No penance, no apologies

From The Washington Monthly

THE PENANCE HAS NOT BEEN PAID.... Following up on this item from yesterday, I had an interesting conversation via email yesterday with Bruce Bartlett, a veteran of the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations. Bruce made a point that really resonated with me, and he was gracious enough to allow me to republish it here.

I believe that political parties should do penance for their mistakes and just losing power is not enough. Part of that involves understanding why those mistakes were made and how to prevent them from happening again. Republicans, however, have done no penance. They just pretend that they did nothing wrong. But until they do penance they don’t deserve any credibility and should be ignored until they do. That’s what my attacks on Bush are all about. I want Republicans to admit they were wrong about him, accept blame for his mistakes, and take some meaningful action to keep them from happening again. Bush should be treated as a pariah, as Richard Nixon was for many years until he rebuilt his credibility by more or less coming clean about Watergate with David Frost and writing a number of thoughtful books.
One reason this isn’t happening is because the media don’t treat Republicans as if they are discredited. On the contrary, they often seem to be treated as if they have more credibility than the administration. Just look at the silly issue of death panels. The media should have laughed it out the window, ridiculed it or at least ignored it once it was determined that there was no basis to the charge. Instead, those making the most outlandish charges are treated with deference and respect, while those that actually have credibility on the subject are treated as equals at best and often with deep skepticism, as if they are the ones with an ax to grind.
I am truly baffled by this situation, as I’m sure you are.

As regular readers may imagine, I find this overwhelmingly persuasive. Bush/Cheney policies failed so spectacularly, Republican candidates and officeholders are generally reluctant to associate themselves with the tarnished name of the previous administration. But Bush/Cheney policies are still those of the contemporary Republican Party. Nothing has changed. Failure and defeat haven’t chastened the GOP at all, and if given a chance to govern again, Republican leaders are quite anxious to return to the exact same agenda they embraced when they were in the majority.
And the political mainstream seems to think this is sane.
The same Republicans -- literally, the self-same individual people -- who were astonishingly wrong about pretty much every area of public policy in recent years, are the same Republicans who feel confident that they’re still credible, knowledgeable, and correct. Not because they’ve changed their larger agenda or worldview, but because a brief period of time has elapsed.
They feel justified proposing a five-year spending freeze in response to the economic crisis. They feel comfortable pretending to care about the “death panels” policy they already endorsed, promoted, and voted for. They have no qualms making bitter complaints about deficits and debts after having spent most of the decade increasing the size of government, increasing federal spending, and creating of some of the largest deficits in American history.
We’re not supposed to point and laugh at their humiliating ideas and attacks -- we’re supposed to negotiate with them.
What’s more, rejected in large numbers by voters nine months ago, and after spending the last seven months acting like confused children, these same Republicans now insist what they really deserve is to be back in the majority again. Seriously.
I suppose the word that keeps coming to mind is “consequences.” The Republican Party of the Bush era failed in ways few have even tried, burdening the nation with challenges and crises that are difficult to address and painful to even think about. They believe, however, there should be no consequences for this. There’s no need, they say, to alter their political beliefs at all. Indeed, they see their main goal as the loyal opposition to undermine efforts to clean up the mess they left. They’re the arsonists hoping to convince the public not to have confidence in the fire department.
No penance, no consequences, no self-reflection -- only the expectation that they be treated as a serious group with a credible agenda.
It’s probably one of the most frustrating aspects of the larger political discourse. Individual issues aside, there’s a temptation to turn to Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, et al, and say, “We’re still waiting for that apology.”

Yep, just like I’m still waiting for that apology from Mark for smearing Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.

Radical opposition

Paul Krugman:

President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.
...
The truth is that the factors that made politics so ugly in the Clinton years — the paranoia of a significant minority of Americans and the cynical willingness of leading Republicans to cater to that paranoia — are as strong as ever. In fact, the situation may be even worse than it was in the 1990s because the collapse of the Bush administration has left the G.O.P. with no real leaders other than Rush Limbaugh.

Proper forums and FB decorum

Over on FaceBook I am completely outnumbered by friends and family who lean rather hard to the right and are (in my view) totally misinformed and thus adamantly opposed to any type of health insurance reform. It is tempting to get into “discussions” on FB with some of these folks, but I am afraid that FB is not the proper forum so I hold off on commenting. If they want to have a discussion, they can comment on my FB page or find my blog. The fact that most do not reassures me that my instincts in this matter are correct.
Still, when I see a comment like this one - “we can see the waste and fraud in medicare, medicaid, social security, food stamps, and i am sure numerous other govnt run programs and know why they should not be in charge of health care!!!” - I want desperately to respond.
So I will do so here on my blog - even though the person making the comment will never see it, but that is probably just as well.
Waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, etc.? Sure. I’m sure you can find waste and fraud in almost every government program. But you can also find waste and fraud in most private businesses as well. There is nothing inherent about government that leads to waste and fraud, it is just a human phenomena. Any large organization or operation is going to have these problems.
For those who think private industry is so much better than the government, here is a reminder from a few years ago -- The Corporate Scandal Sheet
Remember these guys? Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, HealthSouth, Tyco, Arthur Anderson, Global Crossing....
Or how about all the private contractors in Iraq who were bilking the government for millions of dollars?
The only reason that government waste and fraud will seem more prevalent is because it is always out in the open. Much of the private scandals go unreported, unnoticed and uncorrected until they grow so large that the whole thing collapses like a house of cards the way Enron did.
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps and the numerous other government-run programs referenced above have all got their share of problems. But they also do a tremendous amount of good for the nation and provide a necessary level of service that could not be replicated by private charity. Without these social support programs that rightwingers resent so much, our entire economic system which props up our middle-class society would collapse. Talk about pending disasters... We’ve already seen what happens when rightwingers are put in charge of every aspect of the government for eight years. We are dealing with the fruits of that woeful experience right now.

Response to a smear

Since Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has been besmirched here in the comments recently, I thought it would be good to repost this article from TIME that lets him respond to the smears and the craziness.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the medical ethicist and oncologist who advises President Obama, does not own a television, and if you catch him in a typically energized moment, when his mind speeds even faster than his mouth, he is likely to blurt out something like, "I hate the Internet." So it took him several days in late July to discover he had been singled out by opponents of health-care reform as a "deadly doctor," who, according to an opinion column in the New York Post, wanted to limit medical care for "a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy." (Read an interview with Obama on health care.)

"I couldn't believe this was happening to me," says Emanuel, who in addition to spending his career opposing euthanasia and working to increase the quality of care for dying patients is the brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. "It is incredible how much one's reputation can be besmirched and taken out of context." (See pictures of health care for the uninsured.)

It would only get worse. Within days, the Post article, with selective and misleading quotes from Emanuel's 200 or so published academic papers, went viral. Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann, a fierce opponent of Obama's reform plans, read large portions of it on the House floor. "Watch out if you are disabled!" she warned. Days later, in an online posting, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin attacked Emanuel's "Orwellian thinking," which she suggested would lead to a "downright evil" system that would employ a "death panel" to decide who gets lifesaving health care. By Aug. 10, hysteria had begun to take over in places. Mike Sola, whose son has cerebral palsy, turned up at a Michigan town-hall meeting to shout out concerns about what he regarded as Obama and Emanuel's plans to deny treatment to their family. Later, in an interview on Fox News, Sola held up the Post article. "Every American needs to read this," he declared. (Read "What Health-Care Reform Really Means.")

By this point, Emanuel, who has a sister who suffers from cerebral palsy, had arrived in northern Italy, where he planned to spend a week on vacation, hiking in the Dolomites. Instead, he found himself calling the White House, offering to book a plane home to defend his name. "As an academic, what do you have? You have the quality of your work and the integrity with which you do it," he said by phone from the Italian Alps. "If it requires canceling a week's long vacation, what's the big deal?" (Read TIME's cover story "Can Obama Find a Cure?")

