Ron Paul quotes Sinclair Lewis

Faux news anchors' heads explode:



His response to Mike Huckabee's ad portraying the former Arkansas governor as the Chosen One was to employ the phrase that used to be this blog's signature: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."

I speak from personal experience, Dr. No: calling it fascism exposes you to backlash. Too many Americans don't know what fascism is and wouldn't recognize it if they did. It's right in front of their eyes but they just cannot see it. The fact that George W Bush refers to 'the terrists' as "Islamofascists" is one big clue to the depth of American ignorance on the topic.

It doesn't matter how much money you raise, Mr. Paul, you're never going to get the Republican nomination telling them the brutal truth. Oh yeah, your crossover appeal, what with that abolishing Social Security/free trade/life begins at conception thingie: that's not gonna fly either.

The Libertarians need you badly, though. It's where you belong.

Presidents' Heads in Pearland

There's an online presidential poll that needs your input, please. Somewhat outside the mainstream for this time of the year.

(Pearland, regular readers here may recall, is nestled in the gumbo mud of the Texas coastal plain five miles to the south of Houston, and is also the home of Bobby Eberle, he of Talon News/Jeff Gannon fame (in addition to serving as the vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Texas). Pearland also claims as city councilman one Kevin Cole, who defended Tom DeLay in a rather humorous e-mail to DroptheHammer.org back when DeLay was still defensible to many Republicans. Cole was a deacon of the First Baptist Church of Pearland, which was the launching pad for Pastor Rick Scarborough of Vision America, a man of God working hard to inherit the mantle vacated by Jerry Falwell.)

My Five were Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and LBJ, and in the comments I added that the only bushes that needed to be on display were the tightly trimmed shrubs lining the entrance to the park.

John Edwards and Iowa.

For months, Edwards has been rounding up support in the state's rural precincts where the front runners have paid less attention. While Obama and Clinton have drawn crowds in the thousands in places like Des Moines and Ames, Edwards has been winning over people in tiny towns like Sac City (population: 2,189). That's important, the strategists say, because under Iowa's arcane caucus rules, a precinct where 25 people show up to vote gets the same number of delegates as a place that packs in 2,500. In other words, even if he loses to Obama and Clinton in the state's bigger cities, he can still win by wrapping up smaller, far-flung precincts that other candidates have ignored. "The bulk of our support is in small and medium counties," says Jennifer O'Malley, Edwards's Iowa state director. O'Malley says Edwards has visited all 99 counties in the state; the campaign has so far trained captains covering 90 percent of all 1,781 precincts.

Tonight I participated in a conference call with Edwards supporters across the state of Texas; Fred Baron, David Bonior, Chris Bell and others gave updates and asked for (and volunteered to) help. Perhaps the most revealing thing to me is that the campaign is so encouraged by the momentum building in the Hawkeye State that their foremost request was for volunteers to spend any available time in New Hampshire.

Edwards is going to win the Iowa caucuses. Mark it.

Reid backs down, pulls FISA bill

Thanks to everyone who budged the machinery of democracy today:

Harry Reid just announced on the floor that he intends to table debate on the FISA overhaul legislation until January.

This is an important development and will hopefully allow the opposition to telco amnesty to convince enough Senators that providing blanket immunity to these companies who broke the law really doesn't do much to keep us safe.

Earlier, our Liberal Lion noted:

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

Update: the video of the above ...



And while their offices indicated they opposed the bill and supported Senator Dodd's filibuster, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, (and John McCain too, for that matter) were nowhere near the Senate chamber today. All of them stayed on the campaign trail -- the Democrats in Iowa.

Chris Dodd -- by his actions and his words -- deserves fresh consideration from those who remain undecided about whom to support for President.

Update: here's his message, recorded shortly after the end of the session ...

FISA-with-immunity bill update

"Good morning, I'm calling Senator Obama/Clinton/Biden to ask him/her to represent the hundred of thousands of Texas Democrats like myself who have no representation in the United States Senate to oppose the FISA bill containing retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies, to be considered today."

"Thank you."

T'was-the-week-before Wrangle

And all through the 'sphere
Not a blogger was stirring
(They drank too much beer.)

Vince does me one better:

It's beginning to look a lot like Monday
every where you go,
Take a look at the blogs and posts glistening once mo',
with threads and comments beaming all aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Monday
Round-ups on ev'ry blog
but the prettiest sight to see is the posting that will be
from your fave-rite blog....

Enjoy this week's Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Fred Thompson couldn't make the ballot in Delaware because of FIVE HUNDRED SIGNATURES. Mayor McSleaze at McBlogger thinks that's pretty pathetic. You will as well.

