Easter Lemming Liberal News

Six Facts About Mitt Romney's Tax Returns | ThinkProgress

2012-01-28T08:17:00.001-06:00

Six Facts About Mitt Romney's Tax Returns - ThinkProgress

Why should a passive investor pay a lower rate of taxes than you?

Black Out

2012-01-18T17:35:00.001-06:00

Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

New Conservative Book

2012-01-16T04:59:00.002-06:00

I have a reasonably frequent commenter and blogger who has written a book.

I confess I more often find his observations and questions clueless and questionable despite his claims of centrism. In looking at his book via the free link I see one explanation. He watches and listens to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to get historical context! I think that is about as useful as reading Karl Marx to get the thinking of the University of Chicago economists or using the false histories of theocrats to understand the Constitution.

Where to begin... I have to confess my own failures to persuade conservatives after giving them what I thought were very informative books that start from where they are coming from. A case in point is giving my ex-father-in-law Blinded By the Right which is the story of how one of the Republicans biggest propagandists suddenly couldn't do it any more that was also influenced by his coming out as gay. My ex-father-in-law thought he was a mixed-up confused man, ignoring the story I saw of a powerful well-financed group using media propaganda to pursue their economic self interests.

Some of the people I read and listen to most started as hard-core Republicans and left the Party. I find them much more coherent than those who were Marxists when young, both those who moved to the opposite extreme and those who stayed. I think there are habits of thinking that continue to influence you as you get older and I am very interested in those studying the differences in morals of liberals and conservatives where it is clear to me those are still appropriate and convenient terms.

Seriously?

2012-01-16T04:45:00.003-06:00

The man who drew this cover:

Objected to this family cover.

More here on David Dorman controversy.

The shame of being a conservative has never been greater.

2012-01-04T01:48:00.001-06:00

We've been doing the Reaganomics thing for thirty years now, more or less, and if it had all worked the way they were selling it to us, we'd be in economic Nirvana by now, not facing the prospect of one out of every two Americans in or near poverty. It's a real world study: cutting taxes, destroying the social safety net, and deregulating industry have all been tried, repeatedly, and failed utterly. Time for a new economic paradigm, or rather, time to return to FDR's New Deal.

Texas Progressive Blogger Roundup

2011-12-19T23:50:00.001-06:00

The Texas Progressive Alliance is all about the wassailing as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff has a look at candidate filings in Harris County as of what was once the deadline date.

BossKitty at TruthHugger - sees the grim side of a corporate ruled America, is that Climate Change Controversy May Be A Conspiracy and we are the targets.

BlueBloggin - Special interests are really not very special when they represent mindless, dangerous attitudes of corporate extremists, who don’t want to be accountable for their actions. Let Me Sell you A Lie – EPA Consequences of The REINS Act – H.R. 10 shows that corporations really do own America's lawmakers.

Bay Area Houston says Rick Perry is one rotten bastard.

Death sentences and the use of the death penalty are hitting record lows. Mostly because of the corruption and injustice in our criminal justice system. It's led WCNews at Eye On Williamson to wonder, Is the death penalty dying?

Third-party presidential candidates may make some noise and perhaps even some news in 2012, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gives us the headsup on the latest episode of Rick Perry, fraud and hypocrite. Check out: Double Dipping Rick the Hypocrite.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes Greg Abbott called the US Supreme court to poop on Texas' politicians and voters. That's a republican for you.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote a post considering the life of the real St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a foe of the death penalty who was said to have brought back to life children who had been cut up and were going to be pickled.

McBlogger takes on PolitiFact's pathetic attempt to beat up Congressman Lloyd Doggett.

Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left wonders Do They Know It's Christmas in Washington or anywhere else in the world.

The Bush-era tax cuts that sank the supercommittee | Business | guardian.co.uk

2011-11-22T03:50:00.000-06:00

The Bush-era tax cuts that sank the supercommittee | Business | guardian.co.uk

In a recent report the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded government spending under president Barack Obama was not the prime reason for today's massive deficit. "The fact remains, the economic downturn, president Bush's tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years," the center concluded.

Nor have the tax cuts benefited most Americans. According to itscalculations the cuts put an average of $860 in tax benefits the pockets of people earning between $40,000 and $50,000, a 2.2% increase. For those earning over a $1m the benefit was $128,832, a 6.2% increase.

The center concluded that the Bush-era tax cuts did not spur economic growth and had made a significant contribution to the deficit. Scrapping the tax cuts for the wealthy alone would be enough to make up for the shortfall in social security; scrapping them entirely would halt the rise in the national debt over the next decade.

Even some prominent Republicans have come out against the controversial taxes. If anything, New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has been more radical than the Democrats. "All income groups have to be part of the solution," the mayor said in a speech in Washington last month. "Allow the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012, not just for high-income workers as the president has proposed, but for all tax brackets."

Do you need one source for voting Info?

2011-11-14T15:34:00.003-06:00

Vote411.org

Print out the 5 things you need to know card.

Go Vote - for Harris County.

League of Women Voter's - Houston Area, Texas.

Democratic Party - Harris County, Texas, and clubs.

Green Party - Harris County, Texas.

Texas Progressive Blogs.

Cost of Tax Cuts | costoftaxcuts.com

2011-10-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Cost of Tax Cuts | costoftaxcuts.com

Cost equals money lost to the U.S. Treasury due to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Over $1 TRILLION DOLLARS. How many jobs did it buy? None, there is evidence it cost jobs.

Looking at top tax rates

2011-10-13T01:06:00.001-05:00

Advantage of free consultation with lawyer

2011-10-11T01:41:00.003-05:00

You can find out that the lawyer is not for you.

For example: on not receiving proper benefits: He did not know the 1000 hours annually rule for ERISA retirement accounts.

He did not know the Texas Administrative Code 30 hours a week rule for medical benefits coverage.

He did not know that the Texas Workforce Commission does not handle claims against political institutions like school and college districts.

He seemed to be a little shaky in math. Multiplying the number of hours worked by the lost benefits and reduced pay puts the claim well above small claims court.

Who's Deficit?

2011-07-25T09:41:00.001-05:00

Not So Secret Republican Master Plan

2011-07-23T14:00:00.002-05:00

I have turned over this blog post to small businessman Kristan Overstreet. Here is his thoughts on the Republican plan for the Masters.

The Republican Master Plan

And here I'm going to descend into a bit of conspiracy theory, but I'm not identifying any Sekrit Masters or Grand Protocols or anything like that. I posted this as a reply to someone's post, and it was long enough and fits my current political thinking enough that I thought I'd better post it here too.

* The Republicans want to privatize and/or abolish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, and unemployment assistance- to force the poor to "take responsibility for themselves," i. e. accept horrible jobs with terrible work conditions and low pay. The poor would be left wholly dependent on wealthy employers.

* At the same time, the Republicans want to abolish the minimum wage and repeal child labor and overtime laws- making those horrible jobs more dangerous, lower paying, and longer hours.

* The Republicans have largely succeeded in shutting off the civil court system of justice to workers complaining of being harassed, abused, or exploited- and, through their version of "tort reform," they are on the way to ensuring that punishment for even the most obviously illegal and abusive violations of law is minimal.

* The Republicans seek to repeal all government workplace regulation, food safety regulation, and environmental regulation- so the rich can pollute, poison, and exploit the working classes to their heart's content.

* The Republicans seek to cap taxation at such a low point as to either require all regulatory and law enforcement agencies to be abolished, or to destroy the government entirely under its own debts- thus leaving the poor at the mercy of those with enough money and power to take care of their own security.

* The Republicans seek to repeal the 17th Amendment and make Senators appointed by state legislatures again- returning America to a period when one house of Congress was selected by a tiny elite of political bosses.

* The Republicans seek further, more extreme sanctions against all those who cannot demonstrate their citizenship on demand - thus creating a permanent underclass too frightened to stand up for their human rights, and thus infinitely exploitable.

* The Republicans seek nonsensical and extreme laws punishing sexuality, credos, religions, speech and press, and other social issues- creating a system in which it becomes a practical impossibility to NOT break a law, and thus be vulnerable to extortion by those who control law enforcement.

* And, through it all, the Republicans insist on vastly oversized, overpowerful military establishments for the indefinite future, regardless of any actual international threats or the best means of responding to same.

Taken all together, the Republican end goal is a feudal state ruled by a tiny wealthy elite, in which the vast majority have no voice, no power, and no defense. Destroying the economy is only one step towards that goal- and from a Republican point of view, a very useful and desirable step, as the resources of the poor will dry up long before the super-wealthy's hoard..

And the sad thing is, not only are most Democrats doing little or nothing to stop this, some- including our president- are helping ADVANCE parts of this agenda in the name of "compromise" and "good government."

WE NEED SOMETHING ELSE.

ObamaCare and Texans after one year

2011-03-22T00:49:00.001-05:00

None of this matters for those who don't care about others.

In the Medicare program, there is a gap when someone uses up the initial amount the program will pay for prescription drugs and before they hit the catastrophic coverage. That area of out-of-pocket expenses is often called the “donut hole.” More than 221,121 Texas residents who hit the donut hole received $250 tax-free rebates and will receive a 50 percent brand-name prescription drug discount. The White House estimates the hole will be closed completely by 2020.

There are 2.8 million Texans on Medicare. They are all eligible now for free preventive services and yearly wellness visits from a doctor.

Most insurance companies must cover children with pre-existing conditions now. This means an estimated 1.6 million children who might have been denied before will be covered.

Speaking of kids, if the economy — or the future unknown — has left your offspring unemployed, parents may keep their children on their plans until age 26. That’s about 149,000 Texas young adults.

Small businesses who now face insuring their employees can get tax credits. There is $40 billion in tax credits set aside for up to 4 million small businesses for providing insurance for employees and making premiums affordable. That could mean almost 300,000 in Texas.

About 12 million Texas residents have private insurance. The law keeps insurance companies from dropping or capping insurance plans unexpectedly and from imposing lifetime limits that pose problems for people with chronic diseases, such as cancer or HIV.

Krauthammer stamps his little feet over Social Security again

2011-03-20T14:34:00.002-05:00

Time for another editorial by Charles Krauthammer over Social Security. He is wrong again and his stamping his feet and speaking in a louder voice doesn't make him right. Charles is a fine example of the So-Called-Liberal Washington Post's senile and privileged opinion writers.

1. There is no difference in government bonds held by the Social Security Administration and other government bonds. They are all numbers on computers and interest is calculated and paid. In one sense it is one branch of government having a debt and another branch having an obligation but governments work that way. If Social Security redeemed those bonds and bought other government bonds Charles would still object and those purchases would do nothing but generate a lot of transaction costs.

2. Those bonds also represent an obligation to the American people who have paid for those bonds with the Social Security tax and a default would have a big meaning. Such a big meaning I imagine that workers would riot and sweep away Charles's little world if the government ever did what Charles wants and sweeps away the bonds.

3. The statement that the debt is not used in calculations of government debt is simply wrong. It is easy to find presentations of where that debt is used in calculations of government debt and it seems more common than not.

4. Means testing is not any kind of "cure" for reducing Social Security obligations as even a little thought would show. Rich people are not a significant percentage of the population collecting Social Security. Other means for extending the current Social Security payment system past the 30 so years already covered, and is even covered well past that time at higher payments than today, will undoubtedly come to pass but it has nothing to do with the national deficit. It may have a little something to do with the scare-mongering of people like Charles Krauthammer.

5. The real usefulness of idiots like Krauthammer is preparing the people for another grab by the rich from the poor. The rich don't want to pay the taxes they have deferred and Wall Street wants its hands on the people's money that goes into Social Security.

6. As an aside, when is Charles going to quit using that 40-year-old picture that is published in his syndicated columns? Is it a reverse Dorian Gray, it doesn't age while his real face shows all the ravages of corruption and serving the interests of the rich and privileged? The one on the Washington Post page is midway between the Houston Chronicle's and what shows when he emerges from his crypt to appear under TV lights even after pancake make-up and black hair dye.

Today's economy

2011-03-17T22:01:00.001-05:00

Who's screwed? Anyone's whose not a CEO of a company on the S & P 500. While many have lost their jobs and many more have seen their hours cut at work and their paychecks not going as far as they used to go, transnational corporations are poised to see the biggest profit gains in 18 years. Some of the nation's biggest corporations are expected to see a 9% profit gain this year - the biggest since 1993. And unlike in 1993 - when high profits spurred a hiring spree - don't expect the same things to happen today. That's because - thanks to insane free trade policies - these huge transnational corporations have gotten into a very lucrative business - shipping US jobs overseas. In fact - that's about all our nation exports these days - jobs.

-Thom Hartmann

Einstein on American Democracy

2011-03-12T10:02:00.003-06:00

Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

I Stand with the Unions

2011-03-12T08:42:00.002-06:00

I don't want to say a lot about Wisconsin; though it occupies a lot of my attention. I don't want to say a lot because I really believe this thing could get ugly. While it may seem that Governor Walker and the Wisconsin legislature hold the upper hand; the fact is, they are left with NO OPTIONS in this; they took it too far to reverse course; it's way too late for them to back down, and the threat to fire anyone who strikes was the trump card. After playing that card, there are no options left for Governor Walker. If the protesters do NOT back down now, in the face of that threat, Governor Walker has one choice: violence, or the threat of violence; he has to intimidate the protesters; and the only way to do that now is to draw blood. Real blood.

But here's what little I will say about Wisconsin:

The Wisconsin decision to strip public workers of their right to bargain collectively followed a long campaign by right-wingers to create a stereotype of public workers as lazy, overpaid, bureaucratic paper-pushers who contribute nothing, and whose very jobs don't matter. They were attacked only after they were first weakened; a group of people they thought no one else will put themselves on the line to defend.

Except, people are paying attention and standing with Wisconsin's teachers, and not just public service employees. A lot of people are offended by the rightwing portrayal of government employees as public welfare recipients.

I am VERY proud of Wisconsin's firefighters for standing with the teachers; Governor Walker made it clear that they would be exempted from any attacks on the teachers. The firefighters chose on principle to stand with the teachers; or maybe they just realized how this kind of thing works, and knew their turn was coming.

All of us need to stand with Wisconsin's public workers. On principle. We don't have to march, or carry signs. We don't have to go to Madison. We can do it simply by sharing our support with those who know us well, and respect us. Our stated opinions are needed.

- Charles A.

