Who do the troops support?

If I asked what was the ratio of active duty military personnel supporting John McCain over Barack Obama, you might think 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 or even 4-to-1 would be expected.
Nuh uh. 6-to-1 in favor of Obama.
That’s right. Active duty troops are supporting Obama over McCain by a ratio of 6-to-1.
You think they might be a little fed up with the Bush-McCain quagmire in Iraq?
Oh yes, and Obama is also leading McCain among Christian voters as well, according to this poll.

Bolt upstages Phelps

I never would have thought someone could upstage Michael Phelps winning his eighth gold medal at the Olympics, but Usain Bolt’s incredible 100-meter dash last Saturday did just that. Wow!
The guy blew away the fastest runners on the planet, broke the world record by .3 seconds and did it without even trying very hard. He didn’t even run all the way through the finish line!! About 15 meters short of the finish he started to let up and just coasted the rest of the way. Like a football player starting to do his celebratory dance before crossing the goal line, Bolt was already starting to pound his chest and acknowledge the crowd before the race was even over.
But it didn’t even matter. He still shattered the world record and made all the other runners who gave everything they had look like they were in the wrong event. Incredible!
He probably could have shaved another half second off the world record if he had kept running at full pace, but he didn’t care. Like he said at the end of the race, all he was concerned about was winning. It was his world record to begin with.
How did he do it? One clue is that the guy stands 6’ 8” and thus his stride is longer than all the other runners. Usually that is a hindrance for a sprinter, but not for Bolt. You can see his legs churning at the same pace as the other runners, but he gains an extra foot with each step.
I predict that in the next 10 years or so you will see the average height of sprinters steadily climb until 6’ 8’’ becomes the average rather than the exception.

I was ticked last night after watching the women’s gymnastics in the individual vault competition. Alicia Sacaramone of the U.S. was clearly robbed of a medal by the judges who scored the Chinese gymnast higher despite landing her first vault on her knees.

TPA Roundup 8-18

It's Monday, and that means it is time again for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly round-up.

To kick the week off right, the TPA is unveiling its newly redesigned website where you can connect with the Alliance and our member bloggers via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, DFA, Party Builder, Ning and other social networking tools.

Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm looks at a week's worth of opinion columns from the San Antonio Express-News and determines there is a nearly three-to-one imbalance of conservative/Republican columns compared to liberal/Democratic ones.

On Bluedaze, TXsharon busts the myths that Natural Gas is cleaner, that shale drilling will make us safer, and that Domestic Drilling can make us Energy Independent.

There was no attempt of a citizens' arrest of Karl Rove while he visited Houston last week, raising money for Texas House Republicans. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs hoped it would happen, to no avail.

WhosPlayin is concerned about operators wanting to drill for gas in Lewisville's urban forest area near Central Park.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why sexual assault equates to perjury - wink, wink - if you're a person of power in Texas.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on HD-52 Democratic candidate Diana Maldonado's opponent Bryan Daniel sharing his campaign office with a local charity, IRS Complaint Filed Against Round Rock Charity.

Off the Kuff takes a look at the possible effect Libertarian candidates may have on some close State House races.

Texas Liberal uses the ancient epic Gilgamesh to discuss reactions to vulnerability and innocence in both the ancient and modern world.

McBlogger takes a look at the latest Republican fundraising pitch and finds that it's only appealing only to the same geriatric patients who are McThuselah's base. And those elephants are very tacky.

This week jobsanger is outraged by an Arkansas city that's trashing the Constitution and a small Texas country school that's allowing teachers to carry guns.

refinish69 awards the Infamous Cheese Tray Awards over at Doing My Part For The Left.

Mean Rachel supports Obama but argues against Maureen Dowd's assertion that Hillary Clinton's appearance in Denver will "dampen the dreams of our daughters."

Libby Shaw puts the pieces together for us over at TexasKos in his dairy Military Contractors Charge U.S. Taxpayers $85 Billion. Not only are we NOT saving money by outsourcing military support functions, we are pissing off people worldwide. Worst of all? Eisenhower's worst fear has come to pass, the MIC is real , alive and in control....

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog marvels at the coming Charlie Wilson Chair at UT, which will become the first Pakistan Studies chair in the nation.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at a scandal that links State Sen. John Carona (D-Dallas) to a condo development in Houston that is falling apart.

Don't forget to check out other TPA member blogs for the latest news on Texas and national politics: The Agonist, Asian American Action Fund, B & B, Bay Area Houston, Beginning to Wonder, BlueBloggin, Bluedaze, Brains & Eggs, Burnt Orange Report, Capitol Annex, The Caucus Blog, Common Sense, Dallas South Blog, Dig Deeper Texas, Doing My Part For The Left, Dos Centavos, Easter Lemming Liberal News, Eye on Williamson, Feet To Fire, Grassroots News U Can Use, Half Empty, In The Pink Texas, jobsanger, Latina Lista, Lubbock Left, Marc's Miscellany, McBlogger, Mean Rachel, MindSpeak, MOMocrats, Musings, North Texas Liberal, Off The Kuff, Para Justicia y Libertad, The Red State, Rhetoric & Rhythm, Same Blog, Different Day, South Texas Chisme, StoutDemBlog, The Texas Blue, The Texas Clover Leaf, Texas Education, Texas Kaos, Texas Liberal, Texas Truth Serum, There... Already, Three Wise Men, TruthHugger, Who'sPlayin'?, and Xpatriated Texan.

Express-News still unbalanced

I’ve complained about this before, but it continues to grate on my nerves. The San Antonio Express-News opinion section is heavily weighted in favor of conservative, Republican commentators. And most of the rest of the space is filled up with fluff pieces by apolitical lightweights.
Actual opinion pieces by true liberals and/or Democrats are few and far between.
I was reminded of this again today by this piece taking the latest Maureen Dowd column to task. Dowd, is one of several New York Times columnists featured regularly on the pages of the Express-News. And many people might mistakenly believe that she counts as a “liberal” when measuring the balance of commentary on the opinion pages. Au contraire. A careful reading of her columns, as the linked article attests, shows that she spends most of her time harping on Democrats and is certainly no advocate of liberal political causes.
George Will, on the other hand, IS an advocate for conservative and Republican causes and this week we get a double dose of his commentary. Here is the rundown on commentary pieces in the E-N so far this week. (I have placed an R next to the names of those I feel advocate Republican positions, an I for those who tend to be Independent or apolitical and a D for those who sometimes advocate Democratic positions.)

Monday:
George Will - R
Kathy Clay Little - I

Tuesday:
George Will - R
Rich Lowry - R
Maureen Dowd - I (”Edwards Unmasked”)
(Online) Mona Charen - R

Wednesday:
Ruben Navarrette - R
Jonathan Gurwitz - R
Ellen Goodman - D
(Online) Froma Harrop - R

So out of 10 columns in three days we have exactly three that are not penned by conservative pundits and/or McCain supporters. So what do we have supposedly representing the left side of the spectrum?
Kathy Clay Little, who has never expressed an opinion one way or the other about Barack Obama, lauds a local black community leader.
Maureen Dowd uses her column to pile on John Edwards in the aftermath of his sex scandal admission.
And Ellen Goodman’s column is about picking berries in Maine and reminiscing about recently departed relatives.
So much for that.
And tomorrow is typically a conservative lovefest with columns by local rightwinger and warhawk Ken Allard and syndicated wingnut Cal Thomas.
The fun never ends.

