Life Its Ownself

Three years

2011-12-18T08:12:00.006-06:00

It has been three years since I posted on this here blog. My reasons for abandoning my scribblings have been various. I took on a new job, one which raised my visibility in certain small corners of the political world, with the perceived danger that my ramblings would be mistaken for official policy. I had other outlets for expressing my opinions, including a Facebook page on which I amassed a considerable coterie of "friends" and, for a while, a radio show. I had less time to write this kind of writing.

The passing of Christopher Hitchens, however, has woken me from my slumber, however briefly. I met him in, I think, 2007 when he was on his book tour for "god Is Not Great." He engaged in a genial debate with Marvin Olasky, inventor of the phrase "compassionate conservativism" and a former Bush apparatchik. I say "genial" because Olasky's advocacy of the proposition "religion does more good than bad" was so tepid as to make me wonder whether he believed his own bullshit. I suspect he feared - knew - that were he to attempt an actual defense of the role of religion in Bush Administration debacles like pregnancy crisis centers, the war in Iraq, and other "faith-based initiatives," he would be eviscerated by Hitchens, who bantered good-naturedly with Olasky and moderator Evan Smith, but exuded a leonine alertness for opportunities to advance the thesis of his book's subtitle: "Religion Poisons Everything."

After the 'debate,' he signed books and chatted up the crowd. When I told him that I'd been a monk for ten years but was now somewhere between agnosticism and atheism, he was genuinely curious and spent about five minutes in conversation with me. I suspect he had many such conversations on his book tour.

Here's something else: when I was keeping this journal before, my goal was to be widely read. I hoped to publish ideas that were interesting enough, and frequently enough, that I would gain a readership. Now, I feel a little differently. The desire to write has been focused inward: to let me tell myself my own story. As I grow older, I find myself looking backwards more, wanting to recount the moments that formed me, wanting to tell the story of my life.

More on that soon. For now, I mourn the passing of a great intellect and fantastic writer.

Ed Sills On The Election

2008-10-31T17:09:00.004-05:00

Ed Sills is a good friend who covered Texas politics for the San Antonio Express-News before becoming communications director for the Texas AFL-CIO in the mid-1990s. He's an astute observer of Texas politics. He's written an interesting essay laying out his optimism about next Tuesday. Here it is, reprinted in full:

If It Looks, Acts and Quacks Like a Big Turnout…
I dislike polls, not pollsters. Pollsters are great folks, usually smart and often brilliant. But the best of them will tell you that even if they are absolutely scrupulous in all their endeavors, accuracy depends on the turnout models they choose to employ and the vagaries of the human condition.
Sure, pollsters will have the right results, on average, but so will anyone who observes politics carefully, studies districts and makes note of trends. The monkeys trying to type Shakespeare will be right half the time, too. Most national polls now show Barack Obama winning the presidency – a stable prediction for the last few weeks – but the results range from well within the margin of error to well into the double digits. In 2008, polling remains an inexact science and anyone who relies to a moral certainty on the polls deserves the results when they don’t pan out.
Early vote totals, however, are not a poll. In pivotal state after pivotal state, Democrats are turning out early in larger numbers than Republicans, and those votes are in the bank going into Tuesday’s elections. I am a big fan of Ockham’s Razor when it comes to political observation; you don’t make things more complicated than necessary when trying to figure out what is happening. Voters from the two major parties don’t “take turns” to the degree that GOP scenarios for national victory suggest. More likely, we have seen most of the eager partisans from both sides cast ballots so far and we will see traditionalists who like to vote on Election Day and those who were undecided on one or more races go to the polls on Tuesday.
I’m no non-partisan – we should all be hopeless romantics when it comes to big elections -- and recognize that sometimes hopes and wishes overtake the data for anyone rooting for a candidate. For that reason, I will stay out of the business of predicting a winner in any specific race in this forum, except to say this: We are probably in for some shockeroos next Tuesday.
Here are a few observations that don’t touch on the actual likelihood of any one candidate’s victory:
1) Tuesday will be a late night in the presidential contest and many Texas races – not necessarily because the results will be in doubt but because at least in urban and suburban areas the lines are going to be so long that polls won’t actually close until well after the official 7 p.m. deadline, when anyone in line still gets to vote;
2) The early vote turnout in the top 15 counties is up 50 percent from 2004 and, based on anecdotal evidence of huge turnouts today, looks like it might end up close to half of the 7.4 million Texans who voted in the entire 2004 election. Can that pace keep up? Almost certainly not, because early voting has accelerated in popularity every election. Shaving off fractions, in 1996 the early vote in the top 15 counties was 16 percent of the overall total; in 2000, it was 24 percent; in 2004, it was 32 percent. If that pattern follows and early voting in those counties becomes 40 percent this year, it would not be a shocker. Do the math: If 3.7 million is 40 percent of the vote total, we could be looking at a total Texas turnout of 9.25 million, or 68.5 percent, meaning the winner of the presidential contest will almost certainly have to break George W. Bush’s vote-harvesting record of 4.52 million in 2004 just to get the victory. Needless to say, the turnout could end differently if these assumptions are wrong, but my gut says to take the “high” over the “low” bet on this one. At the levels of turnout we have seen in early voting (which confirm the big turnout in the primary elections), surprises become possible throughout Texas. The voter suppression programs simply aren’t working in 2008;
3) African-American turnout in Texas will set all sorts of records and sway the results in Harris County. Participation levels among African-Americans have been good to bordering on excellent around the state in recent elections, and Obama’s candidacy is producing a blowout turnout across the nation in this demographic. Earlier today in Georgia, hours’ worth of lines were extending out the door in minority precincts, where nearly half the electorate had already voted going into today and 35 percent of that vote was estimated to be African-American, compared to 25 percent in the 2004 election. Harris County, where one-third of all voters had cast ballots going into today, has trounced its past early voting performance. The improvement in Harris County’s early vote this year over 2004 is second only to Fort Bend County, and the makeup of the turnout has prompted long-time observers to posit significant advantages to date among Democratic primary voters. It’s not a stretch to suggest that a big chunk of this improvement in performance comes from African-American voters who are overwhelmingly favoring Obama and other Democrats. And Harris County will cast, by far, more ballots than any other county in Texas.
4) Hispanic turnout is not as low as the early-vote comparisons might indicate. While the raw early vote totals in Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo and Nueces counties lag the other 11 biggest counties, voters in those counties, too, are casting early ballots at a record pace. Nueces and Hidalgo counties are each more than 40 percent above their early-vote totals for 2004. In the end, the Hispanic vote will be a bigger factor than ever;
5) Barring a calamity between now and Tuesday, this will be the first election since 1992 in which dire economic straits will be the clear No. 1 issue at the polls, with everything else a distant second. Yesterday’s report that a major measure of American productivity actually went down over the last three months couples with the continued fallout over the collapse of financial institutions and growing numbers of layoffs. As the price of oil sinks, Texans are slowly realizing -- but maybe not realizing fully by Election Day – that we are not immune to the downturn. John McCain was onto something when he elevated Joe the Plumber, country singer, to mythic levels. (My suggestion for Joe’s first single: “I’m Always on a Train Out of Town”). Unfortunately for McCain, Obama has fully anticipated the significance of economic issues to this election for the last two years;
6) I can’t speak for Republicans, but my hunch is that the GOP weekend turnout program is in place, ready to go and will succeed at reaching the Republican base. I can’t speak for Democrats, either, but the single-mindedness of this year’s get-out-the-vote operations is unprecedented. For the first time since the days of Jimmy Carter, the Democratic presidential nominee has played a major role and has spent money to organize new voters. The giant turnout in March, aided by both the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, was no accident, and everyone didn’t just forget about it afterward and go home, as county conventions strained building capacities and voters carried their newfound activism into the summer and fall. Texas is Texas, but Democrats have a chance to demonstrate how relativity works on turnout numbers;
7) Though the buzzards have not yet gotten within pecking distance, signs of defeat for McCain in the conservative media are not hard to find. George Will, Peggy Noonan and other reliable Republicans jumped ship weeks ago. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel, not a liberal by any stretch, today wrote: “All eyes are on Tuesday. For the GOP, the real question is Wednesday. That’s the day the party will survey the damage of the 2008 election, and have to decide what it wants to be….” When discussion on the right of whether Sarah Palin is the one for 2012 overwhelms whether McCain is the one for 2008, you know the Republican tea leaves are set to “ghastly”. That said, the narrowing in some polls, the long-simmering thirst in the Democratic Party and the possibility that the GOP is playing possum all but promise an all-out effort through the last minutes of voting on Tuesday. My side has seen enough false omens to create a new art form in the field of divination;
8) At what level can a national trend penetrate Texas, which is in the top five Republican performers of the last 15 years? Sen. John Cornyn clearly thinks he has the win in the bag, because he has never gone negative and that is contrary to his history as a campaigner. Rep. Rick Noriega, Cornyn’s challenger, had no money for the kind of air blitz Cornyn has bought, but then again, he hasn’t spent TV time wandering like a hermit near canyons, among cow patties and out of Shepler’s. Look at the front page of Cornyn’s web site. It’s the incumbent dressed like a cowboy hanging with horses. I like most cowboys and all horses, but in a campaign that has the run of the mass media, the aversion in ad after ad to placing the senator with other people ought to be raising eyebrows. Noriega, for his part, has dramatically improved his ability to connect with people throughout the campaign, though he didn’t have the means to connect with 13.5 million of them;
9) In the aggregate, the Texas House situation is as well studied as any in recent years. The Democrats have six or so especially difficult seats to defend, but also have potential pickups in many more seats. Everyone is looking at the same 20 to 30 contests. If 2008 is like most elections, Texans will pick and choose and the partisan breakdown may be subject to rolls of the statistical dice in more than one election. If this election is like, say, the 1994 one because of the character of the turnout, however, Republicans may be sitting around wondering where it all fell apart (just as Democrats did when Jack Brooks, Carl Parker and a host of others bit the dust in my first headachy election as a union communicator);
10) This is a historic year. Really. The upset nomination and ascension to the “favorite” position of Obama has made a deep mark on American politics, however 2008 ends. (And, based on the playing field of the final weeks – dominated by Bush states like North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Indiana, segueing into states like Georgia and Arizona – it has the appearance of ending well for Obama.) The trials and tribulations of the economy are reaching historic levels and the international situation is perilous. The next president will almost certainly face the ancient curse of living in interesting times. How historic the election will be in Texas depends, as always, on the turnout. If the magnetic draw of the choices in this election accelerates demographic trends already in place, Tuesday’s election in Texas will be closely analyzed for many years to come.

Go With God, Fred Baron

2008-10-30T23:54:00.006-05:00

Fred Baron passed away this afternoon at the age of 61 of, according to the Dallas Morning News, "complications of cancer."

There is some bitter irony in that, for Fred spent most of his adult life helping people deal with those "complications." Fred built his law practice fighting "toxic torts" -- a term that did not exist when he started representing workers from shipyards, petrochemical facilities and chemical plants who'd contracted asbestosis and other diseases. He discovered that those industries knew of the dangers of the carcinogens they used -- in some cases for many years. He helped the law to evolve, forcing courts to recognize and compensate for new dangers and new injuries, and paving the way for the society-wide attack on asbestos poisoning we've seen in the last 20 years. He was one of the best trial lawyers, ever.

In the spring of 1986, after my first year of law school, I was recruited to be a summer intern in Fred's Dallas office. They flew me up there and I spent a day with Fred and some of the other lawyers. Fred was the lawyer I wanted to be: smart, passionate about the law, ambitious to succeed for his clients, but charming and funny even under pressure. In the end, I turned down the internship and spent the summer with a law firm I already knew in San Antonio. I've wondered more than once how different my life might have been had I accepted the offer.

Over the years we stayed in touch. As his practice grew, so did his horizons. He rose in the ranks of the trial bar, eventually becoming the President of the American Association for Justice. He also became a significant contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. I was working for Governor Ann Richards and, later, Senator Rodney Ellis, and Fred was a loyal friend to both of them.

By the early 2000s, he'd move beyond his law practice and devoted more of his prodigious energies to progressive politics. He was the principal fundraiser for John Edwards in 2004, and then in the Kerry-Edwards campaign. He also was campaign chair for Edwards' 2008 presidential run. But that was the tip of the iceberg. He made enormous contributions to the Texas Democratic Trust, which funded party-building efforts here in Texas and helped turn the Democratic Party around.

His generosity was not limited to the Democrats. He also gave generously of his time and resources to progressive causes. While I ran the Southwest region office of People for the American Way, Fred was a constant source of strategic counsel and enthusiastic support for our efforts to build a grassroots activist network here. He and Lisa hosted a fundraiser for PFAW at their Dallas home featuring Alec Baldwin.

Fred and Lisa were enthusiastic members of the philanthropic community. When we scheduled the event with Alec Baldwin, we had to try for several dates. The symphony was having a benefit at the house this night, we were told. The homeless shelter was having an event this other night, we found out. It was amazing.

My condolences to Lisa and her family. Fred will be missed by all of us.

Opie And The Fonz Come Out For Obama

2008-10-25T18:55:00.002-05:00

Ron Howard, Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler reprise their characters to encourage Americans to vote for Barack Obama. Way cool!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Does Austin Have A Cool Mayor, Or What?

2008-10-16T20:26:00.002-05:00

Austin Mayor Will Wynn shakes his groove thing.

Join the KOOP Family!

2008-10-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

KOOP is a non-profit organized by members of the Austin community to provide eclectic, locally-produced music and public affairs shows, particularly the kinds of programming you cannot find on any other Austin radio station. KOOP is owned and operated by and for the people of Austin.

I have the pleasure of hosting a weekly radio show called "Texas Politics Today" on KOOP. The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 Central time, and is the only show of its kind in the Lone Star State.

Our financial support comes from the community. Twice a year, we hold membership drives that allow you to become a part of the KOOP family. As a member, you get to vote on KOOP's leadership and the overall direction of the station.

Basic membership is only $25. Our popular Sustaining Member level is only $10 a month for one year. We also have memberships at the $50, $75, $250 and $500 levels. At the $50 level and above, we offer terrific gifts to thank you for your support. Check out the chance to get a membership in the Blanton Museum or two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines at http://koop.org/#raffles. You can become a KOOP member by calling 512-472-5667 or clicking on the Big Donut at http://www.koop.org/. Tell them Texas Politics Today sent you!

And remember, all contributions to KOOP are tax-deductible!

Report: Sarah Palin Acted Improperly, Illegally

2008-10-11T10:51:00.002-05:00

(Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report.)

The Washington Post, among others, is reporting that Sarah Palin acted, at best, improperly and, at worst, illegally in pressuring Walt Monegan to fire her sister's former husband, an Alaska state trooper.

A 263- page report released yesterday by the Alaska Joint Legislative Council found that, while Palin had legal authority to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan,

his dismissal came in part because he refused to remove her sister's ex-husband from the Alaska State Troopers.
Investigator Stephen Branchflower found evidence that Palin actively joined her husband, Todd, in pursuing a personal vendetta against the trooper and that she used state employees to try to settle a score in a bitter family feud.

