amounts of electricity. A small group of powerful people have a vested monetary interest in continuing the nuclear path, and when disaster occurs they are able to exert their influence to put out the myths, spin the facts, and advance the lies and propaganda.
Don't fall for it. The evidence of nuclear's dangers are apparent in the cancer clusters of Pennsylvania. They are evident in a 2,800-square mile dead zone in Ukraine. And they are being played out for us now, on the eastern coast of Japan.
Update: This is what I'm talking about.
When a serious crisis such as we are seeing in Japan occurs, the danger is repeatedly mitigated.
We've seen this pattern for decades. Minor releases of radioactive material are covered up for years, if not forever. Major incidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are downplayed, sometimes to ludicrous extents, until the extent of the devastation simply can't be hidden anymore. And even afterward reports of the event mostly marginalize the damage and the scope. Proponents of nuclear power in the United States like to point to TMI and say that no deaths occurred, all the while ignoring the fact that there are cancer clusters surrounding the downwind side of TMI, one full of thyroid cancers and childhood leukemia.
We're seeing the same game being played out in Japan. Since the reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor in Sendai, Japan exploded yesterday, the damage and worsening threat has been consistently underemphasized. Vague statements that were meant to be reassuring were issued, and all the buzz words were used. First we read that there was one reactor in danger, then two ... then five. Officials assured us that they could control the overheated core. Then we were told that a cloud of "slightly" radioactive steam was released. Radiation levels around the plant went up, then went down. All this while more and more people near the site were evacuated.
Since most people don't carry around a Geiger counter, officials feel that they can get away with minimizing the impact, and thus people nearest the accident are led to believe they can risk some amount of environmental exposure. Only later will we learn ("through the Internet" only, at first) that the damage, risks, and fallout -- literally as well as figuratively -- were much, much worse than anyone in charge disclosed. Since radiation poisoning only kills immediately with close exposure at dangerous levels, the plant and government officials will continue to say that all is well, nobody has died, the danger is over, etc. But radiation at low levels or exposure at a great distance over a long period can also kill. It just happens slowly, over a long period of time ... as in the next generation, even. Years after the incident, cancer clusters begin to pop up and people die prematurely.Particularly children.
Nuclear power has been shoved down the throats of the people in this world for the past sixty years despite the dangers, despite the threats, despite the fact that it is no longer by any reasonable measure an economical way to produce large amounts of electricity. A small group of powerful people have a vested monetary interest in continuing the nuclear path, and when disaster occurs they are able to exert their influence to put out the myths, spin the facts, and advance the lies and propaganda.
Don't fall for it. The evidence of nuclear's dangers are apparent in the cancer clusters of Pennsylvania. They are evident in a 2,800-square mile dead zone in Ukraine. And they are being played out for us now, on the eastern coast of Japan.
Update: This is what I'm talking about.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Nuclear meltdown likely happening at Japanese reactor
A meltdown may be under way at one of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power reactors in northern Japan, an official with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told CNN Sunday.
"There is a possibility, we see the possibility of a meltdown," said Toshihiro Bannai, director of the agency's international affairs office, in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Tokyo. "At this point, we have still not confirmed that there is an actual meltdown, but there is a possibility."
Though he said engineers have been unable to get close enough to the core to know what's going on, he based his conclusion on the fact that they measured radioactive cesium and radioactive iodine in the air Saturday night.
"What we have seen is only the slight indication from a monitoring post of cesium and iodine," he said. Since then, he said, plant officials have injected sea water and boron into the plant in an effort to cool its nuclear fuel.
The reported presence of Cesium 127 was disturbing, experts agreed, because it was evidence that the core had overheated, if only for a portion of time. The radioactive debris is produced when the core is exposed above the coolant water level and overheats. One of the other potential by-products of such overheating is hydrogen. Hydrogen is believed to be the cause of the blast at Fukushima.
How bad might it get? Bergeron says, "if the core does melt, then it will slump to the bottom of the reactor vessel, melt through to into the containment floor" which will lead to that safety measure to fail. "It's likely to spread like a molten pool to the edge of the steel shell and melt through." You could have containment failure in less than a day." Then the core would exposed to the external environment. In that worst-case scenario, the only thing that can be done is to entomb the melted core in sand and cement, much as was done in Chernobyl. Said Bergeron, "A lot of first responders will die."
Friday, March 11, 2011
Japan: earthquake, tsunami, nuclear emergency
What's worse than an 8.9 earthquake -- the strongest ever recorded in that country -- and a tsunami estimated between 13 and 23 feet? A nuclear reactor emergency, that's what.
Update: Make that five. Five nuclear reactors in 'emergency' status.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
On the Turning Away
A nice essay I found here and republished below.
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
-- Pink Floyd
The people that each of us are comes as a result of so many different influences. There are literally thousands of things that occur in our lifetimes that define the type of person that we ultimately become and if you’re really lucky, you will continue to evolve and grow until the day that you take your last breath. Some things stand out however and lately the events of the world have me thinking about a very small incident over 40 years ago that made a big impression on me. It was Father’s Day and my family was at my grandfather’s house. He lived in a small working class industrial city that had seen better days, even back then.
It was hot and we were all in the backyard. My sisters and a couple of my cousins were splashing around in a wading pool and I was sitting at a picnic table with my dad, my uncle and my grandfather, who, at the time, wasn’t much older than I am now. (That’s a frightening thought that didn’t hit me until I started writing this.) We were listening to the Mets-Phillies game on the radio. I was a Yankee fan, but they were out in Oakland and didn’t play until 4 o’clock so I sucked it up and listened to the Mets. The adults were engaged in “grown-up talk” and I felt cool because I got to sit there and listen. Kind of out of the blue, my uncle commented to my grandfather that he should consider selling his house and moving out because “the blacks were taking over the neighborhood”.
Now I very rarely saw him get mad, but I could tell that my grandfather was pissed. He looked at my uncle and said, “You know, 30 years ago when I bought this house the people who lived on this block started selling their houses and moving out. They said the damn guineas are taking over the neighborhood. If I did the same thing now I wouldn’t be any better than those bastards.” He went on to explain that he liked the house, it was where he raised his kids, it was paid for, he could walk to work and my grandmother could walk to the supermarket. He added that he could walk three blocks to Main Street and catch a bus or a train to anywhere he wanted to go and it was a real nice street with lots of trees. He leaned across the table towards my uncle and said, “those people moving in here, they like living here for the same reasons I do.” In retrospect, I think it was even more remarkable for him to feel this way only two or three years after riots had torn apart so many American cities and racial tensions were still very high. I don’t remember the subject ever coming up again.
My grandfather never went to college. He never graduated high school. He worked from the time he was 15 until the day he died of a heart attack while he was at his job, still doing physical labor in his early 60’s. For all of his lack of a formal education, he was a very smart man with a sophisticated view of the world. I never really appreciated a lot of the stuff that he said to me until I was older and he was gone, but that day really stuck with me. As a kid you hear that and you say yeah, that makes sense. As an adult you realize that here was a guy who had felt the sting of prejudice and came to the conclusion that it ended with him. That rather than extend the cycle by turning on some other ethnic or racial group, he chose not to look at the world that way.
