Mountain morons

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

It looks like Hillary Clinton will win big in West Virginia tomorrow and I could really care less.
I can’t really fathom why Democrats in West Virginia would still insist on voting against Barack Obama at this stage after it is clear he will be the party’s nominee in November. But it appears they will do just that and then some.
I’m still ticked at West Virginia over the 2000 presidential election when the state, which had been solidly Democratic for so long, suddenly went Republican for the first time. There were a lot of factors that could have shifted the results of the 2000 election that brought us the total disaster that is the George W. Bush presidency. The five partisan Republicans on the Supreme Court could have allowed all the votes to be counted in Florida; Ralph Nader could have abandoned his legacy-destroying campaign to take away Democratic voters and help elect Republicans; the voters in Tennessee could have supported their home-state hero rather than shooting themselves in the foot....
And, of course, West Virginia could have stayed in the Democratic column.
Any of those events would have helped avoid the eight-year debacle that has greatly damaged this country and threatens our status as the world’s dominant superpower.
But here we are eight years later buried up to our noses in debt thanks to Bush’s fically irresponsible stupidity; stuck in a Middle Eastern hellhole that is killing American troops and sucking up hundreds of billions of U.S. taxdollars every year; paying $4 a gallon for gasoline; and suffering through yet another Bush recession after already plodding through one of the most listless and stagnant economic periods in our nation’s history.
And what do the Democrats in West Virginia want to do? They want to try and drag down the Democratic ticket yet again and help elect Bush-clone John McCain to a third Bush term in office.
Fortunately, it doesn’t matter at this point what the morons in West Virginia do. I don’t care.
On Tuesday night I will be watching the Spurs-Hornets game, not pointless election returns from West Virginia.

Beginner’s Mind

Happy 5-year Blogiversary to my friend Robert Shearer and his blog Beginner’s Mind.
Robert hasn’t been posting a lot recently as he has had a lot of medical issues to deal with, but he is hanging in there. His blog focuses a lot on his interests in Buddhism.
We also have a joint blog called Theme and Variations that we use to explore our interests in classical and jazz music.

The other “surge”

This is a deeply disturbing story that hasn’t received much attention:

No Afghan troop surge

The Pentagon has said that any sizeable increase in much-needed US forces in Afghanistan will depend on deeper troop cuts in Iraq than currently planned.

Military commanders, worried about a persistent and growing Taliban challenge, have said they require up to three more brigades, or about 10,000 troops, to fill gaps in a NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

But Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell made clear that relief in Afghanistan can only come from Iraq, where US forces now find themselves embroiled in a bloody struggle with Shiite militias.

"We really have to get down in Iraq below 15 brigade combat teams for us to consider adding multiple additional brigades to Afghanistan," Morrell told reporters Tuesday.

"So, not until we get to that point can we even consider that prospect," he said.

So, we can’t take care of business in Afghanistan because we are stuck in Iraq. This pretty much sums up the sorry state of our national defense right now and the total mismanagement of our troops by the near-criminally negligent and incompetent Bush administration.
How can anyone say that Iraq is not, by definition, a quagmire at this point? A quagmire that is negatively affecting our military operations in other parts of the world. We can’t afford to be there if that is the case. The fact that Republicans got us into the mess and are now doing nothing to get us out of it is a clear indication that they are not fit for political leadership. Before anyone casts a vote for a Republican for any position above dogcatcher, they need to consider this very seriously.

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

The Democratic primary race is over. The elite, Washington establishment, conventional wisdom, talking heads declared it so last night. It doesn’t matter what Hillary does now, it’s officially over.
Actually, it’s been over for some time now, at least as far back as before the Texas primary. But this is the first time the opinionmakers in Washington have been willing to acknowledge that truth.
It was really quite amazing to watch last night as it slowly dawned on the talking heads that Obama was doing much better than they had anticipated. Rather than a blowout win for Hillary in Indiana and a tight race in North Carolina, it had gone the other way. Obama did better in North Carolina than Hillary had done in Pennsylvania and Indiana was considered too close to call until well past midnight. I mostly watched MSNBC because CNN’s coverage is so atrocious (their political analyst team consisted of two Hillary supporters and two Republicans). So the first person I heard state the obvious was Tim Russert, and after that it was like the scales fell off the eyes of the other pundits and they could see clearly for the first time. They started to acknowledge a grudging respect for Obama. After weeks of pounding him relentlessly with the Rev. Wright, “Bittergate” and other manufactured controversies, Obama had surprised them and done better than expected.
From this point on, if Hillary stays in the race she will be treated with the same disdain that Mike Huckabee saw after it was clear to everyone that John McCain had the Republican race sewed up. Before last night, she was still viewed as a viable candidate. Now she will be seen as a pretender, an annoyance, a “why are you still here? candidate. And the longer she drags it out, the worse it will get. It’s over.

Something amiss

I hate watching the Spurs lose. I just can’t handle it. I get too worked up about the game and it just becomes unenjoyable. I just have to walk away and change the channels.
Of course, I’d never do that if I were watching the game live - I’m no 2 percenter. But I have no qualms about changing the channel. I usually record the games on my DVR, but if it was a blowout loss, I just delete it with out watching.
Maybe I’m being a bad fan, but I can’t help it. The point of watching a game if for the enjoyment and it just kills me to see the Spurs fall apart like they did in the 3rd Quarter last night.
The Spurs represent all that is goodness and light in the universe. If they lose then something is terribly amiss. It’s like watching Barack Obama fall behind Hillary Clinton in the polls. It’s just not right!
Oh well. Maybe the Spurs will come back on their home court. Maybe Tim or Tony or Manu will have a good night. There is always hope. And if not, they had a good season anyway and got further than a lot of people thought they would.
It won’t be the end of the world, even though it might feel that way.

Is Our Kids Reading?

A new study purports to show what school children are reading these days.

My kids aren’t old enough to read on their own yet, but I read a lot of books to them every evening and I was happy to see I’ve already got almost the enitre First Grade reading list covered.
We read lots of Dr. Seuss including many that are not on the list. I was surprised to see The Foot Book so high up on the reading list, however, (going all the way up to 2nd Grade) since it is so basic and there are many other Seuss books better suited to those age levels.
Seuss is represented on the list by Green Eggs and Ham; The Foot Book; Hop on Pop; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; and Cat in the Hat.
Then they have several other favorites of our including Clifford the Big Red Dog; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; and Goodnight Moon.
On the Second Grade list we read Where the Wild Things Are and on the Third Grade list we read The Polar Express.

Some of my kids’ other favorite books include:
Owl Babies
Big Red Barn
Put Me In the Zoo
A Zoo for Mister Muster
Poky Little Puppy
Scruffy the Tugboat
Many Moons
Curious George
Winnie the Pooh
and lots of other Disney books.

Great Derangement

This sounds like a fun book:



Kind of sad that it had to be written. Let’s just hope there won’t be a need to write a sequel after November rolls around.

Mission Accomplished 5 year anniversary

From Atrios:


And as an added bonus, here is an in depth look at John McCain’s healthcare plan.

National Popular Vote

This sounds like a great idea.

There is a way to circumvent the Electoral College and create a popular vote without a constitutional amendment. It's called the National Popular Vote, and it takes a little explaining.
The Constitution gives states the power to decide how to allocate the electors who cast the vote for the president. The National Popular Vote is a campaign to get each state to pass a law entering into a binding agreement to award all their electors to the candidate who wins the national popular vote in all fifty states and Washington, D.C. This provision would only go into effect when states whose electoral votes total a majority of the Electoral College—currently, 270 votes—sign the compact. When that happens, whichever candidate wins the popular vote will automatically garner a majority of the electoral votes. While this arrangement is rather complex, it has the advantage of being fair and utterly nonpartisan—and could take effect as soon as enough large states agree to participate.

Reassuring quote

This is the best thing Hillary has said during the entire campaign:

"Anyone, anyone, who voted for either of us should be absolutely committed to voting for the other because it would be the height of political foolishness to have voted for one of us and what we stand for and then either to stay home or not vote for a Democrat and instead vote for Sen. McCain."

