Federal judge blocks disclosure of FBI's assassination plot against Occupy Houston

Any doubts about the police state we live in should be cast aside now.

Details of a plot to kill Occupy Houston leaders won't be released after a federal court upheld the FBI's claim that the documents are legally exempted from the Freedom of Information Act.

The FBI argued information was withheld, including 12 of 17 relevant pages, to protect the identity of confidential sources who were "members of organized violent groups," according to Courthouse News Service.

A heavily-redacted FBI document first revealed a Houston plot "to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles."

However the plotter's identity is redacted.

This isn't an equal opportunity tactic by the FBI -- as far as the courts have allowed us to know.  There have been no reported assassination plots against the leaders of Open Carry Texas, or Open Carry Tarrant County, or the ultra-conservative freaks who surrounded Cliven Bundy and actually pointed their rifles at federal agents.  There has been no arrest of the woman who forcibly interrupted the Muslim day at the Capitol, but there have been federal agents making inquiries of Keystone XL and fracking protestors.  There have been examples of law enforcement and gas industry representatives exchanging "intelligence" about these activists.

So it is revealed -- even as it is concealed -- that the peaceful protestors associated with Occupy Wall Street and its affiliate, Occupy Houston, are the ones who most terrify law enforcement and, by extension, those by whom they are employed and deployed to "serve and protect".  The people whose only weapons are a sign, a chant, perhaps a bullhorn, and the might of right on their side are the enemies, not the ones with guns threatening state lawmakers, or killing Muslim honor students, or the ones with badges shooting people because they are black, or poor or mentally ill or disabled.

They make federal judges quake in fear, federal agents concoct plots to assassinate them, their membership and communications are infiltrated in low- and high-tech ways, all because the power of social justice is considered a terrorist threat.  Those who feel the most threatened by a change in the social order gift them with military grade weapons and the legal authority to kill anyone they desire without the slightest accountability, all to ensure the authority of our overlords.  That would be the unelected overlords, those who make sure their pawns, lackeys, and stooges are elected.

This is the state of our union today.  It is not hyperbole.

It is increasingly doubtful that voting is going to change much of anything in this regard, and the fact that fewer and fewer people are voting suggests they are aware of the charade.  I'm still looking for some peaceful solutions to this state we have gotten to, but those options are narrowing significantly.

Something has got to give, and as Frederick Douglass said over 150 years ago...

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

2016 Democratic tapas

The Republicans are over here.

-- Hillary Clinton spoke last year (actually about 70 days ago) to the League of Conservation Voters and exercised her considerable temerity to praise fracking.  She also said nothing about the Keystone XL pipeline.

At a speech to the League of Conservation Voters in midtown Manhattan (in December 2014), before hundreds of deep-pocketed donors, Hillary Clinton praised the environmental legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, touted the prospect of new green technologies, and had warm words for Barack Obama’s aggressive efforts to combat climate change.

Absent from the former Secretary of State’s speech? Any sense of where she stood on the controversial Keystone pipeline project, or what she would do differently as president to steer the nation towards a more sustainable future.

But that didn’t mean that Clinton wasn’t clear about where she came down on environmental matters—she praised both her husband’s record of cleaning up air and water standards, and the Obama administrations recent efforts to strike a climate deal with China and to toughen pollution standards.

[...]

(Hillary) alluded to the need to wean the nation off of fossil fuels, but noted that, “the political challenges are also unforgiving. There is no getting around the fact that the kind of ambitious response required to effectively combat climate change is going to a be a tough sell at home and around the world at a time when so many countries around the world, including our own, are grappling with slow growth and stretch budgets.”

Clinton was vague about the kind of response needed to address climate change, coming down neither in favor of the traditional Democratic carbon tax or the Republican (pre-Obama, at least) cap and trade plan.