The Joint Legislative Council is a bipartisan group of legislative leaders that acts on state issues during periods when the Alaska Legislature is not in session, much like our Legislative Budget Board. They hired investigator Stephen Branchflower (no relation to Ben's Longbranch Barbecue) to conduct the investigation. According to the Post,

Branchflower found evidence that Palin actively joined her husband, Todd, in pursuing a personal vendetta against the trooper and that she used state employees to try to settle a score in a bitter family feud.
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: To get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

I've read large chunks of the report, which can be found here. The impression I'm left with can best be summed up in the phrase former faith-based initiatives czar John DiIulio used to describe the Bush-Cheney-Rove White House: Mayberry Machiavellis. The picture of Sarah and "First Dude" Todd Palin that comes acoss is petty, vindictive, and not even remotely presidential.

Finally! The Invite I've Been Waiting For

2008-10-09T12:01:00.004-05:00

I just received -- I am not making this up -- an invite from Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie to attend the invitation-only debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on February 21, 2008. Actually, I am not invited to the event; I am invited to participate in a drawing where I might get a ticket to the event. But I will enter the drawing and cross my fingers that I get selected.

The fact that the debate occurred almost eight months ago is not sapping my enthusiasm at all.

Dear fellow Democrat,
Democrats all across Texas are excited about the upcoming historic debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton. At a time when so many people have lost faith in our government thanks to the failed Republican policies of the Bush administration, our two outstanding candidates are ready to provide the change that Texas and America desperately need.
While seating at the debate is limited, the TDP has secured 100 debate tickets, which will be made available to the general public through a random drawing. The tickets will be evenly distributed between supporters of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, with some tickets going to undecided voters.
In order to be eligible for tickets, you must be a registered voter in the State of Texas. Names may be submitted for the drawing until 5pm on Monday, February 18th. Winners will be notified the next morning, and subject to the security requirements of the debate venue.

Second Debate: Behind the Post-Debate Numbers

2008-10-08T23:56:00.005-05:00

Last night, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for the second of their three debates, the "town hall" debate. A poll taken immediately after the debate by CBS and Knowledge Networks shows that undecided voters believe Obama "won" the debate, with 40% saying Obama did better and 26% saying McCain did. That, of course, was the one-liner that folks got about CBS's research effort.

But reading the poll results themselves was, to me, enlightening. CBS did before-and-after questions of 516 undecided voters. One question was whether the voters thought Obama "would make the right decisions about the economy." Before the debate, 55% thought Obama would make the rights decisions; afterwards, that number climbed to 68% -- 20 points higher than McCain's post-debate number.

On the question whether "he understand voters' needs and problems," the Obama-McCain contrast numbers soared from 59%-33% pre-debate to 80%-44% post-debate. Think of that bottom line: almost twice as many undecided voters think Obama "gets" them as think McCain does.

The McCain attack since this summer has been the Barack Obama is "not one of us" -- that he's exotic and unusual; inexperienced and unprepared. These numbers show that the McCain meme is not working.

President Palin? 1-in-7 Odds

2008-10-03T20:23:00.002-05:00

Say what you will about Sarah Palin's performance in the vice-presidential debate last night. She did better than I expected. Of course, I expected her to spit up on herself, doggone it. She was evasive, uninformed, and out of her depth, but blustered through what had to be a terrifying evening for her.

The bottom line, though, is that she showed none of the gravitas we expect in our top-tier national leaders. She was cute and folksy, but persuaded few people she's ready to take the 3:00 a.m. phone call.

Her partisans argue, of course, that it doesn't matter. She's auditioning for the job of Vice President, after all, and the level of scrutiny does not have to be as high as with the presidency. That may be true, but not with the oldest person ever to run for a first term as president on her ticket.

Here's something interesting: according to the Social Security Administration's actuarial tables, the changes that John McCain will die during his first term in office are 1-in-7. That's the odds that your birthday this year will be on a Friday.

Feeling better about Palin?

Sarah Palin and the Bush Doctrine

2008-09-16T09:53:00.003-05:00

I saw this quote in John Cole's Balloon Juice blog and had to share:

And Sarah Palin is the distilled essence of wingnut. She has it all. She is dishonest. She is a religious nut. She is incurious. She is anti-science. She is inexperienced. She abuses her authority. She hides behind executive privilege. She is a big spender. She works from the gut and places a greater value on instinct than knowledge.

Pretty good summary, eh?

You Know You're In Trouble When ...

2008-09-01T16:51:00.004-05:00

... you're the vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party, with a strong record of family values rhetoric and related moral superiority, and you have to announce that your 17-year old daughter is unmarried and pregnant.

You know you're REALLY in trouble when you have to make the announcement in order to rebut rumors that you already covered for her by pretending to have delivered a child in April because THAT child was hers.

McCain Introduces Palin

2008-08-29T10:41:00.003-05:00

Watching John McCain introduce Sarah Palin. It turns out today is his 72nd birthday and her and her husband's 20th anniversary.
Audience applauds when he says something about sports ... apropos of nothing.
She speaks. Awful voice.
Five kids, including a son who's in the Army.
Telling her story. It's inspiring, but not at a national level. She's not running for Congress, for chrissakes.
Lots about ethics and corruption and integrity. She's on the wrong team and doesn't know it.
"Nobody more committed to change in American than John McCain?" Ex-squeeze me? It sounds like they are in denial.
Finally talks about McCain's toughness. Finally, an actual attempt to draw a distinction, not just gloss over their own record.
It sounds like she wrote her own speech, the kind the mayor of a town gives when he or she is introducing the candidate. Did the campaign even see this, much less write it?
"Nu-ku-lar" -- it's like a genetic aberration in the GOP.
She leads her own clapping, like she's the head cheerleader.
Reference to women's suffrage -- did the Republicans oppose it then?
Pays tribute to Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton, tries to put on their mantle.
If I'm a red-meat Republican in the audience or listening in on TV, my head must be ready to explode. She's bragged about being a union member, about having women on the ticket, etc.
Clearly appealing to women to abandon Obama and go with McCain.
"Thank you, and I God Bless America."

Overall impression: LIGHTWEIGHT.

Sarah Palin To Be McCain's Running Mate

2008-08-29T10:04:00.005-05:00

The Washington Post and the Burnt Orange Report -- two of the most trusted names in political journalism -- are reporting that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be introduced later this morning as John McCain's running mate. Chris Cillizza thinks Palin, although she is anti-choice, will give disaffected women an alternative to Obama and let the PUMAs vent their anger by voting Republican in the most important election of their lifetimes. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Matt Glazer thinks Palin ends Republican ability to talk about Obama's inexperience and opens new vistas of Republican corruption for public inspection.

In 1984, when Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate in a battle against Ronald Reagan, there were a lot of platitudes about the gesture to women, but ultimately her selection was viewed as a stunt, a "Hail Mary" to try and shake up the dynamics of the election. Is this the same?

I imagine we'll hear a lot about the "culture of corruption" in Alaska GOP politics. I also imagine we'll hear a lot about the enormous subsidy that the people of the United States pay to Alaska. "Hey, hard-working single mother in Ohio, how do you like that we export a ton of your taxes to Alaska every year?"

"Knock, Knock" "Who's There?" "Gustav"

2008-08-29T09:56:00.002-05:00

Hurricane Gustav now looks to be on a path to a) grow stronger and b) hit the U.S. Gulf Coast somewhere near New Orleans within the next few days. Check out the map:

Post-Denver Thoughts

2008-08-29T09:34:00.003-05:00

I blogged about Barack Obama's terrific acceptance speech last night. Now, some concluding thoughts on this historic Democratic National Convention.

First of all, we should not forget how amazing the fact that Obama is the nominee is. Most people who will read this in an era when civil rights for blacks, while not perfectly realized (even today!), were established national policy. Most people in my generation grew up in world where no one thought a black person would be President in our lifetime. Yet, here we are. I'm very proud of how far the country has come in your lifetime.

Obama needed to do three things in his speech:

introduce himself and share his story for people who were paying attention for the first time;
set out some specifics of his agenda, partly because that's his job and partly to answer critics who say he's just oratory; and
show Democrats he can throw a punch.

I thought he did all three. Years from now, lines from the speech will be quoted as examples of great oratory.

The Republicans, who used to be masters of the staging and dramatics of political events, have nothing to compare with this. It's like we just saw a movie with DeNiro and Hoffman and Streep and Swank and they're doing a remake with Sandler and Van Damme. (Apologies to those who think Adam Sandler is the greatest actor of his generation, but I have a news flash: he's not.)
So their convention will seem dull by comparison, and it will be. Apparently their spin is that they WANT IT THAT WAY. Yeah, right ....

The Democrats should be as united as they can get. It's time for them to roll up their sleeves and bring the same passion, tireless effort and desire for change to the general election that they showed in the primaries.

Liveblogging Thursday night

2008-08-28T18:30:00.014-05:00

I'm going to live-blog the events in Denver tonight, with my TV mostly on MSNBC but also watching CNN and Fox.

6:30 -- will.i.am and john legend singing "Yes We Can." They sound wonderful. Their backing band is tight. They're trying to get the crowd to sing along, but either the TV mikes cannot pick up the singing or no one in Mile-High Stadium ever heard the song before. I think the latter is unlikely.

7:00 -- Sheryl Crow just finished her set. Man, she looks great. She sang some of her old classics, all with a message buried in the song or chorus:

"A change will do you good ... "

She also sang a cool song that had something about "out of your head and into your heart ... " Time for research.

Watching her, I am struck by how much the Tired Old White Guy (TOWG) chorus must hate all this. Buchanan, O'Reilly, Bill Bennett (I thought he was in jail), etc. -- they trash-talk Obama and the Democrats all they can, but underneath it all is a sense of being OUT OF IT.

UPDATE, 7:35 p.m.: Stevie Wonder on stage now. He sat there quietly for a minute or so, then said, "I love you," and the place erupted. Both CNN and MSNBC have cut away for him, although Fox is showing the O'Reilly show. O'Reilly is promising a new SERIES on how bad Barack Obama is, to debut on Fox on September 8. Really, O'Reilly?

UPDATE, 7:40 p.m.: Stevie Wonder singing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Wolf Blitzer and Donna Brazile dancing on CNN. No such luck with Chris Matthews and Norah O'Donnell, or the new kid on the block, Savannah Guthrie.

Meanwhile, on Fox, the TOWG chorus drones on -- O'Reilly interviewing Dark Prince Karl Rove. Obama's got problems, they intone, as 85,000 people dance to Stevie Wonder. Yutzes.

UPDATE, 7:45 p.m. -- Al Gore speaking.

"John McCain has promised to use the sam policies Bush did. Hey, I believe in recycling, but this is ridiculous!"

Frequent use of "George Bush and John McCain" as a formulation ... tying them together. Al's pretty feisty, and focused on environmental issues.

Like all the other speakers, Gore cannot resist describing McCain as "a friend" and "a good man." Last night, Pat Buchanan was fulminating about how the GOP will never, ever say a nice thing about Obama, and urging the Dems to get as aggressive. Is Buchanan right? Or is the Obama team reading new tea leaves that say personal sniping and bashing is counter-productive?

Gore sounds like he's rushing his speech ... comparing Obama to Lincoln -- Illinois politician, relatively inexperienced, respected for judgment and willingness to speak against the tide (Lincoln on the Mexican War, Obama on Iraq).

Maybe there's a reason. He ended at exactly 8:00 p.m. CDT.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m. -- Fox has Hannity & Colmes, and they're paying attention to Denver. Cutaway to Michael McDonald. Wow! I love Michael McDonald, but has he had a hit record in the last 20 years? 25? I loved his work with the Doobie Brothers -- he gave the band a whole new sound and probably the biggest hits of its career, but that was all late 1970s. Had some solo hits, too ... I lost track of him around 1983.

He can sing, though. "America the Beautiful." Sweet.

There's an Eisenhower up there .. speaking for Obama. The late President's grand-daughter. Quoting her grandfather, quoting Lincoln. Lincoln is a big theme tonight.

UPDATE, 8:16 p.m. -- David Gergen, charter member of the TOWG Chorus, yakking on CNN about how "the music's great, but I am glad Al Gore and Susan Eisenhower are adding some substance." Gergen agrees with me, though ... Gore was rushed and everyone's evoking Lincoln. OMG, I'm a Tired Old White Guy!!!!!

Ed Rollins now on CNN ... another TOWG.

Jesse Jackson on MSNBC, sounding like a parody of himself. If Obama is elected, what happens to the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons? We all know racial animosity continues to be a thread in the American tapestry, so what will their role be?

Paul Begala: "Susan Eisenhower does not look like someone out of a will.i.am video." Paul's dodging the TOWG bullet so far.

UPDATE: 8:22 p.m. -- The song I liked by Sheryl Crow was "Out Of Our Heads," and the YouTube video is here.

Joe Biden takes the stage at 8:23 CDT. "This is an open convention." (pointing at the sky.)

Fox airs a commercial from John McCain, congratulating Obama on a historic night. Check it out on McCain's website or right here:

Keith Olbermann has Obama's speech, and is praising its directness, its willingness to contrast himself with the GOP, Bush and McCain, and its specificity. 20 minutes to go ...

UPDATE, 8:45 p.m. -- Flipped over to CNN Headline News and Glenn Beck. Who the f**k is Glenn Beck and why does anyone care? He has former Republican hitman, now Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr on. Bob is angry tonight; the Ds and Rs are keeping him out of the debates. Bob wants to talk about HIS issues and wants a "reasonable criteria" for getting into them.

The whole feel of the conversation, when the other cable news networks are focused on Denver, is that Barr (and Beck) are OUT OF IT.

UPDATE, 8:56 p.m. --Dick Durbin introducing Barack Obama. "Four years ago, we couldn't pronounce his name." More comparisons to Lincoln. "Americans hungry for change, wanting a fighting chance." "Life has tested and prepared him to lead this nation."

Video .. David Straithairn narrating? It sounds like his voice .. rich and steady.

Nice piece about his grandparents ... his mom ... meeting Michelle ... his legislative accomplishments ... the girls ... his mom's passing ... tracing deep grooves in the American experience ... Message: he is ONE OF US.

UPDATE, 9:12 p.m. -- Obama strides on stage. Flashbulbs like crazy! Three minutes before he can start speaking. "With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States."

Thanks to Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden. Shout out to Michelle and his daughters.

UPDATE, 9:19 p.m. -- Going after Bush and the "failed politics of Washington."

(Speech text here ... ) "We love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say, 'eight is enough'." 75,000 people chant "eight is enough."

Nice to McCain, but he's voted with GWB 90% of the time. What kind of judgment is that? "I'm not ready to take a 10% chance on change." Drags Phil Gramm's carcass out and waves it for all .. the "nation of whiners" line. Tell that to the auto workers. Tell that to the military families. They're not whiners. They're the Americans I know.

"It's not that John McCain doesn't care; it's that he doesn't get it." "In Washington, they call this 'the ownership society.' What they mean is, 'you're on your own.' It's time for them to own their failure. That's why I'm running for President of the United States."

Evoking the stories of his family and the themes of the American Dream. Shot at McCain and "celebrity."