Update
For Thursday we got:
The Clinton-bashing, Democratic convention-trashing Maureen Dowd column that was skewered in the link above - I
David Brooks - R
Ken Allard - R
Cal Thomas (online) - R

And Friday we get:
Mansour El-Kikhia - D
Thomas Friedman - Sometimes a D, but pro Iraq War.
Kathleen Parker - R
David Broder (Online) - I

And Saturday must be D-Day for the E-N because we actually get two Democratic columnists on one day. Woohoo!
Garrison Keillor - D
Leonard Pitts - D
Gloria Padilla - I
Cal Thomas (online) - R

Of course, Pitts' column this week is about the Edwards' sex scandal and comparing it to Clinton, thus it is nearly indistinguishable from all the rightwing columnists this week.
And, yes, local columnist Gloria Padilla most definitely gets at 'I' for inconsequential next to her name. Padilla really sticks her neck out with her colunm this week advocating more parental involvement in their childrens' education. Yep, that's sure to drum up some controversy. Next week I think she is writing a column advising kids to eat their vegetables and brush their teeth every night.

Another domestic terror attack?

A guy walked into the Democratic Party headquarters in Arkansas and reportedly shot the state chairman, sending him to the hospital in critical condition, and then led police on a wild car chase before being shot and apprehended himself.
No more details so far, but I hope this isn’t another case of a domestic terrorist attack by some guy who hates liberals like the Unitarian Church shooting in Tennessee a few weeks ago.

Obama vs McCain on music

Political Wire reports on an item from Blender listing the presidential candidates “favorite” songs. You can be sure that these lists were put together by campaign strategists with the intent on reaching out to certain constituency groups and only vaguely reflect the actual musical tastes of the candidates. But I think they are interesting none the less:

Barack Obama
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Springsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am

John McCain
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

Obama’s list is heavily weighted towards rock, R&B and hip-hop, but they are careful to throw in a Frank Sinatra tune to appeal to the older generation. Frankie turns out to be the only crossover between the two lists.
Obama’s list is also weighted towards black artists with six of the 10 falling into that demographic group compared to just 3 of 10 on McCain’s list. Obama has three female artists counting the Fugees, while McCain has just one if you count the double dose of Abba.

Both lists are, in fact, carefully balanced in their own way. Obama has three contemporary black artists - Fugees, Nina Simone and Kanye West; and two classics - Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin.
Then we have two classic rock picks - Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones; and one contemporary rock by U2 (which also classifies as classic sometimes).
Then they throw in the YouTube hit by will.i.am that features Obama himself giving an inspirational speech.
The Sinatra selection is the oldest song on Obama’s list followed by the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin in the 60s and Marvin Gaye from the 70s. Everything else is more current.

McCain’s songs, by contrast, are very much older with nothing dating more recent than 1977. Apparently McCain’s interest in music died with disco.
He has a particular fondness for Abba with two of their songs making his list. Their 1977 disco smash “Take A Chance On Me” is the most recent song on his list followed by Abba again in 1975.
The Neil Diamond and Merle Haggard songs both date to the late ‘60s as does the Louie Armstrong song, while the Beach Boys are mid ‘60s. Then we have Roy Orbison and The Platters dating back to the ‘50s followed by Doolie Wilson and Frank Sinatra going back even further.
And yes, Doolie Wilson played Sam in “Casablanca” which is where he sang the song “As Time Goes By.”
Merle Haggard is the only country artist on either list (I’m sure Bush would have picked quite a few more) and neither candidate picked anything by The Beatles.

Wacky Packs

Wow. This brings back memories.

At 9 years old, I became hooked on the Topps-brand sticker series of product parodies, which recast Cap'n Crunch as "Cap'n Crud" and Nestle's Quik as "Nutlee's Quit" ("Explodes Instantly with Milk").

I can’t say they had as much influence on me as they did on that writer, but I do recall buying packs of those stickers in the early ‘70s when I was 7-8 years old. My source was the concession stand at the baseball fields where I played Little League games.
My biggest regret now is that I didn’t save the money I blew on Wacky Packs and buy more baseball cards from 1973-74. I don’t have any of the Wacky stickers left because I peeled them all off and stuck them on an old filing cabinet that was in my bedroom. I no longer have that filing cabinet or the stickers, but I still have my baseball cards.
But for those who missed out on this cultural phenomenon, it looks like Wacky Packs are making a comeback.
Fortunately, my kids are still too young to have any interest in such things. But I’m sure in a few more years there will be things equally inane for them to waste their money on and then have fond nostalgic recollections about years later.

True Olympic spirit vs. media hype

Last night I saw one of the most thrilling swimming relays ever as the U.S. Men’s team won the gold by slipping by France at the very end of the race by less than a second. The victory gives Michael Phelps his second gold of the Beijing Olympics and keeps him on track to match Mark Spitz’ record for the most gold medals in one year.
The final lap in that race will be talked about for years to come as the “old” guy on the team - Jason Lezak age 32 - somehow overcame nearly half a body length in the final half lap to slip into first place.
But you wouldn’t know any of this by reading the San Antonio Express-News today. The E-N sports editors were clearly unimpressed with that historic performance and relegated the story to the inside pages. Instead, they highlighted the U.S. Men’s Basketball team’s first round victory over China. No doubt they did this because they could run a big photo of Kobe Bryant dunking the ball over Yao Ming. (Yawn).
I could really care less about Olympic basketball these days. I liked it better when we filled our team with the best college players. But now that we fill the team with ringers it has become a pathetic media spectacle and no fun to watch - boring when we win, an embarrassment when we don’t. Who needs that?
Long after everyone has forgotten which overhyped superstars filled this particular Olympic basketball squad, we will still see replays of the final leg of that swimming relay and wonder how the heck he did it.

TPA Roundup 8-11

The Truth About Texas Republicans, a new blogger-powered website designed to expose the real truth about GOP Texas legislators looks at the stuff State Reps. Dwayne Bohac, Betty Brown, John Davis, Bill Zedler and State Sen. Mike Jackson don't want you to see.

refinish69 was happy to introduce a real progressive Democrat to the readers of Doing My Part For The Left a few weeks ago but has to wonder how to describe Mike Skelly: Democrat or Republican Lite?

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the Texas State Teacher's Association lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency for giving public funds to private institutions.

Irony Alert: Mary McDaniels, Manager - Pipeline Safety, Texas Railroad Commission, who lied on camera about the Atmos Energy gas pipeline couplings, spoke in Ft Worth about pipeline safety, inspections and regulations, for Chesapeake Energy's Barnett Shale pipeline, says TXsharon at Bluedaze.

Julie Pippert at MOMocrats asked, "Offshore drilling---whose issue is it anyway? The people's? Or the politician's?"

Women who enter the military know they may encounter danger along the way, just as their male counterparts do. Diarist Liberal Texas at Texas Kaos highlights an additional danger they face in Assault on Women in the Military, and calls on all of us to ensure that our fighting women are protected from sexual assault from the companions they should be able to trust.

WhosPlayin used to think John McCain was worthy of respect, even if wrong on issues. But mocking conservation and lying about Obama raising taxes show who John McCain really is.

jobsanger thinks Democrats should let Clinton's backers have their vote at the convention, and believes Barack Obama has a chance to win Texas this November.

Neil at Texas Liberal talks about AIDS and African Americans.

Due to purchase of McBlogger by a rival blogging firm, the regular writers are on strike. This week, we'd like to introduce you to a new McBlogger, Rose
Petal.

