Nine-Eleven-MoFo '08

Did you catch it live this morning on FOX and Friends?

I'm now convinced that Rude-y is going to be the nominee. Not because Governor 39% has jumped on his scooter fire engine bandwagon, but because the esteemed Jeffrey Feldman says so. The Right, you see, is a lot like teenagers on a Friday night date: they like to be frightened. And just like Bush before him, they like guys who talk tough with no history of ever backing it up. They especially like men who are a little wimpy, a little soft. They really like men who are gay-friendly-just-not-publicly that talk real, real tough.

The Right likes the fact that Rudy will bomb Iran, so they will overlook his three marriages and his cross-dressing, his mobbed-up pals like Bernie Kerik, and his exceptionally rude, selfish behavior. Rick Perry fits right in, you see.

The Log Cabins will be thrilled with a Giuliani-Perry ticket. One man loves gays, the other man IS gay ...

Not Mitt's money, not Frederick of Hollywood's hard-working ethic, and not poor John McCain's pandering to the Christian conservatives is going to stop Rudy. For the record I'd like to be as wrong about this as I would Hillary killing us in Texas, too. Any of the other GOP front-runners would be much easier to defeat.

On the downside -- and on the horrid thought that the nation would actually send the GOP back to the White House -- Texas will have once again exported its sorriest Republican to Washington. David Dewhurst moves up to first-string. A scrum breaks out for the second chair: Greg Abbott runs to the head of the pack.

Make that 'rolls'.

And Rick Perry would inherit all of the assumed authority that Dick Cheney spent eight years amassing. Ponder THAT.

B.A.D.* for the Environment

In honor of Blog Action Day*, here's the video of Friends of Earth Action and their endorsement of John Edwards for president:

The Weekly Wrangle

Time once again for the Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up. As always, the posts are wrangled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Rep. Barney Frank responds to GLBT activists: "Now this is the issue: does a political party say to its most militant, committed, ideologically driven believers in purity that they have a veto over what the party does?" Evan at The Caucus Blog responds.

BossKitty at Bluebloggin asks why are so many Texans still illiterate?

The Texas Cloverleaf endorses Karen Guerra for 16th District Court Judge in Denton County.

Burnt Orange Report highlights the hard work being done across the nation: a broad coalition has launched a campaign to override President Bush's SCHIP veto, and Kay Granger is public enemy number 1 in Texas. Ads, analysis, polls, and outrage... BOR has it all.

North Texas Liberal asks, "Could Congress override Bush's veto?" Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Kennedy seem to think that SCHIP is worth fighting for. So do we.

Vince from Capitol Annex notes that Kay Granger should have known better when it comes to her recent "no" vote on the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News cannot stop writing about conservative bloggers repeatedly attacking a family who were in a terrible automobile accident and received government health care and liked it: Maybe next time your kids are in the hospitable you'll be attacked by right-wing idiots, and more slime in the right-wing noise machine.

McBlogger has a story up about a state representative you should know.

A supervisor for CPS Energy in San Antonio has a hangman's noose displayed in his cubicle. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs posts the details, including a photo. Update: A press conference is scheduled for this morning.

Muse notes that Kay Bailey Hutchinson is trying out harder helmet hair styles so that the words of mean bloggers will bounce right off her in her imaginary (or not) run for governor in 2010.

Warning from TXsharon: Calibrate your outrage meter before visiting Bluedaze to read how Bush policies have weakened the Clean Water Act so much that Texas water is no longer fit for drinking, swimming or fishing.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme notes that presidential candidate Tom Tancredo wants to build that d*mn fence north of Brownsville. Either you're with the fence or he'll move the boundaries so your town's part of Mexico.

Unsurprised at Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, nor at his acceptance speech, Hal at Half Empty surprises everyone with the Moonwalking Mannequin Bird.

Rattlebrain Randy prefers a little bit of disaster -- sure, it may hurt his constituents but it helps his friends in the insurance industry, notes Blue 19th.

At Texas Kaos, diarist persiancowboy invites members of the general public to sign on to the complaint against rogue judge Sharon Keller for her callous use of judicial power.

Off the Kuff reports that state Rep. Garnet Coleman is urging AG Greg Abbott to sue to block a recent Center for Medicaid and State Operations directive that will result in the loss of CHIP coverage for thousands of children.

Stop Cornyn is fuming about Cornyn's vote against children. After voting against Texas children twice, now Junior John wants a watered-down version to save face. It is time to fully fund children's health insurance.

Sunday Funnies (final edition)

Sunday Funnies (city edition)

Sunday Funnies (first edition)

A hangman's noose in the boss' office *UPDATED*

(Update, 9:15 a.m. 10/15: Welcome to the many CPS Energy visitors to this blog! Please leave a comment regarding this photograph. Be careful NOT to do so from your workstation, however).