Bad Voter ID Bill

2011-01-23T23:50:00.006-06:00

The Republicans are at it again. Pretending to cure a problem that doesn't exist they are removing citizens from voting rolls sure that the great majority of those removed vote Democratic.

The Republican State Attorney General has spent millions trying to find instances of voter fraud that this bill will fix and found none. In fact, the only problems he caught were friends helping elderly and disabled to vote and forgetting to sign the mail in ballots on the proper lines. (That still counted as a success because the elderly and handicapped and the type of people assisting people to vote are also largely Democratic voters.)

The main problems with this bill include:

1) The legislation does not provide any alternatives to photo identification examples of identification that will no longer be acceptable to voter include student id cards, Medicaid/Medicare cards, expired driver’s licenses, expired passports, expired military id cards, birth certificates, official government letters, and employer id cards even if issued by a governmental entity.

2) Texas has a long history of voter discrimination and this law if enacted will be used primarily against minorities.

3) Voters, especially the working poor, will not return to the county elections department to provide the required identification within 6 days and cure his or her provisional ballot.

4) The bill contains no provisions to accommodate or address eligible voters whose last name on their driver’s license does not match their voter registration, such as recently married women.

5) The bill contains no provisions or guidelines to address a driver’s license that does not match the address of the voter registration certificate. This provision impacts students.

6) Offering a free personal identification certificate from DPS will not address the problem. Voters that lack the identification necessary to satisfy SB 14 will likely lack the means to obtain a personal identification card.

7) To implement this legislation, the state must put in substantial money for training and extensive public education. Money that would be better spent to address budget shortfalls in education, higher education, nursing homes, and healthcare costs.

8) The budget should be the first and only priority emergency item for the 82nd Legislature.

9) Implementing redistricting plans and extremely strict photo id laws right before a Presidential election is a recipe for disaster in voter confusion.

The people most impacted by this bill include students, the recently married, the recently moved, those with very low income, the elderly, legal immigrants, the handicapped, and the mainly urban dwellers who don't drive a car. These groups all lean Democratic so the Republicans count this bill as a success, getting any edge possible for elections.

See the bill here.

ADDED - Why courts in Texas will likely throw out this bill.

Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance - In 1798

2011-01-20T04:07:00.002-06:00

How ignorant are most conservatives and how much do they lack a knowledge of history?

Rick Unger points out that they are over 200 years too late to stop insurance mandates for private citizens and socialized medicine. Forbes, by far not a liberal web site, has this.

Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance - In 1798

In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed - “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.

Keep in mind that the 5th Congress did not really need to struggle over the intentions of the drafters of the Constitutions in creating this Act as many of its members were the drafters of the Constitution.

And when the Bill came to the desk of President John Adams for signature, I think it’s safe to assume that the man in that chair had a pretty good grasp on what the framers had in mind.

Realizing that a healthy maritime workforce was essential to the ability of our private merchant ships to engage in foreign trade, Congress and the President resolved to do something about it.

Enter “An Act for The Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen”.

I encourage you to read the law as, in those days, legislation was short, to the point and fairly easy to understand.

First, it created the Marine Hospital Service, a series of hospitals built and operated by the federal government to treat injured and ailing privately employed sailors. This government provided healthcare service was to be paid for by a mandatory tax on the maritime sailors (a little more than 1% of a sailor’s wages), the same to be withheld from a sailor’s pay and turned over to the government by the ship’s owner. The payment of this tax for health care was not optional. If a sailor wanted to work, he had to pay up.

The law was not only the first time the United States created a socialized medical program (The Marine Hospital Service) but was also the first to mandate that privately employed citizens be legally required to make payments to pay for health care services. Upon passage of the law, ships were no longer permitted to sail in and out of our ports if the health care tax had not been collected by the ship owners and paid over to the government – thus the creation of the first payroll tax in our nation’s history.

When a sick or injured sailor needed medical assistance, the government would confirm that his payments had been collected and turned over by his employer and would then give the sailor a voucher entitling him to admission to the hospital where he would be treated for whatever ailed him.

While a few of the healthcare facilities accepting the government voucher were privately operated, the majority of the treatment was given out at the federal maritime hospitals that were built and operated by the government in the nation’s largest ports.

It not only covered sailors working in international waters but the U.S. lakes and rivers.

Clearly, the nation’s founders serving in the 5th Congress, and there were many of them, believed that mandated health insurance coverage was permitted within the limits established by our Constitution.

The moral to the story is that the political right-wing has to stop pretending they have the blessings of the Founding Fathers as their excuse to oppose whatever this president has to offer.

History makes it abundantly clear that they do not.

The fallacy of the reasonable middle

2010-10-31T05:07:00.001-05:00

Crazy Extremist: "We have to kill all the kittens!"

Sane 'Extremist': "What?!? No! That's crazy! There's no need to kill any kittens!"

Moderator: "Now, now, none of that namecalling. Compromise is called for. We'll kill half the kittens."

...

A decade later, as the sane extremist has been repeatedly berated for their extremism, the "kill half the kittens" compromise has become the status quo, the best of a bad situation as it were. The yelling dies down.

Whereupon the crazy extremists again call for killing all the kittens, and the moderator insists on a "compromise" where only three quarters of the kittens die

The sane extremist then - understandably - goes ballistic, and is universally put down for being so impolite

The "middle grounders" are in fact, helping the craziest extremists.

In the presence of effective always-middle-grounders, then, the only reasonable approach is to be even crazier than the other guy. Otherwise, the middle grounders eventually hand all the ground to whoever is craziest.

Think the GOP will reduce the Federal Deficit?

2010-10-30T06:01:00.004-05:00

(Click for larger image.)

Hasn't happened since Deficits-R-Us Reagan was elected.

As I have said before Republicans don't believe in government so they can't govern well.

Many Insane People Running This Year

2010-10-10T20:27:00.002-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Because of ignorance and people's desire to "send a statement" and the new shrunken media a lot of these crazies are likely to win.

GOP reveals its Master Plan: return to Bush years

2010-09-23T11:59:00.004-05:00

Despite Obama's fall in the polls he is much more popular than Bush was and the lastest survey even shows people still much prefer him to Bush. So why is the GOP new "Pledge For America" a return to the Bush year policies?

The pledge, their master plan for America, does not reduce the deficit and is mostly pages of platitudes.

It said it was developed from ideas posted on a website set up this Summer for citizens yet they have explicitly rejected the most popular idea - quit providing tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs and promote jobs in America. Nope, no way say Republican leaders.

The most detailed proposals are on health care where they vow to repeal the Democrats health care plan and replace it with - the Democratic health care plan. The proposals they list are already in the existing plan. If they do repeal the health care plan they don't explain how they replace the $140 billion in deficit reduction the plan provides.

They vow to cut taxes, while ignoring the rise in the deficit that will cause.

They have learned to even avoid talking about Medicare and Social Security which are left out of the pledge entirely, with a later admission they want to have frank talks with the American people later about how those are problems.

They vow to cut the deficit, with no serious proposals to cut the deficit and several proposals like tax cuts and repeal of Obamacare that increase the deficit.

No wonder even the Republicans are backing away from this plan when they are not outright condemning it.

It is also no surprise that the "Pledge to America" was put together by a major business lobbyist temporarily working for the Republicans.

Republicans can't govern, they just have experts in marketing from Wall Street. Eventually their empty promises will catch up with them. To answer the question poised at the beginning, they want to return to Bush policies despite their unpopularity and the economic collapse they caused because they have no new ideas.

What Bills Have Republicans Attempted To Block?

2010-09-21T00:06:00.002-05:00

Here's just a short list of some of the bills that Republicans have blocked, or attempted to block, since Obama became President:

* Senator Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill - Makes it so that women raped overseas while working for foreign contractors have the right to have their case heard in an American court instead of having their case mediated by the company they work for. Only Republican men voted against this, but it passed.

* Benefits for Homeless Veterans - Would have expanded benefits to homeless veterans and homeless veterans with children. Republicans blocked this.

* Health Care - Prevents insurance companies from discriminating against you on the basis of "pre-existing conditions". Requires that insurance companies spend 85 cents of every dollar that you pay on your actual health care. Limits health insurance companies profit margins. Republicans blocked this for months before it finally passed.

* Health Care for the 9/11 First Responders who got sick from being at Ground Zero- Would provide billions of dollars in health care to help the 9/11 First Responders who were at Ground Zero on 9/11 and are now sick because of it. Republicans blocked this.

* The Jobs Bill- Offsets the payroll tax for 1 year for companies that hire new employees, or people receiving unemployment insurance. Also gives other tax incentives to companies hiring new employees. Republicans attempted to block this. Small business lending bill- would give LOCAL, community banks access to billions of dollars to loan to small businesses. Republicans blocked this.

* Financial reform - Puts stricter regulations on the banks, preventing them from becoming "too big to fail". Curbs reckless spending practices that caused the banking crisis. Republicans attempted to block this.

* Stimulus Bill - Pumped billions of dollars into state and local governments to prevent us from sinking into a second Great Depression. Republicans opposed this but now want to take credit for the parts of it that we know are successful or the spending in their districts.

* Oil Spill Liability - Raises the liability on what companies can be made to pay to clean up after an oil spill. Republicans blocked this. Political Ad disclosure bill- Would have required all donors to political campaigns to reveal themselves. Republicans blocked this.

* Immigration - Republican suggested comprehensive immigration reform until Obama supported it. Now they're rabidly opposed to it and even voted against their own legislation. Republicans blocked this.

* Unemployment Extension - Would provide additional aid to the millions of Americans still on unemployment who are just trying to support themselves and their familes. Republicans blocked this bill for 8 weeks before it finally passed. Republicans blocked this for 8 weeks before it finally passed.

* Fair Pay Act of 2009 - Also called the Lily Ledbetter bill. Requires that women receive equal compensation to men for doing the same work. Republicans attempted to block this.

**** The next time someone tells you that the Republicans care about the American people just give them this list of all the bills Republicans wanted to fail. ****

Republicans bad for your income

2010-09-14T01:25:00.006-05:00

This is a newer edition of something that has been out there for years.

You usually see charts analyzing income growth under Democratic Presidents versus Republican Presidents and conservatives always respond it is Congress that passes economic and tax policies. This chart does two things, it splits it up by income category and by what branches the parties control.

Click for larger image.

It is obvious the GOP governs to benefit the rich either not caring or mistakenly thinking that benefits everyone. That is wrong. They don't even do as good a job benefiting the rich.

The second response I always get from conservatives is it is a coincidence because government doesn't affect income growth. LOL!!! Remember that when they say Democrats are bad for your pocket book and show them this chart.

There are other charts out there with analysis of other parts of the economy and even government job growth and debt levels and pretty much anything you can shake a stick at. The bottom line is that Republicans don't govern well when they are in control, they don't even meet their stated goals of reducing debt and the size of government. The best thing they do is direct government money to their cronies and tax cuts for the rich, who save it instead of creating jobs. Savings does not create job, creating demand does.

RADICAL RIGHT - Hate Takes Center Stage

2010-09-09T23:38:00.001-05:00

This has been an unfortunate Summer of Hate stirred up by the party of FEAR! and NO!

Looking back, I see these hate and fear campaigns have a long history in America and the haters lose, eventually.

Very little difference between the law and order campaigns, the anti-civil rights campaigns, and the communist hysteria last century and today's summer of hate.

This too shall pass, but we should oppose this fear, hate, and hysteria to remain true to America's best ideals.

RADICAL RIGHT - Hate Takes Center Stage

You can't just blame government

2010-06-13T07:22:00.002-05:00

You can't just blame government which is what Republicans want you to do.

The corruption in offshore drilling regulations were practices put in place by the Bush/Cheney regime and their appointees.

This was similar to how they gutted FEMA and replaced the experienced people with political hacks.

This was also similar to them insisting that Homeland Security be removed from government services guidelines and reinstating the political patronage system.

Again, this is similar to how they staffed Iraq reconstruction making it purely political how appointees were chosen and wasting tens and hundreds of billions of dollars as children of political friends and people active in the right Republican causes were chosen to run projects with no experience.

Government run by the spoils system is spoiled, not government regulations.

Another analysis of the Democratic judicial primaries

2010-04-07T06:14:00.002-05:00

Another analysis of the Democratic judicial primaries

In summing up the results, endorsements were important, but some endorsements mattered than others, and campaign funds raised mattered very little. The Houston Black American Democrats endorsement seemed to be the most influential in terms of prospects for victory. Their organizational push to get the vote out seems to have paid off. In addition, being a female candidate was a good predictor of victory, suggesting that Democratic primary voters were more interested in electing women to the bench than men. This could be the result of a concerted effort by organizations devoted to making the judiciary more diverse, or this could be a demographic effect where more women voting in the primary translated into more votes for female candidates.

Generally, all things being equal or being equally ignorant about the candidates, I know many Democrats who vote for the female candidate. There is a perception of less corruption and also the feeling of making up for past under representation.

Play Ball - Texas Round-up of Progressive News

2010-04-07T06:07:00.001-05:00

The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes the start of the new baseball season with another highlight reel of the week's political activity.

Off the Kuff looked at how voting returns changed in Texas from 2004 to 2008 in the Presidential and judicial races.

Aruba Petroleum: The Epic Fail of the Barnett Shale. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS now brings you 55 posts to document this failure of epic proportions.

Marshmallow Peeps make sweeping endorsements of Democrats on The Texas Cloverleaf.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why Republicans and Republican suck ups act like bleeping thugs? New Perry appointee, Nueces County DA Jimenez, threw out the board certified attorneys to bring in her cronies and HD 76 rep Norma Chávez is channeling Karl Rove.

A Texas Vox, everyone is a-twitter about the upcoming appliance rebate program. Want to trade up your tired old appliances for shiny new energy-efficient ones? The guv'ment will send you a check for it...

The last chapter (?) in the sad saga of Stay Bailey Hutchison is read aloud by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Sure April Fools Day is over, but this was funny enough to share again. Sarah Palin to Replace Michael Steele as Chair of the GOP. Bay Area Houston continues to be full of wit.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy takes a first look at the Bryan mayoral candidates, and this week he will be taking a look at the candidates for College Station City Council Place 2 and Bryan City Council Single Member District 3. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP's latest posturing and states that it's time for Gov. Perry and the Texas GOP to put up or shut up.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about undersea volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico that shoot out asphalt. Who knew?

