Ali Soufan: Al Qaeda Terrorists Trained For Torture

Well that explains it. I was wondering, after hearing about how Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in 2002, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times, I asked myself if they could take it that many times, and at reported rates of six times per day, how effective is waterboarding as an instrument of torture anyway?

Because the first report we got from an FBI guy who read a report that said they had been tortured just once and sang like canaries afterward, giving us all the impression that this was a great way to extract information, any information whether it is true or not true.

Well it was cleared up today by former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan who testified on the first day of Senate hearings on torture. Yes, waterboarding is definitely torture but al Qaeda terrorists go to torture school as part of their training.

Soufan put it this way (From Politico):

“As shocking as these techniques are to us, the al Qaeda training prepares them for much worse — the torture they would expect to receive if caught by dictatorships.”

Interesting that he equated the Bush Regime to a dictatorship, but really a namby pamby dictatorship.

Because real dictators know how to really torture people.

You have to wonder what went through the minds of these two terrorist leaders when the CIA contractors who were used brought in the waterboards. I can think of only a one word sentence that they might have uttered under their breath: “Amateurs!”

Voter ID Bill Out of Committee - - - Narrowly

The Senate version of the Republican-incepted voter ID bill has been narrowly voted out of the House Elections Committee, chaired by Todd Smith, by a vote of 5 to 4. SB 362 is getting set to go to the House floor where it surely will not get the same enthusiastic treatment that the Republican-heavy state senate gave it last March.

Indeed, during its stay in the committee Smith tried to amend it several times in order to make this bill palatable to Democrats.

A hopeless task some would say.

Hopeless because this Voter ID bill is a clear, brazen attempt to limit the number of Democrats who are coming to the polls to vote in increasing numbers. It is a last ditch effort by Republicans in the state legislature to retain power. A power they wrested from Democrats and then abused by holding the second in a decade redistricting – a move inspired by discredited former congressman Tom DeLay.

With a very narrow 76-74 majority in the House, Republicans have little hope for passage of this bill of oppression. Swing votes exist on both sides, but a quick headcount leads House Republicans to conclude that this bill, essentially unchanged from the bill that was approved in the Senate, will be DOA.

And even if it is passed by some fluke of nature, The Texas voter ID bill will surely face a court test.

So what, some would say. The harshest voter ID law, Indiana’s, has already passed muster in the US Supreme Court. A court challenge would be doomed to failure.

Ah, but we are talking about a former confederate state here. The Voting Rights Act was passed specifically to stop discrimination at polling places. Discrimination that is of historic significance in Texas. The Voter ID bill, they say, will be challenged in court in view of the VRA. Something they couldn’t do in Indiana.

In the end, I think that is what runs through the minds of Republicans who will vote against the bill. This bill is dead meat. And it is ironic that it is. After decades of misbehavior by “crackers in office” Republicans in Texas can’t even buy a Voter ID law now.

Santorum: “Arlen Is With Us On The Votes That Matter”

Democrats who oppose the travesty of a Republican running as a Democrat in their primary because his party has lurched to the right will have to give their thanks to someone we would never have expected would have merited it.

Former rightwing Senator Rick Santorum, who got his clock cleaned by Senator Bob Casey, Jr. in 2006, has left a legacy that will come in pretty handy next year when Arlen Specter is opposed in the Democratic primary by either Joe Sestak or Joe Torsella. Or both.

It is a video from a 30 second ad from Specter’s successful primary campaign over Pat Toomey in 2004. We now find that it has been on You Tube as of April 29^th.

The money line? “Arlen is with us on the votes that matter, to move our agenda forward for this president and for the country.”

Thank you, Rick Santorum.

In Texas Common Courtesy Has To Be Legislated

I have a mountain bike in my garage. I used to ride it all the time when I lived in another place. But since taking up residence in Texas, there it has stayed in my garage.

A prop for spider webs.

The reason that it stays there is that it is common knowledge around here that bicyclists are not tolerated in Texas. In Texas it is sport to see how close you can come to a bicyclist out on a country road without actually hitting him or her.

