I’ll Say It: Rush Limbaugh for President

Let’s get real. Who is the best fit for the Grand Obstructionist Party in 2012? Who can the Party of NO put up to oppose the juggernaut that is the Obama Administration?

Sarah Palin? Give me a break. Besides being a woman, and no self-respecting white-haired puffy Republican man would ever want a woman for anything other than a cabinet post (keeping in mind that every Cabinet title starts with “Secretary of”), Sarah Palin brings no constituency with her, other than the 900,000 who prefer to live in darkness and twilight most of the year.

Other than Palin, all we have are a bunch of 1990’s retreads.

And Joe the Plumber.

OK, so let’s jump to the next generation. Eric Cantor, Republican congressman from Virginia has been making lots of noise lately. He is king of the one-liners, it seems. His comment that “‘I told you so’ politics won’t bring bipartisanship” has been oft quoted and repeated.

Eric Cantor.

Wait. Isn’t he Jewish?

Yep. Not only is he Jewish, but he is the only son of Abraham currently serving in Congress.

So, no. They will have to take a pass on Cantor. No Christ Killers in the Oval Office yet, at least not ones sent there by the Republican Christian Evangelical base. That would be too much for them to take.

And Bobby Jindal, the GOP’s own paean to ethnic diversity is a non-starter. Not after fumbling the ball in his near on air head-to-head joust with Barack Obama the evening of Obama’s address to the joint House and Senate last week.

Who does that leave? Who could possibly raise the Grand Obstructionist Party’s standard against “the Democrat menace?” Well, isn’t it already obvious? All you have to do is watch the news . . . and read the political cartoons. There is only one person capable of leading the Party of No to victory in 2012.

And that person, friends and neighbors, is Rush Limbaugh.

He is the perfect fit. And I’m not just talking about his 4XL shirt size. I’m talking about how he so neatly fits in with the Republican notion of truth. Of how careful Republicans are these days in forming opinions before checking their facts.

Take for example the case of Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack R-Palm Springs, former wife of Sonny Bono, who knew she had Barack Obama dead to rights when, in her attempt to oppose his stimulus package, decided to pounce on the president’s "pet project", the “Mag-Lev train from Disneyland to Las Vegas”, ordering her aide to “get him the bill, it's right there, show him.” Only to have her aide have to return to her and report “it’s not in the bill.”

Now that is what I call making sure of your facts before checking on them. Something that Rush Limbaugh has demonstrated time and time again. As a matter of fact, the facts that are most often repeated by the GOP office holders these days are the facts that they get from Rush Limbaugh or from Fox News. Limbaugh and Fox, the daring duo of truth in the right-thinking media. And who is Rush Limbaugh’s equal in Fox News? Why none other than Sean Hannity. That icon of the low hairline. He of the dragging knuckles.

So why not?

Why not propose the Republican Dream Ticket for 2012. Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity.

A ticket for the ages.

A one-way ticket to political oblivion.

Obama to Lift Federal Ban on Use of Embryonic Stem Cells; Floodgates of Discovery About to Open

It’s all over the media, on TV, radio and in print. It’s here at The Chron. On Monday, President Barack Obama will fulfill a campaign promise to lift the federal ban on use of federal funds for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research.

An eight year hiatus in what is arguably the most important scientific work in human history is about to be brought to a close. An incredibly short-sighted, politically-charged issue with evangelical religious roots has all but halted important biotechnical research that has important promise for the quality of life, and life itself.

Now here is the good news. Scientists have not spent the past eight years sitting on their hands waiting for the ban to be lifted. They have continued their research, written the protocols, and have everything queued. Once the ban gets lifted, and scientists are free to use whatever might best help solve their issues, the floodgates of discovery will open.

A year from now, I wonder, what breakthroughs will be announced? What previously hopeless condition in the human condition will be solved by miraculous cures, all brought to you by human embryonic stem cell research?

Monday March 9th is Last Day to File For May 9 Elections

That’s right. It is just around the corner. Anyone who wants to stand for election in local school boards or in city elections need to get their paperwork filed by the end of the business day on Monday March 9^th.

This also means that if you have moved since the last election, and are new to the area, you need to register to vote by March 9^th in order to be eligible to vote in these very low turnout elections.

If you vote in these elections, then I probably don’t have to remind you.

In Fort Bend ISD, there is one open seat on the Board of Trustees. Steve Smelley, currently occupying Position 6, has announced that he won’t run for re-election. In order to run for Position 6, you must reside on the eastern side within Fort Bend ISD’s boundaries.

The dividing line between East and West is shown on the right. Where it really lies is really up for grabs as this map, lifted from the Fort Bend ISD information page on trustee elections, is of almost no help.

