Breakfast blogging

Went down the buffet line this morning with Barbara Radnofsky and Kos.

Kos and Jerome note how vital it is to take our activism offline; that elections aren't won by banging on keyboards, but by banging on doors. And just as elections and politics is local, so are the blogs evolving to reflect regional interests (I've noticed this even in my own posts here). Since our best opportunity to interact with our leaders and potential leaders is on a city and state level, then those issues will be the ones we know best -- and can blog intelligently about. Of course it all expands outward from there, even beyond our country's borders of course.

And by driving the change from the bottom -- just as the GOP did thirty years ago -- then you affect the long-term trends.

Barbara Radnofsky is speaking about breaking down the "babykiller" argument waged against the left by the anti-choice right. If, for example (as I have posted previously in regards to Planned Parenthood) we focus efforts on pregnancy prevention, then everybody can find a common place to agree. It's that old reframing thing ...

More coherent and lengthy postings later on today.

TRMPAC indictments Tuesday?

Charlie at Pink Dome (who proudly declares that his blog publishes rumor as fact) says that there could be as many as eight indictments associated with the misadventurers of TRMPAC handed down next Tuesday, which is also allegedly the day the Texas Lege will be summoned back into special session by Guvnah "God is my campaign manager" Goodhaiyer. To be fair -- something that comes naturally to me -- June 27 is another date being floated for our state legislators to attempt again the titanic struggle to find a way to fund Texas public schools.

Is it possible to fantasize that we could see Tom Craddick being led away from the dais in leg irons? Dare we dream to see the Speaker of the Texas House frog-marched out of the Capitol?

Be still my beating heart ...

The GOP has passed a mighty wind this weekend in order to try to draw attention away from the one thousand progressive activists assembled in Austin working to counter the very crap they are busily dispensing, with Kay Bailey Hutchison finally getting off the pot and Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn scheduling their dueling press conferences today. It's possible that Speaker Craddick may trump them all by the beginning of next week.

Live from the center of the left

This is both the coolest thing and the hottest thing I've done in awhile.

Met some Kool Kidz (that would be you, Charlie and Umpire), met some campaign operatives (that's the obligatory Novak reference, Tim and Seth), got a hotel room that overlooks the cemetery (orbs are floating around all over the place, according to my digital camera), and I'm eating one of those scrumptious Doubletree cookies for breakfast (it's no wonder I'm diabetic, with diets like mine).

Good Christ, it's freaking sweltering outside, even at this hour.

Hm. I see Kay Bailey is going back on her word. That's going to have quite a constipating effect on the GOP bench players. David Dewness and Henry Vanilla (I've heard quite a few Latinos call him that, so I hope it's not racial or anything) have to sit tight for the rest of the decade. Poor them.

Which reminds me; I getta get over to the Capitol and grab a couple of Carole's free hot dogs at lunch today...

My picture's been taken a lot, total strangers have read my media credentials and told me how much they enjoy the blog, and a couple of the pols whom I've met a few times now even recognize me.

Damn, this being the media is the shiznit.

Democracy Fest 2005, Austin

Much has been said, here and elsewhere, about this seminal progressive event taking place in Keep-It-Weird this weekend. I have been granted media credentials (boy, doesn't that make me sound like hot shit, eh?) and will liveblog some events as wireless access allows and others after the fact. The Bloggers Caucus opens the weekend and features appearances by the following candidates and their representatives:

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston attorney and Democratic candidate for the United States Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who will be represented by her campaign blogger Seth Davidson. Radnofsky has posted recently at Burnt Orange Report and Off the Kuff.com and will also be at our blogger's breakfast on Sunday with Markos and Jerome.

Chris Bell, exploring a run for Governor of Texas, will be represented by operations manager and blogger Tim McCann. Bell has participated in conference calls with the Lone Star blogosphere -- most recently this week -- and will also be on the Saturday panel called "The DeLay Factor" with Richard Morrison, whose campaign against the Bugman last fall rocked the establishment, and Lou Dubose, whose book "The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress" is a fine primer for DeLay watchers.