My sisters and I were thankfully raised in a very tolerant household. I had initially thought my dad’s attitudes came from growing up in a very integrated community and attending school and playing sports with all kinds of people. I’m sure that had a part in it but as I got older I realized that my grandfather set the tone while raising my dad. I hope that my wife and I have perpetuated this cycle in how we are raising our children. Actually, as I listen to the things that my kids say about a lot of different issues, I’m pretty sure that they will make good adults.
I felt compelled to write this today because I feel that we are at something of a crossroads in America. I have a vague uneasy feeling that we are engaged in some kind of end game strategy. There are people who wish to take advantage of our country’s economic conditions; to step in and take full and final control of the nation’s wealth and society for the benefit of a very small elite faction. The main tool that is being used is division. Creating the perception that the least among us are stealing from the rest of society and that they are the reason for our economic problems. It’s the poor. It’s the immigrants. It’s the union workers who get a better deal than you. It’s those damn teachers who are living on Easy Street. Never mind the ½ of 1% who earn as much as the bottom 50% of America. Never mind the Wall Street bankers who are back to earning record bonuses and complain about how difficult life is in this country for them. No, they are smart and deserve everything that they have. Amazingly, they earned every penny on their own with no help and no support from our societal structure.
Meanwhile our public education system is being set up to be dismantled, which will leave quality education as the province of the rich. NPR, where relatively unbiased information is disseminated, is set up for the chopping block. Unions, with their ability to level the playing field and promote basic benefits that allow working people to live decently, are demonized as parasites on society. Access to health care for everyone, a concept for turning America into a socialist county! Good health care is for those who can afford it. Invest in infrastructure? We just don't have the money for that. What we really need are tax cuts for the rich! The best part is that average working class people have been convinced through the use of “hatred of the other” to be the conduit for this takeover to be effected.
On one hand, this is downright depressing. I can just see us hurtling towards the abyss. One group turned against the other. Using the strategy of division to win the day. On the other hand, if a guy with a 10th grade education could figure out that hate and division was a dead end, maybe there is hope for us yet. I just don’t know.
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
-- Pink Floyd
The people that each of us are comes as a result of so many different influences. There are literally thousands of things that occur in our lifetimes that define the type of person that we ultimately become and if you’re really lucky, you will continue to evolve and grow until the day that you take your last breath. Some things stand out however and lately the events of the world have me thinking about a very small incident over 40 years ago that made a big impression on me. It was Father’s Day and my family was at my grandfather’s house. He lived in a small working class industrial city that had seen better days, even back then.
It was hot and we were all in the backyard. My sisters and a couple of my cousins were splashing around in a wading pool and I was sitting at a picnic table with my dad, my uncle and my grandfather, who, at the time, wasn’t much older than I am now. (That’s a frightening thought that didn’t hit me until I started writing this.) We were listening to the Mets-Phillies game on the radio. I was a Yankee fan, but they were out in Oakland and didn’t play until 4 o’clock so I sucked it up and listened to the Mets. The adults were engaged in “grown-up talk” and I felt cool because I got to sit there and listen. Kind of out of the blue, my uncle commented to my grandfather that he should consider selling his house and moving out because “the blacks were taking over the neighborhood”.
Now I very rarely saw him get mad, but I could tell that my grandfather was pissed. He looked at my uncle and said, “You know, 30 years ago when I bought this house the people who lived on this block started selling their houses and moving out. They said the damn guineas are taking over the neighborhood. If I did the same thing now I wouldn’t be any better than those bastards.” He went on to explain that he liked the house, it was where he raised his kids, it was paid for, he could walk to work and my grandmother could walk to the supermarket. He added that he could walk three blocks to Main Street and catch a bus or a train to anywhere he wanted to go and it was a real nice street with lots of trees. He leaned across the table towards my uncle and said, “those people moving in here, they like living here for the same reasons I do.” In retrospect, I think it was even more remarkable for him to feel this way only two or three years after riots had torn apart so many American cities and racial tensions were still very high. I don’t remember the subject ever coming up again.
My grandfather never went to college. He never graduated high school. He worked from the time he was 15 until the day he died of a heart attack while he was at his job, still doing physical labor in his early 60’s. For all of his lack of a formal education, he was a very smart man with a sophisticated view of the world. I never really appreciated a lot of the stuff that he said to me until I was older and he was gone, but that day really stuck with me. As a kid you hear that and you say yeah, that makes sense. As an adult you realize that here was a guy who had felt the sting of prejudice and came to the conclusion that it ended with him. That rather than extend the cycle by turning on some other ethnic or racial group, he chose not to look at the world that way.
My sisters and I were thankfully raised in a very tolerant household. I had initially thought my dad’s attitudes came from growing up in a very integrated community and attending school and playing sports with all kinds of people. I’m sure that had a part in it but as I got older I realized that my grandfather set the tone while raising my dad. I hope that my wife and I have perpetuated this cycle in how we are raising our children. Actually, as I listen to the things that my kids say about a lot of different issues, I’m pretty sure that they will make good adults.
I felt compelled to write this today because I feel that we are at something of a crossroads in America. I have a vague uneasy feeling that we are engaged in some kind of end game strategy. There are people who wish to take advantage of our country’s economic conditions; to step in and take full and final control of the nation’s wealth and society for the benefit of a very small elite faction. The main tool that is being used is division. Creating the perception that the least among us are stealing from the rest of society and that they are the reason for our economic problems. It’s the poor. It’s the immigrants. It’s the union workers who get a better deal than you. It’s those damn teachers who are living on Easy Street. Never mind the ½ of 1% who earn as much as the bottom 50% of America. Never mind the Wall Street bankers who are back to earning record bonuses and complain about how difficult life is in this country for them. No, they are smart and deserve everything that they have. Amazingly, they earned every penny on their own with no help and no support from our societal structure.
Meanwhile our public education system is being set up to be dismantled, which will leave quality education as the province of the rich. NPR, where relatively unbiased information is disseminated, is set up for the chopping block. Unions, with their ability to level the playing field and promote basic benefits that allow working people to live decently, are demonized as parasites on society. Access to health care for everyone, a concept for turning America into a socialist county! Good health care is for those who can afford it. Invest in infrastructure? We just don't have the money for that. What we really need are tax cuts for the rich! The best part is that average working class people have been convinced through the use of “hatred of the other” to be the conduit for this takeover to be effected.
On one hand, this is downright depressing. I can just see us hurtling towards the abyss. One group turned against the other. Using the strategy of division to win the day. On the other hand, if a guy with a 10th grade education could figure out that hate and division was a dead end, maybe there is hope for us yet. I just don’t know.
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Save Texas Schools Rally this Saturday
I'm in. Are you?
March: 11:00 a.m. starting at 12th & Trinity Rally: Noon-2:00 p.m. at State Capitol Bldg, 11th & Congress
Texas students are tough, but they've never faced a crisis like this. In communities across the state, the same grim headlines repeat: campus closures, teacher layoffs, deep cuts to core academic programs.
There is help for Texas students - IF our leaders have the courage to use it - and you can make a difference.
On Saturday, March 12th, join thousands of Texans for a march and rally at the State Capitol to send a clear message to our leaders:
* Make education a top priority!
* Use the $9.3 billion Texas "Rainy Day" Fund to support schools.
* Sign the paperwork for $830 million in federal aid for teachers.
* Fix school funding laws to be fair to all districts and to our growing student population.
