2010 means midterm elections here in Texas. It means that we will be voting on key national and statewide officers, including governor, lt. governor and the state and national house of representatives. More than ever before it will be important for those of us who follow politics to speak up among our friends and co-workers, to pass on well thought out messages to help frame a progressive vision for Texas. Additionally, you better believe the GOP noise machine here in the state will be operating overtime.
Personal objectives for me:
1. Don't let Goodhair run away from his loony tunes primary positions and posturing. I believe he will defeat KB , in light of what I have seen so far. She has been running a horrible campaign and her flip-flopping on her resignation has only made it worse.
2. Keep working to push Democratic candidates leftward especially on health care. That means calling them out when necessary, but also supporting them when I can. It means I will not threaten to vote for the GOP alternative or to "sit this one out", but I will point out to them in no uncertain terms that you can't compromise with those who know that they are completely right and you are totally wrong. That is true at the national level, it sure is true at the state level.
3. Rededicate myself to at least 2 substantive postings a week, in spite of my personal work load. I am not so vain as to believe my prose is deathless , my insights so unique. However, I have something to contribute, even if its calling attention to political facts and analysis that I find and others do not have the time to seek out.
Last night while driving home from work I listened to a portion of Jay Leno's interview with Michael Moore. As we know Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story has been released.
Moore's interpretation of our unfettered, unrestrained and deregulated capitalism is as follows:
A pie sits on a table. The pie is cut into 10 slices. There are 10 people at the table. The fat cat, the person in the upper 1% of income earners, gets 9 of the slices. The other 9 folks have to fight over the remaining slice.
Last night the President said he wanted to work together and bring out the best in both parties.
I applaud the President's noble efforts but, with all due respect, I cannot see how this is possible given that we do not know if there is a best side of the Republican Party. What is meant by "best" I wonder?
As we know Senator Arlen Specter changed his Party affiliation yesterday from Republican to Democrat. In his remarks the Senator had said the Republican Party had been recently "purified" by the right. Needless to say Specter's switch delivered a devastating blow to an already wounded GOP.
Over the last several days the Republican Party has been struggling with something: itself. For liberals and progressives there are few things as entertaining as watching the Grand OLD Party eat itself: between David Brooks calling Bobby Jindal's response to President Obama's State of the Nation speech "the worst response to a Democratic speaker in the history of democracy" and the Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman apologizing to Rush Limbaugh.
It can only be assumed that after Election Day the GOP, and the conservative movement by extension, began going through the stages of grief is somewhere between denial and anger. What should be interesting is when the GOP moves to the bargaining stage, if this current stage is any indication it is going to continue to be a political disaster. At the current rate it seems as though acceptance much further in the future than a mid-term election.
It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round-Up. This week's edition is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.
There are a number of issues percolating in the blogosphere about the forthcoming (or not) Republican Convention and the Party in general. Will Hurricane Gustav save their sorry butts from a public melt down or will it put put yet another nail in the Party's coffin?
Thousands upon thousands of protesters are expected to show up at the Convention. Given the hoards of anti-war, pro-choice and environmental organizations, these groups alone are significantly large in number. Add Ron Paul's supporters to the mix and there could very well be more protestors outside than GOP inside.
Apparently the RNC wasn't able to purge disaffected Paul supporters from its delegation. And, according to Inside These Times blogger Hans Johnson writes that a number of local GOP officials are fleeing from their party. They include state reps from Wisconsin, Colorado, Missouri, New York, Washington and a mayor in Minnesota. Many cite the rigidity of the current GOP and some are frustrated that the party no longer even closely resembles its brand as created by Ronald Reagan.
Fred Thompson, the man who created excitement among many Republicans bored and disillusioned by the pitiful choices they had prior to his entry, has quit his run for the Presidency of the United States.
This is only news for me because I'm still wondering if Thompson was actually running for office or for his acting career.
THIS bumbling bit actor was supposed to be the savior of the Republican Party!? My how the mighty have fallen.
