Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Cenk Uygur explains why he parted company with MSNBC
Link this video to the definition of integrity in the dictionary.
Speaking on his "Young Turks" show, Uygur said that, though the ratings for his show had been satisfying MSNBC executives, his "tone" had not. According to his version of events, his departure from the network was the culmination of a lengthy struggle with MSNBC management who wanted him to be more buttoned down.
Uygur said that, in April, MSNBC president Phil Griffin called him in for a talk. Griffin allegedly told him that "people in Washington" were concerned with his tone on the show.
"'Outsiders are cool, but we're the establishment,'" Griffin said, according to Uygur, who said he was also told to book more Republicans on the show. He claimed to have been stunned by the conversation, and said he ignored Griffin's advice.
Though his ratings increased, Uygur said that, a couple of weeks ago, he was informed that he would not be getting the permanent slot at 6 PM, but was instead offered a smaller contributor role for twice the salary. He said he turned it down because, in his words, he did not want to work at a place "that didn't want to challenge power."
See you on Current, Cenk.
Update: More Cenk, from the Sunday 7/24 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources ...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Sylvia Garcia v. Mario Gallegos
It doesn't quite crackle like Castro versus Doggett, but it would be a significant development all the same. Republican handicapper Robert Miller:
Mike Hailey's Capitol Inside scored Jara's Campaign Strategies Inc. as the most influential Democratic political consultant in the state in 2008. (2010? Not so much.) Jara was also the fellow who drew the 2011 Houston city council map for district J, an Hispanic pickup opportunity district. And speaking of Hailey and CI (subs. req.) with respect to Gallegos and Garcia ...
And there's that troublesome money race mentioned again, the one that Sylvia leads 10-1.
My opinion? Best of good health in your retirement, Mario.
Update: Dan McClung, Jara's partner at Campaign Strategies, issued the following denial this afternoon.
Former Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia is quietly mulling whether to run against Sen. Mario Gallegos, although no decision has been made or is necessarily imminent. Garcia reported $751,601 cash on hand as of June 30; Gallegos reported $71,190 cash on hand. They both use Robert Jara as their consultant, so it will be interesting to watch this unfold.
Mike Hailey's Capitol Inside scored Jara's Campaign Strategies Inc. as the most influential Democratic political consultant in the state in 2008. (2010? Not so much.) Jara was also the fellow who drew the 2011 Houston city council map for district J, an Hispanic pickup opportunity district. And speaking of Hailey and CI (subs. req.) with respect to Gallegos and Garcia ...
Two longtime friends and allies could become adversaries if former Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia decides to challenge State Senator Mario Gallegos in the Democratic primary election in 2012.
Garcia - the first woman ever elected to the commissioners court in the state's largest county - has been weighing a possible bid for the Texas Senate but keeping the deliberations under wraps on what could turn out to be a very touchy subject in Hispanic political circles from Houston to Austin.
While Senate incumbents are usually big favorites in re-election campaigns, Garcia has the potential to be Gallegos' worst nightmare from a political perspective if she runs against him in next year's primary.
Garcia and Gallegos have been two of the most prominent forces in Latino politics in the state's largest metropolitan area for much of the past two decades. They've also been good friends as evidenced when the veteran legislator was sworn in by Garcia as "governor for the day" in 2007 when Gallegos had been serving as Senate pro tem.
And there's that troublesome money race mentioned again, the one that Sylvia leads 10-1.
Garcia would arguably be the toughest foe that Gallegos has faced at the polls in a 20-year legislative career. Garcia would not only match the incumbent in name ID, she'd enter a primary fight with a substantial edge in funding. The ex-commissioner had a $750,000 surplus in her campaign account at the end of last month while Gallegos reported cash on hand of $72,000 on June 30 - the lowest amount for a state senator in Texas.
My opinion? Best of good health in your retirement, Mario.
Update: Dan McClung, Jara's partner at Campaign Strategies, issued the following denial this afternoon.
Senator Mario Gallegos and former Commissioner Sylvia Garcia are longtime friends and strong political allies. They are also both decades-long clients and friends of this firm, and as its Senior Partner, I have spoken with both this morning and each has asked me to say to you and others that a race between them is not a possibility.
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Weekly Wrangle
The Texas Progressive Alliance congratulates Japan for its hard-earned victory in the women's World Cup championship as it brings you this week's roundup.
Off the Kuff wonders how big the next state deficit will be. Because we're surely going to have one.
McBlogger takes a look at the Republicans' most recent effort to give us RyanFraud.