UPDATE, 9:30 p.m. -- Articulating a vision of government and America. "We are responsible for ourselves, but we rise and fall as one nation. I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. "

SPECIFICS:

Tax code changes to deter shipping jobs overseas, incentivize small businesses, cut taxes for 95% of all working families;

energy independence and alternative fuels ("drilling is a stopgap measure, not a longtime solution -- not even close"); re-tool auto industry to build more fuel-efficient cars, renewable energy;

education -- "I will not settle for an America where some kids do not have that chance;" college education for community service;

health care -- stop insurer discrimination against those who need health care the most; paid sick days/family leave;

families -- bankruptcy laws, equal pay for equal work, protect Social Security

budget -- close corpoate loopholes; fine-tooth comb on federal government; no 20th century bureaucracy

national security -- "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave he lives in." ROAR.

"We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past."

"I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future. "

New Politics --

Looking into the camera, gesturing for emphasis: "So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."

"We've lost our sense of common purpose, and that's what we have to restore." Hits the hot buttons ... abortion ... guns ... gays and lesbians ... immigration ...

"Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things. And you know what - it's worked before."

"This election has never been about me. It's about you!"

Finale .. reference to MLK and the March on Washington.

OUTRO MUSIC: Country music! Sharp!

UPDATE, 9:58 p.m. -- The outro song is "Only In America" by Brooks and Dunn.

Obama's, Biden's families on stage. How do you confetti and drop balloons in a 75,000-seat stadium?

Think about it: an African American is the nominee of a major political party to be the President of the United States. Wow.

Partying with the Johnsons

2008-08-28T09:39:00.000-05:00

Last night, the LBJ Foundation celebrated President Johnson's 100th birthday with a big barbecue on the ground of the LBJ Presidential Library at the University of Texas. Thousands of Texans ate Rudy's Barbecue, sipped iced tea and savored ice cream for dessert -- although, unfortunately, the ice cream had run out by the time I got there. Still, it was nice to see all the people there.

As dusk fell over Austin, the U.T. Tower lit up with "100" in a tribute to the lifelong Texan and former 36th President.

In the gathering dusk, the LBJ Library and the beautiful fountain in front of it looked lovely.

Happy Birthday, LBJ!

2008-08-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

Today is former President and legendary Texan Lyndon Johnson's 100th birthday. Growing up in Texas, he was one of my heroes. He was bigger than life and had a charismatic, fascinating history. Besides, his birthday was the same as mine.

I opposed the Vietnam War, but I think even then had some primal loyalty to Johnson as a Texan. In retrospect, I think he was one of the great Presidents of our nation's history, and I still consider myself a fan. I love to go out to the LBJ boyhood home in Johnson City or to the state and national park at the LBJ Ranch. I always try to stop by his grave under the spreading oaks next to the river and pay my respects.

"American Prayer"

2008-08-25T11:54:00.004-05:00

Explanation from The Huffington Post:

A new celeb-filled pro-Obama video is going viral. Titled "American Prayer," the song features lyrics by British artist Dave Stewart and features a slew of actors and
musicians, including Jason Alexander, Forest Whitaker, Macy Gray, Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Baez. Even Pamela Anderson and Perez Hilton make cameos.

Reason # 2,680 Why I Love Austin

2008-08-22T11:10:00.005-05:00

Austin is such a great political town. Last night, I went to an event hosted by former State Senator and LBJ School Dean Max Sherman and his wife Jean. The event was sponsored by a group called Austin Authors-in-House, run by Jan Williams, as a benefit for Texas Impact.

"Let's Talk Politics" was supposed to feature two of the architects of George Bush's (and, oddly enough, Ann Richards') fortunes, Matthew Dowd and Mark McKinnon, in a free-wheeling conversation about the fall elections moderated by Texas Monthly's Paul Burka. Sadly, Dowd was contractually obligated by his new masters at ABC News to sit in a chair and wait for Barack Obama to name his vice presidential candidate, which ABC News apparently thought was going to happen yesterday. It didn't, of course, (I'm still waiting for my text message) and so Dowd was reduced to writing a blog post.

Fortunately, historian and professor Douglas Brinkley was in town and filled in for the absent Dowd. For over an hour and a half, McKinnon and Brinkley shared thoughts, riffed off each other, and answered questions from Burka and the audience. Burka also pitched in his two cents on many subjects, particularly on Texas politics about which he is more informed that either of the others.

If I'm in the mood later, I'll share some of the gems from the evening. Here's a picture of the panel as they were being introduced.

From left: Mark McKinnon, Max Sherman, some guy, Paul Burka, and Doug Brinkley.

Joe Lieberman To Address Convention -- GOP, That Is

2008-08-21T05:53:00.003-05:00

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that Joe Lieberman will address the Republican National Convention in two weeks in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lieberman, who until 2006 was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Connecticut, will speak on the opening night of the convention. Says the Post, "His address on the opening night of the convention is intended to signal McCain's independence."

Lieberman was Al Gore's vice presidential candidate in 2000, but over the last years has devolved from independent to annoying to irrelevant in the Democratic Party. He is the Zell Miller of this year's GOP convention, and is being cast in Miller's role -- angry, divisive and in amazing lock-step with the entire GOP/conservative agenda. What independence?

Of course, it's the genius of the modern GOP that it will successfully frame Lieberman's lap-dog relationship with the Bush Agenda as a sign of independence. Lie to the American people about the rationale for invading Iraq? Check. Torture's OK, as long as we're the ones doing it? Check. Tax cuts for the wealthy will eventually close the deficit? Check.

These are the failed policies of the Bush years. McCain once opposed all of them -- unlike John Cornyn, who proudly embraced the Bush nonsense from Day One -- but has now climbed into Bush's lap to solidify the conservative movement's tepid endorsement of him. That's the narrative the Obama campaign must start talking about, and start talking about now.

Thomas Frank on "The Wrecking Crew"

2008-08-20T23:49:00.003-05:00

Four years ago, Thomas Frank wrote what many thought was the definitive book capturing the zeitgeist of George W. Bush' first term and the 2004 election. What's The Matter With Kansas? was part travelogue, part small-town journalism, part Big Picture politics. Frank traveled around his home state of Kansas, seeking an answer to the question: How have Republicans mastered the art of getting people to vote against their own interests? He examines the ability of the conservative movement and its embodiment, the modern Republican Party, to get voters focused on cultural issues to the exclusion of all else in their electoral decision making. He reports on how the Democratic Party has too often played into the conservatives' game. And he takes an elegiac look at the damage that a generation of conservative, free-market policy have wreaked on his homeland.

Appearing at Book People tonight, Frank said that the goal of his new book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, was to examine what happened when these same masters of campaigning try their hand at governing. The result, he says, is a disaster.

The conservative mindset, he says, glorifies the so-called "free market," arguing (with little evidence) that it is, in every case, superior to government at performing any function or addressing any ill. The laws of the free market are universal, resolute and ultimately beneficent. Government, in this worldview, hinders the efficient operation of free markets, sabotages the common weal, and creates its own constituencies determined to continue and even expand its reach.

It is to this life-and-death struggle against government and its apologists that the conservative movement -- which he calls "the organic embodiment of the American business community" -- has dedicated itself. In his presentation tonight, he quoted from his book the words of one Homer Ferguson, a president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in 1928:

The best public servant is the worst one. A thoroughly first-rate man in public service is corrosive. He eats holes in our liberties. The better he is and the longer he stays the greater the danger. If he is an enthusiast -- a bright-eyed madman who is frantic to make this the finest government in the world -- the black plague is a housepet by comparison.

Frank quoted Grover Norquist -- whom he called the "most brilliant political mind of the conservative movement," lamenting that liberals had no one of his caliber -- in 1984 urging conservatives to follow Josef Stalin's model in consolidating their hold on the apparatus of government. Norquist, of course, has famously said he wants to shrink government down to the size where he could "drown it in the bathtub."

What are the consequences of this approach? As Frank says in the book, "the chief consequence of conservatives' unrelenting faith in the badness of government is ... bad government." This is the end-product of the conservative ideology about government. And Frank took it a step further: for conservatives, bad government is an okay outcome. Why?

First, conservatives see, and definitely market, themselves as outsiders: they're never "in charge" and thus responsible for government's failings. If, as happened with Reagan in the 1980s and Bush in the 2000s, a conservative governing class screws up, that's because they're "impostors," not true to conservative ideals. REAL conservatives would have avoided those mistakes, they argue.

Second, public perception of government inefficiency paves they way for the preferred conservative solution to everything: out-sourcing. Out-sourcing allows the conservatives to boast of their "shrinking government" accomplishments (the Bush Administration proudly notes that the number of federal employees is at the lowest level since the 1950s) while the budget bloats up like a Macy's Thanksgiving parade balloon. More importantly, out-sourcing rewards the people who fund the conservative movement by giving them lucrative government contracts, often based less on competence or even low-bidding than on ideological and political loyalty to the movement.

Third, bad government feeds cynicism about government, and about civic engagement in general. This serves conservative ends: the less you're paying attention or the less you think you can do to change what's going on, the better off they are.

Frank's thesis is compelling, and his speech at Book People laid out his argument well. He spoke for about 35 minutes, then took about 20 minutes of Q&A.

The Wrecking Crew researches and lays out the argument I first heard from George Lakoff two years ago: that the incompetence (Katrina, the Iraqi occupation), venality (Duke Cunningham, Ken Lay) and corruption (Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay) we've seen from the Bushies is not an aberration; it is the logical result of the governing philosophy they've implemented.

It seems fitting that Frank spoke in Austin on the day that the Sunset Commission staff recommended abolishing the Texas Residential Construction Commission, created of, by and for the homebuilders to shield themselves from responsibility for their actions by creating an almost criminally-incompetent and hog-tied bureaucracy.

Netroots Natron 2008 in Austrin

2008-07-19T07:59:00.004-05:00

The Netroots Nation 2008 conference is in full swing this morning in Austin. It actually started sometime Wednesday evening with a party at the Cedar Door. Thursday night was a big night, with parties at the Club Deville and other locales. Friday night the big events were the GQ Magazine/Huffington Post party at Lambert's and the Daily Kos party at Maggie Mae's.

And then, of course, there was an actual convention, with keynoters and panels and interviews and speakers ... blah, blah, blah. I confess, I've not heard any of that. Today's speakers will include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President and current Chief Environmentalist Al Gore. I'll give them a listen.

I am posting pictures from the event on a Picasa web page here. Check back for updates. My favorite picture so far: David Kobierowski (my co-host on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY), Markos Moulitsas (of DailyKos fame) and me.

It's Time For Some Campaignin'!

2008-07-17T10:19:00.002-05:00

This is the latest from the nutty geniuses at JibJab. Did they catch the zeitgeist of the election and the essentials of the main characters? You decide. Comments, please.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Dilettantes on Parade

2008-07-12T10:30:00.005-05:00

I was listening to a report from NPR's senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli about the G-8 summit meeting in Italy this week, when she threw out an offhand reference to the fact that the White House's official briefing book for the event included a reference to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a "political dilettante." It also had this to say about Italy: "a country known for governmental corruption and vice." Not exactly something you'd find in the tourist guides, so I suppose it made sense to put it in a briefing book.

ABC News has the full story here. It sounds like the White House briefing book is being written by Wikipedia.

Berlusconi in pre-dilettante days, on a state visit to Washington in 2003. I forget who the guy on the right is.

Jesse Helms, 1921-2008

2008-07-06T07:03:00.003-05:00

Jesse Helms passed away on July 4, 2008. He represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2003, the longest any Senator from that state has served. He was also an asshole.

Helms deserves respect upon his passing, but he also deserves honesty about his virulent racism, which lasted long past its political shelf life or social acceptability. He was vigorous and unashamed in his defense of segregation and his own personal racism, and age did not give him wisdom.

Like other politicians, he was a master at cloaking his baser motives in high-minded rhetoric. In a 1959 op-ed piece, he wrote, ""Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?" Noble sentiments, until you realize that by "tyranny" he meant civil rights laws.

Rest in peace, Senator Helms. If there is a God, I hope He's black.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

2008-07-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

(Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report.)

I believe that the Declaration of Independence is one of the great political documents of all time. Apparently, many other people do; the Declaration is one of the most-imitated charters of human freedom in the world. Even the Texas Declaration of Independence borrows its structure, ideas and some specific statements from the document written during a sweltering summer of 1776 in Philadelphia.

The Declaration articulates not only a case for the separation of the colonies from the English homeland, but lays out a view of humankind and a description of the relationship between a people and its government that was, at the time, revolutionary:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Imagine Johnny Carson had a TV show in England in 1776. He'd have read that and said, "That's crazy stuff!" Unalienable rights, given by God and not the king? The people creating the State, and retaining the power to un-create it? The people's right and duty to have a government, as Barbara Jordan put it, "as good as its promise?" These ideas were staples of philosophical treatises, but the Declaration of Independence was the first major document in which they were the operating principles of a democracy.

As we celebrate the 232nd anniversary of our nation's founding, let's enjoy what a radical and amazing idea it was at the time -- and re-commit ourselves to the making an America as good as its promise.

This video made by Declare Yourself and Constitution Live and executive produced by the incomparable Norman Lear. Give it a watch and listen, and see if you're not inspired.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

The Real Deal on the Real ID Act

2008-07-01T13:14:00.007-05:00

(Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report.)

In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act, which (among other provisions) directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to meet a 2008 year-end deadline for completing 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Act also gave DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff broad authority to waive property rights, environmental, labor and other laws in order to get the job done. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case of Defenders of Wildlife vs. Chertoff, in effect legitimizing the huge grants of power given to DHS in the REAL ID Act.

You could spend hours reading up on the REAL ID Act and all its implications -- or you could listen to two very informative news programs on your local community radio station. This week, two of KOOP's public affairs shows will be examining the REAL ID Act and its provisions assaulting the civil liberties of all Americans. The two shows are TEXAS POLITICS TODAY and SHADES OF GREEN.

On TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, airing Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT, Melissa Del Bosque of the Texas Observer, whose coverage of the border wall controversy along the Rio Grande has won national acclaim, will discuss the border wall battle and the Chertoff decision. Melissa's coverage can be viewed here, here and on the Observer’s blog.

(N.B. -- TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced and co-hosted by yours truly.)

On SHADES OF GREEN, airing Thursday from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. CDT, a representative of the national Defenders of Wildlife organization will talk about that organization's lawsuit. Sheila Dean, an activist and blogger working on REAL ID issues, will also appear on Thursday's show.

KOOP, "the little station that could," is Austin's only community-owned radio station. It shares the FM 91.7 radio frequency with KVRX, the University of Texas student radio. It also streams live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. KOOP is on the air on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on weekends from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Is America Ready For The Future?