And God help you if you are on your bike in a place that is exactly the same spot that a Texas driver wants to occupy. A place like a McDonald’s driveway that you are approaching and someone coming up from behind you decides it is not OK to wait for you to pass the driveway before turning in.

So what do you suppose is the answer? A unit on social courtesy in high school? No, they would just figure out a way to get out of that class. No, in Texas, when the public doesn’t follow what is viewed as common courtesy in the other 49 states and 183 countries of the world, you legislate it.

You make a law saying it’s bad to come within 3 feet of a bicyclist while you are both on the same road. And you make the law say that you can’t execute that “right hook” anymore.

It’s called the “Safe Passing Act,” it is SB 488, and it just passed in the senate with only 5 no votes (every one of them from Republicans). It makes it unlawful to be discourteous. And if you are discourteous enough so as to cause bodily injury, that’s a Class B misdemeanor.

So do I think this will do any good? Do I think Texans will find themselves more courteous to the biking public? Doubtful. All you need to do in order to come to this conclusion is read the comments that appear at the bottom of the article published at the Houston Chronicle’s website.

They speak volumes.

OK, here are a few just to give you a flavor:

“Another ridiculous and totally unnecessary law. Bicycles have no place on our roads.”

“I’m sorry, but bicyclist don’t pay road taxes and thus they don’t have the right to even ride the bike on the road.”

“Some of these bike guys take up 3/4 of the road going ten miles an hour and refuse to move over and let you drive by. After several blocks of this you want to run them over!”

“Time to put the new grille guards on.”

Status Quo: Si; Loose Cannons: No

With 58.41% of today’s vote in, and all of the early votes counted, I am going to call it.

The ticket for change (also known as “keep the change” by at least one of their number) appears to be headed for political oblivion. Carlos Cain and Bruce Albright were decisively turned away by the kind of voter that turns out to vote in May.

A very special kind of voter.

A kind of voter that apparently likes how things are going in Fort Bend ISD, Taj Mahal or not.

Glover and Bhuchar, the ticket of the status quo are the clear winners.

I have to say I am not surprised.

Not surprised given the recent history on the school board. Voters voted in a very confrontational crowd awhile back. A bunch of people that called itself the “new majority.” A crowd of people that turned Fort Bend ISD into a swirling pot of discontent.

Teachers and administrators left the district in droves. The board first ostracized then drove out of office a very capable superintendent. Then they held court while the replacement superintendent was moved to cry whenever they slammed her.

They are mostly gone now.

And that the voters did not want to revisit this bad time? No surprise.

May 9th is Election Day – Go Vote

This is it. May 9^th 2009. Election Day in city elections, MUDs and school districts. It doesn’t get more local than this.

These elections affect your life the most because when politics are local, the effect is local, too.

In Fort Bend ISD you have a choice. And apparently the candidates have split themselves into tickets, because where you see an Albright campaign sign, you see a Cain sign right next to it.

So is the case with Bhuchar and Glover.

So you have a clear choice here. You can vote for the rabble rousers who want to turn their fellow Trustees on their respective ears, or you can vote for the status quo, which is he message I am getting by seeing Marilyn Glover’s sign next to Sonal Bhuchar’s.

Because that’s where you usually see it, when it isn’t laying down in the grass, that is (look closely at the Albright/Cain photograph above).

Or, you can be original. Make your own ticket. Mix and match.

That’s fun, too.

Mixed Health Measure Signals From The Legislature Today

Not a week goes by that I don’t find myself shaking my head in wonderment when I see inconsistencies in how Texans regulate themselves.

Case in point: today I see two items in the Austin American-Statesman, where I get most of my “Unique to Texas” stories. In one, we find that the State Senate has just passed SB 204, authored by Eliot Shapleigh, (D-El Paso). This bill bans the serving of trans-fats in restaurants in Texas (including doughnut shops). Trans-fats, as we all should know, are the culprits behind heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

So that’s good, right? Texas strikes a blow for public health.

