Easter Lemming Liberal News

Monday, December 17, 2007

More Joe Horn

The Texas gun owner's symbol of the right to shoot robbers in your neighborhood in the back gets even more news.

Front page Sunday Houston Chronicle: The Man behind the Gun.

His lawyer permitted Joe to answer questions that showed Joe Horn was a nice guy. Shouldn't the right bloggers be all over this defense trial lawyer?

What the sociologists say - empowerment drives shooting in the back advocates.

That Lisa Falkenberg column that tossed gas on the local flames: "it's a bad thing to kill other people when we don't have to." Her three columns on Joe Horn are getting letters and thousands of comments, majority unfavorable.

Texas has always been known for its support of lynch mobs.

Today: An actual self-defense, home invasion shooting.

What do the false macho, gun-loving, thumb-sucking bunch think? Right now they are freaking out over the Chron for showing what Colombians are saying.

Joe's lawyer:

Lambright insists Horn feared for his life. After the 911 dispatcher asked for more information on the burglars, Horn left his house to see what was happening and to possibly get a glimpse of the burglars' car or license plate, Lambright said.

"He went outside and all of a sudden there they were," Lambright said. "And Horn tells them 'move and you're dead.' The suspects have a shotgun aimed at them and their response was to run at Joe and he panicked."

He panicked? I thought Joe was the hero? Oh, that's right. Joe's lawyer is trying to get him out of a double homicide charge. When they have you on tape saying you are going out to kill them.... change the story. Joe was going to check the license plate! He was afraid when they charged him! Ignore the premeditation on tape, ignore the shooting diagram (not online but in the print Chronicle) and ignore the shootings in the back! That's the ticket.

Texas Round-Up 23

It's beginning to look a lot like Monday, every where you go. Take a look at the blogs and posts glistening once again with threads and comments aglow. It's beginning to look a lot like Monday, Round-ups on ev'ry blog, but the prettiest sight to see is the post that will be from your own favorite blog....enjoy this week's Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Fred Thompson couldn't make the ballot in Delaware because of FIVE HUNDRED SIGNATURES. Mayor McSleaze at McBlogger thinks that's pretty pathetic. You will as well.

Eddie at Burnt Orange Report writes about a precedent-setting case in the Sixth District Court of Appeals which gives helps a Paris, Texas blogger preserve his or her anonymity.

How I became a "far-left-radical with a socialist agenda" etc. On Bluedaze by TXsharon.

While Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News had a sick mouse the world moved on.

Choo choo!! That is the sound of cleaner air at The Texas Cloverleaf. 98 new more environmentally friendly trains are running in Texas. But did taxpayers really have to front the money?

Bay Area Houston Wonders why NASA Contractors are limiting their employees constitutional rights while receiving billions of dollars of government funding.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that AG Greg Abbott has handed Speaker Tom Craddick an early Christmas present in the form of an opinion that hands him cart blanche to do whatever he wants--and even emasculates impeachment.

Muse discovers a list of 300+ women political bloggers! Female bloggers are playing a powerful role in this presidential election cycle – and are increasingly recognized for this. Texas bloggers are on the list. Check it out!

In his piece titled John Cornyn Files for Senate, Hal at Half Empty entertains the notion that the junior senator is really looking for an elusive seat on the US Supreme Court.

Stace at DosCentavos tells us about the newest Pew Center poll! It's no wonder many Citizen-Latinos (and especially undocumented folks) are feeling like people without a country.

Eye on Williamson, posts on Brian Ruiz, Rep. John Carter's opponent in TX-31, and two of Carter's recent votes in Brian Ruiz And Rep. John Carter's (R-Exxon Mobil) Circle .

An activist action plan for the FISA-with-telecom immunity bill, coming up on Monday in the Senate, is posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

And, last but not least, don't forget about Dan Barrett in House District 97, who has been endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance in his special election runoff. Matt at Burnt Orange Report has a great post about the race here.

Dear Mr. President

This was sent to me by zappa.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Tragic Tale of Religion That Knows No Love

The more I read of Matthew Murray's home life and his dealings with his mega-church the more I understand why he decided he needed to blew the church away.

Matthew Murray was the "deranged gunman" who killed four and wounded others at young Evangelical Christian missionary locations connected to a Denver suburb mega-church. New Life Church is one of the largest and most influential in the country. It was also home to Rev. Ted Haggard until he was removed for drugs and homosexuality with a gay prostitute. It has been the leader in the largely sucessful effort to Christian radicalize the Air Force. It leads in promoting deprogramming gayness.

Matt became mentally ill but his whole life revolved around the church and being home-schooled. The church and his parents decided he had become possessed by evil demons and made his life even more of a living Hell and kept destroying his video games and music. How much of that is due to his coming out as bi-sexual is unclear.

I don't sympathize or condone what he did but it becomes understandable.

In the years before his death after an exchange of fire with an armed security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs he had posted many of his thoughts in online discussion groups.

His rage explodes in a posting that appeared to have been made between the shootings in Arvada and Colorado Springs on Sunday, saying, "You christians brought this on yourselves ... I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. .... God, I can't wait till I can kill you people."

Murray, who police said shot and killed two people at the missionary center and two people at the megachurch, copied from the manifesto of Columbine High School shooter Eric Harris in his post on a site for ex-Pentecostals.

I don't think it is a surprise that Denver suburbs have become the home of young male killers seeking revenge through mass blood shed. This Evangelical Christian, Republican, gun-loving culture has no place or sympathy for misfits.

Many more Matt's posts. True crime has more.

Four young people died as well as Matthew Murray as he went after his revenge with guns. My sympathy is with their friends and families.

Rightwing Sparkle is on the case:

I'm not making a judgement here on Matthew or his family. I'll let God do that. But for the websites that I surfed through that seem to want to blame the Church, or homophobia[I corrected spelling], or his parents, or hypocrisy for what Matthew did, I don't buy it.

I have known people who went through these kinds of things, as horrible as they are, and come out of it as wonderful human beings. Matthew never understood that God wasn't the New Life Church or his parents. He was being forced to find answers there. And then he looked for more answers in all the wrong places.

There is no doubt in my heart and mind that the struggle between good and evil surrounds each of us every day. Matthew had more of a struggle than most of us, but he could not overcome. He was devoured.

May God have mercy on his soul.

I Peter 5:8
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

I liked her post a lot better before the reference to the devil devouring him. A lot of Matt's problems were due to the beliefs he was forced fed that the devil and the demons would devour him.

I think these are the lessons to learn:
Don't force feed your children your religious beliefs.
If your church lacks love and practices hypocrisy get another.
Watch out for guns in the hands of the mentally unbalanced.