2008-06-30T11:46:00.008-05:00

Tom Friedman's column yesterday in the New York Times sets a somber tone as we head into the Fourth of July. He laments the sad state of American politics, particularly in the light of all the challenges we face as a nation:

My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.
I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.
“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”

His commentary on the lamentable state of our politics is right on. To take only one example, Congress is dithering on reauthorizing investment tax credits for renewable energy, which most analysts consider vital to expanding that industry, even though the credits have wide bipartisan support:

Even though many business leaders have lobbied Congress to extend the tax credits, Senate Republicans say a larger issue is at stake: the fate of President Bush's first-term tax cuts, due to expire in 2010. Many Republicans want to lock those in, and don't like the precedent of allowing some tax increases to make up for the cuts.
The deadlock has caused some friction between Republicans and traditional business allies. More than 400 companies signed a hastily organized letter to Congress urging passage of the tax incentives. The list included AT&T, General Motors, Bank of America, Time Warner and Archer Daniels Midland, along with Cisco Systems and Oracle.
Other manufacturers are growing impatient.
"The debate in Washington has almost reached a theological level, but we're losing a chance to gain U.S. jobs and leadership in a growing field," Morin of Applied Materials
said.

Or consider the sad case of Senator John Ensign of Nevada, whose state has the highest home foreclosure rate in the nation. He's holding up a homeowners mortgage relief bill that would help thousands of his constituents by insisting that the aforementioned renewable energy tax credits be added on to the bill. Both the homeowners relief bill and the investment tax credits have broad support, but Ensign's idea is a poison pill. The Democratic leadership wants the housing bill to be revenue-neutral -- which it would be but for the $6 billion in tax credits Ensign wants to add on.

Does Ensign know he's playing games? Sure! "I think that's a tough choice for them to make," he said, "and that's why we're trying to push them on it."

Here's Washington D.C. in a nutshell for you: kill a bill that everyone agrees is a great idea by adding to it something that everyone also agrees is a great idea, but which cannot fly because of another idea (revenue-neutrality) that everyone also thinks is a great idea. Only in D.C. could they fu*ck up something this badly.

Rick Perry Celebrates Milestone

2008-06-28T06:39:00.006-05:00

The Houston Chronicle notes this morning that Rick Perry has now served the most consecutive days as Governor of Texas in history. (Bill Clements, having served two nonconsecutive four-year terms, still holds the overall longevity record Perry will surpass in December.)

Is Rick Perry better off than he was eight years ago? Certainly. He was then in his second year as Lieutenant Governor, his star hitched to George Bush's acendance to the presidency. Eight years later, he is not hitched to Bush's plummeting popularity and the emerging consensus that history will judge him one of our worst presidents. Perry, by contrast, is mildly popular, although his approval rating will continue to decline. He faces what could be a formidable challenge from Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary, although he's stared her down twice before. (I am a member of the "Perry for Republican Nominee in 2010" club, since I happen to believe that a) Texas desperately needs a change of direction at the top and b) Perry will be the easiest Republican to beat.)

Whenever he leaves office, Perry will undoubtedly become a rich man. He's been an effective advocate for all manner of government profiteers, from private prison corporations to Spanish highway construction conglomerates to pharmaceutical companies. He epitomizes, in my opinion, the recessive gene of modern Republicanism's dual fixation on Government As The Enemy and Profit Maximization As The Only Social Value -- government as something to be mocked and ridiculed while feathering your friends nests' with no-bid contracts and thumb-on-the-scale public policy subsidized by taxpayers. In their gentleman's code, the elected officials and bureaucrats who pave the profiteers' way are rewarded with private-sector sinecures in the form of directorships or cushy positions as fixers.

So Rick Perry continues along his path, smarmily criticizing the "waste and inefficiency" of the government that pays $10,000 a month for him to live in a swanky Barton Creek home and biding his time until he cashes in.

Is Texas better off than it was eight years ago? You tell me. Our schools are worse, with the latest financing fix already inadequate and graduation rates declining. Our universities, victims of legislative inattention and malfeasance for a generation, are skyrocketing tuition and fees to make ends meet while Perry readies to do to higher education what No Child Left Behind did to K-12 education. The Texas economy is, Perry says, strong, although that has not translated into a better standard of living for most Texas families. Transportation continues to be a problem: Texas is growing fast and its transportation infrastructure is not keeping pace, in part at least because of Perry's unwillingess to ask Texans to invest in infrastructue improvements. Our prisons are overcrowded and our prison guards underpaid.

Congratulations, Governor. You're doing a heckuva job.

2008-06-28T05:30:00.007-05:00

Joe Cocker's Woodstock version of the Beatles' "(With a) Little Help From My Friends" has always been a favorite of mine. The Beatles version, helmed by Ringo on vocals, was a pleasant piece of confectionary, but Cocker's version unpacked the true emotional power of the song and, as John and Paul no doubt intended, extemporized on the true meaning of friendship and the power it brings into our lives.

Finally, someone has captured Cocker's riffs in this captioned version of the Woodstock performance, highlighting, to be sure, Cocker's talent for improvisation but also the simple genius of the song's themes of alienation and intedependence in a post-industrial, post-modernist society. This new rendering of Cocker's groundbreaking performance allows us to fully appreciate the cultural watershed that was Woodstock.

2008-06-26T10:28:00.005-05:00

Apropos of my posting the other day about the Republicans' "Drill Now, Drill Here, Pay Less" mass hallucination:

What Happened To You, Ralph Nader?

2008-06-25T18:40:00.004-05:00

We hear a BAM.
Louis jerks.
Ordell shot him.
Louis falls back against the car door, eyes wide open, staring at Ordell.
Ordell takes the pistol, works the barrel up higher on Louis' side, right under his arm, and shoots him again.
This time Louis' head BANGS against the car door window. He slumps over, his life gone.
Ordell looks at him.
ORDELL: What the fuck happened to you, man? Shit, your ass use'ta be beautiful.

I thought of this great moment from Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" when I heard that Ralph Nader had said the following about Barack Obama:

I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.

Concerned, apparently, that his remarks could be interpreted as anti-black, Nader went on to patronize white people:

He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as 'black is beautiful, black is powerful.' Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.

To be sure, the problems of America's poorest urban communities deserve more attention than they've received. John Edwards talked about them some while he was still in the race. And, as Obama has pointed out, he has been talking about those issues. But Nader's attack is just sad and pathetic, and would be laughable coming from a lesser man.

What the fuck happened to you, Ralph Nader? Shit, your ass use'ta beautiful.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

2008-06-24T10:25:00.003-05:00

The Republicans, from their dead-duck President to John McCain to the zombies who attended the Texas state Republican convention in Houston last week, have a new mantra: "drill now, drill here, pay less." This is the idea that we can reduce high gas prices RIGHT NOW if we just open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and all our offshore lands to exploration by our greedy oil and gas companies.

They are so anxious to shove this down America's throat that George Bush (remember him?) threatened Congress last week: "If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act.” What Bush did not say -- although I would not put it past the pathologically mendacious culture of the White House to do so -- was that allowing ANWR and offshore drilling would do anything to lower the price of gas in the near future.

Last Sunday on "Meet the Press," Senator Joe Biden took on the illusion of gas pump relief from this loony idea, pointing out that the oil and gas companies have plenty to room to dril if they want to:

They're not pumping what they could, number one. This is a gift, a gift to the oil companies by John McCain. They have now leased 41 million acres of offshore leases. They're only pumping in 10.2 million of those acres. Seventy-nine percent of all the offshore oil available off the coast of Florida, into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Coast, the Pacific Coast, lies within those acres that they now have. Why are they not pumping? Why are they not doing this? Why are they not pursuing what's estimated to be a total of 70--54 billion barrels of oil at their disposal right now if they pump? Why are these greedy fellows deciding they want to go beyond that? It's because they want to get it in before George Bush leaves the presidency. It's because they're not pumping the oil to keep the price up. They are not even drilling. So here you have 30 million leased acres they have right now that possesses 79 percent of all the offshore, and they're not drilling. And John says they need more? And it would take 10 years for it to come online.

Senator Lindsey Graham, obviously uncomfortable at being confronted with actual facts, sputtered that no offshore drilling was allowed, even though his home state of South Carolina would welcome that (a statement I predict will come back to haunt him). Biden responded:

Let's get the facts. You're entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. Forty million acres leased offshore, number one. Number two, the first well to be dug from the time they lease, if Lindsey gives them access to more area, it'll take 10 years from the time the lease is let to the time oil comes out of the bottom of the sea in the new leases.

So the gimmick is not a workable one, no matter how much McSame et al. flog it. Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist who's taken a year off to write a book about the green economy, comes along with a piece in yesterday's paper that gets at the heart of how silly and evil this idea is. The whole op-ed is worth reading, but here's a good highlight:

Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.” ... It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.

This is a horrible idea that will do nothing to lower gas prices and will delay the time when we actually begin seriously investing in renewable and alternative energy sources. The Republicans should be ashamed for parroting the latest oil and gas company nonsense.

Vote Republican!

2008-06-13T11:47:00.002-05:00

A lot of people say the GOP's brand is a little dinged up now but, as these interviews with ordinary Americans show, people still know what the GOP stands for and why someone should vote Republican.

Where Have I Been?

2008-06-12T10:43:00.002-05:00

I realized with horror the other day that I had not posted in almost a month, and resolved not to let June 14 go by without something. I guess you could say I'm two days ahead of schedule from that perspective.

The last month has been intense. I am doing a big project on private health insurance market reform for an advocacy group -- lots of research and writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing. Fun but intense, with a couple all-nighters thrown in.

I am also doing a radio show on KOOP, the little radio station that keeps burning down. I am enjoying that immensely, but it comes with its own blog and outreach to the public.

The summer is here prematurely, with Austin recording its 10th day of 100-degree temperatures yesterday. Today is supposed to be #11. As a friend pointed out in an email, it's been this hot and it's not even summer yet!

Edwards Endorses Obama

2008-05-14T21:51:00.002-05:00

John Edwards has finally endorsed Barack Obama. So did NARAL ProChoice America.

Houseguests and fish

2008-05-14T11:01:00.004-05:00

A friend forwarded me the latest fundraising appeal from Hillary Clinton. The forwarding email had my friend's one-line summary of the situation: "Why I'm in... BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET OUT! love, hillary."

Hillary's fundraising appeal -- and let's be clear, it's all about the Benjamins -- reminds us of why she's really running: "I'm in this race for everyone who needs a champion... I'm in this race for the more than 16 million people like you who have supported me -- for the people who have put their hearts into winning this race. You never gave up on me, and I'll never give up on you."

Well, actually, they have given up on her. That's why she's $10 million-plus in debt. That's why no one thinks any money they give now will pay for a campaign going forward instead of retiring debt. That's why she stretched and strained to make her lopsided victory in West Virginia seem like, well, "Mission Accomplished," when even the chattering heads on TV could not muster the enthusiasm to act like it mattered. The only person outside her campaign who thinks she still needs to be taken seriously is Barack Obama. At least he says so, while his campaign has become focused on November and John McCain.

Hillary's become the houseguest who overstayed her welcome. No one talks about it around the house, but everyone knows. Even her. Breakfast conversations, once full of sunshine and excited chatter about the day ahead, are solemn and stilted. No one wants to go out any more, because the awkwardness takes all the joy out of doing anything that used to be fun. Everyone covertly glances at the calendar, where the flight info for her return home is posted.

"I hope I can make it another week," everyone prays.

The Empire Strikes Back?

2008-05-05T17:17:00.003-05:00

Hillary Clinton's campaign, with its twin themes of ruthlessness and inevitability, has always invited comparison to the baddies running the Empire in the Star Wars trilogy. So the fanciful video posted on YouTube cannot be a total surpise.

The Entire Democratic Campaign in Seven Minutes

2008-05-02T00:30:00.002-05:00

Molly's Bench

2008-04-26T06:28:00.001-05:00

Molly Ivins died fifteen months ago, leaving a huge vacuum in (progressive) journalism -- and in the lives of many friends. She was a fixture in her Travis Heights neighborhood. Last night, those neighbors and other friends came together to dedicate a bench in Molly's honor at Big Stacy Park. There was a nice little ceremony where several friends shared some memories of Molly. Sweetest moment: Genevieve and Peter, who met at a Final Friday party at Molly's house five years ago this month and subsequently married, being the first to smooch on the newly-dedicated bench.

The dedication was followed by a Final Friday party, like the ones Molly hosted at her home for several years. Nice group of people, from different walks of life, coming together to share stories and food. In honor of Molly, the suggested cuisine was fried chicken and champagne.

It was a balmy Austin spring evening, and clouds eventually filled the sky. Soon they were backlit with silent lightning flashes. On my way home the storm hit, sheets of rain crashing over the windshield, occasional hailstones thumping on the roof. By the time I got home the brunt of it had passed, and so I sat on my patio, listening to distant thunder and the steady ticking of rain on the leaves.

R.I.P. Lena Guerrero, 1957-2008

2008-04-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

I Consider Myself One of the Fortunate Few

2008-04-22T07:34:00.002-05:00

According to BusinessWeek, Texas has surpassed New York as home to the most Fortune 500 companies. Fortune magazine annually compiles the list. This year, Texas is identified as home to 58 Fortune 500 companies, compared to 55 for New York and 52 for California. No wonder Arrrggghhh-nold is begging people to come work in California.

In other news, Texas Governor Rick Perry briefly visited an emergency room last night after he strained his shoulder patting himself on the back.

Happy San Jacinto Day!

2008-04-21T07:14:00.007-05:00

Today is the 172nd anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, where a Texian force of 700 surprised and defeated a Mexican army force of about 1,400 under the commands of Generals Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and Martin Perfecto de Cos. The battle was brief but brutal, and was followed by the massacre of many of the surrendering Mexican soldiers.

Santa Anna was captured after the battle and brought before a wounded General Sam Houston, commander of the Texian forces. Houston understood that Texas's best hope of independence lay in negotiating with Santa Anna (while holding him hostage) and so resisted his subordinates' entreaties to hang the Mexican President. Eventually, Santa Anna signed the Treaty of Velasco with the fledgling nation's new President, David Burnet. Santa Anna then traveled to Washington, D.C., where United States President Andrew Jackson confirmed his nation's interest in the independence of the new republic.

The Battle of San Jacinto changed the destinies of both the United States of America and the United States of Mexico.

Twenty Years and Counting

2008-04-14T14:14:00.002-05:00

This weekend was my 20-year law school reunion. It was held, of course, here in Austin, with a morning's worth of continuing legal education programs. a luncheon on the lawn at the Law School, and a dinner party for the Class of '88 that evening.

It was great seeing everyone. In many ways, it felt like we'd just gone our separate ways -- friends instantly recognized each other, classroom antics and Sixth Street sorties were re-lived, and former professors were recalled and, in some cases, roasted. (There were plenty of ears burning in Austin that night.)

In other ways, it was difficult if not impossible to summarize the 20 years of ups, downs, triumphs, disappointments, and just plain changes we all have lived through. Most of my classmates knew I'd gone to work for Governor Ann Richards shortly after law school -- but that was 15 years and five jobs ago. I've also bought a house, bought a ranch, married, sold the ranch, and divorced in that time. I've also lost both parents and had other experiences that, in many ways, transformed me as much as, or more than, anything that's happened in my professional career.

And every one of my classmates has those same stories: marriage, kids, some divorces, the death of parents and friends -- even the deaths of classmates. It's hard to compress all that into a luncheon and a dinner party, but we made a nice start of it this weekend. Hopefully we'll stay in better touch in the future.

Some pictures from the alumni events this weekend are here.