North Texas Liberal remarks on John McCain's anti-Obama ad comparing the Democratic nominee to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and also includes Hilton's response ad. Still waiting on Britney's energy policy...

Off the Kuff takes a look at The Queue behind KBH for her maybe-to-be-abandoned Senate seat.

YaGottaLoveIt of South Texas Chisme urges Barack Obama to have a fundraiser for money that stays in Texas while urging Hillary Clinton to campaign for Rick Noriega in South Texas.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the Williamson County DA's unwillingness to test DNA evidence in a almost 30 year old unsolved murder, Lawsuit Filed Against County For New DNA, Fingerprint Tests.

Tropical Storm Edouard was more like a decent rainstorm, but that didn't stop the media -- old as well as new, including madcap reporter/Congressman John Culberson -- from building it up to a height it could no more sustain than its winds. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the roundup of the hyperventilating in Houston.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is concerned about the economy "Purses Tighten, Small Business Suffers, Families Budget"

nytexan at BlueBloggin points out, as the Gerogia Russia war continues and Bush plays with U.S. athletes at the Olympics, Could The U.S. Get Pulled Into Georgiaís War?

XicanoPwr discusses the immigration survey that was sent presidential candidates Obama and McCain put together by The Sanctuary, a web base grassroots community of pro-migrant, human rights, and civil-rights bloggers.

Another one bites the dust

The Friday news dump almost always brings something interesting and today we learn that former presidential candidate John Edwards cheated on his wife.
Every Democrats first thought after the initial shock I'm sure was "Whew! We dodged a bullet on that one!"
But how could Edwards be so stupid?? How could he go out and get all these people to commit to his campaign for the presidency knowing he had this ticking timebomb on his person? Did he really think it would never go off?

I'm afraid Ann is probably right, we've probably lost him as an attorney general in the Obama administration. That's a real shame. But if Elizabeth Edwards is still up to it maybe she could do the job instead.
Sex scandals are the real third-rail of American politics these days. It's hard to believe that so many politicians still play fast and loose on that issue.

Who’s next? Bin Laden’s milk man?

The Bush administration finally finished its first prosecution of one of the big, bad, scary “terrorists” from Guantanamo using the controversial military tribunal system and what did the guy get?
An acquittal from the most serious charge (conspiracy) and a five and a half year sentence which, with time served subtracted out comes to just five months.
But what did you expect? The guy was not a big-shot al-Qaeda operative. He was Osama bin Laden’s driver, fer crying out loud! What’s next? Are they going to go after bin Laden’s gardener? His milk man? The pool boy? Sheesh!
If this was their best case then we might as well just throw in the towel right now and let everyone go. I mean, what were they thinking? Shouldn’t they have started out with their No. 1 worst terrorist in custody? I assume we’ve got a few who are more serious threats than this former Bedouin goat herder with a fourth-grade education.
My Lord, these people are incompetent.
Bin Laden and his minions clearly have nothing to worry about until we can finally get these oafish buffoons out of office. It will be up to Obama to finally catch Osama.

Forgeries, lies and sex

Wow. I’ve had no time to blog the last couple of days and now my head is just spinning with all that has been going on so much that I don’t know where to start.
The new Ron Suskind book that reveals a White House scheme to forge a letter linking Saddam Hussein with Al-Qaeda is just incredible. The fact that the Bush administration would have done such a thing is disturbing enough, but even more disturbing in my opinion is the way the national media has downplayed the whole thing like it’s no big deal. You can’t even find the story on CNN right now. Instead, we’ve already moved on to gawking over Paris Hilton’s new ad mocking John McCain.
Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann had Suskind on for an exclusive interview and it was revealed that two of his key CIA sources in the book are suddenly backing away from what they said in the book. But it comes a little late since Suskind has all of their lengthy interviews on tape. Why would they have said these things to begin with if they weren’t true and who is pressuring them now to back away from their comments?
And if Republicans are going to claim that the Bushies didn’t do it, then who did? The letter truly exists and is clearly a forgery. Where did it come from and who wrote it if Suskind’s CIA sources aren’t telling the truth?
Combine this with the ongoing Anthrax controversy about the “sources” who told ABC News way back that the deadly spores were laced with Bentonite, a blatant falsehood meant to link the attacks to Iraq, and we have a clear pattern of manipulation by shadowy elements within our government trying to push us into a war and then invent reasons for us to stay.

And here are some more things I would have blogged about if I had the time:

A great article by Greg Anrig advancing the theme from his book about the failure of GOP ideas as the key reason why McCain’s presidential hopes are going nowhere.

Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, held a fundraiser last year at a Las Vegas strip joint.
And yesterday, John McCain goes to some biker bar and jokes about having his wife take part in a lewd, bikini beauty contest that regularly features women going topless and simulating sex acts on stage.

And when Republicans aren’t out promoting their brand of family values, they are going completely nuts over every little thing that Obama says in a desperate search for a “gotcha” moment. The latest was a hyped up attempt to ridicule Obama for making the very true and common sense statement that keeping your tires properly inflated improves your car’s gas mileage and saves money.
I think all the Republicans running around the last couple of days waving tire guages are the perfect symbol for a Republican presidential campaign that is running on four flat tires.

Texas Progressive Alliance roundup 8/4

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly Round-Up.

Last week on Bluedaze , Big Oil threatened TXsharon. In "Big Oil" Threatens Harm to My "Lovelies" and Me she calls out the abuser and includes a new PR plan that will save Chesapeake Energy millions of dollars and help clean up Big Oil's act.

Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm is critical of a campaign to knock off Blue Dog Democrats , even if it means electing Republicans, all in an effort to punish Democrats for failing to hew the line on certain progressive issues.

refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left has always heard that What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas or does it for Pete Sessions?

Burnt Orange Report went on strike last week to raise $1000 for Chris Bell's State Senate campaign. 12 hours later, 15 donors raised $1,075 for Bell and the BOR team is back to blogging.

jobsanger opines about the lack of Democratic leadership from Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Pelosi: Where's The Leadership?, and lets us know the Nanny State is alive and well in The "Nanny State" Strikes Again.

The Texas Cloverleaf is on a strike for change! Help raise money for selected candidates. What do we want? Donations! When do we need them? Now!

Texas Liberal suggests that life is like a harbor where ships come and go.

Off the Kuff calculates how many eligible but unregistered voters there are in Harris County, and compares it to 2004.

Obama came to Houston but only for a few high-dollar fundraisers in River Oaks, a trend sadly that is repetitive of past Democratic presidential nominees. PDiddie at
Brains and Eggs had the report, and the total take was $1.5 mill.

Mean Rachel gets a response from Rep. Elliott Naishtat to her modest proposal from last week, and at dinner discovers just how unwired the Yankee in the Texas House really is.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker makesthe case for a Republican straight ticket ballot, for the Democratic slate (with Video)! It may be the only way to save the Republican Party from its present delusional masters!

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders which will come first - the death of the Republican Party or a full blown police state. CBT, ever the optimist, predicts the former.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones is going to run for U.S. Senate if and when Kay Bailey Hutchison vacates her seat to run for Governor.

Aimlessness at WhosPlayin got one too many email forwards about "Why Men are Republicans", and decided to retort with "Why Men Prefer Democrats".

McBlogger takes a
look at the ability of DHS to snoop on you. And you thought the FISA stuff was bad...