I should thank the Houston Chronicle and Rightwing Sparkle for making me more aware of this case.

Ron and the Giant Blimp

Ron Paul may be the top GOP money-raiser this quarter. Flush with cash the notoriously frugal Ron is using charter private jets to get around. A group of independent supporters have also just launched the Ron Paul blimp powered by hot air and revolution.

Huckabee Will Shoot Up In the Polls

Huckabee gets vetted by the Council of Foreign Relations, part of the all powerful Illuminati you know, and criticizes Bush's military and foreign policies.

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops to invade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. "I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighed his advice," Huckabee said.

Having another GOP candidate besides Ron Paul acknowledge the arrogance and disaster of Bush/Cheney is a nice development. I often find Republicans privately conceding this and I suspect most conservatives want a leading candidate saying this. There is little loyalty to Bush among the base.

Pass the popcorn.

Drudge is headlining this, probably thinking this is a Huckabee mistake. He has been recently running a smear campaign against Huckabee.

Wow, Huckabee is tearing the conservative bloggers apart. They are using language against their religious base liberal bloggers like me wouldn't use. I think it is the populism that gets them. They want conservatives who also support the big corporate agenda. Kevin agrees - Huckabee is the real deal for the base of the GOP and the bloggers and the leaders don't want the real deal. See some of Huckabee's problems.

Under Bush The Rich Get Richer, Much Richer

The New York Times makes a business headline article over the report Krugman cited in his blog. My earlier take here.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Do Nothing Congress?

Here is a list of 60 bills either vetoed by Bush or being blocked by threats of vetos.

If you want a "Do Something Congress" impeach Bush and Cheney.

Seven vetoes including Energy & Water appropriations, Labor/HHS/Education appropriations, and two SCHIP vetoes.

Threats against 53 additional bills:

Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act - H.R. 4, and the Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act - S. 3
Employee Free Choice Act - H.R. 800
Improving America's Security Act - S. 4
Water Quality Financing Act - H.R. 720
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 - H.R. 985
Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 - H.R. 1255
United States Policy in Iraq Resolution - S.J.Res. 9
U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act - H.R. 1591, S. 965, H.R. 2206
D.C. Voting Rights Act – H.R. 1433, S. 1257
Rail and Public Transportation Security Act - H.R. 1401
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act - S. 5
Intelligence Authorization Act - S. 372, H.R. 2082
Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act - S. 1082
Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act – H.R. 1592
Redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq - H.R. 2237
Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act - H.R. 1684
Agricultural Disaster Assistance and Western States Emergency Unfinished Business Appropriations Act - H.R. 2207
National Defense Authorization Act - H.R. 1585, S. 1547
No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act - H.R. 2264
Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act – H.R. 1252
Human Cloning Prohibition Act - H.R. 2560
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act - H.R. 2638, S. 1644
Creating Long-term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Act/Energy Independence and Security Act - H.R. 6
State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act - H.R. 2764
Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act - H.R. 2643
Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act - H.R. 2829
College Cost Reduction Act - H.R. 2669
Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act - H.R. 2956
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act - H.R. 3074, S. 1789
Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act - H.R. 3093, S. 1745
Farm, Nutrition and Bioengery Act/Food and Energy Security Act - H.R. 2419
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - H.R. 2831
Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act(SCHIP)- S. 1893, H.R. 3162, H.R. 976, H.R. 3963
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act - H.R. 3161
Ensuring Military Readiness Through Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act - H.R. 3159
Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act - H.R. 2776
New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act - H.R. 3221
Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act - H.R. 2761
FAA Reauthorization Act - H.R. 2881
Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act - H.R. 3121
Improving Government Accountability Act - H.R. 928
Regional Economic and Infrastructure Development Act - H.R. 3246
National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act - H.R. 2895
Tax Collection Responsibility Act - H.R. 3056
Free Flow of Information Act - H.R. 2102
Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective (RESTORE) Act - H.R. 3773
Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act - H.R. 505
Employment Non-Discrimination Act - H.R. 3685
Trade and Globalization Assistance Act - H.R. 3920
Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act - H.R. 2262
Homeowner's Defense Act - H.R. 3355
Temporary Tax Relief Act (AMT) - H.R. 3996
Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Appropriations Act - H.R. 4156

How will the Real GOP Counter Huckabee's surge?

The surge in the polls of Gov. Huckabee of Arkansas has the real leaders of the GOP, conservative billionaires, unlimbering their heavy guns.

They seem to have decided their candidate must be Mitt Romney - photogenic, sucessful conservative businessman, pragmatic, a flip-flopper untouched by any major scandals.

Romney even has his own secret weapon. His venture capital firm announced it is buying Clear Channel Radio. Expect all of the talk radio clowns to begin smearing Huckabee as often as Matt Drudge has recently. You will see more Romney endorsements like the National Review just gave him.

I had previously said, I see I didn't write it down on this blog, that Romney was the likely nominee. The Christian Right only thinks they control the party. Many Republicans will think it is time for the most Republican religion in America to be rewarded with a presidential nominee.

It'll be interesting to watch this intra-party war play out over the next few weeks.

Clinton losing support in Iowa

An effective video from the Obama camp.

Edwards is very happy and may be surging in Iowa.

How polls will be wrong in Iowa.

My Iowa prediction - Edwards and Huckabee due to rural strength in the caucus system.

Pasadena Texas Makes The New York Times

The operator told him not to go out with a gun because officers would be arriving.

“O.K.,” Mr. Horn said. “But I have a right to protect myself too, sir,” adding, “The laws have been changed in this country since September the first, and you know it.”

The operator said, “You’re going to get yourself shot.” But Mr. Horn replied, “You want to make a bet? I’m going to kill them.”

Moments later he said, “Well here it goes, buddy. You hear the shotgun clicking and I’m going.”

Then he said: “Move, you’re dead.”

There were two quick explosions, then a third, and the 911 call ended.

“I had no choice,” Mr. Horn said when he called 911 back. “They came in the front yard with me, man.”

Captain Corbett said that a plainclothes officer had pulled up just in time to see Mr. Horn pointing his shotgun at both men across his front yard, that Mr. Ortiz had at one point started to run in a way that took him closer to Mr. Horn, and that both men “received gunfire from the rear.”

Includes MP3s of portions of the 911 calls. More recordings of the 911 call.

Lots of comments from all over the world.

Pasadena's reaction to this shooting? This coming Tuesday it will ban protests in neighborhoods. Houston Chronicle story here.