Fault Line

2008-04-11T13:53:00.003-05:00

John Langmore, who is a great photographer in spite of the fact that he went to law school with me, has a new exhibit called Fault Line: A Portait of East Austin. It is showing at the new Mexican American Cultural Center in the Rainey Street neighborhood, and is a must-see. It continues until April 27th.

John's show premiered last night, and 200+ people jammed the auditorium at the cultural center to hear John describe his inspirations and experiences in photographing the life of East Austin. He commented on and praised the generosity and hospitality of the people of the community, who let him into their stores and homes and family celebrations time and again. He talked about the unique character of that part of the city, endangered by the march of time, progress and gentrification. And he warned about the challenges of keeping the city's quality of life while allowing it to grow and welcome more people.

Speaking of must-sees, the cultural center is a destination in itself. It's a beautiful, very modern building, with thoughtful architecture and beautiful grounds. It opened last fall and everyone in Austin should visit there.

Why Hillary Should Get Out. Now.

2008-04-07T11:53:00.008-05:00

Yesterday, Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, wrote a column excoriating any man who calls on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Forsaking her usual perspective, wit and thoughtfulness, she pontificates in high dudgeon:

Well, boys, you'd better sit down for this one: This is no longer the playground of your youth. The girls aren't sitting in the stands keeping score and cheering whenever you're at bat. In fact, the girls aren't girls at all anymore. We're all grown up, and we are so done with this notion that the trajectory of our lives must end at the border of your comfort zone.

Ms. Schultz was strangely silent when the pundits and poobahs of the GOP pressured Mike Huckabee to drop out. Rather than recognize their intervention for what it was -- more evidence of the blatant anti-Christianity of the Republican Party -- she chose to remain silent, apparently believing that Huckabee was being asked to drop out only because He Had No Mathematical Chance Of Winning and it was Time To Unify The Party.

Well, I have not called on Ms. Clinton to abandon her quest, and I will not do so now. It's her candidacy, and her legacy, and she can do with it what she wants. But there's a strong case that she should drop out, for her good, the good of the Democrratic Party, and the good of the country.

Numero Uno: SHE HAS NO MATHEMATICAL CHANCE OF WINNING. In her column, Ms. Schultz rails against

Male columnists, male politicians, male talking heads, male "surrogates" - all of them harrumphing that it's time for Hillary Clinton to stop it, just stop it, with all this talk of being president.
Who cares if the race is close? So what if millions of Americans believe their yet-to-be-cast votes matter? Voters, schmoters. When was this ever about them?

Of course, millions of Republican voters in her home state of Ohio believed their yet-to-be-cast votes should matter, but when the Republican primary on March 4 turned into a Snooze-a-thon, Ms. Schultz could not be heard to complain.

So here's the deal: Ms. Clinton is, in most people's estimation, irretrievably behind in states won, delegates committed and total votes cast.

The Iowa Electronic Markets, which has been much more accurate than pollsters at predicting winners and losers since 1988, has this illuminating chart:

Since January, Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the Democratic nomination have plummeted from better than 60% to less than 15%. That's a function of math and momentum, not male chauvinism.

Numero Two-O: IT'S TIME TO UNIFY THE PARTY. Every day Hillary Clinton continues her campaign -- especially the mean-spirited snarky one that's characterized the last two months -- is a good day for John McCain and the Republicans. McCain's been given a window to define himself before the Democrats can -- although, judging from his lackluster tour so far, he seems intent on blowing it.

Worse still, the attacks that McCain will use against Obama in the general election are being previewed and sharpened by the Clintons, much to the GOP's delight. Enablers like Connie Schultz will surely rejoin that it's good to Obama to face these attacks now; it strengthens him, makes him tougher, immunizes him for the general election.

Nonsense. What these attacks do is make McCain's job easier in the general election. Why should he run an ad in which he tells Americans that Obama is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief, when he can run an ad in which Hillary Clinton does his dirty work? Why should he run an ad in which he warns Americans to be afraid, very afraid, of a man whose middle name is Hussein and listens to Reverend Wright, when he can run an ad where Bill Clinton says the same things?

This is the fine mess that a continuation of the campaign, now that it's impossible for Hillary Clinton to win, will get us into.

So, Senator Clinton, stay in if you want to. It's your $109 million. But start running a positive campaign. Avoid complimenting McCain while back-handing Obama. Tell your husband not to question Obama's patriotism while praising McCain's. Contrast yourself with Obama, to be sure, but contrast both of you with the out-of-touch Republicans and their clueless standard-bearer.

UPDATE: Jonathan Chait covers much of the same ground in an essay in the New Republic.

UPDATE #2: Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos fame addresses the same issue in a Newsweek essay.

Hail!

2008-04-04T08:09:00.004-05:00

A brisk, rainy Friday morning. Thunderstorms sweeping in from the west, their gunmetal clouds blending in with the gray light of dawn. Hail mixed in with a hard rain. Xena scurrying under the bed as the precipitation cracks and pings off the metal roof of my home. Watching the white spheres fall and bounce in the grass in the faint morning light.

I Dunno. You Tell Me.

2008-04-02T15:07:00.005-05:00

The Shell Houston Open is in, well, Houston this week. Shell is sponsoring it, no doubt hoping for some good p.r. after energy companies collectively raked in $123 billion in profits in 2007.

Anyway, here's an interesting video of golfer John Daly, captured on the driving range. You tell me what the other guy's doing.

Ann and Hillary -- Where Did Feminism Go?

2008-04-02T13:48:00.004-05:00

When Ann Richards was running for Governor in 1990, she ran as a charismatic statewide elected official who'd successfully modernized the state Treasury. She was experienced and qualified to be Governor. But there was also a feminist subtext that was part of her critique of the other candidates, and it went something like this:

Men f*uck things up. They think with the little head, and get themselves into endless games of "¿Quien Es Mas Macho?" They view the world through blinders that obstruct theie vision of alternate experiences, personalities, and approaches to problems. They prefer confrontation over compromise and construct zero-sum solutions to problems. Our world is too complex and interdependent for that kind of leadership style to succeed anymore.

Now, Ann never got on a podium and gave that speech, but the sentiment was there: electing her as Governor would not only be history-making, but it would change the way government operated, and for the better.

History will ultimately decide whether she brought about any real change in the way things operated. However, her greatest accomplishment -- diversifying forever the numerous boards and commissions a Governor appoints -- bears some signs of that reconfiguration of social reality.

What's interesting to me is that that sort of thinking is nowhere to be found in Hillary Clinton's campaign. (Maybe it's there and, being a man, I am not admitted to the Secrets of the Sisterhood. But I've not glimpsed it or heard from it her supporters.) She's running as a woman, to be sure, but she's also running AWAY from her femininity: her balls are bigger than Barack Obama's, she wants us to know; bigger even than John McCain's. In the end, the argument for her as the first woman President is: It's time. I'm entitled. We're entitled.

In a column that In the Pink Texas pointed me towards, Ellen Goodman talks about how Old Feminism of the 1970s evolved in the New Femininism of the 1980s that Ann preached:

Women of Hillary's generation were taught to don power suits and use their shoulder pads to push open corporate doors. In the 1970s, the lessons on making it in a man's world were essentially primers on how to behave like men. As University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Kathleen Dolan says, "They had to figure out a way to go undercover. They could only be taken seriously if they filled the male model with XX chromosomes." But the next generation of advice books urged women to do it their own way. The old stereotypes that defined women as more compassionate and collaborative were given a positive spin. They were framed and praised as women's ways of leading.

Goodman goes on to describe the next evolution of thought:

Today's shelves are still full of titles -- from "Seducing the Boys Club" to "The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch)" to "Enlightened Power" -- that tell us to act like a man or act like a woman. But in many ways, the transformative inspirational, collaborative, "female" style has become more attractive. Especially to a younger generation. And -- here's the rub -- especially when it is modeled by a man.

Which is why, she concludes, Barack Obama is "the Oprah candidate ... the quality circle man, the uniter-not-divider, the person who believes we can talk to anyone, even our enemies. He [has] finely honed a language usually associated with women's voices."

And is why, with precious few exceptions, no woman under 40 I know is a Hillary supporter. This is a political and, potentially, an electoral problem for Hillary Clinton, but it is also a problem for feminism.

Long Time, No See

2008-04-02T13:10:00.003-05:00

It's been a leap year february (i.e., 29 days) since I last posted. No particular reason for the lacuna. But I had someone over the weekend tell me that he'd noticed I had not posted in a while. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought he read my blog, so I took inspiration from the fact someone was actually paying attention.

According to Google Analytics, I had 164 visitors since March 4, an average of 5 a day. That's not bad when you consider that most blogs are read only by the blogger himself and his mom, in whose basement he still lives. Of course, there are SERIOUS blogs like Burnt Orange Report that get millions of visitors. And there are hilariously irreverent blogs like In the Pink Texas that got over 100 hits a day, albeit from the same 19 people. I am proudly one of them.

Anyway, I figure I should entertain my reading public by, well, posting every now and then. And I'll hereby make an effort to do that. So start reading, y'all!

Election Day in Texas

2008-03-04T11:15:00.005-06:00

What a beautiful day for voting!

I live in the Deep Eddy/Tarrytown area, west of MoPac and north of Lady Bird Lake. It was brisk (can you say c-c-c-c-cold?) this morning as we set up at O. Henry Middle School. But our hearts were warm as we set up a table, posted yard signs and other Obam-art, and started greeting early morning voters. We were the first people there to set up signs, although a few judicial candidates were close behind.

We were joined by some great volunteers from our neighboring Precinct 210 and by some college students from San Diego who are volunteering for the Obama campaign. I have been amazed by all the people I've met -- lawyers from New York, moms from Colorado, students from all over -- who've donate their time and energy to the Obama campaign in Texas. Is this a great country, or what?

There were a bunch of early morning voters, and then a steady stream of people coming in all morning. According to some of the election judges who've walked out and visited with us, the turnout is running about 7-1 Democratic. We'll have updated turnout numbers later.

About 10:00 a.m., some nice people from the Hillary Clinton campaign came and set up a little ways from us.

There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the precinct convention tonight. We've been reminding Obama supporters to come back later and participate.

Volunteers Leslie Ragland and Paul Underbrink spreading the good word about Barack Obama.

Barack Obama: We Are The Ones

2008-03-01T19:07:00.005-06:00

Will.i.am has put together another inspiring music video, this one to a song he wrote called "We Are The Ones." As before, the CEO of Inspiration is Barack Obama.

Barack Obama: Faith In Texas

2008-02-27T10:16:00.004-06:00

This is a new video, called "Faith In Texas," produced by Barack Obama supporters and featuring a montage of Obama events in Texas, with plenty of supporter pictures and even some great pictures of the candidate himself.

Here's what I like about the video:
1) It's about Texas and Texans.
2) It's about Barack Obama and his movement in Texas.
3) It has that great music from the movie "Rudy," which for my money is the best movie about Notre Dame football ever made. I spent my first two years of college at Notre Dame, at about the same time Daniel 'Rudy' Ruettiger was there. Those were heady days -- the campus had just gone co-ed, Notre Dame beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship, and three weeks later snapped UCLA's 88-game basketball winning streak.

It's about six minutes long, but worth every second. Enjoy!

Hat tip to the Texas Observer blog for the link.

Caroline Kennedy in Austin

2008-02-25T23:39:00.005-06:00

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John Kennedy, appeared in Austin today in support of Barack Obama. The event was held at Serrano's Restaurant as Symphony Square, only a few blocks east of the Capitol.

Ms. Kennedy spoke of her reasons for supporting Barack Obama, including the enthusiasm of her teenage children. She spoke of her father's legacy of a more idealistic nation. She also spoke as a woman and addressed why she thought Barack Obama would make a better president.

A couple of pictures from the event:

A standing-room only crowd, and a (TV camera) rig count of at least three awaits Caroline Kennedy in the 87-degree Texas sun.

Caroline Kennedy addresses a crowd of about 150 at Symphone Square in Austin.

Barack Obama: Boogie Back To Texas

2008-02-24T19:44:00.002-06:00

I already posted about the Obama event at the Austin Music Hall on Thursday evening. Barack Obama came by and visited a crowd of 500 supporters who'd watched the CNN/Univision debate and then enjoyed some fine Texas music.

After Obama's speech, he shook hands with many supporters, then returned to the stage to thank the entertainers. Even though he mispronounced Joe Ely's name, he charmed the crowd and ended up singing a call-and-response "Boogie Back To Texas" with Ray Benson.

Check out the YouTube video below:

Obama-mania at the Capitol!

2008-02-23T18:41:00.003-06:00

UPDATE: See a better YouTube video of scenes from the rally at the bottom of the post.

30,000 people braved traffic, long lines. magnetometers, and chilly night air to attend Barack Obama's "Stand For Change" rally in Austin Friday night. And stand they did. There was no seating, and so thousands of college students and senior citizens and young families with kids perched on their shoulders filled Congress Avenue, shuffling side to side on their feet as they kept warm and waited to hear Obama speak.

I was volunteering for the campaign, handling calls from elected officials who wanted to attend. We offered them tickets, of course, and even an area set-aside near the stage. They all wanted to know, though, if specific seats would be reserved for them. Uh, no, I explained, to occasional chagrin. Once there, though, everyone seemed happy and festive.

I took some pictures, none of which turned out great. My favorite one was this:

I also took a video of what 30,000 people look like. This scans from the press risers to the left of the stage, then over to 11th Street and around to look down the long sweep of Congress Avenue.

You can see the rest of my photos from the event here.

UPDATE: Here is a terrific video of scenes from Friday night's rally and excerpts from Barack Obama's speech:

George Lopez at Las Manitas

2008-02-23T17:44:00.006-06:00

Comedy superstar George Lopez was in Austin Thursday and Friday, supporting the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. He has been a vigorous and enthusiastic supporter and has traveled extensively.

In Austin he did a series of events, including a mid-morning coffee with a group of young Latino leaders, many of them students, at Las Manitas Cafe. Some pictures:

You can see more pictures of the event here.

Barack-in' the Austin Music Hall

2008-02-22T15:18:00.009-06:00

Last night, millions of Americans watched the CNN/Univison debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Some pundits have criticized it as tepid, but I thought Obama did great. He had specific suggestions on specific issues, but also evoked a vision of a new way of doing politics in America. It is the latter that has excited people in unprecedented numbers, and it is the former that blunts attacks on his supposed "inexperience."

The debate was held on the U.T. campus, but the Obama campaign had a fundraiser and debate-watching party at the Austin Music Hall. The debate was broadcast on two large television screens. After it ended, Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel entertained, joined by guests like Joe Ely, Carolyn Wonderland and Tim Curry.

I spent some time talking with Eve Lindsey, the owner of the Victory Grill and an early Obama supporter. Then we took a picture (left). She's hosting an event for him this coming Friday night.

About a half hour after the event, the candidate himself arrived and gave a terrific, brief speech. Some pictures from the speech:

Afterwards, he worked the line, where I got to snap the close-up of him that leads this post and then shook his hand.

