The Weekly Wrangle

Another Monday, and time for the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round up.

The Senate this past week passed a bill to reform the state's unemployment insurance laws in a way that would allow us to accept up to $600 million in stimulus funds, despite Governor Perry's resistance. Off the Kuff has the details.

YaGottaLoveIt of South Texas Chisme says a voter ID bill is needed to eliminate ghost voting in the Texas House of Representatives. Why don't the Republicans try it out there first?

Neil at Texas Liberal offers up information on swine flu and provides tips on proper handwashing.

AAA-Fund Blog has audio from the recent national call with Ramey Ko and Hubert Vo about voting rights in Texas and around the nation.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has the latest on transportation issues in the lege: This week's transportation action in the legislature.

This week McBlogger took some time out his busy schedule to do something unusual -- criticize someone. Specifically Karl Rove who thinks teabaggin' is just awesome and the beginning of the Republican Party's return to electoral relevance. McBlogger, as you can imagine, has a different opinion.

John Culberson nosed out Joe Barton for the first "Douchebag of the Week" award presented by Brains and Eggs. It was a close contest with Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, and the Texas House Republicans all competing fiercely for the coveted prize. Better luck next week, jerks.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees big problems addressing the pandemic hysteria because workers cannot risk staying home sick. Because health insurance has become such an exclusive club any medical emergency, like a contagious outbreak, can become a pandemic crisis. FLU PANDEMIC - Stay Home or Go To Work Sick?

Todd Hill at Burnt Orange Report writes about how John Cornyn admits that the KBH seat is winnable for Democrats. This revelation from Big Bad John comes after we learn that Bill White and John Sharp had the largest 1Q fundraising totals for any non-incumbent Senate candidate in the country.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gathers the shameful record of Republican buffoonery into a sad and funny report he calls " Texas Republican Jackasses Continue to Bring Shame to Texas ". You don't want to miss this one. With videos!

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Congressman Joe Barton (R-Ennis) got dissed by Al Gore on global warming.

Culberson edges Barton for "Douchebag of the Week"

By virtue of continuing the secessionist crazy talk, my very own Congressbum John Culberson is awarded the inaugural "Douchebag of the Week".



He edged out his butthole buddy Joe Barton, who took a peculiar and smug satisfaction in asking Energy Secretary David Chu -- a Nobel laureate -- "where the oil in Alaska came from", apparently to make a completely obtuse point about global warming.



Yes, it was a very close contest, but Cumbersome earned the victory solely on the basis of having home field advantage.

That "five states" business is hypothesized in detail by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. Here's his map:



Now I see El Norte electing two Democratic Senators, as well as one each from Gulfland and New Texas, a scenario that would leave the same 60-40 split that currently exists provide a net gain of two more Republicans in the US Senate. That must be the "six rock-ribbed conservatives" he refers to.

But I'm trying to apply some rationale to an ultraconservative fantasy, which is surely a fool's errand. So I will stop that.

Congratulations, Mr. Culberson. Can you make it two championships in row, like the Green Bay Packers?

Sunday Funnies

"Vice President Cheney is a man who frightens easily."

A dozen other spot-on observations from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.), who was Colin Powell's chief of staff.

Eugene Robinson (the recent Pulitzer winner) also observed that there are just three questions regarding this sad chapter of American history: is torture moral, is it effective, and is it legal. And a fourth I would add: what are we going to do about it if the answer to the first three are 'no'.

Probably the saddest observation of Wilkerson's was that "there is neither the political will nor the skill" in the current administration to follow through on that last.

Enhanced Prevarication Techniques

I'll have something to say about l'affaire torture soon, but this will do for now...

More on GOP revolution

Or is that devolution. It's certainly a resistance to evolution. Whatever we call their mental illness, they're looking for something to cling to besides their religion and their guns, and secession may be it:

Gov. Rick Perry’s highly energized appearance at Tea Parties around the State of Texas (last week) has dramatically improved his visibility across Texas and the nation. Coupled with an aggressive courting of conservatives which included the endorsement of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Perry has quite simply been tearing it up.