Right next to it, however, we find a story explaining that a bill authored by Myra Crownover, R-Denton, HB 5, “relating to the elimination of smoking in all workplaces and public places” has been defanged in the House Committee on State Affairs by excluding from the list of public places “certain bars” anywhere in Texas as well as any public place in any Texas county with a population under 115,000.

Apparently, it’s OK to have emphysema from secondary smoke in Texas, especially if you live out in the boonies, but it’s not OK to have a stroke . . . anywhere.

These little inconsistencies do get at you sometimes, but all is resolved when you look at what is behind it: the liquor lobby and the tobacco lobby obviously have more money and more pull in the Texas Legislature than say, the Elaidic acid lobby.

If it even exists.

But, in the vicinity of food and sin, vis-à-vis Texas, I am still waiting for a ban on Dijon mustard because everybody knows that once you put Dijon mustard on your hamburger, surely communism can’t be far behind.

State House Welcomes Dubya, Minus One “Whereas”

I find it comical that the Texas State Legislature, already under the gun to pass some much-needed legislation, is picking its way through a minefield finding some way to pass a resolution to welcome our ex-president back to The Lone Star State, and express words of appreciation for his service.

Apparently you can thank him for too much.

Witness the change of wording between HCR 62 authored and sponsored by a whole raft of Republican state reps, a resolution that was withdrawn by its chief author, Doc Anderson (R – Waco), and the resolution to replace it, HCR 168.

Here is the relevant text that received the bulk of the editing in HCR 62:

“WHEREAS, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and transformed the military, the intelligence community, and the FBI; he oversaw the development of new antiterrorism tools that have been instrumental in breaking up terrorist plots and preventing another attack on American soil; and . . .”

[Emphasis mine]

Here is the edit in HCR 168:

“WHEREAS, Throughout the remainder of his first term and continuing through his second, President Bush made national security his highest priority; he created the Department of Homeland Security and transformed the military, the intelligence community, and the FBI; and . . . ”

Now here’s the thing. There are lots of us out here on the left who are screaming for some accountability. We want to know who is responsible for putting our country in the same category as Nazi Germany, North Korea and Vietnam (when we were enemies): countries that torture their prisoners.

We want whoever these people are to be found, tried and punished.

And apparently the authors of HCR 62 found the culprit. The very one they are welcoming back into the bosom of The Lone Star State. The one that they are thanking for doing this.

Don’t you just love Texas Republicans? In their ardor for their former leader of the free world, they wind up getting at the truth: Bush oversaw the whole thing.

So that was pointed out to them. By Democratic State Rep Lon Burnam by the way.

And HCR 62 was pulled and will be replaced by HCR 168.

Now here’s the thing. Wouldn’t it have been better to keep mum and let the Republicans send this to the floor for an up or down vote? Then have it pass by 76 Aye and 74 Abstain?

That would have at least gotten the opinion of the Texas legislature on record about who was responsible for what in regard to torturing prisoners.

Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait for the Attorney General.

Or the Spanish.

Flying Pigs

Overheard in the lunchroom today was a new, somewhat cute joke that I thought I would pass on.

If asked whether Americans would ever elect a black president, the inevitable response was “when pigs fly.”

Then we elected Barack Obama and then the swine flu.

Eh.

Arlen Specter is Confused

In the hardball that is Democratic Caucus politics, the tables were turned on Arlen Specter last night. Boy, would that confuse me.

Mostly in response to Specter’s comments on the Franken/Coleman deadlock in Minnesota’s second senatorial seat, the senate voted to strip Arlen Specter of his seniority, a thing that he himself claimed on Meet the Press was “an entitlement.”

Obviously Specter was dead wrong on the entitlement thing.

Clearly Specter was signaling to his new caucus colleagues that there was nothing they could do to him. He had assurances from Majority Leader Reid, and he had promises from President Obama.

But my, my, my, isn’t it amazing how quickly those assurances dissociate into quarks and electrons resulting in an explosion, a nuclear one, that made his entitlement vaporize.