No mention of the amount of money they will have to pay attorneys to defend this frontal assault on the first amendment. No mention in the Pasadena Citizen story that the Supreme Court ruled against neighborhood bans on protests. The Houston Chronicle got that in their article. The permitted restrictions have to be very narrowly tailored to pass muster. No mention that the police could have dispersed the protests that occurred under existing ordinances.

If I have time I will review the ordinance and try to determine if it appears legally sound. Based on how badly it is written I will decide if I want to protest in front of the mayor's house and be the test case.

I had really liked living in Pasadena. I guess the KKK, which Pasadena was known for in the 60's, legacy still lives on. I had written before that I used to go over to feed my ex-wife's cats. Now that would be putting my life in danger. Whoever blew me away might be the next Pasadena hero.

Krugman fuels my economic rants

Why do people feel the economy isn't growing under Bush despite everyone on TV saying times are great? Because for 80% of us it is slow growth.

Here’s what the numbers say about percentage gains in after-tax income from 2003 to 2005:

Bottom quintile: 2%
Next quintile: 2.4%
Middle quintile: 3.9%
Fourth quintile: 3.7%
Top quintile: 16%
Top 10%: 20.9%
Top 5%: 27.7%
Top 1%: 43.5%
It was a boom, all right — but only for a few people.

Krugman's column today is on why the addition of mountains of cash to desperate banks isn't working well. There is a huge looming negative equity crisis in America's housing market so banks really are in deep trouble. These gifts of money to banks, many billions lent at rates guaranteed to be profitable for banks, won't restore confidence but are needed to cover huge losses.

An example of how the tax-payer funded bailouts work. BofA puts out its hand for reserve bank money, receives $10 billion at say 3%, This money is immediately placed in government paper paying 5% while they look for profitable loans to make at 10% to 18%. BofA also expands its consumer credit offers (intro rates 10% - 20%) but raises poor credit interest penalties (24% - 36%) and conditions that trigger them. Indirectly the taxpayer funds the money lent at lower rates then the government pays for 100% secure investments.

These huge piles of money gifts to banks were extensively used in the Savings and Loan debacle. Like last time, perhaps only institutions who were truly horrendous at money managing and concentrated on the bad loans will go under while the large players profit from the taxpayer funded bailouts.

There is a huge amount of fraud in these bad mortgages, similar to the worst of the savings and loans in the prior crisis. I have a relative suffering some harm from this. Despite being a financial expert she has bad credit and needing a new house took a subprime loan. She made sure that the the rate adjustments were very limited each year and had a maximum total adjustment. She was lied to and didn't catch it on how long the prepayment penalty would last. It ended up being 3 years - $12,000. If Congress was really interested in solving a lot of sub-prime problems it would eliminate these prepayment penalties which reward the lenders for putting people in bad loans.

Here is the paper Krugman references which shows that unless you are in the top 5% bracket in household incomes Democratic presidents are better for your pocketbook.

Brother Jim emailed me the first link.

Who won the last Dem debate?

Edwards Debate Performance Wows CNN And Fox Focus Groups

Still interested in the two front runners, although Iowa is a three-way tie, the media paid only a little attention that John Edwards most impressed the voters who were assembled by CNN and Fox News to gauge reaction.

Reminds me somewhat of 2004 in the college informed voter study. Poly Sci professors assembled 700 nationally representative voters and for weeks of the early primary season had them watch videos and read about all the candidates and discuss it among themselves.

Over the next five weeks, as Mr. Kerry built up momentum among both real-life primary voters and the control group in the experiment, Senator John Edwards enjoyed the biggest surge in the well-informed test group, which was won over by his personal traits as well as by his policies, notably his protectionism on trade. Besides appealing to the Democrats in the test group, Mr. Edwards did better among the group's independents and Republicans, and he emerged as the strongest candidate against Mr. Bush.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Falkenberg: Property outweighing people in Horn case

Lisa Falkenberg has been looking up the law on Joe Horn's actions in killing two robbers of his neighbor's house by shooting them in the back as they left. She thinks Texas law may support him. She thinks that is a mistake.

Her column quickly draws over a thousand comments. The large majority support Joe Horn.

If he was a security or police officer Joe Horn would have been fired and be lucky if he escaped manslaughter charges.

Interesting Comment on an old Post

"History will mark Bush as the dirtiest and weakest and most chicken-hearted psychopathic president in US history-- all that because he chose to let Rumsfeld, Rove and Cheney do the deciding while he pretended he was the "decider.""

Daniel E. Teodoru, one of the original founders of Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, just posted a comment on one of my posts from a year ago. The above is from that comment.

The post itself discussed an email exhange I had with another original founder.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Mike Huckabee's Message to Iowa

Link from David Kurtz at TPM.

Maureen is very good today

The less she employs of her catty cool kids chat the better she can be. It is hard for her to be catty about Iraq.

Morgan Stanley issues full US recession alert

UK Telegraph:

Morgan Stanley has issued a full recession alert for the US economy, warning of a sharp slowdown in business investment and a "perfect storm" for consumers as the housing slump spreads.

In a report "Recession Coming" released today, the bank's US team said the credit crunch had started to inflict serious damage on US companies....

"As delinquencies and defaults soar, lenders are tightening credit for commercial, credit card and auto lending, as well as for all mortgage borrowers," said the report, written by the bank's chief US economist Dick Berner. He said the foreclosure rate on residential mortgages had reached a 19-year high of 5.59pc in the third quarter while the glut of unsold properties would lead to a 40pc crash in housing construction.

"We think overall housing starts will run below one million units in each of the next two years -- a level not seen in the history of the modern data since 1959," he said.

The more conservative Standard and Poors calls for a 40% chance of recession next year - I can't locate an online link yet. Goldman Sachs also puts it at a 40-45% chance. The more conservative institutions like these are slower to change previous forecasts.

World banks are setting up emergency fund agreements to lessen chances of bank failures. That is not using the preferred language of the agreements but what it really means.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson: 2008 will be worse next year for banks and housing.

What isn't being reported much is all the financial maneuvering going on to avoid marking mortgages and debt to market. Even many prime mortgages are selling at a steep discount and most banks would technically be in default if true evaluations were made on all their debt. For a huge portfolio of many kinds of debt E*Trade received 27 cents on the dollar. (I feel Motley Fool's analysis does not recognize the variety of debt sold by E*Trade.)

I think many of the Wall Street analysts have forgotten what a true recession is. In most aspects the current problems are much worse than the 70's.

Bonddad's Big Picture:

The dollar is still in a downtrend, oil is still high and the Federal Reserve is looking like they are behind the curve. Housing is still a huge problem, corporate earnings are not good, and confidence is low.