Click for a larger view.

This is a photograph from the cubicle of a supervisor at CPS Energy of San Antonio, "the nation's largest municipally-owned energy company providing both natural gas and electric service", according to their website.

The photo was provided to me by a representative of IBEW, which recently organized eleven employees there in the map support services department. I'll let him tell you the rest:

We set up a meeting with management to discuss the 11 employees that joined the IBEW. I received an e-mail from management telling me that I could not come into their building and represent these employees that exercised their rights to join a labor organization. In the past they had been told by management that salaried employees could not join the union. I sent a letter out to non-members working at CPS Energy and explained to them they had the right to join a union. In the past several months since, a number of salaried employees joined the union. In this department they had a black supervisor that was demoted. He took this picture after his demotion and told another CPS supervisor who was also demoted and showed him the photo (above) of the twelve noose, the old testament and the new version and the split between the bibles so they don’t touch, which is a symbol of white supremacy.

I was showed the picture by several other black employees who were also demoted and asked to find other jobs. We started looking into this and found out that people of color, older employees, Hispanics and white female employees were constructively being moved out of the company. A number of them were forced to take a sum of money to retire and leave the company.

Here is a link to KSAT's video of the story.

Hangman's nooses have been in the news far too frequently of late, as anyone who is familiar with the case of the Jena 6 knows. Another supervisor for a public utility company in Nassau County, New York, was apparently making a similar display at his office about a year ago. Jack and Jill document several noose appearances in just the past two weeks across the country. And it was just last year as well that former Sen. George Allen of Virginia gained infamy for his "macaca" remark and was later revealed to have a ficus tree with a hangman's noose in his law office.

Most interesting to me is that while my source indicates management at CPS was notified about this matter more than once and failed to respond, the CEO of CPS Energy, Milton Lee, is African-American, as is the company's vice president and chief administrative officer, Paula Gold-Williams.

Hangman's nooses shouldn't be on display in the offices of a publicly-owned utility company, or any business, in America in 2007. They shouldn't be displayed anywhere, publicly or privately, but obviously racial tolerance still has a long journey ahead.

Let's take a small step forward by contacting CPS Energy and asking them to instruct this supervisor to remove the noose display from his cubicle. Their e-address is feedback@cpsenergy.com .

Update (10/15): A press conference is scheduled this morning:

An International Union Representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), representing employees of CPS Energy, will make a public statement and take questions from the press concerning the recent discovery that a manager at CPS Energy keeps a hangman’s noose with Ku Klux Klan symbolism in his office. The press conference will take place on Monday, October 15, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in front of the CPS Energy office at 145 Navarro Street (San Antonio).

An employee discovered the hangman’s noose, photographed it, and informed representatives of the IBEW. A number of minority employees at CPS Energy have suffered adverse personnel actions in recent months and have complained of discrimination. In addition, Union members throughout the CPS Energy workforce have been complaining for months about management’s disregard of established working conditions and acts of retaliation against employees who assert their rights. On October 10, the IBEW’s International Representative was refused entry to CPS Energy offices to meet with management to discuss the deteriorating working conditions at CPS Energy on behalf of employees.

Ralph Merriweather, IBEW International Representative, stated, “The hangman’s noose is the tip of the iceberg. There is a management culture of repression and vindictiveness toward employees throughout CPS Energy. No community can tolerate this kind of hatefulness in a public agency.” Merriweather will address the issue more fully in the Monday morning press conference.

Update (2:15 p.m.) : KSAT.com has a video link to this morning's press conference and reports that the noose has been removed.

An inconvenient Nobel

Inconvenient particularly for the Climate Deniers but also for those who still have a candle lit for a Gore presidency. Two pieces of advice for both parties:

1. Yes, the polar ice is all melted, the polar bears are drowning, we're never going to drill in the ANWR, and you need to re-think that fourth SUV for your kid and those CFLs.

2. It ain't happenin', dreamer. Free your mind and pick one of the candidates who's running (and be happy with your choice).

Congratulations, Mr. Gore.

Sharon Killer's Justice

"Judge Keller's actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution," the complaint states. "Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute ... "

Judge Sharon Killer's interpretation of 'justice for all' closes at 5 p.m.

"Justice should be both fair and competent. Here it was not. The result is a man was killed on a day he should have lived," said Chuck Herring, an Austin lawyer who joined in the complaint and who has written on professional ethics and responsibility.

Judge Sharon Killer, who was narrowly re-elected in 2006 over an opponent who barely fielded a challenge, has a longstanding reputation for sending Texans to their death under questionable circumstances.