Discouraged and disgruntled

I know how Maha feels. I’m discouraged too.
It has been clear since before the Texas primary that Hillary Clinton can’t win the Democratic nomination for president, but the national media keeps going along with her charade that she still has a chance and that it is a tight race. For each primary race since then, Hillary has carefully set the bar low enough that she can easily cross it, while ignoring the fact that it gets her no closer to the nomination. She has to win every contest here on out by 20 points or better to even come close to catching Obama. She won Pennsylvania by 10 points and declared it a great victory and the media went right along.

By contrast, the bar is constantly set higher and higher for Obama. He doesn’t have to just stay close in Pennsylvania. He has to win it outright. Winning in North Carolina won’t be enough, he has to win Indiana too.
Hillary is set to win by less than 10 points in Indiana and lose North Carolina by a wider margin, but she will play up the Indiana victory as a huge defeat for Obama and one more excuse for her to press on.
If Hillary would just act like she’s on the same team with Obama and quit trying to tear him, and by extension the Democratic Party, down then together they could shred John McCain. McCain is a terrible candidate. But if they just let him coast until November while they concentrate on clawing at one another, he will build up a following that will be harder and harder to peel away the closer we get to the election.

I used to like Hillary and I respected her a great deal. Now I can hardly stand to listen to her speak and usually change the channels if she comes on. She is starting to veer into Ralph Nader territory for me. It would be the ultimate betrayal of her principles if she helps McCain to win, just like Nader betrayed everything he once stood for by helping worst president ever George W. Bush to defeat environmental champion Al Gore.

I’ve lived through too many presidential elections where I’ve seen the Democratic nominee get slimed mercilessly by the Republican spin machine and the compliant media. Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and now Barack Obama. People don’t even know who they are before the start of the campaign and by the end they can’t say their names without spitting. That is how good the Republican spin machine is at villifying people.
The Republican base is demotivated this cycle because of the war and the economy. But all they need is the flimsiest excuse to vote against someone like Obama or Kerry or Dukakis and people like Karl Rove and Lee Atwater specialize in giving them that excuse.
They don’t need help from Hillary Clinton, but they are getting plenty of help anyway this year.

Disney movies

I bought 101 Dalmations Platinum Edition recently bringing my total number of Disney animated films on DVD up to 42.
(uh oh, here is the inevitable list)

101 Dalmations (Platinum)
Alice in Wonderland
Aristocats, The
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Bambi (Platinum)
Beauty and the Beast
Bug’s Life, A
Cars
Chicken Little
Cinderella (Platinum)
Dinosaur
Dumbo
Finding Nemo
Fox and the Hound, The
The Heffalump Movie
Home on the Range
Hunchback of Notre Dame, The
Incredibles, The
Jungle Book, The (Platinum)
Lady and the Tramp (Platinum)
Lilo and Stitch
Lilo and Stitch II: Stitch Has a Glitch
Lion King, The (Platinum)
Little Mermaid, The (Platinum)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The
Meet the Robinsons
Melody Time
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
Monsters Inc.
Peter Pan (Platinum)
Piglet’s Big Movie
Pocahontas
Pooh’s Grand Adventure
Ratatouille
Rescuers, The
Rescuers Down Under
Robin Hood
Sword in the Stone
Tigger Movie, The
Treasure Planet
Wild, The
Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo

And on VHS tape I have:

Aladdin
Emperor’s New Groove, The
Fantasia
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Toy Story I & II

And I have the following Disney non-animated or partially animated movies on DVD:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Air Buddies
Apple Dumpling Gang, The
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Escape to Witch Mountain
Return from Witch Mountain
Gus
Love Bug, The
National Treasure
Pirates of the Caribbean I, II & III
Tron

And on VHS:
Mary Poppins

I am anxiously awaiting the release of Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition this Fall followed by the Pinocchio Platinum Edition early next year.
Other Disney animated films I need to get to finish out my collection include:

Hercules
Tarzan
Mulan
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Fun and Fancy Free
Three Caballeros, The
Make Mine Music
Saludos Amigos
Song of the South
Black Cauldron, The
Great Mouse Detective, The
Oliver & Company
Brother Bear

I generally stay away from the multiple sequels (Bambi II, Cinderella III, etc.) with a few exceptions such as the Winnie the Pooh movies which my kids love.
I may get more of the sequels later on, but they are not a high priority until I get all the main titles first.

Having this many Disney movies on DVD means, of course, that my kids are completely spoiled when it comes to watching TV. Films that I might have seen once on TV when I was growing up are now available to them as many times as we will allow. But I don’t see that as being a bad thing necessarily. Right now their TV viewing is pretty much limited to Disney movies and PBS anyway.

Movie Break

We went to see our first movie as a family over the weekend. A big thumbs up for “Horton Hears a Who” which is by far the best Dr. Seuss story every put to film (not counting Chuck Jones’ made-for-TV masterpiece “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”).
Technically, our first family movie together was “Cars” which we went to see two years ago when Isabel was just a few months old. She slept in her car seat through the whole movie.
The kids did very well and now Nathan (age 4) wants to go back and see “Kung Fu Panda” later this summer.
He is not so sure about the new “Speed Racer” movie which we saw a trailer for as well. He is also dead set against seeing “Wall-E”, the new Pixar movie because the trailer was loud and scary. But we will see them both eventually anyway as I am a huge Pixar fan and was a Speed Racer fan as a youth.
I noticed that the new Indiana Jones movie is coming out soon and a new James Bond film is set to come out in the fall. Other films I am looking forward to seeing eventually include Iron Man and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

We’re No. 1 (in incarceration)

Ineresting story in the New York Times today. There’s a lot to chew on here and I am excerpting it at great length....

Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’
By ADAM LIPTAK

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

...The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England’s rate is 151; Germany’s is 88; and Japan’s is 63.

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

....It used to be that Europeans came to the United States to study its prison systems. They came away impressed.

“In no country is criminal justice administered with more mildness than in the United States,” Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured American penitentiaries in 1831, wrote in “Democracy in America.”

No more.

“Far from serving as a model for the world, contemporary America is viewed with horror,” James Q. Whitman, a specialist in comparative law at Yale, wrote last year in Social Research. “Certainly there are no European governments sending delegations to learn from us about how to manage prisons.”

Prison sentences here have become “vastly harsher than in any other country to which the United States would ordinarily be compared,” Michael H. Tonry, a leading authority on crime policy, wrote in “The Handbook of Crime and Punishment.”

Indeed, said Vivien Stern, a research fellow at the prison studies center in London, the American incarceration rate has made the United States “a rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal Western approach.”

The spike in American incarceration rates is quite recent. From 1925 to 1975, the rate remained stable, around 110 people in prison per 100,000 people. It shot up with the movement to get tough on crime in the late 1970s. (These numbers exclude people held in jails, as comprehensive information on prisoners held in state and local jails was not collected until relatively recently.)

The nation’s relatively high violent crime rate, partly driven by the much easier availability of guns here, helps explain the number of people in American prisons.

“The assault rate in New York and London is not that much different,” said Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group. “But if you look at the murder rate, particularly with firearms, it’s much higher.”

Despite the recent decline in the murder rate in the United States, it is still about four times that of many nations in Western Europe.

But that is only a partial explanation. The United States, in fact, has relatively low rates of nonviolent crime. It has lower burglary and robbery rates than Australia, Canada and England.

People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Mr. Whitman wrote.

Efforts to combat illegal drugs play a major role in explaining long prison sentences in the United States as well. In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.

Those figures have drawn contempt from European critics. “The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism,” said Ms. Stern of King’s College.
....
Several specialists here and abroad pointed to a surprising explanation for the high incarceration rate in the United States: democracy.

Most state court judges and prosecutors in the United States are elected and are therefore sensitive to a public that is, according to opinion polls, generally in favor of tough crime policies. In the rest of the world, criminal justice professionals tend to be civil servants who are insulated from popular demands for tough sentencing.

Mr. Whitman, who has studied Tocqueville’s work on American penitentiaries, was asked what accounted for America’s booming prison population.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the answer is democracy — just what Tocqueville was talking about,” he said. “We have a highly politicized criminal justice system.”

The article doesn’t address how much it costs taxpayers to house all these non-violent offenders in our prison system, but you can be assured that it isn’t cheap.

McCain's budget nonsense

Why don’t stories like this get more attention?