The attacks on Emanuel are a reminder that there is a narrow slice of Americans who not only don't trust government, but also have come to regard it as a dark conspirator in their lives. This peculiar brand of distrust helps create the conditions for fast-moving fear-mongering, especially on complex and emotionally charged topics like the life and death of the elderly and infirm. Prairie fires of that kind are hard to douse when the Administration's own plan for health care remains vague, weeks away from being ready for a public rollout. The health-care bill that recently passed the House does not contain, as some have suggested, any provisions that would deny treatment to the elderly, infirm or disabled like Sola's son. One provision allows doctors to be reimbursed for voluntary discussions of so-called living wills with patients, but does not in any way threaten to deny treatment to dying patients against their will. The legislation anticipates saving hundreds of billions of dollars by reforming the health-care system itself, a process that would try to increase the efficiency of medical care by better connecting payments to health outcomes and discouraging doctors from unnecessary tests and procedures. The Obama Administration hopes that many of these reforms will be made in the coming years by independent panels of scientists, who will be appointed by the President and overseen by Congress. (See 10 health-care-reform players.)

This is where the criticism of Emanuel enters the picture, since he is just the sort of scientist who might be appointed to one of those panels. For decades, Emanuel has studied the ethics of medical care, especially in situations where a scarcity of resources requires hard decisions to be made. His work sometimes deals with the hardest possible decisions, like how to choose who gets a single kidney if there are three patients in need, or the reasons that doctors order tests with little medical value. Emanuel's reputation ranks him among the top members of his field. He is published often in the best journals; he has been given multiple awards for work to improve end-of-life care. At the White House, he has taken a free-floating role at the Office of Management and Budget, advising on a wide range of health issues.

But in a country where trust is in short supply, Emanuel has become a proxy for all the worst fears of government efforts to rein in costs by denying care. "The fundamental danger is that the American people are being asked to delegate all these life-influencing decisions," explains Betsy McCaughey, the conservative scholar who wrote the New York Post attack on Emanuel. "There is a lack of transparency here."

In her Post article, McCaughey paints the worst possible image of Emanuel, quoting him, for instance, endorsing age discrimination for health-care distribution, without mentioning that he was only addressing extreme cases like organ donation, where there is an absolute scarcity of resources. She quotes him discussing the denial of care for people with dementia without revealing that Emanuel only mentioned dementia in a discussion of theoretical approaches, not an endorsement of a particular policy. She notes that he has criticized medical culture for trying to do everything for a patient, "regardless of the cost or effects on others," without making clear that he was not speaking of lifesaving care but of treatments with little demonstrated value. "No one who has read what I have done for 25 years would come to the conclusions that have been put out there," says Emanuel. "My quotes were just being taken out of context."

For Emanuel, the entire experience has been a painful education in the sometimes brutal ways of politics, something his brother has long endured and dolled out. "I guess I have a better appreciation for what Rahm had to go through for years and years," Emanuel says. But that appreciation does not solve the question raised by the controversy. There is universal understanding that the nation's fiscal course is doomed without major changes to health care, but whom will the American people trust to carry it out?

Emanuel, for his part, plans to continue his work, which is focused on finding the most equitable and ethical way for this reform to be carried out, even if he has opted against returning from the Italian Alps. "I am an Emanuel," he says. "We are pretty thick-skinned. I am not going to change my colors. I am not going to crawl under a rock."

The Conservative Pledge

Rightwingers are really big on making pledges and so I found this "Conservative Pledge" to be most interesting. Following is the pledge with my comments and interpretations in bold...

I will support the People’s right to self-defense.
And the right to carry loaded guns anyplace we feel like... and not just little small-caliber pea-shooters either. We mean big-honking elephant guns and bazookas with automatic firing and unlimited clip capacity.

I will be devoted to the principle of blind justice.
And “blind justice” means being completely oblivious to any ounce of empathy or human compassion. It means applying the harshest penalties and sentences regardless of the attenuating circumstances. It means closing your eyes to the consequences of so-called “justice”.

I recognize the media for its bias, bullying and deception.
This is pure projection coming from the folks who get all their news from the radically-biased, bullying and deceptive Fox News and the rightwing radio talk shows. What could be more bullying than people like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck screaming at and shouting down people on their shows who dare to disagree with them?

I will emphasize self-reliance and being able to keep the fruits of one’s labor.
Pure selfishness and greed dressed up to sound not quite so bad.

I will promote teaching self-help rather than dependence on government and others.
Self-help and self-reliance are the buzz words of the rightwing movement that wants to dismantle the social safety net underlying the foundation of the American economy. It is all part of the Ayn Rand philosophy of selfishness and greed that has taken control of today’s Republican Party.

I will place conservative values and principles above personal desires, weaknesses, fears and regrets.
Naturally. Wouldn’t want any of those namby-pampy feelings or empathies to get in the way of efforts to slash government services for the poor, the sick and the destitute.

I will emphasize charity, with its unexpected benefits, rather than support compulsory tax-and-spend programs.
Charity is another way of saying “Let somebody else take care of those poor saps.”

I will have a never-ending quest for the truth, despite obstacles based on emotion and personal experience and will spread such truths for the benefit of all.
Once again “emotion” is viewed as something that is bad and which should be avoided because it gets in the way of the quest for “truths” and even “personal experience” is bad because you just can’t believe your own eyes when they show you Obama’s birth certificate or pictures of the Apollo astronauts on the moon. LIES!!!! ALL LIES!!!!!

I will give those in authority due respect, however, not to the extent of taking orders or assertions that are contrary to conservative values or moral logic.
In other words, I will only respect authorities who agree with me based on my interpretation of “conservative values” and “moral logic”

I will emphasize humility and open-mindedness instead of the arrogant certainty about one’s own views.
Phhhhhhttthhhhhh!!! Oh yeah, sure. Let’s just throw that one out there for grins. (wink,wink)

I will not simply complain, but rather will take practical action toward improving my situation.
Like sending money to rightwing groups promising to take action for me!

I will use self-control as opposed to a self-indulgent search for instant gratification of desires.
Oops. I think Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. John Ensign, Sen. David Vitter, Rep. Chip Pickering, and many others overlooked this part of the pledge.

I will downplay the significance of wealth, disparities in wealth and materialism in general.
Because it is easier to hold these selfish beliefs if you ignore the big pink elephant in the room.

I will recognize and utilize the benefits of competition and hard work in my daily life.
Because all those undeserving poor people just don’t work as hard as I do and even if they do they just lost out in the “competition” so tough luck.

I understand that a rising tide lifts all boats, e.g. tax cuts benefit all.
Surely whatever benefits me personally will benefit everyone else. Right?

I will recognize the power and liquidity of the free market.
All bow and prostrate themselves before the mighty and all-powerful free market!

I will emphasize self-restraint against hurtful activities.
And hope that other people will use “self-restraint” too when we can no longer afford our military and police forces.

I will reject the deification of government officials.
You know!! The Obamessiah! HaHa!! We called him that to taunt liberals and now we can use it as an excuse to vilify him even more!

I will support those who prove frugal and efficient.
Or those who cut my taxes and slash programs for the poor.

John Hughes favorites

The Breakfast Club and Ferris Beuller’s Day Off have always been high on my list of “movies I want to own some day,” but alas upon learning of the untimely death of director John Hughes it occurs to me that I still do not have a single one of his movies in my film collection.
So here are the John Hughes films I would love to add to my collection some day:

Breakfast Club
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
Sixteen Candles
Pretty in Pink
Planes Trains and Automobiles
Uncle Buck
Home Alone I & II

It would make an awesome boxed set, anyway.

Healthcare lies

This Steven Pearlstein column is one not to be missed -- Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they’ve given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They’ve become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

A commenter at Nick Marinelli’s blog wonders why Democrats think democrats think “all this dissent is manufactuered”.
Well, it’s not that I think the dissent is manufactured so much as the anger which is being drummed up by the malicious lies people are being fed about healthcare reform.