Huckabee, A Perfect 10 on God-o-Meter

I could do a really long post with lots of links on Huckabee and his ignorance and why the GOP establishment hates him. However, I feel his many qualities are best savored in small doses. He is going to be around a while.

Howard Kurtz is a Putz

The View from abroad - The election for the world begins

UK Guardian:

The battle for 2008 was always going to be open, with no incumbent on either side. But there was a time when the two parties' choices seemed easy to guess: an aura of inevitability wreathed itself around Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. That would have been a slugfest to savour, a New York derby pitting two scarred bruisers with a talent for doling out and absorbing punishment. Now both those frontrunners, while still narrowly ahead in polls, are stumbling, watching the momentum flow towards their rivals - especially in make-or-break Iowa and New Hampshire, which vote next month. As Barack Obama surges among Democrats in Iowa, it is becoming possible to imagine 2008 as the first US election since 1976 without either a Clinton or Bush. Suddenly, nothing is predictable.

Already some weirdnesses are clear. The two candidates who polls rate as the most electable for their respective parties are lagging behind. Surveys show John Edwards beating every Republican on offer, yet Democrats rank him behind Clinton and Obama. John McCain is the only Republican who polls ahead of the three leading Democrats in a match-up, yet he is stuck in fourth place.

Stranger still, the main candidates are deeply flawed. Obama is young and inexperienced; Edwards, with his $400 haircuts, has an authenticity problem; Hillary is seen as establishment and robotic. Among the Republicans, McCain, at 70, is old and an advocate of an unpopular war in Iraq. Giuliani's liberal stance on guns, gays and abortion - and a Technicolor personal life that has seen him defending the taxpayer-funded security detail that protected his lover when he was the married mayor of New York - have alienated him from the family-values voters who can decide Republican contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. Mitt Romney has the big hair and dazzling smile of a Hollywood president. Trouble is, he's a Mormon seeking the votes of evangelicals who refuse to recognise him as a Christian. TV actor and former senator Fred Thompson is such a lethargic campaigner, he's in single digits.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Updates

Things happen while I replaced my mouse.

Pasadena, Texas: As I expected, a Pasadena mayor runoff between Isbell and Riggs. Jan. 19 will be the day of the runoff, unless you are smart and vote early. I support Riggs but there are some good things about Isbell's past record as mayor.

Halliburton, Iraq - When you have to call Ted Poe for humanitarian assistance things are really bad. A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Iraq. She accuses the company and the U.S. government of covering up the incident. She was also kidnapped by supervisors and held 24 hours without food or water after being told not to seek medical help. She was only released when she managed to get a cell phone call out to her father who called his congressman Ted Poe.

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."

Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.

Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.

Legal experts say Jones' alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.

Sunday on Meet The Press Tim took a full hour to attempt to cover some of Rudy's scandals. The ex-mayor's response - evasions and an attack of the giggles.

Obama's Sister Soljahing

Joe Horn gets a death threat.

My best post last week was Joe Horn No Hero. At least it got the most reaction.

See all of my Joe Horn posts.

Other good Texas posts of the week.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Canada - Still Much Better Health System

When the Clinton administration tackled health care reform in 1993, Canada's national health care system—which operates without a private insurance industry—was held up as a model by progressives and a disaster by conservatives. The United States rejected any positive lessons from the Canadian single-payer model in 1993, and we are living with the results of that decision today.

...the cost gap between the United States and Canada has only widened since 1993, and per capita health care expenditures in the United States are now almost double those in Canada ($6,401 vs. $3,359). Canada's per capita health expenditures rose about 65% from 1993 to 2005, while costs in the United States rose by over 90%.

A Commonwealth Fund survey finds that, compared with adults in six other countries, "U.S. adults are most likely to go without health care because of the cost and more likely to say that the health care system needs to be rebuilt completely."

Ezra Klein: "Rudy Giuliani's case for the superiority of our "free market" health care system goes something like this: While on health insurance provided by New York state, he was treated, using a surgery developed by Europeans, for prostate cancer, a disease that most commonly afflicts those covered by the federal government's single-payer health care system."

Paul V. Dutton on the French health system:

the World Health Organization rated it the best in the world in 2001 because of its universal coverage, responsive healthcare providers, patient and provider freedoms, and the health and longevity of the country's population. The United States ranked 37.

The French system is also not inexpensive. At $3,500 per capita it is one of the most costly in Europe, yet that is still far less than the $6,100 per person in the United States.

An understanding of how France came to its healthcare system would be instructive in any renewed debate in the United States.

That's because the French share Americans' distaste for restrictions on patient choice and they insist on autonomous private practitioners rather than a British-style national health service, which the French dismiss as "socialized medicine." Virtually all physicians in France participate in the nation's public health insurance, Sécurité Sociale....

It's not uncommon to visit a French medical office and see no nonmedical personnel. What a concept. No back office army of billing specialists who do daily battle with insurers' arcane and constantly changing rules of payment.

Moreover, in contrast to Canada and Britain, there are no waiting lists for elective procedures and patients need not seek pre-authorizations. In other words, like in the United States, "rationing" is not a word that leaves the lips of hopeful politicians. How might the French case inform the US debate over healthcare reform?

Sex on the City Timeline

Rudy had taxpayer dollars fund his lover's security and drivers and attempted to hide the expenditures in many obscure city department budgets. Judith Nathan was getting a lot of special treatment.

Early 2000 -- NYPD officers start escorting Nathan around. Giuliani aides say that the protection at the time was "sporadic and did not include a full-time, round-the-clock detail." They cited previously undisclosed "threats" as the reason. But "former neighbors of Nathan's, as well as a law enforcement source, describe a full-scale valet service at Nathan's beck and call...."

4/08/00 -- NYPD officers charge the city for gas a half-hour from Nathan's hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where her parents live. It's unclear who they were accompanying.

5/10/2000 -- Giuliani announces that he will be separating from his wife, Donna Hanover. Giuliani tells the press that he and Nathan are "very good friends."

5/13/00 -- The New York Post reports that Giuliani's regular weekend visits to the Hamptons cost taxpayers at least $3,000 a day for his detail of NYPD detectives.

8/20/00 - Giuliani files for divorce.

I am posting from work as I am having mouse problems at home.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Pasadena police say Horn shot 2 men in back

As I had predicted, Joe Horn shot the two robbers leaving his neighbor's house in the back. A lot of other interesting details sure to keep passions high.

PC difficulties, cannot add more now.

Friday, December 07, 2007

The caucus

Democracy's most convoluted, most democratic process. The link describes Iowa but Texas's will be in March.