The senate, it seems is taking a wait and see attitude on Specter. Holding hostage, as it were, any committee chairmanship that Specter could claim with a high seniority, a thing that he craves almost as much as he craves re-election.

With the Senate message being, obviously, that he should actually be that loyal Democrat that he claims he won’t be, or no dice.

Specter, as you can imagine, was all apologetic. In explaining his very odd remark to the New York Times about his preference of Norm Coleman (a fellow Jew) over Al Franken (also, as it turns out, a fellow Jew) because the Senate needs to have a Jew in the body, he claims that he was confused.

From The Washington Post:

“In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates. I'm ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I've made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke.”

So everything’s OK, right? He was just a little confused about what party he was allied to because of all the swirl.

That would be confusing, huh?

Yes, except that switching parties is clearly a singular event in the man’s political career. Something that he shouldn’t have to consult his notes about when he responds to questions on his opinion about things. Votes and stuff.

You know, I don’t know if that is all there should be to this. As I see it, there are actually two possibilities we need consider:

1. Is Arlen Specter going to get along in his new party or is he going to vote with his former brethren more often than not?
2. Is Arlen Specter suffering from incipient Alzheimer’s Syndrome?

If he simply forgot that he was a Democrat in the swirl that was a direct question from a New York Times reporter, maybe we ought to consider the latter. The man is nearly 80 years old, after all, and I have known younger men and women who have come down with this debilitating disease. I know this disease. Years ago I had a neighbor, a perfectly pleasant man, who introduced himself to me on a weekly basis, and then would politely ask me whether I knew where he lived, and could I show him.

So really, it’s either one or the other. Either we have (as Al Franken would put it) a lying liar that we cannot trust, or we have a tragic case of incipient Alzheimer’s or some sort of dementia where he is confused over where he calls “home” now.

In the latter case, maybe retirement on that attractive federal pension available to him as a multi-term senator is an option he should consider. In the former case, as I mentioned before, maybe he should be primaried until the cows come home.

Primary Arlen Specter

I take it all back.

When Senator Arlen Specter (D? – PA) announced that he was switching sides and would run for re-election next year as a Democrat, we Democrats whooped it up, claiming victory. The steamroller that won’t quit just keeps rolling along.

I take it all back.

Not only did Specter, on Sunday’s Meet the Press news program deny saying to President Obama that he would be “a loyal Democrat,” he emphatically denied it. And given moderator David Gregory's incredulity at the denial, it seems that Specter was backpedaling on statements he actually made to President Obama.

And in retrospect, what with his very candid remarks about how he had no chance to win against his rightwing opponent in the Republican primary next year, it seems a no brainer that Arlen Specter is not actually a self-declared Democrat, he is a self-declared Democrat-In-Name-Only.

Now the Democrats had lots of these types in our big tent before LBJ pushed the Voting Rights Act through in the 60’s. We called them Dixiecrats. They all fled the party once they saw the betrayal of President Johnson.

As it should be.

And what we really don’t want right now, and really don’t need, are any more “Democrats of Convenience.” We don’t need Democrats who seem to rat out their friends in order to stay in their office, when they actually don’t. Nothing has changed in Arlen Specter except a letter after his name. Arlen Specter is a Republican through and through.

Case in point. Today Arlen Specter, upon being asked to comment on whether he cared about the fact that there were no more Jewish Republican senators in office, Specter responded, categorically, this way:

“I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.”

Now there is no evidence anywhere that Norm Coleman is the clear choice of Minnesotan’s as their senator. Contrary-wise, there is ample evidence that Al Franken is their choice. Therefore, Specter’s comment, his high hope, is that he hopes that Norm Coleman takes the senate seat when he doesn’t deserve it.

Because he lost the election.

This is a black and white pure partisan statement.

A partisan statement that no Democrat would make.

No, that’s it. Obama's promises of support in the primary or not, Specter needs to be opposed in the Democratic primary next year. If he wins, OK. No problem. But if we can get a real Democrat in that seat, rather than this two-faced self-aggrandizing jerk, won’t we all be better off for it?