As rumors of a Rick Perry presidential bid grow stronger, brace yourself for the Perry propaganda. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme has officially warned you.
With Ron Paul's declination to run again for Congress, a muddy scrum broke out for the vacancy he leaves in CD-14. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs collects the names of some of the rumored entrants.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows us that the GOP's governing scheme continues: preach fiscal conservatism all the while running up debt to historic levels. Texas' debt has exploded under Perry.
Neil at Texas Liberal notes that Republican Texas Agriculture Commissioner and lt. governor wannabe Todd Staples loves federal money. Neil also observed that Texas counties that voted strongly Republican in 2010 also love federal money.
Off the Kuff wonders how big the next state deficit will be. Because we're surely going to have one.
McBlogger takes a look at the Republicans' most recent effort to give us RyanFraud.
As rumors of a Rick Perry presidential bid grow stronger, brace yourself for the Perry propaganda. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme has officially warned you.
With Ron Paul's declination to run again for Congress, a muddy scrum broke out for the vacancy he leaves in CD-14. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs collects the names of some of the rumored entrants.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows us that the GOP's governing scheme continues: preach fiscal conservatism all the while running up debt to historic levels. Texas' debt has exploded under Perry.
Neil at Texas Liberal notes that Republican Texas Agriculture Commissioner and lt. governor wannabe Todd Staples loves federal money. Neil also observed that Texas counties that voted strongly Republican in 2010 also love federal money.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
On loyalty
Greg and I are having a little digression about who's better and who's worse than whom when it comes to God in a prior post. Matt's chiming in. I wrote the following elsewhere this morning, inspired by the photo there, and thought I'd bring it back over here and expand on it some.
Loyalty -- patriotism and pride and its other synonyms -- and the corresponding boost it gives to one's self-respect is inculcated from early age, certainly in the US, perhaps in other countries. The first complete sentence most of us learn as children is the Pledge of Allegiance, because we recited it each morning from first grade (kindergarten?) forward. "Be true to your school". "Texas Pride" (there used to be a beer named this). Lee Greenwood's song.
There once was a distinct separation of Godliness from patriotism in American public schools; there was when I came through, anyway. Yes, the Pledge added "under God" in 1954 and that development was about ten years old when I began school, but the first time I can recall the two intersecting -- 'colliding' is probably better -- was when I caught myself staring at two Jehovah's Witnesses in my (new school to me) third grade class who stayed in their seats for the Pledge. But today loyalty is increasingly intertwined with religiosity in American public life.
It may be the seed that grows into the conservative notion of American exceptionalism. "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch of MLB games now gets the same treatment as the National Anthem: players, umpires, fans remove caps, stand at attention, place hands over hearts. Football players point at the sky after scoring touchdowns, baseball players regularly thank God for their home run right off the bat (pun) in postgame interviews, nearly every public gathering of any kind opens with the Pledge or a prayer or both.
This sort of public, prominent demonstration of the depth of one's faith used to be met with mild scorn. "Jesus freaks", they were called. Today that gets met with an aggressive victimology by Christians. "How dare these Godless heathens criticize our right to pray in public?!"
A much more unfortunate development is the advance of Christianism into the political realm. Our most recent example is, of course, Rick Perry's "Response". A sitting governor organizes a prayer event in a football stadium ... and oddly chooses to exclude from it religions that aren't Christian, that did not immigrate to North America with Caucasians.
And it is increasingly part of the premise that not comporting oneself in this new tradition leaves one open to be criticized as disloyal -- unpatriotic, un-American, anti-American. Dare not even suggest that this trend might be inappropriate for the health of our republican democracy.
I'd rather write more exclusively about politics but for a moment it'll be about my religious experience growing up, so my own motivations might be better understood..
The concept of one Christian denomination being better than another was also introduced to me early on, in my father's failed attempts to indoctrinate me into his Church of Christ. The preachers (they never called them pastors) and the church elders and deacons regularly assailed the Catholic church for its false god, the Baptists and the Methodists for using musical accompaniment, and the Pentecostals and Jehovahs for just being plain crazy. I was as appalled at this behavior as I was at the notion that there was an invisible man in the clouds who could see everything I had ever done, hear and remember everything I ever said, kept a ledger of it all and was prepared at any moment to pass judgment on me with it (along with everybody else in the world).
You know, when you're a 'tween and you're trying to get your rocks off and that idea suddenly enters your head, it's over. (But I never was much for guilt either. No percentage in it for me.) When I got older and thought this out a bit more, one of the conclusions I reached was that there must be a real backlog of cases in that courtroom.