WhosPlayin says animal welfare actvists in North Texas are claiming a victory in their fight against puppy mills: After months of weekly picketing by Texans Exposing Petland, the Lewisville, Texas Petland store is closing down.

Quote of the Day

2010-03-21T03:44:00.001-05:00

There might have been a time when getting doctors, AARP, hospitals, labor, pharmaceutical companies, and 60 senators on the same side of a piece of legislation would have signaled that this is a moderate, consensus-oriented document that's respectful of the status quo. But in this case, the ferocious opposition of Republicans drove public perceptions about whether the legislation was moderate or not. - Ezra Klein.

No new ideas from Republicans on Health Reform

2010-02-26T12:08:00.003-06:00

The two big health "reform" proposals from the conservatives have this much in common. They've been tried and don't work.

Tort reform, caps on medical claims in the legal system, have been in place for years in Texas and other states. There has been NO reduction in costs for patients. There is also no evidence of fewer unnecessary tests and procedures. It is now impossible to get a lawyer to bring a legal claim against a doctor in Texas no matter how badly he screwed up or how drunk he was, even pro-bono, because of the limitations in damages awarded. There has been a slight reduction in insurance premiums for doctors, but that has just increased their income because there has been no reduction in costs to patients.

What there has been is a big increase in insurance company profits, surprise, and an influx of bad doctors from other states fleeing malpractice lawsuits to Texas major metropolitan areas.

Insurance should be able to be purchased across state lines increasing competition and saving consumers money? The same arguments were made for credit card reform decades ago. Instead on increased competition you saw the opposite - rapid consolidation. Instead of more competitive rates and customer benefits all credit card companies consolidated in the states with the least oversight and fewest consumer protections. This will obviously also happen with medical insurance.

Either no ideas or bad ideas for the typical taxpayers - conservatives are all about helping their big corporate donors.

The Health Care Debate

2010-01-23T14:10:00.004-06:00

Steve presents the Pass The Damn Bill argument. After people see what is really in the bill and not the GOP distortions support goes up.

FireDogLake has been leading the liberal opposition to the bill and is tired of the Kabuki theater. Democrats never needed to get the DINOs representing big PHARMA and the insurance insurance to sign on. They had the 51 votes for a public option and it looks like the bill they will pass will use 51 votes.

I also agree with Jon on Democratic leadership now working on suicide pact instead of making popular fixes.

The New Campaign for Health Reform

2010-01-23T13:52:00.000-06:00

In what Alternate Universe are health reform critics living?

2010-01-22T19:27:00.003-06:00

In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "ha[s] gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased. That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year. Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party? The fact that Lanny Davis -- to prove the Left's dominance -- has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is. What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating? I'd honestly love to know.

-- Glenn Greenwald -

Facts about Bottle Water

2009-12-11T09:39:00.001-06:00

Presented by Online Education

In Praise of Artistic Nudes

2009-11-28T05:33:00.002-06:00

Garrison Keillor knows what he likes.

"I see no reason to paint flowers. You can buy fresh flowers. Still lifes are only an exercise. And abstract expressionism is for the lobbies of big insurance companies. The true calling of an artist is to paint women and the greatest challenge is the naked female form. That's what separates the true artists from the wallpaper-hangers."

I said this in the room that houses some rather erotic Georgia O'Keeffe flowers and "American Gothic" with its squinty lady, and I spoke on behalf of American men everywhere. At the age of 67, I have stopped apologizing for looking at naked women. I don't stand directly in front of a nude and stare at her, lest I be taken for a pervert. I stand in front of the painting next to the nude and sneak sidelong glances, but nonetheless I am moved by her. Deeply.

Humbug Moldbuggery

2009-11-28T02:14:00.005-06:00

No, this is not about the rampaging rapist home builders in Texas and their screwing buyers over mold damage.

Moldbug, not his real name, seems to be a leading Libertarian social philosopher blogger today.

I was exposed to his ideas recently by a quasi-Libertarian friend and was puzzled because I thought the ideas and arguments just didn't make sense.

Martin Regnen provides a Condensed Moldbuggery guide and also concludes it doesn't makes sense.

One example of the limitation of Moldbug's thinking is his dividing people today into three classes or castes. (No, people who divide people into classes isn't one of the classes.) Moldbug has:

Eloi - the educated liberal artistic elites who run things,
Morlocks who do all the illegal work or collect welfare,
and Proles who do the real work.

If you are flummoxed it may be because this is an almost complete reversal of H.G. Wells creation of Eloi and Morlocks. If you are familiar with H.G. Wells you realize that this should have been:

Eloi - the beautiful people, artistic and intellectuals who have no power but live in beautiful garden surroundings.
Proles - those who do all the work and live in the dark fiery Hellish industrialized underground.
Morlocks - the powerful masters of industrialization who the proles work for. In The Time Machine proles and Morlocks are really condensed into just the Morlocks.

The Eloi always end up being eaten by the Morlocks unless an unlucky time traveller comes along.

There is much other stuff in his works like for democracies with two major political parties, the more progressive party is referred to as the Inner Party and the more conservative party is the Outer Party. His key point is that supporting the Outer Party is not an effective strategy against progressivism. In case you haven't gotten it progressives are the evil Eloi who must be destroyed.

Progressivism

Progressivism (also called Universalism) is responsible for the vast majority of the world's problems today. It is a non-theistic religion descended in a direct line from the various Dissenter sects of England. Although the belief in God was dropped during the religion's evolution in order to improve its ability to spread, the core of progressive beliefs are very similar to the Quaker beliefs of a few centuries ago. In short, progressives are dangerous and creepy religious maniacs who don't need to believe in God but that makes them no less dangerous, creepy or maniacal.

The conflict between progressivism and conservatism

Progressivism always wins in the long run. Conservatism can at most slow down the implementation of selected progressive ideas. This is because progressives dominate the universities, media and non-governmental organizations which allows them to mold public opinion. Progressives dominate those institutions because progressivism is a far more attractive ideology for people who are intelligent, ambitious and status-seeking. In the US conservatives are largely members of Protestant sects of American origin (mostly Evangelical sects) whereas progressives are the spiritual descendants of the English dissenters, so this conflict is essentially a religious one.

I won't waste more time on this unless I get interesting comments. Even despite my social and political orientation - a Universalist Progressive, I can't see how more than a few misguideds would see Moldbug's hypotheses as more than a sad waste of limited intellect not worth mining the dross for a possible few gold flakes of real useful, or at least interesting, ideas.

Still, I am happy to see this is what passes for sophistication on the Libertarian Right.

Almost unbelievable story of the new economy

2009-11-20T06:49:00.004-06:00

And the Money Comes Rolling In
Markus Frind works one hour a day and brings in $10 million a year. How does he do it? He keeps things simple.

How PlentyofFish became the world's largest dating site - make it free and fast.

I keep thinking this is much of the future of the new economy - unfortunately it does not spell much future employment. He works one hour a day and after very rapid exponential growth has two employees. A year ago his site had ten million users and was getting well over a billion page views each month. By now he should be creating a million successful relationships a year.

PlentyofFish.com is so successful now that it is doing a promotion offering dates with Lady Gaga - new single Bad Romance - to winners.

Locke seeks the homophobic vote

2009-11-16T03:11:00.005-06:00

I am going to link to Kuff for the meetings Locke had with Harris County's nastiest political kingmaker and very political, very conservative preachers concerned about "the gay agenda." And Gene Locke's tepid response which I read as Locke saying I am not responsible for who votes for me or why.

It is disappointing but not unexpected that Locke is going that route. He already had alienated women voters with several good ol’ boy gaffes earlier in the campaign and the revelation of previous lack of respect for women.

It is significant that his political team consists of highly paid national Democratic and Republican operatives and insiders from a previous mayoral team not known for its smoothness or ethics.

So now Locke has meetings with the smear master of the far right in Houston who lead the Christian fundamentalist takeover of the Harris County GOP and the politically active anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-Democrat pastor group. How much did he pledge to support conservative causes? Then a statement that essentially says Locke is not going to be responsible for what others say about his opponent. All this is a political style we thought Houston outgrew in local races.

I hope many Republicans will stay home rather than vote for a Black Democrat angling for homophobic support.

I see even an Evangelical minister is wondering if the Houston Area Pastor Council, which is the home organization of the US Pastor Council, is crossing the line in terms of IRS regulations in mounting a campaign against gay candidates.

Obama's New Where-To-Go and What-To-Kiss Czar

2009-11-15T17:40:00.001-06:00

More Criticism of SuperFreakonomics

2009-11-09T22:50:00.002-06:00

I shouldn't be surprised at SuperFreakonomics. Freakonomics reminded me somewhat of early John Stossel, while not the established wisdom they were glib "common sense" economic arguments. Like Stossel, later works veer more right and less factual. This latest seems to exhibit the bias toward particular approaches they decry in others. From The New Yorker review:

Given their emphasis on cold, hard numbers, it’s noteworthy that Levitt and Dubner ignore what are, by now, whole libraries’ worth of data on global warming. Indeed, just about everything they have to say on the topic is, factually speaking, wrong. Among the many matters they misrepresent are: the significance of carbon emissions as a climate-forcing agent, the mechanics of climate modelling, the temperature record of the past decade, and the climate history of the past several hundred thousand years.

“The problem wasn’t necessarily that you talked to the wrong experts or talked to too few of them. The problem was that you failed to do the most elementary thinking.”

Pierrehumbert carefully dissects one of the arguments that Levitt and Dubner seem to subscribe to—that solar cells, because they are dark, actually contribute to global warming—and shows it to be fallacious. “Really simple arithmetic, which you could not be bothered to do, would have been enough to tell you,” he writes, that this claim “is complete and utter nonsense.”

But what’s most troubling about “SuperFreakonomics” isn’t the authors’ many blunders; it’s the whole spirit of the enterprise. Though climate change is a grave problem, Levitt and Dubner treat it mainly as an opportunity to show how clever they are.

Leaving aside the question of whether geoengineering, as it is known in scientific circles, is even possible—have you ever tried sending an eighteen-mile-long hose into the stratosphere?—their analysis is terrifyingly cavalier. A world whose atmosphere is loaded with carbon dioxide, on the one hand, and sulfur dioxide, on the other, would be a fundamentally different place from the earth as we know it. Among the many likely consequences of shooting SO2 above the clouds would be new regional weather patterns (after major volcanic eruptions, Asia and Africa have a nasty tendency to experience drought), ozone depletion, and increased acid rain. Meanwhile, as long as the concentration of atmospheric CO2 continued to rise, more and more sulfur dioxide would have to be pumped into the air to counteract it. The amount of direct sunlight reaching the earth would fall, even as the oceans became increasingly acidic. There are eminent scientists—among them the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen—who argue that geoengineering should be seriously studied, but only with the understanding that it represents a risky, last-ditch attempt to avert catastrophe.

“By far the preferred way” to confront climate change, Crutzen has written, “is to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases.”

Here is another notable review on two Vegetarian books.

My Liberal Identity

2009-11-02T22:49:00.001-06:00

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

A Veteran Speaks on Gay Rights

2009-10-23T11:43:00.001-05:00

Harris County Voting Info

2009-10-20T21:31:00.005-05:00

2009 locations,dates & times for early voting in Harris County

Location	Address	City	City
Harris County Administration Building	1001 Preston, 1st Floor	Houston	77002
Moody Park Recreation Center	3725 Fulton	Houston	77009
Julia C. Hester House	2020 Solo St.	Houston	77020
Ripley House	4410 Navigation Blvd.	Houston	77011
H.C.C. Southeast College-Learning Hub	6815 Rustic	Houston	77087
Palm Center-Justice of the Peace/Constable Entry	5300 Griggs Road	Houston	77021
Fiesta Mart., Inc.	8130 Kirby Drive	Houston	77054
Metropolitan Multi-Service Center	1475 W. Gray	Houston	77019
Northeast Multi-Service Center	9720 Spaulding	Houston	77016
Galena Park Branch Library	1500 Keene Street	Galena Park	77547
I.B.E.W Hall #66	4345 Allen Genoa Road	Pasadena	77504
Sunnyside Multi-Service Center	4605 Wilmington	Houston	77051
The Power Center	12401 South Post Oak Road	Houston	77045
Bayland Park Community Center	6400 Bissonnet (near Hillcroft)	Houston	77074
Tracy Gee Community Center	3599 Westcenter Drive	Houston	77042
Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center	1414 Wirt Road	Houston	77055
Acres Homes Multi-Service Center	6719 W. Montgomery Road	Houston	77091
Hardy Senior Center	11901 West Hardy Road	Houston	77076
Octavia Fields Branch Library	1503 South Houston Ave.	Humble	77338
Humble ISD Instructional Support Center	4810 Magnolia Cove	Kingwood	77345
North Channel Branch Library	15741 Wallisville Road	Houston	77049
Baytown Community Center	2407 Market Street	Baytown	77520
East Harris County Activity Center	7340 Spencer Highway	Pasadena	77505
Freeman Branch Library	16616 Diana Lane,	Houston	77062
Henington-Alief Regional Library	7979 South Kirkwood	Houston	77072
Lac Hong Square	6628 Wilcrest Drive	Houston	77072
Courtyard by Marriott	12401 Katy Freeway	Houston	77079
Franz Road Storefront (DPS)	19818 Franz Road	Katy	77449
Bear Creek Park Community Center	3055 Bear Creek Drive	Houston	77084
City of Jersey Village-City Hall	16327 Lakeview Drive	Jersey Village	77040
Tomball Public Works Building	501 B James St.	Tomball	77375
Barbara Bush Branch Library	6817 Cypresswood Drive	Spring	77379
Ponderosa Fire Station No. 1	17061 Rolling Creek Drive	Houston	77090
Cypress Top Park	26026 Hempstead Highway	Cypress	77429
George Bush Park-Glen Cheek Education Building	16002 Westheimer Parkway	Houston	77082
Lone Star College-Willowchase Campus	9449 Grant Road	Houston	77070
Crosby ISD Administration Building	706 Runneburg Road	Crosby	77532

Early Vote Hours of Operations

Oct 19 - 23rd

8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

October 24th

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

October 25th

1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

October 26th - October 30th

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Early Locations, PDF

- www.harrisvotes.org/docs/EV/earlyvotinglocations_schedule_ENG.pdf

- http://www.harrisvotes.org/docs/EV/earlyvotinglocations_schedule_SPAN.pdf

Election Day, Look-up: www.harrisvotes.com or (713) 755-6965

Constitutional Amendments - November 2009

2009-10-20T15:44:00.003-05:00

Here is where to vote in Harris County. The map is by Greg Wythe.