Plan now to be part of this historic event! Talk to your family, friends, students, co-workers, teachers, neighbors, business leaders, members of your faith community and more. Ask them to join you in Austin on March 12th to show our leaders what matters to Texas.
Together, we can make a difference. Please stand up for Texas schools on March 12th at the State Capitol. Our future depends on it!
Monday, March 07, 2011
The Weekly Wrangle
The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready for this Saturday's rally to save Texas schools in Austin as it brings you the weekly roundup.
Neil at Texas Liberal noted that Texas state representative Borris Miles of Houston called upon Texans to flood the state Capitol, just as we are seeing in Wisconsin. Miles made the strong point that it is up to each Texan to decide to fight back against the brutal and vindictive budget and social policy legislation now being considered by our legislature in Austin.
Letters From Texas closed the loop on how decisions that the Republicans in charge are making affect every aspect of your child's public school education, and it's even worse than you thought.
John at The Texas Cloverleaf is looking for your support to win a DFA-sponsored scholarship to Netroots Nation 2011, and shows how you can apply for your own chance.
Bay Area Houston says state representative Larry Taylor's TWIA is in TWOUBLE.
Off the Kuff notes that quite a few Republicans are now talking about using the Rainy Day Fund. Will they have the guts to go against Governor Perry? That remains to be seen.
This week on Left of College Station Teddy looks at the Center for Public Integrity’s investigation into sexual assault in Aggieland. LoCS also covers the week in headlines.
Is Dos Centavos making a full-time return? Stace teases us with a smack-down of the Texas Democrats that voted for the sonogram bill.
Eye on Williamson details what 30 years of GOP degradation of government has left us: Debt and privatization, is that the future of Texas?
At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw points out that the Texas Taliban Impose More Government on Women . It is as bad as you think ...
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that the republican war on workers, women, Hispanics, children and the poor is going gangbusters.
The Koch brothers are poised to make another bundle if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.
WhosPlayin went after Congressman Michael Burgess, who is pushing a bill to sell war bonds to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, and whatever war is next. Problem: Burgess thinks bonds are free money, having told the Air Force Times that they don't add to the debt and you don't have to raise taxes to pay for them. The Republican War on Arithmetic continues...
Is free parking in downtown Austin a thing of the past? McBlogger has a rant before it comes to pass.
Neil at Texas Liberal noted that Texas state representative Borris Miles of Houston called upon Texans to flood the state Capitol, just as we are seeing in Wisconsin. Miles made the strong point that it is up to each Texan to decide to fight back against the brutal and vindictive budget and social policy legislation now being considered by our legislature in Austin.
Letters From Texas closed the loop on how decisions that the Republicans in charge are making affect every aspect of your child's public school education, and it's even worse than you thought.
John at The Texas Cloverleaf is looking for your support to win a DFA-sponsored scholarship to Netroots Nation 2011, and shows how you can apply for your own chance.
Bay Area Houston says state representative Larry Taylor's TWIA is in TWOUBLE.
Off the Kuff notes that quite a few Republicans are now talking about using the Rainy Day Fund. Will they have the guts to go against Governor Perry? That remains to be seen.
This week on Left of College Station Teddy looks at the Center for Public Integrity’s investigation into sexual assault in Aggieland. LoCS also covers the week in headlines.
Is Dos Centavos making a full-time return? Stace teases us with a smack-down of the Texas Democrats that voted for the sonogram bill.
Eye on Williamson details what 30 years of GOP degradation of government has left us: Debt and privatization, is that the future of Texas?
At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw points out that the Texas Taliban Impose More Government on Women . It is as bad as you think ...
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that the republican war on workers, women, Hispanics, children and the poor is going gangbusters.
The Koch brothers are poised to make another bundle if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.
WhosPlayin went after Congressman Michael Burgess, who is pushing a bill to sell war bonds to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, and whatever war is next. Problem: Burgess thinks bonds are free money, having told the Air Force Times that they don't add to the debt and you don't have to raise taxes to pay for them. The Republican War on Arithmetic continues...
Is free parking in downtown Austin a thing of the past? McBlogger has a rant before it comes to pass.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Michael Moore rallies Madison protestors: "America is not broke"
As the Capitol building reopened following two judges' orders to stop prohibiting public access to the building, another huge, sign- carrying crowd massed in downtown Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, March 5.
Once again, there was a festive, playful mood. Protesters carried inflatable palm trees in the frigid weather and signs that read: "Fox News Will Lie About This" (a reference to video of union members screaming and shoving at a rally on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor," which O'Reilly claimed was from Wisconsin, but which clearly showed palm trees and sunshine in the background.)
Capitol Kids, a high-end toy store on the capitol square, was selling bright red t-shirts for kids, with the legend "Teach Me How to Protest," and the Wisconsin Solidarity sign: a blue fist in the shape of the state of Wisconsin ...
"For three weeks you've stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois. Whatever it took, you did it. And one thing is certain, Madison is only the beginning," Moore said.
He connected the protests in Wisconsin to the struggle against economic and political inequality nationally and around the world. The movement is "a little bit of Egypt and a little bit of Madison," he said.
Revving up the crowd, he talked about how a tiny minority of billionaires bought our political process, and torpedoed public spending on things that benefit most people like education, suppressed wages and benefits, and concentrated wealth in a few hands. "But that wasn't enough for them," he said. "Now they want your soul. . . . They want your dignity." Now they are arguing that working people can't even have a place at the table, Moore said. He described a pilot making $19,000 a year who can't even negotiate for a few more hours of sleep in his car at the O'Hare parking lot.
He begged reporters to write down a statistic: that 400 people in the United States now have more wealth than half of all Americans combined -- 155 million people.
"The few who have the most money don't want to pay their fair share of taxes," Moore said. Furthermore, "They are the very people who don't pay their taxes crashed our economic system."
"The nation is not broke, my friends," Moore said. "Wisconsin is not broke. There is plenty of money to go around."
That bears repeating.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
We're having our own little rally in Austin next weekend to Save Texas Schools. Want to join us?
Sunday Funnies
"So, to wrap up: rather than bring the highest marginal tax rate back to what it was in 1990s, we need to bring teachers' abilities to negotiate their own livelihood back to the 1890s." -- Jon Stewart
"Shocking footage from Madison, Wisconsin! They're not only busing in people from out of state, they're also busing in palm trees ... I say if Wisconsinites wanted [Bill] O'Reilly to use footage of their protest while he was talking about possible violence in Wisconsin, those peaceful Wisconsin protesters should've been violent." -- Stephen Colbert
"People from all fifty states and fourteen foreign countries have donated pizzas to the protesters in Wisconsin. Someone asked, 'How can we fix things in Wisconsin?' And someone else said, 'I know! More cheese!!!'" -- Conan O'Brien
"The latest rumor is that Moammar Gadhafi is calling other countries to find a place to live in exile. So far, Chile has offered to rent out an empty mine." -- Jay Leno
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Irony so rich it makes Bob Perry look like a pauper
Yes, it's Debbie Riddle again.
Hereafter known as the 'laundry loophole'.
Riddle is already nationally renowned for her idiocy. She made a fool of herself on Anderson Cooper's program last year when she was unable to defend her premise that Middle Eastern parents were flying to the US to give birth, thus creating citizens who would then be indoctrinated in terrorism, i.e. "terror babies" -- an illogical extension of the already-terrifying-to-conservatives 'anchor baby'. You may also recall she was previously known as "Pit-of-Hell" Riddle for saying this.
