Pearl Harbor survivor back for 1st time

Ed Johann will always remember the sound of planes diving out of the sky to bomb U.S. battleships, the explosions and the screams of sailors. He still recalls the stench of burning oil and flesh.

The 86-year-old retired firefighter is due to return Monday to Pearl Harbor for the first time since World War II to attend a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack.

"I really don't know how I'm going to handle it," said Johann, from his home in Oregon. "When I think about it, all I have is unpleasantness. I'm sure it's not like that now."

Johann was a teenage apprentice seaman on Dec. 7, 1941. He had enlisted in the Navy only five months earlier so his parents, who picked and packed tomatoes and other crops in California's San Fernando Valley, wouldn't have to support him.

He and two other sailors were waiting to ferry passengers on a small boat to and from the USS Solace, a hospital ship that was moored in Pearl Harbor, when they saw the Japanese planes.

Read the rest.

The Weekly Wrangle

T'was three weeks before Christmas and all through the blogs,
a few creatures were stirring ... some political hogs!

Fattened at the trough of private insurer money,
they are ready for slaughter; let's cook glazed with honey.

The Texas Progressive Alliance is pleased to bring you last week's highlights from the blogs.

Power to the People! Head over to Texas Vox to learn more about the Fair Elections Now Act.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men airs out some thoughts on the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and some painful lessons learned blogging about the war in Iraq.

Bay Area Houston claims the race for Houston mayor is now about race.

Texas is the first state to conduct testing of citizens to determine if their health symptoms are caused from exposure to drilling toxins. But TXsharon is not sure this is such a great idea. Find out why on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees a political disconnect between incarceration and rehabilitation within America's "big business prison system". Follow through and accountability are casualties of creative budgeting in the criminal justice system with furlough programs, commutations and pardons BACKLASH. Maurice Clemmons was but a single example of a mentally unstable felon. Where was his follow up? Where was his parole officer? Where was the mental health infrastructure that could have defused this violent explosion?

Neil at Texas Liberal asked who are the Democrats running for Houston municipal offices in the runoff election, and who among the Democrats is someone a liberal can support. The post also features pictures and paintings of scenes of gambling as any election is little more than a spin of the wheel.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees tea parties and general batsh*t craziness in Nueces County with Club for Growth guy leading the Republican Party.

Teddy at Left of College Station covers the political maneuvering in local Republican primaries, and writes about Obama's War: Choosing Escalation and Occupation. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

nytexan at Bluebloggin clearly states "I'm Sick of War." As I listen to Obama's speech to increase troops in Afghanistan, all I can think of is that the US has been in some kind of war my entire life. Just so you know, I was born between the Korean War and the Vietnam War. We are a war nation. No way to get around it.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts about a conversation over Thanksgiving weekend with two Houston Republicans, or Why Bill White can win.

This was Dickens on the Strand weekend in Galveston and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs took a break from politics and spent the weekend on the island. Here are a few photos from the festival.

Charles of Off the Kuff spent much of the week engaged in an email debate on the Texas Tribune with conservative blogger David Benzion over the merits of Bill White as mayor of Houston and potentially governor of Texas.

liberaltexan reports on political maneuverings in Republican primaries. It seems that the race for Texas state Senate District Five is getting complicated. Check it out at TexasKaos.

The Texas Cloverleaf offered its prediction on whether Bill White would run for Governor. 1-0! Yes!

WhosPlayin thinks the Texas Railroad Commission is on a 'power trip', intervening in the placement of power lines bringing renewable energy to Texas population centers -- ostensibly because the lines might cross over abandoned oil and gas wells, or land that might be used for oil and gas wells in the future.

Lieberman delighted Obama did not mention public option

As President Obama finished his speech to the Democratic caucus in the Capitol's Mansfield Room on Sunday afternoon, Joe Lieberman made his way over to Harry Reid.

The independent who still caucuses with Democrats wanted to point something out to the Majority Leader: Obama didn't mention the public option.

Lieberman was beaming as he left the room and happy to re-point it out when HuffPost asked him what Obama had said about the public health insurance option, perhaps the most contentious issue still facing Democrats as they negotiate their way toward a final health care reform bill.

Must... Resist ... Homicidal... Instinct ...

Obama's reluctance to stand up for the public option has been a source of contention between Reid, who is pushing for it, and Obama. Reid has asked five progressive senators and five conservatives to work out a compromise on the public option. The group will meet again Sunday afternoon, though without guidance from the president.

White House spokesman Bill Burton also mentioned insurance reform and affordability in his statement about the meeting, but neglected to mention the public option. "The president thanked members of the Senate for their hard work so far and encouraged them to continue forward on this historic opportunity to provide stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage for those who don't and bring down the cost of health care for families, small businesses and the government," he said.

