The Audacity of Dopes

Some of my other favorite captions ...

-- The difference between crap and shit

-- "I thought I was in Non-Fiction ..."

-- Approved reading by the Texas SBOE

-- "Anyone dare me to autograph them?"

Scenes from the SD-17 convention

The Mayde Creek high school NROTC color guard presents the colors.



Two of the over 240 registered delegates.



Keynote speaker (and next governor of Texas) Bill White
addresses the convention.



Felicity Pereyra conducts VAN training.

White, 2006 gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, and HD-134 Rep. Ellen Cohen in a (not-quite-private) moment.

The freedom to be screwed

Randy Noogie-Booger

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) has come forward and admitted that he was the one who yelled "baby killer" during the House debate on the health care bill last night.

In his statement, Neugeubauer said that he meant to refer to the bill as "a baby killer," not Stupak himself. That said, he has apologized to Stupak.

Neugebauer was first elected to Congress in a spring 2003 special election, after having previously worked in real estate and served on the Lubbock city council. In 2004, after the controversial mid-decade redistricting engineered by Tom DeLay, Neugebauer defeated long-time Blue Dog Democratic Rep. Charlie Stenholm by 58%-40% in a reconfigured district.

It should be noted that in addition to the "baby killer" outburst, Neugebauer is also a sponsor of the so-called "Birther Bill," introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), to require presidential candidates "to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution."

Neugebauer's district is solidly Republican, having voted 72%-27% for John McCain in 2008, and 77%-22% for George W. Bush in 2004. Neugebauer was re-elected with 72% of the vote in 2008.

Obviously it's not just that Noogie-Booger is a fool, it's also the people in West Texas who keep electing him. More from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (courtesy Lubbock Left, who also shares the link to the TX-19th's Democratic challenger, Andy Wilson). I lived for a few years in this district; it's all wide open spaces and cotton fields beyond Lubbock. Farmers. Ranchers.

You know why they call it God's country? Because nobody else wants to live there.

Monday Funnies

Pre-Celebratory Health Care Reform Victory Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog roundup will reach 32 million more Americans regardless of their pre-existing conditions.

Last week TXsharon at BLUEDAZE made a video statement at the EPA public hearing on the proposed ozone standards.

Who needs a proctologist when you have former state representative Rick Green running for the Texas Supreme Court? John Coby at Bay Area Houston has a bigger-than-usual pain in his ass.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy looks at the voter turnout in the Bryan and College Station municipal elections and has to ask the question: does minority rule? Teddy also unpacks the misleading poll on health care reform that the Chamber of Commerce commissioned to attack Democrats in conservative congressional districts. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know why monuments to racism and fear are so important to Republicans. Why not spend taxpayer dollars on something constructive like education or health care?

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the continuation of skyrocketing homeowners insurance rates in Texas: Homeowners insurance corporations - increasing our pain while Perry, GOP sit idly by.

Off the Kuff writes about tough times for school districts. Get ready for another school finance lawsuit, because it's coming sooner or later.

The Texas Cloverleaf tells the Dallas Trinity Tollers I told ya so.

Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report has covered Rick Perry's "secret" border plan in great detail -- namely, the lies and politics the governor has thrust into a very serious and dangerous situation along the Texas-Mexico border. Be sure to read Rick Perry's Political Grandstanding Misrepresents Definition of "Spillover Violence and follow the links at the bottom of that post to learn much, much more.

WhosPlayin's story last week about a tax-dodging Lewisville city councilman resulted in a tearful admission at the next council meeting, where news cameras were running. WhosPlayin follows up on the results of that meeting, and analyzes the media coverage and truthfulness of the councilman in his response.

As if rising sea levels, stronger hurricanes, and more extreme weather events weren't bad enough... not the Golden Cheeked Warbler too! Texas Vox is sad to report this week that birds of a feather feel the heat from climate change.

A little March madness in the form of preparations for his Senate district convention overtook PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, and he lumped in two updates on the campaigns of Bill White and Lakeisha Rogers (completely unrelated, trust him).

LibbyShaw over at TexasKaos checks in on Rep. Louie Gohmert, who in speaking to a Tea Bagger rally "declared that 'demons'" -- yes, demons -- "have invaded the capital (and likely the souls of Democrats), forcing lawmakers to mislead the public about the content of the health care bill." Check out the rest of the fun here: TX U.S. House Rep: "Demons have Invaded the Capital".

On boldness

Rarely does the government, that big, clumsy, poorly regarded oaf, pull off anything short of war that touches all lives with one act, one stroke of a president's pen. Such a moment now seems near.

After a year of riotous argument, decades of failure and a century of spoiled hopes, the United States is reaching for a system of medical care that extends coverage nearly to all citizens. The change that's coming, if Sunday's tussle in the House goes President Barack Obama's way, would reshape a sixth of the economy and shatter the status quo.

To the ardent liberal, Obama's health care plan is a shadow of what should have been, sapped by dispiriting downsizing and trade-offs.

To the loud foe on the right, it is a dreadful expansion of the nanny state.

To history, it is likely to be judged alongside the boldest acts of presidents and Congress in the pantheon of domestic affairs. Think of the guaranteed federal pensions of Social Security, socialized medicine for the old and poor, the civil rights remedies to inequality.

I'm not certain I like it any better when the AP is calling Obama 'bold' any more than I did when they repeatedly referred to Dubya with that adjective. "Bold" didn't appropriately portray the decision to go to war on false pretenses, to say nothing about unintended (?) consequences like torture and warrantless wiretapping and so on.

Judging by the frothing insanity of conservatives' latest behavior, however, he must be bold as hell.

Here's the latest schedule associated with the legislation ...

From the House Democratic Caucus meeting, this from House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-CT). He says "shortly after 2, we will have an hour of debate on the rule." This is the rule to allow reconcilation to get to the floor.

They would then vote on the rule, sans deem and pass. He then says there will then be "two hours of debate on the bill."

Larson did not elude to passing the Senate bill later. But he did say they would do this "in the light of day."

In conclusion, Larson added that the Senate bill "will become law tomorrow evening with the president's signature."

If you're trying to time your watching or your DVR-ing, that would be debate on the rule of reconciliation beginning "shortly after" 1:00-2:00 p.m. CDT, that vote followed by two hours of debate on the bill itself (2-4 p.m. Central), and then on to the thrilling conclusion.