You can't just blame government

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

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

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

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

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

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

In what Alternate Universe are health reform critics living?

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

Presented by Online Education

In Praise of Artistic Nudes

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

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

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

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

More Criticism of SuperFreakonomics

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:

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

Harris County Voting Info

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

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.