BossKitty at TruthHugger wonders about "What is Adrenarche and Why Are Americaís Services Sexually Immature"

Anthrax and the Lone Gunman

The news today that a high-level government scientist killed himself just as the FBI was about to charge him with complicity in the post-9/11 anthrax attacks is highly disturbing in many ways. The fact that the source of the anthrax attacks that terrorized the nation for months during the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy came not from some radical Islamic terrorists or Saddam Hussein, but from at top anthrax researcher working at the Army's bioweapons laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland, should raise some very serious questions.
First and foremost is the question as to why would he do such a thing and secondly who else was involved. It is not at all believable that a lone scientist could have pulled off such an attack and then covered it up without some major assistance. People should not be so gullible to buy into yet another “lone gunman” theory that allows the myriad conspirators to slink into the woodwork undetected.
As Glenn Greenwald notes in his must-read piece today, the anthrax attacks were too perfectly timed to support the neo-con drive to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and ABC News is aware of at least four high-level government sources who helped perpetuate the link by spreading thoroughly false information about a chemical agent used by Iraq that they said was present in the anthrax.
Who were those sources spreading the false anthrax/Iraq connection and what were their motives (as if it wasn’t obvious)? Greenwald spells it out thusly:

Surely the question of who generated those false Iraq-anthrax reports is one of the most significant and explosive stories of the last decade. The motive to fabricate reports of bentonite and a link to Saddam is glaring. Those fabrications played some significant role -- I'd argue a very major role -- in propagandizing the American public to perceive of Saddam as a threat, and further, propagandized the public to believe that our country was sufficiently threatened by foreign elements that a whole series of radical policies that the neoconservatives both within and outside of the Bush administration wanted to pursue -- including an attack an Iraq and a whole array of assaults on our basic constitutional framework -- were justified and even necessary in order to survive.

Are we going to be told that the now deceased scientist was the “lone gunman” who perpetrated the anthrax attack by himself with no assistance or coordination from others? And will the general public be so apathetic and complicit as to believe it without question?
We must have some answers, and if ABC News won’t provide them then some other news organization needs to step to the plate and deliver and soon. Because this house of cards isn’t likely to stand very much longer.

Not guilty? Kill him anyway, justices say

The state of Alabama was forced to halt an execution when another man confessed to killing the person the condemned man was set to die for.
Incredibly, the vote to halt the execution was not unanimous.

The Alabama Supreme Court postponed executing a man after an inmate claimed in an sworn statement to defense attorneys that he committed the murder that sent the condemned man to death row.
The justices in a 5-4 vote late Wednesday stopped the execution by injection of Thomas Arthur "pending further orders of this Court."

How could four state supreme court justices vote to continue an execution in the face of clear evidence that the condemned man may be innocent? That is just reprehensible!
Furthermore, how many other innocent people are on death row, or have already been executed, for crimes they did not commit?
The death penalty is a barbaric, immoral, unChristian practice that should be banned and replaced with a penalty of life without parole.

Glenn Greenwald smackdown

Glenn Greenwald, the fiery civil rights and constitutional law attorney who blogs at Salon.com has been a force to be reckoned with these past few years. His impassioned posts on torture policies, warrantless wiretapping and illicit hiring practices at the DOJ have won him a large audience in the liberal blogsphere and his books such as “Great American Hypocrites” have helped rally liberals together to oppose the radical authoritarian regime currently in charge of our government.
But recently, Greenwald’s passion for his causes have led him to become increasingly critical of the Democratic leadership in Congress (as well as anyone else who gets crossways to his views such as Barack Obama and Keith Olbermann).
Sounding more and more like Ralph Nader, Greenwald has recently taken to lambasting the Democratic leadership and declaring that things are no different now than when Republicans still had control of the Congress.
And now, with his most recent salvo, Greenwald has thrown down the gauntlet and is demanding that the Democrats be punished for failing to heed what he believes are the core principles of the party and our country. He wants to see the “Blue Dogs” in Congress defeated in the next election, even if it means replacing them with Republicans. Blue Dogs are Congress Critters who he deems to be too closely aligned to Republicans in general and the Bush administration in particular. He dismisses the implications of such actions by claiming that Democratic gains in the next election will be large enough to make up for any Blue Dog defeats, but if enough people get on board with his scheme then those big Democratic gains may never materialize in the first place.
Fortunately, Ed Kilgore has stepped up to the challenge of putting Greenwald in his place. He effectively smacks down Greenwald’s arguments and justifications and notes that Democratic unity in the Congress is already at a high point compared to previous eras.
Consider that Democrats recently celebrated the election of “Blue Dog” Democrats in special elections in Mississippi and Louisiana, and then reconsider Greenwald’s plan to have these same politicos defeated in the next election as a slap at the party for its supposed failure to toe the line on every liberal issue. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot!
There are sometimes “Blue Dogs” who aren’t worth supporting, like Ralph Hall who represents Texas’ 4th District. It made little difference when Hall switched from Democrat to Republican a few years ago because he never voted with the Democrats anyway, even on the key issue of electing a Speaker of the House. But most “Blue Dogs” are not like that. Many tend to be more bipartisan and specialize in coalition building between parties. I really miss Charlie Stenholm, the former Congressman from the Texas Panhandle who lost his seat as a result of Tom DeLay’s re-redistricting shenanigans. Now, instead of a crusty, conservative Democrat and fiscal conservative representing that part of the state, we have a hard-core, rightwing, movement conservative Randy Neugebauer who takes his cues from folks like Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and Pat Robertson. And Greenwald wants to repeat that same scenario all across the country with this “Moneybomb” campaign that he and some folks at Firedoglake are promoting.
Phooey on that! Greenwald needs to go stick his head in a bucket of cold water until he returns to his senses. I was especially disappointed in his sulking, disingenous response to Kilgore in which he throws up a long list of strawmen arguments that were never raised in Kilgore’s article.
I don’t have a problem with having impassioned debates during the primary contests, but this idea of punishing the party during the general election is self-defeating and contrary to the things that Greenwald hopes to accomplish. I don’t want to see Greenwald lose his passion for the topics he holds dear. I agree with him on most, if not all, of his issues. But he needs to rethink this latest strategy he is pushing and recognize that it could ultimately drive him over the same cliff that Nader dove off of back in 2000.

Let’s Impeach the President

Neil Young has produced a documentary film of his 2006 tour with his old Crosby, Stills & Nash buddies that focuses on the angst that his politically-charged lyrics produced from some audiences.

It wasn't hard to find unhappy fans at a handful of shows, most obviously in Atlanta. Many streamed out, or stayed to offer hand signals. Some had inexplicably expected a greatest-hits show. Young said he was blown away watching families fight, the children wanting to stay while their parents were eager to leave.

How dense does one have to be to go to a Neil Young concert after he has just released an album called “Living With War” featuring the single “Let’s Impeach the President” and be surprised that it contains an overtly political message?

Good news for Mark Begich

A federal grand jury has just indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. Stevens is the senior Republican in the Senate and this will unquestionably be a blow to the GOP's chances of holding this seat in November.
Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, Steven's Democratic opponent, already had a good shot at the seat before this latest turn of events. I'm sure they are celebrating right now.
At least Stevens still has time to put in for a pardon from President Bush.

Domestic terrorist attacks

A man walked into a Unitarian Church in Tennessee over the weekend and opened fire with a shotgun, killing two people and critically wounding five others. His motivation? He hates Liberals.
The church that the man attacked was well know for supporting liberal causes and welcoming all people into membership including gays and lesbians. So that apparently made them a target for this wingnut to take out his frustration over not being able to find a job in Bush’s economy.
David Neiwert at Firedoglake notes that killing liberals has been a common theme on the fringes of the far right for a long time, so we should not be surprised when some Ditto-head finally loses it and acts out on all the pent-up hatred promoted daily by the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Coulters, Savages, O’Reillys, ad infinitum.
Does this qualify as a terrorist attack? Most terrorist attacks in this country are not committed by Muslims, as many believe, but by rightwing nutjobs like Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City) and Eric Rudolph (Olympic bomber).
All of this begs the question -- Why do the wingnuts hate America?