Instead, Clinton, much as her husband has done, pushed for market-based solutions to social problems, arguing that green technologies would enable economic growth and would slow the effects of climate change. She called for “next generation” power plants, smarter grids and greener buildings, describing a “false choice between growing our economy and protecting our environment.”

This is just ridiculous and frankly embarrassing.  It's 800-pound gorilla territory.  Without a semblance of a primary challenge, she's going to keep taking everybody for granted.  Everybody, at least, except Kanye Kardashian.

But her two main competitors -- sorry, Uncle Joe; you may be polling second but you're still in fourth place -- are unpropitious for varying reasons.

-- The effort to draft Elizabeth Warren into the presidential race got a little more desperate.

In a major boost for the liberals hoping to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race, New York’s Working Families Party voted Sunday evening to join the effort to push Warren to run against likely candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Senator Warren is the nation’s most powerful voice for working families fighting against a set of rules written by and for big banks. That’s the debate we want to see, and that’s why we’re urging Senator Warren to run for President,” said New York Working Families Party Director Bill Lipton.

The party, which is based in Clinton’s home state of New York, and has been aligned with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, will join MoveOn and Democracy for America. Together, they are running a $1.25 million campaign to draft Warren. There’s also a Ready for Warren super PAC.

“This is a big deal,” said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action. “The Working Families Party played a pivotal role in building the progressive wave in New York City that swept Bill de Blasio into office, and has tremendous electoral clout.”

Nope, not that big a deal.  She's still a pretty firm "no, I'm not running", and you people are starting to look like the kid who can't buy a date to the prom.  Booman asks the right question: if you're Joan Walsh -- a progressive Democrat in search of an alternative to Hillary, but see only Warren on the horizon... what exactly are you going to do when will you finally realize 'no' is the only answer you're going to get?

Vote for the fracker?  Vote for Keystone XL?  Might cease calling yourself a progressive then.

-- Here's the one-hundredth article on Bernie Sanders I have read in the past three months, all of which seem to have been written by the same person.  He's still thinking about running if there's a groundswell of support for him, and only if he can win.  The polls all say no chance, Bernie.

Sanders' own political pragmatism in abandonment of progressivism extends to his support of an F-35 base in Vermont, which has drawn withering condemnation from Socratic Gadfly.

If the dumb asses that keep trying to draft Warren would give that up and throw their allegiance to Sanders, then the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party (sans Howard Dean, who has already endorsed Hillary) might have somebody and something they could all get behind.  But this isn't about principle; it's about political expediency in a Citizens United era.  And Bernie is also, you know, old and not female, so there's that.  I had just let myself think that liberal Democrats were smarter than they are demonstrating with these Quixotic actions.  Guess I should let go of that.  In fact I think I'll go delete all of those "Progressive Breakfast" e-mails I get every goddamned morning.

There's an obvious choice for all of these people, but a) they can't take the partisan blinders off, and b) there will be no jobs for $10,000-a-month consultants.  Consequently the media won't be talking about the only progressive option.

It's still Clinton v. Bush in November of 2016, in case you were wondering.  You can either settle for that, or do whatever you can now to change it.

2016 Republican tapas

-- Rick Perry sniped at Ted Cruz over the weekend, comparing him to Obama.  Cruz, to his credit, didn't take the bait.

Asked about his potential 2016 rival earlier this week, Perry responded, “I think [voters] are going to make a rather radical shift, away from a young, untested United States senator whose policies have really failed.”

“Listen, I like Rick Perry,” Cruz said on CNN’s State of the Union. “People occasionally throw rocks in politics. That’s his choice. I’m going say I think he did a good and effective job as governor of our state.”

Cruz also made another consultant hire, an old Gingrich hand.

Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s longtime spokesman who served as a top strategist to a super PAC that supported Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, will join Cruz’s campaign-in-waiting to serve as a senior communications adviser.

The best news here is that Newt's not running again.  Cruz is also still testing out Occupy themes.  What an amazing triangulator this guy is.