When to Vote:

Early Voting Hours
» 10/19 - 10/23 : 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
» 10/24 : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
» 10/25 : 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
» 10/26 - 10/30 : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Election Day is November 3rd : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m..

What to Vote For:

Proposition 1: Allowing cities and counties to issue bonds for improvements around military bases.

Proposition 2: Prohibiting property tax appraisals of homes from being based on the property's potential use as a business.

Proposition 3: Providing for uniform statewide enforcement of property tax appraisal standards.

Proposition 4: Establishing a permanent fund for the advancement of Texas public research universities.

Proposition 5: Allowing neighboring counties to share appraisal review boards.

Proposition 6: Allowing the Veterans' Land Board to reissue bonds that had been previously paid off.

Proposition 7: Removing the provision that prevents officeholders from serving in the Texas State Guard.

Proposition 8: Allowing state funds to be used for federal veterans hospitals.

Proposition 9: Placing provisions of the Texas Open Beaches Act in the Constitution.

Proposition 10: Extending the terms of Emergency Services District boards to four years.

Proposition 11: Placing restrictions on the use of eminent domain in the Constitution.

I think I am for all of these. Some beach property owners and developers are against 9 because they hate the open beach laws Texas has. Number 4 is particularly good, the University of Houston should qualify for state research money next year and it is money the state has but is simply not using. Tier One Research Universities are job creating machines. Number 11 has drawn some opposition because the actual amendment is worded poorly and contains loop holes even if it is better than what we have now.

Scott Hochberg has a lot more on these amendments.

League of Women Voters Guide to Amendments -PDF.

Milestones in the Quest for the Historical Jesus

2009-10-11T21:13:00.006-05:00

This is a the new heretics view.

I consider myself to be one on the outskirts. More a mostly skeptical Universalist.

Saul who became Paul is very bad and Jesus seems a religious fanatic who thought he could bring on the End Times. James the Just, the brother of Jesus, seems the real leader and hero. When Jerusalem and most of Israel was destroyed only the Jewish communities outside survived and the Pauline Christianity community in Rome eventually became the most powerful and wrote the Bible, they also received the authority to destroy books that they did not support throughout the Empire. Jesus did not talk about atonement, that innovation came from Paul of Tarsus. It is to Paul that Christianity should trace its roots. The origins of Christianity as we know it came, not from Jesus, but from Paul.

The New Testament are letters that often chronicle the disputes between the Family of Jesus Church and Paul. The mysticism and miracles that are in the New Testament are superstitions that were copied down. A number of the Dead Sea Scrolls are from the first century and recount the struggles of the early church against "the liar" we now know as Paul.

Some of this is summarized here.

You Can't Please Everyone - WP edition

2009-10-11T15:27:00.004-05:00

In Today's Viral World Who Keeps a Civil Tongue? the Washington Post asks in a front page story about someone who read at a school suddenly becoming hated by the right. Not for something she said but because at the school some children sang a song about Obama. Michelle Malkin was one of the first to lead the attacks.

Of course, the WP is scolded over this front-page column by the conservative so-called fact-checker Newsbusters.

They get facts wrong, of course. The repeal of "don't ask - don't tell" is something Obama has pledged many times before. In a nothing new speech he pledged it again and that speech was not a front page story. You rarely get front page stories when the President says nothing new - you might get angry editorials about him saying nothing new which is Andrew Sullivan's function for the Atlantic.

Another righty blog is outraged that the subject of the story is a government worker who has time to be a writer as well. Other than slams at the liberalness of it all that is about all that is there.

Pandagon.net has someone scolding the WP for only focusing on the nastiness of the right, not doing fact-checking on the inaccuracies.

Anytime the Washington Post puts an article scolding Michelle Malkin on the front page instead of one praising her I'll take it.

Climate Change - Is It Just Too Damn Late?

2009-10-09T20:00:00.002-05:00

No

We must start now to not only decrease emissions but also to increase the rate of atmospheric carbon reduction.

Dying because of no healthcare in Texas

2009-10-09T16:25:00.002-05:00

“If you don’t qualify for Medicaid or the county indigent program, you are in no-man’s land. If you can’t pay for your treatment, you are out of luck.”

Anyone who thinks that America has the best health care system in the world should visit the county clinics around Texas as people come there as a last resort. If they have gotten sick enough to can't keep a job they may get help - if the county clinic can find someone to take them.

Usually poor people would be on Medicaid. But Texas has the most misery Medicaid qualification in the country. To qualify in Texas a family of three can't make more than $188 - a month.

Texas Observer - Sick + Tired
How Texas' health-care system bleeds county coffers and sends some to early graves.

Shroud of Turin replicated

2009-10-07T23:31:00.002-05:00

Jobsanger has the info on the Shroud of Turin being replicated using materials easily available several centuries ago. Scientists proved by radio-carbon dating it was made in the Middle Ages but conservative Catholic members on the teams disputed the findings. This touched off a long debate with supposedly scientific evidence against the radio-carbon results presented.

Wiki has a good article on the controversies.

Goppy lies over National Competition

2009-10-07T19:52:00.004-05:00

"Why are you so viscerally opposed to personal choice (ability to buy policies across state lines, HSAs, etc.) and instead insist on a government solution ? - Someone in the Washington Post comments.

"Why are Democrats opposing the real way to reduce costs, allowing health insurance companies to cross state lines?" Republican strategist on MSNBC.

The last time conservatives went on a big campaign for personal choice and increased competition by crossing state lines it was over credit cards. Increased competition would lower rates they cried.

Immediately after it passed every credit card company went to the states with the least regulations. Competition diminished and rates skyrocketed past the usury levels most states had set.

They count on people not knowing history and buying into these supposedly free market myths.

Are we past the global warming tipping plateau?

2009-09-30T20:31:00.003-05:00

There is a fair amount of new evidence on global climate change in the last 10 or so years. Unfortunately it doesn't fully support the deniers views.

The effects of global warming, a misnomer as it is really global climate change and some smaller areas will see temperature decreases, are clearly in evidence and accelerating faster than predicted. See rate of glacier loss, ice cap reductions and high altitude micro-climes changes.

Global warming as measured by temperatures, actually quite difficult to do in a standard way over long time periods, according to skeptics has leveled off even as CO2 continues an accelerating rise. Other temperature series which include ocean data reportedly show continued increases.

Increasing amounts of CO2 will have limited effects on blocking infrared radiation. Some experiments indicate it is already blocking most of the rays it can.

Putting these together it looks like temperatures may not continue to increase but that we have reached a plateau that is past the tipping point of extreme effects from climate change, warming permafrost and melting glaciers.

The smarter deniers have long since given up arguing against the evidence of warming that is everywhere but just deny it is man caused.

Future climate change regulations will have to not slow down the growth of emissions but reduce emissions steeply to lower the amount of CO2 already present.

Congratulations deniers, there was no tipping point, but we are past the tipping plateau.

A lot of this evidence comes from global warming denier websites and pamphlets, they just haven't put it together in pursuit of their own agendas of reduced government regulation and denying industrialization is responsible.

A lot of this new evidence was presented to me by a global warming skeptic. Most of the stuff presented in The Skeptics Handbook were distortions and special pleadings and smears of scientists and politicians who support the idea of global warming. Her evidence was often incomplete - an ice core that has both ends cut off where presumably only the part that supports her belief that warming temperatures cause rising CO2 was presented. I admit to not being an expert on ice cores and how they measure both temperature and CO2 concentration. A rebuttal to The Skeptic's Handbook explains why rising temperatures lead to rising CO2 and how the ice cores prove they are coupled. A shorter rebuttal of her four points is here.

Her case did not logically hold up and was worse science and more smears than what she accused the global warming warners of engaging in. That was a shame as she did have some evidence that indicates the standard climate change models may need to be revised. It is even possible that CO2 is having only a minor affect on temperature but that warming is something external that is occurring in the solar system.

The real scientists say that I am crediting her data too much, the claims she makes aren't supported. I am pointing out that even if she is right we have to brace for continued climate change.

Her new evidence and interpretation does point to that further temperature rises may be unlikely except for that brought about by the dangerous and accelerating changes in the world ecology caused by the already new temperatures.

Ironically, we had better hope that most of the warming is caused by man made CO2 and we can reverse it. If instead the warming is primarily caused by an unknown factor (solar radiation?) that will be much more difficult to change.

TPA Blog Posts For 9/28/09

2009-09-28T07:50:00.002-05:00

As early voting for the November elections looms on the horizon, the Texas Progressive Alliance says good-bye to September and hello to another weekly blog roundup.

BREAKING NEWS: Natural Gas Development Brings "amazing and very high" Levels of Carcinogens and Neurotoxins to Barnett Shale area! Take a deep breath before you read this study because the findings will take your breath away! TXsharon at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS broke this story and the study evaluation by MacAuthur (Genius) Award winner, Wilma Subra.

This week Left of College Station, Teddy reports on why the anti-choice movement is not about abortion but about the oppression of women. Also, guest blogger Litia writes about asking non-tradition questions about Texas A&M traditions; Litia writes a weekly guest blog for College Station about a liberal teaching in Aggieland. Left of College Station also coves the week in headlines.

Neil at Texas Liberal writes that Socialist candidate for Mayor of Houston Amanda Ulman should run a serious campaign or not run at all. There once was a solid base of socialist voters in Texas and the U.S. Who says that cannot someday happen again?

McBlogger takes aim at people who think that adjusting to climate change is just something that will unfairly hurt the poor.

Off the Kuff contemplates the possible entry of Farouk Shami into the Governor's race.

The old Easter Lemming has a useful post on voting for the Constitutional Amendments in his area.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the 22 year high TX unemployment rate. What recession? We're in one?

Agriculture commissioner Todd Staples opened his mouth and out fell a big wad of stupid. Stupid so ignorant that it topped anything Rick Perry or John Cornyn or even Glenn Beck could manage this week. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has it -- if you can stand it.

WhosPlayin followed up on an open records request for internal emails related to Lewisville ISD's decision to ban President Obama's speech to children. The emails, including a racially charged email from a board member to the superintendant, do not paint a pretty picture..

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on money, energy, and the economy in the Texas governor's race, Perry's cap and trade photo op.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes Rick Perry does his best George Bush cowboy imitation with Ranger Recon.

Over at TexasKaos, boadicea, Warrior Queen, is seeking a pulse, any pulse over at the Tom Schieffer campaign, as she opines that Tom Schieffer Needs Something Original to Offer. It seems that lifting policy ideas from Hank Gilbert is the best he can do right now. Read the rest at TexasKaos.

New York Times announces Secret Editor to Monitor WingNut News

2009-09-27T15:23:00.003-05:00

Concerned they miss terribly important stories like young conservative activists dressing up like pimp and ho and getting spoofed by poor ACORN employees they appoint someone to tell reporters you better cover these new nutty stories.

Where have I seen that before?

Oh yeah, as satire in 2006.

The moral roots of politics

2009-09-27T13:00:00.003-05:00

The moral differences between liberals and conservatives

How this applies to the health care reform debate.

...when Palin threw out the term "death panels," the term struck a chord that had been played many times in recent years. Liberals were flabbergasted, because it's a blatant lie, but it's false only in a logical sense, not an emotional one. And once again, logic has little to do with morality. If a pro-life social conservative asks himself whether Obama is secretly plotting to create death panels, he is not asking whether this is likely to be true, he is asking only "can I believe it," and the answer is usually yes.

Republican Gomorrah - Escape from Freedom to a Glorious Leader

2009-09-26T17:10:00.003-05:00

The new Republican party is American authoritarian fundamentalism, the weak and fearful seeking a God and Party of strength.

Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party - a five year odyssey into the new Republican party. Buy at Amazon.com Excerpt:

In the chaotic 2008 Republican presidential primary, the Republican base split its vote between Mitt Romney, the economic conservative, and Mike Huckabee, the social conservative, creating space for John McCain, distrusted by all factions, to emerge. McCain wished to have as his running mate an independent-minded politician who could garner votes outside the Republicans’ increasingly narrow sphere of influence. His intention was to name Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who had been the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2000. But the movement rejected his appeal to pragmatism, threatened a full-scale revolt, and demanded to vet his running mate as a condition for support. From the Last Frontier of Alaska, a self-proclaimed “hardcore pro-lifer” and “prayer warrior,” Governor Sarah Palin, was summoned to deliver to McCain the political elements he had once labeled “agents of intolerance.”

Through Palin, archetype of the right-wing woman, the movement’s influence over the party reached its zenith. As a direct result, however, the party sank to its nadir, suffering crushing defeats in the presidential and congressional races. Palin’s candidacy mobilized the Christian right elements that McCain alienated, but she repelled independents and moderate Republicans in droves, winnowing away the party’s constituency in every region of the country except the Deep South. Palin fatally tarnished McCain’s image while laying the groundwork for her potential resurrection—and that of the movement—in the presidential contest of 2012.

The Christian right reached the mountaintop with the presidency of George W. Bush, shrouding science and reason in the shadow of the cross and the flag. But even at the height of Bush’s glory, in his 2004 campaign, a few isolated moderate Republicans warned that the Republican Party was in danger of collapse. Of course their jeremiads were ignored. That year, Christie Todd Whitman published a book titled It’s My Party Too, decrying the takeover by what she called the “social fundamentalists.” A member of a distinguished and wealthy eastern Republican family, with deep ties to the party, she had been governor of New Jersey and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Bush, only to quit when fundamentalist ideologues substituted right-wing doctrine for science in its studies. After the 2008 Republican debacle, Whitman pointed out that even though McCain was not considered a champion of the religious right, his percentage of so-called “values voters” increased by 3 percent over Bush’s in 2004. McCain, the last Republican moderate on the national stage, had lost among “moderate voters” by 21 points to Obama.

As soon as Obama took office, the movement camped in the wilderness prepared to take political advantage of the worst economic troubles since the Great Depression by injecting a renewed sense of anti-government resentment. As most people agonized and even panicked over the sudden economic collapse, the Christian right’s peddlers of crisis lifted their hands to the heavens. They had a whole new world of trauma to exploit, more desperate and embittered followers to manipulate, and maybe—just maybe—another chance at power.