Texas Progressive Alliance roundup 7/28

It's Monday and it's time once again for another Texas Progressive Alliance roundup. Here are the blog highlights for the week of July 28:

TXsharon challenges you to view these pictures of Domestic Drilling Armageddon in the Barnett Shale and still support the Drill and Burn Domestic Drilling agenda.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez' Republican challenger for the 23rd Congressional seat is taken to task by Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm for shirking his responsiblity on a critical hospital expansion vote before the Bexar County Commissioner's Court.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP's "latest" energy plan in Carter, Oil, & Hair Of The Dog.

Neil at Texas Liberal asks what would be the impact if Polar Bears could vote.

Off the Kuff looks at a Texas Monthly overview of the effects of the Presidential race on downballot elections in Texas and offers his criticism of it.

Guest Columnist JR Behrman at Texas Kaos has a few strong words about Energy Policy: Democrats Routed. He also has a Texas Plan.

Julie Pippert of the MOMocrats asks the Obama campaign to explain its absence in Texas after they announced the roll-out of their Spanish-Language ads as an outreach to Hispanic voters, then discusses a Senate proposal that would require 50% of US cars to have a flexible fuel system by 2012, and finally the MOMocrats share the draft of their position paper to be submitted to the Democratic National Committee for inclusion in the party platform.

McBlogger had a great time in the subprime panel at Netroots Nation. So good in fact that he decided to offer some of his own solutions since the panelists, including the dimwitted Rep. Brad Miller, decided to offer nothing of substance.

XicanoPwr reports on the latest poll by the Pew Hispanic Center on the Latino vote. Latino polling shows that 66% of Latino registered voters will support Obama.

Burnt Orange Report points out that Ag Commissioner Todd Staples finally comes around to what Democrat (and future Ag Commissioner) Hank Gilbert has been saying all along- Texan's are being overcharged at the gas pump due to lack of state inspections.

BossKitty at TruthHugger dreams about the "Count Down To Accountability - Bush, Cheney Indictments"

refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left invites everyone to meet Annette Taddeo- A True Progressive Democrat.

jobsanger writes about how after years of the Bush Presidency even our cloest traditional ally no longer trusts us in Brits Don't Trust Bush On Torture.

Obama and the down-ballot races in Texas are the focus of two articles by R.G. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs summarizes, and finds some to agree with and some not.

Mean Rachel writes an open letter to Rep. Elliot Naishtat, encouraging him to consider joining the technology age and starting an inexpensive, easy-to-use website tailor-made for state legislators with Wired for Change's DLCCWeb, a Netroots exhibitor.

nytexan at BlueBloggin keeps an eye on Mitch McConnell, the GOP king of distortion and extortion. McConnell plans to block legislation that can impact Americans now and push for a bill whose product will not be seen for 10 years; McConnell Extorts Senate For Off Shore Drilling. McConnell never fails to please Bush and his corporate buddies.

WhosPlayin looks at a new USGS petroleum estimate for the Arctic Circle, and notes that only a small portion of ANWR is estimated to be productive, and that the study doesn't address economic feasibility. (Includes Map)

Vince from Capitol Annex tells us that, while indicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) won't accept a presidential pardon, he'd love one from Texas Governor Rick Perry.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme gets upset with crappy newspaper article.

Obama smeared over phony troop snub

I got this email the other day forwarded to me by my brother-in-law who is in the Army National Guard. It describes a visit by Barack Obama to a military base in Afghanistan where he supposedly does not take the time to shake hands and visit with the soldiers.
I can understand why something like this would upset him. The only thing is I don’t believe it is true. Here is the bulk of the email:

As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to 'The War Zone'. I wanted to share with you what happened. He got off the plan and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram. As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service. So really he was just here to make a showing for the American's back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you. I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States . I just don't understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.
If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake.

In service,
xxxxxxxx
Battle Captain
TF Wasatch
American Soldier

I took the name off so as not to disparage anyone. The person who wrote this didn’t necessarily make it all up. From their perspective, it may have been accurate as far as what they saw. But they clearly didn’t see the whole picture.
Since this email has come out it has gone viral on the Internet and now it turns out not to have been true afterall as I suspected.

Army officials refute claim of Barack Obama snub in Afghanistan
By James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated Friday, July 25th 2008, 10:05 AM
WASHINGTON - The latest chain e-mail smear against Barack Obama: He "blew off" troops at an Afghan base to shoot hoops for a publicity photo.
The letter was apparently written by a Utah Army National Guard intelligence officer in a linguist unit at Bagram Airfield who claimed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was rude to G.I.s.
"As the soldiers where [sic] lined up to shake his hand he blew them off," wrote the Task Force Wasatch "battle captain."
But angry Army brass debunked the Obama-bashing soldier's allegations, which went viral Thursday over the Web and on military blogs such as Blackfive.
The e-mail claims Obama repeatedly shunned soldiers on his way to the Clamshell - a recreation tent - to "take his publicity pictures playing basketball."
"These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect," said Bagram spokeswoman Army Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel.
Obama didn't play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, she said. Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
"We were a bit delayed ... as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs," Nielson-Green said.
E-mails to the officer who made the charges and a call to his wife were not returned.

It didn’t make sense that any politician worth their weight in salt would be so politically obtuse as to “blow off the troops” during a campaign stop at a military base. And certainly not a politician of the caliber of Barack Obama. It’s nonsense. Would John McCain blow off a bunch of union workers during a visit to a factory so he can hobnob with the fat cat CEO? Of course not. And Obama isn’t snubbing our troops during his tour of the Middle East.
There are going to be a good number of people who are going to vote against Obama regardless, but if they want to have a reason for voting against him they should look for something legitimate, like a disagreement over a policy issue, and not something bogus and exaggerated like this.

Joe Barton may retire

Congressman Joe Barton may retire in 2010, according to this post by one of his former primary opponents. (H/T to Brains and Eggs)
This delights me to no end. There is probably no one in Congress who I despise more than “Smokey” Joe Barton, mainly because of my personal connection to him. He was my Congressman when I was at Texas A&M and the last reminder of the huge mistake I made in 1984, the first year I was old enough to vote. That year I was completely enamored with Uncle Ronnie and his “Morning in America” tripe. And so I cast my first-ever vote for “the Gipper” and then proceeded to vote a nearly straight Republican ticket which meant that I voted for both Phil Gramm for U.S. Senate and Joe Barton for Congress. Reagan and Gramm are both gone now, but Barton has endured all these years, finally rising far above his level of compentence to become chairman of the House Energy Committee.
Fortunately, the Democratic tidal wave of 2006 brought that travesty to an end and stripped Barton of his chairmanship. Now it seems that his all-but-certain minority status for the forseeable future plus some unfortunate health problems are leading him to consider retirement in 2010 (and no doubt entry into a lucrative lobbying career for the energy industry that he has catered to all these years.)
Barton was always a reliable rubber-stamp for the “movement conservative” causes and has most recently used his senior status on the Energy panel to throw roadblocks up on efforts to address Global Warming issues.
Barton’s retirement will finally relieve my conscience for the huge mistake I made two dozen years ago, but it probably won’t result in better representation in Congress since Barton’s district is heavily Republican and will likely elect someone equally as wingnutty to his seat - just with less seniority.