David Van Os, candidate for Texas Attorney General, will appear at the caucus in person accompanied by Dave Collins, chair of his steering committee. I'm privileged to know Van Os from my earliest days as an activist in connecting to him through the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. Van Os is hosting a campaign reception immediately following the Bloggers' Caucus Friday evening from 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. at Nuevo Leon Restaurant, 1501 E. 6th.

John Courage, who is hoping to replace Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio) as Sixth Street's Representative in Congress (CD 21), will be present, as will Andy Brown, an Austin attorney who has announced for HD 48 against Todd Baxter, and also Mark Strama, the Democratic incumbent in a swing district, HD 50. One of the most critical aspects of our caucus will be discussing how we can help secure re-election for strong progressives like Strama who have stayed true to their base while representing close districts.

Judge Charlie Baird was formerly on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and was one of the last Democratic judges elected to statewide office. He is a candidate for the 299th Judicial District Court in Travis County and will be represented at the caucus by Glen Maxey, former member of the Texas House, Democracy for Texas political director and Baird's campaign manager. Judge Baird wants to generate public discussion, utilizing the Lone Star blogosphere, of the possibility of reforming judicial elections in Texas.

And LGRL of Texas will be represented at the Caucus in connection with the upcoming vote on the proposed Marriage Amendment to the state Constitution. LGRL is very interested in working with us Texas blogmeisters to get the word out about the discrimination proposed by the Amendment and its unintended consequences if enacted.

There's more, a whole hell of a lot more, but I'm going to try to dole it out in bite-size pieces over the weekend.

Please stay tuned ...

One Tough Grandma is about to say something

... about her 2006 plans.

Lots of other bloggers are reporting and speculating on this rumor/news.

Here's my take:

1. This has to chap Kay Bailey's ass. Now she has to a) announce her own intentions sooner than she planned in order to avoid being left in the starting gate, or b) continue shilly-shallying and risk looking indecisive.

2. Rick Perry's going to have his hide torn off between now and next spring. And he'll have to spend millions of dollars to try and lock down the nomination, money he could have saved for autumn, 2006.

3. It makes a Kinky candidacy either less likely or more formidable, depending on your POV. Friedman needs something like 50,000* signatures of registered voters who can't have voted in either primary next May, and he has a small window after those primaries to gather them. So if he can get on the ballot -- a tall task, considering how many people will be drawn to a GOP primary with Perry and Hutchison and Strayhorn and a Dem primary with possibly Chris Bell and maybe John Sharp -- he stands a reasonable chance of drawing off that 15 or perhaps 20% of general election votes, giving him kingmaker status.

Dammit, I've got to get to Costco for a case of Orville Redenbacher's ...

*Update: An e-mail to me corrects the numbers of signatures required for an independent candidacy to between 45,000 and 50,000. Holy shit.

Tomorrow's going to be a bad day for the Bush administration

Tomorrow morning, Rep. Walter Jones will announce, along with Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, the bipartisan legislation that will call on President Bush to "to set a plan for beginning the phase-out of US troops in Iraq." They might be joined by another conservative Republican, John Duncan of Tennessee, who yesterday called for an end to "a totally unnecessary war".

(The legislation itself sounds kinda mealy-mouthed to me, but it's a long way from where we -- that would be us as well as "Congressman Freedom Fries" -- were just a few months ago. )

Tomorrow afternoon, Cong. John Conyers will open hearings on the Downing Street Minutes, which will be carried live by several out-of-the-mainstream outlets. If you should happen to need to know more about what DSM is, then look here.

Since the so-called liberal media is finally coming off its celebrity trial intoxication, maybe it will cover some real news tomorrow. But even if it doesn't, you'll be able to find out the truth...

... if you just dig a little for it.

Democracy Fest on C-SPAN this Saturday

Via Karl-T at BOR, Democracy Fest will have a segment aired on C-SPAN this Saturday at about 3:50 CST. One of the breakout sessions I wouldn't miss for the world, "The DeLay Factor", moderated by Lou Dubose and featuring Richard Morrison and Chris Bell, will be the feature.