Molly Ivins Nails the 2008 Election

2008-02-18T22:39:00.003-06:00

She wrote this column over two years ago, and she passed away over a year ago, but it turns out that Molly Ivins has perfectly defined what this presidential election is about for the Democratic Party. She jabs at Hillary Clinton, but she's really talking about the soul of the Democratic Party -- and the leadership vacuum in the nation. The whole column is Molly's usual terrific writing, but here's an excerpt:

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.
If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.
What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.
The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

Molly, we miss you.

Obama-Mania in Austin

2008-02-16T12:45:00.002-06:00

I came down to the Barack Obama headquarters in downtown Austin this morning. I wanted to come by and meet some of the people, catch the energy, and even get some precinct captains' training.

Wow! The energy down here is amazing! Tons of people, tons of good karma, tons of enthusiasm.

I ran into Kath25, a DailyKos blogger who's a grad student here in Texas, and she asked me to help with live blogging the event. I did my training and am now live-blogging on both DailyKos, Burnt Orange Report and even the Barack Obama website.

Check it out.

Friday Night

2008-02-15T23:05:00.003-06:00

I'm sitting at home on Friday night, listening to the soft tick of a slow rain on the leaves in my back yard. It's a little cold and damp, but I'm on the patio so at least it's not raining on me. I think this rain will last all weekend, if not the chilly temperatures.

It sure is an interesting time for a Texas political junkie like me. I took the evening off from trying to keep up with news shows, websites and blogs, which is what I normally do. It is like trying to drink water out of a firehose -- too much information, too much Us Versus Them, too much noise. I think we political junkies have to remember that for most Americans, life goes on without the latest crosstabs from Texas or polling from Peoria.

Out in Real America, people are seeing movies tonight, or having dinner at home as a family, or going to the movies with their friends, or lining up to get into a club to hear some live music. Their eyes don't tear up with inspiration when they watch the "Yes We Can" video or with laughter when they watch the "John McCain: Three Words" video. They don't spend an hour -- as I did today -- parsing the crosstabs from the Texas Credit Union League poll to glean insights into the possible trajectories of March 4.

Are they missing something? Am I?

Bill Clinton Stumps East Texas With ... Henry Cuellar?

2008-02-15T19:50:00.004-06:00

I read in the Rio Grande Guardian where Henry Cuellar accompanied, and introduced, former President Bill Clinton on his swing through east Texas yesterday. This in spite of the fact that Cuellar's Laredo-based district is hundreds of miles from the Piney Woods.

"I don't know why they asked me to go, but I'll be happy to support the Hillary campaign whether it's in South Texas or whether it's in East Texas,” said Cuellar. “It's an honor that they've asked me to do this."

Maybe they wanted to use Cuellar there because nobody in east Texas would know or remember that ... well, to put it kindly, Henry Cuellar is not exactly from the Democratic wing of the Denmocratic Party. He's like Joe Lieberman, with less charisma.

I mean, seriously, are the Clinton people aware of this? Paying attention? I'm a little mystified.

John McCain: Three Words

2008-02-12T11:30:00.001-06:00

Since I posted the wonderful "Yes We Can" video -- with CEO of Inspiration Barack Obama -- it's only fair that I also post John McCain's three-word mantra video.

Fair. Yeah, right.

(Thanks to Evan Smith, Texas Monthly editor and everyone's favorite Poll Dancer, for the link.)

Tecaboca

2008-02-08T23:32:00.000-06:00

Sunset, Tecaboca, Friday, February 8, 2008.

I am out in the Hill Country for the weekend. I am at the Tecaboca Christian Renewal Center, on whose board I intermittently serve. Tecaboca is located in the Hill Country northwest of Kerrville, and is one of my favorite places on earth. I have been coming here, and involved with the place and its going-ons for over 35 years.

It's beautiful tonight -- not a cloud in the sky. The sunset was sublime and gorgeous, my picture capturing only a sliver of its tranquil beauty. This evening, my friend John and I went into Kerrville and had dinner at the Cowboy Steakhouse, our favorite restaurant in town. By the time we got back out here, night had fully fallen.

The moon's glow but a sliver in the western sky, its whole orb visible in the crystalline night. Stars taking on familiar patterns as they slowly wheel across the sky. The air cold and clear and so dry that breath does not fog.

Tomorrow more people come, but for tonight the only sound is the water of Johnson Creek washing over the dam.

Matthew Dowd on McCain's Chances

2008-02-08T08:38:00.000-06:00

(cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report)

In an NPR interview this morning, "independent political consultant" Matthew Dowd -- more famous as Bush's number-cruncher -- talks about John McCain and his efforts to restore his relationships with Republican conservatives. In doing so, he all but endorses Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination -- from a Democrat's perspective.

Calling in from Phoenix (what's he doing in Phoenix? hmmm), he says that McCain needs to speak the language of conservatism, to help reassure conservatives that he "gets" them. He also notes that McCain's "brand" is as a maverick, and his campaign struggled when people felt he was not being authentic. But he says McCain's biggest hope of energizing conservatives is for Hillary Clinton to get the Democratic nomination -- "she is the most unifying force for John McCain out there right now, not himself."

On a general election campaign: "If you gave the strategists and the people around John McCain some truth serum and asked them to say who they want to run against, in a minute they'd say Senator Hillary Clinton. They think that she's polarizing, she'd motivate and unite the base of the Republican Party, she's not a generational difference and a change of a figure, she's a bit of a throwback to the past, like to a degree he is."

On Obama: "Against Senator Obama, it's a much more difficult task. It would be a generational campaign, the new versus the older, somebody that had a distinct stand on Iraq versus his stand on Iraq. I think Senator Obama is a much more difficult race, and there is not a vitriol from the conservative and the Republican base against Senator Obama, they don't sort of dislike him to their core like they do Hillary Clinton. I think they would much prefer, the McCain folks, a race against Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama, because it's hard to compose a strategy against a new guy like Barack."

Of course, this could also be disinformation and misdirection, something that Dowd has certainly learned from colleagues like Karl Rove and Mark McKinnon. And the interview does not explain why he's in Phoenix -- consulting for the McCain campaign? But his take on the dynamics of the general election is similar to mine.

What do you think?

Obama: Yes We Can

2008-02-03T23:50:00.001-06:00

Watch this. Then watch it again. And again.

UPDATE: Go here to read comments by will.i.am (the Blackeyed Peas' leader) on how he was inspired to create the song and video, and a listing of all the contributors, including "CEO of Inspiration" Barack Obama.

Save the Christmas Mountains!

2008-02-02T12:00:00.000-06:00

If you love the Big Bend region of Texas as much as I do, you've been by turns astonished, dismayed, and pissed off by the comical attempts of Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson to sell the Christmas M0untains in West Texas to the highest (or whatever) bidder. If you've not been keeping up with the story, here's a little background from the Observer.)

Karen Brooks at the Dallas Morning News, who has been covering the story for months, reports that the National Park Service has submitted a proposal for managing the Christmas Mountains as part of the Big Bend National Park.

Forrest Wilder at the Texas Observer blog summarizes the NPS proposal:

The NPS would manage the property as a backcountry area for hiking, primitive camping, and horseback riding. The advantages of NPS management vs. privatization, according to the proposal, are:

1. The area would be permanently protected and preserved as part of the national park.

2. Public use of the area would be assured and the public would be able to participate in the planning process.

3. The park has extensive experience in managing public use in backcountry environments including law enforcement, search and rescue and emergency medical expertise.

4. The park can provide a full range of professional educational and interpretive services which are essential to a safe and enjoyable experience in a rugged and remote area.

5. The park has an excellent resource management staff including wildlife biologist, physical scientist, geologist, botanist and archeologist. In addition, we have access to numerous NPS resource specialists and academic institutions.

It sounds like a better deal to me. If you want to help save the Christmas Mountains, go to the Environment Texas website and access their user-friendly tools to send an email to members of the School Land Board and their bosses, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott.

To inspire you, I've included a smattering of pictures of the Christmas Mountains.

Cool Barack Obama Poster

2008-01-29T00:09:00.000-06:00

Hat tip to Nicholas Jackson at Poll Dancing for calling attention to this Obama poster being sold online by Obey Giant -- "Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1989." Terrific poster.

KOOP Back On The Air After Arson Arrest

2008-01-28T23:41:00.000-06:00

KOOP 91.7 FM, Autin's community radio station, is back on the air, effective Friday, January 25. The station went off the air on January 6 after its studios were severely damanged in an early morning fire that investigators later ruled was arson.

In other news, Austin police and fire department officials have made an arrest in the arson case. Paul Feinstein turned himself in to Austin Police this morning in connection with their investigations.

Absolute Friends

2008-01-28T11:13:00.000-06:00

I read Absolute Friends, John Le Carre's terrific 2004 novel, over the weekend. Did I mention it was terrific? Here's a 2004 radio interview with Le Carre about the book.

I love Le Carre; his "Karla Trilogy" -- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People -- are some of my favorite books to read. I usually re-read all three of them every couple years.

Pique Oil

2008-01-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

I am slowly working my way through the latest issue of Texas Monthly. The main story is "35 People Who Will Shape Our Future." That's because TM is 35 years old this year. Get it?

Anyway, the issue came out about a week ago. Even though I am a subscriber, I looked up the story online because I wanted to see what it said about me. You can imagine my surprise when I found out I was NOT one of the 35 people who will shape Our Future.

I had coffee with a friend today, and mentioned the story. Her comment? "No one from Texas is shaping the future, except maybe in Texas." She could be right; the state that created groundbreakers like Denton Cooley and Ross Perot and business innovators like Texas Instruments and Dell Computers seems to have lost some of the initiative in recent years.

So far, the most interesting article I've read is "The Gospel According to Matthew," about Houston investment banker Matthew Simmons. Simmons for years has been arguing that we've reached the "peak oil" point, and that the world's oil production will decline in a curve that approximately mirrors the curve by which it rose. I was first introduced to the concept of peak oil in Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy, in which he tries to create a Unified Field Theory of declining energy reserves, rising religious fundamentalism, international finance and global geopolitics.

Anyway, Mimi Swartz's article on Simmons is good reading, and there is a link to an interesting interview about the Shrinking Energy Pie. The sad thing about both articles is that their subjects (Simmons, Nate Hagens of The Oil Drum and Matt Savinar of Life After the Oil Crash) seem pretty blindered about conservation and alternative energy; in their scenarios, oil gets to $200 a barrel and people start shooting at each other. Let's hope there's a middle ground: more serious conservation efforts (and some government leadership on those efforts; Dick Cheney calls conservation "a sign of personal virtue" -- God knows he has few enough of those) and alternative forms of energy (again, with some government leadership thrown in).

City of Digital Immigrants

2008-01-26T10:40:00.000-06:00

Eileen Smith, the diabolically hilarious creator of InThePinkTexas, is now working for the MSM as the online editor of Texas Monthly. She has an essay in this month's issue. No, wait, her essay does not appear in the magazine. Her essay is a "web extra," which means they did not want the actual readers to see it.

Anyway, in her essay she distinguishes between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants." It turns out I am an immigrant. Here's her description of the natives:

“Digital natives,” on the other hand, were born around 1985, when personal computers were already ten years old. They have never known a world without the Internet (lucky bastards). They are adept multimedia producers and certified gadgetophiles who create content as much as they consume it, if not more. Avid newspaper readers, they are not. In fact, younger readers view the corporate-owned mainstream media with disgust, if not outright contempt.

Digital immigrants, she sniffs, are "those who grew up in a world where you filled out your college applications on a typewriter." Well, excu-u-u-use me! Anyway, I like to think of myself as one of those immigarnts who's quickly learned the language and norms of the new culture -- although I cannot figure out RSS feeds for the life of me.

Creationists Getting Creative

2008-01-16T09:18:00.000-06:00

I've posted a couple times already (here and here) about the folks from the Institute of Creation Science in Dallas who want the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to allow them to offer an online master's of science education degree. I first heard about the story from the Texas Observer, and then the MSM got a hold of it.

Anyway, the San Antonio Express-News is reporting today that the creationists have asked the Coordinating Board to delay a final decision on its request until April, to "do justice to the concerns (the board) raised." In other words, they do not have the votes to get the program approved. So count on THECB board members getting importuned for the next three months to either approve the program or face eternal damnation in hell.

Denocratic Candidates Debate In Nevada

2008-01-15T20:10:00.000-06:00

8:00 p.m. -- Chuck Todd and Keith Olbermann have a long talk about the "truce" between Barack and Hillary -- that they will tamp down efforts to make race an issue in the campaign. Todd speculates that race will come up, even though the candidates want to keep it down. Then Tim Russert starts off by asking a half dozen questions about race. Sheesh.

8:05 -- John Edwards talking about growing up in segregated in North Carolina. He looks to young to remember lunch counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides and the like.

8:12 -- Russert STILL asking about race as an issue in the campaign! Get a grip, Tim!

8:18 -- Brian Williams asking about The Tears and The Diss -- Obama's comment that Hillary "is likable enough." Obama govels a little. Maybe we could get to some real issues soon, Brian ...

8:24 -- Russert: Hillary, do you regret saying that you're not sure Barack Obama is ready to lead? FTW!?! Can we talk about any issues now? Or even talk about character, by which I mean something besides what one of the kids said during recess. Yeesh ...

8:35 -- Taking a break in the two-hour debate. Brian Williams promises questions about the economy after the break. That would be good -- 30 minutes and nothing substantive yet.

9:00 -- They're finally talking policy, but the overall questioning and answering is so light and fluffy that I am getting bored. Wait, what's this? "The Office" is starting on TBS? See ya ...

Mitt Romney Is The New Al Checchi

2008-01-13T11:52:00.000-06:00

Remember Al Checchi? He ran for Governor of California back in the 1990s. He was smart, good-looking, charismatic and immensely wealthy. He spent a gazillion dollars and lost overwhelmingly to Gray Davis.

Mitt Romney, the venture capitalist-turned-Massachusetts Governor-turned-Olympics CEO, has spent millions of his own money in his quest for the presidency. Like Checchi, the essence of his argument is that he's "the CEO" -- a business executive who can bring his executive savvy and hard-driving leadership to solve the problems of government.

At least, that's the way he packaged himself when he first announced his candidacy. Then he released Romney 2.0, morphing into the Reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, wrapping himself in the Gipper's Girdle of Nostalgic GOP-ism while the party wandered in the desert. For many Republicans, Reagan evokes the Glory Days of a new, radical worldview that was going to reshape a bloated federal government and an American foreign policy that has lost its way in the world.

The problem is, where Reagan gave lip service, Bush gave results, and with catastrophic results -- arrogant and bloody foreign policy, bloated but ineffective governance, and contentious and contemptuous civic strife.

Now, with his political future hanging in the balance in Michigan, Romney is releasing Romney 3.0, focusing on economic issues and a "Washington is Broken" theme over the previous pandering to the Religious Right.

Will it work? It's too early to tell. Early polls give him a slight lead over McCain and Huckabee, but last week two of the state's largest newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, both endorsed McCain.

Maybe Romney 3.0 will end up being the same as Checchi 1.0.

Michael, Shh. Um, Michael, Cool It. Jeez, Michael, SHUT UP!

2008-01-10T07:09:00.000-06:00

If I were Barack Obama, that's what I would have been saying, and eventually screaming, at the TV last night. Michael Eric Dyson appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews last night as a "Barack Obama supporter" and, in my judgment, hurt his candidate's cause.