McCain Tax Cuts Would Bloat Deficit Or Take Huge Spending Curbs
By LAURA MECKLER
April 22, 2008; Page A6

Sen. John McCain is proposing tax cuts that would either cause the federal deficit to explode or would require unprecedented spending cuts equal to one-third of federal spending on domestic programs.

.... Altogether, he proposes more than $650 billion in tax cuts a year, much of it benefiting corporations and upper-income families. That includes the cost of extending tax cuts implemented under President Bush that he voted against twice.
To help pay for it all, the Arizona senator says he would cut $160 billion a year from a federal discretionary budget that totals a little more than $1 trillion. He hasn't specified where the cuts would come from.

With military spending -- about half the total -- likely to rise or perhaps stay even, most if not all of the cuts would have to come from domestic programs. The discretionary budget, which excludes entitlements such as Medicare or Social Security, covers areas such as medical research, federal prisons, border security, student loans, food inspections and much else.
The $160 billion figure is equal to the total budget in 2007 for the departments of Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice and State.

The chances of cuts of this magnitude are "nonexistent," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that promotes fiscal discipline. "There's not a consensus to cut back on the functions of government that much," he said. "Those are very, very deep cuts."

When he talks about cutting spending, Sen. McCain usually focuses on congressional earmarks, home-state projects that members of Congress insert into spending bills. His stump speech mentions a museum commemorating the Woodstock festival in New York and the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. But earmarks total only about $18 billion a year, according to independent estimates.
Sen. McCain and his aides haven't said where he will get his $160 billion in annual discretionary-spending cuts.

Stories such as this make it clear that John McCain is not a serious presidential candidate. He doesn’t have the foggiest clue as to what to do about the massive deficits that the Republican policies of the past eight years have left us with other than to make outrageous (and ultimately false) claims that he will slash vital government programs to nothing. And even if he did, it would not be enough to cover the massive tax cuts that he is proposing we tack on top of Bush’s already massive and fiscally irresponsible tax giveaway to the wealthy.
But McCain has a “free ride” to spout these outrageous claims while the so-called-liberal media obsesses over “bittergate”, flag lapel pins and other meaningless tripe.

Republicans for Hillary!

The election results in Pennsylvania last night were just awful. You couldn’t have asked for a worse scenario for the Democrats. Doña Clinoxte won by just enough to keep her tilting at windmills for the rest of the primary season, but not enough to make any difference in the ultimate outcome of the race.
I really can’t understand why any Democrat would be supporting Hillary at this point in the race because it is ultimately self-defeating.
However, it is quite easy to understand the motivation of these Hillary supporters:

Sandra Reed of Gettysburg has been a Republican since she was old enough to vote.
But, Tuesday, she and her husband, Vernon, went to the Adams County Courthouse and became Democrats.
"We were registered Republicans, and we will always be Republicans, but we want to help Hillary get the No. 1 position for the Democrats," said Reed, 70. "So, we are switching for the primary to vote for Hillary, then we will switch back and vote for McCain."

Lovely. They go on in the article to explain that they got this idea from listening to Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh is no dummy. But clearly a lot of Pennsylvania Democrats are.

Fortunately, the Spurs won Game 2 with the Phoenix Suns last night, so I have lots to be happy about. Now if I can just blot out the whole election debacle for another month or two....

Chicken Expression

The following is a Letter that Sharon at Bluedaze has written to the Wise County Messenger in response to the above photo at a Chicken Express in Bridgeport, Texas.

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  — Robert Fulghum

Sometime during April, Wise County watched as the Bridgeport Chicken Express displayed the following on their marquee:

Try the Hillary Special
Two fat thighs
Two small Breasts
And a left Wing!

Let's forget about the political message — we don't care to do business with Democrats — and look at the many, negative messages this sign sends our youth.
Disparaging remarks about other people's physical attributes is acceptable behavior.
As many as 86 percent of American children are bullied at school. Later in life, children who were bullied suffer from poor self image and emotional problems while children who bully others are at a greater risk of breaking the law. On campus homicide and suicide has increased 500 percent in the past four decades.
Men are judged by their accomplishments women by their thigh and breast size. 
If a girl is born with the genetic predisposition to have full thighs or small breasts, there is little she can do about that other than dieting or surgery.
One in five women has an eating disorder and up to 20% of those affected will die as a result. Ninety-five percent of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
More than 360,000 women and teenagers underwent surgery to have their breasts enlarged with silicone or saline implants in 2005.  Any surgery involves risks, and, since breasts implants have a shelf-life, all of those women will face at least one more surgery. The risks from implants increase over time and include ruptures, silicone migration, bacteria or mold that can grow in saline implants and escape into the body, cognitive problems, pain, hardening of implants, loss of sensation, and financial burdens from repeated surgeries.
John McCain has male pattern baldness over which he has no more control than Hillary has over her breast size. Maybe he has a small penis but I'm sure Chicken Express would never display a sign denigrating any man because of physical attributes over which he has no control.

[o]ur children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
So let's learn from our history
And do it differently — The Dixie Chicks, I Hope

I hope Wise County businesses will show more responsibility and give our children a better example to watch...

Here is the contact info:

Chicken Express
802 Hwy. 380
Bridgeport, Texas 76426
Phone: 940-683-5012
Fax: 940-683-5012

Media bias exposed

The excellent investigative journalism in the New York Times over the weekend that exposed the Pentagon’s habit of programming former military brass, winding them up and sending them out to dispense propaganda disguised as “independent analysts” has gotten the cold shoulder treatment from the news outlets that have benefitted most from this scheme.
What I thought was most interesting about the article was that the first analyst featured in the NYTimes front-page photo montage was San Antonio’s own Ken Allard who is now a regular columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. But as it turns out, Allard comes out of the article smelling like a rose because he was critical of the way the Pentagon and the news outlets handled the situation.

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.
As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.
“Night and day,” Mr. Allard said, “I felt we’d been hosed.”

Well, good for Allard, although I have to admit I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to slamming the Express-News editorial board with this story.
Nevertheless, Allard continues to be a rah-rah supporter of the war in Iraq to this day as is the E-N editorial board.

In other developments of media bias, CNN has decided that Glenn Beck needs more help bashing liberals at the 24-hour news network, so they have hired former Fox pundit and Bush administration mouthpiece Tony Snow to be conservative commentator. They are already featuring Snow prominently on their Web site such as this inane exchange with Larry King in which Snow predicts a McCain victory in November!

One note of good news, the Wall Street Journal is adding liberal Thomas Frank to its lineup of regular columnists. Frank is the author of “What’s the Matter With Kansas?”.

Spurs in playoffs

Even if the Spurs end up getting knocked out in the first round this year, their Game 1 performance against the Suns will still make it all worthwhile. I couldn’t be happier for my team right now.

Hillarycrats

It has long been clear that Hillary Clinton cannot win the Democratic presidential primary race. So what is still motivating so many Democrats to continue supporting Clinton’s quixotic campaign at this point? Obama is well ahead now in the national polls. He is regularly raising twice as much money as Clinton and he keeps picking up new superdelegates and new endorsements on a daily basis.
But in the Pennsylvania primary tomorrow, the polls still show Hillary winning by as much as 10 points.
The Democrats in Pennsylvania could do us all a big favor by finally putting Hillary’s mortally wonded campaign out of its misery. Why do they insist on continuing to prop it up just to keep this painful charade going for another month or more? Why do Pennsylvania Democrats hate the Democrats?

Of course, there is still a chance that Obama could win tomorrow and force Hillary out of the race once and for all. But I’m not going to hold my breath at this point. I am assuming she will pull out a narrow victory - but only gain a slightly larger and ultimately insignificant number of pledged delegates - and then spin it to be a major victory for her side that should totally redifine the dynamics of the presidential race. Nonsense.

We need Hillary and the Hillarycrats to abandon this futile crusade and get back on the right side. Quit doing the Republicans’ dirty work for them and start defending the party’s eventual nominee for this fall’s election. Maybe the Clinton’s will sit down after tomorrow, refigure the math one more time and come to the same conclusion most everyone else did long ago. Then perhaps they will make a graceful exit from the race and allow the party to start the healing process before we get any further into the campaign season.

Letter to ABC

The following is a letter to ABC News signed by a distinguished collection of liberal journalists. I wholly concur with the sentiments of the letter.