The entire lot of the Republican Party voted for an American styled dictatorship this week, in complete and total lock step, in our very own U.S. House of Representatives. I saw the episode unfold in real time before my very eyes on CSPAN. The voting tallies that appeared on the TV screen informed me of the ideology that relentlessly drives the neo-conservative movement in the U.S. today. Fact of the matter is the neo-conservative and present day Republican belief system has little in common with the bare bones of democratic principles.
This week, our esteemed Republican lawmakers voted for principles that are typically intrinsic to a fascist styled dictatorship in which accountability and oversight are conveniently non-existent.
Republican lawmakers who view the world through precisely the same lens as W. and Cheney will fight to the death (ours, not theirs, thank you) to keep the American people terrified, uninformed and stupid through under funded schools. The Republicans, who both voted with W. and against SCHIP, and who also failed to join Democrats in overriding W's unconscionable and contemptuous veto of the SCHIP bill has revealed its party's true colors.
If you thought you were safe here in Texas from the housing crisis that's threatening to send the American economy into a recession, then you were fooling yourself. The housing market is in full retreat and Texas, despite its lower than national average housing prices and cost of living, is helping lead the way.
Thes numbers are leading most analysts to expect the Fed to lower interest rates today in an effort to keep a full blown recession from devastating not just the US economy but also the world economy. Just check out what's happening to these British acount holders of a UK bank. The Northern Rock bank invested heavily in the US housing market driven by the predatory subprime practices. With the US housing meltdown, Northern Rock has seen their stocks prices plummet to the point that investors and account holders like this elderly gentleman are taking out their money from the bank.
Northern Rock - or is that Rocky? - is the perfect example of what analysts say can happen and in part is currently happening to the US economy. We'll see on the flip just how.
For now let's get some reaction - heck, a response from our compassionate President and his administration. What say you Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke?
The losses related to housing have exceeded "the most pessimistic of projections," Bernanke said.
Wow. No shit. How about you, Mr. President? Do have some course of action or words to comfort homeowners facing economic ruin?
It's not the government's job to bail out those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford.
Are you serious? Is this the GOP's idea of tough love? This from the guy who ran all his companies into the ground and needed his daddy's friends, the Saudis, to bail him out..
It was the lending system's job to turn these loans down. Instead they not only approved these loans, brokers and lenders bent rules and misled 1000s of consumers who simply don't understand real estate financial contracts and jargon enough to understand exactly what they were getting into.
Further, homeowners were lured into a false sense of security by brokers and even politicians like Bush who knew better than to let these people shrug off the seriousness of their loan burden. Remember Bush bragging about being responsible for the highest level of home ownership ever? He inflated the housing picture for his political ratings and lured 1000s of homeowners to ruin.
And now instead of being accountable for his actions, he scolds Americans who already know the weight of their poor choices. Faced with prospect of losing their homes and seeing their families on the streets, these working Americans don't need to be lectured to and they didn't ask for a hand out. They just want to make they payments they were told to expect.
A rich brat who never had to do hard work a day in his life and always got bailed out should stop scolding people and start acting like the leader he's supposed to be.
And by the way, that Presidential plan Bush has proposed to "solve" the housing crisis? It's just talk and only affects those people with good credit. In other words, it won't do anything to fix the subprime markets that's driving the crisis and which is suffering the most. Bush said so himslef he only cares for the rich.
Most analysts expect the Democratic Congress to heavily upgrade Bush's "plan" but this way he can at least take credit for it - something he's never been shy about.
By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
wslater@dallasnews.com
FORT WORTH - When it comes to Republican presidential politics in Texas, the money is going one way and the grass roots another.
Texas donors have contributed more than $7 million to the three front-running White House hopefuls - Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain - 10 times the state total raised by the rest of the GOP field combined.
But the top tier has failed to catch fire among many social conservatives in the Republican base who say the second-tier candidates better reflect their values, especially vigorous opposition to abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration.