Everybody has probably had, at least once, a tyrant for a boss in their working life -- the closest equivalent to a vengeful, vindictive God, perhaps -- but to choose to live at the tip of that spear for the entirety of one's life on Earth? Under pain of eternal Hell? Seems like a pretty miserable existence. I always felt a little better about the red print in the New Testament, and the words of Mohandas Gandhi: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
There are a couple of movies which come pretty close to inspiring my current ideas about religion: Defending Your Life, with Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, and Rip Torn; and Dogma with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and George Carlin as a pompous, publicity-seeking Catholic cardinal.
Anywho I need to get some semblance of work done this morning so I'm going to stop here and maybe pick it up again with an update to this or in the comments, depending on what reactions it draws.
Update: Ahh, just the reaction I was expecting. None.
Loyalty -- patriotism and pride and its other synonyms -- and the corresponding boost it gives to one's self-respect is inculcated from early age, certainly in the US, perhaps in other countries. The first complete sentence most of us learn as children is the Pledge of Allegiance, because we recited it each morning from first grade (kindergarten?) forward. "Be true to your school". "Texas Pride" (there used to be a beer named this). Lee Greenwood's song.
There once was a distinct separation of Godliness from patriotism in American public schools; there was when I came through, anyway. Yes, the Pledge added "under God" in 1954 and that development was about ten years old when I began school, but the first time I can recall the two intersecting -- 'colliding' is probably better -- was when I caught myself staring at two Jehovah's Witnesses in my (new school to me) third grade class who stayed in their seats for the Pledge. But today loyalty is increasingly intertwined with religiosity in American public life.
It may be the seed that grows into the conservative notion of American exceptionalism. "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch of MLB games now gets the same treatment as the National Anthem: players, umpires, fans remove caps, stand at attention, place hands over hearts. Football players point at the sky after scoring touchdowns, baseball players regularly thank God for their home run right off the bat (pun) in postgame interviews, nearly every public gathering of any kind opens with the Pledge or a prayer or both.
This sort of public, prominent demonstration of the depth of one's faith used to be met with mild scorn. "Jesus freaks", they were called. Today that gets met with an aggressive victimology by Christians. "How dare these Godless heathens criticize our right to pray in public?!"
A much more unfortunate development is the advance of Christianism into the political realm. Our most recent example is, of course, Rick Perry's "Response". A sitting governor organizes a prayer event in a football stadium ... and oddly chooses to exclude from it religions that aren't Christian, that did not immigrate to North America with Caucasians.
And it is increasingly part of the premise that not comporting oneself in this new tradition leaves one open to be criticized as disloyal -- unpatriotic, un-American, anti-American. Dare not even suggest that this trend might be inappropriate for the health of our republican democracy.
I'd rather write more exclusively about politics but for a moment it'll be about my religious experience growing up, so my own motivations might be better understood..
The concept of one Christian denomination being better than another was also introduced to me early on, in my father's failed attempts to indoctrinate me into his Church of Christ. The preachers (they never called them pastors) and the church elders and deacons regularly assailed the Catholic church for its false god, the Baptists and the Methodists for using musical accompaniment, and the Pentecostals and Jehovahs for just being plain crazy. I was as appalled at this behavior as I was at the notion that there was an invisible man in the clouds who could see everything I had ever done, hear and remember everything I ever said, kept a ledger of it all and was prepared at any moment to pass judgment on me with it (along with everybody else in the world).
You know, when you're a 'tween and you're trying to get your rocks off and that idea suddenly enters your head, it's over. (But I never was much for guilt either. No percentage in it for me.) When I got older and thought this out a bit more, one of the conclusions I reached was that there must be a real backlog of cases in that courtroom.
Everybody has probably had, at least once, a tyrant for a boss in their working life -- the closest equivalent to a vengeful, vindictive God, perhaps -- but to choose to live at the tip of that spear for the entirety of one's life on Earth? Under pain of eternal Hell? Seems like a pretty miserable existence. I always felt a little better about the red print in the New Testament, and the words of Mohandas Gandhi: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
There are a couple of movies which come pretty close to inspiring my current ideas about religion: Defending Your Life, with Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, and Rip Torn; and Dogma with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and George Carlin as a pompous, publicity-seeking Catholic cardinal.
Anywho I need to get some semblance of work done this morning so I'm going to stop here and maybe pick it up again with an update to this or in the comments, depending on what reactions it draws.
Update: Ahh, just the reaction I was expecting. None.
Annie Savoy: I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring... which makes it like sex. ... I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
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