TiVos ready, set ...

This is a "Michael Jackson-Free" Zone

Always has been, always will be.

Last night I tried to listen to two things at once: Chris Bell on his conference call with Blogville, Texas and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in person locally.

I had dialed in, we had called the roll, and Tim McCann -- Bell's nearly-a-campaign operations manager -- was discussing the numbers on the House Parties held Sunday. I was proceeding to my seat in the Hobby Center just a few minutes before the program's opening.

And my phone dropped the call. And couldn't get it back up. Unless I went outside.

So your best reports will be found here and here.

I'm afraid I can't even give a good account of RFK Jr.'s discussion of our environmental woes, and they are woeful. He dispenses so much information that I simply couldn't keep up with it all. I noticed a woman a row in front of me taking shorthand, and she quit a few minutes after I did.

Here are a few snips of what I could assimilate:

Consider the devastation of Appalachia by the coal mining companies, whose product spins our country's electricity generators, which results in emissions loading up our breathable air with particulate that's choking our children (the incidence of juvenile asthma is skyrocketing) and causing our planet to warm up like an asphalt parking lot in Houston in June. With July and August on the way.

Consider the pollution of our rivers and lakes, where the fish we catch and eat has so much mercury now that it is dangerous -- approaching deadly -- to continue doing so. Kennedy's own recently-tested blood mercury levels are twice the recommended safe level, and his doctor claims that if he were a pregnant female, the child he would bear would have -- not might, would -- have significant cognitive impairment.

There was so much more -- the Bush administration's hand in all this, with all of the various lobbyists and corporate cronies now writing the laws meant to safeguard our environment for your children in the future. To use only the most recent example, it was revealed that a lackey for the American Petroleum Institute named Philip Cooney was editing the government's reports on global warming to eliminate the blame on the oil companies (and by extension the auto manufacturers for dragging their feet on hybrid vehicles and the Congress for failing to strengthen MPG standards, and on and on).

And then there's the complicity-by-indolence of our corporate media, to say nothing of the right-wing propaganda organs.

Kennedy noted that in his speeches before conservative groups, he gets exactly the same reaction as he does when he speaks at a liberal college campus; the one difference being that members of the mostly Republican audience invariably ask afterwards: "Why haven't we been hearing this before?" And his answer is "Because you're watching FOX News."

Go read this interview for more. And if that strikes a chord, read his book.

Update: Local Pacifica affiliate KPFT will broadcast a recording of RFK Jr.'s speech this Thursday evening, June 16, beginning at 7 pm CST. Streaming link also available there.

"Freedom Fries" Congressman quits on Iraq

I find myself speechless -- well, nearly -- following the interview with Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina on "This Week" just now.

The Republican Congressman, a member of the House Armed Services committee, the guy who compelled the Capitol cafeteria to rename two of its offerings "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast", will next week send a letter to the White House calling for a 'date certain' withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

When asked on whom he blamed the failures of the Iraq War --and was prodded by Stephanopoulis to blame Rumsfeld, or Bush -- he said:

"I blame the neoconservatives in the runup prior for providing bad information to the administration."

I cannot say I have ever heard a Republican use the word 'neoconservative' like that.

Rep. Jones apparently came to his change of heart after writing letters to the families of the fallen (and receiving letters back from them), and after attending a funeral for a soldier at Camp LeJeune, who among his survivors left twins he never saw.

The finger's out of the dike, folks.

When a GOP congressman of this man's once-proud conviction jumps off the war bandwagon -- the one, incidentally, Joe Biden is still on -- it's the beginning of the end.

For this war. Thank God.

There's no transcript up yet at ABC News.com, but when there is, I'll post it in the comments.

Update: Congressman Jones, along with Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, will announce tomorrow their bipartisan legislation that will call on President Bush to 'set a plan for beginning the phase-out of US troops in Iraq.' A press conference will begin at 10:30 a.m. (presumably EDT).