Eddie at Burnt Orange Report writes about a precedent-setting case in the Sixth District Court of Appeals which gives helps a Paris, Texas blogger preserve his or her anonymity.

How I became a "far-left-radical with a socialist agenda" etc. On Bluedaze by TXsharon.

While Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News had a sick mouse, the world moved on.

Choo choo!! That's the sound of cleaner air at The Texas Cloverleaf. Ninety-eight new and more environmentally friendly trains are running in Texas. But did taxpayers really have to front the money?

Bay Area Houston wonders why NASA contractors are limiting their employees' constitutional rights while receiving billions of dollars of government funding.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that AG Greg Abbott has handed Speaker Tom Craddick an early Christmas present in the form of an opinion that gives him carte blanche -- and even emasculates impeachment.

Muse discovers a list of 300+ women political bloggers! Female bloggers are playing a powerful role in this presidential election cycle -- and are increasingly recognized for this. Texas bloggers are on the list. Check it out!

In his piece titled John Cornyn Files for Senate, Hal at Half Empty entertains the notion that the junior senator is really looking for an elusive seat on the US Supreme Court.

Stace at DosCentavos tells us about the newest Pew Center poll! It's no wonder many Citizen-Latinos (and especially undocumented folks) are feeling like people without a country.

Eye on Williamson posts on Brian Ruiz, Rep. John Carter's opponent in TX-31, and two of Carter's recent votes in Ruiz and Carter's (R-Exxon Mobil) Circle .

An activist action plan for the FISA-with-telecom immunity bill, coming up on Monday in the Senate, is posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

And, last but not least, don't forget about Dan Barrett in House District 97, who has been endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance in his special election runoff. Matt at Burnt Orange Report has a great post about the race here.

Sunday Evening Funnies

Retroactive immunity for whatever crimes you (may) have committed.

I'll take it. How about you?

Do the American people deserve to know, not every specific, but the extent to which their rights were violated? Do they have a right to know what the legal basis was that the telecommunications corporations relied upon when they decided to help the government violate the law?

Do we have to ask the non-thinking conservative's question of AT&T et. al. : "Whaddaya got to hide?"

And did you know that Chris Dodd, the only Senator who has consistently fought against FISA-with-telecom-immunity, lost the race for Senate majority leader by one vote to Harry Reid? (I didn't.)

Do something about this bill today. And tomorrow. This is a moment for leadership on the part of the people running for president who get to vote in the Senate on this bill tomorrow. And a test of their loyalty to the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution, which carries a fourth amendment they would do well to refresh themselves with:

Privacy apart, this president's defiance of statutes by the dozens is constitutionally alarming. But the matter goes deeper still. Even if Congress were to repeal the laws securing telephone privacy, or if phone companies found loopholes to slip through when pressured by government, the Constitution's Fourth Amendment shield for ''the right of the people to be secure" from ''unreasonable searches" is a shield for all seasons, one that a lawless president, a spineless Congress, and a complacent majority of citizens -- who are conditioned to a government operating under a shroud of secrecy while individuals live out their lives in fishbowls -- cannot be permitted to destroy, for the rest of us and our children.

If Ron Paul would give Mike Huckabee all his money ...

then maybe the goofball Republicans could have a chance at holding onto the White House:

Once considered a minor candidate in a large field of candidates, Paul is now close to breaking a $12 million fundraising goal for the final quarter of the year as his volunteers stage an Internet money-raising event Sunday tied to the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

Paul, the only candidate to release up-to-the-minute tallies of campaign receipts, has raised $11.4 million for this three-month period.

If the Texas lawmaker beats his target, he will have raked in more campaign cash than the other GOP contenders did at the end of the latest reporting period, including early front-runner Rudy Giuliani, who raised $11.6 million.

Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine, said that Paul could well end up leading the GOP presidential pack in fundraising for the final quarter, which ends Dec. 31.

"Ron Paul has had remarkable success raising money this year," said Corrado.

Poor Huck; he's got ephemeral "polling support" but no caysh:

Until today, Huckabee's homepage had a "December 15th" goal of $1,150,000. Then today, perhaps as they saw it might not make it, they changed it to a "December" goal! This means it appears that they've nearly accomplished their goal in half the time, when in fact they failed to meet the original one!

Paul will likely raise $4 or 5 million bucks today; Huckabee can't raise a million in a month.

Will Huck get the dough if he winds up at the top of the conservative scrum? Sure. But Republicans are right to fear his nomination. He would be crushed next November.

I think Paul's fundraising and national grassroots appeal is certainly real. His endorsement of the eventual nominee will be coveted. A spot as vice-president on the GOP ticket is plausible. Paul is literally the only Republican candidate generating any real excitement, and has already reached the point of significant viability. Just not as the party's nominee for president.