Republican Gomorrah is an intimate portrayal of a political, social, and religious movement defined by an “escape from freedom.” As Erich Fromm explained, those who join the ranks of an authoritarian cause to resolve inner turmoil and self-doubt are always its most fervent, rigidly ideological, and loyal members. They are often its most politically influential members as well. President Eisenhower described the “mental stress and burden” that animates such movements. His admonition to beware the danger posed to democracy by those who seek “freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions” should be as memorable in history as his caution about the “military-industrial complex” in his farewell address.

Wow, just wow....

2009-09-23T16:22:00.003-05:00

The right leaning Washington Post's editor presses his reporters that they are not conservative enough and pulls them from reporting on real billion dollar scandals to chase stories of kids dressing up like a ho and a pimp and being spoofed by ACORN employees.

Balloon Juice has more. I may have mentioned before some of my favorite bloggers are former Republicans.

Spoofing the Spoofer's and the So-Called-Liberal Washington Post

2009-09-22T07:34:00.004-05:00

A great majority of the attempts at ACORN offices were turned away.

Many of the ACORN staffer remarks to the bad whitebread young actor activists trying to portray a pimp and prostitute were spoofs. Watch the videos - what urban dweller would think those conservative activists were real?

The videos are heavily edited and the originals are not shown.

The so-called-liberal-media refuses to look at the true story which is how Fox News does no real journalism investigating the videos instead being a branch of the Republican party PR machine.

Only limited coverage has been given to the ACORN staffer who told the bad actors she was a a prostitute, drug user and murderer - all untrue which a simple call to the police revealed which would be the first step of real journalism. Spoofing the spoofers, what a concept.

This seems a typical hard right conservative hit piece. This is not an unbiased ombudsman column.

This comment above supposedly violated the Washington Post's comment policy. OK, it appears the original of this column used a more common word for prostitute which the so-called liberal newspaper does not tolerate.

The Tort Reform Experience - repost

2009-09-22T07:19:00.000-05:00

Bad for users of health care, better for doctors and hospitals is the bottom line. So says research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

#1 Caps of noneconomic damages did not translate into lower health insurance premiums for consumers. Various types of analyses did not alter this finding.

#2 A survey of empirical research does suggest tort reform has constrained the growth of malpractice premiums for providers.

Lowered the growth of insurance premiums which goes directly to the bottom line of health care providers but is a very small component of health care costs.

#3 It is less clear whether doctors change the way they practice medicine after tort reform, although there is evidence of some cost reductions in cardiac and obstetric care.

So if they aren't worried about being sued they perform fewer tests. Not a big health care component.

Some varieties of tort reform could be part of health reform in the few states that this has not occurred. In the states that have had Republican driven tort reform with very low human life costs and noneconomic damages caps it is citizens being screwed and people dying and family being unable to sue the doctors who can go on and do it again. No benefits to health care users but a bit wealthier doctors.

From the abstract of the study:

Principal Findings. Using a variety of empirical specifications, there was no statistically significant evidence that noneconomic damage caps exerted any meaningful influence on the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance.

Conclusions. The findings suggest that tort reforms have not translated into insurance savings.

Again - wealthier doctors, more profitable insurance companies with bigger executive bonuses, no benefits to health care users.

Minor edit from 8/15/09 posting.

Who Not to Vote For in Houston's Mayor's Race

2009-09-17T00:21:00.002-05:00

Email from Annie's List

Does Gene Locke Respect Women?

More than 1.1 million women live in Houston (50.1% of total population) and in a matter of days they will choose who leads the City for years to come. As proven by the successful outgoing Mayor, that office has the power to influence millions of people’s lives all across Harris County. It is an awesome responsibility.

With that in mind, it is easy to see why some women (and men) in Houston have been given pause by the recent words and actions of Gene Locke and his campaign for mayor. Below you will find a few examples.

OFFENSIVE:

Locke made news again this week after an invitation for a “Ladies for Locke” event hit the blogosphere. It contains almost full page silhouettes of scantily clad women in high heels that have been compared to graphics you would find on a trucker’s mud flaps.

“I passed this around to a few of the young guns at our office to make sure it wasn't just me that was offended by it. In fact, in the words of one of them, "are they inviting us to a strip club?" The silhouettes of these women are just downright offensive. Wearing scarves and beads as shirts?” ~ Nancy Sims of MayoralMusings.com as reposted by the Houston Chronicle on September 11th.

INSENSITIVE:

Despite the fact that his highly respected fundraiser had outperformed the finance goals for the June 30 report, he fired her for missing two staff meetings while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Walden said she was "shocked" to be let go just days after posting more than $1.14 million for Locke, $300,000 more than any other candidate in the 2009 contest. "I understand that Gene was unhappy that I missed work last week while I was being treated for breast cancer," said Walden. "We over-delivered in this campaign," she said. "He's a first-time candidate and outraised two incumbent city officials who had a donor base in place. Gene had nothing. We started late....I wish him well, but I'm very disappointed. I don't understand why anyone would be fired for the success that I had." (Houston Chronicle, July 24th).

UNPROFESSIONAL:

Quote from Gene Locke at the July 7th Binglewood Candidate Forum on the subject of recruiting new businesses to come to Houston:

“I said to my wife the other day, I am going to hustle business in Houston just like I hustled you when you were single and you wouldn’t go out with me. I am going to be all over it.”

OUT OF TOUCH:

Quote from Gene Locke at the September 3rd ‘Women Professionals in Government’ Candidate Forum on the subject of recruiting and advancing women in the workplace:

“I do some of that with my law firm at Andrews Kurth, and one of the things that I have noticed with talented young people coming into Houston is, particularly women, they want to have the flexibility of options. Women are burdened with responsibility of both being professionals and homeowners – homemakers, and they are involuntarily homemakers sometimes. You have to put in place flex hours, meaningful arrangements to allow women to advance.”

UNREASONABLE:

During his tenure as City Attorney, Locke’s handling of a case involving a woman paralyzed by four gun shots in the back during a stalking/murder-for-hire attempt was called “appalling” by U.S. District Judge David Hittner

In 1998 a federal jury directed the city of Houston to pay $ 22.3 million to paralyzed shooting victim Barbara Piotrowski because police were aware of a murder-for-hire plot on her life but took no steps to warn her (Houston Chronicle, 1/21/98).

Locke had offered to settle the case for an insulting $5,000. Even worse, city attorneys closed their argument by engaging in a "finger-pointing tirade" against a wheelchair bound Piotrowski, causing angered jurors to hug her on the way out of the courtroom. And the embarrassment for the City of Houston has been memorialized in a best-selling book and movie called “Sleeping with the Devil.”

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

There is a popular adage that “once can be an accident, twice can be coincidence, but three times is a trend.” Each one of these occurrences, if examined in a vacuum, may not be egregious. All together however, there is a disturbing pattern that beckons questions about how Gene Locke views, understands and appreciates women.

Given that Gene Locke is asking to represent all Houstonians, including one million plus women, these questions are justifiable, if not imperative.

###

_____________________________________________________________
Annie's List is a statewide political action committee that is dedicated to recruiting, training and electing Democratic women to office in Texas. We have endorsed Annise Parker in the race for Mayor of Houston.

It is Time for FDR's Second Bill of Rights to Be Realized

2009-09-16T22:57:00.002-05:00

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

Vikingkingq has been writing about these forgotten rights since the fourth of July.

Newest Health Care Option

2009-09-16T21:46:00.001-05:00

Medical advice from YouTube - link from Robert Nagle.

How will Health Care Reform effect you?

2009-09-15T00:00:00.001-05:00

A Prayer for Progressives

2009-09-13T11:24:00.001-05:00

O Lord, please give us this day
Some inconsequential distraction
By a powerless right-wing jerk
That we may divert our eyes
From the perpetual-disappointment machine
That is our own party
Which in thine infinite wisdom
Thou hath placed at the nation's helm
To do absolutely none of the things
We'd like to believe they stand for
Amen

A Candle for Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T19:18:00.002-05:00

FEAR! Politics, again

2009-08-24T11:35:00.005-05:00

I see the nihilist, fearful, rabid conservative party of ME FIRST! and to Hell with anyone else is now demonizing President Obama's call to turn 9/11 into a day of national service.

Words fail me.

What can you do with people who are mad dogs trying to ravage others and infect others with their rabid virus?

Other options besides locking them up forever or taking them out and shooting them need to be developed.

Should the Left get their own party of Mad Dogs and get Michael Vick to charge admission to cage fights?

Ideas?

Speaking of cage fights is that the direction American politics is heading?

Doubts abound about Libyan involvement in Lockerbie crash

2009-08-22T20:22:00.004-05:00

Not mentioned in the American mass media outrage over the parole granted the Lockerbie bomber is that he was railroaded by the British, Scotish and Scotish political establishments who needed someone to blame. He doesn't seem to have been involved in the plot.

We need an independent media.

Reason has another update.

The Real Death Panels

2009-08-22T20:04:00.002-05:00

New Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi lays it out.

The system doesn’t work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation.

Taibbi points out that Baucus has received $2,880,631 in campaign contributions for the health care industry, Grassley is over 2M as well. (And these are the people who are promoting a bi-partisan bill. No, more like a buy-partisan bill.)

Without a public option, any effort at health care reform will be as meaningful as a manicure for a gunshot victim

The White House makes a serial vacillator like Bill Clinton look like Patton crossing the Rhine.

The Limbaugh minions look like morons for protesting as socialism a reform effort designed to preserve our private system at all costs.

Food For Thought

2009-08-22T14:45:00.002-05:00

You might copy and reply with this when you get a nasty viral email on health care reform.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/08/im_safe_on_board_you_can_pull.html

Roger Ebert's Journal: I'm Safe On Board, You Can Pull Up The Rope

Having read through some 600 comments about universal health care, I now realize I took the wrong approach in my previous blog entry. I discussed the Obama health plan in political, literal, logical terms. Most of my readers replied in the same vein. The comments, as always, have been helpful, informative and for the most part civil. My mistake was writing from the pragmatic side. I should have followed my heart and gone with a more emotional approach. I believe universal health care is, quite simply, right.

It is a moral imperative. I cannot enjoy health coverage and turn to my neighbor and tell him he doesn't deserve it. A nation is a mutual undertaking. In a democracy, we set out together to do what we believe is good for the commonwealth. That means voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the rule of law, taxation, military service, the guaranteeing of rights to minorities, and so on. That is a cheap price to pay.

As I've read through of those comments (and I've posted all but two I received), one thing jumped from the page at me: The unusually high number of comments from other countries. Canadians were particularly well-represented. Although we're assured by opponents of the Obama legislation that Canada's system of universal care is a failure, all of these Canadians, without exception, reported their enthusiasm for their nation's system. One reader said her mother choose to fly to California to get a knee replacement more quickly, but even she praised the Canadian system.

They said reports of waiting times may be true with semi-elective surgeries, like hip or knee replacement, especially in more populous areas. But they're able to see a physician with a minimal wait in cases of need. They are treated quickly and competently, at very little cost other than personal expenses and the graduated scale of quarterly premium payments. Similar messages came from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Greece and Germany. Everyone is pleased.

But that, too, is an argument to reason. What so many of these messages also made was an argument to morality. They were astonished that the United State is alone among all developed nations in refusing such coverage to its citizens. A Canadian wrote that it benefits his entire society that its citizens have access to universal care. By making preventative medicine freely available, it lowers the cost of chronic illness. By making early diagnosis possible, it prevents many diseases from reaching a fatal stage. By making mental health care and medication available to those who need it (and who are often unemployable), it avoids the American system where many such people are abandoned to the streets or to the care of their overtaxed families.

Many of my readers opposed the Obama plan, some of them in great detail. I will not try to simplify their arguments; you can read them for yourself. But here, in broad outline, are some of their most common statements, and my responses:

It is "socialized medicine." Yes, it is. The entire society shares the cost. It does not replace private medicine. Just as in the UK and Canada, for example, we would remain free to choose our own insurance policies and private physicians. But it is the safety net for everyone.

It is "socialism." Again, yes. The word socialism, however, has lost its usefulness in this debate. It has been tainted, perhaps forever, by the malevolent Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who succeeded somehow in linking it with the godless Commies. America is the only nation in the free world in which "socialism" is generally thought of in negative terms. The only nation in which that word, in and of itself, is thought to bring the discussion to a close.

It is wrong for ideological or philosophical reasons. Readers have written about their belief in Federalism, Free Market Capitalism, strict Constitutionalism, personal liberty, Libertarianism, and so on. To one of these readers I wrote something like: "Do you think your views on federalism will be of much interest to unemployed wage-earners unable to obtain coverage for their families?" To another, I wrote: "I hope your philosophy will be of comfort if you develop a serious illness."

One reader said that the only things the Constitution guarantees us are "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and Congress should enact no laws about anything else. Actually, it's the Declaration of independence that mentions "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but never mind. Some might believe universal health care would be of great assistance in enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness. It is a peculiarity that some of those happiest to cite the Constitution are the least interested in its Bill of Rights.

Good health is a responsibility of the individual, not the state. One reader wrote that he doesn't smoke, drinks in moderation, watches his diet, and exercises regularly. I applaud him. Statistically, this promises him an extended life span. I have never smoked, haven't had a drink in 30 years, and walked an average of 10,000 steps a day for the five years before I underwent my first cancer surgery. A doctor once told me: "If you never get any other disease, sooner or later you will die of cancer."

My reader says he neither has nor desires insurance coverage. He will bank his premiums in a savings account dedicated to his own health care, instead of spending them on the care of anyone else. He must have no idea what it costs to have a serious illness in this country. It will take a lot of savings. I've been assured by some readers, however, that I'm a rich man and have no financial worries.

A guy gets run over by a bus.
Another guy runs over and says, "Oh my God! Are you comfortable?"
First guy: "I make a living."

True enough, I've earned some nice money in my life--all by paycheck, which is no way to get really rich. Also, I had group health insurance plans through my unions at both jobs. They were good plans. But during the course four major surgeries--no, make that five--I maxed out one, and so much for that policy. I'm approaching the cap on the second. Most policies aren't unlimited, you know. Luckily, I now qualify for Medicare.