Fiesta Texas

We had a good time at Fiesta Texas yesterday. My son got a free ticket through a reading program at his school this year so even though we have season passes to Sea World, we ponied up for a day at Six Flags.
Naturally it was a scorcher on Thursday. The prediction was for 102 and as it turned out it hit a record 103. But we were prepared with lots of sunscreen and spent the hot part of the day at the water park. I made the mistake of not bringing flip-flops and quickly realized my mistake after we put all our stuff in a locker and headed out for the water. While the wife and kids went on to the pool, I doubled back to get my credit card out of the locker and then sprinted over to one of the gift shops, scalding my feet in the process. I found a pair of cheapie flip-flops for $7 but the kid behind the register just looked at my credit card and asked for my ID. D’oh!!
So I had to sprint back across the hot cement a second time to the lockers to retrieve my wallet. This time I was smart and put on my tennis shoes before making the trek back to the shop. Later in the day when it was time to pay for our $35 lunch which consisted of one double-meat cheeseburger, some oninon rings and drinks (seriously), I had my ID ready only to find that they took my credit card without asking for it. Grrrrrr!
Fiesta Texas was great. There was lots more than we could do in one day even getting there at 10:30 a.m. and staying until the park closed at 9 p.m. We live close enough to Fiesta Texas that I can hear the fire works every night from my front lawn so it was nice to finally get to see the fireworks and laser light show up close. It will probably be a few more years before we get a season pass to Fiesta Texas. Our kids are still too young for most of the rides and aren’t old enough to appreciate most of the music shows. But they love animals which is why we go to Sea World. I just hope that Six Flags stays solvent and doesn’t close down before then.

Disney movie collection

Here is my Disney movie collection which has grown exponentially over the years and which I am still looking to add to:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (VHS)
Pinocchio
Fantasia (VHS)
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
One Hundred and One Dalmations
Sword in the Stone
Mary Poppins (VHS)
Jungle Book
The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit
The Love Bug
The Aristocats
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Robin Hood
Escape to Witch Mountain
The Apple Dumpling Gang
Gus
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
Return From Witch Mountain
The Cat From Outer Space
The Black Hole
The Fox and the Hound
Tron
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin (VHS)
The Lion King
Pocahontas
Toy Story (VHS)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mulan
A Bug’s Life
Tarzan
Toy Story 2 (VHS)
Dinosaur
The Emperor’s New Groove (VHS)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Monsters Inc.
Return To Neverland
Lilo & Stitch
Treasure Planet
Piglet’s Big Movie
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Haunted Mansion
Home on the Range
The Incredibles
National Treasure
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
Sky High
Chicken Little
Chonicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Cars
Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Meet the Robinsons
Pirates of the Carribbean: At Worlds End
Ratatouille
Enchanted
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
WALL-E
Tinker Bell
Bolt
Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin
The Tigger Movie
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (VHS)
Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
Lilo & Stitch II: Stitch Has a Glitch
Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie
Air Buddies
Space Buddies
The Complete Goofy
The Chronological Donald Vol. 1
The Chronological Donald Vol. 2
Mickey Mouse in Black and White Vol. 2

New Weird Al video!!!!

Weird Al Yankovic does White Stripes! Too cool!

Radical Right - Today’s Hippie protesters

The video of an angry mob chanting “Just Say No!” over and over again in an effort to harass U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett during a forum on health care is a prime example of how Radicalism has replaced Conservatism in this country.
These people are no different than the radical “Hippies” of the 1960s who came to represent left-wing or liberal politics all the way to the present. If anything, they are even angrier than the “Flower Power” children of the 60s ever were.
It is disturbing that these radicals are organizing protests around the country with the express purpose of drowning out any efforts to examining the health care debate in a civil manner.
Do you suppose the national media will start portraying these radicals in the same negative light that their 60s counterparts were? Or will they be too cowed by these braying morons’ charges of “liberal bias” to dare offer any critical coverage?

Wow! Government really can do something right!

Via The Washington Monthly comes an excellent article about the Corrupt, Bloated, Private For-Profit Fire Fighting Industry of the 1800s before we replaced it with government-run fire protection.
I wonder how many people would like to turn back the clock and return to the days of private, for-profit firefighting outfits rather than the “socialized”, government-run system we have today?

TPA Roundup 8-3

Here we are in August, and like every other week it's time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.

TXsharon needs your help to Expose This Dirty Video.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out KBH and the GOP for using racism and the NRA to get out the vote in 2010. Having a competent, experienced Latina judge? Not important.

Off the Kuff reminds us that Governor Perry's consistently wrong decisions regarding unemployment insurance will cost the state two billion dollars, maybe more.

McBlogger takes a look at a lawsuit against TRS and discovers losses, possible corruption and a nightmarish problem for the Republicans in 2010.

John Coby says you better think before you trust a republican with your family's health care.

Mean Rachel decides that Democratic gubernatorial candidate is still too Bush League for her tastes.

Our governor is living the life of the rich and famous. It does so on our dime and on the "dimes" of his fat cat contributors. Libby Shaw gives us the ulgy details over at TexasKaos, Our Kept Governor to the Unemployed: Eat Cake.

Why did Ciro Rodriguez vote against the Waxman-Markey climate change bill and then suddenly flee the House? And why is he taking grip-and-grin meetings with David Dewhurst? PDiddie at Brains and Eggs would really like to know.

Vince at Capitol Annex tells why he believes that the smart money is on Texas Governor Rick Perry picking Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to replace U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison if she resigns before the end of the year.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted a video he made that will take only 39 seconds your life to watch. Also, Neil made a post marking the third anniversary of Texas Liberal. Texas Liberal has run 1500 page views a day so far this year and had racked-up over 725,000 views since it began. Thank you blog reading public!!

WhosPlayin notes that the City of Lewisville is cancelling its Cinco de Mayo celebration for 2010 due to budgetary concerns.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson points out Rep. John Carter's latest nuttiness, Franking Commission draws the line on Rep. Carter.

Mike Thomas at Rhetoric & Rhythm reviews Debra Medina's campaign video and deems her the Sarah Palin of South Texas.

Teddy of Left of College Station was forced to evacuate his home in Bryan due to a warehouse fire that was burning toxic materials, but was able to return to his home the next day. Before the evacuation Teddy was able to write about Michael Vick’s return to the NFL, and whether or not he deserves a second chance. Left of College Station also covers the local and progressive events in the Bryan-College Station this month.

If nuclear power companies are already having trouble with their credit ratings, why are Texans rushing to throw them billions for plants that even the builders can't finance themselves? Good question, says Citizen Sarah at Texas Vox.

The Sarah Palin of South Texas

If you go to this web site you will find a professionally produced video touting Debra Medina’s campaign for governor.
Medina is a small businesswoman from Beeville who is gearing up to challenge Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary from the hard right.
It is not evident at first just how far right Medina is. In the video you will hear lots of the same rhetoric you would hear from almost any candidate. You get testimonials from people using words like “sincerity,” “honesty,” “dedication,” “passion for freedom” and “preserving values.”
Medina accuses current elected officials (Perry) of not representing their constituents. They have “forgotten about serving Texans,” she says.
Furthermore, these elected officials (Bush?) have “brought economic ruin to our nation” and have “imposed government into all aspects of our lives.”
The first hint you will get about where Medina is coming from within the political spectrum is when she says that she “entered politics because local leaders were not honoring the pro-life principles I feel so strongly about.”
She also acknowledges in the video that she homeschooled her children. But beyond that, the video avoids giving out too many details on policies or proposals.
Medina throws out the standard “government is taking too much of our hard-earned money” line, and she promises to “stand for the people” and the “values that make our state great” and lots more pablum such as that.
Her three principles that are repeated throughout the video are:
* Promoting a sound economy (without saying how)
* Halting government interference in our lives (except for reproductive health issues, one would assume)
* Defend family, community and faith (because everyone knows the other candidates are against those things)
Medina wraps up by saying that Texans need a governor who “loves freedom and fights to protect us from big government.”

After listening to her whole feel-good spiel, I’m left wondering about the profound ignorance and blind dogmatism that would lead someone like Medina to launch a campaign for governor against a 15-year incumbent and a sitting U.S. Senator. Because Medina is clearly a far-right wingnut from the Tea Bagging wing of the GOP. If the video doesn’t convince you, then all you need to do is look at her issues page and see where this homeschooler is promising to eliminate the property tax, which is the main source of financial support for the public school system.
The website also stresses state sovereignty, property rights, gun rights, illegal immigration and, of course, abortion. She does not seem to have the foggiest clue about what all is involved with running a state the size of Texas, much less a country the size of the U.S. She naively seems to say that most federal government functions should be halted and left up to “communities and families” to deal with.
Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are viewed suspiciously in the video because, even as right-wing as they try to be, they cannot, in their current positions, escape the cold-hard grip of reality which appears to have completely eluded poor Medina.
That is one of the reasons I think that Sarah Palin quit being governor of Alaska. Being governor was constantly reminding her about how right-wing ideology and cold-hard reality don’t mesh. So she decided to give up government responsibility so she could go back to the right-wing fantasy world where most of her supporters reside.
So Palin is gone, but now here comes Medina. Is she South Texas’ answer to Sarah Palin? Could she possibly pull off an upset in the Republican primary the way Palin did in Alaska? Or will she remain largely unknown and just another name on the ballot that people will wonder about after they voted (“I didn’t know all those other people were running!”)
Personally, I hope that Medina will run as an independent after losing the GOP primary and that she takes all of the Tea Baggers with her.

