The Weekly Wet (!) Wrangle

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Off the Kuff took a look at demographic change in one of Houston's historic neighborhoods.

Harold Cook at Letters From Texas takes a look back at old friend Molly Ivins, when he reviews a new book just released about her. His conclusion: "if you ever spent evenings with Molly, reading the book will give you the gift of spending one more. Even better, if you never got to spend that evening with Molly, you're in luck - after reading the book, you'll feel just like you did."

Bay Area Houston has an interesting audio clip of Teabag darling Galveston County tax assessor/collector Cheryl Johnson.

Justice finally arrives for a man falsely convicted 25 yreas ago in Williamson County. WCNews at Eye On Williamson has the story: Michael Morton walks free after 25 years behind bars.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme observes that Texas Republicans hate the elderly, workers, children and women.

Occupy Houston, the solidarity march and protest which grew out of the continuing Occupy Wall Street action, was covered by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at Texas Liberal also reported on the first day of Occupy Houston. It is great that something hopeful is finally taking place in our politics. The Occupy Wall Street movement gets the idea that the work of freedom and democracy is up to each of us.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw writes: "Poor Rick Perry thought he could easily preen, charm and tall-tale his way through the 2012 Republican presidential primary cycle. Unfortunately for the governor, he has not been outside of his impenetrable Texas GOP bubble much. Perry, in fact, spends so much time with his crony donors that he obviously has no clue what the other 99% of the population believes." Read more: Rick Perry: Razzle, Dazzle, Snap, Crackle and Flop.

Sunday Occupied Territory Funnies

Historical comparisons to Occupy Wall Street and the Bonus Army March of 1932

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's comments -- as well as House Minority Leader Eric Cantor's -- prompt this post*, with the history-repeats-itself aspects left to you to interpret.

Hard economic times always incur a certain amount of social dislocation and consequently create opportunities for politically extreme movements.

There were many instances of labor unrest and strikes that turned violent, incidents that prompted temporary mobilizations of state National Guards.

There were also instances where regular Army troops were called out in aid of the civil power. The worst incident of this type was the Bonus Army March in Washington in the summer of 1932.

At the end of World War One, as the American Expeditionary Force was being demobilized, a grateful U.S. government passed legislation that authorized the payment of cash bonuses to war veterans, adjusted for length of service; a bond that matured 20 years later, in 1945.

However, the Crash of 1929 wiped out many veterans' savings and jobs, forcing them out into the streets. Groups of veterans began to organize and petition the government to pay them their cash bonus immediately.

In the spring of 1932, during the worst part of the Great Depression, a group of 300 veterans in Portland, Oregon organized by an ex-sergeant named Walter W. Walters named itself the 'Bonus Expeditionary Force' or 'Bonus Army', and began traveling across the country to Washington to lobby the government personally.

By the end of May over 3,000 veterans and their families had made their way to Washington, D.C. Most of them lived in a collection of makeshift huts and tents on the mud flats by the Anacostia River outside the city limits. Similar encampments could be found sheltering the migrant unemployed and poor outside any large city in the United States and were called 'Hoovervilles'. By July, almost 25,000 people lived in Anacostia, making it the largest one in the country.

There are over 1000 Occupy protests in cities across the world, with the largest one in the United States outside of New York in Portland, Oregon. Ten thousand people -- ten thousand! -- turned out in the Rose City this past Thursday. By contrast, Houston had at most 500.

In June, the Patman Bonus Bill, which proposed immediate payment of the veterans' cash bonuses, was debated in the House of Representatives. There was stiff resistance from Republicans loyal to President Hoover, as the estimated cost of the bill was over $2 billion and the Hoover Administration was adamant about maintaining a balanced budget. The bill passed in the Congress on June 15, but was defeated in the Senate only two days later. In response, almost 20,000 veterans slowly shuffled up and down Pennsylvania Avenue for three days in a protest local newspapers titled the 'Death March.'

As the weather and the rhetoric grew hotter, concern grew that the Bonus Army Marchers could cause widespread civil disorder and violence. There were scuffles with the police and some Senators' cars were stoned by unruly crowds of veterans.

Retired Marine General Smedley Butler, an immensely popular figure among veterans and who had become a vocal opponent of the Hoover Administration, participated in Bonus Army demonstrations and made inflammatory speeches.

He would be approached in 1933 by Fascist sympathizers in the American Legion, who would try to involve him in an actual plot to seize power in a coup d'etat. It was alleged at the time that the March was directed by the Communist Party of the USA in pursuit of a genuine revolution, but it has since been established that the Party's only actual involvement was sending a small number of agitators and speakers.

Nevertheless, President Hoover considered the Bonus Army Marchers a threat to public order and his personal safety. After the closing ceremonies for that session of Congress on July 16, many members left the Capitol building through underground tunnels to avoid facing the demonstrators outside.

Many of the Marchers left Washington then, but there were still over 10,000 angry, restless veterans in the streets. On July 28, 1932, two veterans were shot and killed by panicked policemen in a riot at the bottom of Capitol Hill.