Reid, as well as Tom Harkin -- a strong supporter of the public option -- are saying 'don't read too much into this'.

OK, I'll try not to do that. But I'm convinced that if the Senate passes healthcare reform legislation without it and Obama signs it, he won't be re-elected in 2012. Nobody else in the Congress who abandons their electoral base in such in-your-face fashion should reasonably expect to, either.

Especially if this were to follow his Afghanistan decision, liberals and progressives and independents of like mind simply will not vote for him again. Count on it.

Monday Toons (left over from Sunday)

Copenhagen opens today

First: ignore the simpering of conservatives about their misunderstanding of the e-mails they hacked. It's just the latest display of their deep, powerful and appalling dishonesty and ignorance.


Now then ...

The largest and most important U.N. climate change conference in history opened Monday, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that this could be the best last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.

The two-week conference, the climax of two years of contentious negotiations, convened in an upbeat mood after a series of promises by rich and emerging economies to curb their greenhouse gases, but with major issues yet to be resolved.

Conference president Connie Hedegaard said the key to an agreement is finding a way to raise and channel public and private financing to poor countries for years to come to help them fight the effects of climate change.

Hedegaard — Denmark's former climate minister — said if governments miss their chance at the Copenhagen summit, a better opportunity may never come.

"This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we got a new and better one. If we ever do," she said.

Denmark's prime minister said 110 heads of state and government will attend the final days of the conference. President Barack Obama's decision to attend the end of the conference, not the middle, was taken as a signal that an agreement was getting closer.

Need some basic understanding of "cap-and-trade" legislation? Here.

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

A few things I have collected to share with you ...

-- 350.org is organizing a weekend's worth of action beginning this Friday.

-- The Associated Press is aggregating their stories on this Facebook page. Everything there is worth a click, including the climate-deniers' efforts.

-- Fifty newspapers worldwide are running this editorial, but in the United States only the Miami Herald chose to participate.

Dickens pics

The chalkboard reads "Baby Pirate College Fund"


Not Cinderella.


Galveston's next mayor Joe Jaworski on horseshit patrol.


The Elissa's mainmast and sails.


Some of Jean Lafitte's crew.

More here, courtesy our friend Lisa D.

Fate of public option may be known today

This is it -- or close to it. mcjoan at the Great Orange Satan:

========================

(Friday) night Senate leadership brought together key progressive and ConservaDems to try to find middle ground.

On hand were Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)--who's been trying to broker a compromise between competing factions for months--Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)--who's been floating a potential compromise modeled on Olympia Snowe's trigger--and Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Ben Nelson (D-NE).

According to Rockefeller, the range of views is an indication that things are coming down to the wire.

"There's no question about that," Rockefeller told reporters. "This should have started a long time ago and thankfully Harry Reid caught it in time to put us together."

Those in attendance were tight-lipped about the developments, describing the meetings, in broad terms, as positive and productive.

Meanwhile, Lieberman isn't budging on the public option--no way no how in any form regardless of triggers or anything else. It seems like Blanche Lincoln has decided to take the same position:

"I’ve been very clear, I don’t support a public option that is government-funded or government-run that puts the taxpayer at risk in the long run," Lincoln said.

The Arkansas lawmaker said she would even oppose setting the public option to a trigger if the insurance program ultimately implemented would be controlled or funded by the government.

We're back where we started. Any kind of trigger that would be acceptable to Snowe would probably have to be her trigger, the Catch-22 designed to never trigger. To meet Lincoln's standard, it would have to not be a public option at all, and to lose any administrative operating advantage it would have, rendering it pretty toothless in terms of competing with private industry. Could there be a trigger that would work, a la the Urban Institute paper? Sure, in a world where these same obstructionist "moderate" Republicans and ConservaDems would agree to a strong public option that would actually be triggered. These guys won't even agree to the opt-out, so that seems highly unlikely.

It would appear that progressives are taking as hard a line in these negotiations, that continued (Saturday) morning.

On Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the staunchest public option supporter, indicated that he will not concede anything.

He said a morning meeting with Senate leadership was about telling them "that there have been a number of compromises already on the public option and enough is enough. We've compromised enough."

"My own view is we need to strengthen the public option, not weaken it from where we are now," he said, adding that he wasn't sure whether there would be another meeting.

Sanders was seen huddling with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), another public option supporter, outside the conference room this morning, discussing their talking points before walking into the meeting.

Brown has urged Obama to get more involved in the negotiations, hoping that a personal pitch from the president will move reluctant members of the caucus.

That could happen (Sunday), as Obama is scheduled to meet with the entire caucus (today) at 2:00.

============================

Here's what Harry Reid said about Aetna dropping 650,000 policies people.