Position 2 is also up for this years’ election. The position is currently held by Sonal Bhuchar, who, it is understood, will be running for re-election.

Lamar CISD will be holding elections for 4 of its Board of Trustee members. These are now 4-year terms as discussed at this LCISD web page.

Trustee positions for Districts, 1, 2, 3, and 6 are up for election this year.

Longtime Trustee Jesse Torres will seek re-election in District 3 as announced in the Fort Bend Herald., as is Kathy Hynson of District 1 also announced in the Herald. The board’s Vice President, Sam Hopkins of District 2 is also running for re-election. No announcement could be located in regard to board president Michael Richard’s re-election intentions.

While these positions seem mundane, and do not pay a red cent, the importance of local school board elections are often underplayed. School boards decide tax rates. They decide how tax money is to be spent. They choose who district superintendents are to be.

Tip O’Neill said it best when he emphasized how local elections, while not as sexy as national elections, are the important ones that all voters should be concerned with:

“All politics is local.”

UPDATE: I hate loose ends and the fact of the matter is, the FBISD map is virtually useless as a tool to help someone decide whether they are living on the East Side or the West Side of the Fort Bend Independent School District. So I have taken matters into my own hands. If you look at the two little squiqqles in the Brazos River trace, the ones that occur just inside the East Side boundary, you can conclude that the line crosses the river at the inner bend of the second squiggle. Taking that to Google Earth, I have determined that the East/West boundary falls on a line of longitude, specifically 95 degrees, and 35 minutes West.

No thanks are necessary. Public service is its own reward.

Pete Olson Responds: Why He Won't Vote For the Employee Free Choice Act

So every once in awhile I get an email blast from my teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers (an AFL-CIO affiliate), asking me to take action on this or that bill coming up in Congress. The other day I was asked to send a message to my US Senators and Congressman regarding the Employee Free Choice Act that is coming up for consideration.

The Employee Free Choice Act is an act that will allow trade unions to organize within places of business by amending the National Labor Relations Act.

In its current form, the NLRA allows a union to be certified as the “exclusive representative of bargaining unit employees” that is, the organization that represents employees who want to enter into collective bargaining with their employer, by means of what is called “card check” or by secret ballot. Everyone knows what secret ballot is, but what the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is “card check?”

Card check is where a majority (50.1%) of workers at a workplace sign a document saying that they want to form a union with union X representing them. This sounds all well and good, but the trouble with card check is that, under current law, the employer need not recognize the express wishes of its workers through a majority sign-up “card check” petition and can require a secret-ballot vote overseen by the NLRB. This allows an employer to refuse to allow employees to form a union, even though a majority of them signed a document saying they wanted to.

The Employee Free Choice Act takes that option away from employers, allowing formation of a union under card check rules. If employees do not want to go the card check route, they may still vote by secret ballot, but in the end, employers are taken out of the loop. Employers will have no say about whether employees will or will not form a union if the Employee Free Choice Act passes.

So I asked my 3 representative in Congress, Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, and my Congressman, Pete Olson, to vote for the EFCA.

Knowing, of course, that they would never do this. No way, no how.

I just wanted to make my political point, and I never expected a response, although I solicited one from each of them.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I received the canned response from Pete Olson, the one written to answer all of those who are, as he believes, stooges of “unscrupulous union bosses.”

Here is his most helpful reply:

March 5, 2009

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting me regarding legislation to undermine the secret ballot in union organization elections. It is good to have your thoughts on this important issue.

Under current law, workers deciding whether to form a labor union at their place of employment have the right to cast their vote in secret. The so-called Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to organize by simply submitting a public list of supporters. Workers who oppose unionization could be bullied and harassed by union bosses to sign public pledges of support, without recourse to the confidentiality of the ballot box.

Let me be clear: I believe this is not only bad labor policy, but un-American. Citizens of our country have died to protect the fundamental right to cast a confidential, freely-chosen ballot. Historically, the labor movement has done much to improve unacceptable working conditions - it's a shame that some unscrupulous union organizers should seek to bring the specter of intimidation and hostility into the workplace to further their own ends.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I am honored to represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact one of my offices or visit my website at www.house.gov/olson.

Very respectfully,

Pete Olson
Member of Congress

So let me get this straight, Pete. It’s the “unscrupulous union bosses” that bully employees into signing the petitions, and it’s management that serves as a check on these unscrupulous people and invalidates a petition when they feel the signatures were coerced. Is that the picture you are sending me?

If so, I think I smell a rat. In whose self-interest does management act the company or the laborer? I think you are giving management far too much credit for protecting the poor downtrodden worker. It is labor that suffers at the hand of management, not at the hands of unions. Last time I looked it was labor hitting the unemployment lines, not management.