Debbie "Laundry Loophole" Riddle. Debbie "Terror Babies" Riddle. Debbie "Pit-of-Hell" Riddle. That's a lot of nicknames to have earned in a short time.
And these are just the things she says in public. Anyway ...
No more candy for you, Ill Eagles. You've been freeloading far too long. How dare you try to escape grinding poverty and/or murder at the hands of the drug cartels for the chance to die in the desert, or in a crammed tractor trailer, in exchange for the privilege of earning ten dollars a day washing dishes or mowing yards?
Which points out that one of those jobs will be legal if Debbie gets her bill passed.
Doesn't she realize that all of the cooks and busboys are going to quit their jobs and hire on as day laborers and lawn maintenance workers and nannies? Who's going to make the enchiladas? Our favorite restaurants will all be closing because they won't be able to afford to pay minimum wage to the staff they will have to replace.
But remember, conservatives aren't taking this action out of hate-filled anger or even bigotry. They understand exactly what the noble representative is doing.
See? Makes perfect sense to a Tea Bagger.
But there's the simple solution right there: make E-Verify available to the public. Everyone who hires a guy in front of Home Depot, or a lady to clean their house can quickly and easily check their citizenship beforehand. That's the ticket.
For that matter maybe we should just round up all the Ill Eagles and use them to build the wall at the Rio Grande. For nothing, of course. They've been compensated enough already, right?
Update: John Coby links to Rachel Maddow and Wayne Slater, and the TexTrib adds this:
A proposed immigration law being cast in jest across the country as a way for Texans to rid the work force of illegal immigrants while protecting their low-paid nannies and gardeners drew serious concern Thursday from advocates who fear the bill could have a chilling effect across the state.
Rep. Debbie Riddle's House Bill 1202 calls for two years in jail and up to $10,000 fines for people who "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly" hire unauthorized immigrants. Specifically exempted: Laborers relegated to "work to be performed exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence."
Hereafter known as the 'laundry loophole'.
Riddle is already nationally renowned for her idiocy. She made a fool of herself on Anderson Cooper's program last year when she was unable to defend her premise that Middle Eastern parents were flying to the US to give birth, thus creating citizens who would then be indoctrinated in terrorism, i.e. "terror babies" -- an illogical extension of the already-terrifying-to-conservatives 'anchor baby'. You may also recall she was previously known as "Pit-of-Hell" Riddle for saying this.
Debbie "Laundry Loophole" Riddle. Debbie "Terror Babies" Riddle. Debbie "Pit-of-Hell" Riddle. That's a lot of nicknames to have earned in a short time.
And these are just the things she says in public. Anyway ...
Riddle, a Tomball Republican, said she didn't expect some of the national reaction to the legislation.
"I'm not very politically correct most of the time. I'm not too good at it," she said. "What I'm trying to do is inject common sense into government. I'm finding out that's not too easy."
In an ideal world, Riddle said no one would hire illegal immigrants. But she said she included the exception because homeowners don't have access to E-verify, the federal Internet-based system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States.
"The reason that we have, in my opinion, so many folks coming over here illegally is because businesses sort of put a big ol' bowl of candy in the middle of the room and say 'If you can get across the border and through the door then you've got plenty of candy, a job, entitlements, and if you bear children they'll be citizens,' " she said. "What we need to do is remove the big bowl of candy. It's unfair to the taxpayers of Texas to carry the burden."
No more candy for you, Ill Eagles. You've been freeloading far too long. How dare you try to escape grinding poverty and/or murder at the hands of the drug cartels for the chance to die in the desert, or in a crammed tractor trailer, in exchange for the privilege of earning ten dollars a day washing dishes or mowing yards?
Which points out that one of those jobs will be legal if Debbie gets her bill passed.
Doesn't she realize that all of the cooks and busboys are going to quit their jobs and hire on as day laborers and lawn maintenance workers and nannies? Who's going to make the enchiladas? Our favorite restaurants will all be closing because they won't be able to afford to pay minimum wage to the staff they will have to replace.
"House Bill 1202 has just really created an uproar in our community," said Laura Murillo, president of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Riddle "makes an exception for those that might clean her own house or take care of her children. If you can't read between those lines, I don't know what lines you can read between."
Murillo called the bill inhumane and other advocates suggested that it could have serious civil rights ramifications for people of all races and immigration statuses.
"It has an element of 'as long as you know your place,' " said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, director of immigration for the National Council of La Raza.
But remember, conservatives aren't taking this action out of hate-filled anger or even bigotry. They understand exactly what the noble representative is doing.
Staunch conservatives said they wish individuals had access to E-verify so that the exception for domestic workers wasn't needed.
"It's too bad she made that exception," said Paul Smith, vice president of the Tomball Tea Party. "But I'm for it. I think illegal aliens are doing a tremendous damage to our country."
See? Makes perfect sense to a Tea Bagger.
But there's the simple solution right there: make E-Verify available to the public. Everyone who hires a guy in front of Home Depot, or a lady to clean their house can quickly and easily check their citizenship beforehand. That's the ticket.
For that matter maybe we should just round up all the Ill Eagles and use them to build the wall at the Rio Grande. For nothing, of course. They've been compensated enough already, right?
Update: John Coby links to Rachel Maddow and Wayne Slater, and the TexTrib adds this:
Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez said that if additional legislation proposed by Riddle and her colleagues to round up the undocumented in Texas passed, it would put between 4,000 to 20,000 additional inmates in her jail, carrying an additional cost of more than $1.2 million.
El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles, one of the most outspoken opponents of the myriad immigration-related bills this session, said Riddle’s bill could drain his coffers and max out the capacity of his jail. He said more of his jail's spots would be taken up by state inmates — meaning he'd have to forgo the more lucrative federal detainees that help keep his budget in the black.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Koch Brothers poised to win if Keystone XL pipeline approved
If this story is new to you, then please read my previous post about the Keystone XL pipeline here. The following is from De Smog Blog, emphasis theirs.
The Keystone XL pipeline, currently awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, has been the subject of ferocious debate. While proponents tout the pipeline project as a boon to national security, and a move that would reduce America's dependence on "unethical oil", its opponents are fearful of the environmental nightmare it would create (to say nothing of the imminent threat of future devastating spills like last year's Michigan Kalamazoo spill). The pipeline, if built, would increase significantly the import of dirty tar sands bitumen from Canada's oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day.
What's been left out of the fierce debate over the pipeline, according to SolveClimate News, is the prospect that if President Obama okayed the Keystone XL pipeline, he would be handing a major victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his staunchest political enemies and the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.
SolveClimate's analysis shows that Koch Industries is already responsible for close to 25 percent of the tar sands crude that is imported into the United States, and is well-positioned to cash in big from increased Canadian tar sands imports.
Proponents argue that Keystone is the "American" thing to do: it puts national security interests at the fore, and moves the United States away from reliance on foreign oil. As it turns out, the project is nothing more than a vote for corporate muscle and power. It hands two of the worst polluters in the country, both hell-bent on derailing a clean energy future, an all-access pass to grow their personal business fortune at the expense of the environment, the country and the planet.
More from Solve Climate News ...
