Cain Accuser Won’t Come Forward, and For Good Reason

If you have been following the news lately you are well-aware that presidential hopeful (or book seller?) Herman Cain has stumbled of late due to several accusations from at least four women that Cain, when he was head of the National Restaurant Association, had sexually harassed them.

Having absolutely zero effect on his polling. Teabaggers love them some sexual harassers.

The revelations actually increased his rate of campaign contributions. I kid you not.

So having laid all of this out before the media and the public, should one wonder why none of the four women want to go public? Well, for one thing, there is word of signed settlements – cash for silence. Something that has been breached, although what do you do if someone who was harassed decides to come out anyway, sue her?

No, I think not, although I may be selling short the level that Herman Cain can descend to.

No, the reason you stay out of the klieg lights of modern fame is Anita Hill.

Anita Hill came forward when the Senate was considering confirmation of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice. Her story was credible. And her story was ignored, Thomas was confirmed, and Thomas has subsequently been a participant in some of the worst SCOTUS decisions in US history.

The reason you don’t come forward is that there is absolutely nothing in it for you to do so, and it destroys whatever self-respect and credibility you once had.

New Hampshire Teabaggers Have Perry’s Number

Texas Tea Partiers just love them some Rick Perry. They love his secession talk. They love it when he jogs packing heat. They love it when he just says NO to any new form of revenue that just might make his state solvent once again.

But New Hampshire Tea Partiers, you know, New Hampshire, the first primary state, have Rick Perry’s number and they are getting the word out on him.

Like how Rick Perry was once a Democrat (gasp) and was even Al Gore’s Texas campaign chair in 1988 (when he was a Democrat).

Like how Rick Perry supported the DREAM Act in 2001, giving the children of illegal aliens a fighting chance at a decent life – a position he solidly opposes now that he is a reactionary Republican.

Like how he supported the now defunct Trans Texas Corridor, a project which threatened the property rights of hundreds of Texas landowners across the state.

Like how he wanted to force thousands of eleven year old female children to be vaccinated for Human Papillomavirus or HPV – because his former Chief of Staff was a lobbyist for Merck, the maker of the HPV vaccine.

You know, stuff all we Texans know, or should know, or should have known when Perry soundly defeated a better man (better, but just not all that interesting), former Houston mayor Bill White.

And therein lies the difference between idiotic New Hampshire Teabaggers and idiotic Texas Teabaggers.

In New Hampshire, they still read.

Perry/Palin in 2012

What do you call it when you put a state governor who has spent too much time in that office on the same presidential ticket as a state governor that couldn’t even serve out her full first term as state governor?

A dream ticket.

A dream ticket, that is, for Democrats.

Rick Perry is running for president. He hasn’t declared it, not yet. But actions speak louder than words. When Rick Perry ran for re-election in this past mid-term election he didn’t debate his Democratic opponent or anyone else for that matter. And that, as it turns out, was not because he was afraid of what Bill White could do to him, although he would have been turned into mincemeat by a more thoughtful debater, it’s because Rick Perry wasn’t running against Bill White in the past election.

He was running against Barack Obama.

His landslide victory was not a result of a Texas electorate that was elated over his record as governor – they had no idea what his record was – it was about how Perry took up the battle cry of anti-federalism. Rick Perry is a “Tenther” of the first order – a states’ rights proponent of an order that we haven’t seen since the Lincoln-Douglas debates. And this hits an emotional chord with Teabaggers.

Teabaggers and Texans.

And now, according to this article in the Chron, Perry is taking his argument with the Feds to the national stage.

From the Chron:

“Perry is preparing to revamp the Republican Governors Association to focus more on policy and energize states' push-back against the federal government.”

“‘There's just no question that Rick Perry views his upcoming term as chairman as an opportunity to raise his issues and his national profile,’ says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.”

Rick Perry is running for president.

And nipping at his heels for the role of the populist candidate of greatest appeal to Teabaggers is former semi-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. Her well-timed book signing tour will keep her in the forefront of Teabagger politics as we head toward the inevitable hat-tossing contest that will occur early next year. With the Iowa Caucus only 14 months away, we will soon see the field of GOP candidates emerge. And you can bet that Perry and Palin will be there at the forefront.

Now Sarah Palin scared the bejesus out of independent voters in 2008. She is sure to do so again. Should Rick Perry be his party’s choice to run against Barack Obama in 2012 he would be insane to include her on his ticket. But who knows, that’s a year and a half away. Lots can happen.

What would happen, for example, if Rick Perry gets the nomination and chooses “Anyone but Palin” to be his running mate? Would this be enough to inflame his base and cause the schism in the GOP that I have been expecting?

Tax cuts for the rich that run up the deficit. Earmarks. Medicaid cuts. All of the things that Teabaggers are against Republicans seem to be for, but so far there has been no organized opposition to the Republican agenda by Teabaggers. But this would personify it for them.

Facts and issues don’t concern Teabaggers. But slighting Sarah Palin, the darling of the poor-spelling wearers of teabags and tricorn hats just might be the spark that we Democrats have been anticipating for some time now.

