Sunday Funnies, European -- or maybe American dog-style -- socialism edition

"Under Romney, dogs are given the freedom to feel the wind in their fur. But under Barack Obama, man's best friend has been forced into government-controlled vehicles..."

I recently finished Robert Frank's Richistan, which provided the inspiration for this one. If you aren't familiar with the book, it's about the hermetically-sealed reality inhabited by today's ultrarich. Trust me, it's even worse than you think. Frank is far too blithe about political corruption, but otherwise the book is a fascinating read. Some of the people described are real pieces of work.

I don't wish to impugn the many good philanthropists out there. I'm talking about the jerks who spend their lives making things difficult for ordinary people, the suddenly feel a pang of noblesse oblige to "do good." Like, maybe if Mr. Aristopants didn't fight environmental laws to reduce cancer-causing pollutants, his money wouldn't be needed so much by that children's cancer camp. It is, like so many things, a cycle of absurdity.

More bitching from conservatives about guns from US in Mexico

This whine has perplexed me from Day One.

Mexico has asked the United States with help tracing the origin of nearly 70,000 weapons found at organized crime scenes there from 2007 to 2011 – guns it says are from the U.S., but in most cases, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was not able to figure out who first purchased the weapons at U.S. gun stores, let alone who might have then passed them on to gangsters.

Please go read this article and then this article for some background if you need it. I'd be amazed if you did considering how fast and furiously the Right has been yelling about it for months.

There must be roving underground bands of liberals buying automatic rifles by the boxcar load and selling them to the Mexican drug lords. It can't be right-wing gun nuts who are arming themselves for home defense, the coming race wars, or who want to just overthrow our own government (but only when there's a Democratic administration in place) committing these crimes, after all.

And all of these lifetime NRA members are screaming at the top of their lungs that Obama and Eric Holder ashould be held to account for having -- oops, not having -- tracked and traced all of this "free trade" export business. So he can shut it down.

Wouldn't they be just as upset at the threat to the 2nd Amendment if that had happened?

More importantly: where will the Libertarians get ganja for their glaucoma if Obama heeds their cries and goes through with all of this aggressive gun control? Don't they understand the president can't just legalize weed overnight with a snap of his fingers? He's got to work legislation through a conservative House and a Senate that requires 60 votes.

But you know what the real travesty is?  Medical marijuana patients will die by the thousands while the liberals in government figure out how to decriminalize, then tax and regulate the fatty. Forget Obamacare or women's health; we've got a more important problem here. Middle-aged, middle class suburbanites aren't getting their sedatives. This is obviously why they are so angry all the time about everything.

The bright spot, I suppose, is that some day they will all get to bitch about how high the taxes are on a pack of Marlboro joints.

It's like this, Republicans: you sell Mexico guns, they sell YOU dope. This is just pure capitalism. What are you people? Communists?

The Sugar Land Skeeters will sting the Houston Astros

The buzz around town is real as the Skeeters take the field for the first time Thursday. The team has sold all 6,000 seats for the opener and for the next three games of the weekend series at the new ballpark at Hwy 6 and U.S. 90A, with lawn and standing room tickets available for the games Friday through Sunday.

For the season, the Skeeters have sold about three-fifths of the seating capacity for its 70 home dates, team spokesman Bryan Hodge said.

A mix of retirees and young families stopped by the park Wednesday to watch the Skeeters take batting practice and to buy a T-shirt or cap. The souvenir shop was not yet open, but parents could get assorted trinkets for signing up their children in the Buzz Brigade at the team's freshly painted front office.

Even with Major League Baseball's Astros a few miles away, several people say that something else is at work in the instant passion for the Skeeters. They say the team is a rallying point for the entire community, but also an affordable, family-oriented entertainment option close to home.

"Baseball, in general, is good, but minor league baseball is great," said Jennifer Marker, whose family purchased six season tickets when they became available 17 months ago. "It's about the atmosphere. It doesn't matter if the team wins as they do a good job putting on a show."