See ya later....

While we were touring a private wildlife preserve on Avery Island in Louisiana we stopped at a small pond where some alligators were swimming. Before long we had five medium-sized gators all checking us out and then this guy came out of the water about three yards from where I took this picture.

Back from vacation

I’m back from our vacation trip to Louisiana to see my sister and her family in Crowley. It was our kids’ first trip to Crowley and their cousins had a great time showing them around the farm, taking them fishing and much more. Nathan got to play Wii with his cousin Zach. Isabel played dress-up with her cousins Samantha and Sarah. Ashley showed us a story she wrote for school. We all went out to dinner at several nice restaurants.
On Saturday we took a swamp boat tour and saw lots of birds - Snow Egrets, Blue Herons - and alligators. Lots of alligators.
Then we went out to Avery Island to tour the Tobasco sauce factory and afterwards saw more alligators. On the drive home we went through Brenham and toured the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. I haven’t had a chance to download all the pictures from my camera and will post more about the trip when I get a chance.

Crazy Birthers

President Barack Obama has a birthday coming up soon. I know because I have his birth certificate right here showing that he was born on Aug. 4, 1961 at 7:24 p.m. on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. That’s part of the United States of America, in case you didn’t know.
Apparently some people don’t know and they are still questioning whether Obama is a natural born citizen and thus eligible to be president, like the crazy lady in this Youtube video who screeches at poor Congressman Michael Castle, a moderate Republican from Delaware, while he is trying to conduct a town meeting on health care issues.



The part where the crazy lady interrupts the meeting a second time and forces everyone to stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance is downright creepy.
But these “Birthers,” as they are becoming known, are becoming more and more predominant in the Republican Party. So much so that we now have Republican members of Congressman trying to appease them with legislation that would supposedly require future presidential candidates to “prove” their eligibility.
Chris Matthews on Hardball chews up and spits out this idiot Congressman from California who is sponsoring this bill:



But the crazy people aren’t going to go away that easily and they have prominent media figures like Rush Limbaugh, Liz Cheney and Lou Dobbs embracing their cause.

Why I’m a Liberal

I understand why so many people consider themselves to be “conservative” having been there once myself. The term “conserative,” unlike its political counterpart “liberal,” has appeal to both sides of the political spectrum. People on the left side of the political spectrum will readily embrace the term ‘conservative’ in many respects, while the reverse is rarely true. No one wants to be called a “fiscal liberal.” That’s like being called a spendthrift, or someone who is wasteful with the people’s money. And conservatism is often equated with good moral values. Someone who lives a “liberal” lifestyle is usually viewed as being immoral. Conservatism even has good connotations in the context of environmentalism such as conserving land, conserving resources and conserving species.
The term “liberal,” on the other hand, has been so denigrated over time that even many people on the left have opted to abandon it in favor of terms like “progressive” or “moderate” to distinguish themselves from the dominant rightwing ideology. Gross caricatures of liberalism abound throughout our culture and are constantly reinforced by the vast web of rightwing media which includes nearly all of talk radio, most of cable news and the majority of newspaper op-ed pages. Even the funny pages are rife with demeaning liberal caricatures propigated by rightwing strips like Mallard Fillmore, Prickly City and B.C.
Liberals are typically viewed as being uppity, arrogant elitists who reject traditional social mores and want to force their own moral absolutism onto everyone else. Liberals are supposed to be anti-religious, or at least anti-Christian, and enemies of traditional “family values.” Liberals are usually unreformed Hippies with long hair pulled back in a pony tail. The mean wear earrings, the women avoid bras. They are anti-military, anti-patriotic and hold protests where flags are burned and soldiers are spat upon.
Liberals are anti-business and want to take the country in the direction of “socialism.” If they get into the government, they immediately try to raise taxes and give all the money away to undeserving constituent groups - thus punishing the successful and the hard-working people to benefit the lazy degenerates of society. And it goes on and on.
People who regularly listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, watch Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, and read Ann Coulter and Mark Levin are filled with these kinds of negative stereotypes of liberals. It is no wonder that they would react negatively to someone who openly identifies themself as a liberal. What is WRONG with that person? It makes them wonder.

And yet here I am doing just that. What IS wrong with me? Well first, by way of explanation, let me clarify that based on common usage today I would probably be considered very conservative, at least with respect to my personal habits. I am a white, middle-aged male, married with two kids living in Texas. I dress conservatively, wear my hair short and drive a pickup truck. I don’t drink, smoke or gamble. I don’t have any tattoos, body piercings or dyed hair. I go to church regularly (Methodist) and tend to stay home most evenings with my family.
But when it comes to my politics, I generally come down squarely on the left side of the spectrum. The reasons are two-fold, a combination of idealism and pragmatism. I’m not sure if that makes me an idealistic pragmatist or a pragmatic idealist, but I believe in doing whatever works best toward achieving my goals. And those goals are based largely on my Christian faith, and I do mean MY Christian faith, not the warped and twisted perversion of Christianity that is espoused by rightwing preachers and groups known collectively as the “Religious Right.”
The Religious Right would have you believe that Jesus spent all his time on Earth bashing gays, denouncing abortion and condemning “sinners,” when in fact those all-consuming, hot-button issues that define the Religious Right today never came up in any of Jesus’ sermons. Instead Jesus spent most of his time telling people to love one another while preaching forgiveness and redemption. Jesus told us to “turn the other cheek” regardless of how many times we had been wronged and not to cast stones of condemnation unless we ourselves are sinless. We are supposed to care for the poor, feed the hungry, heal the sick, and visit people in jail (as opposed to torturing them, I suppose). If someone asks you for your coat, you give them your shirt too. If someone is lying injured on the side of the road, you stop and help them. Jesus was, in my opinion, the biggest bleeding-heart liberal to ever walk the face of the Earth.
OK, some are thinking, granted he was a bleeding heart, but liberal? That still sticks in some people’s craw. Why not a bleeding heart conservative like George W. Bush claimed to be?
That is where my pragmatism kicks in. If “bleeding heart conservatism” can accomplish all those things better than bleeding heart liberalism, then I’m sold. I’ll become a conservative tomorrow. But look where eight years of Bush’s policies got us -- an economy that was in total meltdown by the time President Obama took charge. Bleeding heart conservatism might sound good, but as a practical matter it failed miserably, assuming it was even tried at all and wasn’t just a meaningless phrase thrown out to cover up the real plan which was the usual Republican policy of giving big business whatever it wants and hoping for the best.
George W. Bush and the Republicans had their chance to put their ideas in place and they failed miserably in nearly every aspect of government policy - foreign and domestic. How could anybody want to go back to that so soon, if ever? The economy performed spectacularly well under President Bill Clinton and then floundered pathetically under President Bush. If things pick up under President Obama by next year, as it is likely to do, I will be hard-pressed to see how anyone could continue to vote Republican in future elections. But I’m sure many still will and there isn’t anything wrong with that. I would just hope that they might start to see through some of those offensive and ridiculous sterotypes that get paraded around out there everyday.

History books next target of culture warriors

If you thought the Texas Board of Education’s battle over science curriculums in public schools wasn’t entertaining enough, take a look at this story in the Wall Street Journal the other day.

The fight over school curriculum in Texas, recently focused on biology, has entered a new arena, with a brewing debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.
The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state’s social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But wait! It gets better. Lots better! The board has brought in several “experts” to review and critique history textbooks being considered by the board for adoption by Texas schools.

Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.

Say what?!?! Remove Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall??? What does that have to do with the Bible and Christian faith??