Teabagger Congressman Wannabe Farenthold Is a Lucky Duck

Blake Farenthold, a Corpus Christi attorney/businessman/Teabagger, is some kind of lucky duck. First, Farenthold emerged last April out of a crowded pack of 4 Republican contenders who sought to take advantage of the perceived disaffection with the Democratic majority in DC and challenge 27-year congressional veteran Solomon Ortiz.

Back then Farenthold came out second from the top in the March primary with 30.12% percent of the vote, and then he ran in a runoff election against the top vote getter in the primary, Corpus Christi realtor James Duerr. In that low turnout runoff election Farenthold edged Duerr by 246 votes, giving him the nod to mount a campaign to challenge Congressman Ortiz of Texas’ 27th Congressional District.

What a lucky duck.

And now, on the weekend before Early Voting begins in the mid-term election, Blake Farenthold has been vaulted to the national spotlight. His smiling face has been dashed across national blogs like HuffingtonPost and Talking Points Memo as well as mainstream media web pages like New York Magazine’s.

Yes, that is Blake Farenthold, his smiling face, his Lucky Duck pajamas, and a local Corpus Christi “CrushGirl” hottie in black lingerie. The photo was taken at a Corpus Christi nightclub, the Aria Sky Terrace and Lounge during “Tellie’s 3rd Annual Pajama/Lingerie Party for Charity” that took place just after Christmas last year.

He certainly looks like he was having a great time.

Most recently, I have seen that Farenthold has been brow-beating Congressman Ortiz, calling him a “chicken” for not debating with him, his latest stunt being to launch a website and hand out rubber chickens.

And it seems to have worked because we now find that Ortiz and Farenthold will be in a live debate this coming October 26th at 5 PM on Corpus Christi’s KIII Channel 3.

So that ought to be fun, especially if Farenthold shows up in his Lucky Duck pajamas. I wonder where do you find pajamas like that in Corpus Christi Texas in size 4XL.

Ortiz has proven that he isn’t the chicken that Farenthold said he was. I just wonder now which candidate is the one with the egg on his face.

Pennsylvania: Toomey Grabs Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory

The Pennsylvania US Senate race is one that I have been watching with interest from clear on back to when outgoing Senator Arlen Specter ratted out on his Republican brethren and joined the ranks of the Democrats in the US Senate, giving Democrats, for one brief shining moment, a filibuster proof majority.

Specter wasn’t going to win in a head-to-head primary contest against Teabagger Pat Toomey, whose uber-conservative group, Club For Growth was once tagged by former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee the “Club For Greed.”

Specter only outpolled Toomey once in a Quinnipiac poll taken in February 2010.

So when Specter switched sides, he met with yet another primary challenger in retired Navy Admiral and present Congressman Joe Sestak. And Sestak cleaned his clock. Democrats don’t like voting for Republicans who say they are Democrats just for the convenience of job security.

Sestak, however, faced the same problems that Specter did in polling himself against Toomey. His numbers have always been slightly better than Specter’s ever were, but he has always trailed Toomey in any Pennsylvania poll.

Until the latest Hart Poll conducted between October 8 and October 10, a telephone poll of 604 likely voters. A poll with a 4% margin of error.

The Hart Poll has Joe Sestak leading Pat Toomey by 3%, 47% to 44%.

Now that is still within the margin of error, but the point is that this is the first time that we see Sestak’s numbers higher than Toomey’s. It shows a trend.

The trend is just this: people are starting to realize that the change that the Republicans are promising if they are elected is a change back to status quo ante. That is, Republicans promise to bring back everything that Bush and a Republican majority put in place between 2001 and 2006. Back to a kleptocracy. Back to Wall Street greed.

Back to the bad old days that inspired two successive Democratic victories.

Pat Toomey along with Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Christine O’Donnell, and Mike Buck are way out there on the political spectrum. When moderate Republicans and Independents start to realize that undeniable fact, they will see that they have little choice but to support Democratic candidates who, unlike their Republican opponents, haven’t completely lost their minds.

And when that happens, there goes a Republican majority in the Senate.

Just in Time for Mid-Term Elections

They want your money.

At the box office.

For the cost of just one theater ticket, oh and some popcorn and Coke for 8 bucks, you can go and see I Want Your Money at the picture show this fall.

Just in time for mid-term elections.

Gee, do you think they had that planned?

The movie is written and directed by Ray Griggs, apparently Teabagger’s answer to Michael Moore. Except Moore knows satire and how to spin some irony like no one else. Griggs’ idea of humor is as stale as the moldering sour dough bread in my fridge.

Griggs is also known for making an 8 minute movie short about Satan and his battle with the Archangel Michael.

He also produced the “I must be a racist” ad that ran in the run up to the healthcare reform bill’s passing in the House.

All I can say is, yep.

King’s Dream, Beck’s Scheme

On August 28th it will be the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC in front of a throng of two hundred thousand supporters who participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

History tells us that this event was a turning point in the long climb to racial equality as it placed new pressures on the Kennedy Administration to take stronger action.