Federal Death panels would decide who lives or dies. This, very frankly, is a lie. The nearest thing we have to a death panel in the United States is an insurance company claims adjuster. Some readers wrote that they or their loved ones were denied tests or treatment by their insurance companies, especially in the case of "pre-existing conditions." One, who had a brain tumor, says he was denied coverage of the treatment by an adjuster, as if he'd known about the tumor at the time he took out his policy some time earlier. Think about this. Unless we die violently or in an accident, we all die of a pre-existing condition. The condition is called "life."

The Obama plan, in simplified terms, would make Medicare available to everyone. Yes, even the senior citizen at that Arizona town hall meeting who screamed at his congressman: "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare!" He didn't know Medicare is a federal program, and he didn't want to know.

When I wrote my original entry, I thought there were 40 million uninsured Americans. I'm informed the number is around 47 million. Some readers have informed me: "That number is inflated!" What would be an acceptable number? Thirty million? Twenty million? How many uninsured Americans are you comfortable with?

It seems to me that universal health care is a win-win proposition. It provides an umbrella of protection for those who cannot afford or qualify for health insurance. This helps us all. Every time you learn from the news about our latest jobless statistics, consider this: A newly jobless person who was insured through an employee health plan is about to become a newly uninsured person. It's for our mutual good that we live in a healthier society. To provide universal coverage is the moral thing to do.

I was informed that my entry was "typical liberalism." This is correct. I am a liberal. If you are a conservative, this appears to be a difference between us: I think you should have guaranteed health insurance.

Matthew 25: 31-46

31 When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.

34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."

37 Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?

38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?

39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?"

40 And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me."

44 Then they also will answer, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?"

45 Then he will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me."

46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Hey Next Democratic Guv!

2009-08-19T04:02:00.003-05:00

Questions for the Democratic candidate for Governor of the great state of Texas

How prepared are you to be a Texas governor and candidate?

A. How informed are you of the general issues and specific issues affecting Texans? Where do you get your news – what broadcast radio programs, news cable channels, newspapers, magazines, journals, blogs and Internet sites are your information providers? What are the meetings you regularly attend that keep you up to date with some concerns?

B. How emotionally prepared are you to be lied about? Ever since Ann Richards campaign when Karl Rove turned to email and mailing lists of business, church, and political groups to spread a campaign of innuendo, lies and smears Texas candidates have to be prepared to have lies and smears about their sexual, business and personal lives be the fodder for conversations and emails around country clubs, churches and office water coolers. Are you and your family prepared for that? What in your past, true or capable of being lied about, will Democrats have cause to regret nominating you?

How prepared are you to be the Democratic candidate and governor?

A. How much money and support in the past have you given to other parties and candidates who ran against Democratic nominees? How much have you supported and are you now supporting the Texas Democratic Party and candidates? Do you think you can give whole-hearted support, including financial, to the Texas Democratic Party and candidates as well as your own campaign?

B. As the Democratic governor it will be easier to govern with a Democratic Texas House. Which House members are you supporting to take over the seats needed for a Democratic majority? Will you campaign with and support other Democratic candidates for House and Senate as well as statewide offices?

C. In the past some of your actions can be seen as not being a good Democrat. What about the Democratic Party then led you to those actions? What has changed so that you want to be the Texas Democratic Governor, who is also considered to be the de facto leader of the Democratic Party in Texas?

D. Many people in Texas, particularly those well-off, white, rural and conservative Christian, consider the Democratic Party the anti-Christian Democratic Socialistic Party of high taxes, only looking out for minorities and those unwilling to work, and wanting to take away their guns and Bibles. Running for the highest profile elected position in Texas how do you convince them they are wrong?

How will you handle these issues?

A. Workers in this country illegally. Businesses want the compliant workers for low wages but many Americans don’t want to provide a means for them to become citizens or to provide health care and education for their families. Your plan?

B. Public education. The ranking of Texas education continues to decline while the governor appoints social conservatives to the Texas Board of Education and business cronies to the Universities. How will you be different?

C. Privatization of government services. Does replacing experienced government workers with private workers at lower pay and benefits but a corporate profit overhead really lead to better and more economical government services and at what indirect costs?

D. Toll roads. For or against?

E. Texas regulatory boards controlled by the industries they are supposed to regulate. What will you change?

F. Health care and Insurance costs. How will you lower them?

G. Clean water and the environment and lax regulations. Will this change?

H. Green renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions. What is your plan?

I. Jobs and the economic environment. How can you as the Texas governor help?

What is your main agenda as governor? What governing philosophy do you have? The Texas governor powers are mainly limited to the power of appointment, the power of publicity and the power of the veto. Can you achieve your agenda with these limited powers?

How will Texans pay for your government? Texas has a high sales tax, high fees, high sin taxes, low business taxes, and very low mineral and energy extraction taxes and property taxes that are unevenly distributed. The result is a regressive tax system with those at the top facing a lower rate of taxation than the average worker. How will Texas raise the money to continue to operate and provide services and what changes would you like to see?

Who are your governing inspirations?

The monster in the closet

2009-08-15T08:46:00.003-05:00

It's exhausting dealing with the insane deluded right. It's like having full grown retarded men living in your house constantly throwing tantrums because there is a monster in the closet. They refuse to be reassured even though you have repeatedly opened the closet door and turned the lights on. Instead they threaten to burn the whole house down if you "keep allowing monsters to live in the closet". So, then you can’t sleep.

It gets even worse. They turn on TV and there is Glen Beck assuring them the monster in the closet is real. Or CNN has Lou Dobbs saying that it might be there. Fox News has 8 out of 10 of their "experts" saying there could be a monster in everyone's closet. And they turn on the radio and Rush Limbaugh and the others are giving advice on how to barricade the closet doors against the monster.

What can you do with the idiots living in your house who might burn it down because they believe in monsters?

Adventures on Facebook

2009-08-09T16:46:00.002-05:00

I moved most of what used to be blog posts to Facebook with its shorter postings and closer connections to friends. Sometime you can get the equivalent of the crazy commentators there that you do get on blogs.

I had followed some Facebook link over to Sarah Palin's Facebook page and had to make some comment about her crazy statement on Obama "death panels." I noticed a couple of my Democratic friends had become "fans" of her page to have a ready source of amusement.

I had someone who saw my comment on Sarah's site start mailing me within Facebook about how Sarah Palin was right and his bad experiences with government run health care which Obama was going to impose on the whole country!

I will quote the last two exchanges:

Me:

I was under Air Force military care for 18 years and they are still my Dad's provider who considers them much, much better than private insurance.

Now, you are going way off-base with speculations and inaccurate information. Legal Insurrection has made a crazy leap from Obama and everyone else thinking (about) a national expert panel looking into ways to cut costs to instead every individual having to deal with a "death panel." As one of the comments says "There is not one scintilla of evidence that anyone on the Hill has been contemplating either a "death panel" or the denial of service to the handicapped."

Your own experience with denial of treatment is now the norm in the great world of private medical insurance where there are panels and individuals whose only function is to save the insurance provider money.

Lastly, the Democrats are not working on a universal government coverage health care bill. That is explicitly ruled out. If they were we could be having this debate about it. Instead it is a complicated series of reforms which may include the option of letting people choose a state program that would be like Medicare.

Really, there is a lot to debate in the five proposals and dozens of amendments that will be offered. Why you and the great uninformed are having a debate about universal government health care which isn't on the table instead of what is: everyone being forced to buy for-profit private insurance, just indicates how well the insurance companies that want this form of "reform" have created groups and media consultants to astro-turf the debate.

Jason Benefield, Liberty college graduate and Army officer in Washington DC:

You are full of beans and ignorant - if I am part of the great uninformed, you are just plain lying. End of discussion - I don't argue with donkeys.

Real Health Care Stats

2009-08-08T13:29:00.004-05:00

In a September 2007 report to Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) compared 2004 US health care spending with other OECD countries:

-- America then averaged $6,102 per person, well over double the average $2,560 for OECD countries;

-- US health care spending was 15.3% of the economy compared to 8.9% on average for OECD countries; for Canada it was 9.9%; Germany - 10.6%; Great Britain - 8.1%; France - 10.5%; and Japan 8.0%;

-- "US prices for medical care commodities and services are significantly higher than in other countries (delivering comparable care) and serve as a key determinant of higher overall spending;" high insurance and drug costs are the most significant factors;

-- life expectancy in America is lower than in other OECD countries;

-- the US ranks 22nd on life expectancy at birth; post-65, it's 11th for men and 13th for women;

-- America has the third highest infant mortality rate after Turkey and Mexico;

-- heart disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases are the top OECD country causes of death; America ranks 17th for heart disease "despite (performing) substantially more invasive heart procedures than all the other (OECD) countries;"

-- quality of US health care isn't superior overall; nor do Americans "have substantially better access to health care resources, even putting aside the issue of the uninsured;" and

-- because of the cost, many Americans delay or forgo treatment.

World Health Organization's (WHO) Ranking of World Health Systems

WHO ranks America 37th overall, behind Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iceland, Malta, Colombia, Cyprus, Morocco and Costa Rica and about equal to Slovenia and Cuba.

In other measures, it has the US 24th on life expectancy, 72nd on level of health, 32nd in distribution of care, 54 - 55th in financial contribution fairness, 15th in overall goal attainment, and first in per capita amount spent.

In a 2007 Commonwealth Fund study comparing Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the UK and US, America ranks last as in its earlier studies on access, patient safety, efficiency, chronic care management, and equity. Most notable is its absence of universal coverage. Overall, the US ranks poorly on its ability to promote healthy lives through affordable, high quality care.

Unfortunately it appears the "reforms" making their highly contentious way through Congress are unlikely to improve those rankings. The only true solution is a Medicare for All option.

Much of this is lifted straight from Steve Lendmen's blog. For even more damning statistics from even more organizations go there.

Democrats need to work on health reform now

2009-08-07T05:03:00.001-05:00

Health care reform benefits small business.

Health Care Reform - Do it Now

2009-08-05T10:26:00.005-05:00

The Republicans, conservatives and the health care industry are mounting a major push this summer to block health care reform. They are repeating many of the same arguments they had stored away from the Clinton attempt at reform and adding new crazy ones - "Obamacare wants to kill the seniors."

One of the repeated arguments is the crazy flowchart of the new health care system. Guess what? The existing health care system is even more of a maze. The dueling flowcharts are shown here.

There is a lot of stuff out there but here is a relatively simple way to look at it, from part of an email I sent to a concerned relative.

Our current health care doesn't work and the spending for health care is out of control while fewer and fewer people are covered and even
those who have insurance find a major health problem leads to
bankruptcy. America health care costs are 40% higher than the rest of
the industrialized world with worse results because 40% of the dollars
goes to insurance company profits, marketing and overhead not
connected to caring for people.

Contrary to government waste stories you hear the least expensive health
insurance in America is Medicare where there is only 2% administration
costs compared to 40% administration and overhead costs for private
insurance companies. The private insurance companies in America also
have every financial incentive to provide the least care possible and
find excuses to deny care.

No one says we can keep the current system, even large businesses now want to set up new plants outside the country so they don't have to provide health care so they can reduce costs. Toyota had a choice of building a new car plant for America and chose Canada over Alabama and saved about $2500 per car because health care insurance is a government program and not an employer program.

We have the most expensive health care in the world. The system is
great for those who can afford it. That is fewer and fewer people and
companies.

How to reduce costs? I think there are four choices.

1 You could go to a 90% socialized government system like England,
France or Cuba. Hospitals and doctors would be government owned and
there is one tax to cover it. Very well off people might find a
private doctor or hospital.

2 You could go to a single-payer system like medicare with private
doctors and hospitals but people have the option of going to those who
take their Medicare card with low co-pays. If they have more money or
have a better job they can still use private insurance.

3 You could do nothing and ignore the more and more people without
health insurance and hope you can afford the costs that double every
5 or 6 years.

4. You could try a more complicated mixture of public options and
cost containment measures. That seems the Obama approach.

I prefer option 2, pretty much "a Medicare for all" option. This is called single-payer but I doubt we will see anything much like it.

What do you prefer?

You might see a lot of stuff on TV, in the mail or in emails. The
health insurance industry is lobbying hard to stay one of the most
profitable parts of our economy and Republicans want to see Obama and
the Democrats fail at any new plan.

There is a new blog - which covers how health care reform will help you in more detail. The cost of doing nothing is staggering - the average family will pay more than $10,000 more in premiums within 10 years if we follow the do nothing, know nothing party. We have to make a choice and do something.

(Note - even while I was posting this the well-organized, very well funded anti-reform groups had a false media watch dog group against health care reform advertisement pop up.)

New form of Political Compass Test

2009-08-05T05:43:00.002-05:00

My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 5.75, Libertarian: 1.96

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -5.7

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Culture War Stance
Score: -4.96

Political Spectrum Quiz

The data from test takers is also displayed in maps and you can do comparisons by state, political party, age, and more.

NPR - Nice Polite Republicans

2009-07-22T10:44:00.003-05:00

One more time:

Marketplace is only the most pro mega-business of the National Public Radio shows. Nearly all of their shows have a conservative bias. Repeated surveys through the years show that for guests, commentators and voices heard conservatives outnumber progressives almost two to one on NPR. Here is the FAIR study. Republicans outnumber Democrats on NPR no matter who controls Congress and who controls the presidency. Because NPR speaks for the educated class and is not socially conservative they have a reputation of being liberal. They are not, they are the educated Republicans.

NPR is really an acronym for Nice Polite Republicans.

What brought this on is that a new major sponsor of Marketplace is Monsanto - the poison, chemicals and GMO food king.

I am also ticked that during local NPR's recent fund drive they bragged repeatedly about getting BBC world news during the day and several times they stated it was the only place to listen to the BBC in Houston. WRONG - Pacifica KPFT 90.1 has had the BBC News program, which actually is not liberal, on the Houston airwaves for many years.

I also hate that more and more the PBS and NPR sponsorships are really just more dignified advertisements and there are more of them.

Saving Newspapers - The Musical

2009-07-21T02:20:00.000-05:00

Hey Paul Krugman

2009-07-21T02:18:00.000-05:00

For Ignorant birthers

2009-07-21T01:59:00.001-05:00

Yankee Doodle Mouse

2009-07-05T03:35:00.002-05:00

Oscar winning Tom and Jerry short:

From Suzanne at FireDogLake.