Obama nails a 3-pointer

You know things are going well for the Obama campaign when you get photo-ops like this one:



He gets it on the first try. How cool is that?

Update
I think he nailed this one too.

Lyle Larson shirks his responsibility

The Bexar County Commissioners Court had to make a big decision last week on providing additional funding for the University Health System in San Antonio. UHS is the only civilian Level I trauma center for Bexar County and the surrounding communities. It handles 65 percent of all the trauma cases in the area - about 70,000 per year - in an ER that was designed to handle about half that number.
There is no question that an expansion of the hospital is long overdue and the longer we wait the more expensive it will be. Last week, the commissioners court approved a $900 million expansion project for UHS that will require an 8 percent property tax increase (about $19 per $100,000 valuation).
The plan was approved on a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Larson voting against. Was Larson’s “No” vote a principled stand against a project he does not support? Not exactly. Larson told the Express-News:

“I'm 100 percent behind the expansion of the health system. I just differ in one way, and that's how we pay for it.”

How does Larson think we should pay for it? He doesn’t say. He just wants to throw the whole issue into the voters’ laps and have them vote on it in a referendum.
But this would be grossly irresponsible. Not only would it waste time and make the project more expensive in the long run, but it would be disingenuous. This is not some whimsical pursuit like a publicly-funded sports arena that should get voter approval first. This is a vital public necessity. A “No” vote would not be acceptable. And yet, when it comes down to making that decision, Larson wants to shift responsibility on to the largely uninformed and ignorant masses. Isn’t that why he was elected in the first place? To make sure he is well informed and make key decisions that are in the best interest of all of us? Why even have elected representatives if we are going to hold referendums on every major issue?
If Larson wants to shirk his responsibility as a county commissioner on this vitally important issue, why should he be promoted to higher office as a U.S. Congressman? Larson is the Republican nominee for the 23rd District of Texas challenging incumbent Democrat Ciro Rodriguez.
In an editorial after the vote, the Express-News said the four members of the Commissioners Court who supported the UHS expansion project will be held responsible by voters in the near future. But it is Lyle Larson who should be held responsible for his spineless and weasel-like actions on the commissioners court.

Pardon me

As Ann notes today, we should not be surprised by the presidential pardons that Bush is bound to dole out before the end of his term.
To date, he has been exceedingly stingy with his power to commute sentences, handing out about one pardon for every 10 that Reagan granted during his eight years in office. But he still has time. Clinton waited until the final three months of his second term to pass out nearly half the pardons he issued (slightly more than Reagan did in total).
The New York Times noted that felons are currently seeking pardons in record numbers. Some of the prominent people seeking pardons from Bush include billionaire junk bond king Michael Milken and former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Other prominent pleas come from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, American Taliban John Walker Lindh (fat chance!) and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones who was nailed for doping recently.
Could Bush issue some blanket pardons to folks like Karl Rove, Tom DeLay and Dick Cheney, the way his father did for Casper Weinberger? Perhaps Scooter Libby will get the full pardon he still lacks. The possibilities are limitless.

2008 Movies

This is turning out to be quite a big year for “must-see” movies in my opinion. There seems to be a plethora of geek-centric movies coming out this year compared to the relatively thin offerings in 2007.
My list of “Must See” and “Must Own” films (not always the same) is getting rather lengthy compared to last year.
So far, I’ve seen three films in the theater this year, the kid-friendly “Horton Hears a Who” and “Kung Fu Panda” and “Iron Man” which I managed to see one week when my wife and kids were out of town.
But the number of movies that I want to see “eventually” is piling up and quite a few are already on my list for eventual inclusion in my video library.

Starting with my Must Own list I have:

Horton Hears a Who
Kung Fu Panda
Iron Man
Wall-E
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull
The Dark Knight
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Nim’s Island
Speed Racer
and Hell Boy II: The Golden Army (which I will probably get as a package with Hell Boy I)

And then there are the films that I want to see that I may or may not eventually buy copies of including:

Hancock
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Incredible Hulk
Dave

Then there are the movies that have not been released yet which I will probably add to my collection eventually:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Star Trek
James Bond No. 22
The X-Files Movie

Other films currently out or set to come out in 2008 that have caught my interest include:

“Wanted” - a Matrix-like action film with Angelina Jolie
“The Happening” - M. Night Shalmayan’s latest spooky film
“The Lovely Bones” - It doesn’t sound like a movie I would want to see, but since Peter Jackson (i.e. Lord of the Rings) is the director I am automatically interested nevertheless.
“Where the Wild Things Are” - based on the classic children’s book. If it is as good as Polar Express it will end up on my Must Own list as well.
“Valkyrie” - About the attempt to assassinate Hitler during WWII starring Tom Cruise.
“The Changeling” - Another film I’m not sure about but Clint Eastwood is directing which raises the interest level.
“The Curious Case of Ben Button” - Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who lives life in reverse and starring Brad Pitt.
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” - A remake of the sci-fi classic with Kenau Reeves in the lead role.
“Angels and Demons” - Apparently a prequel to The DaVinci Code with Ron Howard directing and Tom Hanks starring again.
“Frost/Nixon” - Another Ron Howard project about a post-Watergate interview of Nixon by David Frost.
“Shantaram” - I don’t know anything about this film except that it stars Johnny Depp.

It ain’t gonna be close

Michael Grunwald at Time finally spells out what should be obvious to every astute political observer in the country right now - John McCain is toast.
This election is not going to be close no matter how many headlines from now until November try to play up the race as a horserace going down to the wire.

John McCain might seem like a long shot. He's the Republican nominee at a time when the two-term Republican President is wildly unpopular and Republicans are losing elections in perennially Republican districts and the party base isn't exactly drooling over him. He supported the president's unpopular efforts to transform Iraq and revamp Social Security; he was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them. He's a 71-year-old Washington hand in a change election. And his 46-year-old opponent is a lot better at raising money, delivering speeches, drawing crowds and registering new voters.

Oh, let's just admit it: John McCain is a long shot. He's got a heroic personal story, and being white has never hurt a presidential candidate, but on paper 2008 just doesn't look like his year. And considering what's happening off paper, it might be time to ask the question the horse-race-loving media are never supposed to ask: Is McCain a no-shot?

Yes, he is a no-shot. Any Republican candidate this year would be a no-shot. The best Republicans can do this year is whine about how Obama has “flip-flopped” on a few issues (but nowhere close to the number of issues McCain has flip-flopped on) and point out his supposed inexperience. But in a change election, “experience” is not always a positive factor and stubbornly refusing to change positions when circumstances warrant it is precisely what got us into our current jams both foreign and domestic.

I can’t imagine even the most hard-core Republican can watch the new McCain ad that tries to blame Obama for the run-up in gas prices and not snicker or roll their eyes. They are desperate to the point of self-parody.

As Grunwald concludes, it is really quite simple at this point to predict the election outcome in November:

The media will try to preserve the illusion of a toss-up; you'll keep seeing "Obama Leads, But Voters Have Concerns" headlines. But when Democrats are winning blood-red congressional districts in Mississippi and Louisiana, when the Republican president is down to 28 percent, when the economy is tanking and world affairs keep breaking Obama's way, it shouldn't be heresy to recognize that McCain needs an improbable series of breaks. Analysts get paid to analyze, and cable news has airtime to fill, so pundits have an incentive to make politics seem complicated. In the end, though, it's usually pretty simple. Everyone seems to agree that 2008 is a change election. Which of these guys looks like change?