And in honor of this event, the Teabaggers have decided to usurp the day in order to allow Fox News Comedian Glen Beck to sell his wares.

From King’s “I Have a Dream,” we now have Beck’s “I Have a Scheme.”

Glen Beck would be a joke if it weren’t for the fact that he is a) listened to and viewed by a throng of ignorant white people who feel threatened, and b) is so blatantly in it for himself that selling God and selling Gold, to Beck, is one and the same thing, except for the addition of that bothersome little “l.”

Glen Beck dishes out fear, then cashes in by touting gold sales, something everyone wants to buy in these very uncertain times (thanks to that racist African-American Kenyan Muslim President, Barack Hussein Obama).

These days it is good to be Beck. It’s good because Beck can be a mediocre man yet pull down millions for himself. Beck can attract supporters despite the fact that his speeches are amateurish and insipid where King’s were polished and educated, where Beck's inspire fear while King’s inspired hope.

And yes, there will be a counter rally at the same time. I just heard that TrueMajority and USAction will be there with a 4 story tall sculpture to celebrate Dr. King’s triumphal speech. Learn about it here at Celebrate the Dream.

Funding the Recovery Act: Arrest, Try, Jail and Fine the Threateners

A confluence of events gave me a grand Idea that I need to share. I get ideas from time to time but every once in awhile it is a real humdinger (and I need to capitalize the I).

I was browsing through the Federal Recovery program website this evening, marveling at many of its aspects. That it had a state-by-state breakdown on how much of the Recovery Act funds are going to each state (Texas is getting a $13.2 billion slice of the pie) and you can even search by zip code. You get a map of that zip code and locations of businesses or organizations that are getting funds. You can even get a list of what the funds are supposed to be used for.

And you can even blow the whistle on fraud or abuse through the website.

As I said, it is truly marvelous.

Then I browsed at the Austin American-Statesman and noticed in an AP piece that a Dallas man had been arrested by the Feds for threatening our president’s life.

From AP (through the AA-S):

“Brian Dean Miller, 43, faces one count of making threats against the president, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”

Oh my, I thought. I had no idea that included in the maximum sentence for this crime there was a fine that went along with 5 years in federal lockup.

A cool 250 large.

And then it suddenly dawned on me how we could, at least partially, recoup on some of the money we are doling out to the states in the Recovery Act.

Arrest each and every one of the haters who threaten the life of our president. If they do the crime, they must also do the time – and pay the fine.

This particular hater wanted to take our president’s life because he got healthcare reform passed – or he signed the bill that Congress passed. Or that he used 22 pens to sign the bill. Who knows what specifically tipped this guy over.

Who cares?

$250,000 pays the yearly salary of 5 teachers.

And get them all, even those that issue empty threats – like Brian Dean Miller.

“An Arlington resident reported the threats to the Secret Service. Agents tracked down Miller at his Dallas home, where he lives with his mother, according to the complaint. Police arrested Miller and seized his computer. They found no weapons in the residence.”

Get that? A 43-year old who lives with his mother and doesn’t own a weapon.

Probably because his mom wouldn’t let him bring one home.

Now it won’t pay for the whole program, but it would definitely be a nice chunk of change if we got the maximum sentence for these losers.

According to the London Telegraph, President Obama gets an average of 30 death threats per day. By the numbers then, since January 20, 2009 there have been 464 full days where Obama received 30 death threats (probably more some days than others, like after another brilliant speech or passage of laws that promote Obama’s Socialistic Communist Nazi agenda).

With that many threats, and the fine being what it is, that could bring in $116 million in funds to offset the cost of the Recovery Act.

And that’s just up until today. In 4 years, or one complete term, threats to Obama’s life means a total of $365 million.

Double that for the second term.

The down side is that all of these haters will see what is happening and stop it with the threats, idle or otherwise.

But that’s OK, too.

Who is Quicker than the Feds’ Response to the Gulf Oil Spill?

When the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank last week no one was particularly concerned, except for the families of the missing and presumed dead. But then when an oil slick appeared local service companies and BP itself mobilized the oil cleanup armada that is kept nearby in just such a case as this.

And no one was particularly concerned, except for the families of the missing and presumed dead.

But then when we are treated to back-to-back news that all attempts to activate the subsea blowout preventer at the extreme depth that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling had failed and were going to continue to fail, and then a third seafloor leak had been discovered, upping the size of the flow to 5,000 barrels of crude per day, all of a sudden, people became concerned.

Concerned because it was now apparent that the huge oil slick was heading toward shore and there was nothing to stop the flow outside of drilling relief wells.

A job that can take months at that depth.

Then I waited. I waited and listened, knowing what I was going to be hearing from the rightwing nutjobs and teabaggers, rubbing my hands gleefully in anticipation.

And today it started. Not so much by the rightwing media, they might not react because they may see this the way I see it, but crazies and teabaggers always guarantee satisfaction.

They are blaming Obama for not reacting fast enough and sending federal help sooner, quicker to respond to the disaster than the federal government, apparently.

Here it is in readers’ comments at a Houston Chronicle story on the subject:

“We don't need Congress to investigate anything, other than the government's slow response to (another!) environmental disaster. Do more to stop the spread of the oil, not to waste time in D.C.”