-- Look up "Bush, Jeb" in the dictionary, there's a picture of the 2012 GOP nominee.

Mitt Romney opposed the government's rescue of U.S. automakers. So did Jeb Bush.

Both worked in finance and backed the Wall Street bailout. Both are advocates of tax cuts that Democrats contend only benefit the wealthy and big business.

[...]

"We don't need to try to show that Jeb is like Romney. He pretty much is Romney," said Eddie Vale, vice president of American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal group set up to conduct opposition research on Republicans. "When it comes to any ideas or policies, he's the same as Romney."

If they spend any time thinking about it -- especially if they spend much time thinking about the money they spent four years ago and are about to spend in the next couple -- that comparison might make a lot of one-percenters sad.  It's a good thing they have more money than sense, isn't it?

Obama's team successfully used that bailout as a wedge against Romney in Michigan and Ohio, repeatedly referring to a 2008 Romney op-ed with the headline, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Although Romney did not write the headline and advocated a managed bankruptcy for the industry, it created the impression that he was willing to forgo thousands of U.S. auto jobs.

Bush's early approach to his potential campaign signals a desire to avoid such pitfalls, as well as Romney's most notable gaffe — his behind-closed-door dismissal of the "47 percent" of Americans who, he said, don't pay income taxes.

Lisa Wagner, Romney's 2012 Midwest fundraising director, said that once voters meet Bush, "they see his head and his heart are connected" and they are "very, very taken" with his "sincerity."

"His head and his heart are connected".  Can you believe people get paid tens of thousands of dollars to spout horseshit like that?

Vox claims polls that show Bush leading the field actually demonstrate Bush's weaknesses.  I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

--  There's no shame in Scott Walker's game, though.  If you wondered why he's the early darling, look no further than here.

Gov. Scott Walker's election history isn’t like anyone else’s in the emerging field of Republican presidential candidates. If he runs, it will be his 14th campaign in 25 years, and his eighth campaign in 13 years.

He is the proverbial perennial candidate, though unlike many who pick up that label, he almost always wins.

The 47-year-old Republican began running at an earlier age and has run more often and won more elections than any of his potential presidential rivals. He has campaigned for office in every even-numbered year since 1994.

Walker’s total of 13 races is padded by his time in the state Assembly, where lawmakers run every two years. And it’s boosted by one election (the 2012 recall) that was forced by his opponents.

Republicans also think he's got some kind of mojo because he wins in 'blue state' Wisconsin.  This is his primary appeal, his top selling point.  It's what he means when he says "I wouldn't bet against me".  Despite his glaring flaws, you can bet easy money that he and Huckabee (whose entire campaign continues to be exclusively focused on hating gays) will be the top contenders for the Iowa prize.  Bush will re-surge in New Hampshire.  And then it's on to South Carolina, where Lindsey Graham is the favorite son.  We're in for another grueling Republican primary season next year, and hopefully lots of those wonderful debates.

-- Rand Paul is extending last week (bad, very bad) into this one.

(Last) August, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and Iowa Republican state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann drove for an hour together between political events in Davenport and Iowa City, jawing about property rights and eminent domain.

In October, Paul headlined a Kaufmann campaign fundraiser, where nearly 400 attendees chowed on barbecued pork, beans and cheesy potatoes in Kaufmann’s eastern Iowa hometown of Wilton, population 2,800.

And that same month, Paul’s political action committee sent Kaufmann’s campaign a $1,000 check.

Paul’s courting of a 29-year-old chairman of the Iowa House’s government oversight committee who has no national stature is hardly accidental: Should the Kentucky Republican run for president, he’ll desperately need support from local leaders like Kaufmann.

Kaufman, however, hasn’t committed to Paul, who was again visiting Iowa last weekend, or any other potential candidate.

“I’m not endorsing anyone yet,” Kaufmann told the Center for Public Integrity.

