It's not Republicans vs. Democrats

Still trying my best to ignore jockeying for 2016, but a few items earned comment.

-- Elizabeth Warren says no, again, to White House draft petitions.  This is just MoveOn.org wasting their time and ours once more.  Their biggest 'get' looks like it's going to be Democracy for America hopping on their bandwagon.  I would simply note that you can find little to no mention of the progressive option who is more serious about (possibly) running, Bernie Sanders, by either MoveOn or DFA.  Obviously they don't think he has a chance, or else they don't like him because he's too old or too socialist.

Speaking of geriatrics, both of these organizations are too old, too tired, and not all that progressive enough any longer to be taken seriously.  Do yourself a favor and stop signing their petitions.  I have unsubscribed myself.

Update III: They are also much too white to be relevant.

-- Rick Perry, on the other hand, doesn't have tens of thousands of signatures beseeching him to run for president, but will of course do so anyway.  Because people expect him to.

"People think we're going to run, and that's not necessarily a bad thing," Perry said in an interview with The Associated Press...

-- Joe Biden "honestly doesn't know yet".

Vice President Biden said Tuesday he’ll make up his mind about whether to run for president “at the end of the spring or early summer.”

"I honest to God haven't made up my mind,” Biden said at a ‘Women Rule’ event hosted by Politico. “I'm confident I'd be in a position to be competitive."

"The one thing that moves me — I think that I have the ability to bring the sides together,” he added.

Biden’s daughter Ashley appeared on stage with him at the event, and called his potential presidential aspirations a “family decision.”

-- Update II: For all you pro-torture Republicans out there, Marco Rubio is your guy.

“We need to have the ability to interrogate people outside the realm of what you do in a criminal justice system,” he says.

Finally, your Oligarch Update from the NYT.

Dozens of the Republican Party’s leading presidential donors and fund-raisers have begun privately discussing how to clear the field for a single establishment candidate to carry the party’s banner in 2016, fearing that a prolonged primary would bolster Hillary Rodham Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate.

The conversations, described in interviews with a variety of the Republican Party’s most sought-after donors, are centered on the three potential candidates who have the largest existing base of major contributors and overlapping ties to the top tier of those who are uncommitted: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney.

All three are believed to be capable of raising the roughly $80 million in candidate and “super PAC” money that many Republican strategists and donors now believe will be required to win their party’s nomination.

But the reality of all three candidates vying for support has dismayed the party’s top donors and “bundlers,” the volunteers who solicit checks from networks of friends and business associates. They fear being split into competing camps and raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a bloody primary that would injure the party’s eventual nominee — or pave the way for a second-tier candidate without enough mainstream appeal to win the general election.

What's wrong with this picture?  A lot, but it's really bad news for the way-too-early frontrunner, Ted Cruz, who already lost the Sheldon Primary.

Robert Reich has the last word.  If the ruling party and the minority party ever snap to being played for suckers, we might make some progress in this nation.  I'm not counting on it.

The biggest political divide in America now and in years to come isn't between the Republican and Democratic parties. It’s between the establishment and the anti-establishment -- between a rich minority of top corporate executives, denizens of Wall Street, and billionaire moguls, all of whom have been fixing the economic and political game for their own benefit, and the vast majority of Americans who, as a result, are in a fix.

Update: Chuck Todd via Egberto Willies explains this as well.

Just another word for nothing left to lose

I'd love to write about something else, like the early bills filed at the Lege or Houston city charter revisions or something similarly compelling, but no.

“What I keep hearing out there is they portray this as a rogue operation, and the agency was way out of bounds and then they lied about it,” (Dick) Cheney said in a telephone interview with the New York Times on Monday. “I think that’s all a bunch of hooey. The program was authorized. The agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the program.”

That's an admission of guilt to a war crime, as defined by the Geneva Convention accords.

Detainees who were tortured, in turn, provided interrogators with the information they wanted to hear, including fictitious connections between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, which the Bush administration later used to bolster its case for invading Iraq. Those connections proved to be false.

“It is also important to note that some detainees who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques attempted to provide false or misleading information,” former CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in 2011, disputing Bush administration claims that torture helped capture bin Laden. “In the end, no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier’s full true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered through other intelligence means.”

Torture did not work, the CIA lied about that, some in the CIA questioned the use of torture and the value of the intelligence it was (not) providing, and were told to shut up and keep doing it.  And the only person in jail at the moment is a former CIA agent who tipped off a reporter about the torturing.

Oh, and the executive director of the ACLU thinks the torturers should all be pardoned.  Which is just the latest, freshest steaming pile of shit for the rest of us to eat, served on a silver platter by the above-and-beyond authorities running things in this so-called free country.

This issue is not separate from the killings by police around the country.  It's just more evidence that America is stuck in a period of lawlessness and brutality that we seem unable to face.  It is endemic in federal agencies, in most if not all law enforcement at Ferguson level right up to 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, and in, of course, Congress -- in Cleveland, West Florissant Avenue, and Staten Island...

Lawlessness is rampant in every level of our justice system, from corrupt local prosecutors to the connection between big money and our highest court.  

Sooo... what do you think the rest of us should do about it?

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with the Garner and Brown families in the quest for equal justice for all as it brings you this week's roundup.

Guest blogger Kris Banks at Off the Kuff provided a visual guide to turnout comparisons in Harris County.

Libby Shaw, writing at Texas Kaos and Daily Kos, believes Greg Abbott's recent lawsuit against the president's action on immigration is not only lame, it is yet one more example of conservative racist disrespect for the duly elected President. Ease up on the hate, please, Governor-elect.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out Republicans for cutting public works while spending money on racist, empty gestures.

Texas atheists are blessed to be able to run for public office in Texas, reports PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value said that he is very white, male, and European. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Texpatriate had some insight into the police abuses in Ferguson, Staten Island, and Jasper, Texas.

Egberto Willies posted the blast NY mayor Bill DeBlasio leveled at Democrats for being spineless.

Texas Leftist had an update on the state's county clerks who are preparing for the eventual gay marriages to be performed in Texas.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Grits for Breakfast celebrates a ruling from the Court of Criminal Appeals that allows for a wider use of Texas's so-called "junk science writ".

The Texas Election Law Blog pushes back on the argument that voter ID laws had little effect in 2014.

Socratic Gadfly sheds no tears for the demise of The New Republic.

The Lunch Tray offers thoughts on a national food policy.

Offcite analyzes the case for a swimming hole in Houston.

Texans Together will take a "Texas way" forward on Medicaid expansion if one is there to be taken.

Alan Bean asks what Jesus would do with the current immigration debate.

Raise Your Hand Texas released a report showing how Texas falls short of best practices with its pre-k program.

Texas Clean Air Matters explains the new ozone standard.

Gray Matters bids farewell to Houston Chronicle employees as they prepare to leave their downtown building for the old Houston Post location.