Tom Ridge as an R, or Arlen Specter as a D. What’s the difference?

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) had his eye on the seat before Specter used his stature and the power of his party switching to get Obama and others to support him, evidently nudging him out of the race. Sestak remains unconvinced, as I am, that we have a reliable vote in Specter.

From CBS News:

“Specter could still face a challenge from another Democrat in the primary. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.), an outspoken Specter critic, told CNN’s John King, he is ‘not sure [Specter is] a Democrat yet.’”

Sestak needs to jump in. This is a win-win situation. Sestak will be running against a Republican in the Democratic primary. Lots of ammunition there. No problem firing shots at Specter. No party division or recriminations to fret about.

Nothing much to worry about except going up against the Obama presidency.

Hey, that didn’t hurt Hillary much, did it?

Supreme Court Weighs in on Value of Janet Jackson’s Right Breast

Now apparently the Supreme Court's decision that the 3rd Circuit Court should throw out the $550,000 fine imposed on CBS for “allowing” Justin Timberlake to uncover Janet Jackson’s right breast on primetime public television at the end of their halftime Super Bowl performance 5 years ago has placed a value on that particular part of her anatomy.

Back a year ago, the 3rd Circuit Court found that it wasn’t worth the cost. The punishment did not fit the crime. In coming to this conclusion, the court pointed out all of the inconsistent behaviors of the FCC in bringing charges, obscenity or just swearing, to the offenders.

CBS said it had no idea what Jackson/Timberlake had planned, and the court agreed that CBS should not be responsible for “fleeting nudity.” Especially when the FCC ignored other instances of equal or greater offense. Especially when the offense is “fleeting.”

At 9/16^th of a second, which is what the dextral mammary exposure amounted to, is termed “fleeting.”

And who was timing it I have no idea.

But today the United States Supreme Court, in all its august majesty, has issued a directive to the 3^rd Court of Appeals that they shall not ignore the fact that this was a serious breach of decency, a breach that would have gone all but unnoticed were it not for the miracle of instant replay and photo enhancement techniques that allowed the incident to effectively burn into the minds and memories of decent Americans.

Over and over and over again.

So this $550,000 fine levied on CBS because of the 9/16ths of a second exposure of Janet Jackson middle-aged hooter gives us an idea of the value of observing not two, but just one of Janet Jackson’s breasts - say for an hour.

By my calculations, at this rate, the value of, or if you look at it from the Dark Side, the damage done in, observing Janet Jackson right mammary for an hour comes to a grand total of . . . wait for it . . . $3.52 billion.

And no, I won’t post the video here. This site is rated PG. Well sometimes PG13. But it’s still on You Tube so if you need some reminding . . . and I completely absolve myself of your journey to the gates of hell if you do . . . go here.

Is H1N1 Overblown?

It’s hard to imagine a pandemic like my grandparents lived through in 1918-1919. Worldwide, Called the Spanish Flu, somewhere between 50 and 100 million people succumbed to its effects worldwide. If you got the Spanish Flu, there was a 2.8% chance of dying from it.

Contrast that to what is in the news every day.

Like the updates at the World Health Organization’s website.

Where the current number is 894 documented cases in 18 countries.

One computer model generated by a Northwestern University research team predicts 1700 cases by late May, labeling it a “worst case scenario.”

So what’s the deal here? Are we over-reacting here or just erring on the side of caution?

Don’t ask me. Ask the people that the government of Singapore are going to lock up for a week if they show up on a plane from Mexico.

Even if they don’t have flu symptoms.

“Singapore Health Minister Khaw Boohn Wan said travelers from Mexico, from which the disease has quickly spread, will be forced into weeklong quarantine in their homes or hotels regardless of whether they have symptoms.

He added that there would be penalties for those who refuse. No one has arrived from Mexico yet, he said.”

This from the country that has a law on its books that bans the possession of chewing gum.