“We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” said Rev. Peter Marshall, a Christian minister and one of the reviewers appointed by the conservative camp.

This coming from a minister who “preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina were God’s judgments on the nation’s sexual immorality.” In other words, the man is certifiably insane.
But this is who the majority conservatives on the State Board of Education picked to review history textbooks, along with David Barton, founder of WallBuilders, a group that promotes America’s Christian heritage.
So who do the Democrats and the few “moderate” Republicans on the board pick? Why people with actual expertise in history and social studies. What a concept!
People like Jesús F. de la Teja, chairman of the history department at Texas State University, and Lybeth Hodges, a professor of history at Texas Woman’s University. Not surprisingly, they would like to see more diversity in the history textbooks.
“We have tended to exclude or marginalize the role of Hispanic and Native American participants in the state’s history,” de la Teja said.

But the conservatives on the board are dead set against that. “Reaching for examples of achievement by different racial and ethnic groups is divisive, Mr. Barton said, and distorts history.”
They and their handpicked reviewers believe that children must learn that America’s founding principles are “biblical.”

For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man’s fall and inherent sinfulness, or “radical depravity,” which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances.
The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good -- and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.
“America is a special place and we need to be sure we communicate that to our children,” said Don McLeroy, a leading conservative on the board. “The foundational principles of our country are very biblical.... That needs to come out in the textbooks.”

So, the conservatives aren’t so much interested in actual “history” being presented in the history books as they are about making sure that their political and theocratic agenda comes across lound and strong. They don’t see the history textbooks as teaching instruments so much as propaganda instruments through which to spread their political and evangelical message to the unwashed masses.

It is high time that the Texas Board of Education was put out to pasture so that the job of guiding curriculums for our school children can be left to academic professionals and not political hacks and partisan zealots.

To Censure or Impeach

I noticed in South Carolina that Republicans have voted to “censure” Gov. Mark Sanford, rather than demand his resignation.
This, of course, is precisely what Democrats proposed to do with Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky affair was exposed by the salacious, crusader Ken Starr. But back then, Republicans did not think that was good enough and they pushed forward with a bid to impeach the president (which was successful in the House and fell short in the Senate). One of those Republican House members who cast aside the censure option and voted to impeach was then-Congressman Mark Sanford of S.C.
Oh, the irony.
Well, I don’t ever want to hear anymore blather from Republicans about how they are the guardians of all that is moral and uprighteous in this country. Because it is clear that political expediency takes precedense on both sides of the poltical spectrum.

Symbolic Patriotism

So much good news during the past few days I don’t know if I can stand it. First Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., reveal themselves to be enormous, massive hypocrites and disqualify themselves from ever running for president in the future. Then former Sen. and Sore Loser Norm Coleman finally runs out of money and gives up his neverending legal battle to deny the people of Minnesota a second U.S. Senator, clearing the way for Sen. Al Franken to be sworn in and giving the Democrats a filibuster-proof 60 seats.
Now we learn that Sarah Palin is throwing in the towel on her political career in Alaska. Not only is she not going to run for a second term as governor next year, she isn’t even going to bother finishing out her first term and will resign from office later this month.
Why would she do such a thing? The most likely explanation is that her political troubles in Alaska (i.e. abusing her powers by firing the state’s top law officer over a personal family matter) were about to boil over leaving her no other option than to bail out before everything caved in around her. Or perhaps she just decided that it was time to get out on the right-wing lecture circuit and strike while the iron is still hot. I mean if Joe (Joe the Plumber) Wurzelbacher can make money going around the country denouncing the government on Independence Day (like he did here in San Antonio), then Palin should really be able to rake in the big bucks.
But any notion that Palin is stepping down before completing even a single term as governor to prepare for a future presidential bid is absolute nonsense. Dan Quayle had a better chance in 1996 than Palin does in 2012. Her future career lies in being a Fox News commentator and a wingnut celebrity at future “Tea Parties.”
Speaking of “Tea Parties”, the little shindig they held in San Antonio on July 4th really rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, where do they get off trying to co-opt a national holiday celebrating the founding of our government as a day to denounce and trash that very same government?
Oh sure, they have the perfect right to hold their anti-government rallies whenever they choose. But they should not be allowed to get away with this pretense of patriotism that they all pretend to have. There is nothing patriotic about this mindless, knee-jerk hatred for the government that inspires people like Timothy McVeigh to go out and blow up federal buildings.
How can these people claim to be patriotic Americans when the only thing they love about their country is the empty symbolism? Oh sure, they LOVE the flag and they LOVE all the Red, White and Blue imagery - the bald eagle, the patriotic music, hot dogs and apple pie. Oh, and the Troops! They LOVE the Troops!!
But paying the taxes that support the troops, pays their salaries and provides them with the armor, equipment, medical care, etc. that they need? They do everything they can to avoid that. They hate the government and everything that goes along with it. They LOVE our country, but they can’t stand most of the people who live here.
That just doesn’t make sense to me becayse we ARE the government. We have a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people. But they act like the government is some monolithic foreign entity that must be opposed at every turn. It is fine to be critical of the government, but even when it was being run roughshod by Republicans for the past eight years, I never harbored the degree of disdain and venom that these people have for the government all the time.
Last week, on the popular Glenn Beck show on the No. 1 rated Fox News Channel, Beck had a guest on who enthused about how what this country most needs is to be hit by another terrorist attack like on 9/11.

“The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States....”

Glenn Beck, of course, was the featured speaker at the last little “Tea Party” that they held in San Antonio. And there he was a few months later nodding approvingly while his guest advocated for a nuclear terrorist attack on our nation. This is outrageous to the extreme! I don’t know what pearls of wisdom “Joe the Plumber” had to say at the most recent tea party, but if his past history is any indication, I can only imagine it wasn’t too far off from what Glenn Beck was saying. For example, back in October, Wurzelbacher claimed we are being “taxed without representation” and suggested another revolution to overthrow the government would be necessary.

“You know a lot of the stuff that our government is doing right now is all about taxation without representation and you know the last time that happened a couple guys got together and threw the Brits out.”

Nice patriotic stuff, ain’t it? Maybe for the next “Tea Party” they can feature Sarah Palin and her secessionist husband Todd.

Hypocricy on full display

Via Political Wire here is one of the campaign ads from 2002 for Republican Mark Sanford when he ran for governor of South Carolina.

So it's not just that he cheated on his wife with multiple women and used taxpayer money to finance his flings in South America. What really grates with Sanford is that he portrayed himself during the campaign as this upstanding pillar of Christian values - honesty, integrity, etc.

Losing Michael Jackson

When Ed McMahon passed away at 86 it wasn’t too surprising considering his age. And even when Farrah Fawcet died a couple of days later it was not unexpected because of her long struggle with cancer. But having Michael Jackson die suddenly from cardiac arrest at age 50 was indeed a shock.
I wouldn’t call myself an MJ fan by any stretch, but I do feel a connection to him in that he was one of the first pop culture icons I became aware of in my youth. The Jackson 5 were a big hit in the early 70s when I was in first and second grade. Songs like “Rockin’ Robin” and “ABC” were some of the first pop tunes I can remember and I got the distinct impression back then that Michael was about my age, although he is actually six years older.
The Saturday morning cartoon show featuring the Jackson 5 had the biggest impact on me, no doubt.