And where did you ever dig up this model of the “unscrupulous labor boss?” Whose book of lies has that myth been hatched? I’ll tell you exactly where this idea came from. It came from a book written by a prolific western writer named Walter V. Woehlke called “Union Labor in Peace and War” published in 1918. One of its chapters discusses how unions in the West are being influenced by Bolsheviks. You can read about it here.

Your information, Congressman Olson, is a little dated.

And I’ve heard of cherry picking the truth, but isn’t this going just a little too far? Comrade Lenin has been gone for some time, Pete. The Soviet Union is now a despotic capitalistic society.

Times change.

Join us, at some point, in the 21^st century. The view is fine from here.

Cornyn “On Good Faith Disagreements”

Here is what my US Senator said today about the possibility of establishing a “Truth Commission,” as proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy. A body that would look into allegations of abuse of power by the Bush Regime.

“The idea that this so-called Truth Commission would somehow resolve the good-faith disagreements ... is just asking us to believe in the tooth fairy.”

Now it is possible to get behind the realpolitik stance of moderate Republican Arlen Spector, who said that Democrats “can walk in the front door” of the Justice Department and “ask directions to the relevant filing cabinet.” Mainly because that is happening already. Day by day new revelations are coming out about all sorts of unconstitutional legal opinions proffered by Justice lawyers after 9/11. Really all we have to do is look in and see what has been filed.

But Leahy is also correct. This needs to be a matter of public investigation, and should be bipartisan, or if you will, non-partisan.

But that won’t happen as long as you have brainiacs like John Cornyn in there stirring up the pot, calling acts and deeds that were arguably illegal if not immoral, “good faith disagreements.”

Did Josef Stalin have a good faith disagreement with the people he and his surrogates sent to the gulags?

With the people he had double tapped in the basements of Lefortovo Prison?

Honestly, if the disagreement is one of “good faith, ” let’s say, the good faith disagreement that waterboarding is a form of torture, I can figure out a good way to settle the disagreement.

Let’s set up a chamber in the basement of the Capitol, and let’s line up all the ladies and gentlemen of Congress who have a “good faith disagreement” that waterboarding is not really torture, John Cornyn can stand at the head of the line. Let them in the chamber one at a time, then stuff a wet rag down their mouths, tie them to a board so their feet are slightly elevated over their heads, put a wet cloth sack over their heads, and then poor water in their mouths through the sack.

All the while asking where they planted the bomb.

And not stopping until it is found out where it is.

My guess is we will have a few fewer “good faith disagreements” by the time we go through that line.

TxDOT Will Use 53% of Taxpayer Stimulus Money For Toll Roads

Take a look at County Commissioner Richard Morrison’s website “As the Court Turns” for the latest news on how TxDOT and Rick Perry plan on using taxpayer-supported Economic Recovery money, also known as “The Stim,” to improve Texas’ transportation system.

“The Texas Transportation Commission (TxDoT), appointed by Gov. Perry, has recommended that the East Region; including Beaumont, Bryan, Houston and Lufkin receive $431,516,770 for transportation projects. From this amount over 53%, or $231,000,000, will be spent on the construction of toll roads. These recommendations ignore the federal law that requires these funds to be spent in economically distressed areas and ignore the will of ordinary Texans who are opposed to our tax dollars being spent on Toll Roads and see these schemes as a type of double taxation.”

Rick Perry is living in a fantasy world. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans live to toss handfuls of coins into toll booth receptacles so they can blissfully drive their SUVs down foreign-owned and maintained (and now, apparently, taxpayer-supported) pay-as-you-go toll roads. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans admire foreign corporations that can wheedle taxpayer money out of the hands of the Obama Administration. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans love them some toll road.

Is this guy nuts?

Didn’t Texans of all colors and stripes outright reject any notion of a Trans Texas Corridor to the effect that it is now DOA? Didn’t Fort Bend County voters roundly reject any notion of a toll road (as in Section C of the Grand Parkway) in the last election when they rejected a Republican toll road cheerleader running for the Commissioners Court?

The only thing that galls me more than this gross misuse of Economic Recovery funds is the fact that we stand to lose this money when the Feds see how Texas state government plans on mishandling and totally mismanaging this money.

Causing me to wonder if it all isn’t on purpose. Does Perry want to purposely lose this money just as he wants to reject the federal funds for unemployment benefits?

No, frankly, I think I am giving Governor Perry far too much credit for analysis. Quite frankly, these days when you look into Rick Perry’s eyes, all you see is the back of his head.

Will You Walk Into My Parlour Said the Spider to the Fly

Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

- From “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt

You know, the last time that a very popular Democratic president was asked to come to Texas, a president who despite his national popularity, had very unfavorable ratings in said state, it was none other than John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

And nothing good came of that November trip.