A Koch Industries operation in Calgary, Alberta, called Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, supplies about 250,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day to a heavy oil refinery in Minnesota, also owned by the Koch brothers.
Flint Hills Resources Canada also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, the starting point of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The company's website says it is "among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters." Koch Industries also owns Koch Exploration Canada, L.P., an oil sands-focused exploration company also based in Calgary that acquires, develops and trades petroleum properties.
David and Charles Koch have their fingers in every single pie lately: the Wisconsin union bust out, the corrupting of Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas, and the funding of climate change skepticism at their wholly-owned subsidiary Americans for Prosperity as well as the conservative think tank Cato Institute, to name just a few. They have also been the primary source of funding for the Tea Party movement. The New Yorker's article is a good primer for understanding the nefarious reach of the Koch's tentacles.
Last month it was revealed that Koch Industries had exceeded even Exxon Mobil in campaign contributions to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee, you may be aware, has EPA in its crosshairs, and just this week 4 Democrats joined the Republicans to block the EPA's efforts to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
Keystone XL's fate, however, lies solely with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She stated in October of last year that she is "inclined to support" it and "probably not" willing to reconsider, but has signaled some reservations -- perhaps doubt, even -- as recently as this week.
Now is the time for you to make your opinion heard. Unless I am mistaken, Secretary Clinton is in the process of making her decision even as I write this, even as you read it.
Go now please, and tell her what you think.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Jane Russell 1921 - 2011
Jane Russell, whose voluptuous good looks won the attention of millionaire Howard Hughes and launched her on a movie career, died Monday of respiratory failure at her home in Santa Maria, California. She was 89.
Generally cast in fluff films like 1943’s The Outlaw that showed off her well-endowed beauty, Russell reached the pinnacle of her career with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), starring in the comedy with Marilyn Monroe.
Although best known for her figure, Russell showed a comic sensibility in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and again with Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) and The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956). Nevertheless, most of her movie roles were designed around her towering physicality and frontal amplitude.
During the 1970s, Russell was widely recognized as the spokesperson for Playtex bras, appearing in national TV commercials for the “Cross Your Heart” bra campaign.
That's how I remember her; with that tape measure worn as a bandolier on those old teevee commercials.
She lived the would-be-starlet's dream: discovered by a famous director at the dentist's office, used what she had (which, depending on your POV, was either not very much or a whole helluva lot) to get ahead in show business, and always let the men know she was in on the joke -- which was on them.
Rest in peace, Ms. Russell.
Rick Perry annexes Juarez
He may have thought this was the same thing as seceding. I'm just surprised he didn't claim that he meant "North" America.
This is why he blocks reporters from following him on Twitter -- because his Tweets are even more ignorant than this, and he knows it. Is there a word that goes beyond 'embarrassed' -- the way that Texans feel about their governor, and what their governor is incapable of feeling for himself?
It seems Texas isn’t big enough for Rick Perry.
During a sit down with reporters on Monday, the Texas governor incorrectly identified Juarez — located across the Rio Grande, and border, from El Paso — as “the most dangerous city in America.”
The misstatement came in the middle of an impassioned assault on the administration’s record of enforcing the border.
“How many more American citizens are going to have to die?” Perry asked.
The border state governor then turned to the chaos created by Mexico’s drug wars.
“There have been 34,000 Mexicans killed directly attributable to the drug wars. It is a very dangerous place,” he said.
Perry then pointed out that “Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.”
After an aide informed the governor of his mistake, Perry clarified that Juarez indeed belongs to Mexico, not Texas.
This is why he blocks reporters from following him on Twitter -- because his Tweets are even more ignorant than this, and he knows it. Is there a word that goes beyond 'embarrassed' -- the way that Texans feel about their governor, and what their governor is incapable of feeling for himself?
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Weekly Wrangle
As the Texas Progressive Alliance gets ready to rodeo, we would also like to thank the Academy for this week's blog roundup.
Off the Kuff published an interview with Chris Barbic, founder and CEO of the YES Prep charter schools, which included a discussion of what the looming budget cuts will do to charter schools.
Doing My Part For The Left is having a greeting card event. Refinish69 thinks it is time to Send Republican Senators and Representatives a Greeting Card to thank them for the work they are doing.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that the GOP's wish is coming true -- the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, in Plutocracy: the 30-year class war on working and middle class Americans.
Nat-Wu from Three Wise Men analyzes the Tucson shootings and the concealed-carry-on-campus bill before the Texas legislature.
From Bay Area Houston: "Teabaggers are the most dangerous, ignorant, disrespectful bunch of people on the planet."
No one fails quite like Mucous, according to McBlogger.
The Texas Cloverleaf speaks out against concealed firearms on Texas campuses.
Public Citizen's TexasVox asks who the real sacred cows are in the Texas and federal budget, replying that the obvious answer are the corporate welfare queens making profits off fossil fuel subsidies.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out the Dallas Morning News for siding with the Koch brothers against hard working people.
Lightseeker over at TexasKaos thinks he knows what game the Republicans are playing and what the Democrats are trying in reply. Check out Shock and Awe and The Democratic Strategy Going Forward.
Redistricting endangers several Texas House representatives, Democratic as well as Republican. The mapmakers may need long knives instead of sharpened pencils (since we can all do maps online now). PDiddie at Brains and Eggs summarizes the opening of "negotiations".
Neil at Texas Liberal discussed the fact that he will soon be taking an airplane trip.
Off the Kuff published an interview with Chris Barbic, founder and CEO of the YES Prep charter schools, which included a discussion of what the looming budget cuts will do to charter schools.
Doing My Part For The Left is having a greeting card event. Refinish69 thinks it is time to Send Republican Senators and Representatives a Greeting Card to thank them for the work they are doing.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that the GOP's wish is coming true -- the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, in Plutocracy: the 30-year class war on working and middle class Americans.
Nat-Wu from Three Wise Men analyzes the Tucson shootings and the concealed-carry-on-campus bill before the Texas legislature.
From Bay Area Houston: "Teabaggers are the most dangerous, ignorant, disrespectful bunch of people on the planet."
No one fails quite like Mucous, according to McBlogger.
The Texas Cloverleaf speaks out against concealed firearms on Texas campuses.
Public Citizen's TexasVox asks who the real sacred cows are in the Texas and federal budget, replying that the obvious answer are the corporate welfare queens making profits off fossil fuel subsidies.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out the Dallas Morning News for siding with the Koch brothers against hard working people.
Lightseeker over at TexasKaos thinks he knows what game the Republicans are playing and what the Democrats are trying in reply. Check out Shock and Awe and The Democratic Strategy Going Forward.
Redistricting endangers several Texas House representatives, Democratic as well as Republican. The mapmakers may need long knives instead of sharpened pencils (since we can all do maps online now). PDiddie at Brains and Eggs summarizes the opening of "negotiations".
Neil at Texas Liberal discussed the fact that he will soon be taking an airplane trip.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Redistricting endangers state representatives
One of them is Houston's Scott Hochberg.
Hochberg, one of the best and brightest serving in the Texas House, has always managed to walk enough blocks and knock on enough doors in his district to get it done. But the GOP will target him and him alone in Harris County, because they don't want to make things any more difficult for their own people than they already are, and because the VRA makes targeting a Latina -- Alvarado or Hernandez Luna -- virtually off-limits.