“We don't need Congress to investigate anything, other than the government's slow response to (another!) environmental disaster. Do more to stop the spread of the oil, not to waste time in D.C.”

“Come on media, cover this like you covered Bush and Katrina. Why was Obama and his administration so slow to react. Why werent they there several days ago. How much additional damage was done because it took them so long to get involved?”

And then there’s this from a blog on the sea:

“The rig exploded a week ago Tuesday and sank on a Wednesday, a full eight days ago. For eight days the rig has been spewing oil into the Gulf. For eight days industry and environmental officials have been talking about a major spill with the potential to cause one of the worst ecological disasters in U.S. history.”

“What has the Obama Administration been doing about it? Other than pledging to investigate the cause of the incident, virtually nothing.”

Crazy.

These people dare to blame the Obama Administration, or accuse them of dragging their feet on a man-made disaster? A disaster created, produced and directed by British Petroleum and the service companies it hired to drill this well?

Who is culpable in this accident? BP. Who should clean it up? BP. Who should reimburse anyone negatively affected by their error? BP.

Here we have these crazies on the one hand wringing their hands over government bailout of the auto industry, government bailout of banks, and about how big government is taking over the free market, and its all socialism, but when an oil company drilling in the Gulf loses a rig and starts an environmental disaster, they expect the feds to come in and bail out BP.

And that’s not socialism.

They're accusing the feds of being irresponsible for waiting so long while the oil company and the service companies respond.

And the underlying assumption, of course, is that the federal government has in its vast warehouses all the equipment necessary to get this thing done faster and more efficiently than private industry.

But at the same time, these same people claim that the last organization you want to see running a national healthcare system is the federal government. Because they are so inefficient.

Crazy.

No, the only thing that the federal government needs to do right now is ask around about what the plan is when an oil company drills in the deepwater, as is their wont these days, and everything goes wrong.

They need to ask this burning question: isn’t drilling in the deepwater without a plan to kill a well blowout in any scenario much like driving a car without seat belts? And without air bags? And without first responders?

The only silver lining in this entire affair is that it has finally happened here (and not Brazil or Angola). We can now ask these questions and hopefully get some answers that don’t look like shrugging shoulders.

Revelation: Teabaggers Are Not All Fat Old Ugly Angry White Men

It’s true, you know, some Teabaggers are African-Americans.

Keith Olbermann, who commonly rails against the Tea Party movement, calling it a racism inciting crowd of old angry white men, was shown the other day, that the recent DC Tax Day rally of over 25,000 Teabaggers did indeed have some black participants.

Six of them.

Olbermann did the math, as I do sometimes, and came up with a new figure: what proportion of tea partiers are actually black.

Six out of 25,000 figures up to a grand total of 0.024%. That’s 24 one-thousandths of a percent.

By that calculus, and going by a number shown at the Tea Party Patriots official website, where they show 185,025 people “like” the Tea Party Patriots, that’s a grand total of 44 African-American Teabaggers living in America (rounding up).

Forty-four.

Well, forty-four isn’t zero.

But wait, I found another African-American Teabagger living in North Carolina. I found him here, and his name is Bill Randall.

“Bill Randall, an African-American retired Naval commander who is part of a quartet of Republicans vying for their party’s nomination and the opportunity to challenge liberal Democrat Brad Miller in the North Carolina’s 13 th Congressional District in November, told an audience at NC A&T University on April 17: “I’m all for the Tenth Amendment — states’ rights.”

Bill Randall is a real piece of work. I was especially drawn to this discussion, a discussion of socialism that Randall had in a phone interview made while he was driving to another rally. In it he was describing his fellow Americans, traitors all, who were working from within to bring socialism to American shores (as if it hasn’t been here for 75 years or so).

“‘It’s an assault,’ Randall continued. ‘We are under assault right now. We are under siege from within. It’s not an accident. I’m going to call it as it is. They are being open about it, so I’m going to come out and call it as it is. It is not an accident. I believe they would like to see a state of anarchy. Once you get to a state of anarchy, the people who want peace will say, “Peace at any cost.” The ultimate end? ‘They want absolute power in the hands of a few so that they can take control of things,’ Randall said. ‘I don’t think they would mind seeing things like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, so that all the private companies are controlled by the government, and all the press.’”

Funny he should mention Hugo Chavez, the socialist president of Venezuela.

As it turns out, according to this guy who apparently has some insider information on who are the big players in the Venezuela petroleum industry, one of the big bankrollers of the Teabagger movement is none other than the oil billionaire Koch family, with oil tycoon David Koch admitting to anyone within earshot that not only does he finance the Teabagger movement, he is one of its key founders.

From the Washington Independent, speaking at last year’s “Defending the American Dream Summit”:

“Days like to today bring to reality the vision of our board of directors, when we founded this organization five years ago. We envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history.”

And from where does Koch get some of the money that he gives to the Teabagger movement?

Hugo Chavez.

Politics and petrodollars make strange bedfellows sometimes.