"The grass roots vote with their hearts. Republican donors vote with their brains," said GOP consultant Todd Smith of Austin.
The one thing all agree on - if the Democratic nominee is Hillary Rodham Clinton, the two sides of the Texas party will be firmly united.
I had thought this was over before it began. I can't believe that these idiots are still at it. I guess I underestimated the ignorance and desperation of the right.
Silly me.
Just how dumb would you have to be to still be a Republican in this day and age, after years and years of nothing but monumental failure? No, that's not a rhetorical question (I hate rhetorical questions), I have the answer for you right here:
NASA corrected a Y2K bug in their temperature graph for the lower 48 states, and that somehow means that Global Warming has been debunked? The 48 states? That's less than 2% of the earth's surface.
Do we need to review what the word "global" means?
In yet one more sign that John McCain can kiss his 2008 Presidency good-bye, Republican Presidential "dark horse" Ron Paul, the quirky former Libertarian and Houstonian, revealed that he has more money in the bank than "front-runner" John McCain.
Actually Paul in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News revealed he has $2.4 million in the bank. It was Stephanopoulos who remarked that amount was more than what McCain has in the bank.
And why does Ron Paul, who has been laughed at and dismissed by GOP leaders, have more money than John McCain, a man many of those leaders are supporting?
Because of images like the one above where John McCain showed once more just how out of touch with reality and the American people he has become. That's John McCain shaking hands with the man who he once called shameful after they maligned his wife, daughter and character in the 2000 elections.
Americans were STILL dying while these two were smiling.
The engineer of the "Straight Talk Express" has taken the crazy train to Bushville in the mistaken belief that it would get him the thing he most prizes: The Presidency. How McCain threw his values, his integrity, and (yes, I'll say it) his family under that train is one of the sadder examples of ambition and greed winning over honesty and principles.
Why does Ron Paul have money than John McCain? Because after years of being misled and flat lied to, Republicans are desperate to find someone in their leadership who will tell them the truth.
I don't support Ron Paul. I fundamentally disagree with his ideas, but I believe he'll at least be honest. That at least would be a nice change in a GOP President.
The Straight Talk Express has a new driver. The locomotive McCain's on is out of control and destined for derailment.
I know its a strong statement to make. Does the Republican Party really want the bald eagle dead? No (at least I don't think so).
No, the bald eagle is a symbol of America and Republicans do care for their symbols. A cross. A flag. A majestic, national bird. A shame that their party (and so many of them) does not care for the substance behind the symbol.
No, I don't doubt that Republicans will chant "USA! USA!" and beat their chest for our national bird, but it's one thing to love something and another thing altogether to talk about loving it.
Talking about love is like saying that you love your child and then not protecting her if she was being attacked. Loving her is shutting the hell up and putting yourself between her and her attacker whatever the costs.
Sure you will frame the majestic bald eagle soaring in mid-flight and hang it up on your Congressional wall for an inspirational corporate message, but many of these same GOPers were ready to slaughter the eagle for corporate donations (or their own profits). And too many Republican voters, satisfied by the poster, stood and watched.
If that's too strong an analogy, I won't apologize for it because too many Republicans have talked about their love for the bald eagle but they stood by (and even cheered) as members of their Party tried to take away the environmental protections that saved the bald eagle from extinction.
The only American bald eagles I've ever seen were in Canada. In fact, I'm pretty certain that photo's from Squamish, British Columbia, home of a beautiful bald eagle sanctuary.
C'mon, America! How could you have let the American bald eagle - a symbol of our nation - almost go extinct?
When Democratic Rep William Jefferson was recently indicted for accepting a 6-figure bribe from FBI undercover agents, Republicans in Washington were quick to pounce on the story and use it to question the ethics of the Democratic Party.
You can't blame them. After the numerous scandals they've had with Republican Congressmen over the past 3 or 4 years, they were downright giddy and grateful for Jefferson. And, yes, the major scandals ALL involved Republicans.