We, the undersigned, deplore the conduct of ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson at the Democratic Presidential debate on April 16. The debate was a revolting descent into tabloid journalism and a gross disservice to Americans concerned about the great issues facing the nation and the world. This is not the first Democratic or Republican presidential debate to emphasize gotcha questions over real discussion. However, it is, so far, the worst.

For 53 minutes, we heard no question about public policy from either moderator. ABC seemed less interested in provoking serious discussion than in trying to generate cheap shot sound-bites for later rebroadcast. The questions asked by Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mr. Gibson were a disgrace, and the subsequent attempts to justify them by claiming that they reflect citizens' interest are an insult to the intelligence of those citizens and ABC's viewers. Many thousands of those viewers have already written to ABC to express their outrage.

The moderators' occasional later forays into substance were nearly as bad. Mr. Gibson's claim that the government can raise revenues by cutting capital gains tax is grossly at odds with what taxation experts believe. Both candidates tried, repeatedly, to bring debate back to the real problems faced by ordinary Americans. Neither moderator allowed them to do this.

We're at a crucial moment in our country's history, facing war, a terrorism threat, recession, and a range of big domestic challenges. Large majorities of our fellow Americans tell pollsters they're deeply worried about the country's direction. In such a context, journalists moderating a debate--who are, after all, entrusted with free public airwaves--have a particular responsibility to push and engage the candidates in serious debate about these matters. Tough, probing questions on these issues clearly serve the public interest. Demands that candidates make pledges about a future no one can predict or excessive emphasis on tangential "character" issues do not. This applies to candidates of both parties.

Neither Mr. Gibson nor Mr. Stephanopoulos lived up to these responsibilities. In the words of Tom Shales of the Washington Post, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Stephanopoulos turned in "shoddy, despicable performances." As Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher describes it, the debate was a "travesty." We hope that the public uproar over ABC's miserable showing will encourage a return to serious journalism in debates between the Democratic and Republican nominees this fall. Anything less would be a betrayal of the basic responsibilities that journalists owe to their public.

Spencer Ackerman, The Washington Independent
Eric Alterman, City University of New York
Dean Baker, The American Prospect Online
Steven Benen, The Carpetbagger Report
Julie Bergman Sender, Balcony Films
Ari Berman, The Nation
Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium
Michael Berube, Crooked Timber, Pennsylvania State University
Joel Bleifuss, In These Times
Sam Boyd, The American Prospect
Lakshmi Chaudry, In These Times
Joe Conason, Journalist and Author
Brad DeLong, Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal and UC Berkeley
Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly
Henry Farrell, Crooked Timber, George Washington University
James Galbraith, University of Texas at Austin
Todd Gitlin, Columbia University, TPM Cafe
Merrill Goozner (formerly Chicago Tribune)
Ilan Goldenberg, The National Security Network
Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films
Christopher Hayes, The Nation
Don Hazen, Alternet
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Ed Kilgore, The Democratic Strategist
Richard Kim, The Nation
Ezra Klein, The American Prospect
Mark Kleiman, UCLA/The Reality Based Community
Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed
Ari Melber, The Nation
Rick Perlstein, Campaign for America's Future
Katha Pollitt, The Nation
David Roberts, Grist
Thomas Schaller, Columnist, The Baltimore Sun
Mark Schmitt, The New America Foundation
Adele Stan, The Media Consortium
Jonathan Stein, Mother Jones Magazine
Mark Thoma, The Economist's View
Michael Tomasky, The Guardian
Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks
Tracy Van Slyke, The Media Consortium
Kai Wright, The Root

Fox News could have done a better job moderating the Democratic debate. ABC has really shot itself in the foot here. Gibson should be demoted from his anchor chair. Stephanopoulos should be fired.

Smoke gets in their eyes

Like Ann, I could be described as “desperately optimistic” about Barack Obama’s chances for election in November.
All the signs point to a big Democratic victory in November - fundraising, turnout percentages, Bush’s unfavorability, etc.
But the one thing that troubles me are these damn polls that show John McCain leading Obama in so many states.
What is wrong with these people?!? How can Bush have a 70 percent unfavorability rating while, at the same time, McCain, who promises to carry out Bush’s same policies for the next four years, has a 64 percent favorability rating?
It doesn’t make sense. Are people really this dumb? Don’t answer that!

It’s like someone getting a report from their doctor that if they don’t stop smoking Marlboros they will die from lung cancer. So, they start smoking Winstons instead.
That’s how stupid it is.

I think too many people fail to look at the big picture when casting their votes. They allow themselves to be distracted by totally irrelevant issues - Obama’s former pastor, for example - until it clouds out the more important issues - like the war in Iraq and the tanking economy.
What we need is better media coverage that will blow some of this smoke out of the room and give people a clearer picture of what this election will mean. Unfortunately, much of our media tends to behave like a big fog-making machine, further clouding the picture worse than it is.
Our only hope is that the prevailing winds that are beyond the control of the media and the GOP spin machine will be strong enough to clear some of this mess out before we get stuck with four more years of the same thing.

Good reading

I bought a book this weekend that really sums up a lot of what I have been trying to say on this blog for the past year.
The Conservatives Have No Clothes: Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing by Greg Anrig gets right to the point I’ve been wanting to make: It’s not just Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove and DeLay, etc. It is the whole rightwing ideology that underlies their actions that needs to be addressed.

Mark Schmit said it well in a review of Anrig’s book:

As even the most committed conservatives have begun to recognize the scale of the debacle, foreign and domestic, of the seven years during which they have held unchecked power, they have begun to plot a slick escape from the consequences. "Oh, that?" they will say. "That wasn't conservatism. That was something completely different." It started out as conservatism, they say, but was corrupted by the culture of Washington, by Jack Abramoff or Tom DeLay. Or, they say, so sorry, we misjudged George W. Bush, failed to see how incompetent he was. Or, as in recent tributes to Karl Rove on his resignation from the White House, they will admit that the single-minded focus on winning elections, bending all policy to that purpose, destroyed the conservative soul. If they have the chutzpah of Rove himself, they will blame Hillary Clinton.

If there were any justice in the world, such claims would take their place in history alongside those of the old Marxists who, as Alan Wolfe noted in these pages last year ("Why Conservatives Can't Govern," July/August 2006), insisted that the only problem with communism was that it had never been properly implemented. The noble dream, they argued, should not be judged by its real-world manifestations. Maybe so. But in the real world, ideologies are judged by their consequences.

Such justice is unlikely for the recent American right, however, and the evasion of responsibility has been made easier by Democrats' nearly total focus on individual actors: George W. Bush and, to a lesser extent, Rove and Dick Cheney. Thus the spate of books with titles like The Lies of George Bush and Bush's Brain. Now Rove is gone, DeLay is gone, and in sixteen months Bush and Cheney will join them, but their brand of conservatism may never be held to account for its failures in practice.

Like I’ve said before, we can’t focus entirely on these individuals (although they have certainly earned their infamy and vilification) and risk allowing a new group of right-wingers like John McCain to step in and continue the same failed policies that have been so disasterous for our economy and our foreign policy.

Humble Pie

My latest music purchase is a greatest hits compilation of Humble Pie.



My friend Anne sparked my interest earlier this year by linking to a video of their song “30 Days in the Hole”, which was the first time I had ever heard it.



Now I’m hooked. Last year, I got into The Faces which was the band that helped launch Rod Stewart and Ron Wood’s careers. Now I am learning about all these connections between the two bands - Humbe Pie’s lead singer Steve Marriott had originally been in a group called the Small Faces with the core rhythm section of what would become The Faces. When Marriott left, he was replaced by Stewart and Wood. But Marriott got together with Peter Frampton and launched Humble Pie.

Anyhow, Marriott is an incredible singer (supposedly the inspiration for Led Zepplin) and it is a shame that he was killed in a house fire sometime back.

Endless war cheerleading

The San Antonio Express-News has been cheerleading for Bush’s war in Iraq since Day 1 and today is no different. Their editorial today is no different and, what’s worse, they devote the ENTIRE Other Views section to three op-ed pieces by rightwing warhawks — Cal Thomas, Rich Lowry and Ken Allard.
How is that for fair and balanced? Way to go Jonathan Gurwitz! You totally rule Bruce Davidson’s world.