“Fertinitro CEC, a joint venture controlled by Venezuela’s state chemicals company and Koch Industries, each of which hold 34.99% of the shares.”

“Natural gas in Venezuela is heavily subsidized. The government pays oil companies (such as Harvest Natural Resources’ joint venture, Petrodelta, $1.54 per thousand cubic feet while selling it to chemicals makers and power plants in Jose (where the plant is located) for Bs.F 0.03740 per cubic meter. By my math (0.0374 bsf/m3 =37.4 bsf/1000 m3 = 37.4 bsf/28,316.8 cubic feet = 1.321 bsf/thousand cubic feet) that works out to 1.321 bolivars (30.7 U.S. cents) per thousand cubic feet. So just on the natural gas, never mind the electricity or water subsidies, Koch profits from a direct Venezuelan government subsidy of $1.23 for every thousand cubic feet of gas consumed at Fertinitro.”

So next time you see a Teabagger holding one of his hand-lettered signs rife with spelling errors, ask him (or her) what s/he is doing attending a rally bought and paid for by surrogates of that hated Venezuelan socialist president, Hugo Chavez.

I’ll bet Bill Randall, one of 44 black Teabaggers in America would just ache to know that little tidbit of information.

Teabagggers Unveil Contract From America

It almost escaped my notice that the Teabaggers have a new manifiesto called the Contract From America because the April 15th Teabagger rallies that were so loudly touted by Teabaggers themselves and the media failed to make a dent in the April 15th news day.

They stayed away in droves.

This is somewhat upsetting to me as I had hoped the Teabagger revolution could last at least as long as until the time that the Texas Ethics Commission levies heavy fines on all of these groups that are taking people’s money for political causes, but not reporting any of it to that governmental body that was set up to monitor fraud, corruption, and abuse.

So the Teabaggers have themselves something akin to the Communist Manifesto now. It even has a preamble.

But yes, it nearly escaped my notice except for the fact that on his false news cable TV program, The Daily Show, Jon Stewart highlighted one of their ten points: That the federal tax code cannot be longer than the 4,543-word long United States Constitution.

I wonder if that includes the Amendments.

The joke being that behind the many Republican complaints about the 2100-page long healthcare reform bill, and all of these other lengthy complicated tomes, Republicans are mainly concerned over the length of these bills because they don’t like to read.

I, on the other hand was quite taken with point number 3: “Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.”

Now that’s funny.

Funny on two levels.

California has a law just like that. It was a provision of their Proposition 13, a provision that requires that the State Assembly pass a balanced budget every year, and that it pass it with a 2/3ds majority.

Because ever since then California has had to whittle and whittle and whittle essential government services, like public education, so they could live within the meager means that are dictated by a conservative minority.

California is a poster child for everything that has gone wrong with states that have been driven into the ground by their manic minority parties.

But here is the other thing that is ironically funny about the Contract From America. If you look at it you will see each point has a percentage figure tacked on to the end of each item. This is an artifact of the “transparency” with which the Contract From America was written. The percentage refers to the number of votes that each item received in online voting that took place before the final draft was unveiled.

Item #3 received a divine 69.69% of the vote.

Item #3 is an item that specifically calls for a 2/3ds majority vote on the federal budget. Because a vote on something this important requires a super majority.

But obviously, the manifesto itself is not nearly as important because each of the ten items that comprise it required only a simple majority to be included.

Now items 1 through 3 passed with super majority votes (82.03%, 72.2%, and 69.69%, respectively). But items 4 through 10 received less than 66.66% of the Teabagger votes.

So by their own standard, The Contract From America only has three points. The rest didn’t pass muster.

Or maybe it’s just this. Jon Stewart is right and Teabaggers really do hate to read and they just stopped voting after reading the first three.

Fort Bend Teabaggers Are Ethically Challenged

You do have to wonder about the ethical compass of those who purport to be champions of States’ Rights, National Security, and Personal and Governmental Responsibility, among other things.

The ethical compass of people, who organized as the “Fort Bend County Tea Party Society,” not only advertise their group’s participation in this Thursday’s Tax Day protest at Houston’s Discovery Green, but are also holding a fundraiser tomorrow, April 11th at a local restaurant that specializes in Texas-style barbecue.

A restaurant, I might add, that will not see my shadow fall on it ever again.

Because this group, the Fort Bend County Tea Party Society, a political organization that promotes political causes such as opposition to enactment of healthcare reform and the cap and trade bill, is taking money from people.

Taking money in an advertised fundraiser. Taking money by selling $20 bus tickets to the Thursday event in Houston.

Taking money for political causes, but not reporting a single red cent to the Texas Ethics Commission.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is a list of political action committees, sorted by start date (the most recent, at this writing, being April 8th 2010), that are registered at the Texas Ethics Commission. Look for "Fort Bend County Tea Party Society."

You will not find them listed.

Yet this group is taking money and advancing political causes within the State of Texas.

This group flouts the law by taking money for political purposes and not reporting how it is used or who it is from.

This group renders the term “Personal Responsibility” to be completely laughable.