Judge Sharon Keller, landlord to a Dallas titty bar which has had more than its share of police calls and neighborhood complaints, disagreed with most of her colleagues that a woman whose children burned to death in a accidental fire wasn't criminally responsible.

Keller's killing has failed to draw any response from Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, and two previous attorneys general -- Mark White and Jim Mattox -- have criticized him for his silence.

Sharon "Killer" Keller is way beyond the cartoon conceptions of hanging-tree, Judge Roy Bean, cinematic Texas justice. She is an abomination and a disgrace to the bench, and should resign or be removed from it.

Potential third party candidates Paul and Tancredo

Yesterday's GOP debate (a good wrap-up is here) produced only one surprise: the emergence of a couple of possible challengers to the eventual Republican nominee. Via MyDD, First Read observes that Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo said they might not go along:

Paul and Tancredo said they would not necessarily support the GOP nominee. That is interesting. Does this feeling persist within the Republican Party? Is that bad news for Giuliani? Maybe. Maybe not. Brownback, the "values candidate" said no matter what he would support the nominee -- however grudgingly.

I heard Ron Paul specifically dismiss the possibility of running as a Libertarian in 2008, just last week on the Ed Schultz Show. My own speculation regarding third party challenges is here. Continuing:

... there was the waffling by Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo at the GOP debate about whether they'd support the eventual GOP nominee. Remember, it wouldn't take more than a percentage or two in some states for a third party candidate like Paul or Tancredo to cost the GOP a whole bunch of Bush '04 states out West.

There's also potential for the Christian conservatives to peel off and find a candidate, possibly *choking back maniacal laughter* Rick Santorum.

It appears that the GOP nationally is in the early stages of a major meltdown. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

Let's stop Bush's warrantless wiretapping

While I have my outrage on this morning:

I am one of the 73% of Americans who oppose George Bush's warrantless wiretapping of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA).

I am outraged that George Bush admits he broke the FISA law at least 30 times by authorizing activities that were illegal -- and I am outraged Congress has not impeached Bush for doing so.

I am outraged that the Bush Administration has lied about its illegal activities for years, especially former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' perjury before Congress -- and I am outraged Gonzales has not been prosecuted for doing so.

I am outraged that George Bush used a false terrorist threat in August to terrorize Congress into legalizing his illegal wiretapping -- and I am outraged Congress has not impeached Bush for doing so.

I am outraged that nearly every Republican and a few dozen Democrats voted for Bush's wiretapping bill.

I therefore demand the following:

(1) Immediate repeal of the "Protect America Act of 2007" enacted in August, or at bare minimum allowing it to expire in January.

(2) Defeat of any further legislation to legalize warrantless wiretapping or give immunity to telephone companies or Bush Administration officials who participated in the illegal wiretapping of American citizens

(3) Prosecution of Alberto Gonzales for lying to Congress when he testified that there was no "serious disagreement" inside the Justice Department over the illegal program, even though then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and his top aides dramatically threatened to resign over the program.

(4) Impeachment of George Bush for violating the Fourth Amendment and FISA over 30 times and for falsely terrorizing Congress into passing the Protect America Act.

(5) Criminal prosecution of Bush, Gonzales, and everyone else who committed these crimes.

Care to join me?

The terrorists on the Right

Easter Lemming has compiled the data, so I don't have to. Read all of it. One of the excerpts and links there is from Hunter at DKos, who also has the outrage:

It's long past time for people to stop treating Fox-style, Malkin-style, Limbaugh-style conservatism as merely a "political" phenomenon. It may once have been, but it isn't now. As of this millennium, it's nothing but a hate movement with neckties. Protofascism with bright, patriotic logos. Stop treating it with anything but revulsion and disdain. Stop pretending for even a bare moment that they are anything more than thugs.

The bile generally accepted as conservative discourse from people like these, and Coulter, and Hannity, and O'Reilly, isn't something that we can continue to ignore.

The BS over the MoveOn advertisement, the "phony soldiers" remark by Limbaugh, the obsession over contrivances like this will not be allowed to dominate the framing of the debate over who is best qualified to lead this nation out of the moral quagmire that Bush led us into, and from which someone will have to extricate us.

We are going to have a debate over how best to end this war, and not over flag lapel pins. We are going to have a debate over how best to address the concerns of climate change, not whether or not it exists or who's responsible for it.

We will progress on the challenges we face, not refuse to acknowledge them or allow ourselves to be preoccupied by inanities.

As citizens we simply no longer have the luxury of being distracted by Cavemen or American Idol; we are now compelled to look at the circumstances created by the unethical leadership which derived from our earlier apathy and begin making improvements to our republican democracy.

Before it collapses on our heads.