Shifts - Latinos to Democratic Party, JFK to MR

Past California experience should have warned the GOP what happens if you turn against the fastest growing minority group. The 2006 election results were bad for Republicans despite an improvement in their Latino performance. Now that improvement has been erased. According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center:

Some 57% of Hispanic registered voters now call themselves Democrats or say they lean to the Democratic Party, while just 23% align with the Republican Party -- meaning there is now a 34-percentage-point gap in partisan affiliation among Latinos. In July 2006, the same gap measured just 21 percentage points -- whereas back in 1999, it had been 33 percentage points.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel is trying to destroy the Democratic advantage by urging Democrats to use "send them back" rhetoric. (I objected to Rahm Emanuel being guest of honor at the Harris County Democratic Party fund raiser recently.) Digby had written about Republicans as typified by Tancredo and Democrats like Rahm Emanuel.

With the GOP losing the Latino vote why would some Democrats want to join them?

In other recent political events, Romney was no John F. Kennedy at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association - short video intro and speech, longer better video includes Q & A.

Romney gave a speech saying Mormons are just like Christian evangelicals, and freedom demands Christianity or Christian-like religion or something. What a let down from the inspiring words of JFK in Houston almost 50 years ago. Ron Paul was much better than Romney on defending Romney's faith.

I guess the lessons here is that we are still dealing with bigotry, both over national origin and religion.

Impeach Cheney and Bush

Transcript at Crooks and Liars.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Huckabee Bumbles Three Times In One Sentence, Compounds His Cluelessness On The Iran NIE

Three in a row. The new GOP Main Man is a moron.

And Joe Klein Is Never Wrong. ‘Obviously.’

Two moron moments, together.

Bush gives out wrong mortgage hotline phone number

The Man is a moron.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Protests and Free Speech in Pasadena

The protests in the neighborhood around two miles from where I live has the neighbors all riled up.

The residents are seeking to prevent any more protests in the streets after Quanell X lead an outside demonstration that provoked a counter-demonstration.

KPRC NEWS 2 has a video and a little report.

I think Quanell X is not helping matters. This case already has it all: black, Mexican, drug-using, illegal aliens after robbing a house being killed by an agitated, frightened, old white guy. Bringing the New Black Panthers into Pasadena just feeds the fear and incipient racism.

My pointing out that Joe Horn is not a hero is already filling up my comments (I am filtering and rejecting) that they were BLACK! MEXICANS! ILLEGALS! DRUGGIES! ROBBERS!!!

The Pasadena Citizen on the protests. I even see that Quanell X and others had exactly my reaction, do we want everyday citizens to be police, judge, jury and executioner for crimes that don't carry the death penalty?

The Village Grove East Neighborhood Association is seizing on a safety issue, ambulances and police could not get through large demonstrations like Sunday's, to urge a court injunction.

There were a lot of comments at the city council meeting Tuesday. People may be able to watch it after the election Saturday December 8. I tried to get a person who wrote down the comments to type up a report here but she says she is smarter than that.

Carol Christian finds that none of the mayoral candidates say Joe Horn should be prosecuted.

Don Harrison has an interesting tag on his latest political mail advertisement supporting free speech. This from someone who shut down citizens trying to speak at city council. I think he meant to refer to his being thrown out of the council chamber for interrupting another council member but I wonder if people will think it refers to these protests?

YouTube has a number of videos of the Pasadena protests.

I find most Southerners really don't like the Bill of Rights, except for the 2nd Amendment, and I think most Pasadena residents would like to ban protests.

Part of my liberal function is to urge people to think and consider the consequences. Speaking and protesting is not something you should have to ask permission from government to do. Instead, what are reasonable regulations on speech and protests? Should protests be moved out of neighborhoods if they stop traffic? What are reasonable regulations for large gatherings, parades and such? One sign you are moving into a dictatorship is if unauthorized gatherings are banned.

This seems like a time for people in Pasadena to be calmly considering what Democratic American values they support. Council members and the mayor, and the mayor to be, should proceed cautiously in imposing regulations that seek to limit freedoms. If nothing else, court costs defending unwise decisions can be expensive. I found that out when researching penalties assessed city governments not permitting citizen speech during council meetings.

Think, and keep the peace, until next time.

Second Thoughts on NAFTA

One of our major neo-liberal economists is wondering where NAFTA went wrong. Brad DeLong had a PDF wondering why with all the export driven growth in Mexico conditions for the people haven't improved. He looks at China and corruption and lack of education and training and the U.S. subsidized corn production. I would also look at the tax structure leading to growing inequality and insufficient infrastructure and social support services as well.

There has been a serious debate among economists that no country really practices "free trade" and that the fastest growing economies over the long term made smarter choices on which industries to protect and grow. This is controversial given the American economic tradition of following Adam Smith.

This growing doubt about the benefits of liberal trade policies by Democratic economists has political implications. Here is a short blog essay by a corporativist but it doesn't capture the complexities of the issue.

The 2008 Democratic candidates on trade agreements.

Ben Smith notes the Democrats seem to be more willing to intervene in the economy than Bill Clinton did.

Joe Horn No Hero

A true tale from Pasadena, Texas

Just over two miles from me, behind the very large Second Baptist Church, is a relatively new subdivision. In this subdivision lived an old man. And his shotgun.

He heard something going on in the house next door one day. It sounded like glass breaking. He thought his neighbor was gone.

He did a smart thing. He called 911. He reported a burglary in progress. That was the last smart thing he did.

He stayed on the phone for six minutes. The police still hadn't come. One of the legacies of Mayor Manlove is a reduced police force.

While on the phone he worked himself up. He told the 911 operator he had his gun and he would stop those burglars. He wouldn't let them get away.

She told him no. Wait for the police. Don't go out there.

When it seemed like they were leaving he told her I am going to stop them. Kill them. She said don't do that.

"Don't go outside the house," the 911 operator pleaded. "You're gonna get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun. I don't care what you think."

"You wanna make a bet?" Horn answered. "I'm gonna kill 'em."

After the shooting, he re-dialed 911.

"I had no choice," he said, his voice shaking. "They came in the front yard with me, man. I had no choice. Get somebody over here quick."

Diamond Morgan, Diego Ortiz's wife and mother of their 8-month-old son, told TV station KTRK that she was stunned by Horn's comments on the 911 call.

"It's horrible," she said. "He was so eager, so eager to shoot."

But Horn "literally went to pieces" after the shooting, Lambright [Horn's attorney] said. He issued a statement a few days later saying the events would weigh heavily on him for the rest of his life.

Only after the shooting did the police show up. They questioned him and released him. Charges may be filed later.