Stupak to Retire; Teabaggers Take Credit

Today I met the news head on with the announcement that Bart Stupak D-MI-1 was going to either resign or retire after the end of his tenth term. Then I heard all of that was wrong.

Then I heard it wasn’t and that Stupak was taking the path to retirement. Here is the gist of his reasons given to the media, this from Examiner.com:

“Stupak cited long commutes between Michigan and Washington as well as a desire to spend more time with his family as the reasons for his retirement. Stupak shrugged off claims by conservative groups that their promise to challenge his reelection in November pushed him towards retirement.”

“‘I've struggled with this decision,’ Stupak said at a press conference on Marquette University's campus. "I wanted to leave a couple times. My main legislative goal was accomplished.’”

OK, well that was lame. That “he wants to spend more time with his family” is the single-most common excuse for resigning or retiring given when the reason is anything but that. The commute is tough, but really, “the commute” is the reason for giving up a congressional seat?

Now the far right wingnuts and Teabaggers have claimed credit for chasing Bart Stupak right out of Washington, DC.

And there may be some truth to that. After all, the right wing is singularly responsible for piling on vile hatespeech in Congerss (“Baby Killer”) and flooding his voicemail with such hateful language that it gives those of us on the left sure confirmation that Evangelical Conservatives are anything . . . anything . . . but Godly.

But you know, I want a piece of this action, too. The Democratic Party is a big tent party, but we sometimes have trouble with those of us in our number who claim to follow a higher calling, in their religious convictions, and vote their convictions over the wishes and will of their constituents.

I wanted Bart Stupak to just sit down and shut up when he nearly derailed the healthcare reform bill . . . twice. And in the version passed by the House, it contained language that I frankly, found offensive. It was blatantly discriminatory toward women.

No, if the truth were to come out, Bart Stupak may have lost his patience in dealing with the rabid fanatical rightwing fringe that has emerged in our country. Particularly because he dealt with them by being willing to sit down and listen to them. As if that was what these foaming, filth spewing people really wanted. But Bart Stupak was also facing a rather credible primary challenge in his home district.

From Examiner.com:

“‘Last month, before Stupak's decision to ultimately vote for health care overhaul legislation former Charlevoix County Commissioner Connie Saltonstall announced she would challenge Stupak due to his anti-abortion views. He "has a right to his personal, religious views, but to deprive his constituents of needed health care reform because of those views is reprehensible,’ Saltonstall said in a statement.”

Stupak, himself, doubts the viability of a Republican candidate to succeed him.

“‘I've seen the Republican field and obviously I'm not impressed,’ Stupak said. ‘I think it’s the weakest field I've seen in some time. I'm excited about the Democratic prospects.’”

So Teabaggers should go ahead and take all the credit they want to take on this. They should just take it all. It only makes them look even more vile, even more evil, and even more incredibly stupid than anyone has been able to hang on them to-date.

Anti-Choice Teabaggers just chased one of their own, an Anti-Choice congressman, right out of Washington DC.

And I am loving every minute of it.

It’s Also Census Day

It’s April Fool’s Day in America.

In Fort Bend ISD, it is RIF Day. That’s right. The local school district around where I live chose today to send notices around to its teachers that they would not have a job in their present workplace, if at all, in the next school year.

Some April Fool’s Joke, huh?

It’s also Census Day, the deadline to turn in the 2010 Census form that was mailed to an estimated 134 million households in America. Now I have looked around a bit and can’t for the life of me find out how much it takes to print, send and receive a census form but assuming printing costs of about $1 per form, and mailing costs of 2 times $0.42, that’s about $250 million. Compare that to the $384 million promotional price tag in sending the week out warning letter and the reminder postcard after the mailing, along with radio and TV ads run in all major media markets in America. But this is far less than the estimated $57 per headcount that will inevitably have to be made in costs to send human beings door-to-door to get the count right.

All in all, they are estimating that the total census price tag is going to exceed $14 billion, the lion’s share being the cost of the aforementioned human being interaction at a household doorstep.

And the good news is that as of today the Census Bureau has received 54% of the forms that they sent out – roughly 72.4 million pieces of mail.

And the further good news is that while today is the deadline, they will accept census returns by mail until April 15th.

Yes, that would be Teabagger Day.

But on May 1st, the first census takers will hit the bricks and the meter starts running with an attitude.

Now I’ve mentioned it before, here, that among the census deadbeats we have in our country, Teabaggers and social conservatives that listen to the dire warnings of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann will not be turning in their forms.

This despite the fact that these very people are the first to complain about government spending. In this case, they are the cause of higher government spending. They and no others.

Being fiscally conservative, it seems, is more of a battle cry than a personal commitment.

Want graphical proof? The Census Bureau maintains a web page that puts up a county-by-county compliance rate as well as statewide return rates. Today Texas is at 47%, lagging behind the national average by 7%. This exactly tracks with the numbers reported on this blog a couple of weeks ago: 34% nationally, 27% in Texas.

Here is today’s map from that site – the largest scale allowable that shows county results.

The Texas Tribune has a national map that shows national trends from a snapshot taken around the time I last posted on this. Here is that graphic.