So it comes as no surprise that junior senator from Texas, John Cornyn is the first to offer President Obama a personal tour of Laredo. Laredo, the safest city this side of Mosul.

Quite frankly, I think Barack Obama has better things to do than to kneel to John Cornyn’s egotistical grandstanding. It makes me wonder whether Cornyn has thrown in a personal tour of Cornyn’s own hunting lease, where they will cruise around in Cadillacs with the rag tops down so they can shoot game at will. I hear that Kennedy was especially taken with that act of pure Texas culture.

No. I’m pretty sure that Barack Obama can take care of these matters at his level, in talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Let’s let John Cornyn rub elbows with the Laredo locals and swap lies with the Federales. That’s his bailiwick and I’m sure he’s good at swapping lies.

And let’s let Obama do what he is good at.

Developing and communicating policy.

Does Wall Street Want Obama to Fail, Too?

A random thought crossed my mind as I was reading about the 12-year low 6763 Dow-Jones average posted today, first time below 7000 points since the Internet evolved from ARPANET (thanks to Al Gore).

I was wondering whether Wall Street players want, as Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads want, for Barack Obama to fail.

If so, they are certainly in the driver’s seat as it is their actions that drive the stock market, and everyone’s 401K with it.

Do you think?

Paying the TAKS Tax

Don’t fret, members of the Grand Obstructionist Party, there really isn’t a TAKS tax, not one that requires monetary remuneration, anyway.

The TAKS tax is one where students and teachers alike surrender their souls for another pointless round of endless questions, hours of non-stop silence, and indescribable boredom.

“Boredom” cannot completely describe the TAKS experience.

Call it “boredom with prejudice.” That’s closer, anyway.

The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, round one, English Language Arts, is set to go for tomorrow. Students are being told to get a good night’s sleep and eat a good breakfast. Not mentioned, but certainly understood, is that they should refrain from playing Halo3, Counterstrike or World of Warcraft until 3:30 am.

Mainly because what they are in for is a grueling 4 hour (at least) experience that will determine whether some of them, 11^th graders actually, will be able to claim their diplomas next year. As for the rest of them, I am still trying to figure out what possible incentive there is for doing well on their versions of the TAKS test. Unless the district, or the school site has thought about it, there is no incentive.

That doesn’t mean that there are no consequences. However, happily, for the students anyway, is there are no repercussions to them if they were to randomly bubble their answers, or engage in the time-honored tradition of “bubbling C.”

No, the consequences are all on the school and the district. Why? you may ask. Because the state’s annual campus and district ratings take into account not only the exit level TAKS scores, where there are student sanctions for doing poorly, but all level s of TAKS scores. That’s right, even though there are no consequences for poor performance on a TAKS test by 9^th and 10^th graders, that doesn’t mean that schools are off the hook in terms of their ratings, based on those test scores.

And for students, TAKS is such a boring test, why not “bubble C” so you can get back to reading the novel you were reading during all your classes?

Add to this the fact that TAKS has already been identified as the worthless test that it is, and has been voted out of existence by 2011. Students entering high school next year will not take a TAKS test . . . ever.

No, instead of 4 TAKS tests, students will, starting next year, take 16 End of Course tests.

Quadruple your fun. Now that’s what I call an improvement.

Canadian PM: We Are Not Going to Win Afghan War

This is what Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told CNN’s Farid Zakaria on Farid Zakaria GPS this afternoon:

"We are not going to win this war just by staying. My own judgment is, quite frankly, that we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. We have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency and improving its own governance.”

I’ve been wondering about that myself.

Historically, no one has ever had much success getting Afghans to knuckle under to foreign rule.

Most recently, we had the Soviet Union armies see defeat in Afghanistan. Some argue that they lost their will in their defeat by Afghan Mujahideen fighters, and this contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Sure the Soviets were ultimately defeated by the US and Middle East nations helping and arming the Afghan Mujahideen.

But it took 10 years.

And the Mujahideen never let up.

Before that we had the English. The English fought three wars in Afghanistan between 1839 and 1919 and in the end, in 1919, they left, ceding back all of the territories that they had controlled.

As a matter of fact, war is part and parcel of Afghan history. As the PM observed, Afghan insurgency is historically a way of life there.

So in the end, I find myself in agreement with PM Harper. Afghans have time and the terrain on their side. All we can really hope for is to have a stable government in Kabul. A government whose legitimacy will be constantly questioned as long as we have a single pair of boots on the ground there.

In other words, the best thing we can do for the government in Afghanistan is to get out and stay out.

Yes, President Obama is dead wrong to increase our presence there. He has listened to the wrong people, and has accepted their ill-advised opinions.

When You’re a Jet . . .