Back to work

OK, I’m back and I’m swamped at work.
In the meantime, here is an interesting article about how the roots of today’s politics were mostly planted in 1978, not 1968 as some have claimed.

Everyone seems to be telling us that if you want to understand 2008, you have to look back 40 years to 1968. "It's the year that changed everything," wrote Newsweek last November. Seen through tie-dye-tinted glasses, Iraq is the new Vietnam, Barack Obama is the new Bobby Kennedy, and bloggers are the new student activists.
But are we commemorating the right year? If we really want a time that defined the way we live now, we should look back not to the romance and trauma of the '60s but to the gloriously tacky '70s, to the year that made modern America -- 1978. Look beyond the year's bad disco and worse clothes; if you peer deeply into the polyester soul of 1978, you can see the beginnings of the world we live in today.

My biggest problem with the article is this concluding line.... “But from politics to technology, from civil rights to foreign policy, 1978 marked the start of the age we live in. Thank God, disco didn't survive.”
Disco didn’t survive?? I’m sorry to burst that bubble, but “disco” didn’t die. It mutated, evolved and now dominates today’s musical landscape. You can call it Hip-Hop, Electronica, Eurobeat, Synthpop, Diva Rock or what have you, but it is all just dance music and it is everywhere.

On Vacation

I will be on vacation all this next week and may not have access to a computer. So posting might be very sparse. In the meantime, everybody play nice while I'm gone and have fun!

McCain throws Gramm under the bus - again

“You’re all a bunch of whiners!” says Phil Gramm, former U.S. Senator from Texas and John McCain’s top economic advisor.
The economic hard times are all in your head. The country is in a “mental recession” and you are all a “nation of whiners.”
That Phil Gramm is quite the character, isn’t he? Now it looks like McCain wants to distance himself from Gramm once again. It wasn’t that long ago that McCain was disavowing Gramm over his ties to the home loan mortgage industry as a big time lobbyist for UBS.
But they must have patched things up, because there was Gramm again stumping for McCain and meeting with the big shots at the Wall Street Journal on his behalf. But wait, McCain protests. Gramm doesn’t speak for me, he insists.
Right.
You whiner.



Update
I have to feel kind of sorry for some of my conservative friends who are now forced to try and defend Gramm's statement.
But maybe if he can whether this onslaught, McCain might consider that Gramm would make the ideal match for him as his vice president.
McCain-Gramm! That has a nice ring to it doesn't it? That's a winning ticket for sure!
And I know just what their campaign slogan could be:
"You're all a bunch of whiners! Now, get off of my lawn!"

Some perspective on FISA

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA was passed by Congress in 1978 in response to abuses by the Nixon administration in the use of wiretapping technology. Nixon had used wiretapping to keep tabs not just on foreign and domestic terrorists, but also on his domestic political adversaries.
FISA essentially set up a secret court system to oversee future wiretapping by intelligence agencies to prevent these kinds of abuses from happening again.
But because it was written in 1978, before the advent of cell phones, e-mail, and much more, it is now horribly out of date. It was in bad need of updating prior to 9/11. Afterwards, the Bush administration used the fact that the law was outdated as an excuse for tossing it aside and going forward with a modern surveillance program outside the realm of the FISA courts. This was wrong.
But the question now is how wrong was it? If they had ditched the FISA courts so they could go back to Nixon-style monitoring of their political adversaries, I would say that it was a very serious and possibly impeachable offense. However, if they simply did what they said they did and ditched FISA so they could more aggressively pursue foreign terror suspects in the aftermath of an attack on our country, then I think we would be hard-pressed to make the case that they deserve criminal punishment for those actions today.
The caterwauling I’m hearing about warrantless wiretapping threatening our Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure makes no sense to me. I have never had a problem with the government using wiretaps to keep track of criminal suspects and the fact that they needed to expand that effort in response to 9/11 seems like common sense to me. What I have always insisted, however, is that we have a check in place (i.e. the FISA court) to oversee these intelligence activities and make sure that they are not be abused ala Nixon.
It seems to me that the FISA bill that Obama supported satisfied that concern. The fact that it also provides things that President Bush wanted doesn’t make it automatically bad. I’m sure there are parts of the bill that are not ideal and should be changed. But we can’t get everything we want now with a Republican president and a 50-50 Senate. So we have to compromise because that is the way that government works. And the option of falling back on the outdated 1978 FISA law was a non sequitur and would have made Democrats look weak on terrorism right before the general election.
I think it is pretty clear that laws were broken by the administration after 9/11. But that could be like trying to fine somebody for speeding when he was trying to drive his sick wife to the hospital. The general public isn’t going to go along with it unless you have evidence that they were abusing the wiretapping program.
The fact that there are people who are now using this issue to say that they will not support Obama is appalling. They need to get some perspective.

Losing perspective

There have been so many issues for people to get outraged about during the past dozen years that it is hard to keep track of them all. Warrantless wiretapping is just one of them.
Ideally, I’d love to see the Bush administration and their telecom cronies get nailed for their clearly illegal wiretapping program post-9/11. But the reality is that there are not enough votes in the Congress to see that happen.
So it looks like we will end up with a bill overhauling eavesdropping regulations that lets the telecom companies off the hook.
The best thing to do in this case then is to push for the best deal we can get and then move on.
Unfortunately, there are some on the left who aren’t satisfied with that bit of reality. They are prepared to throw a huge hissy fit when they don’t get their way as if this issue - telecom immunity - was the end all most important thing in the universe.
Hogwash!
Let me put this bluntly. I don’t give a damn about telecom immunity or warrantless wiretapping if fixing it in any way hurts Democrats’ chances of winning back the White House in November. It will be small consolation indeed to have the FISA bill defeated and the telecoms tied up in court for the next decade if it also means we get four more years of Republican misrule.
But what I am seeing right now is groups of people on the left (and some on the right) preparing to throw a big stink bomb
into the race if all their demands aren’t met in full. Others are even encouraging folks to withhold funding from Obama’s campaign in protest of his nominal support for the FISA overhaul legislation.
That is so fundamentally stupid that I can’t believe politically astute people would even be considering it. Karl Rove couldn’t have dreamed up a better scheme for throwing a monkey wrench into the election prospects of Democrats this year.
You can protest the FISA bill all you want, but I think folks like Glenn Greenwald and Christy Hardin Smith have been going overboard lately with their claims that our very Constitution is hanging in the balance.
Yes, it will be irritating if some folks get away with breaking the law. But the reality is that it happens everyday and our country is still surviving.
We’ve got a big mess to clean up after a dozen years of Republican shenanigans and we are going to have to take things one step at a time. Step One is putting a Democrat in the White House! Everything else is superfluous in the long run.

Left and Right misconceptions

My conservative friend jimmyK left a lengthy comment in the previous thread that I think merits an in depth response.

Don't you reckon' Clear Channel knows how to spend their money better than you do?

No, I would not make that assumption. Companies make bad decisions all the time and I think paying Rush Lamebrain $400 gazillion in the middle of a recession when they are struggling for ad revenues may prove to be unwise.
Heck, Jay Leno only makes $25 million a year compared to the $38 million Clear Channel will be stuck paying Rush.

You know why conservatives whom you call stupid listen to Rush, they are all at work and only have radios to listen too. Liberals on the other hand have nearly all of T.V. stations, and most all the newspapers...