This was reminiscent of the New York Times 2008 Elections national map showing counties that voted more Republican in 2008 than voted Republican in 2004. That map is shown below.

See that red belt? Look at how it superimposes on the light blue counties in the census returning rate map.

Case closed.

Texas SBOE: Rewriting American History for Teabaggers

Hold on to your hats, the Texas State Board of Education, with its socially conservative agenda still intact, is reconvening to decide what sorts of things Texas school children should be taught about our society, history and government.

In other words, they get to decide what children will be taught about who we, as a people, are.

Now given how we were treated to hours upon endless hours of testimony and discussion on how things like evolution (a biological principle, not a theory) and geology (anathema to young Earth creationists) are really just some peoples’ opinions and not established or accepted fact, this should be a discussion to be watched and kept in the open.

And truly, it’s a national issue, not just state and local. Textbook publishers have, in the past, based their content on Texas standards because Texas has bought textbooks in statewide adoptions. Although, according to this story, that may soon be a thing of the past.

When the board last met in its first reading of the curriculum change, they weren’t able to get to all of the changes and amendments submitted by the social conservatives on the board. Amendments submitted by non-educators without even checking with a host of educators and scholars who were there for that purpose.

After all, why waste time with the facts when promoting a far right religious and social agenda? Facts often get in the way of things, you know.

Take for example, the amendment offered by Geraldine “Tincy” Miller representing the 12th District. Miller sells real estate. This amendment was one that the board got to vote on in January.

Tincy Miller suggested that the name Delores Huerta be stricken from required reading in the 3rd grade curriculum. Huerta is a co-founder of the United Farm Workers and is listed as one of the 100 most influential women of the 20th century. Schools are named after Huerta. Yet Miller claims that she did not exemplify good citizenship because she was registered in California as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Party. Yes she was. She was also Hispanic, I hear. The hypocrisy of the woman is explosive. She cites Helen Keller as much more deserving of being included in the curriculum.

Keller was a flaming socialist.

Nevertheless Huerta was removed from history by an 11 to 7 vote.

It gets worse. Dr. Don McLeroy, former board chairman and now soon to be ex-board member (he lost his candidacy in the Republican primary) thought that it would be a good idea to include a discussion of the Venona Papers – a government document citing Soviet infiltration into some parts of the federal government – should be included as it vindicated disgraced Senator Joe McCarthy, whose agenda, which came to be known as McCarthyism, was a black mark on American political and democratic traditions.

I find it a horror, and an offense to my sensibilities that the state school board has an agenda to vindicate who is arguably the worst political demagogue of the 20th century.

So get ready for a real howl-fest in Austin as non-historians and social conservatives act to rewrite history so that Texas school children can be educated in true Teabagger tradition.

I am characteristically pessimistic at the outcome here.

The Face of the Teabaggers

Ever wonder why the only people you see at Teabagger rallies are old angry white people? Whatever happened to kindly and benevolent old geezers like Grandpa Walton?

Or what about Grandpappy Amos?

Sort of makes you nostalgic for a bygone time when old people were maybe a little crusty but benevolent beings who never had a bone to pick with anyone except for the occasional young scamp who ran through their vegetable garden.

But these days, the face of old people that keeps turning up at Teabagger rallies look like this guy.

A real class act, huh?

Stack Attack

Well when I heard about how someone flew a Cessna into the IRS headquarters in Austin, the very same place that processes my income tax returns every year, I knew it was not a terrorist attack.

When I heard about the attack I simply said to whoever was in earshot, “Geez, the Teabaggers have a new tactic.”

Then, when I heard that the perpetrator of this crime was a guy named Joe Stack, a 53-year old white software engineer who had past issues with the IRS, I thought this definitely confirmed that suspicion

Then I heard he left a suicide note on a website.

A suicide note that was written over a 2-day period (although in the rant he says that it has been a project of many months) written in MS-Word with 27 revisions.

A suicide note with a couple of F-Word bombs in it, but otherwise the spelling was fairly good and Joe looked like he was a man who could turn a phrase when he wanted to. In other words, despite the errors in punctuation, Joe’s manifesto wasn’t the complete incoherent rant as you would expect to come out of the mouth of a true Teabagger. But he and Teabaggers do share some common sentiments nonetheless

The website has been taken down by the FBI but not until other websites picked up the text and posted it on theirs. At the moment at least, you can read the entire rant here.

But this paragraph from his rant that I pasted below betrays how disturbed this guy was, and how closely his ideology compares to the rhetoric that comes from TEA Party People and other radical right wingers who, say, wear T-shirts that suggest that the “…the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.

“I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of s--t at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.”

May his wife and daughter survive this thing with dignity and the compassion of people around them.

And may Joe Stack eternally burn in the fires of H-E-double hockey sticks.

On Despoiling the Resolute Desk

Yesterday, as an afterthought, I thought I’d post my latest favorite photograph of President Obama at work. At work with his feet hiked up on a 130 year old national treasure (as seen in a film of the same name – hidden drawers and all), the Resolute Desk.