Years later, Michael Jackson would retake the center spotlight by storm, taking advantage of the new music video genre and MTV to become a household name and an established pop icon. Videos for Billie Jean and Beat It ran in heavy rotation on MTV when I was in high school, but the tour-de-force was the 13-minute video short for “Thriller” that sent his popularity into orbit. I remember being at a mall somewhere and noticing a big crowd of people gathering around a storefront window where there was a TV set up. The reason? Thriller was about to air. People were tingling with excitement.
Thriller was still a big hit when I started college. And yet it would be years later before I would get around to purchasing the album for myself. In fact, I had the Wierd Al Yankovic parody long before I picked up the original. But the next year when his big follow-up album “Bad” was released I broke down and bought a copy on cassete. Wierd Al, I think, owes MJ a big debt of gratitude for all the mileage he got off of his two big parody songs - “Eat It” and “Fat.”
I also picked up the “We are the World” album around that time which Michael Jackson was instrumental in producing. I was very impressed at the time with his efforts on that front and still feel it is a large part of his legacy.
Years later, as Jackson devolved into the sad, strange shell of a man that he became, I had mixed feelings. I was never as condemning as many people were. I mostly felt sorry for him. I do believe he had some serious problems especially with regards to the issue of inappropriate contact with children. He should never have been allowed to have unsupervised contact with children after the problem first came to light, but money and power can often shield people from the kind of help they need. In the big molestation case from a couple of years ago that destroyed his image despite his eventual acquittal, I always felt that the real villians were the kid’s parents. It was well known by then that Jackson had this problem, and yet they still allowed their child to spend the night alone with him. That was a complete failure of parental responsibility. And then to turn around and file a multi-million dollar lawsuit made it seem like they were using their kid to fish for money all along. Really sad.
We still don’t know why Jackson suffered cardiac arrest at 50. He had a long history of health problems and was taking untold numbers of medications which could have contributed to his death. I suppose we will eventually find out. But in the meantime I am going to dig out my double CD of Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits.

Oscar problem resolved!

Wow! This is fantastic news!!
2010 Oscars to have 10 Best Picture nominees

One of my biggest pet peeves with the Academy Awards is that they have been ignoring popular box office hits in favor of artsy, elitist pictures that few people have ever heard of.
I’ve expressed bitter frustration about this issue and feel that it is the reason that ratings for the annual awards show are way down.
But this should fix that problem. Just like they did back in the 1930s and 40s, the Academy is going to honor 10 films with nominations and not just five. That should guarantee a spot this year for Pixar’s Up and probably a spot too for the very popular and well done Star Trek prequel.
If this rule had been in place last year, there would surely have been Academy Award nominations for Dark Knight and WALL-E and possibly Iron Man as well.

Republican “Family Values”

John Ensign and Mark Sanford - two Republican idiots who will NEVER be president.
In just a matter of weeks we have seen two rising stars of the Republican Party and highly-touted future presidential candidates immolate their political careers on national television.
First, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, admitted to cheating on his wife with a campaign staffer (just like John Edwards). And now we learn that an adulterous affair was at the core of the fiasco surrounding South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s disappearing act this week. Which, of course, brings to mind former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s fling with a prostitute earlier this year.
Spitzer, a Democrat, was forced to resign.
Edwards, also a Democrat, was drummed off of the political stage.
But so far, both Ensign and Sanford are acting like they intend to hold onto their seats (as is Sen. David Vitter, R-La., whose name showed up on a prostitute’s client list in Washington).
These guys weren’t just any old Senator or Governor, either.
Ensign was chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the fourth-ranking spot in the Republican party’s leadership.
Sanford was chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association.
I think Ensign should resign. I think Sanford will be impeached if he doesn’t resign soon.

TPA Roundup 6-22

It's Monday, the day after the first day of summer, and it's time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.

President Obama, Bill White, and John Sharp are all in the same sinking DOMA boat. The Texas Cloverleaf comes off of hiatus to tell you why.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme cheers the impeachment of Judge Kent. 4 articles passed without a single nay. Lets hope the Senate is through with him by August.

BossKitty at TruthHugger finally signed up for Twitter to get updates on the Iran protests. What a day of drama and emotion it brought, Icons and Martyrs – All Day On Twitter Watching Iran. I was really meaning to highlight the regressive influences causing upheaval in personal lives, especially in Texas. Immigration Policies and Gay Rights – Contradictions

Unlike Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign, Neil at Texas Liberal makes a promise he'll keep - He'll never cheat on his wife! Also, Neil sings the Damned's Wait For The Blackout at the Houston Ship Channel.

Off the Kuff takes a look, then a second look, at the bills Governor Perry vetoed.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson knows in order to solve big problems it takes leadership, Who is willing to lead, who has enough LBJ in them?.

Castle Hills Democrats heard candidates Tom Schieffer, John Sharp, Bill White, and Neil Durrance speak at the Dual County Fish Fry in north Texas. The blogger reviews their messages--and reports on feedback from the Dems in the audience.

WhosPlayin investigated the claim by a former mayoral candidate that the city is hiring illegal aliens for its road projects because one of its contractors doesn't yet use the E-Verify program.

Teddy at Left of College Station writes about escorting at Planned Parenthood and how what happens in Kansas doesn’t stay in Kansas. Today on Left of College Station: a report from the T. Don Hutto Residential Detention Facility and the protest on Saturday (including exclusive photographs).

Big Gas wants you to believe that regulating hydraulic fracturing is a state's rights issue. The truth: Only one state in the US regulates hydraulic fracturing. TXsharon busts the Big Gas bubble again on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Citizen groups opposed to new coal plants being built in Robertson County and near Victoria were given a chance to intervene last week when two of the 12 newly proposed coal plants in Texas had preliminary hearings for their waste water permits. Check out the video over at Public Citizen's Texas Vox.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw tells us that Dumb, Self-serving Politicians Make Dumb, Self-serving Decisions. What a surprise that Governor Goodhair takes the starring role in this little drama. Check out the details.

Do you love the Real Housewives on Bravo? Were you a little less than impressed by the NJ version? So was Barfly over at McBlogger.

False equivalence

Jonathan Gurwitz is trying to deflect criticism away from conservatives over the recent spate of right-wing violence in the U.S. by making a bogus argument about false equivalency.
Even though there have been no recent instances of left-wing violence in the U.S., Gurwitz claims that both sides are equally responsible.
Last week, he argued that right-wing anti-abortion groups are not responsible for the death of Dr. George Tiller because they are “pro-life”. However, anyone who was critical of the war in Iraq is somehow responsible for the actions of an Islamic fundamentalist who shot and killed an Army recruiter in Arkansas last week.

This week, Gurwitz takes it a step further and tries to put Islamic fundamentalism squarely on the left side of the political spectrum for purposes of equivalency:

...politics is a horseshoe — the further you go from the middle, the more the extremes converge. That explains why the words of von Brunn and Wright are so similar, why the language of the Christian Identity movement is often identical to that of Islamic extremists, why David Duke was a featured speaker at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial conference...

How convenient that Gurwitz can assign Islamic extremists and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Left side of the spectrum so that he has something to balance against the likes of the Christian Identity movement and David Duke. The only problem is that it is total nonsense. Islamic fundamentalists, like Christian fundamentalists, occupy the far-right side of the spectrum. Their attitudes and views with respect to women’s liberation, gay rights, abortion and civil liberties are almost indistinguishable. It is the same rightwing ideology just dressed up in different cultural and religious trappings.

Fire Chancellor McKinney

I am absolutely furious over the fiasco surrounding the resignation of Elsa Murano as president of Texas A&M University.
This is a major black eye for my alma mater and I place the blame squarely on Chancellor Mike McKinney. I want his resignation. Now!
As I noted earlier, McKinney failed to give adequate explanations for his poor review of Murano’s job performance, giving her low marks on a generic assessment form and then leaving all the written parts blank. I thought that showed very poor managerial skills on the part of Chancellor McKinney. What I did not realize at the time, was that McKinney was the one who hand-picked Murano for the position of president in the first place!
Murano was not on the list of people that the executive search committee came up with after Robert Gates left to become Secretary of Defense. She was picked out of the blue by McKinney who championed her and made a big fuss as to how she was to be the first female and first Hispanic president at Texas A&M.
So how is it that just one year later McKinney is hinting to the media that he wants to throw Murano out and take over the position of president for himself? How does that work?
What kind of awful things did Murano do to merit such a sharp turnaround in McKinney’s fickle support? We are given no clue. Only that she apparently did not jump quickly enough when he would bark orders, nor would she say “How high?” on her way up. Would McKinney have made such demands of a white male serving as president? Is that why he handpicked Murano? With the expectation that she would be totally subservient and act as little more than a puppet for the chancellor’s office?
How did McKinney wind up as chancellor in the first place? A former Republican state representative who served as chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry, he seems like a political crony who took advantage of the governor’s power to make appointments and dole out the spoils of government.
Am I not being fair? Did McKinney really have a legitimate reason for trashing Murano and forcing her to resign over the weekend? Then will someone please explain this golden parachute Murano got?