When I lived in Midland and worked for the Reporter-Telegram (from '88-'92) the newspaper purchased the best box seats in the house every season, right behind home plate. The handful of times I used them I saw players like Tim Salmon, Adam Kennedy Jim Edmonds, and other Angels on their way to the Show. There were Dizzy Bat races, Big Brothers and Sisters nights ... it was always a marvelous evening out. Going back a little further to when I lived in Beaumont in the mid-80's, the Texas League had a short-lived franchise there called the Golden Gators (affiliated with the San Diego Padres) and in their maiden season I watched Ozzie Guillen play shortstop, Joey Cora at second, and John Kruk at first.

Sugar Land officials had hoped to attract one of the Astros' minor league affiliates with the new stadium, just as the Dallas suburb of Frisco lured a farm club of the nearby Texas Rangers in 2003. Former Astros owner Drayton McLane however, rejected the idea, saying a team so close to Minute Maid Park would hurt his attendance.

Yet another reason why the Rangers are so much better than the Astros. Uncle Drayton's business acumen abandoned him in deciding not to affiliate with the Skeeters. And that decision further damaged Jim Crane, et.al. who paid a premium price to buy a Major League franchise with AAA minor league talent that is being forced to abandon 50 years of National League history next year.

But D-Mac, thinking short-term, knew he wasn't going to have to suffer the impact of encroachment by the SLS and it didn't affect the value of his sale anyway. So it probably wasn't so much a case of dementia on his part as it was him not giving a damn since he was cashing out.

Until the Astros start playing something resembling MLB -- I suppose they have a five-year plan or something  -- the Skeeters will flourish and the 'Stros will languish.

Houston's always had mosquitos, and we lost NASA, so I guess there's an analogy in there somewhere.

Greg Abbott duplicates a Susan Combs error

More than 13 million Texans had their SSNs left exposed to case lawyers working on the voter ID litigation. The Lone Star Project:

A legal brief filed by opponents of the Texas Voter Photo ID law reveals that Attorney General Greg Abbott exposed millions of Texas voters’ full Social Security numbers to possible theft and abuse.

The brief, filed Monday, April 23, 2012 states:

"...after vigorously fighting the production of data containing full Social Security numbers, Texas mistakenly produced to Intervenors data from the VR [voter registration] data base that contained full Social Security numbers." (Defendant-Intervenors’ Motion for Clarification of the Trial Schedule, 4/23/12, page seven.)

Texas voters escaped public release of their Social Security numbers only because of the vigilance of conscientious lawyers working against the Voter Photo ID bill. Rather than attach the files to documents circulated to other attorneys or expose them to access by the general public, opposing counsel immediately notified the AG’s office of the bungled release of private data. Abbott then, at the expense of Texas taxpayers, sent a courier to both New York and Washington, DC to retrieve the files. As the brief details:

"Intervenors immediately notified the State and, at the State’s request, Intervenors ceased all review of the VR data that had been provided, with the State sending a representative from Texas to collect the VR data disks personally." (Defendant-Intervenors’ Motion for Clarification of the Trial Schedule, 4/23/12, page seven.)

Similar to the situation almost exactly one year ago, where state comptroller Susan Combs left Texans' data exposed online, Abbott's office has demonstrated another glaring degree of sloppiness in the handling of sensitive information.

Abbott’s negligence constitutes one of the largest risks of public identity theft in recent memory. Last year, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs received bitter criticism for releasing the Social Security numbers of 3.5 million Texans. In this most recent case, had the files not been handled carefully and responsibly by legal counsel opposing Abbott, as many as 13 million Texas voters’ Social Security numbers could have been exposed to potential illegal misuse and identity theft.

This data breach was larger in terms of numbers and smaller in terms of whom it was exposed to, but that's no excuse whatsoever. Another mistake like this by the OAG on the heels of the Comptroller's shows the vast incompetence of our state's executive office-holders. Someone forgot to implement any controls that may have been discussed to protect citizens' data after last year's snafu.

Abbott and Combs want a promotion to higher public office in 2014, too. Have they earned it? Will Texans just overlook these massive errors and vote for them again?