But I get it. I get that we have to take this seriously. Close schools. Cancel sports events and proms. Because what if we didn’t and people got sick?

Lawyers from everywhere but Texas would have a field day.

Halfway Through FBISD Trustee Early Vote

With one week down and one to go, we are now halfway through the early vote part of the May 9^th Joint Election where voters will choose between 3 rookies for one trustee seat, and between a rookie and the current FBISD board president.

And it looks like people are coming out to vote in this thing.

A few anyway.

Early vote totals for the first week stands at 1226 as of the end of the voting day on May Day. Most of the voting seems to be taking place in Sugar Land where most of the 10 early voting polling sites are located.

When I showed up to early vote at my usual place, I joked with the election workers when they asked me if I was there to vote. I said “Yes, me and three other guys.”

In this, as it turns out, I was not wrong.

In addition to the early vote, a total of 389 absentee ballots have been received of a total of 1296 that have been requested. Of these we don’t really know which of them were cast from voters who live within Fort Bend ISD boundaries, so what the heck, let’s assume all of them are.

So right now, as it stands, according to my calculations a total of 1615 ballots have been cast in the election, or about 1.061% of the total electorate within FBISD boundaries.

That’s low.

Well, we had that bad rainstorm on Monday evening and all of the school voting locations were closed on Tuesday because Fort Bend ISD decided to close all of their schools for some reason.

And then there’s the H1N1 problem that’s on a lot of peoples’ minds right now, and maybe the last thing they want to do is go to a public school campus and vote.

In 2008 the school board election attracted 14,848 voters or just over 9.76%, which is, in school board elections a huge crowd. With so many teabaggers out there who are angry about how their bond dollars are being spent, or are not being spend, or are angry over what they perceive as the superintendent’s pet project to build a Global Science Center, you would think the early vote numbers would be a little higher right now.

So I wonder what’s going on.

Tamiflu Shortage: Texas Legislature Is At Fault

Ask around. Try and find out whether you can lay your hands on some Tamiflu, a prescription drug that fights swine flu, especially in its initial stages, and is also useful as a preventative medicine for those whose health or immune systems are in poor shape.

It’s scarce right now. You aren’t going to find much.

Guess why?

Your Texas 2007 Republican-dominated state legislature.

From The Chron:

“Earlier this week, the Harris County Hospital District reported enough medication to treat just 300 adults and 100 children. Stocks were limited this week at Walgreens and CVS stores in Texas, but representatives for both retailers said the companies were sending more to Houston.”

“State reserves could have been larger. In 2007, the Texas Department of Health Services requested $34 million from the Legislature for antivirals to deal with a flu pandemic but received $10 million to purchase less than one-third of what was available to the state under a federal government discount program.”

So now we have politicians deciding what medications will be available to the public, huh? Why is it, I am always asking myself, that we have people making critical decisions for hundreds, thousands or millions of people, who are functionally unequipped to render proper judgment?

Just keep that in mind when you start seeing and hearing TV and radio ads produced by Republicans and the health industry lobby about how the communist Democrats want to pass health care reform legislation that will allow the government to interfere with your medical care.

That’s already happening, only it’s the people pointing the fingers who are doing it.

HB 710 to the House Floor on Saturday

I just heard that State Rep. Patrick Rose’s HB 710 “relating to placing the State Board of Education under periodic review by the Sunset Advisory Commission” is coming to the House floor tomorrow.

This bill needs to pass.

We have all witnessed how dysfunctional our State Board of Education has become because of a right wing evangelical bent in some board members that caused it to spend an incredible amount of time and money examining the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolutionary theories. A creationist ploy to bring religion into public schools through the back door. This bill, HB 710, seeks to fix this by setting up a sunset review process for the State Board of Education.

Mark Twain said it best:

“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”

From the Texas Freedom Network:

“The Sunset review process would give the Legislature the opportunity to decide, after the commission’s recommendation, whether to make any changes to the state board’s authority. If during this session lawmakers don’t strip the board of its authority over curriculum and textbooks, for example, they could do so when the board comes up for Sunset review.”