The list of scandals goes on and on and on and...well, you get the idea. It's a real shame the GOP has been so corrupt or they could've acted all holier than thou and could've used Jefferson like a hammer against the Dems. They did try for good measure to act offended, but like Paris Hilton's apology, people didn't buy it.
So they did the next best thing. They basically hoped to convince the public that Democrats were no better than Republicans when it came to corruption.
That strategy will work to some degree, but not everyone watches Faux News and not every American is lazy. You have got to be pretty brain-washed or lazy to think that one corrupt Democrat offsets all the sex, embezzlement, corruption, and bribery scandals have erupted in the GOP the last seven years.
The Democratic Party is not perfect, but the imbalance of scandals tilts so far against the GOP that it's kind of tough to sell that "politicians are all the same" crap.
A really neat posting lets us ask: leaving Iraq aside, ( a huge assignment I know) what is the most memorable FUBAR of this administration? Will we quickly forget and forgive?
link By my rough, conservative calculation - feel free to add - there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously - an all-time record.
Wrongdoing of this magnitude does not happen by accident, but it is not necessarily instigated by a Watergate-style criminal conspiracy. When corruption is this pervasive, it can also be a byproduct of a governing philosophy.
Yes. That's right. Dan Patrick, the reichtwing radio talk show host whose "baby buying" bill was first reported by TexasKaos' moiv and has since brought widespread condemnation of Patrick, the Texas GOP and (of course) Texas, walked out on the very first Muslim prayer held in the Senate and then had the audacity to call himself tolerant!
"I think that it's important that we are tolerant as a people of all faiths, but that doesn't mean we have to endorse all faiths, and that was my decision," he said later, "I surely believe that everyone should have the right to speak, but I didn't want my attendance on the floor to appear that I was endorsing that."
Patrick was the only Texas Senator to walk out on him.
Ok, let me get this straight. You want to show your tolerance for religious freedom...by turning you back literally on it and walking out it?!? The man, like his buddy Rick Perry, is either a bumbling idiot or a political genius. I'm going with idiot.
What adds to the irony is the fact that the lawmaker who invited the Muslim cleric, Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque, was a Jewish woman and fellow Republican, Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano.
So go ahead, Dan. Explain to everyone in only your delusional, "baby buying" world how your actions make sense. Explain how a Jewish woman can invite and listen to a Muslim cleric but a fundamentalist Christian cannot. Explain why she has no problem this occured before the holy Jewish celebration of Passover but you and your fellow wingers are incensed a Muslim man spoke at the Senate days before Easter. Exactly when would it be ok for a Muslim man to speak, Dan?
(B/c you're not an American - unless you agree with me. - promoted by krazypuppy)
The Honorable Kenny Marchant, democrat hater.
I recently received a reply from my congressman the Honorable Kenny Marchant (TX-24). I had contacted my congressman in regards to the non-binding resolution vote on the president's surge.
Marchant's vote on the surge was predictable but the response I received left me scratching my head about who the honorable congressman views as the enemy.
Below are some excerpts of the letter from my congressman.
The recent decision by President Bush to send more troops to Iraq weighs heavily on me.
It should. Promising start.
The congressman goes on to say how he has gone to Iraq and is encouraged at seeing how dedicated our men and women in uniform are. I had no idea that the congressman even thought that our soldiers might not be dedicated.
Rep. Marchant then explains how Maliki must uphold his commitments and how the Iraqs must stand side by side with our military in securing their country. I was encouraged by this. The congressman then said certain "benchmarks" must be met for the continued support of our country.
I appreciate the congressman's point of view. Although I may not agree with what all he says, I was pleased to get an honest response.
I love Politcal Cortex. The diaries are thoughtfully written but never geeky. I get a daily teaser from them, but seldom stop what I am doing to read past the flip. But I did today. Wanna know why? Jump with me...