All this has the possibility to leave Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison behind in the dust in the one area where she can easily claim credentials as conservative as Perry: fiscal responsibility.

The polls have shown Hutchison running strong. But Perry’s got a head of steam and has seized the limelight. And he’s just staked his claim to a mad-as-hell constituency – just the kind that he needs for the primary to pull off the win.

The author of that opinion is a former KBH campaign operative, and I agree completely with his premise: that the Texas GOP primary voters are the most extreme of the right-wing to be found anywhere, they don't like Kay Bailey a lot, and they will likely boost Governor MoFo to victory in next spring's gubernatorial elections.

Which sort of defeats the premise for avoiding running against Kay Bailey for governor, doesn't it? I'm looking at you, Mr. Sharp and Mr. White. Let me not digress, though ...

The result is that Perry has seized the momentum and is on fire with a large section of the Republican Party base, not just in Texas, but nationally. And it will be the wing of the party most important in the primary.

That would of course be the Sarah Palin/Alaska Indendence Party wing of the party nationally. The secessionist, creationist, tea-baggin', anti-immigrant, anti-pretty much everything you can think of wing. Except for guns and Bibles.

So a few questions:

-- Despite the quite obvious impossibility of secession, how would the GOP ever win another presidential election if Texas actually did secede?

-- When are the Texas Republicans going to turn in their American flag pins? And summon home their sons and daughters serving in the armed forces? And stop singing along with Lee Greenwood? And chanting "USA, USA" at sporting events?

-- What should national GOP "moderates" -- like Arlen Specter, Kay Bailey, and Joe Lieberman -- do? Form a Neo-Whig Party, perhaps?

To be fair to our ignorant next-door neighbors, though, it's not just Texas that wants out of the Union. It's just Texas that has the worst, most extreme leaders in charge who want to. Or pretend to want to, in order to tap into the latest faux outrage and get re-elected.

You know, once upon a time the Republican Party stood firm against secession. A Republican president led a civil war against secessionist states to maintain the sovereignty and integrity of the Union.

And that war was won, at the cost of thousands of lives.

Be a damn shame if we have to fight that out all over again. I suspect the South would lose once more.

Texas GOP takes "Douchebag" lead

"Douchebag of the Week" honors for the day go to the Republicans in the state House:

After Gov. Rick Perry's recent comments about some Texans talking secession from the union made national news, legislators are considering issuing a "cease and desist" order to the federal government.

"This state prefers, to the greatest extent possible, to control our own destiny," said Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, one of several members co-sponsoring the measure. "We prefer that federal government limit the amount of federal mandates it forces upon the people of Texas."

House Concurrent Resolution 50, which claims sovereignty for Texas under the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment, was one of several proposals to go before the House State Affairs Committee late Tuesday.

Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, filed the bill, saying that more than a dozen states have proposed similar efforts amid concern that the federal government may be overstepping its boundaries.

"From restrictions on gun and ammunition sales, to freedom-of-choice issues, to the Real ID Act, the federal government is passing laws that limit a state's ability to govern itself," Creighton has said. "Texas simply wants to send the message that we want to govern ourselves and decide for ourselves how our money is to be spent."

Under this resolution, the 81st Legislature "hereby claim[s] sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States."

"This serve[s] as notice and demand to the federal government ... to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers."

Rep. Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth, also signed on as a co-sponsor.

"Texans should have the right for their representatives in Austin to decide what is best for Texas," Shelton said.

This nonsense would be utterly unbelievable, if it weren't for the lunacy already demonstrated by Governor Suckseed.

Let's be clear what this "cease and desist" nonsense is all about: it's neo-secessionism.

They aren't outright calling for Texas to secede. Rather, they are claiming that state governments have the right to nullify the laws of the U.S. government.

These 'neo-secessionists' know that accepting the principle of nullification as a right held by all states would destroy the entire Union. It's not that hard to understand -- if you allow individual states to pick and choose which laws to follow and ignore, you have effectively destroyed the union binding them together.

So while they may claim to oppose secession, by supporting nullification, they are effectively supporting the dissolution of the United States of America, not just the secession of one state. And that's an even more extreme position.

God, deliver us from these fools. And hurry the hell up.