Today’s editorial is a particulary loathsome piece of garbage. The title is “Don’t hastily discard hard-won Iraq gains”.
Hastily?!?!? Hastily?!?!?!?!? We’ve been over there for five years now!!! What the HELL are they talking about hastily!!!???!!!! Idiots!!!
The subhead says “U.S. forces have purchased modest progress at a tremendous cost, but the alternatives may be worse”.
Modest progress my rear! If we’ve been there five years, spent $300-plus billion dollars, sacrificed 4,000 U.S. soldiers lives, and yet if we leave anytime in the next year things will supposedly go to hell in a handbasket.... How can they call that progress?
And as for alternatives that could be worse, what could possibly be worse than having our military mired in that hellhole for another four years? (a certain guarantee if John McCain is elected).
And yet, any thought of us leaving Iraq at any time in the near future is constanly equated with failure and retreat. This time next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, we will hear this same song-and-dance routine from Gen. Patraeus or whoever the current general in charge is. It never ends, just like this video illustrates:

Look who’s back!

My old sparring partner Mark Harden has resurfaced in the Letters to the Editor section of the San Antonio Express-News.

Mark is in a tizzy because in a news story on Saturday about a local woman being appointed to the board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the E-N failed to denounce the group as an Islamofascist terrorist organization! Such shoddy journalism!!!

Mark claims that CAIR “was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for providing material support to Hamas, an officially designated terrorist group. But Mark neglects to mention that case ended in a mistrial.

After 19 days of deliberations, a jury in 2007 were unable to come to a definitive conclusion and the case ended in a mistrial. On Nov. 4, 2007 the LA Times reported: "The nation's biggest terrorism finance case ended so badly for the government that it has thrown into question the Bush administration's original order to shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development six years ago."
Experts found the jury's inability to come to a definitive conclusion evidence of weakness in the government's ability to provide clear enough evidence against the charity.
The LA Times reported: "If the government can shut them down and then not convince a jury the group is guilty of any wrongdoing, then there is something wrong with the process," Georgetown University law professor David Cole said. [9]
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the criminal trial derailed the government's long-publicized assertions about Holy Land. "From the beginning, the allegations were highly suspect and only got worse," said Turley, who has handled a number of national security cases.
"Indeed, Turley said, if the government had begun with the troubled criminal case, it might never have succeeded in closing down the foundation administratively because its disputed evidence would have come to light years ago."
Some jurors were skeptical of the government's case. The LA Times reported: "The government's allegations not only proved unpersuasive but engendered skepticism among some jurors.
"The whole case was based on assumptions that were based on suspicions," said juror Scroggins, who added: "If they had been a Christian or Jewish group, I don't think [prosecutors] would have brought charges against them."

Mark also references American Islamic Forum for Democracy , a rightwing lobby group with little support outside of rightwing circles, in a further attempt to tarnish CAIR.
It seems little wonder then that CAIR feels compelled to keep an Urban Legends section on its website to try and combat the wild accusations that get thrown at it (and then published in newspapers) on a regular basis.

Charlton Heston

Here is a good retrospective on Charlton Heston.
I’ve always liked Heston despite his conservative political advocacy. I don’t let a person’s politics affect the way I look at their art or music. I was annoyed that Heston became such a strong public advocate for the NRA at a time when the organization was becoming much too extreme in its advocacy - assault weapons, cop-killer bullets, plastic guns, etc. But I also think he should get more credit for being one of the celebrities to embrace the Civil Rights movement early on.
My favorite Charton Heston movies are fairly obvious:

The Ten Commandments
Ben-Hur
Planet of the Apes
Omega Man

But then I was surprised by how few of Heston’s pictures I’m really familiar with. I know I have seen others, but I don’t remember them as well and would need to watch them again for a full appreciation. So here is a list of Heston movies I would like to revisit or see for the first time:

Arrowhead
Touch of Evil
El Cid
Major Dundee
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Will Penney
Soylent Green

The last time a saw Heston was probably in Michael Moore’s film “Bowling For Columbine” and my reaction was quite the opposite of what Moore intended. Moore took his film crew to Heston’s residence in Hollywood and tried to do one of his gotcha seens aka “Roger and Me” only to have it backfire on him. Heston came across as gracious and welcoming while Moore came across as crass and vindictive. In the end I left the theater feeling sympathetic for Heston (although still not sympathetic with his views) and thinking that Moore had behaved like a total jerk.

You say Goodbye, and I say Hello

I have finally decided to de-link All Things Conservative from my blogroll.
It was nearly three years ago that I welcomed ATC to the San Antonio blogging community. It almost immediately became more popular than my meager blogging effort and attracted a bevy of regular readers. But a couple of months ago its proprietor Bill Crawford inexplicably walked away from the site and for many weeks after it just sat there like a bloated corpse collecting comment spam like flies.
Then, a week ago or so, it was gone. Wiped out. Deleted. Three years worth of labor down the memory hole, only to be replaced with what can only be described as a sick joke of a website - a nameless, barren, non-descript site that looks less than half-finished and claims to be devoted to debunking global warming theories, but in truth, if you scroll down, is just a template for random advertisements. Pathetic.
It’s hard to understand why someone would devote three years of their life building up a blog like that only to turn around one day and delete the whole thing. I had contributed a few guest posts at the site over the years and had been one of the regular commenters, contributing to countless lengthy debates on a myriad of topics.
All gone. Just like Bill who just vanished without a word. Poof!
So it goes in the World Wide Web sometimes.

On the other hand, I’d like to formally welcome a new blog to the San Antonio blogging community called maximum volume. The anonymous author is a good friend of mine who I will say is very well connected and should have a lot of insightful things to say on many topics. Hopefully, with a little positive feedback we can encourage him to post more often on his new blog. So check him out.

Wasteful spending in context

Here is a fine example of why I think groups like Citizens Against Government Waste are a joke.
The CAGW has just released its annual “Pork Report” in which it breathlessly reports that "Congress stuffed 11,610 projects" worth $17.2 billion into a dozen spending bills.”
The fact that they had to comb through more than 11,000 projects and they only come up with $17.2 billion is telling. We spend more than that in less than two months in Iraq. These people aren’t fighting waste! They are finding some left over pocket change under the sofa cushions. Big deal!!

The GAO report should put those people to shame. The GAO did not question the need for any of the 95 weapons systems it looked at. It did not question the bloated costs of any of these programs. All it did was look at cost overruns — money above and beyond the initial pricetags which you know are already inflated — and here is what they found:

The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average.

$295 billion!!! Compared to $17.2 billion for 11,610 programs most of which are probably easily defensible as needed or necessary spending. The $295 billion is not for any programs. Zero!! We don’t get squat for this money. It is simply cost overruns. Bad management. Incompetence. The hallmark of the Bush administration, and Republican policy in general. At least with the $17.2 billion in so-called pork barrell projects we will get a lot of roads and bridges and museums and so forth.

And the $295 billion pales in comparison to the estimated costs of the Iraq debacle, now coming close to $5 trillion.

Next week, the Iraq war enters its sixth year. As casualties mount (about 4,000 American soldiers killed since the start of the war in March 2003), so do the bills.
"The cost is going up every month," says Linda Bilmes, an expert at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She estimates the short-term, "running cost" has reached $12.5 billion a month. That's up from $4.4 billion a month in 2003. Add in long-term factors, such as the care of veterans and interest on federal debt incurred as a result of the war, and the cost piles up to $25 billion a month nowadays.
Last September in a phone interview, Ms. Bilmes estimated the war's total price tag as easily exceeding $2 trillion. In a book published last month, she and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University, New York, estimated the total long-run cost at $3 trillion in 2007 valued dollars. If you add in Afghanistan and various costs to the economy, the sum reaches $4.95 trillion.

From now on, whenever I hear any Republican complain about paying taxes my standard response will be, “Yeah, paying for Bush’s war is a pain, isn’t it?”
Because, after all, that is what every last one of our tax dollars is going to go towards for the rest of our natural lives.

One more MB video

The first one is my nephew. The second is my son. My other brother-in-law, Alan, took this video.

Mutton Busting II

My brother-in-law Mark took this video of my son riding the sheep at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

And here is my nephew just moments earlier...

No time to blog today

My mom forwarded this cool picture to me this morning.