The Senate goes into session at noon today, so call Cornyn and Hutchison and tell them what to you think.

Sunday Funnies

Dickens weekend

"Dickens descendant helps Strand festival’s revival":

The London friends of best-selling British author Lucinda Hawksley could not understand why she suddenly decided to travel to what they considered an small, obscure provincial hamlet in Texas.

“They looked at me like I was mad,” Hawksley recalled in an interview.

Hawksley is making her first trip to Galveston's annual celebration of Charles Dickens, Dickens on The Strand, because her middle name is Dickens. She is the great-great-great granddaughter of the famous writer and members of her family have been attending the two-day celebration that begins today for more than a decade.

The 36-year-old festival, with visitors and entertainers roaming the streets in Victorian-era costumes, is returning to its full 10-square-block area with more than 150 vendors for the first time since Hurricane Ike wrecked Galveston in September 2008, drowning The Strand Historic District in 10 feet of water. Last year's celebration was restricted to The Strand because most of the shops in the Historic District were still repairing damage.

This is Texas' best street festival of the year, and I won't miss it for the rest of my life. We're driving down to the island today and staying over night.

Advance ticket sales this year are about 80 percent of sales at the same time in 2007, when 33,000 attended Dickens on The Strand, said Molly Dannenmaier, spokeswoman for the event sponsor, the Galveston Historical Foundation. Foundation officials were pleasantly surprised that 22,000 visitors showed for last year's truncated celebration.

Officials are hoping that clear weather predicted for today and new attractions like an exhibit from the Charles Dickens Museum in London and screenings of the musical film A Tale of Two Cities, based on Dickens' famous novel, will draw crowds from Houston.

The special events this year are greatly enhanced -- Victorian bed races and exhibits from the London Dickens museum among them. More on that at the end of this excerpt.

Drawing an accomplished author like Hawksley, who has written or coauthored 20 nonfiction books, was unexpected. Her parents, who have attended Dickens on the Strand in the past, had been scheduled to represent the Dickens family. But they were unable to attend and asked Hawksley to come in their stead. “I was really excited to get the chance,” said Hawksley, who admits to being amazed when she first learned that Charles Dickens was being honored in a small, island city in Texas.

Hawksley is known for two biographies: Katey, theLife and Loves of Dickens Artist Daughter, and Lizzie Siddal: Face of the Pre-Raphaelites, which she describes as the story of “a working-class girl who rose from obscurity to become one of the most recognizable faces in Queen Victoria's Britain.”

She is also a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London, which has sent to Galveston two curators and a number of valuable artifacts, including a partially completed painting, Dickens Dream so rare that it's being kept under lock and key at an undisclosed island bank when not on display.

Also on display is one of the quill pens Dickens used and the court costume he wore when he was presented to Queen Victoria.

See you there.

What's Kinky going to say on Monday?

Ross Ramsey thinks he'll slide down the ballot and challenge Hank Gilbert. First, Friedman's statement about today's events ...

"I think that all of these things are good for the party and good for the ticket. We all want new leadership in Austin and I think each candidate should be evaluating how best to achieve that. Everyone on the ticket or thinking of joining the ticket should be thinking about what will be best for Democrats in November. We will take the weekend to visit with all of the candidates, my advisors, and many of my supporters and have an announcement about how I believe I can best support our party on Monday."

Follow that with this:

Don't be surprised if he moves to another race. And don't forget that one of the people in this particular smoke-filled room is former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, who knows a little something about one of the agencies on the ballot.

Ever since Tom Schieffer dropped out of the race — he endorsed Houston Mayor Bill White on the way out — the Democrats have been talking about changes on the ballot. With two seriously well-finance candidates in the governor's race — Shami and White — there are millions of incentives for the other candidates to find something else to do. After an initial meeting with state party Chairman Boyd Richie, nobody moved. But reality is setting in, and there are open slots on the ballot that need to be filled by people — people who might otherwise get pureed in a contest that includes two candidates with big treasuries.

A bit of ballet lies ahead if Friedman wants to run for agriculture commissioner. Gilbert endorsed Shami and Shami "accepted" his endorsment and said nice things about him. But he didn't endorse Gilbert for ag commissioner. Shami is a longtime business associate of John McCall, who was Friedman's financial angel in the 2006 race for governor. McCall hasn't been nearly as generous this time around — you have to wonder if that has anything to do with having two friends in the same race — and might be more comfortable if Friedman ran for, say, ag commissioner. As long as there's no deal to break between Shami and Gilbert, that could work.

To that I say "harumph". If Kinky drops out of the governor's race and wants another statewide position, then I think he ought to run for land commissioner, like K-T (no disrespect to Bill Burton).

Truth to tell ... I'd just as soon see him go away.