Perhaps it’s because territoriality is one of the more primitive of human instincts, but I find it curiously refreshing that today’s high school students, vis-à-vis northern Fort Bend County’s Cinco Ranch High School students, have much in common with their grandparents’ generation.

Either that or they, and their grandparents, have and have had much way too much time on their hands and had little else to concern them.

Which seems odd, since from what I can gather from the news, there is much that should concern them. Like where they will be getting a job, or if they will be able to go to a university. Or to war.

But in the news today we find a dust up between Cinco Ranch High School students and students from the other high schools in Katy ISD. It seems there are some students, who write for the Cinco Ranch newspaper who object to students from other high schools spending their leisure time at “their places.” “Don’t they have their own places to go,” they ask.

Well when some of their grandparents were grappling with issues like the construction of the Berlin Wall, the lowering of the Iron Curtain, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and whether Banning the Bomb would be a good idea, others of them, like those characters that entertained us in “The West Side Story,” were arguing over turf.

Much like they are now in Katy.

From FortBendNow:

“The article rhetorically asks ‘Don’t they have their own places to go?’ It also contained student quotes suggesting that Cinco Ranch hot-spots such as LaCenterra and popular fast food establishments ‘belong’ to Cinco students.”

To these students, all I have to say is

When you’re a Jet
You’re a Jet all the way,
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin day.
When you’re a Jet
Let ‘em do what they can
You got brothers around
You’re a family man.
You’re never alone
You’re never disconnected
You’re home with your own
When company’s expected
You’re well protected

Then you can put your head in the sand
While your folks get laid off
And the banks go up end
When you’re a Jet
You. Stay. A. Jeeeeeeeet.

And, by the way, can we please reestablish the draft and get these kids out of the malls and into the streets where they need to be?

An Open Letter to Joe Biden and Earl Devaney

Dear Joe and Earl,

I hear that President Barack Obama has named you, Mr. Biden, to oversee stimulus spending, and you, Mr. Devaney, to be the “Stimulus Czar.” To that end he has entrusted the two of you with ensuring that the billions that were voted to stimulate economic recovery across the nation were not wasted by the cities and states.

So I just wanted to call to your attention something that my state’s Department of Transportation is planning, and planning to use about $700 million of federal stimulus funds to accomplish the plan.

It seems that the Texas Department of Transportation has a love affair with toll roads. Our governor, Rick Perry, has similar amorous feelings. They have repeatedly over the years tried to foist on Texans such projects as the Trans Texas Corridor, as well as God knows how many toll road projects (21 at present count). No one, neither Republican nor Democrat, seems to be on their side on this. Apparently the only ones who seem to be in favor of toll roads in Texas are the foreign-owned corporations who will build and maintain the roads . . . and collect the tolls.

The reason that we are given for going the toll road route is that TxDOT has no funds for construction and maintenance of needed roads. That this is largely due to the fact that state government has failed to let gasoline taxes rise with inflation, and has diverted funds that would normally go toward road building and maintenance toward other projects has not escaped anyone’s attention.

So as a result of their poor management, we are now hearing that the Texas Transportation Commission will vote next week to use more than $700 billion of federal stimulus money to build toll roads.

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Devaney, this is something I think you should be looking into. In times of economic crisis, the last thing someone thinks of doing is taking the toll road. Since the local toll road authorities raised the toll rates last year, my automobile has not seen a single square yard of toll road. The only beneficiaries in this deal, as I see it, are the toll road corporations that TxDOT and our governor seem to be beholden to.

Really, in general, you have to watch out when you give any money at all to a Texas government agency. Since 2003 or so Texas has been ruled by a new order that I like to call a "Kleptocracy," government by kleptomaniacs. You need to keep a close watch whenever money goes out to Texas. You really do.

President Obama has promised that he would “use the full power of my office and our administration to stop” the waste of billions of federal funds, and I was wondering what he meant by that. I recently hit upon the fact that he is the Commander-in-Chief of all branches of the military. So I was wondering whether you could ask the President to send in the cavalry, or maybe a tank battalion, to surround the commission as they meet next week, and persuade them in the error of their ways.

White phosphorous rounds, I hear, are especially persuasive.

With warm regards,

Hal at Half Empty

You Da Man!

I can’t decide which is worse, a noodle-brained congresswoman who is under the impression that she is “down wid it” and heaps approbation upon the new African-American Chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, by proclaiming “You Da Man!” or an African-American who wants to lead a crew of puffy old white men and manic white women as they make a bold but foolhardy tack to the right toward 2010.

As told by Keith Olbermann:

Didn’t anyone tell Michelle Bachmann that it is considered high gauche for a white woman to speak in Ebonics to a black man?