"Real Texas heroes"

Mrs. Diddie and I arrived about two hours into the event, so we missed meeting some of our fellow blogonians, but we did manage to make the tail end of the program honoring Texas Democratic legislators (plus, the food was good).

Among the pols in attendance were candidates Chris Bell, Nick Lampson and Barbara Radnofsky, US Congresspersons Sheila Jackson-Lee and Al Green, and Texas House members Hubert Vo, Al Edwards, Garnet Coleman, and Melissa Noriega (serving in the stead of her husband Rick, who is completing his tour of duty in Afghanistan).

One of the really marvelous things about being an activist in a city like Houston is the opportunity to meet personally so many of the most important people serving us; people who are not just in the headlines but on the front lines, doing the real fighting.

And next weekend we'll be in Austin for DemocracyFest, and that lineup includes Howard Dean, Congs. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Lloyd Doggett, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, a blogger's caucus and breakfast with Kos and Jerome of MyDD, a seminar focusing on "The DeLay Factor" with Chris Bell, Richard Morrison, and Lou Dubose, and Nathan Wilcox of DriveDemocracy.org and Glen Maxey of Democracy for Texas and many more.

Yes, we'll keep ourselves entertained as well.

I hope all this hobnobbing with the powerful and famous doesn't go to my head ...

RFK Jr. speaks here Monday June 13

He'll be in the Sarofim Hall of the Hobby Center for Performing Arts, along with Mayor Bill White, talking about our environmental challenges in a speech called “A Contract with Our Future,” which explains how our natural surroundings are linked to our work, health, and identity as Americans, and how good environmental policy is good for business. He also wrote Crimes Against Nature, whose first chapter is entitled “The Mess in Texas.”

I'll blog more about his talk on Tuesday; for now here's a sample of an interview he did with SierraSummit2005:

Planet (editor Tom Valtin): What is the biggest environmental problem we face in this country today?

Kennedy: George W. Bush, without any rival.

Planet: The Sierra Club obviously feels much the same way. But we found during last year’s elections that when we criticized Bush the person, many people—including Sierra Club members—were angered, and consequently less open to our message. How do we oppose the policies without criticizing the person?

Kennedy: I think you have to do both. Winston Churchill said that you have to just keep telling the truth, and telling it, and telling it. And ultimately, people are going to believe it. It can be frustrating, and of course industry and its indentured servants use every method to discredit you, including saying that you’re tree-huggers, or radicals, or against the president. But you have to persevere. There’s a huge systemic problem in our democracy now, which is the endless negligence of the American press and the huge corporate consolidation of the media. That’s the principal threat to American democracy, and it’s an issue that environmentalists have to take an interest in curing. We have to develop outlets and methods of getting our message across to the American public that don’t rely on the mainstream press, which is now controlled by the right wing and giant corporations who are interested not in informing the public but in entertaining us in order to increase their own revenues.

Rest at the link above.

If you haven't read The Rude Pundit's take on Howard Dean...

... then by all means please go do so now.

It's filled with salty sailor talk, so if that sort of thing bothers you, then don't click here.

Here's just a sample:

Challenged on the Today show yesterday by Matt "Behold My Stubbly Mane That Indicates I Am a Grown-Up" Lauer, Dean picked up Lauer, slammed him on the faux coffee table and whispered, calmly, in Lauer's ear that Democrats are tired of being the bottoms of the political f*** machine. He said, "They have the agenda of the conservative Christians...the Republicans don't include people. Look, they are outside the mainstream." And Dean wasn't afraid to invoke truly inclusive Democratic ideas: "They have used words like quota to try to separate black from white Americans. They did scapegoat gay Americans by putting an anti-gay amendment on it--in 11 states where gay marriage is already against the law. And they are attacking immigrants. Two--two Republican congressmen, Jim Sensenbrenner and Tom Tancredo, have incredible anti-immigrant legislation. This is not the way America needs to be." Calling out motherf***ers for f***ing their mothers is as brutally truthful as politics gets.

Believe me, that's not even the best part.

Hands down Moneyshot Quote of the Week (in a week filled with worthy contenders).