Spread Sarah "Ding Dong" Davis with butter and jam no matter what the lines are in HD-134, because she is toast. We're taking that district back in '12.
In west Texas, Paul Burka identifies Jim Landtroop of Plainview as "most vulnerable player".
The factors that squeezed out Speaker Pete Laney six years ago hits Hale and surrounding Panhandle counties again. And read the comments there for some nostalgic give-and-take from the 2006 Democratic primary. The entreaties for Laney to run for lieutenant governor are almost poignant.
Note however that Warren Chisum, having announced his intention to run for the Texas Railroad Commission, may make Burka's speculation moot if the mapmakers absorb his district into a new one that meets the population threshold. Burka thinks that the district moves south toward Lubbock, but I'm inclined to believe that the new lines go north toward Amarillo.
The commenters at Burkablog's link point out that Donna Howard and Craig Eiland are also endangered Democrats, that a variety of GOP incumbents in Travis and Dallas Counties could get unseated in the musical chairs shuffle, and that east Texas will be down a seat, likely a Republican one. More on that from the Franklin County GOP, namely turncoat Chuck Hopson, who seems to have trouble constructing his sentences:
Then again maybe it was the transcriber. Somebody really needs to learn English or just get of the country, don't you think?
Last week's census figures showed that Harris County grew dramatically during the past decade but not fast enough to warrant adding a new state legislative district. The county, in fact, likely will lose one.
As Texas lawmakers turn their attention to the complex and contentious task of redrawing their own districts, that loss will set in motion a game of musical chairs to determine who has a place among the 150 House seats. That number does not change despite a 20 percent increase in population statewide, which means the kaleidoscope of voters each lawmaker represents will shift. Harris County is expected to go from 25 to 24 state House seats.
Legislative districts, redrawn every 10 years in the wake of federal census results, must be roughly the same size, somewhere near 167,637 people per district.
[...]
In the House, Democrat Rep. Carol Alvarado's 145th District, with 132,730 people, is down 20.8 percent, as are districts represented by her inner-city cohorts, including state Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Democrat, whose District 137 fell to a population of 137,876, which is 17.8 percent below the mean. District 143, an inner-city district represented by Ana Hernandez, a Democrat, has a population of only 127,381, about 24 percent below the mean. ...
Legislative districts west of downtown gained population dramatically. State Rep. William Callegari, a Republican, represents 264,426 people in District 132, nearly 58 percent above the mean. With a population of 212,484, District 150, represented by Debbie Riddle, a Republican, is 26.8 percent above the mean. Incumbents will have "to start pushing and pulling in different directions" — to use Republican consultant Allen Blakemore's phrase - to equal out the districts.
"Scott Hochberg's gone," Blakemore said. "He's under, and he's a white Democrat."
That sentiment could be premature, said political scientist Mark Jones of Rice University.
"Hochberg is gone if you change the district by too much," he said. "He's well-known in the area he represents, but if he has to pick up population in an area where he's not all that well-known, he could be in trouble. He'll be fine if he keeps, maybe, 65 percent of his current district. He's more endangered if you create a district that's more Hispanic." ...
Jones suggested that Sarah Davis, a rookie Republican representing a central Houston district, could be in trouble. Davis' district is 12.2 percent below the mean.
"She's squeezed," Jones said, "because she's close to Democratic districts. Plus, her district is likely to swing back in 2012."
Hochberg, one of the best and brightest serving in the Texas House, has always managed to walk enough blocks and knock on enough doors in his district to get it done. But the GOP will target him and him alone in Harris County, because they don't want to make things any more difficult for their own people than they already are, and because the VRA makes targeting a Latina -- Alvarado or Hernandez Luna -- virtually off-limits.
Spread Sarah "Ding Dong" Davis with butter and jam no matter what the lines are in HD-134, because she is toast. We're taking that district back in '12.
In west Texas, Paul Burka identifies Jim Landtroop of Plainview as "most vulnerable player".
1. He’s a freshman.
2. He supported Paxton for speaker.
3. He cast one of the fifteen votes against Straus for speaker
4. He represents a part of the state that is hemorrhaging population.
5. He has nowhere to go to pick up extra people.
6. He’s a hard-right conservative
7. He has already been marginalized by his committee assignments (Agriculture & Livestock, Defense & Veterans’ Affairs), although Ag is important in his district.
Landtroop has one of the most oddly shaped districts. It is essentially a cross (.pdf), seven counties from north to south, five from east to west, with appendages on the east side. He is landlocked by savvy veteran members who play important roles in the House: Chisum on the north; Hardcastle, Darby, and Keffer on the east; Hilderbran on the south; and Craddick and Charles Perry on the west. Perry is a Landtroop clone: tea-party type, hard-right conservative, poor committee assignments, supported Paxton for speaker, voted against Straus. You could flip a coin and let the winner have the seat without affecting the House at all.
The factors that squeezed out Speaker Pete Laney six years ago hits Hale and surrounding Panhandle counties again. And read the comments there for some nostalgic give-and-take from the 2006 Democratic primary. The entreaties for Laney to run for lieutenant governor are almost poignant.
Note however that Warren Chisum, having announced his intention to run for the Texas Railroad Commission, may make Burka's speculation moot if the mapmakers absorb his district into a new one that meets the population threshold. Burka thinks that the district moves south toward Lubbock, but I'm inclined to believe that the new lines go north toward Amarillo.
The commenters at Burkablog's link point out that Donna Howard and Craig Eiland are also endangered Democrats, that a variety of GOP incumbents in Travis and Dallas Counties could get unseated in the musical chairs shuffle, and that east Texas will be down a seat, likely a Republican one. More on that from the Franklin County GOP, namely turncoat Chuck Hopson, who seems to have trouble constructing his sentences:
“Wayne Christian is over in House District 9, which is Nacogdoches, Shelby, St. Augustine, Sabine, Jasper — immediately to the right of Cherokee County — that district is 22,000 short. The district, Bryan Hughes, immediately above me, District 5, is 9,000 short. Lavender, which is up in Texarkana, is 21,000 short. Cain immediately next to him is 21,000 short. Phillips next to him is 13,000 short,” Hopson said. “Leo Berman in Tyler is the only person (whose district is above the qualifier), he has an excess of 2,500 people in Tyler because Tyler’s had a really good growth. But from Texarkana all the way down to Galveston, all those districts are short.”
Then again maybe it was the transcriber. Somebody really needs to learn English or just get of the country, don't you think?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
First Tunisia, then Egypt, now Libya. Is Wisconsin next?
Eliza Griswold of The Daily Beast:
The last nine days in Libya are bringing the bloodiest of all recent revolutions to pass. Over the past 48 hours in downtown Tripoli and to the east, in the city of Benghazi, which has long opposed Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year rule, Gaddafi has declared war on his own people, using fighter jets, helicopters, and possibly anti-aircraft fire, as well as African mercenaries to gun down Libyans who dare to oppose him. Due to a media blackout, very few images have emerged from the country.
Libyans have turned, instead, to Twitter, logging in voicemails of eyewitness accounts of the mounting brutality on Enough Gaddafi. Numbers of dead and wounded are impossible to verify. Human Rights Watch has confirmed at least 233 dead, most in the east. As in Egypt, Libyans have begun to record the fallen on 1000memories.com.