You can read more at CPI about how the PAC money in early primary states is corrosive to everything decent about our politics.  Paul still has his daddy/vaccine issues, remains busy pissing off the media, and isn't winning any friends among the investor class.  Egberto Willies thinks he's got to be a front-runner at some point, but I just don't see it.

The funniest thing I read this week (so far) was that the sole purpose for Peter King and John Bolton's so-called presidential campaigns was to short-circuit Rand Paul's.  These guys -- including Miss Lindsey -- are all about being a hawk to Paul's dovish, non-interventionist, neo-isolationist foreign policy.

Chris Christie simply isn't worth mentioning any longer.  Bobby Jindal, laughably, is trying to run as a white guy.  This is going to end quickly and badly for both.  There's just no scenario where either one of them is competitive in the early going.

Enough of these conservatives.  Let's look at the Democrats in the next post.

Abbott and Patrick's dancer-choking donor

Charles is rightfully skeptimistic (my word) of Greg Abbott's promises on ethics reform.  The new governor -- and lieutenant governor -- recently got their first opportunity to put their money where Abbott's mouth has been.

One of the largest donors to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pleaded guilty two years ago to a domestic violence charge that included an accusation he choked a woman into unconsciousness.

After The Dallas Morning News questioned the leaders about the conviction last week, they separately said they were donating a combined $702,600 — the amount Grand Prairie developer Marcus Hiles had given to their two campaigns — to services for abuse victims throughout Texas.

Aides said they were unaware that Hiles had pleaded guilty in 2013 to an assault in Las Vegas. Both Abbott and Patrick had also appointed Hiles to advisory positions.

I can't say that Dan Patrick is renowned for due diligence.  But Greg Abbott is much too smart to have let this happen to him.  Unless of course he thought he could get away with it.

“At no point in time was Governor Abbott or any member of his staff aware of this deeply disturbing incident,” said the governor’s press secretary Amelia Chasse. “Governor Abbott believes that any violence against women is deplorable, unacceptable and shameful.”

There's just a bit too much public record for that to be believable.

Hiles, chairman and chief executive at Western Rim and Mansions Custom Homes, is a residential real estate developer. He and his wife have been major Republican donors in state and federal campaigns.

He had given Abbott $525,000 in the past 14 months for his run for governor. Hiles was Abbott’s third-largest contributor and was among the 40 individuals and couples that Abbott named to the prestigious 2015 Texas Inaugural Committee, which oversaw the swearing-in ceremonies and celebrations for Abbott and Patrick last month.

Hiles also gave $150,000 to Patrick in the past five months and had been named last month to the lieutenant governor’s advisory board.

Here's his Tom Delay-style grinning mugshot.

The assault occurred Oct. 12, 2012, after a night of drinking, according to a Las Vegas police report. The woman told police that she left his side for a while at a nightclub and he was “upset at her leaving.”

A fight began at the club and continued during a cab ride, she told police. On the ride, she said, he slapped her and she hit him back, causing a cut on his nose.

At the Wynn hotel where they were staying, videotape showed they continued to slap and shove each other as they walked through the casino, according to police.

The reports cite a hotel elevator video showing that when the woman tried to make a call, the two struggled over her cellphone until Hiles threw the woman “to the floor and began stomping the phone.” The video, parts of which were viewed by The News, shows Hiles trying to take the phone away and in the tussle, pushing her to the floor.

The woman reported that once they were in their hotel room, Hiles punched her, dragged her by the hair and then choked her into unconsciousness. She told police she thought she was going to die. When she came to, she reported that she ran from the room and notified security.

The police report notes that Hiles said it was the woman who jumped on top of him, punched him and knocked him out.

The police officer wrote that Hiles’ version of the story was not consistent with his injuries, while the woman suffered marks on her neck, swelling and reddened eyes, a hoarse voice, a torn-off fingernail and scratches throughout her body.