Didn’t anyone tell Michael Steele that it isn’t OK for a black man to accept this with a smile and a guffaw? Are we to expect a tap dance up and down the stairs with Shirley Temple next?

Who ARE these people anyway and what planet did they come from?

Calling the GOP Governors’ Bluff

A couple of days ago, I posted this, wondering about a CNN article on how GOP governors, that is, southern states governors, can cherry pick what has become the law of the land. As it turns out, I was not alone, and someone who has actually read at least some of the Economic Recovery Act has the answer: While state governors, apparently can accept or not accept “any division of this act,” they are also not the sole deciders in this.

Section 1607 of the act (now law) that says exactly this:

“SEC. 1607. (a) Certification by Governor - Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, for funds provided to any State or agency thereof, the Governor of the State shall certify that: (1) the State will request and use funds provided by this Act; and (2) the funds will be used to create jobs and promote economic growth.”

“(b) Acceptance by State Legislature - If funds provided to any State in any division of this Act are not accepted for use by the Governor, then acceptance by the State legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such State.”

Get that?

If a state governor decides to give a pass to federal funds that would extend unemployment benefits to those that they do not now cover, state legislatures can override their bad decision.

See? Section 1607 spreads the wealth. Governors cannot take sole blame for their unemployed voters not getting the federal aid, blame extends to any state legislature, and their majority voting members, as well, should they fail to override their governor.

This is particularly bittersweet in that we have in the New York Times today an article that sounds the opinions of unemployed voters in affected states. Particularly interesting to me, is that the article features a photo of Governor Rick Perry top and left. Here it is at right. I would try to caption this without too much tongue in cheek, but I still can’t seem to come up with a quote that is printable on this page unless I want to forego my PG rating.

Here is what the unemployed workers (voters) are saying about their governors’ threats to reject their unemployment benefits for them:

TEXAS: “It just seems unreasonable that when people probably need the help the most, that because of partisan activity, or partisan feelings, against the current new administration, that Perry is willing to sacrifice the lives of so many Texans that have been out of work in the last year.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: “I don’t understand the whole thing, Apparently because he [S.C. Governor Mark Sanford] has money and he doesn’t have to worry about everybody else who doesn’t have money.”

GEORGIA: “I don’t think he [GA governor Sonny Perdue] truly understands the plight of his citizens. He’s surrounded by people with good jobs, who make good salaries. He’s not surrounded by people like me.”

Governors have defended themselves saying that the federal rules would mandate a changing of state law to allow the funds to flow to those who are at present uncovered by unemployment benefits, something they don’t want to have in place when the federal money dries up.

They don’t want to have to take up the burden mandated by the feds, once the fed money goes away.

And rightly so. Except for the fact that there is nothing in the law says that the states can’t revert to their old rules once the federal money goes away, presumably when the crisis has passed.

Well, then it just gets better now, doesn’t it? Not only will southern state governors have to explain to their unemployed citizens (aka voters) why they are refusing to allow the feds to help them through difficult times, the members of their state legislatures are also in the same boat.

And the sweetener is that their arguments about this law mandating that states change state law is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of Obama’s Address

Did you miss the President’s address to the joint session of Congress the other night? I didn’t and am here to tell you that sitting through 56 minutes of pure genius, pure oratory skill, was worth all of the pauses as Congress, well, most of them anyway, sprang to their feet and gave ovation after ovation to the points that Barack Obama made.

But if you missed it, never fear. Barack Obama has a 9:05 minute condensed version of the address that neatly clips the minute after endless minute of applause.

I have to say though, one result of cutting this down has an interesting effect. If you watch behind the President, you see Nancy Pelosi bouncing up and down in and out of her chair as if there was a spring in it.

That Bobby Jindal came on after Obama and delivered his sing-song, homily-filled disaster is only icing on the cake of the evening’s proceedings.

I am guessing that Jindal’s speech inspired in word if not in deed, this cartoon by Tony Auth.

Congratulations On That, Richard Morrison

As seen in FortBendNow, County Commissioner Richard Morrison is quoted congratulating County Judge Hebert for “his idea” to make Fort Bend County’s check registry available to be viewed by the public on the internet.

As quoted in FortBendNow:

“‘Congratulations on that, that’s a good idea,’ Precinct 1 Commissioner Richard Morrison told Hebert just prior to a unanimous vote Tuesday in favor of the measure.”

Well I have to agree. That is one heck of a good idea, isn’t it Richard?

80% Approval. What About It Now, Grand Obstructionist Party?

It’s here at the CBS News poll taken before (63% Approval of President Obama’s plans for dealing with the economic crisis), and after (80% Approval) President Barack Obama addressed the joint session of Congress and millions of Americans who sat there last night glued to their television sets.

80% Approval.