Dream cabinet

OK, here’s a fun fantasy exercise while we wait patiently for the never-ending primary process to play itself out. Who would be your ideal picks for the top cabinet posts in the next presidential administration. Here are some of my choices:

President Barack Obama
Vice President Bill Richardson
Secretary of State Chris Dodd
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
Attorney General John Edwards
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Homeland Security Joe Biden
Secretary of Interior Clint Eastwood
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Treasury
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Environment Al Gore (New cabinet level position)

And Hillary Clinton will return to the Senate and challenge Harry Reid for the job of Majority Leader.
I’ll try to fill in the blanks over time. Any suggestions?

Embedded music

Jed over at Boots and Sabers has been highlighting different musical artists each day and having readers post their favorite songs. It’s kind of fun to see what other people pick as their favorite music by acts that are familiar to most everyone. It’s also interesting to see which group or individual gets highlighted each day.
Here are the groups they’ve featured so far in order:

The Rolling Stones
Aerosmith
Led Zepplin
U2
Lynyrd Skynyrd
AC/DC
Motley Crue
Jim Croce
Queen
Bruce Springsteen
Guns n Roses
The Clash

The exercise is apparently limited to the availability of songs Jed can find on the SeeqPod web site. This cool site lets you search for songs that you can then embed on your blog. Here is my first attempt:



I want to dedicate this one to Aretha Franklin!

Delegate math update

For those who may still be unconvinced of the futility of Hillary Clinton’s continuing bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, MSNBC has helpfully run the numbers again:

Obama leads among pledged delegates 1408-1251; Clinton leads among superdelegates, 255-218. Added together, Obama's overall delegate lead is 120, 1626-1506. Now, what's left? There are still 10 pledged delegates NBC News hasn’t allocated from contests already held. In addition, there are 566 delegates at stake in the remaining contests. On the supers front, there are 321 folks who haven't picked sides (76 of whom have yet to be named; they'll get named at state convention meetings held between now and the end of June). OK, now, let's play the math game. If the remaining contests split up "as expected" meaning Clinton wins her base states (PA, KY, WV etc.) and Obama wins his base states (NC, OR, MT etc.) and the two split Indiana down the middle, the two campaigns will likely split those 566 delegates right down the middle 283-283 (margin of error +/- 5 delegates). This means Obama would need 34% of the uncommitted superdelegates to hit the magic 2024 number, while Clinton would need 72% of the uncommitted Supers to hit 2024.  

And splitting the remaining delegates down the middle is probably an overly optimistic scenario for Hillary right now. But even if that does happen, she has to somehow persuade an overwhelming majority of the Super delegates (72 percent) to overturn the will of the Democratic primary voters and support her at the convention. Ain’t gonna happen.

In the meantime, the Jeremiah Wright controversy is starting to fade as the pack-dog press has turned its attention to chasing a sex scandal in the Detroit Mayor’s office; Obama has increased his poll lead in North Carolina to 20 points; and his fundraising efforts continue to outpace Hillary and is leaving John McCain in the dust.

Conservatives for Obama

Andrew Bracevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, makes the conservative case for Barack Obama.

Conservatives who think that a McCain presidency would restore a sense of realism and prudence to U.S. foreign policy are setting themselves up for disappointment. On this score, we should take the senator at his word: his commitment to continuing the most disastrous of President Bush’s misadventures is irrevocable. McCain is determined to remain in Iraq as long as it takes. He is the candidate of the War Party. The election of John McCain would provide a new lease on life to American militarism, while perpetuating the U.S. penchant for global interventionism marketed under the guise of liberation.

The essential point is this: conservatives intent on voting in November for a candidate who shares their views might as well plan on spending Election Day at home. The Republican Party of Bush, Cheney, and McCain no longer accommodates such a candidate.

So why consider Obama? For one reason only: because this liberal Democrat has promised to end the U.S. combat role in Iraq. Contained within that promise, if fulfilled, lies some modest prospect of a conservative revival.

Lie, Cheat and Steal

When I saw this story the other day about Hillary needing to do three things to win the Democratic nomination, my first thought was "Yeah - Lie, Cheat and Steal."
But then I read the article and here are the three things they actually suggest she needs to do:

1. Win big in Pennsylvania and claim that that proves she deserves the nomination even though she will still be behind in pledged delegates... In other words, LIE.

2. Find some way to have the Florida and Michigan delegates seated on her behalf even though they did not hold legitimate primary elections... In other words, CHEAT.

3. Find some way to get the superdelegates to abandon and Obama and support her... In other words, STEAL.

So my first impression turns out to have been dead on. Ha!

5 year anniversary

No, not the war in Iraq. My blogiversary!
Actually, I just realized that I totally neglected to note my blog’s fifth anniversary back in January - Jan. 10 to be precise.
Here is my first ever blog post from 2003.
I didn’t have titles for my posts back then. I didn’t have comments. I didn’t know how to post links or pictures or videos. But I had a blog!
It is strange to think that my blog has been around longer than the war-that-will-not-end in Iraq. It is older than both of my children. I’ve had it longer than either of the two cars I currently own.
Amazingly enough, I’ve lived in the same house and had the same job for this entire period. That is unusual for me. But I have no plans of ever moving again and I expect I will keep this blog going for the forseeable future. It’s too much fun to stop now!

Failure to Communicate

I’ve always enjoyed sparring with people over politics and since I started blogging I have sought out people who I could engage in debate over the political issues of the day.
But forming and maintaining such relationships - cordial yet adversarial - has proved difficult at times. A lot of bloggers simply don’t stick around for very long. Many of the rightwing bloggers I have engaged in debate over the years have simply shut down and tuned out. Sometimes the dialogues we’ve had have proved fruitful and informative on both sides. Other times they have simply reinforced stereotypes and animosities and have gone nowhere.
One recent effort of mine to strike up a discourse with a political adversary has just ended in dismal failure. The other day I was formally banned from commenting at the blog run by TexasFred. It didn’t take long. I think I was allotted three comments on the site before I was pitched out on my rear.
I should have known better. I was intrigued by TexasFred because he was one of the many rightwing bloggers to announce steadfast opposition to John McCain’s presidential candidacy. I was curious to see how long this would last before the prospect of a Democratic boogeyman getting in the White House would force a reversal of that position. Sure enough, once it became clear that Obama would be the nominee, TexasFred began to bitterly denounce him in tones that were both objectionable and over-the-top.
It should have been clear then that there was no opportunity for dialogue at that point. But I let my curiosity overrule my better judgment and I attempted to open a dialogue on his blog. This is always difficult because many people will assume that someone posting an adversarial comment on their site is a “troll” who is only seeking to pick a fight or make fun of them. So I tried to ease into the discussion by first noting an area where we are in agreement - he is adamantly opposed to the Iraq War in the same way that Pat Buchanan is. But, I wondered, how can he still consider supporting the Republican ticket in that case?
But my attempt to raise this issue backfired when he mistook one of my comments and lambasted me with his response. And then he made it clear that if I were a supporter of Obama he would have no interest in anything I have to say. I should have bailed at that point, but I then made the mistake of trying to lighten the mood by cracking a joke in my next comment only to find that TexasFred takes his politics very seriously and does not share my sense of humor. So I was banned and all my previous comments on the site were deleted and pitched down the memory hole.
So, as in the Cool Hand Luke clip above, I had failed to communicate and I walk away with the impression that there are some people that you just can’t reach.
But, honestly, I still don’t believe that. Not entirely.

A historic speech

Here is the full text of Obama’s “Race Speech” that he delivered today. It is most remarkable because he addresses the race issue from both the perspective of a black man and a white man. There are not many people who can do that today with any degree of credibility. Obama, because of his unique racial heritage, can.
He doesn’t just dismiss and denounce the racist words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he puts them into their historical context and then shows a path by which those views can be changed. He does not excuse the offensive remarks, but neither does he condemn the man for saying them.
And then he changes gears and discusses the race issue from a white perspective. He talks about the racial resentments that white people feel over busing and affirmative action, and he puts that into its historical perspective too.
I don’t know how anyone could listen to this speech in its entirety and not come away affected by its eleoquence and sincerity. This is the power of rhetoric that has been missing for far too long in our society. I am more excited than ever now about the possibilities that Obama’s candidacy brings for reconciliation and healing in our fractured society.
There will always be people who will dismiss and ignore what he says, but as long as he continues to find forums to spread this unifying message, it will be difficult for the naysayers to hold back the positive changes that are long overdue in our country.

