Around the world with Chelsea Clinton

In the wake of MSNBC reporter David Schuster's cheeky question about the Clinton campaign "pimping out" the once and potentially future First Daughter, The Rude Pundit wants to know how much a night with Chelsea might be. Whatever the cost, I think I would have to at least consider paying it ... as long as voting for her mother wasn't included in the asking price:

But the fact remains that Hillary Clinton agreed to a debate on Fox "news" despite all the not-very-nice things said about Chelsea (not to mention the "incredibly offensive" things spewed by Fox about Bill and her constantly). And she threatened to bail on MSNBC's debate, refusing to accept Shuster's apology and even Keith Olbermann's prostration. (The debate was canceled after Barack Obama agreed to another one on CNN.)

That means that she leapt at Shuster's remark as a way of keeping sympathy for her and her family in the news, a distraction from Obama's primary/caucus sweep this weekend. She used this Chelsea situation as a way to kick start some desperately needed fundraising.

And that ... is pretty much the definition of pimping.

FISA: Better Democrats needed in the Senate

mcjoan:

Here's the bunch of Democrats who were willing to sell out your Constitutional rights to protect the telcos:

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Senators McCain and Obama voted nay and aye, respectively. Senator Clinton was not present, though she might be for final passage.

This group bought the "keep us safe" canard hook, line, and sinker. Bush, his Republicans, and their telco buddies were a stronger force than us on this one. On days like this, it's hard to remember that this is, as Howard Dean told us at Yearly Kos last summer, a long term project.

Paul Keil:

Speaking to a conference call of reporters this afternoon, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that, reflecting on the string of defeats in the Senate today, he thought the House was the best hope for stripping retroactive immunity from the final surveillance bill."We've lost every single battle we had on this bill [in the Senate].... We're not getting anywhere at all" he said. "The question now is can the House do better." ...

The Senate had "just sanctioned" the "single largest invasion of privacy in the history of the country," he said. When asked why he thought so many Dem senators had crossed over, he replied: "Unfortunately, those who are advocating this notion that you have to give up liberties in order to be more secure are apparently prevailing. They seem to be convincing people that you're at risk politically or we're at risk as a nation if we don't give up rights."

The fight shifts over to the House of Representatives, where John Conyers has just announced his opposition to telecom immunity. Contact your representative.

Ron Paul: prelude to a third-party run

Lots of empty seats on the McCain bandwagon:

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, secured more major endorsements on Monday, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and evangelical leader Gary Bauer. But there's one vote he shouldn't count on, from fellow presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul.

Paul, R-Lake Jackson, said he will not back McCain if he is the party's nominee unless the Arizona senator "has a lot of change of heart."

"I cannot support anybody with the foreign policy he advocates, you know, perpetual war. That is just so disturbing to me," Paul said Monday. "I think it's un-American, un-constitutional, immoral and not Republican."

Once Dr. No salts away Chris Peden in his Congressional primary, then he will turn his attention to the Libertarian Party's presidential selection process.

Just a hunch.

A maelstrom of conservative bullshit

Lookey here:

Che Guevara Flags in Obama's Houston office

First of all, you idiots, one of those is a Cuban flag with Che's photo on it, so you better get busy tieing Barack Obama to Fidel. Given that Castro and McCain are currently fussing with each other -- and that Castro is still alive, albeit barely -- you might get a little more outrage mileage outta that.

You just have to stand back and laugh sometimes when right-wing freaks get busy whipping themselves into a frenzy over their latest perceived Swift Boat opportunity. I thought the GOP meme was that they were to say nice things about Obama in order to convince Democrats to nominate him. So I guess that theory is out the window, since they're shooting this wad prematurely.

As with Obama's religion (Christian), his swearing-in (on a Bible) and his hand over his heart during the national anthem (once it was missing), the conservatives are drooling and wiggling like hungry bats on a cave wall, ready to swoosh out into the night and devour their weight in insects before returning at dawn to sleep upside down and add to the large pile of guano beneath them.