So what about it now, Grand Obstructionist Party? Party of “No!”? Is it time to knock off all of the political grandstanding? Is it time to stop chasing after red herrings that constitute less than 10% of the entire economic recovery package?

By my count that leaves the obstructionists with 20% (or maybe even less) who side with GOP hardliners. By my count, that means that only the extreme right wing of the GOP now go along with the Republican minority who jink and swerve at every turn to try and prevent a 3 pointer from Obama.

But I hear that Obama is a good hand at sinking 3 pointers.

Is that where Republicans want to align themselves for the next election? With the fanatic fringe?

So, obstructionist congress, partisan governors, Bobby Jindal (hey, nice work, by the way, with your rebuttal speech. I couldn’t have done a better job discrediting your party if I tried). What about it? How about it now that there are 80% of us behind Obama’s brand of economic recovery?

Wanna play ball now?

Leo Berman: Bill Will Challenge Legality of 14th Amendment

Aha, so there is a method to Leo Berman’s (R – Tyler) utter madness.

I think I have mentioned in passing that one of the matters to be considered by Texas’ 81^st Legislature is the matter of HB 256 entitled “AN ACT relating to birth records of children born in this state; creating an offense,” the title of which is enough to give offense.

Authored by Leo Berman and co-authored by neoconservative colleagues Dennis Bonnen (R - Angleton), Debbie Riddle (R - Houston) and Allen Fletcher (R - Houston), the purpose of the legislation, as Berman revealed here, is to challenge the constitutionality of the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution.

He proposes to do this by denying the issuance of birth certificates to any infant born to alien parents within the borders of Texas, a condition that is in direct contravention of Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment, to wit:

“Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

No where is there any reference to special circumstances, like their parents were not citizens, illegal alien or not.

Berman revealed his true intensions in a speech he gave yesterday to some of his anhängen, The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.

From The Chron’s Texas Politics Blog:

“Berman said if his proposal to prohibit automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants passes it would undoubtedly spark a court fight that he hopes lands in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“‘That's exactly what we're looking for,’ said Berman, R-Tyler. ‘We want to be sued into federal court where our attorney general can take this all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.’”

Exactly what he wants, it seems, is to do away with that troublesome 14^th Amendment. You know, the one that has guaranteed the rights of every man, woman (lately), and child of life liberty and property. The one that promises “due process.” The 14^th Amendment was the crowning achievement of the Number One rated US President, Abraham Lincoln.

But Leo Berman and his sordid ilk want it done away with, and he thinks Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott (or his Republican successor) is just the man to do it.

Well I find State Rep. Leo Berman’s latest efforts to be fantastically refreshing and I want to urge that he keep it up, and propose other bills, as he has in the past and present, in the same vein.

What better way to prove a central point in my thinking, that the post Civil War Reconstruction Period ended much too soon in Texas, as it did over much of the former Confederate States of America.

The Grand Army of the Republic and the federal government back then made a classic mistake, one that was once the sole method (besides abstinence, which has since been discredited by Bristol Palin) of birth control: pulling out too soon.

Guantanamo Detainee Released: What Hath Bush Wrought?

Today’s Chron contains an article filed by AP reporter Paisley Dodds detailing the hellish 7–year existence of Ethiopia born Binyam Mohamed, who was nabbed by Pakistani authorities when, in 2002 he tried to return to England, where he was a legal resident, from Karachi using a false passport.

In the years that ensued Mohamed was

• Strung up by his wrists with leather straps and left to hang for a week – sometimes witnessed by a British MI-5 operative;
• Renditioned to Morocco by US agents for an 18 month long torture session, which included, it is alleged, mutilation of some part of his more intimate areas;
• Forced to confess to “an array of charges to stop his abuse;”
• Further abused at a CIA site in Afghanistan, where he was starved and beaten;
• Sent to Guantanamo in 2004 where he eventually faced charges of “conspiring with al-Qaida members to murder and commit terrorism.”

Then, miraculously, all charges were dropped in 2008 after lawyers working for him in the UK filed a lawsuit seeking the release of 42 secret documents.

He is now back in the UK with his sister.

But the fun in reading the article really begins in the comments, where you get to see the kind of flora and fauna that I have to share oxygen with here in Red Texas.

“It begins. The first of many to be released so they can go back to plotting terrorist acts against the infidel”

“This will be the mastermind of the next terrorist attack on our soil. What a president we elected.”

“Remember, they don't torture our people. Decapitation isn't torture, just murder!”

Ad nauseum.

Here in Red Texas, we are more than willing to accept the notion of guilty until proven innocent. Particularly if the accused is a Muslim. Particularly if the accused is a converted Muslim (assuming from the Ethiopian flavor of Christianity). Here we have a guy who was initially arrested by Pakistanis, handed off to the Brits, then to the Americans, all of whom apparently had their ways with him.