But Libya is not Egypt. “This isn’t a Facebook revolution. It’s more like Holler—people calling to each other from the other side of the street,” Khaled Mattawa, a Libyan poet and professor at the University of Michigan, says. Mattawa, like many other members of the exiled intelligencia, has set up a makeshift situation room in his Michigan basement, from which he supplies information to reporters and fellow Libyans.
When it comes to a functioning civil society, Libya is a near total vacuum. It is home to six million people, not Egypt’s 80 million, who have lived in almost total isolation for 41 years. Internet access is limited. So are opportunities for study abroad for anyone whose last name isn’t Gaddafi. Unlike Egypt, the county is filthy rich, but that money is meaningless for those outside of the regime.
In Libya, global forces have held a limited sway. Unlike Egypt, there are not millions of tourists arriving every year. There are only a small handful of international visitors, many of whom (including me) have received direct invitations from the Gaddafi regime to come watch their petro-dollar Potemkin village function as an “opening” state.
On Monday night, in The Leader’s signature bizarre fashion, he appeared on national television to quell rumors that he had fled to the safety of his good friend, Hugo Chavez. “I am still in Tripoli, and not in Venezuela,” he said in a brief, less than minute-long speech. He wearing a fur hat and carrying an open umbrella speaking through the open door of a white truck.
One of Muammar Gaddafi’s greatest fears is that of ending up “in a hole” like his former friend and colleague, Saddam Hussein, M. Jibriel, a senior Libyan economic advisor told me.
To safeguard his teetering grip on power, Gaddafi is willing to openly slaughter protestors in droves—a practice he has long carried out in secret.
Last night I read that some of the fighter pilots had flown to the island of Malta and asked for asylum rather than bomb the protestors. A dozen or so of Libya's foreign diplomatic corps have resigned; the US ambassador said that he could no longer represent "the current dictatorship".
Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Libya ... Wisconsin?
Update: Or maybe Indiana?
Monday, February 21, 2011
President's Day Quiz
No fair Googling. Answers at the end.
1. Which president negotiated a treaty with Peru that kept U.S. businessmen up to their elbows in a cheap (cheep?) fertilizer known as bird shit?
A) Lincoln B) Fillmore C) McKinley D) Kennedy
2. Which president's autobiography fails to mention his wife even once?
A) Van Buren B) Grant C) Wilson D) Taft
3. Who liked to blame his farts on his Secret Service detail?
A) Hayes B) Ford C) L. Johnson D) Eisenhower
4. "I can't remember what I did" is what this president said about his time in the Alabama National Guard…and no one else can remember anything about his service there, either:
A) Clinton B) Hoover C) Nixon D) George W. Bush
5. Which president shared the same nickname with his five brothers?
A) Eisenhower---"Ike" B) Tyler---"Tye" C) Monroe---"Mugs" D) Taft---"Big [Name]"
6. Which president-to-be lost his first election, claiming that his rival only won because he was the tallest man in the room?
A) Pierce B) John Quincy Adams C) John Adams D) Cleveland
7. Who uttered the misstatement, "Now we're trying to get unemployment to go up. I think we are going to succeed."
A) Obama B) Truman C) Harding D) Reagan
8. Who felt that horses "ate too much, worked too little, and died too young," and became influential in the breeding of mules for farm work?
A) Jefferson B) Washington C) Jackson D) Taylor
9. Who advocated for the removal of "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency?
A) Carter B) Teddy Roosevelt C) Polk D) Garfield
10. Who got swindled by a brokerage firm, declared bankruptcy, and rejected an offer of $100,000 from P.T. Barnum for his war memorabilia?
A) Benjamin Harrison B) W.H. Harrison C) Grant D) Madison
Answers: B, A, B, D, A, C, D, B, B, C
1. Which president negotiated a treaty with Peru that kept U.S. businessmen up to their elbows in a cheap (cheep?) fertilizer known as bird shit?
A) Lincoln B) Fillmore C) McKinley D) Kennedy
2. Which president's autobiography fails to mention his wife even once?
A) Van Buren B) Grant C) Wilson D) Taft
3. Who liked to blame his farts on his Secret Service detail?
A) Hayes B) Ford C) L. Johnson D) Eisenhower
4. "I can't remember what I did" is what this president said about his time in the Alabama National Guard…and no one else can remember anything about his service there, either:
A) Clinton B) Hoover C) Nixon D) George W. Bush
5. Which president shared the same nickname with his five brothers?
A) Eisenhower---"Ike" B) Tyler---"Tye" C) Monroe---"Mugs" D) Taft---"Big [Name]"
6. Which president-to-be lost his first election, claiming that his rival only won because he was the tallest man in the room?
A) Pierce B) John Quincy Adams C) John Adams D) Cleveland
7. Who uttered the misstatement, "Now we're trying to get unemployment to go up. I think we are going to succeed."
A) Obama B) Truman C) Harding D) Reagan
8. Who felt that horses "ate too much, worked too little, and died too young," and became influential in the breeding of mules for farm work?
A) Jefferson B) Washington C) Jackson D) Taylor
9. Who advocated for the removal of "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency?
A) Carter B) Teddy Roosevelt C) Polk D) Garfield
10. Who got swindled by a brokerage firm, declared bankruptcy, and rejected an offer of $100,000 from P.T. Barnum for his war memorabilia?
A) Benjamin Harrison B) W.H. Harrison C) Grant D) Madison
Answers: B, A, B, D, A, C, D, B, B, C
The Weekly Wrangle
The Texas Progressive Alliance stands in solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin as they bring you this week's blog roundup.
Off the Kuff examines the Perry/Combs slap fight over Amazon's decision to leave Texas rather than pay taxes.
Letters From Texas reports on a note that a pregnant woman sent to Texas state Senator Leticia Van de Putte, as the Senate prepared to pass the sonogram bill, and as the woman prepared to leave for the hospital to deliver her baby. Surprise #1: the woman is against the bill. Surprise #2: so is her father. Surprise #3: her father is another Texas state Senator.
This week the Legislative Study Group released an updated version of the "Texas on the Brink", Eye On Williamson had this to say: for Texas to get off the brink, we must fight for the impossible.
A gaggle of Houston bloggateers met with Metro's CEO and board members and discussed the many changes the transit authority has completed in the past year. PDiddie from Brains and Eggs was there and filed a report.
Libby Shaw explains what the Texas GOP means by shrinking government over at TexasKaos. Give a read to Texas GOP "To Shrink Government to fit inside a Woman's Uterus".
Neil at Texas Liberal looked at some early campaign advertising by incumbent Houston Mayor Annise Parker and considered if Mayor Parker's record matched her claims.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why republicans dislike women so much.
This week at McBlogger, your punishment is your reward!
Off the Kuff examines the Perry/Combs slap fight over Amazon's decision to leave Texas rather than pay taxes.
Letters From Texas reports on a note that a pregnant woman sent to Texas state Senator Leticia Van de Putte, as the Senate prepared to pass the sonogram bill, and as the woman prepared to leave for the hospital to deliver her baby. Surprise #1: the woman is against the bill. Surprise #2: so is her father. Surprise #3: her father is another Texas state Senator.
This week the Legislative Study Group released an updated version of the "Texas on the Brink", Eye On Williamson had this to say: for Texas to get off the brink, we must fight for the impossible.