You harbor a lot of stereotypical misconceptions about “conservatives” and “liberals.” It is not accurate to claim that all working class folks are conservatives any more than it is to say that all university professors are liberals (How do you account for university professors-turned-politicians such as Phil Gramm, Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich?)
If liberals dominate the TV stations and newspapers then why is it so difficult to get a liberal viewpoint on TV? The networks fill their news shows with conservatives, a few moderates and apolitical reporters. They hardly ever have an outspoken liberal on the air. Keith Olbermann is currently the sole exception to that rule. Otherwise you have to go to Comedy Central to find a liberal viewpoint that isn’t “balanced” out with 2/3rds dosage of conservatism.
As for newspapers, are you referring to our own local daily, the San Antonio Express-News that never fails to endorse the full slate of Republicans in every election? I wish that liberals had more control of the media, but unfortunately that is a myth spurred on by multi-million dollar propagandists like Rush Limbaugh who dominate our airwaves.

Working class people today are suffering greatly as a direct result of the flawed policies and misrule of Republicans for the past eight years. Under George W. Bush we saw our balanced budgets vanish and replaced with record high deficits as a result of fiscally irresponsible tax giveaways to the uber-rich. Meanwhile, promises that these tax cuts would stimulate the economy have proven to be a big joke as the economy has ranged from deep recession to weak recovery and now back to deep recession again.
The only hope the GOP has to stay in power now is to use propagandists like Rush Limbaugh to brainwash enough people into voting against their economic interests and keep the current bunch of crooks and swindlers in power.

...where people who are not working can watch and read, draw welfare and set on their asses and hope to get the democrats to give them more money with the working peoples taxes.

Once again, you have misconceptions about the nature of welfare, which mainly goes to support children and the elderly, while ignoring the real scandal of corporate welfare and the billions that gets squandered in no-bid, sweetheart contracts overseen by Republican operatives funneling money to their friends and supporters. The Enrons and Halliburtons have been making out like bandits these past dozen years while Rush and Hannity distract you with bogus stories about welfare cheats. You are like someone who is obsessed with finding change under the seat cushions while lending out your credit card to a gang of mall-roaming teenagers.

Obamanation, seems to be losing some of its steam. Looks like just another liberal trying to pull the wool over his own supporters eyes. Mr. Flip/Flop.

Obama is just getting started with the general election after a long drawn-out primary race. Meanwhile, McCain has had a three-month head start and is still just spinning his wheels. Down in the polls, last week he did another overhaul of his campaign staff.
And don’t even try to start this “Flip/Flop” garbage when I know damn well that you can’t even list three things that Obama has legitimately changed his position on. (Hint: Iraq ain’t one of them).
But as Ann noted above McCain has flip-flopped so much lately he is at risk of breaking a hip. He has changed his positions on tax cuts, immigration reform, drilling moratoriums, Social Security privatization, and on and on.
In fact, one of the only things he has been consistent on is global warming and that is what has him in the most hot water right now with the wingnut crowd. They WANT him to flip-flop even MORE!

Your guy looks really scary, he is a liar to start with, he flip flops, he now throws moveon.org under the bus. Who is next ? He is dissed his own grandmother, that is weird. This guy will be a disaster for this country and John McCain would not be much better.

Like that classic Public Enemy song says, “Don’t Believe the Hype!” And that goes for both sides. Obama is not the annointed one or whatever such nonsense. Sure he is just a politicians, but at least he is not advocating the failed policies that have gotten us into the mess we are in today. A disaster for this country, you say? What do you call what we have now?? The Bush/GOP rule of the past eight years has been an unmitigated disaster from the beginning.
You are not giving Obama a fair shake. He may not be the greatest president we have ever had, but he certainly won’t be the worst like we currently have now.

Bad deals and bad ideas

In the news today I see that San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications is betting that people will stay stupid well into the future.
They have renewed their radio contract with rightwing blowhard Rush Limbaugh through the year 2016.
I have to admit that it is probably a pretty good bet that people will still be stupid enough to listen to Rush eight years from now. But I’m not sure that it is a good bet for Clear Channel to pay Limbaugh an estimated $38 million a year for the next eight years. As the NYT points out today, that is more than twice what the highest paid network news anchor makes and it is $13 million more than Jay Leno, the highest rated TV entertainer, makes.

In other news, I see that some liberal activists who are agitated over the FISA issue are now threatening to withhold their financial support for Barack Obama until he “lives up to his promise to deliver "change we can believe in. "”
This is the kind of thing that really upsets me. People who should know better allow themselves to get all worked up over some issue and then use it to tear down the candidate who best supports their overall interests.
I’m sorry, but as bad as warrantless wiretapping may be, it is not important enough to justify risking four more years of Republican misrule in Washington. Or a chance for John McCain to pick the next two or more Supreme Court justices.
It is fine if you want to lobby your candidate over an issue such as this, but when you start talking about withholding money or withholding votes, you have crossed a line into “shoot yourself in the foot” territory.

Cornyn’s sockpuppet exposed

Congratulations to Matt Glazer for some online sleuthing that exposed a top Cornyn staffer’s sockpuppet machinations.
David Beckwith, a longtime GOP political operative whose roots go back to his work for former Vice President Dan Quayle, was using the pseudonymn “Buck Smith” to leave comments over at Burnt Orange Report.
The TV news in Austin even picked up the story:



Matt used to be in San Antonio and I met him a few years ago at the 2005 Alamo City Blogger BBQ.

We make Mormons look Liberal

It is depressing to see that according to this graph Texas is even more socially and economically conservative than Utah.

Big, Really Bad, John

John Cornyn’s promotional video for the Texas Republican State Convention was so horrifically bad that it is beyond parody. However, I still like Rick Noriega’s response above because it acts as a corrective to the most egregious lies in the piece.

In the meantime, I’m happy to note that Cornyn has lost the endorsement of the Texas Medical Association over his vote against a badly needed bill that would have kept doctors from losing Medicare payments. My only question is why the TMA ever endorsed Cornyn in the first place?

AT&T spurns San Antonio

The news Friday that AT&T is moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas is a huge blow to San Antonio’s self esteem. AT&T was San Antonio’s crown jewel upon which all of our corporate expansion and promotional efforts were built.
This is a black eye that will haunt our community for years to come. We have been used, spurned and cast-off. It will take a long time for us to get our confidence back up again.
The spin right now that it is only 700 jobs that will be leaving while 5,300 are staying is ridiculous. First off, only a fool would still believe a damn thing that AT&T has to say anymore. There is no guarantee that those 5,300 jobs will stay here permanently. The queen bee is leaving the hive and you can expect that the worker drones will be migrating to follow very shortly.
AT&T’s new CEO Randall Stephenson has made it clear that he does not think San Antonio is good enough for the suits that run his company. All the high-paying corporate executives are moving to the bourgeoisie city of Dallas leaving just some worker drones behind in the proletariat city of San Antonio. That is the message we got on Friday.
This may just be wishful thinking, but I think this may turn out to be a bad move for AT&T in the long-run. Their carefully crafted image as a “good ol’ boy” company from West Texas (with the voice of San Antonio-native Tommy Lee Jones in all their ads) has just been shot full of holes. Now they are just another vagabond corporation with no roots looking for the biggest tax abatements from the city most willing to kiss their rearends.
Good riddance and here is hoping that the Alamo City can recover quickly.
To paraphrase Davy Crockett:
"AT&T can go to hell, I'm going to Texas"