Late Term Abortions

2009-06-03T20:12:00.003-05:00

This was relayed by a friend online:

If you seriously believe that women are so lazy and stupid as a group that a majority of late-term abortions are done not out of medical necessity but because women just routinely and casually decide they don't want to carry a healthy fetus anymore in the eighth month ... if you honestly believe that a woman should be forced to carry a dead fetus until her body decides to get rid of it, if it doesn't give her an infection and kill her off too ... if you can stand there and tell me with a straight expression that every birth defect and flaw can be caught before the fetus becomes theoretically viable outside of the womb and women just wait to get rid of those fetuses out of laziness ... if you actually think a woman should have to carry a fetus without a face or a #$**ing brain for weeks if not months knowing full well it'll die immediately after birth ...

Get off my friendslist.

No, seriously, get the #$@$ away from me.

And I hope you never have to learn why the right to a late-term abortion is so goddamn important.

Better late .....

2009-05-21T03:39:00.002-05:00

Boss Kitty has the best of the Texas progressive blogs last week.

Time moves on

2009-05-17T12:36:00.006-05:00

I realize I am posting very seldom here now.

Well, I have more of a life including a girlfriend and things eat up time.

I haven't mentioned here the results of the Pasadena and La Porte elections.

Pat Van Houte is in a runoff after she missed getting a majority by 4 votes.

I made some signs for her campaign - and screwed up. Texas now has very explicit laws on small print that has to go on signs now. Weren't very many signs so they could be corrected.

Mayor Isbell and Councilman Harrison won as I expected. In a surprise to me Ralph Riggs is in a runoff.

More locally, my La Porte councilman won a very close election which had over 20 times the turnout of the previous uncontested race.

I don't know what happened up around Nacogdoches which I have been frequently traveling to.

After the election my favorite new Pasadena political blog, Politics in Purple, just pulled up stakes and deleted the archives even from the Internet Wayback machine. Google cache might have some pages for a little while.

I seem to be posting links more often at Facebook, but even that is tempered by my knowing many of my Facebook friends aren't there for politics even if others are. I am also somewhat active on Digg.com on voting for stories neglected in the mainstream.

I am not formally ending this but this blog will probably slowly wind down until after a year you might notice it is dead. Unless something unexpected happens - which always happens in life. Don't know if I will ever finish and posts some long entries that are mostly done.

One of the things that motivated this blog was the willing acceptance of the past administration's lies by the media and most of the people I knew. The media is only slightly improved but nearly everyone now recognizes the lies even if they are unclear about what to do about them. Washington is the center of the cluelessness.
There is no longer the urgent sense that the story must be told and a record must be kept on my part.

Check back occasionally to see if this blog has died. It could hang on for quite a while has the writing mood or my sense of outrage overtakes me again. To think I started this because my old Outlook Express couldn't take all the notes and links I was putting into it.

"Why I am doing this.

I wanted to start logging things that I'm doing or that catch my interest to someplace on the net instead of just using my email application for it. I also think that my collection of files on Outlook Express is getting too large and that might be responsible for the weird things somethimes (spelling errors from the beginning) happening.

Texas Department of Miseducation

2009-05-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

Local Texas Elections

2009-05-09T10:21:00.002-05:00

Candidates are at the polls for election day and swarming over the people who didn't early vote.

CITY OF LA PORTE, LA PORTE ISD, AND SAN JACINTO COLLEGE JOINT GENERAL ELECTION INFORMATION
May 9, 2009
Election Day Polling Locations

Voting/Polling Location #1 - Located at Baker Sixth Grade Campus
600 W. Main (West Main/Spencer Hwy @Underwood) enter off West Main/Spencer Hwy
District 1,2,3, & 6 vote at this location

Voting/Polling Location #2 - Located at La Porte City Hall Council Chambers
604 Fairmont Parkway
District 4 & 5 vote at this location

Voting/Polling Location #3 - Located at College Park Elementary (Library)
4315 Luella, Deer Park, TX.
District 7 vote at this location (LPISD only)

Look for information on your City Water/Sewer Bill indicating which Council District you reside in.
Visit city website for voting information at www.laportetx.gov
Contact the City Secretary’s Office at 281-471-5020 for further information or clarification on where to vote if required.

CITY OF PASADENA POLLING LOCATIONS

District “A” DeZavala Fifth Grade Center 101 E. Jackson
Pasadena, TX 77506
District “B” Queens Intermediate School 1112 Queens Road
Pasadena, TX 77502
District “C” Pal Gym 2910 Southmore
Pasadena, TX 77503
District “D” Red Bluff Elementary School 416 Bearle Street
Pasadena, TX 77506
District “E” Mae Smythe Elementary School 2202 Pasadena Blvd.
Pasadena, TX 77502
District “F” Golden Acres Elementary School 5232 Sycamore
Pasadena, TX 77503
District “G” Miller Intermediate School 1002 Fairmont Parkway
Pasadena, TX 77504
District “H”(South)
Fire Station No. 6 1200 Kirby Road
Pasadena, TX
(Mailing: Seabrook, TX 77586)
District “H” (North)
Fire Station No. 8 4100 Space Center Blvd.
Pasadena, TX 77505
District “H” (Bay Area)
Fire Station No. 10 17200 Middlebrook Drive
Pasadena, TX
(Mailing: Houston, TX 77059

City of Deer Park General Election May 9, 2009

May 9th, 2009 at 7:00 AM until 7:25 PM
Community Center
610 E San Augustine
Deer Park , TX 77536

San Jacinto College District Election

More polling location by precinct info here. To determine your precinct number you can look it up here if you don't have your card.

Residents within the San Jacinto Community College District will vote on Election Day within their local school district boundaries. Pasadena ISD, Galena Park ISD, Sheldon ISD, Channelview ISD, Deer Park ISD, La Porte ISD, and portions of Clear Creek, Pearland and Humble ISDs are the school districts served by San Jacinto College. On election day you must vote at an assigned location by precinct within the school district - you should have voted early.

• Pasadena Memorial High School, 4410 Crenshaw
• Dobie High School, 10220 Blackhawk
• Pasadena High School, 206 South Shaver
• Sam Rayburn High School, 2121 Cherrybrook Ln.
• South Houston High School, 3820 South Shaver
• South Houston City Hall, 1018 Dallas St.
• DPISD Administration Bldg., 203 Ivy
• La Porte City Hall, 604 West Fairmont Pkwy.
• Shoreacres City Hall, 601 Shoreacres Blvd.
• Morgan’s Point City Hall, 1415 E. Main St.
• GPISD Administration Bldg., 14705 Woodforest Blvd.
• Galena Park Middle School, 400 Keene
• Sheldon ISD Administration Bldg., 11411 CE King Pkwy.
• Channelview Tax Office, 828 Sheldon Rd.
• San Jacinto College North campus, 5800 Uvalde Road
• San Jacinto College South campus, 13735 Beamer Road (Longnecker Administration Building)

John Moon, Jr., and Corey McKay are the candidates for Position 5.

Texas News from the Texas Progressive Alliance of Bloggers

2009-05-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

It's Monday -- time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog roundup.

How would Republicans handle a pandemic? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows. They'd hunker down. Get out their guns and shoot anybody with a runny nose.

After a record 3 weeks without a post in his six years of blogging, Easter Lemming has a very brief round-up of the Pasadena elections.

Off the Kuff writes about the resolution to impeach Judge Sharon Keller as submitted by Rep. Lon Burnam, which received a committee hearing last week.

Vince at Capitol Annex tells the sad story of how a fundamentalist "historian" and evangelist who believes that hurricanes are God's punishment on society for tolerating gay citizens will guide the writing of Texas' new social studies standards. If you thought Darwin versus Don McLeroy was a train wreck, wait until it is the treatment of American Indians, what labor unions have done for America, Islam, women's suffrage, 9/11, the free enterprise system, and the civil rights movement versus David Barton. First one who catches one of the new "experts" complaining about too much information about minorities in textbooks wins a prize!

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posted this week on the latest transportation funding scheme the lege came up with, a "transportation bank", Texas Transportation Revolving Fund?.

I, Neil at Texas Liberal, wrote a helluva post about the inability of the Republican Party to return to it's pre-1929 Stock Crash numbers in the U.S. Senate. I also wrote about the albino buffalo in Kenya. Texas Liberal passed 600,000 total page views this week and is averaging 1570 a day for 2009. Thanks blog reading public!

Why on earth is the Texas Senate, working with TXDOT, trying to turn the public pensions trusts into another AIG? McBlogger would really like an answer.

Arlen Specter's political deathbed conversion didn't strike PDiddie at Brains and Eggs as something wonderful. And Burka's conflating Kay Bailey into the conversation was greeted with even more derision.

BossKitty at TruthHugger wonders about those poor souls on death row who depend on the passion of protesters and technology for hope. Whether they know they are guilty or innocent, at least they know they'll get the needle, instead of the chair or the noose. Those death row inmates now have the best chance ever, with revelations about bias and legal system misconduct are front and center, death penalty question marks are getting bolder. Take a look at Killer Texas Laws and Lawmakers Continue To Amaze with many historic reference links to click.

Over at TexasKaos, Boadicea says no to Fake Reform. See what she has to say in her posting:
"Transparency"-I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means...

After much talk about secession, Perry has found yet another reason to keep the government around. The Texas Blue notes that the guy who wanted American troops to defend the border and asked for money -- and then more money -- to help the Hurricane Ike cleanup shortly before talking about leaving the Union now wants the Centers for Disease Control to give us 37,000 doses of Tamiflu to help with the swine flu virus.

WhosPlayin is neck-deep in the local mayor's race, and examined candidate Winston Edmondson's wacky ideas to increase police morale by giving them more patches, and finding corporate sponsors.

Pasadena Politics

2009-04-29T20:49:00.002-05:00

Seeing Purple Politics has been doing a good job with coverage of Pasadena politics.

Recently he has the candidate responses to questions at Republican Women's Club Forum.

Pat Van Houte - District D. The other candidates did not show up and one has tried to drop out but it was too late to get his name off the ballot.

District C where all the candidates showed up but I believe Harrison is now favored for reelection.

District B and District A. Jackie Welch and Ralph Riggs are also favored for reelection.

I had posted a reproduction of Pat Van Houte's campaign literature online earlier.

I am glad someone else is taking up the blogging and news slack. I have barely posted this year and am getting even more busy. I do a lot of quick links on Facebook or a lot of Digging instead if you want to look for what I think is interesting or outrageous.

Go vote - democracy depends on you.

The Right's Crybaby Hero

2009-04-09T20:18:00.002-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The 10.31 Project

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

More from Greg Mitchell.

Even conservative Morning Joe can't take Beck seriously.

Great Depression Warning - WSJ

2009-04-05T23:34:00.005-05:00

Misleading shadowstats affecting Federal Reserve policy and the similarity of the current financial troubles to the Great Depression. This analysis not by blogging amateurs like me but by a Nobel Prize winning economist in the Wall Street Journal, although buried on page A15.

Monetary policy, mortgage finance, relaxed lending standards, and tax-free capital gains provided astonishing economic stimulus: Mortgage loan originations increased an average of 56% per year for three years -- from $1.05 trillion in 2000 to $3.95 trillion in 2003!

By the time the Federal Reserve began to slowly raise the fed-funds rate in May 2004, the Case-Shiller 20-city composite index had increased 15.4% during the previous 12 months. Yet the housing portion of the CPI for those same 12 months rose only 2.4%.

How could this happen? In 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics began to use rental equivalence for homeowner-occupied units instead of direct home-ownership costs. Between 1983 and 1996, the price-to-rental ratio increased from 19.0 to 20.2, so the change had little effect on measured inflation: The CPI underestimated inflation by about 0.1 percentage point per year during this period. Between 1999 and 2006, the price-to-rent ratio shot up from 20.8 to 32.3.

With home price increases out of the CPI and the price-to-rent ratio rapidly increasing, an important component of inflation remained outside the index. In 2004 alone, the price-rent ratio increased 12.3%. Inflation for that year was underestimated by 2.9 percentage points (since "owners' equivalent rent" is about 23% of the CPI). If home-ownership costs were included in the CPI, inflation would have been 6.2% instead of 3.3%.

With nominal interest rates around 6% and inflation around 6%, the real interest rate was near zero, so household borrowing took off. As measured by the Case-Shiller 10 city index, the accumulated inflation in home-ownership costs between January 1999 and June 2006 was 151%, but the CPI measured a mere 23% increase. As the Federal Reserve monitored inflation in the early part of this decade, home-price increases were no longer visible in the CPI, so the lax monetary policy continued. Even after the Fed began to slowly raise the fed-funds rate in May 2004, the average rate remained low and the bubble continued to inflate for two more years.The events of the past 10 years have an eerie similarity to the period leading up to the Great Depression. Total mortgage debt outstanding increased from $9.35 billion in 1920 to $29.44 billion in 1929. In 1920, residential mortgage debt was 10.2% of household wealth; by 1929, it was 27.2% of household wealth.

The Great Depression has been attributed to excessive speculation on Wall Street, especially between the spring of 1927 and the fall of 1929. Had the difficulties of the banking system been caused by losses on brokers' loans for margin purchases in 1929, the results should have been felt in the banks immediately after the stock market crash. But the banking system did not show serious strains until the fall of 1930.

Bank earnings reached a record $729 million in 1929. Yet bank exposures to real estate were substantial; as the decline in real estate prices accelerated, foreclosures wiped out banks by the thousands. Had the mounting difficulties of the banks and the final collapse of the banking system in the "Bank Holiday" in March 1933 been caused by contraction of the money supply, as Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz argued, then the massive injections of liquidity over the past 18 months should have averted the collapse of the financial market during this current crisis.

The causes of the Great Depression need more study, but the claims that losses on stock-market speculation and a monetary contraction caused the decline of the banking system both seem inadequate. It appears that both the Great Depression and the current crisis had their origins in excessive consumer debt -- especially mortgage debt -- that was transmitted into the financial sector during a sharp downturn.

Wonder what Paul Krugman thinks of this analysis? In many ways he predicted it, actually, but using the Asian and South American financial problems of the last quarter century to issue warnings about America in 1999. The Nation:

For a slender book, The Return is ambitious--actually, it's three polemics in one. The first sketches out the ways financial capital in Asia and Latin America flowed, or didn't, to cause sudden recessions, or inflationary spirals, or currency devaluations, or all of these at once. Various governments, even those trying to play by the rules of fiscal conservatives, were confronted with terrible choices: either decline to print money, endure recession and let ordinary people suffer now; or print money, discourage investment and cause them to suffer later. The second polemic draws parallels between what happened in these places and what might happen--actually, what is happening--in America, Europe and more developed parts of the world, suggesting what dislocations to expect and remedies to pursue. Krugman sighs when thinking about economists--including, notably, his Princeton colleague Ben Bernanke--who assumed that officials at Treasury and the Fed had evolved the means to reduce economic imbalances to the point where regulations could be relaxed and the term "business cycle" would seem an anachronism.