Raw, unfiltered hatred

A while back I noted that a lot of rightwing bloggers were swearing up and down that they would never vote for John McCain.
Their revulsion for McCain’s alleged liberalism was just too much for them to bear.

But I should have known not to underestimate the power of raw, unreasoning, unfiltered hatred.
Case in point: One of the wingnut bloggers I referenced was one called Texas Fred who had this to say back then:

I will officially go on record, here and now, and I make this a public disclosure to any and all that have doubts as to where I stand, IF John McCain is the candidate chosen by the RNC to run for the White House, I will NOT support the Republican choice...

But now, using the drummed up controversy over Obama’s former pastor as his excuse, Texas Fred has suddenly backtracked:

”If it means supporting McCain to keep this skinny, purple lipped, half-assed black son of a bitch stealth muzzie OUT of the White House, then by God I’ll support McCain...”

Texas Fred precedes this tirade by claiming that he is “not a racist” and I would agree. It’s not that he is a racist that makes him say these things, it’s that he is an a**hole. I’m sure he would find some excuse to vent his hatred at the Democratic nominee regardless of who it turns out to be.

Not all rightwingers are like this, fortunately, but for far too many this raw hatred that builds up in their twisted psyches becomes the primary motivation for all their political views. It is the touchstone of their politics. It is what motivates them and drives their political agenda. They build up a strawman, fill it up with their worst fears and prejudices and then sit back and scream hateful invectives at it.
Trying to engage people such as this in constructive debate is usually futile. Their hatred runs too deep and blinds them from any rationale thought.

It does not surprise me that Texas Fred and others of his ilk are going back on their pledges of non-support for McCain, but I was a little shocked to see it done with such foul and hate-filled intensity as demonstrated by Texas Fred.

Mutton Busting

This is what my little boy got to do on Saturday.

Heck of a job, Mr. President

This is some way to cap off the final year of his presidency, isn’t it?

"The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War," Alan Greenspan said in a Financial Times commentary.
    "It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities," he said, referring to the meltdown in the US subprime home loan market and subsequent massive losses for the banks holding the debt instruments.
    "The crisis will leave many casualties," he said, his remarks coming after Bear Stearns, the fifth largest US investment house collapsed Friday and was taken over by JPMorgan Chase for a fraction of its value of only a week ago.

So.... what happened? Why haven’t Bush’s tax cuts made everything wonderful for our economy? How come after eight years with Bush at the reins we are heading towards the most wrenching financial crisis since WWII?
Not his fault, you say? 9/11 and all that?
Ridiculous.
There could not be clearer evidence that Republican economic policies have FAILED miserably. The prospect of electing John McCain to carry on another four years of these same failed economic policies is frightening.

Desert Island Music

Over at Boots & Sabers they have been running a series of posts where people pick their favorite song by different bands. Today, they take it one step further with a deserted island post.
The game is that you are stuck on a deserted island with plenty of electricity and a good stereo system. In one version you are allowed to have three songs and only three songs. In another version you are allowed three albums - double albums allowed but no greatest hits compilations or box sets. And in a third version you are allowed the entire discography of three artists.
I decided to combine the three versions and make them cumulative so that I could get the most musical variety on my little island as possible.
Here was my answer:

The complete discographies of:

The Beatles
Bing Crosby
Duke Ellington

The Albums:

Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
The Sun Sessions - Elvis Presley
Modern Sounds in Country Music - Ray Charles

Songs:

Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
The Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) - Beethoven


That still leaves out a lot, doesn’t it.

Warning shot

Jonathan Gurwitz can see what’s coming. The Republicans are heading for a major election defeat in November and the loss of former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat in what used to be a solidly Republican district in Illinois is just one indicator.
But Democrats still have a long primary fight ahead of them with the next big primary - Pennsylvania - nearly six weeks away. Obama won Mississippi handily - 61-39 percent - adding to his victory a few days earlier in Wyoming. That gave him enough delegates to wipe out any bump that Hillary saw out of her March 4 victories in Ohio and Texas.
There is no way at this point that Hillary can win this thing so it is not clear why she is staying in the race. But it will all be over in time and Democrats will unite behind their nominee just as the disgruntled Republicans have obediently kow-towed to John McCain.

Dump Spitzer

What is he still doing in office?? Get the hell out! Resign now! He should have been out yesterday.
There is no way that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is going to survive this sex scandal. The fact that he used to be a prosecutor who aggressively went after people caught up in prostitution rings sends this case way off of the hypocricy scale. Democrats should not waste one ounce of political capital trying to defend his stupid ass. What an idiot! His political career is over, regardless of how the legal case plays out.
There are a lot of questions about how the Justice Department came to snare a Democratic governor. These should be pursued vigorously and exposed if it turns out the investigation was politically motivated. But that doesn’t mean Spitzer is going to get off the hook. His goose is cooked no matter what. He needs to clear out and make room for the Democratic Party’s next rising star - Lt. Gov. David Paterson. Paterson would not only become the fourth African-American governor in history, but he would also be the first one who is legally blind. What a great story! Dump Spitzer now and start promoting Paterson!

A question of experience

When they are not darkly alluding that Barack Obama is a terrorist sympathizer because of his middle name, they will attack him for his percieved lack of experience.

On that note, here is an interesting exercise on picking presidents based on experience:

Suppose you had to choose between two Presidential candidates, one of whom had spent 20 years in Congress plus had considerable other relevant experience and the other of whom had about half a dozen years in the Illinois state legislature and 2 years in Congress. Which one do you think would make a better President? If you chose #1, congratulations, you picked James Buchanan over Abraham Lincoln.

There are many other examples like that where you can persuade people to pick Warren G. Harding over Franklin Roosevelt; or Millard Fillmore over John Adams.

Clearly, “experience” is almost a random factor when it comes to determining the success of a president. One of the most galling things about Hillary’s “threshhold” argument for being commander-in-chief is that her own husband would never have passed the test the way she is using it today.

Some people will argue that having too much experience is actually bad. They will point out that most presidents fare more poorly during their second term after gaining experience than they do during their first term. I don’t necessarily buy that argument. I just think that experience by itself is overrated. What matters most is what you do with the experience you have and not just the simple fact that you have it.
Some people can do a great deal with very little experience while others do almost nothing with lots of experience.

Crossing the threshhold

For the last few days, Hillary Clinton has been pushing a new campaign theme where she claims to have “crossed a threshhold” for becoming Commander in Chief of our military, while implying that Barack Obama has not. The outrageous part is that each time she does this she assumes that Republican John McCain has crossed that threshhold as well. So, in effect, she is endorsing McCain’s bid for the presidency over Obama’s.
What is she thinking?!?
Hillary has crossed a threshhold alright! Right into Joe Lieberman territory. What’s next? Will she be making a nomination speech at the Republican National Convention this summer like Zell Miller did?
I’m not a Hillary basher by any measure. I’ve always admired and supported her in the past. But lately it is becoming extremely difficult for me to defend her actions to my friends. What is going on?
Hillary is not stupid. I know that she can count. I know that she can see the writing on the wall. As Jonathan Alter pointed out in Newsweek, she has no chance of catching up to Obama in the pledged delegate count at this point, even if she were to blow him out in every contest from here on out.
So what is her gameplan with this new line of attack? How does she expect to win over Democratic voters by praising John McCain? It’s nuts. Is she just being vindictive, with the idea that if she can’t win, then nobody can win?

District 23 challenger

It seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating Ciro Rodriguez’ victory over Henry Bonilla in the 23rd Congressional District.
Now, it’s time to gear up for the next challenge. Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson won the Republican primary the other day and will take on Ciro this fall. Larson handily defeated millionaire businessman Quico Canseco despite being outspent nearly 10-1.

I was glad to see Larson win, partly because I think he is not as noxious as Quico and partly because he does not have the personal wealth and financial resources at his disposal that Quico has.
Larson seems like a mainstream Republican who is not out on the wingnut fringe. But then, I thought the same thing about John Cornyn before he got elected to the Senate.