Yielding confessions of questionable veracity or value.

But he must be guilty because the alternative is much too horrible to contemplate. That we Americans, through our government surrogates, engage in practices of medieval torture.

But I will give it to the second commenter, the one who predicts that this one will be the mastermind of the next terrorist attack. Because if Binyan Mohamed was not of the opinion that Americans are the great Satan and should be opposed at every turn at the cost of life and limb before his harrowing 7-year journey through living hell, I’ll bet he is now.

And I ask who then should we punish? Mohamed for becoming the person we have turned him into, or to punish some other to convince the world that this isn’t who we are anymore.

When will the war crimes trials begin?

How Do You Cherry Pick a Law?

I don’t get it. How can Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, or Haley Barbour, Republican governors all, cherry pick the newly passed economic recovery package?

It’s the law of the land now.

How can a governor say ‘thank you very much’ when he accepts federal money to rebuild his state’s infrastructure on one hand, but then sneer at a proffered federal hand held out to help his state deal with ever-lengthening unemployment lines?

When you pass a law, it’s take it or leave it, not take the best parts and tear up the parts you don’t like. Actually, like NCLB a federal law that mandated that states change the way they educate their children, it’s “take it.” There was no “leave it”

Governor Ed Rendell pretty much sums it up when he told Fixed Noise this, as reported at CNN:

“"I'm not sure that we can, over the long run, cope with the high unemployment compensation standard that this mandates for states,’ Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the head of the National Governor's Association, told Fox News Sunday. ‘But I don't care. My people are suffering,’ he added. ‘They need that extra money. And right now that's paramount in my mind.’”

Or as The Governator told George Stephanapoulos this morning, also from CNN:

“‘I am more than happy to take his money or [that of] any other governor in this country that doesn't want to take this money. I take it because I think California needs it.’ Schwarzenegger called it ‘a terrific package,’ and said he does not foresee a need for a tax hike in the future to sustain the unemployment provisions.”

But more importantly, it’s the law. Take the money.

Besides, it is irresponsible to slap away a bucket full of money that would help citizens, and voters, get through bad times, all to make a petty political point.

So I have a modest proposal. Let’s make this a “take it or leave it law.” No cherry picking allowed. Either accept federal money or don’t. None of this whiney ‘I like this part but I just hate that part.’

So governor whiners of the United States, knock it off. You lose any high moral ground you think you are gaining, and you ensure a successful Democratic argument that the stimulus bill is doomed to failure because Republicans refused the money.

Stanford Filthy Lucre Stays Out of Democrats’ Hands

Democrats are falling over each other in a mad scramble to return Sir R. Allen Stanford’s – or his employees’ – campaign contributions. Either that or donate them to charity.

And so Senator Bill Nelson (D - Fla) announced yesterday that he is donating the $45,900 that he got to the Jacksonville charity Dignity U Wear. Then word came that the lawyers that are assigned to recoup losses from the Stanford $8 billion fraud case are asking lawmakers to return the funds to them.

Congressman Barney Frank has also pledged that he will return the $1000 he received from Stanford, but says that first he will try to return the funds directly to those who were scammed by Stanford.

President Barack Obama will donate the $4600 Stanford’s PAC sent him to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Senator John McCain, the maverick, says he is also donating all of his Stanford PAC contributions to charity.

So is Senator Chris Dodd. To the tune of $27,500.

Rep. Charles Rangel was among the high-powered recipients and promised to donate a total of $10,800 from his political action committee to charity.

But Texas Senator John Cornyn has different ideas. Cornyn, it will be remembered, received a direct campaign donation of $2000 from Sir R. Allen, and benefited from a 4-day paid holiday on Antigua, and this junket was sponsored by Stanford to the tune of $7441.

At first, the Senator wasn’t going to do anything about this tainted money. The senator sent a spokesman to tell the press that the senator still believed in the presumption of innocence. He later backpedaled, probably when he saw all the action going on across the aisle, and volunteered that he would give $4000 to charity.

$4000?

OK excluding the money from the PAC, excluding the money from Stanford’s employees, the senator is still into Stanford’s pocket to the tune of $9441, more than double what he says he wants to donate.

Rep. Pete Sessions of TX-32 has no intention of returning the $41,000 he received from Stanford and his PAC and associates.

Sessions spokesperson:

“‘Pete is looking down in his palms and he sees $41,000 and he says, 'Can I put this in my pocket, or do I have to give it back?' And to anyone — including Pete Sessions — $41,000 is enough money that he wants to just think about it’”

Oh, and what about my congressman? Pete Olson? What have we heard from Pete Olson’s people regarding his retention of Stanford’s drug money?

Crickets.