Care to guess what happened next? Emphasis in the next excerpt is mine.

Hoover told Ralph Furley, the Secretary of War, to tell General Douglas MacArthur, then the Army Chief of Staff, that he wished the Bonus Army Marchers evicted from Washington. Troops from nearby Forts Myer and Washington were ordered in to remove the Bonus Army Marchers from the streets by force.

One battalion from the 12th Infantry Regiment and two squadrons of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Major George S. Patton, who had taken over as second in command of the Regiment less than three weeks earlier, concentrated at the Ellipse just west of the White House. At 4:00 p.m. the infantrymen donned gas masks and fixed bayonets, the cavalry drew sabers, and the whole force, followed by several light tanks, moved down Pennsylvania Avenue to clear it of people.

Against the advice of his assistant, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, MacArthur had taken personal command of the operation. President Hoover had ordered MacArthur to clear Pennsylvania Avenue only, but MacArthur immediately began to clear all of downtown Washington, herding the Marchers out and torching their huts and tents. Tear gas was used liberally and many bricks were thrown, but no shots were fired during the entire operation. By 8:00 p.m. the downtown area had been cleared and the bridge across the Anacostia River -- leading to the Hooverville where most of the Marchers lived -- was blocked by several tanks.

That evening Hoover sent duplicate orders via two officers to MacArthur forbidding him to cross the Anacostia to clear the Marchers' camp, but MacArthur flatly ignored the President's orders, saying that he was 'too busy' and could not be 'bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders'.

MacArthur crossed the Anacostia at 11:00 p.m., routed the marchers along with 600 of their wives and children out of the camp, and burned it to the ground. Then, incredibly, he called a press conference at midnight where he praised Hoover for taking the responsibility for giving the order to clear the camp.

He said: "Had the President not acted within 24 hours, he would have been faced with a very grave situation, which would have caused a real battle. Had he waited another week, I believe the institutions of our government would have been threatened."

Secretary of War Furley was present at this conference and praised MacArthur for his action in clearing the camp, even though he too was aware that Hoover had given directly contrary orders.

You're not really sitting there with your mouth agape, are you? What's that you say? "Posse Comitatus"?

The Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the U.S. military from being used for general law enforcement purposes in most instances, did not apply to Washington DC because it is one of several pieces of federal property under the direct governance of the U.S. Congress (United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8).

Hmmm. It's starting to make sense now why so many critics of Occupy Together are squalling, "Why don't these people march on Washington?" Wikipedia:

Fifty-five veterans were injured and 135 arrested. A veteran's wife miscarried. When 12-week-old Bernard Myers died in the hospital after being caught in the tear gas attack, a government investigation reported he died of enteritis, while a hospital spokesman said the tear gas "didn't do it any good."

Back to the original for the end.

The last of the Bonus Army Marchers left Washington by the end of the following day.

Be reminded about who (nearly) always wins when a revolution turns violent. And it's not the rebels. Or democracy. And the question -- if that happens -- then becomes: what do we do now?

A Google cache of Bonus Army images.

"Conflicting Versions of the Battle of Anacostia" (.pdf)

Socioeconomic and Political Context of the Plot

*With sincerest thanks to my mother for the history lesson.

Doubting Thomas fundies give Romney another once-over

Reporting from the Values (sic) Voters tent revival summit:

They know they’re not crazy about Mitt Romney. But if the cultural conservatives gathered at a Values Voters Summit this weekend split among Rick Perry and other contenders they do like, it could wind up benefiting the front-running White House hopeful who troubles rather than excites them.

That scenario, playing out on the campaign trail, is on display at the gathering of conservatives who care deeply about abortion, gay marriage and other social issues.

[...]

For the conservative voters at the conference, Romney has a problematic history. He supported abortion rights earlier in his political career and has struggled to explain why he now opposes abortion. He once vowed to be a strong advocate for gays and lesbians – stronger than Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., whom he was then running against. Now, he’s signed a pledge from the National Organization for Marriage to work to pass a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Romney is also a Mormon, a faith that has sparked suspicion among some evangelical conservatives.

“Personally, I know Romney isn’t one of my choices. We saw him four years ago and decided against him,” said Dan Goddu, a software engineer from Nashua, N.H., who attended the Values Voters Summit.

Mittens gets his turn on the podium today. At some point this weekend there will be yet another straw poll. Perry, Santorum, and Cain all took their shots gave their sermons pandered like bears yesterday.

Drawing distinctions from Romney, Texas Gov. Perry told the crowd on Friday, “For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to follow the prevailing political winds.”

Likewise, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum declared, “You know that I have never put social issues and values voters on the back burner. I have been out there fighting and leading the charge.”

Later, the crowd reacted more strongly to former pizza company CEO Herman Cain’s speech than to any of the other candidates. Attendees stood up repeatedly to cheer.

“You can pursue liberty all you want to as long as you don’t tread on somebody else’s life, and that includes the life of the unborn,” he said. Cain also said he was now being criticized because national polls have showed him joining the top tier of candidates.