First, he referred to the incident where Hillary Clinton choked up a little while talking to voters on Monday as "The Crying Game," explicitly tying it to the 1992 Neil Jordan film. What was THAT supposed to mean?

Then he attributed Obama's loss to the Bradley Effect -- that white voters will tell pollsters they intend to vote for a black candidate but then vote for a different candidate once inside the booth. Of course, the Bradley Effect may or may not explain the gap between the polls showing Obama a lock in New Hampshire and his actual narrow loss to Hillary Clinton. It does not explain why New Hampshire voters actually preferred Clinton over Obama.

So, Dyson had a theory about that: "New Hampshire voters, after seeing Obama's swagger, so to speak, from his confidence because of his Iowa victory, may have rejected him, repudiated him, or at least had second thoughts about pulling the level, so to speak, for a black man."

White people scared of a black man's "swagger?" If I'd have said that, I am sure I'd be criticized, and deservedly so. Dyson went on to say that race was definitely a part of the calculus that people use in deciding to vote, but then fought with fellow panelist Pat Buchanan over whether his race was part of his appeal, for instance, to African Americans. In summary, Dyson was arguing that if people do not like Obama, it's because of race; if they like him, it has nothing to do with race. How does that make sense?

Then, Matthews played the video of Clinton's "verklempt" moment and Dyson was off to the races. Clearly enraged, he fulminated against what he perceived as her race-tinged arrogance:

... now Hillary Clinton, through her noblesse oblige, implying that some people get it right, some people get it wrong -- through her tears, she is really expressing a horrendous viewpoint. That is, that she has a kind of copyright on what the goodness of the country should be and therefore Barack Obama has somehow been excluded. ...
All I'm suggesting is that, even through her tears, the sentiment that was being expressed ... is to suggest that "I am the only person. I'm gonna get it right, he's gonna get it wrong," and there's an implicit racial subtext there. There's a racial subtext there: Don't let a black man run this country. ...
"Rolling the dice," "playing loose and fast" -- I am suggesting that those are code words that black people are used to when people are trying to suggest to somebody that they're not quite able to step up to the plate.

Watch the Hardball segment here and see what you think.

Here's my point: One of the reasons Obama has been as successful as he has been -- think of it: the first African American presidential candidate who has a real shot at the nomination and even the Presidency -- has been the "post-racial" quality of his candidacy. He has asserted his heritage as a proud part of his identity, but not suggested it should entitle him to any different treatment.

Now we see surrogates -- Dyson and Congressman Jesse Jackson in a bizarre interview with Norah O'Donnell -- suggesting that voting for Obama, or against Hillary, ought to be ALL ABOUT RACE. I don't think this is good for the presidential race, and I certainly don't think it is wise for the Obama campaign.

Creationism In Higher Education, Part Duh

2008-01-10T06:05:00.001-06:00

Ralph K.M. Haurwitz has a story in today's Austin American-Statesman about the controversy over the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research's effort to certify a master's degree program in science education -- by which they mean teaching creationism. I've already written about an interesting Texas Observer post about the internal Coordinating Board politics of the issue.

According to the article, the school's bylaws

show that students and faculty members are required to believe that humans did not evolve from animals but were created in fully human form from the start, that God created all physical and living things in the universe in six days, and that anyone who rejects Jesus Christ will be consigned to "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

If people want to believe that, that is fine. If you want to teach it to your children, that is fine. But let's not call it science.

There's another quote in the story that bothers me. Attempting to justify the Institute's program, its science education department chair Patricia Nason said, according to Haurwitz, "that most students wind up teaching at Christian schools but that they learn about evolution and are qualified to teach in public schools."

Wait a minute. I went to Christian (Catholic) schools. I always thought that, although private schools are not subsidized by the state, they have to be accredited in order to offer diplomas. Does TEA (which may not be the accrediting agency, but which decides which diplomas will be recognized) actually allow children to graduate from high school in Texas who've been taught that the world was created in six 24-hour days and evolution is a Satanic hoax?

I guess I've assumed that, public or private, eleemysonary (fancy word for K-12) schools in Texas had to offer a relatively standardized curriculum. 2+2=4, not 5, and all that. They can additionally offer religious instruction (which I received), but when it comes to readin', writin' and 'rithmetic, they gotta keep it in the middle of the fairway.

Don't Take New Hampshire For Granite

2008-01-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

Hillary Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary was a surprise to everyone, including, apparently, Hillary Clinton. Tim Russert said last night on MSNBC that the Clinton people had told him that morning that they had internal polling showing her between 9 and 11 points down. Their hope for the day was that they could keep their loss to Obama within single digits.

Instead, she won a tight race, garnering 39% over Obama's 37% and Edwards's 17%. It truly is a startling turnaround for the Clinton campaign, which was in a tailspin after their unexpected loss to Obama in Iowa last week. By yesterday morning, there was open talk about bringing in new (or, better put, old) blood like James Carville and Paul Begala -- although both Carville and Begala have denied it. (Begala quoted something he says to his four boys: "NHD -- not happening, dude.")

I am not naive enough to think they're not going back to the campaign just because they said so, but certainly the urgency of a shakeup is diminished this morning. Mark Penn, the campaign manager who was widely criticized (including by Bill Clinton) for his "Obama: Where's The Bounce?" memo just last weekend, is probably smiling today.

The question on everyone's mind is, how did the polls and the pundits get it so wrong? What happened between the time the pollsters hung up their phones and the voters pulled their levers? Remember, even the Clintons' internal polls showed her losing.

The most colorful theory I've heard yet comes from Pam Spaulding over at Pandagon, who has postulated the Tweety Effect -- "where the misogyny of a talking head in the MSM so enrages a demographic that they go out and vote in a manner that will put egg on the face of the talking head." The Tweety Effect is named for MSNBC "Hardball" anchor Chris Matthews.

It'll be interesting to see the post-mortems over the next week or so on why the media got it so wrong. By the way, there was an interesting exchange last night between Matthews and NBS eminence grise Tom Brokaw where Brokaw implicitly scolded Matthews for this "Tweety-ness." Or maybe explicitly. Read for yourself (and thanks to Digby at Hullabaloo for the transcript):

BROKAW: You know what I think we’re going to have to do?
MATTHEWS: Yes, sir?
BROKAW: Wait for the voters to make their judgment.
MATTHEWS: Well what do we do then in the days before the ballot? We must stay home, I guess.
BROKAW: No, no, we don’t stay home. There are reasons to analyze what they’re saying. We know from how the people voted today, what moved them to vote. You can take a look at that. There are a lot of issues that have not been fully explored during all this.
But we don’t have to get in the business of making judgments before the polls have closed. And trying to stampede in effect the process.
Look, I’m not just picking on us, it’s part of the culture in which we live these days. I think that the people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding, in many cases, as we learned in New Hampshire when they went into the polling booth today or in the last three days. They were making decisions very late.

Here's their colloquy:

In any case, we apparently still have an actual contest for the Democratic nomination, which is good for the party and for the nation. Lots of entertainment value, too!

Creationism In Higher Education, Too?

2008-01-08T11:53:00.000-06:00

Forrest Wilder over at The Texas Observer has published an excellent post about how officials at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board put their thumb on the scale in asking for an "independent" review of the Institute for Creation Research's effort to accredit a master's in science education program. In essence, they asked the review team to ignore the absence of scientific merit in deciding whether to approve a master's program in, that's right, science education.

Wilder's post is well-written and terrifying, raising the prospect that THECB staff will allow the ludicrous and counter-productive debate over evolution, which has plagued the Texas Education Agency for years (and still does), into the ivy towers of academe as well. This, as Daffy Duck would say, is a revolting development.

KOOP Fire Is Suspected Arson

2008-01-08T11:07:00.000-06:00

News 8 Austin and other outlets are reporting that unnamed Austin Fire Department are saying that the fire that damaged KOOP's studios this weekend was caused by arson. KOOP leaders have cautioned that AFD has not given them any official ruling, and encouraged people to wait for a final determination. Whatever the fire's cause, the station remains off the air indefinitely.

KOOP (pronounced co-op) is Austin community radio station. Its mission is to provide an alternative voice for underserved elements of the community. It's a non-profit organization largely run by volunteers. It has been on the air for thirteen years.

Two years ago, a pair of fires destroyed KOOP's studios on Fifth Street. The station was back on the air quickly, broadcasting from the KMFA studios on Lamar for a while before settling in at their new digs on Airport Boulevard in late 2006.

The non-commercial station is dependent on its volunteers and on community support. Stay tuned for more on the station's rebuilding efforts.

KOOP Burns -- Again

2008-01-06T16:31:00.000-06:00

KOOP is the community radio station here in Austin. (Trivia: actually, because of issues with obscure FCC rules, KOOP is identified as being from "Hornsby," a small community outside Austin.) KOOP has been in business for thirteen years, pretty much as an all-volunteer operation. Although there's a small paid staff, most of the programmers, technicians, fundraisers, etc. are volunteers. I signed up as a volunteer this fall, partly to support their work and partly to get my own radio show. As anyone who knows me is aware, I have a face made for radio.

In early 2006, KOOP had damaged by two fires at its downtown Austin location. The first occurred in the studios on January 6 (two years ago today) and knocked the station off the air for five days. The second occurred in early February, starting at a nightclub next door and destroying three buildings, including the one in which KOOP was housed.

After an uncertain period during which it broadcast from the KMFA studios on North Lamar (near McBride's Gun Shop and the conveniently next-door funeral home), KOOP moved to a new location on Airport Boulevard about a year ago. They built a new, state-of-the-art broadcasting studio, and were working on a second studio where shows and actualities could be produced. They also were rebuilding their music collection.

Today comes the bad news that a fire this morning seriously damaged the new location, knocking out the broadcast studio indefinitely. I am sure KOOP will recover from this, but it may take some time.

Weak

2008-01-06T10:25:00.000-06:00

Al Edwards, who was a mediocre, if colorful, member of the Texas House of Representatives for too long, wants his old job back. Edwards represented a predominantly African American district in central Houston for 26 years, and was defeated in the 2006 Democratic primary by businessman Borris Miles.

Edwards sent out an email laying out the case for his candidacy. His case? In short: he wants to keep his district from going to the Republicans (after all, the district only gave Maria Luisa Alarado 67% of the vote against David Dewhurst in 2006), he invented Juneteenth, and he wants to protect the people of his district from eminent domain. Seriously. Check out his website for more of his salutary accomplishments. My favorite part: his bio calls him "Former Texas Honorable Al Edwards." Former?

Oddly enough, he neglects to mention his critical role in protecting Texans from sexy cheerleading, which he identified as the cause of the most of the state's ills, including "the herpes" and AIDS. His efforts were covered by the national media, including this memorable segment from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart:

He also neglected to mention that he was a Craddick D. I wonder if he'll bring that up in his campaign?

Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-01T23:05:00.000-06:00

As I have for the last several years, I spent New Year's Eve out in Marathon, Texas, hanging out with a great group of friends and ringing in the new year with fellowship, food, drink and music. Base camp, as usual, was at Ty and Kate Fain's wonderful home in SoMar (South Marathon).

It was cold out there. How cold was it? Check out the fountain in the courtyard of Ty and Kate's home.

John Fogerty at Fred Baron's

2007-12-11T10:08:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the terrific holiday party hosted every year by Fred Baron and Lisa Blue in Dallas. About 1500 people attended and had a great time. The headlineers this year were Eric Burdon and the Animals and John Fogerty and his band. Terrific music, much appreciated by the guests.

Here's a picture of John Fogerty. You can see more of my pictures of the evening here.

Have You Ever Seen Dallas ... ?

2007-12-09T09:48:00.000-06:00

I am in Dallas this morning, having attended Fred Baron and Lisa Blue's fabulous annual holiday party. Featured entertainment: Eric Burdon and the Animals, and John Fogerty and his band. More on that later.

Because it was in the 80s in Austin yesterday, I was dressed cool and casual and had the windows open on Sage the Explorer. Coming into the Metroplex, I hit a wall of cool air, the leading edge of the cool front that's now covering most of Texas. In about five minutes, the outside temperature dropped from 79 to 67! It's not often you experience a 12-degree swing in the temperature that quickly, and it was pretty cool.

Zod in 2008

2007-11-19T10:23:00.000-06:00

Finally, a presidential candidate we can get behind ... or else! Check it out.

Bush vs. Reagan

2007-11-14T12:08:00.000-06:00

Taegan Goddard's PoliticalWire today highlights a poll of likely Iowa caucus voters about the presidential candidates. But I was fascinated by a batch of questions and answers that had nothing to do (or maybe everything to do) with the 2008 elections. Here are the questions and the results (from 600 likely Republican caucus voters):

2. Do you see President George W. Bush as a conservative Republican in the mode of Ronald Reagan? (Republicans Only)
Yes 7%

No 74%
Undecided 19%
3. How important is it for the Republican presidential candidate to be a conservative Republican in the mode of Ronald Reagan: very important, somewhat important, not very important, not important, or undecided? (Republicans Only)
Very Important 51%
Somewhat Important 16%
Not Very Important 6%
Not Important 14%
Undecided 13%

Ronald Reagan is the closest thing to a Saint the modern GOP has, and so he's held up as the standard against which everyone else is measured. In this survey, 67% believe it's important to a GOP presidential candidate to be like Reagan. So, it's bad news for Bush that 74% of Republicans do not think Bush is a true Reaganaut.

Allow me, however, to offer a contrarian view, damning Bush with faint praise. I think Bush is more of a Reaganaut (Reaganut?) than Reagan was. Reagan described the USA as a "city on a hill," shining the beacon of liberty and democracy on the rest of the world, but Bush has been more aggressive in meddling in other countries' business in the name of democracy. (Of course, the old hypocrisies still assert themselves: we condemn and harass Hugo Chavez, who for all his faults -- and there are many -- is apparently freely-elected and popular, and can barely manage a "tsk, tsk" at Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf.)

Reagan rattled his saber relentlessly against the Red Menace -- and invaded Grenada. Bush followed through on his promise to strangle terrorism in its crib -- then missed it by a couple countries when he invaded Iraq. Reagan's tax cuts for the rich, justified by what one observer called "voodoo economics," were dwarfed by Bush's, as has the consequent damage to the budget and the balance of payments been dwarfed by the trillion dollar debt we've amassed in six years.

Reagan ran in 1980 as an ideologue, but governed in a more moderate fashion. Bush, whose 2000 campaign was notable for its "compassionate conservatism" and rejection of nation-building and international adventurism, ran as a moderate but has been the most ideological president of modern times (perhaps ever).

When GOPers sign their hosannas to Saint Ronald, are they admiring his hard-right ideological campaigning or his center-right pragmatic governing?

Brother Martin McMurtrey, 1921-2007

2007-11-12T11:59:00.000-06:00

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings

-- Shakespeare, Richard II

Brother Martin McMurtrey, S.M. died on Friday, November 9, in, as they say, "the 87th year of his life and the 69th year of his religious profession." I have always loved the solemn dignity of that formulation, and its elegance is very appropriate to "Brother Mac's" life.