Paul would destroy the Republicans by running as a Libertarian at this point, with still no better chance of getting elected than if he happened to wind up the GOP standard-bearer. He is, similar to the blimp pictured in the link above, inflating rapidly to the role of kingmaker, well-positioned to make considerable demands of the nominee. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing -- today --, because Paul is the anti-neoconservative. His influence as potentially the vice-president could bring a quick end to the folly in Iraq, prevent war with Iran, and close the sad chapter of 21st-century American neo-imperialism executed by the Bushies.

There's considerable independent and crossover appeal in a McCain-Paul ticket, IMHO. They might even be a less nasty bunch to go against in a general.

Nope. Sorry. That last sentence is just too unrealistic.

Update (12/17): Six mmmmmmillion dollars yesterday. From 30,000 donors. He's gone past $18 million for the quarter.

IOKIYAR (and it's not a blowjob in a blue dress)

‘Sleeping with the boss’ common at KBR in Iraq:

Working in Iraq wasn't always an adventure for Linda Lindsey.

"If you wanted to get a promotion you didn't necessarily have to have the qualifications,” remembered Lindsey, a former KBR contractor. “You just needed to be sleeping with the person who was doing the hiring.”

Let's pause here a moment and review The Rules (Republican version 2.008):




Continuing ...

Though she did not know Jamie Leigh Jones, the young KBR contractor who says she was drugged and gang raped by colleagues, Lindsey said Jones’ allegations are not surprising.

“Where I was at and when I was there it was very, very upsetting,” Lindsey recalled.

In a sworn affidavit for the Jones case, Lindsey said: “I saw rampant sexual harassment and discrimination."

“Well, first of all, a boss saying that he hired a woman because she told him that she puts out," she added.

Her affidavit also said: "When anyone would report an incident of abuse or harassment, they would be threatened with a transfer to a more dangerous location."

Lindsey said complaints made it back to KBR's Houston headquarters, but the people causing problems in Iraq were never removed.

That left many women workers, Lindsey said, feeling helpless.

If you're a "fat, lazy, and old" (his lawyer's words, not mine) white man who shoots two people in the back with a 12-gauge, or a male KBR employee in Iraq, donchyoo worry 'bout a thing. But if you're anybody else, you're fucked. Wrong place/wrong time/wrong color/wrong political philosophy; raped, tortured, killed, too bad for you.

Makes a person wonder why he would be concerned about something as relatively inconsequential as whether his vote counts or not.

Sunday Funnies

2004 election "could" have been stolen: Ohio SOS

Thank goodness we found out just in time to prevent it from happening again.

Ohio's Secretary of State announced (yesterday) that a $1.9 million official study shows that "critical security failures" are embedded throughout the voting systems in the state that decided the 2004 election. Those failures, she says, "could impact the integrity of elections in the Buckeye State." They have rendered Ohio's vote counts "vulnerable" to manipulation and theft by "fairly simple techniques."

Indeed, she says, "the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote count could be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector or using a magnet and a personal digital assistant."

In other words, Ohio's top election official has finally confirmed that the 2004 election could have been easily stolen.

It's just nice that three years and nearly two million dollars later we finally have confirmation, isn't it?

(Ohio SOS Jennifer) Brunner is calling for widespread changes to the way Ohio casts and counts its ballots. Her announcement follows moves by California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen to disqualify electronic voting machines in the nation's biggest state.

In tandem, these two reports add a critical state-based dimension to the growing mountain of evidence that the US electoral system is rife with insecurities. Reports from the Brennan Center, the Carter-Baker Commission, the Government Accountability Office, the Conyers Committee Task Force Report, Princeton University and others have offered differing perspectives that add up to the same conclusion.

Paging Bill White. Mr. White, please pick up the white discourtesy phone for a clue ...

Now why was this Ohio business such a big deal again?

Brunner is the Democratic successor to Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, who administered the 2004 election as Secretary of State while also serving as state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. The report comes as part of her pledge to guarantee a fair and reliable vote count in the upcoming 2008 presidential election.

Under Blackwell, Ohio spent some $100 million installing electronic voting machines as part of the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in the wake of the scandals surrounding the 2000 election. Former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney, HAVA's principle author, now resides in a federal prison, in part for illegalities surrounding his dealings with voting machine companies.

Blackwell, who was defeated in a 2006 race for the Ohio governorship, outsourced web hosting responsibilities for the 2004 vote count to a programming firm that also programmed the web site for the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. Blackwell's chosen host site for the state's vote count was in the basement of the Old Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the servers for the Republican National Committee, and the Bush White House, were also located.

Oh yeah. Corrupt Republicans hard at work subverting democracy. Seems like I've heard about that before.

Update: Rhymes with Right has a respectable opinion from that side.