Suppose the two men had had guns. Suppose the police thought Joe Horn was one of the men. Suppose he had just taken a description of the men and their vehicle to give police. There are many supposes.

In this case the two burglars were the only ones dead. He shot them leaving. His lawyer says they came toward Joe Horn, a large heavy-set man pointing a gun. This is the only legal defense against murder charges. His lawyer must say that Joe Horn was afraid for his life.

The matter has been referred to the grand jury. He could face murder charges. There is no law that says you have the right to kill people who robbed your neighbor in daylight and are going away. Since this is Texas, I expect the old man will be charged with a minor crime or no-billed.

Harris County is already the legalized murder capital in the country. Maybe Harris County or Texas will make an example of the old man. Support him as someone who should be a model for all citizens. Why put the burden on the state and use our tax dollars to kill criminals? Authorize all citizens to be the police, judge, jury and executioner. If you see any crime being committed - shoot. Sure would save a lot of time.

I used to go over in Pasadena to feed my ex-wife's cats when she was away. I don't think I would do that now. No telling if some other old man with a gun would think I was a burglar.

There was a demonstration and counter-demonstration in front of his house. Some people think he is a frightened, confused murderer. Some people think he is a racist. Some people think he is a hero.

Joe Horn is not home now. He has gone out of town and is trying to recover from killing the two. I am not sure he thinks what he did was right. There are plenty of people around here who do.

If I was a burglar I think I would make sure and take a gun next time.

GunGuys: License to murder.

Falkenberg: Self-Defense Unclear.

Leahy: Pasadena Protest heats up.

Lawyer: Pasadena man shot suspects out of fear

Chron: 911 tape

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Did a County Hack the Vote to Favor Developers?

There was a surprising result in an election in Pima County Arizona in 2006. There was a referendum on raising taxes to pay for $2 billion dollars in transportation bonds favored by developers. The measure passed despite trailing in pre-election polls and being defeated in prior attempts. The Tucson county is being taken to court to force a full investigation of the election results.

The Pima County Board of Elections will not conduct a full and complete audit of the election. Pima County is being sued by the local Democratic Party in an effort to force an examination of the voter database and electronic poll tabulator records. Pima County is vigorously protesting revealing any information on how secure the vote is and was. Other knowledge being sought is comparisons between database records and precinct records, detailed knowledge on how the system works, how easy an official can access and change the database and the programs, and all possible audit trails and machine access records.

There is a sworn statement that a long-time county official accessed the database with copies of precinct tally records before results were announced.

Steven Rosenfeld:

The county's Democratic Party and local election integrity activists believe pro-growth local officials may have tampered with the electronic vote count to win. They have sworn evidence a long-time county employee who tallies the electronic vote totals took home backup tapes of the 2006 vote and accessed those vote count files before the official election results were announced. It is seeking the complete electronic voting record to determine if vote count fraud occurred.

"We are asking to get a database," said William Risner, attorney for the Election Integrity Committee of the Pima Democratic Party. "It is not our goal (in this trial) to attempt to prove that anything has happened. We want the data that would help us show that. What we are trying to do is establish our right to get the data and do an analysis. And certainly the fact they are fighting tooth and nail suggests that they have something to hide."

Pima County officials say the election records are not public documents and releasing them could actually reveal ways for partisans or the public to alter future vote counts.

"If the Pima Democratic Party or any member of the public gets access to that programming information, they could affect the outcome of an election," said Amelia Cramer, Pima County's chief deputy attorney.

The litigation brought by the Pima County Democrats raises many issues that will be relevant for the 2008 presidential election, when much of the country will be voting on electronic voting systems. In the first instance, the suit highlights that electronic voting records are often withheld from public view until long after winners have been declared and recounts and other legal challenges have ended. There is no nationwide standard.

....Risner said he suspects the $2 billion transportation bond, which was opposed by the public in several past elections but favored by developers, could have been heading for defeat in 2006 -- and that would have been seen in glimpses of early results by county election officials. That knowledge could have prompted an election staffer to alter the vote-counting software to change the election outcome, he said.

"What is important politically here is the growth industry with the new subdivisions and land speculators," Risner said. "When you are looking at a simple flip reversal (of the voting results), one of the ways to do that is just simply have the machines read 'yes' votes as 'no' votes, and vice versa."

It is extremely easy to change the votes in the personal computer programs that tabulate county and state level votes if you have access to the computers. This was shown in Houston on the legal hack-the-vote demonstration to correct election mistakes. This does not require some complex computer expert hacking - just access to the computer and a little knowledge which a high level election insider could have. This is also the most direct threat to fair elections, dishonest county officials, not the almost nonexistent illegal voters.

If you are a candidate in a heated race with a close result demand a full audit recount, comparing precinct machine totals to the database and do not accept just a database and provisional ballot recount.

It has also been demonstrated on TV and film it takes a minute to change votes without leaving an audit trail on the almost universally used GEM system. The film Hacking Democracy demonstrated numerous ways to change and hack election results taking just a few minutes or less. The one I find most compelling is a county official bypassing the Gem software and changing the ACCESS database file directly. Quick, easy, no audit trail. Some counties are now disabling ACCESS on PC's containing the vote-counting software but a Visual Basic program would also work. This could have easily been prevented by securing or encrypting the data but the systems seemed designed to be easily hacked. The film also documents county officials in Florida and Ohio violating federal law on 2004 election recounts.

Who votes controls nothing, the one who counts the votes controls everything. Open source software, encrypted and secure vote totals, and transparent vote counting procedures are needed now.

NYT - Is Texas Education Moving Back to the Dark Ages?

It was especially disturbing that the agency accused Ms. Comer — by forwarding the e-mail message — of taking a position on “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.” Surely the agency should not remain neutral on the central struggle between science and religion in the public schools. It should take a stand in favor of evolution as a central theory in modern biology. Texas’s own education standards require the teaching of evolution.

Those standards are scheduled to be reviewed next year. Ms. Comer’s dismissal and comments in favor of intelligent design by the chairman of the state board of education do not augur well for that review. We can only hope that adherents of a sound science education can save Texas from a retreat into the darker ages. - NYT editorial

N.I.E.: Iran halted Nuclear Weapons Program 4 years ago UPDATES

The United States declassified National Intelligence Estimate states with "a high degree of confidence" that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program years ago. If it restarted it the earliest possible weapons deployment would be around five years, more likely around ten years. “We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015.”

Loud expletives are being heard from the VP's office.

Added: Kevin points out Bush and Cheney have known about this as they tried to push for war. Is Kevin correct that this NIE is only released now because of very strong Democratic pressure? Matt notes in 2003 when Iran stopped its nuclear program it made a big diplomatic push to work with the United States on a new relationship. The administration decided they liked their tough guy rhetoric better than real progress and rejected Iran's overtures.