According to a transition agreement released by the A&M System offices, she will be paid her present salary, $425,000, for the sabbatical year, along with an additional payment of $295,000.
At the end of the year she will begin work as a tenured professor of nutrition and food science, at a salary of $260,000. Additionally, she will have a department budget of $100,000 a year for four years, according to the agreement.

$720,000 to do nothing for a year? And then she gets to come back to a $260,000 a year faculty position??? This is how you deal with someone who does a poor job and has to be removed from their position?
Or is there something more to this?
The next step seems clear to me. McKinney needs to resign and then we need to get a new board of regents who are not all indebted to Rick Perry or George W. Bush.

The best possible verdict

My experience as a juror was very positive, despite the fact that it was a very unpleasant court case we had to deal with. Without naming any names, I want to go over the case a bit and discuss how we came to our verdict (guilty) and sentencing (10 years probation).
The case involved indecency with a minor. The victim was a 12-year-old girl who was 9 at the time of the abuse. The defendant was her uncle by marriage, age 33. The case involved fondling, not penetration, and there was no physical evidence of abuse to back up the girl’s testimony. But we found the girl to be entirely credible and consistent in everything she said from the initial police report, to her interview with a sexual abuse investigator, to her testimony at the trial.
Furthermore, the defendant, after initially denying the allegations, admitted to the family that he had “checked” the girl’s “private parts” after she complained of it itching. Why he would do that and not tell the mother or the aunt was something he could not explain adequately other than to say “I messed up.”
During the evidentiary phase of the trial, the defense seemed to be flailing about trying to drum up doubt anyway they could. But we weren’t buying it. After two and a half days of testimony, we found the defendant guilty on three counts.
But then came the sentencing phase, and suddenly it seemed like the prosecution side was now stretching as they tried to say that the defendant was a “monster” who needed to be locked away. But the defense brought forward their best witness - a probation officer with the sexual offenders division - who explained in great detail what is involved with the community supervision program for sex offenders who get probation. Suffice to say there is a great deal of assessment testing, counseling and monitoring involved, all of which has to be paid for by the defendant.
I did not feel that prison time was warranted in this case for several reasons. First, I did not see the defendant as being a continuing threat provided he receives the counseling and supervision he needs. Second, jail time would likely have only hurt his chances of rehabilitating himself by causing him to lose his job, possibly breaking up his marriage and leaving him a broken and very likely worse individual in the end. By probating his sentence, I felt that we gave him a chance to straighten his life and remain a productive citizen rather than becoming another ward of the state.
Had he been a worse offender - caused injury to the victim, been out stalking other victims and so forth - I think we would not have hesitated to send him to prison. But because he had not yet crossed that line, we felt he could still be reformed given the opportunity.
The one complicating factor for us was that the defendant was still in denial during the sentencing phase. But the probation officer told us that it is common in 99 percent of cases for the sex offender to deny the charges at first and that it sometimes takes several months of counseling before they an accept it.
I hope that the defendant takes advantage of the opportunity that we gave him. His niece is now living out of state and he most likely will not be in a situation to cause abuse again unless he seeks it out. We heard from the defendant’s mother, father, sister and wife all testifying to his good character and promising to support him with any restrictions put on him by the court.
So I think we made the best possible decision in this case. I was proud of the people who served on the jury with me and overall the experience has renewed and reinforced my belief, trust and support for the U.S. judcial system.

Jury Duty

I got picked to be a juror so I won't be posting for the next few days.
Everyone play nice while I'm gone.

City Council Runoff

Up until today I had no idea who to vote for in the runoff for City Council District 8. The race is between Mike Berlanga, a CPA, and Reed Williams, a retired oil executive. I don't think I like either one.
On election day, I had voted for Berlanga on a whim only because one of his supporters was in the parking lot passing out literature with another guy supporting Julian Castro. The fact that they were together passing out literature made me think that maybe, just maybe Berlanga was a Democrat. And I just knew that Williams is a Republican.
But then the word came out after the general election that Berlanga is delinquent on paying his taxes. A CPA!!! And he can't pay his own taxes on time!!!
Well, that would have sealed it excpet that I really didn't want to put another Republican in office. I figure that Williams is probably like Carol Schubert who represented District 10 before challenging Phil Hardberger for mayor four years ago.
I thought, maybe if Berlanga is a Democrat I will just overlook this tax thing and vote for him anyway. But then in today's paper a story points out that both Berlanga and Williams are wealthy Republicans. Oh, joy.
So that pretty much sinks it for Berlanga. And also, the same story also said his excuse that he was protesting his taxes didn't bear out with the tax assessor's office which said that he is past the point of protesting and is just flat-out delinquent. So Berlanga is a Republican and won't pay his taxes, so screw him.
That means I'm stuck voting for Williams.
And if that wasn't bad enough, I get a phone call this evening with a message from Lyle Larson urging me to vote for Williams. Larson is the Republican who challenged my congressman Ciro Rodriguez in the last election. What are they trying to do? Rub dirt in my wound?? Do they want me to just stay home and skip this election!?! Sheesh!
Williams has also been endorsed by the Express-News which is practically the kiss of death in my book. The E-N has a policy of endorsing Republicans in almost every race.
Two years ago I had a city council representative - Art Hall - who I really liked. But then he had to step down because of our incredibly stupid term limits law and then I got stuck with Diane Cibrian who I can't stand. Fortunately, she left office early to run for mayor and lost badly.
Now I finally get to vote for somone without the moronic term limit restrictions and this is my choice. How depressing!

A&M Chancellor disses A&M President

I’m not sure what is going on with this situation but I can already tell that I don’t like it.
The Chancellor of Texas A&M University System is apparently having a nasty fight with the new Texas A&M president, who just happens to be the first female and first Hispanic to ever serve in that position.
The chancellor is former Republican State Rep. Mike McKinney, who served for several years as chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry before launching a new career as an academic administrator. The president of A&M is Elsa Murano, the former dean of Agriculture at A&M who was named president after Robert Gates left to become Secretary of Defense.
Now one year into her new job, Murano has apparently run afoul of McKinney and the Board of Regents.

Newsflash for Chancellor McKinney! If you are going to let personnel matters like this splash over into the media, you had better have more than a hand-written five-page review that looks like it was filled out at the last minute to back you up.

The five-page review - which was sent to the A&M system’s board of regents - was done by Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney, who wrote that Murano “fails to assume responsibility for decisions” and criticized her for being “too slow” when it came to decisions.
It lacked specifics and was handwritten rather than typed. A page allowing for him to write down goals for the president, as well as a summary of her strengths and areas needing attention, was left blank...

So the part of the evaluation where he was supposed to write out and explain all the poor scores he was giving her was left blank. What is he? A moron!?!? First off, I hate those kinds of stupid evaluations where they assign arbitrary numbers between 1 and 5 in cookie-cutter categories. I hate them. But the worst is getting a low score that is not explained. If McKinney couldn’t be bothered to explain his low scores in full and complete sentences then he is not doing HIS job as a manager.

This sounds to me like the “evaluation” was thrown together at the last minute as a CYA operation by the chancellor.
Murano, meanwhile, did take the time to type up a 10-page response to the poor evaluation and she makes several salient points about the sparcity of the review and its seperation from reality.

“Given the complete disconnection between Dr. McKinney’s perception of my performance as president and all the evidence to the contrary, I can conclude that this review was not based on facts,” Murano wrote. “One need only consider that if it was an actual reflection of the job I have done as president, there would have been an incredible outcry from the entire university community.”

So what is it that Murano did or did not do to merit the wrath of the chancellor? That is not real clear. McKinney apparently scrawled a few comments on the review like
“Does good job on things she likes. Very poor on carrying out board system decisions with which she disagrees.”
So what does that mean? He doesn’t give any examples and no further explanation. Does he think the president is just supposed to roll over and acquiese to any decision by the board regardless of whether she agrees or not? Is the president just a functionary, a step-in-fetch-it for the chancellor and the regents? And when she didn’t immediately jump and say “How high” when he snapped his fingers, he is now ready to throw her out of office and absorb the position of president for himself?
I think McKinney has got some more explaining to do. Because right now I agree with the former speaker of the faculty senate:

“I’m just kind of shocked at the nature of the document,” said R. Douglas Slack, after reading the performance review. He is a former speaker of the faculty senate.
“It looked to be hastily done. It doesn’t look like something that was well thought-out. It’s a contrast to the president’s well thought-out response.”

Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

I'm sold. I love the new show!

More rightwing filth on the radio thanks to Cox Radio

Are there any syndicated right-wing radio yakkers that do not have an outlet in San Antonio now?
Clear Channel-owned WOAI 1200 gives us daily doses of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dennis Miller along with locally based wingnut Joe Pags.
KLUP 930, owned by Salem Communications, a company based in California which purports to be a “Christian” broadcaster, gives us a whole slew of rightwing crazies including Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt and Tom Sullivan.
KTSA 550, owned by Border Media, has a host of local rightwingers including Trey Ware, Jack Riccardi and Kevin Wall and then fills out the rest of its schedule with syndicated rightwingers Neal Boortz, Mark Levin, Jim Bohannon and Bill O’Reilly.
And now, Cox Radio has decided to jump into the mix by flipping 106.7 from a hip-hop/urban format to another right-wing talk station featuring Erich “Mancow” Muller, Neal Boortz (again), Laura Ingraham (the first and only women, you will notice) and Michael Savage, among those announced so far. I listened to just a few minutes of this new station and it was making me ill with the mindless stream of blatant lies, smears and venom being directed at our government, our public schools our public officials and anyone who doesn’t share in their selfish, greedy, vindictive, neo-fascist philosophy.
Cox Radio claimed that they made the switch to save money because it allowed them to fire their local radio talent and use an all-syndicated format.

This is truly despicable. All of these stations now spew non-stop hatred, blatant lies and mass ignorance over the airwaves everyday. It is like having an open sewer pouring out filth from your radio 24 hours a day. The contempt that these people have for America is shocking. They hate the government. They resent paying taxes for any program that benefits anyone other than themselves. They are disdainful of our schools. They promote radical conspiracy theories and delight in tearing down the weakest segments of our society.

About a year ago or so, Clear Channel made a half-hearted attempt to put up a liberal talk radio station. But they put it on a very low-frequency network which was hard to hear (I would lose the station everytime I drove into the parking garage at my work) and their lineup featured most prominently - Phil Donahue. Golly gee!! And when it didn’t fare well, they just threw up their hands and said “See, we told you that liberal talk radio wouldn’t work.”
And even having this complete monopoly of the airwaves, rightwingers still play the victims and claim that any suggestion that the public airwaves are not being used fairly is censorship.

Protestants on the Supreme Court

This is interesting. If she is confirmed, Sonia Sotomayor will be the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court. She will join fellow Catholics Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy.
Two of the justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - are Jewish.
So that will leave just one sitting justice who is Protestant - John Paul Stevens, who also happens to be the oldest justice on the court at 89.
I’m sure that Protestants probably dominated the court for most of its existence, so it is pretty shocking to suddenly find out that there could soon be no Protestants at all on the the court.
I suppose it is kind of ironic that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who are both Protestants, chose Jewish (Clinton’s picks) and Catholic (Bush’s picks) justices for the Supreme Court. And now we have another Protestant president adding another Catholic.
I suppose this speaks well of our religious tolerance in America today. Or maybe it’s just indifference. But whatever it is, I’m glad that this is not considered a big issue today. But just wait until someone tries to put the first atheist or agnostic on the high court and then watch the fireworks go off.

Who’s the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court?

You can’t tell me that this guy is supposed to be the first Hispanic to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Other than a Hispanic-sounding last name, there is nothing about Benjamin Nathan Cardoza that is even remotely Hispanic. The man was born and raised in New York City. His family had emigrated to the United States 100 years earlier --- from ENGLAND! Oh, but wait, you say, he has some ancestors who reportedly came from Portugal! Yes, that’s right. Portugal. That country next to Spain where they DON’T SPEAK SPANISH! That’s kind of a minimum requirement for being Hispanic, you know. Speaking Spanish. Cardoza couldn’t speak a lick of Spanish, but he did know Yiddish. You see, Cardoza’s ancestors who came from Portugal were part of a Jewish minority group that had settled there. He wasn’t even Catholic!!! Sheesh!
The final straw? If Cardoza was the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, wouldn’t there at least be a school somewhere in Texas named after him? You would think there would be, but no. There are schools named after him in New York, but none in Texas.
So in my opinion, Sonia Sotomayor will most definitely be the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court, without a doubt.

American Taliban strikes again

I can’t help but feel deeply disturbed and very angry over this latest instance of domestic terrorism courtesy of the American Taliban (aka Religious Right). The assassination of Dr. George Tiller was not an isolated instance carried out by a single person, but rather the culmination of a calculated and coordianted campaign by the religious right to vilify anybody associated with abortion and put them all under the threat of death before their fanatical, half-crazed minions.
There is not a great deal of difference in mindset between the anti-abortion fanatics who demand absolute subservience to their extremist views and the followers of Islamic radicalism who support the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Ann has been all over this with some excellent links.

Up, Up and Away

Pixar goes 10 for 10
How does Pixar do it? An amazing string of classic, critically-praised, hit films...

Toy Story - 1995
A Bug’s Life - 1998
Toy Story II - 1999
Monsters Inc. - 2001
Finding Nemo* - 2003
The Incredibles* - 2004
Cars - 2006
Ratatouille* - 2007
WALL-E* - 2008
Up - 2009

* Won Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

The Academy Awards didn’t not have a best animated feature category before 2001. That first year they passed over Monsters Inc. to give the first award to Shrek - which was a crime in my opinion.
The Academy messed up again in 2006 when they passed over Cars and gave the Oscar to Happy Feet.

A good day at the Texas Legislature

Texas Democratic Senators held together today and rejected the reappointment of rightwing lunatic Don McLeroy to be the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. That is wonderful news for all of Texas’ school children. The bad news is that Rick Perry is still the governor and there is speculation that he will simply try and elevate the equally looney Cynthia Dunbar to the chairmanship now. But nevertheless, I am proud of the Texas Democrats for standing up for public education in our great state. As for the Republicans.... well, there is nothing I can say that is suitable to print on my blog.

In other good news, lawmakers were able to salvage the CHIP expansion legislation and the windstorm insurance legislation by adding them as amendments to House bills. Meanwhile the Republicans Voter ID bill that was the cause of the delays is now dead as is Jeff Wentworth’s criminally moronic guns in schools legislation. Thank GOD!

Knocking down attacks on Sotomayor

While it seems clear that Sonia Sotomayor will sail through her confirmation hearings with little opposition, there will still be concerted efforts by some Republicans to tear down her nomination with the ultimate goal of trying to force President Obama to spend his political capital in her defense. And also as a fundraising tool to help motivate the Republican base, naturally.
To that end I expect we will see a lot of the same attacks repeated over and over again. So here are a few links to help counter some of those attacks.

About that out-of-context quote where she seems to say that Latina women are better at making decisions than white men: Conservative blogger Rod Dreher looked at the whole speech and determined that he was wrong to jump to that conclusion:
I was wrong about Sotomayor speech - Crunchy Con

As for the conservatives on the Supreme Court reversing some of her appeals court rulings: Rachel Maddow obliterates that one completely.

And the charges of being an “activist judge” are taken apart here.

An interesting side note, it turns out that Sotomayor is only the seventh person to be nominated to the Supreme Court by a Democratic President in last 57 years. By contrast, there have been 17 Supreme Court positions filled by Republican presidents during that same period. The current nine-member court has just two justices appointed by a Democrat.

It’s all so clear now!

Thank you Congressman Culberson! It’s all so clear now.
Rep. Culberson Offers Incoherent And Illogical Stance On Gay Marriage

Obama picks Sotomayor

Obama picks Sotomayor for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) - Officials tell The Associated Press that President Barack Obama intends to nominate federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor (SUHN’-ya soh-toh-my-YOR’) as the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.
Sotomayor, 54, would succeed retiring Justice David Souter if confirmed by the Senate. The officials spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because Obama has not yet announced his decision.

WooHoo! What do you know? Obama took my advice!

This is great news if true because it puts a well qualified person on the Supreme Court while satisfying three key constituencies all at the same time: Women, Hispanics and Liberals.