On his campaign website, Larson seems to downplay (or ignore) the more divisive issues on his website and promises to “bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C.,” secure our borders and care for our veterans. Hardly controversial ideas.
Still, Larson covers his right flank by declaring "I am pro life and I value the sanctity of every human life.” and "I believe in traditional marriage; a union between a man and a woman". But then he goes on to emphasize his support for adoptions programs which everybody supports.
But there are some worrisome areas on Larson’s “issues” page that voters should be aware of. He talks about Social Security in alarmist terms and hints that “tough decisions must be made” about the level of benefits younger generations will recieve.
And on taxes, Larson embraces the nutty “Fair Tax” scheme most recently promoted by Mike Huckabee that would eliminate the IRS and fund the entire U.S. government (inadequately) with a massive 36 percent sales tax on everything. The goofy idea was initially dreamed up by the Church of Scientology, and is now being endorsed by the rightwing fringe of the Republican Party.

One issue that Larson skirts on his web site, not surprisingly, is the Iraq War. But one can be assured that as the Republican candidate on the ballot with John McCain next fall, Larson will have no choice but to wear the Iraqi albatross around his neck.

This should be a good year for Democrats and Ciro should not have too much trouble getting re-elected after knocking off Bonilla by a 55-45 margin less than two years ago. But he needs to take the challenge from Larson very seriously with the understanding that Larson or someone like him will be back again and again trying to pry him out of this newly blue congressional district.

A muddled election

I am deeply disappointed in the elections results last night. I very much wanted to see Texas go for Obama.
We had a chance to pick the next president of the United States here in Texas the other day and we blew it.
The election results, which gave a slim popular vote victory to Hillary Clinton and a caucus-driven delegate victory to Barrack Obama, only served to muddle things up and send the whole campaign packing down the road for the next states to decide.

Hillary is claiming a huge victory for herself, which is understandable, but when the delegates are all counted and divvied up there is less there than meets the eye.
Hillary won big in Ohio and Rhode Island, but lost in Vermont. In Texas, she split the primary delegates and lost the caucus delegates. The final tally looks like she may end up with a net gain of two or three delegates, maybe.
In other words, she did nothing to make up the gap in pledged delegates between her and Obama which stands at something like 157.
So now, instead of bowing out of the race and allowing Democrats to regroup around their eventual nominee, we are going to continue the bloody fratricide to the delight of the Republicans for the next six weeks. Hillary’s only chance of winning the nomination will be to continue her negative campaigning and tear Obama to pieces before the Democratic convention this summer so that the super delegates will be more willing to abandon him and support her.
Lovely.
The part of John McCain will now be played by Hillary Clinton for the next six weeks. Meanwhile, McCain will have time to raise a huge warchest with which to beat Democrats over the head this fall.
I don’t know if I have the stomach to put up with this for another six weeks. Yech!

E. Gary Gygax RIP

Gary Gygax, the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game, died today at age 69.
I actually got to meet Mr. Gygax back during the summer of 1983 and got his autograph when I attended the GenCon gaming convention in Lake Geneva, Wis. with my friend Jim Miller.
My friends and I were big into D&D when I was in high school. My friend Robert introduced me to the game when I was a freshman or sophomore and we played pretty regularly until we all left for college.
D&D has gotten a bad rap over the years from fundamentalist churches and that lame TV movie that starred Tom Hanks and so forth, but I have to say that for a kid growing up in small-town South Texas it was a godsend. Back before we had home computers and VCRs and cable TV, there just wasn’t much for young teens to do in the evenings. Rather than driving around town, cruising the local Dairy Queen, drinking beer and generally getting into trouble, my friends and I would gather at someone’s house, sit around a card table with a big bowl of popcorn and play D&D until late in the evening.
The game was complex and had lots of rules, but was otherwise very low-tech and required little more than the rule books, some pencils, paper and special dice. When we started, we didn’t even have dice and had to use little cardboard chits with numbers that we would keep in styrofoam cups. I remember when we finally got the special 20-sided, 12-sided and 8-sided dice it was very exciting. Back then, finding D&D games and accessories meant searching through the back corners of old hobby shops that mostly catered to people who built models and train sets. The closest one to us was in Kingsville more than 30 miles away.
Today, the game has been taken over by computers. Whereas it used to require gathering all your friends together to play a decent game, you can now play all by yourself in front of your computer, sometimes with other people half a wold away sitting in front of their computers. It’s just not the same.
I still have all my D&D books and stuff at home, packed away in a closet somewhere. Maybe when my kids are old enough and if they show any interest I might drag it all out and hopefully the magic will still work at that point. All it takes is a little imagination.

Hopes and fears

I got an email today from Move-On.org that said they had called more than 400,000 Texas voters over the weekend to urge them to vote for Barack Obama. If they called everyone of them a dozen times like they did me, that would be a lot of phone calls!
Seriously though, my phone was ringing off the hook all weekend by people calling on behalf of Obama. I never got any calls from anyone supporting Hillary. My wife assumed it was because I had given the Obama people my contact info when I dropped by their HQ last week to pick up a bumper sticker. But I didn’t tell them my name or anything. I just shook the guy’s hand and said thanks for the bumper sticker. So I assume they have my number from the Democractic Party which should be available to Hillary as well.

On a related topic, I was listening to the local wingnut radio station again last Friday and the locally-based host - Joe Pags - was having a “townhall meeting” on the air with representatives from the different political campaigns taking questions from a studio audience. What I thought was incredible is that they had a well-known educator and labor leader there to represent Hillary, a prominent local state representative to represent Obama, a local attorney speaking for Mike Huckabee, but nobody to represent John McCain! How could that be?? This was the rightwing radio station that airs non-stop rightwing hate radio day and night and they couldn’t get a McCain supporter to show up for their big election event? How pathetic!
And then I noticed that every single person in the audience asking questions throughout the show was an Obama supporter. Hilarious! I almost felt sorry for the host.

I’m now hearing that Obama will be back in San Antonio on Tuesday as the election results are coming in. If he doesn’t win, I will be sorely disappointed because it will mean six more weeks of Hillary continuing to tag team with John McCain in attacking Obama, even though she still won’t be able to catch up to him in the delegate vote. One prominent blogger has already speculated that the Hillary team might even work to defeat Obama in November so that they can be set to run for president again in 2012. I certainly hope that is wrong.
I think Obama will win in Texas, and if so Hillary should step down even if she pulls off a victory in Ohio. Ohio can be a face saver for Hillary, but it won’t be enough to keep her afloat for the rest of the campaign. Hillary blew this race on Super Tuesday when she decided to coast along on her victories in New York and California while overlooking the fact that Obama was sweeping the floor with her everywhere else.

SAPBA Round-Up

Vince over at Capitol Annex has his weekly Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up for this past week.
As usual, Vince neglects to include any bloggers from San Antonio in his “round-up.”
So to make up for this regular oversight, I’ve decided to set up the informal San Antonio Progressive Bloggers Alliance Round-Up to highlight all the good bloggy stuff coming out of the Alamo City that is regularly ignored by our progressive brethrens in Austin, Houston and Dallas.

Peter at B&B was able to attend the Barack Obama rally in San Antonio on Friday and gives his thoughts here. He even provides some photos from his seat up in the nosebleed section.
Earlier, Peter, a native Chicagoan, had an excellent post about the similarities between the Obama campaign and that of the late Harold Washington, the former mayor of Chicago.

Over at Beginning To Wonder, AnnPW has a suggested theme song for the Obama campaign.

Donna at Happiness Anyway has a good post up about the astounding number of people we keep locked up in jail for non-violent crimes. It is a huge problem that flies below the radar screen for most people until one of their relatives gets caught up in the system.

Karen Zipdrive at Pulp Friction makes the excellent point that we would not bat an eye if John McCain were to pick a white male as his running mate. However, if Hillary Clinton were to pick a white woman for a VP or Barack Obama were to pick a black man, chaos and mayem would ensue. Go figure.

Dig ad veritas at Dig Deeper Texas is concerned that the harsh tone of the Democratic primary could hurt the winner’s chances in November.

And over at Agblogistan they are wondering if we will see any last minute surprise attacks thrown out just before the March 4 primary.

Finally, over at Rhetoric & Rhythm, Mike discusses the Hagee-Farrakhan double standard where Obama is forced to denounce a controversial black minister he has no connection to, while McCain openly embraces the endorsement of a controversial white pastor with no negative consequences.

Check back next week for more good stuff from the SAPBA!