He was charged with both misdemeanor battery and felony domestic violence causing substantial bodily harm. In February 2013, the court agreed to reduce the charges to a single misdemeanor domestic violence, to which he pleaded guilty. He was placed on probation, which he completed, court records show. Hiles also received counseling and performed 35 hours of community service before the case was closed in September 2013, the records show.

In a subsequent lawsuit, Hiles contended that the woman — a 29-year-old dancer he met in January 2012 at a Dallas gentleman’s club — had filed similar complaints against other men and that her motivation was to extort $10 million from him. He stated in the suit he had purchased a $160,000 Bentley for the woman, lent her $150,000 in cash and bought her expensive jewelry.

That lawsuit and a countersuit she filed against Hiles were both dismissed, Friedman said. No money changed hands, he said.

But hey, let's give credit to Abbott and Patrick where it's due.

In addition to returning the campaign contributions, Patrick said that he had received Hiles’ resignation from the lieutenant governor’s Tax Policy Advisory Board.

[...]

Abbott donated the money he had received from Hiles to 10 women’s shelters and family crisis centers around the state. Patrick said that his staff was researching which organizations to donate the money to but that it would be sent in the next few days.

Way to do the right thing, dudes. Just hope for your sake you don't have any more large financial contributors with criminal assault records hiding in your closets your undisclosed donor reports.  Else you might look like hypocrites.

Juanita Jean is a little harsher than me.

It boils down to this: a whore is a whore. Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott are whores. And now, kinda like Hiles’ girlfriend, they have a black eye, too. But the only pain they felt is the excruciating pain of returning money (they) thought was (theirs). That’s real hard for Republicans.

Update: And the stampede of Republicans to distance themselves from Hiles' money widens.

Two more statewide officials and two political action committees are parting ways with tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a real estate developer whose criminal history surfaced Sunday.

Marcus Hiles of Grand Prairie, a prominent Republican donor on both the state and federal levels, over the last two years gave a combined $56,000 to Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Attorney General Ken Paxton as well as the political action committees for Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Red State Women, according to state records. Hours after the publication of a report shedding light on Hiles’ 2013 domestic-violence conviction, spokespeople for the officials and PACs said they planned to re-donate the amounts received from Hiles to new causes and were exploring their options.

[...]

A spokeswoman for Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Boyd did not return a request for comment Sunday on whether he would be sending the amount of a donation from Hiles to services for abuse victims. State records show Hiles gave Boyd’s re-election campaign $1,000 in November 2013.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is enjoying the pre-spring thaw and happy not to be shoveling snow as it brings you this week's roundup of the best of the left of Texas from last week.

Off the Kuff provides his four part Houston mayoral manifesto for the 2015 election.

Letters from Texas turns the blog over to Russ Tidwell for an update on redistricting litigation and the question the judges in San Antonio will be ruling on.

lightseeker at Texas Kaos takes Fox "News" to task for its fear mongering, distortion and misrepresentation in The Fear and Hate Chronicles.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson thinks it's astounding how little Texans care about corporations wasting their money. Privatization corruption is common in Texas.

The games people play with money when they are our elected representatives in Austin gets more disgusting by the legislative session. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs really thinks there's got to be a better way to run state government than with the wheels greased by the lobbyists.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes state Sen. Larry Taylor is so insulated within the Republican bubble he brags about giving the insurance industry perks at the expense of Texans.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote about the rip current warning sign on the beach in Galveston. Sometimes we do have to swim against the tide. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

Dos Centavos underscored the strong support expressed by William McRaven, the new UT chancellor, for the Texas Dream Act.

Egberto Willies posts the demand letter to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued by the commoners to the lords.

Bluedaze has the reports that point to fracking wells as the source of North Texas earthquakes.

Texas Vox eulogizes Public Citizen activist Hillary Corgey.

And Texas Leftist had a story about the revival of shotgun houses in Houston.

===========================

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

Lone Star Ma puts out a call to action to oppose the so-called Teacher's Protection Act, H.B. 868.