Since Republicans tend to know nothing about popular culture, let's enlighten (emphasis mine):

Despite the controversies, Guevara's status as a popular icon has continued throughout the world, leading commentators to speak of a global "cult of Che". A photograph of Guevara taken by photographer Alberto Korda^[164] has become one of the century's most ubiquitous images, and the portrait, transformed into a monochrome graphic, is reproduced endlessly on a vast array of merchandise, such as T-shirts, posters, cigarettes,^[165] coffee mugs, and baseball caps largely for profit. This fact led Argentine business analyst Martin Krauze to postulate that: “The admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology. It’s a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he’s a Quixote.” While British journalist Sean O’Hagan has described Che as “more Lennon than Lenin”. Taking the opposite hypothesis, Mexican commentator and Che Biographer Jorge Castaneda has proclaimed that: “Che can be found just where he belongs in the niches reserved for cultural icons, for symbols of social uprisings that filter down deep into the soil of society.” ^[166] The saying "Viva la revolucion!" has also become very popular and synonymous with Guevara.^[167][168] In North America, Western Europe and many regions outside Latin America, the image had been likened to a global brand, long since shedding its ideological or political connotations, and the obsession with Guevara has been dismissed by some as merely "adolescent revolutionary romanticism".^[134]

Shorter Wiki: hanging a banner of Che Guevara today is sort of like wearing a corporate logo polo. You morons.

Update: Douchebag Robbie has more of the typical Republican "outrage". The Chron's city hall blog deviates from their usual topic to cover the "flap".

90,000 and 150,000

This little corner of the Intertubes reached those milestones in visits and page views in the past few hours (click the Sitemeter button at the very bottom if you are ever interested in the traffic here). I don't recall precisely when I began to track the number of clicks, but it was long after November of 2004, when I began to blog in earnest.

This shop opened for business in November of 2002, but it was a false start; it jumped up again two years later and stuck (if you're ever interested in knowing what I was saying a few years ago, the old postings are archived by month at the end of the right sidebar. Don't count on the links working, though). That chronology puts me up there in age with Web daddies like Kuffner, who makes a point of saying his is the oldest continuously published blog in Texas. It is. Charles is also better than me at a few other things, like procreating, but that's a digression.

Thank you, dear reader, very much for visiting and commenting here the past few years.

Some of my prized blog brethren have fallen by the wayside during that time: Media Whores Online was a particular source of early inspiration, the cessation of Billmon was deeply felt, and recently norbizness gave it up. Some, like my very good friend Prairie Weather, take a break and renew themselves, something I have also managed a couple a times. It makes me sad when people with so much talent and insight suddenly lose interest, while a no-account hack like me (and virtually every single conservative blogger I have ever found) continues to soldier on.

The one best thing I have always managed to do is find good writing or funny pictures and share them here, and occasionally think of something approaching profound to say. I expect I will continue to do that for as long as Uncle Sam and my advancing Agent Smith Syndrome allow me to.

Onward.

The Weekly Wrangle

Time for this week's Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up, compiled by TXsharon from Bluedaze.


Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News urges Texans to NOT give to veterans by mail -- at least not without some investigation. Read about the fake veteran's charities scam supported by Republicans in Cheating Charitable Givers and Veterans.

Mayor McSleaze at McBlogger takes some time out of his busy schedule to ask a few important questions of Michael Moore and our friends at MoveOn.Org.

What is Congress to do?! The Texas Cloverleaf looks at how the Bush administration continues to ignore the US House and hurt Texas, in its blatant disregard of the Congressional order to end the DOT's plan for Mexican trucks in America.

Plastic bags are now extinct in Ireland. TXsharon at Bluedaze wants to know why the U.S. can't do the same.

How much was the Katy Freeway expansion in Houston supposed to cost? Off the Kuff digs through some story archives to show that what TxDOT is saying now about initial cost estimates is not what it was saying then.

Open Source Dem at Brains and Eggs comments on the possibility of brokered conventions in both Austin and Denver this summer, and how the March 4 primary in Texas will clarify -- or muddy -- the outlook.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme cautions reasonable people to be wary about arguing over that d*mn fence! Republicans are building a monument to racism and fear, not trying to solve any problems with a coherent policy.

Hal has a a couple of postings this week at Half Empty; this one is a new theory on whether there is a new canary about to sing to the feds about Tom DeLay's past indiscretions, and this one is about some motivation for that.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has the wrap-up from last week's hearings on TxDOT at the Capitol: Without Williamson, TxDOT Becomes Scapegoat.

Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report has done an exhaustingly comprehensive analysis of how the Texas hybrid primary/caucus system works, as well as a look at some of the politics of each of Texas' 31 Senate Districts that will award delegates on March 4. Read the two-part series here: Part 1 (caucus explanation) and Part 2 (delegate analysis).

BossKitty at BlueBloggin posts Customs: “Hand Over That Cell Phone, iPod & Laptop” and takes a look at just how intrusive the government has become, putting travelers and their company's private information at risk.

As we get closer to the most important Texas primary in recent memory, The Texas Blue thinks potential prognosticators should keep five things in mind when it comes to making predictions.

In addition to a ton of Texas presidential race coverage, Vince at Capitol Annex reveals that state rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) has taken an illegal contribution from an energy lobbyist.

Sunday Funnies (Democratic skewers on the barbie edition)

Disclaimer: I am not nearly as angry and bitter as some of these might suggest. And be sure to click on the image for the largest, most readable view.

Sunday Funnies (GOP quandary edition)

By the time I got to Southmore

yesterday morning, it was a street party:

More anecdotal evidence

that something huge is happening.

Yesterday my wife and I had lunch with her co-worker (born in China, now naturalized citizen) and her husband, of German/Pennsylvania Dutch descent. They have lived in Kingwood for several years (an 80% Republican suburb for those unfamiliar). My wife was uncertain about their level of political interest, much less affiliation, so I just wore my River Oaks Area Democratic Women logo polo shirt, which always manages to be a good conversation starter.

We had dim sum at Kim Son in Stafford and then went to the Lunar (Chinese) New Year Festival on the far west side of Houston. Over lunch -- while the girls were in the powder room -- he started asking me questions like "Well, it's a foregone conclusion that the Republicans will carry Texas ... right?" I replied that while that has certainly been the case in the recent past, the tide was turning and this year that likelihood IMHO depended on whether the Democrats picked Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama.

He remarked that his candidate HAD been Ron Paul, but that after researching the white supremacist thing, as well as the claim by Dr. No the constitutional expert that there was no separation of church and state in the document, he was now --with a scowl -- "undecided".

Our conversation continued along this very casual vein until he finally said, "I think that's a good idea; I'll vote in the Democratic primary for Obama and see what happens."

Folks, anything is officially possible. My advice would be to strike up a political conversation with your Republican friends and family in advance of March 4.

And don't forget to invite them to attend the precinct convention.

Sunday Funnies (Stimulant edition)

Top ten reasons conservatives hate McCain

Via the Chron, Libby Quaid of the AP counts 'em down:

1. Campaign finance reform. McCain tried to limit the role of money in politics with measures that, critics say, stomp on the constitutional right to free speech.

2. Immigration. McCain has been a vocal supporter of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, although he now says he understands the border between the U.S. and Mexico must be sealed first.

3. Tax cuts. McCain twice voted against President Bush's tax cuts, saying in 2001 they helped the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and in 2003 that there should be no tax relief until the cost of the Iraq war was known. But he now wants to extend the tax cuts.

4. Gay marriage. McCain refuses to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

5. Stem cell research. McCain would relax restrictions on federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research, which critics consider tantamount to abortion.

6. Global warming. Among the loudest voices in Congress for aggressive action against global warming and a frequent critic of the Bush administration on the issue.

7. "Gang of 14" member. One of seven Republicans and seven Democrats who averted a Senate showdown over whether filibusters could be used against Bush judicial nominees.

8. Kerry veep. McCain was approached by the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, about being his running mate. McCain talked with Kerry but rejected the offer.

9. Works with Democrats. See all of the above.

10. Belligerence. McCain can be acerbic toward his critics, such as when he labeled televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance." He reconciled with Falwell in 2006. Conservative James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement on the morning of the Super Tuesday primaries that he would not vote for McCain, citing among other things his "legendary temper" and that he "often uses foul and obscene language."

I posted a comment at the story site that I'll repeat here: The Republicans remind me of a mortally wounded marriage, where two people -- not necessarily a man and a woman -- cannot reconcile because they've said too many things they can never take back.

The chattering class of conservative commentators have spewed so much acidic bile about McCain -- and Pastor Huckabee too, for that matter -- that they cannot flip-flop now and support either man without sacrificing whatever is left of their integrity.

Fortunately for them, integrity does not appear to be highly valued within the modern conservative movement.