You know, this one:

A commenter directed me to Truthorfiction.com which had yet another photograph of Obama with his feet up on this desk, as seen from the front. But the hilarious thing was that the black and white photo of Obama and his feet that accompanied the discussion on whether this was, or was not a sign of disrespect was yet another photo from another administration, taken at exactly the same angle and distance as the one I posted above.

The discusstion there was also accompanied by this photograph:

Why is this appropriate? I kept going back to Republican angst that Obama, or Eric Holder, his AG, should never have Mirandized the Underpants Bomber. The implication is that his predecessor did not show this sign of utter weakness.

A fact that lacks just about anything, including the truth.

The truth is each and every terrorist caught and captured after 9/11 under the Bush Regime was Mirandized, beginning with Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber.

So I found this little bit of back and forth entirely appropriate to merit yet another blog posting.

And to drive home the ridiculous nature of this Teabaggeresque complaint that Obama’s shoes in some way defile the Resolute Desk, I offer this photograph, taken when America was a kinder place to live.

Where a sitting president allowed his child the freedom to explore the very same, but younger by 40 years, Resolute Desk.

I mean, honestly, you never know where those little hands have been, do you.

Teabagger’s Remorse

Now that the Teabagger convention in Nashville is history, along with a truly uninspired speech delivered by a moronic half term former governor of the least populous state in America, now that all of that is over it is time for them to sit and reflect on the state of things now compared to how it was, say, twenty years ago.

Teabaggers must look back to those days fondly. Days when we knew who the enemy was because they carried AK-47s and bazookas. When the enemy wore red stars on their uniforms and didn’t try to blow up their underpants onboard a commercial flight.

Teabaggers must look back on those days with fond regret.

Don’t believe me?

I offer in evidence the musical stylings of Billy Cerveny who has his latest rendering up on You Tube. Cerveny is affiliated with The Daily Caller, a Teabagger website founded by Tucker Carlson and Nell Patel, is dedicated to the celebration all things absurd in America.

Dear Mr. Gorbachev



Typical Teabagger.

“The Cold War it was cooler”?

Does this guy have any inkling of how many people were murdered by the Soviet Union? By the KGB? By the STASI?

Have an inkling of how many people are walking around today that still bear the physical and mental scars of ill treatment by the Soviets? And yet we have this guy yearning to go back to those days because it's so much harder now.

I give you Teabaggers USA (Unbelievably Stupid Adversaries)

Dick Armey: Democratic Party Man of the Year

At the end of 2009 we are beset by all sorts of people, all sorts of groups, all sorts of publications who have their own opinions on who was the most influential, important, mover and shaker of the year that is just about to pass into history.

Beset.

Time Magazine has its Ben Bernanke for its “Person of the Year.” An odd pick similar to picking Bernie Madoff as Investment Broker of the Year.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has named Ellen DeGeneres its Woman of the Year “for promoting a lifestyle which is friendly to nature.” DeGeneres is a vegan. I like Ellen DeGeneres and think she is a smart and funny woman. But being named woman of the year for not eating meat is understating it a little, don’t you think? Isn’t it also a precondition that she be rich, famous and have her own daytime television show?

And then we have our own local blogger syndicate of which I am a member, the Texas Progressive Alliance, name the Texan of the Year or TOY. That honor went to recently-elected openly gay Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker. Again, I like Annise Parker for her grit and admire her for her ability to pull off a victory against not so small odds. But a progressive, sadly, she is not.

So in the spirit of the naming of people of the year, I would like to put forth this website’s choice for “Democratic Party Man of the Year.” To my knowledge, no one else has thought this one up and if I am wrong, I humbly apologize.

My choice for Democratic Party Man of the Year is former Senator and former Senate Majority Leader Dick “Teabagger” Armey.

And here are my reasons for naming this right-wing nutjob to this honor.

Dick Armey has done more for the Democratic Party than any one person acting alone. All by himself, seemingly, he has developed the TEA Party Movement. All by himself, seemingly, he has presented Republican voters with a choice, his way or the GOP way.

Armey, it seems, was the man behind the curtain pulling the levers and pushing the buttons that shoved GOP congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the CD-23 special election race in New York late last year. His endorsement of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman against his own party’s candidate made possible a Democratic win in a district that hadn’t seen the light of day in over a century.

Closer to home, Dick Armey’s teabagger movement will soon see the fruits of their labors in the nomination of Rick Perry as the GOP’s candidate of choice for Texas governor in 2010, defeating centrist Kay Bailey Hutchison. A Hutchison win would mean bad news for the Democratic nominee, whoever it is. Rick Perry, with his ability to garner 39% of the vote will be an also ran in November.

And finally, nationwide, Dick Armey’s TEA Party movement will see a schism in the GOP that should further marginalize what has become a regional party. A party of older white southern people and other rednecks. The schism will be the end of the conservative movement in America for some time to come.

Dick Armey has done to the Republican Party what no Democrat could ever have hoped to accomplish.

It is therefore fitting and proper that we at Half Empty, all of me, should honor Dick Armey with a well-earned accolade as the 2009 Democratic Party Man of the Year.