The TSTA Blog calls vouchers "a tuition break at your expense".

Cody Pogue reviews "Building a Better Teacher".

Socratic Gadfly calls out Bernie Sanders for playing the military appropriations game in Vermont.

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini catalogs the latest measles outbreak and proselytizes for vaccinations.

Charlotte Vaughan Coyle stands -- as a Christian, a person of faith, and a pastor -- with her Muslim neighbors and all people who work for justice, peace and reconciliation.

Concerned Citizens reports from the first mayoral debate in San Antonio.

Sole of Houston was on the scene as the United Steelworkers Union strikers picketed Shell's downtown Houston offices.

The Texas Observer listed the winners and losers in the Texas House committee assignments.

Free Press Houston calls Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia an opportunist against the immigrant community.

State Impact Texas wants to know where the water projects are that have requested $5.5 billion in state loans.

And Fascist Dyke Motors commends a brave girl who asked for help.

Sunday Funnies

Jill Stein will run for president again

Best 2016 development of the week, as far as I'm concerned.

Most voters will likely never know her name, let alone cast a vote for her at the ballot box, but that’s not deterring Dr. Jill Stein from running for president in 2016.

Stein was the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and is expected to announce Friday the she’s exploring another White House bid in 2016.

Prior to making the announcement, Stein sat down exclusively with “Power Players” to explain why she’s stepping forward as an alternative to the current field of likely presidential contenders that she characterizes as “corrupt and sold out.”

“There are rules that make it possible for the very rich to buy politicians and that's what's going on,” Stein said. “There's a horse race around grabbing the money right now, and I think it speaks volumes about what a really sorry state our political system has come to.”

So unlike Bernie Sanders, she will run as a spoiler.  Don't worry, though, Hillary fans; I doubt you'll be able to blame another Green wrongly for "siphoning off" votes.

In her 2012 campaign, Stein received fewer than half a million votes across the country – less than 1 percent of the total popular vote – and was even arrested for trying to get into a televised debate from which she was excluded.

Stein recalled the arrest – and subsequent holding – as “the most bizarre experience you can imagine.”

“For trying to get into that debate, I was actually arrested, taken to a dark site where no one knew where I was - the site was secret - and held handcuffed to metal chairs for approximately eight hours,” Stein said. “It speaks volumes about how terrified the political system is that the voices of principled opposition may actually get heard."

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your candidate if you suddenly find yourself in October of 2016 whining about not having any good options.  A vote for Stein is much better for people who might cast a ballot for Mickey Mouse or Pat Paulsen or Hypnotoad, or some other protest vote, since they cannot abide the establishment-preferred, consultant-recommended duopoly nominees.  Console yourself, neoliberals;  in the "siphon off" illusion, even the Libertarian (I'm thinking Gary Johnson at this point, just like last time) will get about three times as many votes as Stein.  Just like last time.

Five percent of the national vote would be amazing, three percent would be real progress, but anything better than four years ago will still represent only the smallest, softest voices for changing a system buried under an avalanche of Supreme Court-approved speech money from the Kochs, et.al.   They remain voices that need to be heard, ideas that need to be discussed.  I'll consider it a monumental advance if Stein and Johnson are allowed to participate in the presidential debates.  The primary obstacle to overcome isn't getting the message out; it's changing hearts and minds about "wasting" one's vote and various other truisms, myths, and urban legends in that regard.  Greens are making great headway in Europe; along with associated issues like banning fracking (good news, natural gas exporters!) and GMOs, they're even gaining seats in Parliament, so perhaps there's still hope left for us here in the United States.

We can assert that Texas will be last as always in terms of progress.  That won't stop anybody from making the effort, from fighting the battle that needs to be fought.  Democrats in off-presidential election years -- and Republicans in presidential ones -- ought to be able to relate to that.

Update: Indy Political Report with the press release, and Irregular Times and jobsanger with more.