The American Bandstand Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance honors the life of Dick Clark by bringing you a weekly roundup with a good beat that you can dance to.

Off the Kuff began a series of interviews with Congressional candidates in contested primary races, publishing conversations with Congressman Silvestre Reyes, state representative Pete Gallego, and former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez.

Republicans are talking like they want a race war. Either that, or they want to just kill all the liberals. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs documents last week's conservative verbal atrocities.  

BossKitty at TruthHugger has had enough of 2012 Zombie Voters.  

BlueBloggin wants American voters to understand that until they force honesty and accountability from the leaders they elect, they will become subjects to the Koch Brothers Machine versus American Destiny.

We do, in fact, have a revenue problem in Texas. But there are few of either party willing to admit it. WCNews at Eye On Williamson points that out in this post: Little human interest side notes.  

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees the republicans escalating its war on women.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw brings us up to date on what Governor Oops is up to, and it isn't pretty. Read Rick Perry Grovels for Norquist While His War On Women, Children and the Poor Continues.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted the newsletter of Occupy Wall Street: Houston. A strong effort is being made to reboot the Occupy effort in Houston, as OWSH is meeting on a regular basis and has a new Facebook page where you can join in and take part.

Stace at Dos Centavos tells us about a study which slams higher education in Texas. The post is basically an "I told you so!" about Texas' screwed-up priorities in pushing Tier 1 funding while leaving retention and graduation rates to suffer.

Sunday Funnies

Republicans want a race war

How's that for incendiary? Let's go to the transcript.

Southern Baptist leaders will investigate whether their top ethicist and public policy director plagiarized racially charged remarks about the Trayvon Martin case that many say set back the denomination's efforts on racial reconciliation.

Richard Land, who leads the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention, was accused of lifting remarks for his radio show that accused Democrats and civil rights leaders of exploiting the case of the unarmed Florida teenager who was shot and killed by a volunteer neighborhood watchman. [...]

“They need the Travyon Martins to continue perpetuating their central myth: America is a racist and an evil nation. For them it’s always Selma Alabama circa 1965,” Land said on his radio program, speaking of civil rights activists.

Those comments, included in a partial transcript published by Baptist blogger and Baylor University Ph.D. student Aaron Weaver, were previously written by Washington Times columnist Jeffrey Kuhner.

Go read the comments at this Houston Chronicle.com article if you think this is an isolated case. Pastor Land, apt readers here will recall, was one of the chief organizers of Rick Perry's Prayerpalooza in Reliant Stadium (which I infiltrated) last August.

This follows Mitt Romney's "Obama isn't working" campaign slogan rollout, which followed Michele Bachmann's mangled metaphor about gas prices. I actually take her at her word that she didn't think "tar baby" was racist, because she has repeatedly demonstrated that level of ignorance previously. Still, there are plenty of Republicans who caught both dog whistles.

And all that follows three-and-one-half years of "Kenyan", bone-through-the-nose cartoons, more recently 'Don't Re-Nig' bumper stickers... eh, you know all about it. But it's the ratcheting-up of the latest events surrounding the Trayvon Martin case that has things set to blow, IMO.

(Thank goodness I don't have to mention Ted Nugent, since his psychotic rant had nothing to do with race. He falls into Anders Breivik territory, which is a similar-yet-altogether-different category.)

State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman is almost like the OJ Simpson case with the race roles reversed. If Zimmerman skates, there's going to be a reaction similar to what happened in the wake of the acquittal of the LA police officers who beat the shit out of Rodney King in 1992. Bank it.

Ignore this kind of "put-the-blacks-in-their-place" talk at your -- and your nation's -- peril. These conservative bigots aren't going away even when they lose in November, and they certainly aren't backing off before then. We're stuck with them, as we have been throughout the last several hundred years. We need to figure out a way to better manage them before their xenophobia manifests itself once more into violence that spews all over the rest of us.

Okay then; now that I've filled you with fear and/or loathing, I'm off to the Houston International Festival. Have a great weekend everybody!