A gaggle of Houston bloggateers met with Metro's CEO and board members and discussed the many changes the transit authority has completed in the past year. PDiddie from Brains and Eggs was there and filed a report.
Libby Shaw explains what the Texas GOP means by shrinking government over at TexasKaos. Give a read to Texas GOP "To Shrink Government to fit inside a Woman's Uterus".
Neil at Texas Liberal looked at some early campaign advertising by incumbent Houston Mayor Annise Parker and considered if Mayor Parker's record matched her claims.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why republicans dislike women so much.
This week at McBlogger, your punishment is your reward!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Redistricting follies
Lots has been written and and a lot still to be on the coming rework of Congressional and state legislative boundaries for 2012. Mark Jones at Rice's Baker Institute, with whom I seem to disagree most of the time, gets some of it right in this post entitled "Why Houston won't send a Hispanic to Congress":
The italicized assumption above by Jones is probably false. Aaron Pena was again assigned to the House Redistricting committee and is going to get lots of help drawing a district in the Valley he can quite possibly win.
Absolutely correct. Just take a look at the spreadsheet at the top of this post. CD-10 alone has almost half of a new district's population to shed. McCaul, an Austin resident, would probably love to have more of Travis and southeast Austin in a new-to-him district, while Harris County's northwest corridor, and further out 290, elect another Republican.
Accurate -- if slightly obnoxious -- on both counts. The Austin Chronicle suggests that all the new Congresspersons will be up and down Interstate 35...
Like I said. If the Lege can't get this done, in regular session or special -- and I believe that they will -- then the Legislative Redistricting Board will do it for them, without benefit of Democratic input ...
Be reminded that the LRB is comprised of David Dewhurst, Joe Straus, Greg Abbott, Susan Combs, and Todd Staples. Wentworth raises another interesting angle; that the maps might not be submitted to the Justice Department for Voting Rights Act pre-clearance:
These are just the preliminary skirmishes. Greg goes as deep in the weeds on census data and redistricting maps as you could hope to go. Update: Here's his response to Jones of Rice's Baker. Kuffner has posted lots on the topic already.
Watch for much more ink, airtime, and pixels.
(O)ne might expect that a second Hispanic-majority district (in addition to Gene Green's CD-29) would be created in the Houston area during the current redistricting process. This is unlikely to happen for four principal reasons.
First, any Hispanic-majority district created in the Houston area would be expected to elect a Democrat. However, the redistricting process is already expected to produce two additional Hispanic majority districts, which will elect Democrats. One district will be in the lower Río Grande Valley, where any district is by definition a Hispanic-majority district, and one will be in the DFW Metroplex which presently lacks a Hispanic-majority district and where suburban Republicans are eager to make their districts safer by packing Democrats into a urban minority-majority district. As a result, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature (along with Governor Rick Perry) is unlikely to support the creation of a third Democratic district in Houston.
The italicized assumption above by Jones is probably false. Aaron Pena was again assigned to the House Redistricting committee and is going to get lots of help drawing a district in the Valley he can quite possibly win.
Second, Houston-area Republicans strongly back the creation of a new Republican majority district in the Northwest portion of the region. Furthermore, this district could be created rather painlessly (from the perspective of Republican incumbents) from some combination of portions of the current districts represented by Representatives Brady, Culberson, McCaul, Olson, Paul and Poe.
Absolutely correct. Just take a look at the spreadsheet at the top of this post. CD-10 alone has almost half of a new district's population to shed. McCaul, an Austin resident, would probably love to have more of Travis and southeast Austin in a new-to-him district, while Harris County's northwest corridor, and further out 290, elect another Republican.
Third, to create a second Hispanic majority district would require significant changes to the districts presently occupied by Representatives Al Green, Gene Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, while the creation of the Republican district in the Northwest suburbs would leave these representatives' districts relatively untouched. As a result -- at least privately -- none of these three Democratic representatives is likely to be overly enthusiastic about the creation of a second Hispanic-majority district (especially Al Green and Jackson Lee).
Fourth, given the relative lack of residential housing segregation among Hispanics in the region, it would be difficult to draw a second compact and contiguous district in which Hispanics comprised a strong majority (55 to 60 percent) of the district's population. Recall, that the creation of minority-majority districts depends on residential housing segregation. If a certain demographic group is well-integrated residentially, then it is much more difficult to draw a district where it comprises a majority of the population.
Accurate -- if slightly obnoxious -- on both counts. The Austin Chronicle suggests that all the new Congresspersons will be up and down Interstate 35...
There does seem to be consensus that the four new seats should be somewhere along I-35. According to a report produced by the Texas Legislative Council, an advisory body to the Lege, 57% of the decade's growth based on the 2009 estimates occurred along the I-35 corridor. Another 39% occurred east of that line, and only 4% in West Texas.
"I think the big controversy will be the battle between Hispanics and Republicans over several areas, in particular the area between Tarrant County and Dallas," (UT law professor Steve) Bickerstaff says. "The issue is whether there is a sufficient Hispanic population there now to create a Hispanic opportunity district under the Voting Rights Act. [The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund] has wanted that for two decades now; this is the third decade. Each time the Hispanic percentage has grown but not reached the legal requirements. I think there will be considerable attention given that this time." Bickerstaff thinks a similar battle could occur in redrawing the state Senate.
"Clearly, the distribution is going to be along the I-35 corridor and the Rio Grande Valley," says Sen. Kal Seliger (R-Amarillo). For the Valley, recent Capitol buzz has strongly suggested that Republicans will try to draw a district that could elect to Congress newly turncoat state House Republican Aaron Peña.
Like I said. If the Lege can't get this done, in regular session or special -- and I believe that they will -- then the Legislative Redistricting Board will do it for them, without benefit of Democratic input ...
"I'm not very optimistic that we'll do anything different in 2011 than we did in 2001," (Sen. Jeff Wentworth) says, noting that the LRB gets legal control over the process if the Lege fails, and the LRB would now be all-Republican. "For partisan Republicans in the majority ... there's not a lot of incentive to sit down and work out a fair map with the Democratic minority, when they know if they just do nothing and adjourn [at the beginning of June], five Republicans will draw the map, and they can be more partisan than the Legislature."
Be reminded that the LRB is comprised of David Dewhurst, Joe Straus, Greg Abbott, Susan Combs, and Todd Staples. Wentworth raises another interesting angle; that the maps might not be submitted to the Justice Department for Voting Rights Act pre-clearance:
Other knowledgeable observers disagree and believe the Republicans won't even bother with the Justice Department and will go directly to the courts. "I think what will happen is Republicans will say [the review process] is unfair," Bickerstaff told the same gathering. "If [the GOP redistricting] is aggressive, you go to the court."
Wentworth, whose district includes part of South Austin, told the Chronicle the same thing. "I don't believe it would be in Texas' interest to even go the route of trying to get precleared by the Department of Justice," Wentworth said. "We've always had the option of going to a three-judge federal court in the District of Columbia. We've never taken that route; we've always gone the preclearance route through the Voting Rights division of the DOJ. But I think that would be a waste of time in 2011, and I don't believe we're planning on doing that."
These are just the preliminary skirmishes. Greg goes as deep in the weeds on census data and redistricting maps as you could hope to go. Update: Here's his response to Jones of Rice's Baker. Kuffner has posted lots on the topic already.
Watch for much more ink, airtime, and pixels.
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