The third polemic, the thinnest and most implicit of the three, consists of arguments scattered throughout the book regarding how changes in the "real economy"--the businesses that actually make, transport and design things--shape financial markets or are shaped by them. How, in particular, might revolutionary changes in information technology--producing changes in the structure of corporations and their terms of competition--yield a changing financial pattern? Or how might those changes entail a revised superintending of the business cycle? Krugman allows, for example, that the globalization of industrial markets and their much higher rates of productivity--both the result of a new, pervasive information platform--might have justified Greenspan's unwillingness to hike interest rates after the "irrational exuberance" of the dot-com bubble, although low rates, both men knew, were bound to sustain the value of houses--in effect, risking an even bigger bubble. Krugman writes that it was clear by the 1990s "that the information industries would dramatically change the look and feel of our economy."

Krugman answered questions online at the Washington Post.

D.C.: What did Japan do wrong in the 90's and how can we avoid the same fate?

Paul Krugman: To be honest, I think US economists are feeling a bit more respect for the Japanese, or at least sympathy for their plight. Avoiding a Japan-type experience is proving harder than most economists thought -- even economists like Ben Bernanke, who'd worked hard on analyzing Japan.

But the big message I take from Japan's experience is the folly of excessive caution. If you're half-hearted about taking on the slump -- if you wait to cut interest rates, nickel-and-dime your fiscal stimulus, penny-pinch on your bank bailouts -- then by the time you realize more is needed, deflation has set in, and it's really hard to get out of the trap.

So you want to be really, really aggressive on policy early on.

_______________________

Honeydew, California: Will you please explain how or if we can adapt Depression era lessons to the current crisis?

Paul Krugman: The Depression offers a lot of more or less direct lessons. For example, the Big Mistake of 1937: FDR let himself be persuaded that he should try to balance the budget even though the economy was still depressed; the result was a severe recession in 1938. What the Depression teaches us is that when the economy is so depressed that even a zero interest rate isn't low enough, you have to put conventional notions of prudence and sound policy aside. Now as then, we've got an economy that needs temporary life-support from the feds; not where we want to be, but where we are.

_______________________

Richmond, Va.: I am interested in reading some Keynes, several years ago I took some economics courses and recall the professor saying that Keynes had been reconciled to the history books and was not really relevant in our current world. Where should I start?

Paul Krugman: Read "The Great Slump of 1930" -- available online for free, via Gutenberg Project. It will give you a sense of how Keynes thought. Also his open letter to FDR in 1933.

If you're feeling tough enough, you might also try the first few chapters of the General Theory; they summarize the main argument, and are easier going than the later chapters (though that's not saying much).

And your teacher was quite wrong: Keynes is utterly relevant to the modern world. Read The Great Slump and tell me that this doesn't sound like a description of current events.

Krugman on video:

Complaints to the Blogger and Removing Content

2009-03-24T12:15:00.003-05:00

A candidate for Pasadena City Council has asked that her name not be placed on fantasy cartoons. I have removed a post that showed this. I think this is a mistake. Politicians, especially women, need to develop a thick skin and the ability to laugh, especially at themselves.

I also removed a post with a link to a nice tribute video after a request. Did you know on the Internet if you click on links with sex in the title you can within several clicks find links to sexually explicit material? I am shocked, shocked I say, that some people find that shocking. Researching this complaint and removing the links did discover a few problems I have corrected - eSnips is not a good site to host videos because they are not good about policing for malware, and adult content should have a warning page.

There were some complaints about a post comparing a conservative blogger to a Nazi war criminal, that was a very close parody of his post comparing President Obama to a murderous chimp. There were also complaints that President Carter was one of our worst presidents and not one of our best as I had posted. These complaints I judged were without merit.

Rescuing the bastards

2009-03-23T03:29:00.002-05:00

Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone:

The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.

"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what's left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?"

But before you even finish saying that, they're rolling their eyes, because You Don't Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.

Good luck with that, America. And enjoy tax season.

A lot of astute observations in this look at the leaders of this financial mess and the supposed rescuers.

Our Special Media, Special Bloggers, Special Politicians

2009-03-20T06:05:00.003-05:00

I for one am not surprised that some of the so-called-liberal-media and some of the worst of the conservative bloggers have a special fondness for the Special Olympics.

Our favorite special politician is also rejecting money for education.

General Petraeus is upset about some special senators, McCain and Graham, not approving a needed Iraq appointment. A favorite special neocon passes along a drug joke about their being rolled.

Bloomberg columnist Carol Baum can't understand even stupid books.

Yglesias: Was Madoff really a black hat among honest businessmen, or was he just one unusually crude player amidst a rotten crowd?

Newt Gingrich, an ignorant economist, poor tax analyst, doesn't understand climate change.

AIG - If crony capitalists in the Bush administration and even the Obama administration had let AIG go bankrupt, then the AIG contracts would not have to be honored. Why should they even be employed?

Republican Lawmakers Who Opposed Salary Caps Last Month Are Now Attacking AIG Bonuses, Part II.

Galbraith: Geithner is an idiot and his economic plan is a disaster. In this argument I tend to side more with Galbraith.

Jon Stewart Thinks AIG is Bad, but Maybe Not Prize-Worthy Bad

REPUBLICANS WHO BLOCKED SALARY CAPS NOW OUTRAGED OVER AIG BONUSES

2009-03-19T02:59:00.002-05:00

Progress Report: As outrage mounts over the $165 million in executive bonuses paid to AIG staffers, many Republicans are trying to tap into the wellspring of public anger. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) condemned the "outrageous situation" and boasted that he had been "complaining about the way AIG had been doing its business" since October. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) agreed: "A lot of these people should be fired, not awarded bonuses. This is horrible. It’s outrageous."

However, when Congress debated capping the salaries and bonuses for Wall Street executives whose firms accepted federal TARP funds, these same Republican leaders balked. "I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do," McConnell said. "It should be up to the board of directors of a private corporation to set the compensation of an executive; it shouldn’t be Congress's role," Shelby agreed. McConnell's past opposition to capping Wall St. compensation didn't stop him from going on CNN and suggesting that he had favored such caps all along. When CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked whether Congress should "have passed salary caps on these bailed out companies," McConnell replied, "We certainly had a chance with the amendment by Senator Snowe to prevent this kind of bonuses from being paid."

Yee-Haw, Another Texas Progressive Blogger Round-Up

2009-03-16T22:15:00.004-05:00

It's the first of another week, so that must mean it's time to take a look at some of the best posts from last week by members of the Texas Progressive Alliance. Here are the submissions:

Easter Lemming finds that Pasadena has its first fantasy action hero candidate for city council. At least by the unauthorized t-shirts and caps of some supporters.

Vince of Capitol Annex took a new look at the latest creationist attack on science in Texas classrooms in Bill Would Make "Strengths and Weaknesses" Teaching Of Evolution State Law.

Bay Area Houston says State Representative Wayne Christian has filed a bill that would scare Texas citizens from filing ethics complaints against elected officials.

Off the Kuff takes a look at who would be affected by the voter ID legislation that is being pushed in the Lege by Republicans.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the turmoil facing some inside Texas GOP regarding Gov. Perry's decision to turn down$555 million dollars of unemployment insurance from the stimulus money, UI debate must be maddening for the GOP supporters of Hutchison.

Neil at Texas Liberal reads Malcolm X in a cemetery and says that Rick Perry has found his schoolhouse door to stand in and block.

The Texas Cloverleaf expands upon Capitol Annex's look at Garnet Coleman's proposed repeal of the anti-gay marriage amendment in Texas.

BossKitty at TruthHugger truly believes there is profit for everyone when wasteful and costly opposition to Medical Marijuana is brought in to the economy instead of keeping it out. The War on "Illegal Activities" should focus on smuggling Heroin and Human Trafficking. Can Marijuana Rescue The Economy In 2010 Like Booze Did In 1933

At Texas Kaos, Lightseeker highlights the Texas Shakedown for those who make the mistake of driving in Tenaha, Texas while not white.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes thuggery isn't the first choice for governing Democrats addressing drug cartel violence. Analysis and coordinated effort is.

Governor "Good Hair, Bad Policy" Perry starts his primary campaign against Hutchinson by piling on the unemployed. Libby Shaw over at TexasKaos has the details and the outrage.Pendejos Perry Says YES to Roads, NO to the Jobless

Mayor McSleaze of McBlogger returns from his holiday to post his thoughts on developments in the Wall Street infotainment industry.

nytexan at BlueBloggin is disgusted, but not surprised, by the new Republican strategy; >GOP: Divide and Conquer The Democrats, Then Do Nothing For The Country. As tent cities pop up in Sacramento, unemployment is at 10% in may states and the Wall Street continues a downward slide; the GOP response, to the past 8 year Bush disaster, is to lower approval numbers for Pelosi and House Democrats.

WhosPlayin is focused on local races for Mayor and City Council in Lewisville. This week he interviewed Shelley Kaehr and David Thornhill, who are running for Place 2.

There was harmonic convergence in the left and right Texblogosphere last week. See PDiddie's Brains and Eggs for what happened.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men takes down the right-wing handwringing and disingenuous criticism over Obama's stem cell decision.

More Friday thoughts

2009-03-13T16:29:00.004-05:00

You know, we still have the supporters of a minority hard right party in Israel running our Middle East policy, even under Obama. I could go on about this but this topic always brings out the crank comments. See Andrew Sullivan on The Israel Lobby.

Gawd, why is the GOP and the media so stoopiiid about earmarks. Fine, let Congress get rid of them. Let's see how many Republicans win re-election when they can't show they brought home any Federal goodies. Like most stupid things the faux crusade against earmarks is spread and maintained by the Republican noise machine media clowns.

KTRH, Keep To the Right Houston, is unlistenable even in the mornings now as they bring in commentary from conservative think tanks, "Hoover was right" and their afternoon guy Michael Berry who seems to have received a sharp blow on his head a year ago which knocked out the bit of sense he used to have. Their commentary and analysis blends into and becomes their news, "Obama budget brings down Wall Street." Its difficult to overstate the bias this supposedly straight news segment has reached. Except for their Garden Show this was the last unslanted news portion of their weekly schedule. Their FOX NEWS half hourly updates are amazingly less conservative than their local news now.

Obama lowers taxes and is attacked for being a Socialist. I have commented on this before but it bears repeating which MoveOn.org has done.

Friday Links

2009-03-13T11:00:00.005-05:00

Stopping the Texas GOP voter suppression. Six Texas voters joined with the Texas Democratic Party to file a lawsuit in U. S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, challenging mail ballot statutes enacted in 2003. After spending over a million dollars and years the state attorney general only found and prosecuted Democrats helping the elderly and handicapped to vote who forgot to sign their name on envelopes.

Cramer whimpers facing Jon Stewart. Is this a show ender for Cramer?

Watchmen critical analysis.

Americans losing their faith - in everything.

Google about to take over the phone business with useful Google Voice. A better view from the NYT.

Why America isn't better - your money is going to the war machine. More than 40 percent of federal tax dollars go to military spending while we are underfunding education and health care.

Morford's notes on the insanity - Obama attacked from left and right for what he hasn't done in 50 days.

But to make matters worse -- oh holy hell, would you look at this? -- it turns out Obama isn't stopping with just reversing every toxic Dubya-caused debacle, nossir. It turns out he's reaching even further back, casually wrapping his long, socialist fingers around the throat of more than 30 years of pamper-the-rich, supply-side Reaganomics, and calmly squeezing. Heathen!

This is, quite possibly, the most amusing thing I am hearing from the furious fringe: That Obama's plan will wreak hell on the deficit for generations to come. It's a bit like hearing a Catholic priest scold you on the perils of child abuse. I'm sorry, did you just say that it was fine and good to rape the Treasury for the past decade and worship Big Oil and waste two trillion on a failed and useless war, but redirecting those sums into science, health care, children and alternative energy is a terrible and costly idea?

Not helping the unemployed - Texas GOP leaders are cowards and failures.

How close to a banana republic? - Proof emerges that Bush seized on 9/11 to have himself as the US president be an elected dictator not bound by the Constitution.

Media blackout on single payer health care as cure for high costs.

How Progressive are you?

2009-03-11T23:52:00.001-05:00

Take the Quiz.

My Score -

America Evenly Divided between Progressives/Liberals and Conservatives/Libertarians

2009-03-11T23:32:00.002-05:00

Asking those who choose moderate to further refine themselves reveals a divided nation - but one which overwhelming supports positions thought liberal. Think Progress has more on the poll.

A nation that is evenly split in its political identity is decidedly center-left in its policy orientation:

• By a margin of almost nine to one, Americans agree that “government investments in education, infrastructure, and science are necessary to ensure America’s long-term economic growth,” (79 percent agree, 12 percent neutral, 9 percent disagree).

• More than three in four Americans (76 percent) also agree with the president’s argument that “America’s economic future requires a transformation away from oil, gas, and coal to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.”

• Nearly three in four Americans believe that “government regulations are necessary to keep businesses in check and protect workers and consumers,” (73 percent agree, 15 percent neutral, 12 percent disagree).

• Nearly two in three Americans (65 percent) agree that “the federal government should guarantee affordable health coverage for every American.”

Complementing this agenda are significant demographic shifts that favor progressives. Between 1988 and 2008, the share of minority voters in presidential elections has risen by 11 points, while the share of increasingly progressive white college graduate voters has risen by four points. But the share of white-working class voters, who have remained conservative in their orientation, has plummeted by 15 points.

In another poll, most of America hates Rush.

Remarkably, voters view Limbaugh negatively by a two-to-one ratio (53 to 26 percent), with nearly half the country, 45 percent, viewing him very, very negatively. Among independents, the ratio rises to three-to-one. More important are the values that Limbaugh espouses. By a nearly two-to-one ratio (57 to 32 percent) a majority of voters – and independents – say Limbaugh does not “share their values,”

In my own poll, Houstonians now think KTRH is now all conservative propaganda and sports. The bad slanted news and biased analysis has now spread to what was formerly the morning news show.