Time surprisingly concludes from a CIA connection that Bush leaked the report because he no longer wants to attack Iran. This report now stops the rabid warhawk neo-cons in their tracks.

Iran came up in the Democrat's Nice Polite Republicans radio debate today. Hillary was the loser. NPR debate online. Edwards the debate winner. Transcript.

Five stages of wingnut grief over a lost war.

We know that Cheney and some rabid Republican officials were pushing the "Iran almost has a nuke, attack now" line. E&P points to the media pundits doing the same. Kenneth Pollack, not surprisingly, made an ass of himself on Iran as well as Iraq. Of course, the right blogs were even worse. Most can't let a week go by without urging killing someone and Iran was a favorite target.

UPDATES: More Bush lies, lies, lies. - Why Glen Beck is the new media darling, "Bush has Abraham Lincoln-like honesty."

Cheney blocked this new NIE for a year. Michael McConnell covered up for Bush-Cheney on this estimate to Congress.

BTW, how is Bush/Cheney's other war going? Iraq government fragments further.

Can we concentrate on our real problems for awhile and have the media ignore these always wrong idiots? Or can we simply start impeaching the ones in the White House?

Late Update because I don't want to start a new post. Hersh: Cheney knew and kept NIE bottled up.

A brief update on Time magazine lies

Time demonstrates how it is the Fox News of news weeklies.

There is no word in its pages of the firestorm that erupted over Joe Klein's lies about FISA legislation despite the many written responses recieved. There is a who's who of knowledgeable people responding it ignored.

As expected, Republican Howie Kurtz of the Washinton Post and CNN and Sunday talk fests, who is the most prominent and senior media critic, also has ignored this matter.

Simple Slogans for Simple Voters

"... the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious. In the long run only he will achieve basic results in influencing public opinion who is able to reduce problems to the simplest terms and who has the courage to keep forever repeating them in this simplified form despite the objection of the intellectuals." - Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

I was watching the fascinating documentary "... So goes the nation" about the 2004 election as seen at ground zero in Ohio. This has been playing on IFC. Ana Marie Cox in Time magazine summarized the main simple point about the movie - "stay on message, stay on message, don't screw up, and stay on message" should be drilled into campaigns and candidates.

There is a small percentage of people who are hard-core Republicans. For example, Ben Stein cried when Nixon resigned. Yet most people are much better than that. Instead a majority of the American voters are gullible, which is a much better word than idiots. How gullible do you have to be to vote for Dubya twice? Pretty damned gullible. How gullible do you have to be to think Bush was a bigger war hero than Kerry? Pretty damned gullible. How gullible do you have to be to think Bush really cared about abortion and stopping gay marriage and would fight for those causes? Pretty damned gullible.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Clean Coal? Dirty Lies.

You have probably already seen TV and print advertisements for clean coal technology.

There will be more.

Don't believe them.

The coal industry is in a panic because large coal plants in the United States are starting to be cancelled. They emit too much pollution and they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide which will be classified as a pollutant. From The Progress Report:

The tide is steadily turning against coal. In the past 18 months, "about a dozen states including Texas, Florida and Oklahoma also have rejected plans for 22 new coal-fired power plants." This week, Google also announced that it plans to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" to "develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal."

The coal industry ads use scare tactics of various kinds and always say there are new technologies like liquid coal that can solve America's energy needs. The truth is liquid coal would produce twice as much carbon dioxide as gasoline at a higher cost and consume massive amounts of water.

Kansas has seen a particularly dirty lies ad campaign from the coal industry claiming the decision to cancel a large coal power plant would lead to more U.S. natural gas imports from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. We import no natural gas from those countries.

Part of the dirty campaign the coal industry is running is funding global climate change deniers and ads dismissing the environmental threat.

We need to retrofit existing coal plants to make them much cleaner and reduce CO2 emissions but new plants using coal will have steep hurdles to meet to be acceptable.

Pasadena Pulls TV Coverage of Council Meetings

After complaints that candidates running for mayor on the council or appearing before city council were getting free publicity, Mayor Douglass has suspended broadcasts until after the election. The Pasadena Citizen had asked the Texas State Attorney General to rule on the free coverage for some candidates.

The Citizen has more.

Letters to the Citizen has more.

I had more here and here.

I think it would be nice if Pasadena picked someone other than Harrison or Isbell for mayor. The long political dynasties and feud has gone on long enough.

I am not ready to endorse David Stroder but Ralph Riggs is a fresh, smart, responsible new face. Isbell is still favored to be in a runoff with another candidate, but has a chance of avoiding a runoff.

The Pasadena Citizen is slow to move these stories online, due to lack of staff I imagine. I would encourage them to look at Fort Bend Now, which has decided to stay open and expand.

Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement

After decades spent battling gender discrimination and inequality in the workplace, the feminist movement underwent a high-level shake-up last month, when 53-year-old management consultant Peter "Buck" McGowan took over as new chief of the worldwide initiative for women's rights.

McGowan, who now oversees the group's day-to-day operations, said he "couldn't be happier" to bring his ambition, experience, and no-nonsense attitude to his new role as the nation's top feminist.

"All the feminist movement needed to do was bring on someone who had the balls to do something about this glass ceiling business," said McGowan, who quickly closed the 23.5 percent gender wage gap by "making a few calls to the big boys upstairs." "In the world of gender identity and empowered female sexuality, it's all about who you know." - The Onion

I note that Ms. Edwards and Ms. Obama were gracious in the organization's not selecting their husbands during the presidential primary campaign season.

Also Entire Blogosphere stunned by weekend post.

Reckless even deliberate deceit in National Review

After leading a campaign against supposed errors in a military story in The New Republic for months, it's revealed The National Review Online has been covering up even more blatant lies in its military reporting.

For months reporters in Lebanon have been communicating with the National Review that reports it had from a blogger were fabrications. They were ignored. Finally, as they begin to show up in print, NRO issues a non-specific acknowledgement of possible errors by its brave reporter. These errors were blatant, extensive and could easily cause harm to other journalists. They make the TNR mistakes pale in comparison. The blogger invented over 4,000 terrorists up out of whole cloth to push the neo-con agenda. He has yet to apologize, NRO praises him.

What do you want to bet that the NRO lies are ignored in the So-Called-Liberal-Media that extensively covered the TNR controversy?

See Glenn Greenwald for the details. He notes that even Michelle Malkin now criticises the lies and mistakes in the reporting.