The San Antonio Express-News did a nice article about him, but it barely scratched the surface of his impact on a whole generation of students. A fuller obituary is attached below, but it also fails to capture what a great spirit he was.

I love Martin McMurtrey. He was my English teacher my sophomore year at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, where he taught for almost 50 years. In 1970, he pulled me and, I think, six other guys out of our usual English classes so that we could work with him on a special project -- writing an analysis of poverty in San Antonio and what we could do about it. It was one of the transforming experiences of my young life.

We met every day and did research, studying all kinds of reports and government documents. Gleaning the information from libraries, the city and the federal government was a huge learning experience. I remember how shocked I was to discover that San Antonio was the poorest major city in the United States (and, for all I know, still is). We wrote what I am sure is a very forgettable report -- but the experience of writing it still remains with and shapes me to this day.

But Brother Mac was not content to let that be the extent of our immersion in the learning process. He took all of us with him to St. Agnes Parish every week, where we taught religious education classes to impoverished schoolchildren. Like our report, I am sure the CCD lessons I taught were forgettable -- but McMurtrey's commitment to the poor and the eye-opening difference between my life and those kids' made a huge impression on me, then and now.

For fifty years, Martin McMurtrey was that kind of teacher and mentor, a transformational figure in the lives of thousands of future leaders.

Sometime in the early 1990s, I was talking to Jan Jarboe Russell, who followed a stint as a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News with a writing gig at Texas Monthly and a terrific book on Lady Bird Johnson. I was then working for Governor Ann Richards, but Jan and I had known each other since I was an organizer for COPS and MCA, two powerfully effective community organizations in San Antonio.

We were talking about growing up in San Antonio and she asked me about significant influences. I mentioned Brother Mac and how he'd broadened my worldview and sharpened my sense of social justice. She told me that, in previous conversations with both Henry Cisneros and Ernie Cortes (the founder of COPS and one of the most influential community organizers of the last half-century), they'd both mentioned Brother Mac as well.

It'd be a great story to talk with all the people whose lives he transformed.

The Difference Between the House and Senate, Part 387

2007-11-08T12:37:00.000-06:00

Rummaging around on some other blogs brought me to the website of the Texas Heritage Alliance, a right-wing political organization masquerading as patriotic Christians. The Texas Heritage Alliance is the new nom de guerre of the Free Market Foundation and its affiliated FreePAC.

FreePAC had its fifteen minutes of infamy when, in 2002, is sent out a series of factually inaccurate, hateful mailers trying to sabotage the re-election chances of Republican elected officials like state Senators Bill Ratliff and Jeff Wentworth and state Representatives Brian McCall and (now Senator) Kip Averitt. Wentworth's mailer accused him of being "extremely liberal" because he'd voted for the hate-crimes legislation and was a supporter of gay rights. Wentworth, who voted against a hate crimes bill in 2001 and later authored the Defense of Marriage Act in 2003, was understandably outraged. After all, he may be a parking scofflaw, but he's no milquetoast liberal.

Wentworth, Ratliff and the others condemned FreePAC and its hateful tactics -- Ratliff called their mailers "political pornography" -- and the uproar forced FreePAC to go underground for a while. The discredited organization resurfaced as the Heritage Alliance, explained founder Richard Ford, "to signify a unified effort of economic and social conservatives passing those values onto future generations."

Anyway, the Heritage Alliance has a Legislators' Scorecard on its website, ranking all 150 House members and 31 Senators according to their votes on conservative issues like supporting Tom Craddick for Speaker (RV1) and placing "In God We Trust" above the dais in the House Chamber (RV16). In all, there are 67 House votes and 53 Senate votes analyzed to produce a ranking.

I think it's interesting that the Senators' scores are more clustered than the House members'. While House scores range from a low of 3 (Paul Moreno) to a high of 96 (Jodie Laubenberg), the Senate scores range only from a low of 40 (Eliot Shapleigh) to a high of 79 (Robert Nichols). In other words, the Senate is less extreme in the swing of its members' views than the House.

Interesting question: why are four of the five most conservative members of the House (Laubenberg, Brown, Crabb, Harper-Brown, and Riddle) women?

Cat Got Your Tongue?

2007-11-08T10:42:00.000-06:00

If you're like me, you love lively, robust political discourse. And what's modern American political discourse without the occasional ad hominem attack? In fact, longtime political combatants come to enjoy a little name-calling in the service of their patriotism and worldview. Bob Novak, for example, liked being called "the Prince of Darkness" so much that he gave that title to his autobiography. He probably didn't like the title Jon Stewart bestowed on him -- Douchebag of Liberty -- as much.

In any case, sometimes words fail me when, in the heat of battle, I try to rip off a good insult. Thanks goodness there's the Conservative Insult Generator, guaranteed to help you put together a snarky little comment in no time flat. Try it, it's fun!

For the more conservative connoisseur, there's the Liberal Insult Generator too. Act now and get both in time for Thanksgiving! What a wonderful way to liven up those boring Thanksgiving dinner conversations.

Ron Paul and Guy Fawkes

2007-11-07T09:02:00.000-06:00

It's fun to watch Ron Paul's supporters act as if the $4.3 million dollars he raised IN ONE DAY makes him a serious presidential candidate. Raising that much money, period, much less in one day, is a very impressive accomplishment, but Ron Paul is still a fringe candidate, and no amount of money is going to make him a serious one.

What's interesting about the $4.3 million is the energy behind which it was raised. Although Paul's campaign played along, the drive was organized by outsiders, led by Trevor Lyman, a music promoter and Paul enthuiast who created a web site, www.thisNovember5th.com. It was Lyman's idea to tie the fundraising effort into Guy Fawkes Day, celebrated every November 5th in England.

Fawkes, a mercenary who participated in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605, is the model for the protagonist in the graphic novel and movie "V for Vendetta." Using clips from the movie and the English schoolyard refrain "Remember, remember the 5th of November," Lyman's Web site spread the word.

So Ron Paul is tapping into the anti-government, throw-the-bums-out mood of many disaffected Americans. Whether they show up to vote or not is a live question -- remember, these are much the same people that Kinky Friedman was counting on to make him Governor of Texas -- but even if they do, Paul has gotten to broaden his message and appeal quite a bit to be taken seriously by the voters.

Molly Ivins on W in 2000

2007-11-06T17:11:00.000-06:00

I has the pleasure of attending the tribute to Molly Ivins at the Texas Book Festival last weekend. It was nice, as tributes go, but neither as rollicking or profane as Molly would have preferred, possibly because it was held in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church. Needless to say, there was almost no alcohol consumed at the tribute, which begs the question of whether it was really a tribute at all. Scholz's Biergarten always was, and always will be, a more appropriate venue for celebrating the rich melange of humor, insight and passion that was Molly's take on Texas and national politics.

In any case, ruminating on Molly led me to the Time Magazine Man of the Year issue for 2000. The honoree was none other than George W. Bush -- a distinction I'm sure they'd like to get back. He may get an award 90-some years for now for Fuck-Up of the Century.

The Time magazine coverage includes an essay by Molly which good-heartedly proposes that we should give W a break and wish him well as he begins his presidency. Says Miz Molly, echoing what many of us believed at the time:

I frankly don't expect much from him; neither do you; and that's the best thing he has going for him. If he so much as clears a matchbox, we'll all fall back in wonder. Think how pleasantly surprised we're going to be when we discover George W. is, as he has been all his life, sort of adequate. Not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but he'll do.

This was the Conventional Wisdom at the time: W would be an OK President, just as he'd been as OK Governor -- certainly not a visionary, not particularly attuned to the daily lives of Texans or the nuances of policy, but not a clueless Neanderthal like Bill Clements. In short, he'd be like his Dad -- someone we'd have fond memories of, if we could remember him at all.

Of course, Bush turned out to be one of the most momentous Presidents of our times, for better or worse. I frankly thinks it's for worse, but I'll let history be the judge of that.

Molly must be laughing as she thinks about how W suckered all of us and our bigotry of low expectations.

Mikal Watts Leaves U.S. Senate Race, Clears Field For ... Me

2007-10-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

Mikal Watts withdrew from the U.S. Senate race this morning, as I knew he would. As much as I tried to keep it a closely-guarded secret, loose talk about my potential candidacy had spread a little too far. Watts knew -- as any reasonably astute observer of Texas politics would know -- that with me in the race, the over-40, balding white professional male candidate profile was sewn up. Voters don't want to choose between over-40, balding white professional males for Senate any more than they want to choose between Arby's and Burger King when they're ordering pizza.

Watts, by the way, steadfastly insists that he's 39 years old. Yeah, right.

Texas voters, of course, will be even more pained having to choose between an empty-headed sycophant who looks like he got sent over from Central Casting and an Afghan war veteran whose biggest leadership challenger to date has been organizing emergency food, water and shelter for over 7,000 Katrina evacuees. Please -- like we all haven't had relatives drop in unexpectedly!

For that reason, I am announcing the formation of an exploratory committee -- actually, a couple guys who'll meet at the Putt-Putt on Lamar and then have a pitcher of beer at the old gas station across the way -- to determine whether I should take the next step in running for the U.S. Senate, to wit, calling someone to ask what the next step would actually be. Keep posted for further thrilling developments.

In the meantime, here's Mikal Watts' (Who? See how quickly we forget?) statement:

"For the last five months I have been exploring a race for the United States Senate because I believe that our junior senator, John Cornyn, has let Texas down and is more concerned with his cronies and friends in Washington than with what's best for Texas.
"After spending the last several months putting everything into this campaign, I have seen the toll this effort has taken on my young children. For these reasons, my wife and I have made the decision that I will not be seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate in 2008. I was brought up to believe that public service is a noble endeavor and I will continue to be involved at some level in the future. However, I realize that my time now should be devoted to serving my children so they may grow up in a healthy environment with both parents at home to meet their needs.
"The reasons for creating my exploratory committee still exist. As I have criss-crossed the state and met and talked with tens of thousands of good Texans, it is evident how much the people of Texas want and need a Senator who will fight every day for their interests and not the special interests. We need to elect a new Senator in Texas and I will personally do everything possible to support the Democratic nominee.
"It is hard to express the gratitude I feel for all the support my family and I have received as we have pursued this effort. I know that our vision for the future of Texas is one that all of our friends and supporters share. It's been one of the greatest blessings of my life for their faith in me, and for all of their hard work over the past months. While the decision not to seek the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate has been a difficult one, I know that it is the right one for my family at this time."

Rick Perry Admits He's a Cogitator

2007-10-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

Rick Perry 'fessed up this morning: "For the last six months, I have cogitated." This from a man who has consistently opposed gay rights, going so far as to oppose even civil unions. The apple has not fallen far from the Paint Creek, Texas, tree.

The object of his cogitating? Rudy Giuliani, whom he endorsed for President this morning. The fact that Giuliani favors gay rights (9/11) and gun control (9/11) did not deter Texas's Only Governor from endorsing the thrice-married Giuliani (9/11). In fact, Perry sent around some talking points to accompany the press conference call that defended Giuliani's position on some of these hot-button issues. According to Ross Ramsey:

A talking points memo sent to Perry friendlies addresses differences between the candidate and the governor on four big issues: abortion, gay marriage and gays in general, gun control, and immigration. Perry's answers, in order: "Good people can disagree on this issue"; "...we, too, are called to love everyone even if we may disagree on issues like this one"; "Mayor Giuliani makes a distinction between what may work in New York City versus the rest of America"; and "Mayor Giuliani understands that you cannot have homeland security without border security."

Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic thinks this is Perry's audition to get on the GOP ticket as a vice-presidential candidate. Something to think about, in spite of Perry's denials (including today, per Elise Hu: "I have a really really good job and I love my job. In fact I just moved out of the mansion and I'm not looking to move again," Perry said.)

Perry fits the conventional wisdom of a ticket-balancer: Rudy's northeasters, he's southwestern; Rudy was a mayor, he's a governor (and Americans love governors -- four of our last five Presidents had been governors); Rudy's soft on God, guns and gays, but no one accuses Perry of that. Well, not seriously.

On the other hand, Texas is a reliably red state for Presidential politics in which Perry won re-election with only 39 percent of the vote a year ago. His last legislative session was a train wreck, with Republican lawmakers sabotaging his initiatives on Gardasil, TXU and toll roads. He finished the session by vetoing $154 million in needed funding for community colleges and getting himself named to Texas Monthly's Ten Worst list. Things have only gotten better over the summer because everyone went home.

Perry and his new BFF Rudy Giuliani are heading to Iowa today to stump for Giuliani's candidacy. I wonder how Rudy will dress for the occasion.

Pick Your President

2007-10-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

The SELECT-A-CANDIDATE quiz was initially developed by the folks at Minnesota Public Radio and is now online courtesy of WQAD in Moline, Illinois, home of John Deere tractors.

Take the quiz and let us know how you do!

I LOVE this song!

2007-10-05T11:25:00.001-05:00

Not sure I am going to buy an iPod Nano, though. I'll probably buy the CD, though.

HAAM Benefits Austin Musicians

2007-10-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Soaking up the good vibes at the Great Austin Music Medicine Show at Threadgill's with the amazing Barbara K.

Last night, I went to a benefit for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, or HAAM. Actually, it would have been hard NOT to go to a HAAM benefit last night, since half the businesses in town seemed to be supporting HAAM by donating five percent of their gross receipts to the effort. The other half were hosting HAAM concerts with great artists like Abi Tapia, Tony Campise, and Vallejo.

I attended the Great Austin Music Medicine Show at Threadgill's World Headquarters on Riverside. The show included performances by Greezy Wheels, Maryann Price, Ghosts and Sparrows (featuring Barbara K), Idgy Vaughn, and others. Ghosts and Sparrow's music was, as always, sublime, and Idgy brought down the house with her ode to a departed (!?!) boyfriend, "Dragging the River." (Unfortunately, the links to the mp3 may be dead.)

The good news is, the HAAM Benefit Day raised money for a really good cause. The better news is, you can still contribute to HAAM -- and to the collaborative culture of a city where you can stumble on to great music on any given day -- by going here.

Where Do They Find These People?

2007-10-02T14:13:00.000-05:00

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, has decided that the greatest threat to our national security and, indeed, the American Way of Life is: trash.

In an interview with the Associated Press published yesterday, he announced yet another justification for the hare-brained border fence scheme into which the Bush Administration wants to pour somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 billion dollars. Nice neighborhood.

This time, it's personal. "Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas," Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment."

Numero Uno: He's seen pictures? What, he's never been here? Geez.

Numero Dos-O: Michael Chertoff is from New Eff-ing Jersey. He's got a lot of nerve complaining about something as innocuous as human waste and discarded bottles. If he thinks that's "the worst thing you can do to the environment," he is seriously off his rocker. His "homeland" is one of the world's most polluted inhabited areas. Yet, in what would ordinarily pass for a distinguished career as a U.S. Attorney, including a stint as head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Chertoff never acted against environmental crooks.

The problem is, with no one seriously believing the fence is going to keep anyone out and even reactionary border governors like Rick Perry ridiculing the very idea, Chertoff and the Administration have to keep a straight face and issue new rationales for the border fence on what seems to be virtually a monthly basis.

Remind you of any wars we're fighting? And seriously, where do they find dumbasses like Chertoff?