His reception, Santorum’s pitch and the other conservative candidates’ appearances underscored the problem for Perry, Romney’s chief challenger on the right. The Texan is not the only GOP candidate who can make a plausible case to evangelical Christian conservatives.

That's accurate: Bachmann and Gingrich are going to get an at-bat at some point. I suspect they will do their best Ryan Howard - A-Rod impersonation.

Thus many Doubting Thomas fundavangelicals, in the wake of Perry's implosion and ahead of the field in confronting the reality of the Republican electoral dilemma, are reluctantly kicking Romney's tires again. The real morons -- the mostly secular, libertarian conservatives usually referred to as the Tea Party -- have flocked to Flavor of the Week "Herb" Cain. And they'll stampede like lemmings away from him soon enough.

Can the TP overlook Mitt's many flip-flops? Republicans of all persuasions seem completely capable of ignoring hypocrisy, so I believe the answer is probably yes. Romney-Rubio 2012. (But he'd put Bachmann on the ticket if he had any stones).

And Ron Paul for President on the Libertarian ticket. And Michele Bachmann for President on the Constitution Party ticket.

We need more "third" parties, and we need more people with the courage and conviction to vote FOR third parties.

It's the only way the two-party duopoly will ever change.

How's that for burying the lede?

Occupy Houston yesterday

Wore my black suit, my white shirt, and picked out a tie that I would be most likely not to be upset about if it got ruined -- you know, mud or blood or something -- and jumped the train downtown early yesterday morning to join the march by 8:30 a.m.

I counted about 200 people at the assembly area, walked over to say hello to Richard Shaw of the AFL-CIO, and gave a lengthy interview to a Bloomberg.com reporter who furiously took notes (no camera). She asked me my age, where I was from, what I did for a living, my tax bracket, my annual income ... and whether that was a Hermes tie I was wearing. I said, "I don't think so," and turned it over to look at the label. Neiman Marcus. *heavy sigh*

The march began at nine and we stopped just a few blocks away in front of the Chase tower, chanted "They got bailed out, we got sold out" and some other things while people in the building came out and took pictures of us. There were about 50 yards of empty plaza between us, with a handful of HPD spaced appropriately between. A good video of that scene from FOX 26:



On to City Hall and the reflecting pool grounds in front, where we scaled the steps and got a little louder at the front door before moving back to the top-step staging area. I estimated the crowd at around 500 by now; several people spoke and more announcements about the continuing occupation were made. Around 10:30 a single conservative disruptor with a sign that said "Blame Yourselves!" waded in to the assembly, was surrounded quickly by maybe six HPD officers, escorted several feet back and  maintained his self-appointed police security while a handful of people exchanged vocal pleasantries with him. I left the protest at 11 a.m. with a gritty slime around my neck that was assembling itself to trickle down my back. By the time I made it to the Main Street light rail station in front of the Foley's/Macy's and boarded the southbound, I was whipped. Sore feet, sore back, sweated all the way through the collar to the afore-mentioned neckwear.

I was interviewed by ABC-13, FOX 26, some radio station whose call letters I didn't catch, and the Bloomberg.com reporter mentioned previously (must have been the suit). But I don't appear to have survived any video edits Pardon me. FOX 26 did give me some airtime here (about 1:05 in). I am however also seen but not heard in this one, giving my radio interview starting about the :50 mark.



As previously linked, the Houston FOX affiliate's reporting was thorough and fair and balanced. Really. No, really; they did a good job. More local coverage:

Chron: Protesters target bank, City Hall as Occupation spreads to Houston. With short video and 14 photos. I'm in #9 (number 9, number 9 ... that's odd. Must be the Herman Cain Effect, who was also in town to pimp his book and bad-mouth the protestors' First Amendment exercise. Speaking of exercise, Herm ...) Update: They have added some photos to the slideshow; I'm now #13 of 18.

KTRK: Occupy Wall Street spin-offs come to Texas, including Houston. Houston's ABC affiliate had the best coverage by far. Excellent video report, tying in with the beatdowns in New York. Two more raw videos, one long from the overhead chopper, one short on the ground. 79 photos.

Houston Community Newspapers: OccupyHouston puts ‘civility’ in civil unrest at downtown protest. Nice touch pointing out the kindler, gentler part. The pre-march announcement from the legal team -- about 6-10 green-hatted volunteers -- coached the crowd, emphasizing the "non-violent, non-disruptive" nature of the protest. Since the organizers didn't have a permit, we would repeat instructions to 'stay out of the street and cross in the crosswalk' at the ten or so intersections we navigated between Market Square Park and City Hall. I did this myself, making sure to stand close to the horse-mounted HPD officer so he could hear me as I cautioned the marchers. More than once, a horse stretched his muzzle over to me and sniffed my arm or nibbled at my shirt.

News 2 Houston: Houstonians Protest Big Business. The NBC affiliate locally provides a weak headline, a dry account, and an antiseptic (3b and 4a) video.

If you see any more reports, video, or audio, please add them in the comments.

Update: More from Neil.