ADDED - John Cole has his thoughts. Matthew Yglesias posts the NRO editor's excuse, "Arabs lie." Funny how a white neo-con blogger lying gets excused by saying its because Arabs lie.

Matt writes The National Review and The Weekly Standard lie quite often, why should the NRO war blogger be any different?

Texas Round-Up 21

It's Monday, and that means it's time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Also, as a special note, the Texas Progressive Alliance would like to announce that the time has come to announce its 2007 Texan of the Year. This year's Texan of the Year process will be a little different than in years past. We've got a full slate of Texas Silver Stars (our Honorable Mentions), and four runner-ups (Texas Gold Stars) and, of course, a Texan of the Year. We'll start by announcing the Texas Silver Stars on Friday, December 7. Then, each day from December 10 through December 13 we'll announce a Gold Star, followed by our Texan of the Year on Friday, December 14. So be sure to check your favorite TPA blog starting this coming Friday to see who our picks are for our Texan of the Year!

What happens when it rains and containers holding lethal chemicals overflow into creek beds? See How Are Injection Well and Gas Coupling Inspections Alike? for another example of RRC negligence that puts Texans at risk. Brought to you by TXsharon at Bluedaze.

Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left shares his memories of loved one lost to AIDS in his World AIDS Day diary and podcast.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News observes the devolving of Texas Education.

Jaye at Winding Road asks "What if abortion is outlawed in a Republican administration?"

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men informs you that when it's the National Football League versus Big Cable, the only loser is you.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the Interim Charges for committees of the Texas House in the 80th Legislature in three posts, as well as Tom Craddick's views on the charges.

The Texas GOP is gearing up a sophisticated voter suppression effort for the 2008 elections. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs forwards the Lone Star Project's comprehensive report.

The Texas Cloverleaf tells us that TxDOT can no longer plead poverty! It just received a Christmas gift of $3.197 Billion from NTTA for the rights to build SH 121 Toll.

Hal at Half Empty reports that the Republican Party of Fort Bend County has taken a radical shift to the right as neoconservative evangelicals have taken over their county party leadership.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos looks at the mess Texas Education Agency has become with TEA: We must remain neutral on junk science theory. This should be enough to make parents either vote or move to get their kids out of the Texas school systems.

Matt Glazer at Burnt Orange Report talks about the Texas Internet Revolution and the good publicity TexBlog PAC has been getting recently.

Stunned about the tuition increases at UT Law? So was Closet Purist at McBlogger who takes a detailed look at how UT Law compares to Harvard and Yale and asks, what do you get for the money?

You may have heard the right-wing echo chamber saying that the surge is working in Iraq, or that things are going better now. Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal gives us the real deal in "Some Perspective on the Surge."

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that federal rules allow ferry security guards to sleep on the job. Republicans say they care about security, but prove they don't.

Off the Kuff exercises his privilege as a blogger to nitpick an article about the rise of the netroots in Texas.

Eye On Williamson takes a look at the retirement of Rep. Mike Krusee in Why We Won't Have Mike Krusee To Kick Around Anymore.

Added - Texas Progressive Alliance blog BlueBloggin is also not happy with the lack of detail and fiscal responsibility in Hillary's policy proposals and not happy with CNN - Clinton's News Network.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Pasadena/La Porte/League City Area Christmas Events

There is a large biker, auto, truck, Marine, Toys For Tots event Saturday December 8 at the Pasadena Fairgrounds. A Toys For Tots Toy Run will start in League City and head to Pasadena with hundreds of vehicles.

2007 is the 60th anniversary of the USMC Toys for Tots Foundation!! Home Page of the Toy Run.

That is the same day that just over a mile away San Jacinto College Gaming Society is having their boardgame Christmas event. This takes place in the Student Union Building after 4 PM. I imagine there will be some Liars or Pirates Dice games. I'll bring 1960: The Making of the President.

The following Saturday, December 15th there is a Christmas Open House at the Pasadena Heritage Society's Pomeroy House.

There is a Christmas Parade in Baytown down Texas Street on the 7th.

Deer Park has a lot of events including sleigh rides Dec 19 -22.

Republicans say they are mentally secure and don't have any faults

A "No Sh*t, Sherlock" moment.

The further devolving of Texas education

The Texas Education Agency forced its science curriculum director to resign in a show of strength by its right Christian political leadership. Too bad these idiots are in charge of educating Texas children. The science director's crime, forwarding a link announcing a presentation by a leading university critic of "Intelligent Design" and the politics behind creationism by another name. Ms. Chris Conner was ordered to resign or be fired.

Political appointees of Perry and the elected board are turning the agency into a little Christian fascist Hell. Staff are now not allowed to leave the building or communicate without permission. Next year the Texas Board of Education will review the state science curriculum and set standards for classroom instruction and textbook selection. A recent appointee coming from the Bush administration, Lizzette Reynolds, led the charge to get the heretic fired.

Half Empty: TEA clearing path toward teaching creationism.

People's Republic of Seabrook in exile: I miss the dumbness of Texas.

Austin-American Statesman:

Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which sent the original e-mail to Comer announcing the event, said Comer's situation seems to be a warning to agency employees.

"This just underscores the politicization of science education in Texas," Scott said. "In most states, the department of education takes a leadership role in fostering sound science education. Apparently TEA employees are supposed to be kept in the closet and only let out to do the bidding of the board."

The New York Times: Evolution debate leads to ouster.

Capitol Annex: Her crime, sending this email:

I thought that you might like to know that Barbara Forrest will be speaking on “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” in Austin on November 2, 2007. Her talk, sponsored by the Center for Inquiry Austin, begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Monarch Event Center, Suite 3100, 6406 North IH-35 in Austin. The cost is $6; free to friends of the Center.

In her talk, Forrest will provide a detailed report on her expert testimony in the Kitzmiller v. Dover School Board trial as well as an overview of the history of the “intelligent design” movement. Forrest is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University; she is also a member of NCSE’s board of directors.

Huffington Post, Zach Marks: Hey Science, Don't Mess With Texas.

Pharyngula: The Letter That Frightened Texas Education.

Austin-American Statesman Editorial:

Is this state’s education agency being driven by a political orthodoxy so fierce that it dumped its science director for passing along a harmless e-mail? It’s possible.

Why would the TEA be so riled at forwarding the location of an address by that speaker? Perhaps because the speaker was an expert on and would talk about the Dover case. In the Dover case, a Federal court ruled "We have concluded that intelligent design is not science, and moreover that intelligent design cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."

Update The Carpetbagger Report: Some advice, get out of Texas now.

New New York Times: Science Director forced to resign for supporting current Texas education standards.