Now lots of state school boards have this responsibility and authority to adopt textbooks for use within their state. But when the Board abuses that authority by attempting to introduce religious dogma in the curriculum, driving how textbooks up for adoption are written, then that authority needs to be revoked.

HB 710 needs to be passed.

Friday Night is Carnitas Night

If’s finally Friday. On Friday I reward myself for lasting yet one more week at my job by treating myself to a plate of carnitas.

Carnitas is Mexican cuisine. The word roughly translates as “small meats” I think. You make carnitas by cooking pork, usually a pork shoulder, for a long time, adding spices, peppers and onions to it, thus rendering the meat dark, tender and tasty.

While I have made carnitas myself, these days I just go to my nearby Mexican food restaurant and get some take out. I like to eat my carnitas while watching Keith Olbermann.

And today I realized that it is doubly important that I do this thing that I do on any given Friday.

Why?

Well for one thing, since the job that I survive from one week to the next is as an educator, and the chief purpose of an educator is to stamp out ignorance, I thought I should do my part today in stamping out the ignorance that has surfaced over the swine flu, also known as H1N1.

One ignorant thing I’d like to address is what they are doing in Egypt in reaction to the swine flu. They are killing their swine. They are doing this because they think you get the swine flue from . . . swine.

You don’t.

But that doesn’t matter. Even though there is not one documented case of swine flu in Egypt, the government has laid out plans to kill every pig within their borders. About 300,000 to be exact.

Because they think people get this strain of the flu from pigs.

They don’t.

From Scientific American:

“‘Actually, not really’, says Arnon Shimshony, Israel's former chief veterinary officer. ‘The reason swine flu has its name is that certain parts of its DNA resemble those found in flu viruses that commonly affect pigs,’ he explains. ‘At some point in the virus's evolution, it probably passed through pigs, which could act like "mixing vessels" of human and avian flu viruses,’ Shimshony says.”

You don’t get the swine flu by kissing a pig.

You don’t get the swine flu by eating pork.

“‘It is unfortunate,’ the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said of Egypt's decision. ‘The crisis today is in transmission from human to human. It has nothing to do with pigs,’ he told The Associated Press.”

But wait, there is more ignorance to stamp out than just that.

There’s the ignorance that is also racist in origin. Ignorance and racism are like Siamese twins: mostly inseparable.

Right wing talk show entertainer Michael Savage has surfaced spreading viral rumors about Mexicans. He not only savages Mexicans in their hygienic habits that he imagines in his viral mind, he cooked up a terrorist plot.

From MSNBC:

“‘It would be easy,’ he said, ‘to bring an altered virus into Mexico, put it in the general population, and have them march across the border.’”

You know, if a terrorist wanted to cause a pandemic in America, I can think of a whole lot worse viruses to use than a flu virus.

Ebola comes to mind.

But what comes to mind after that is the real reason that the terrorists can’t attack America in that way.

They could get the bug as well, and on top of that, they may not be living in a place that has the same kind of medical services we have in America.

What kind of twisted minds do we have at work here? These people dream up the most amazing racist things to say to entertain and to instill fear among the gullible.

And among their fellow racists.

Even to the extent that the gullible (because I doubt that racists would deign to eat Mexican cuisine) are staying away from Mexican restaurants now.

Because they think they will get the swine flu if they go to a Mexican restaurant.

Another from MSNBC:

“As swine flu fears have spread, the backlash has also affected some Mexican restaurants’ business, possibly fueled by disparaging comments like those of Savage questioning the hygiene of workers.”

So tonight I am getting in my foreign car and driving over to my nearest Mexican restaurant. And I am going to support that business by buying some Mexican food prepared by Mexican workers, very probably illegal aliens.

And it’s going to be pork.

And it’s going to be delicious.

Texas Senate Giving McLeroy the Bum’s Rush

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather. In my traditional stance as the eternal pessimist, I assumed the worst, that Don McLeroy, dentist, young-Earth creationist, and Chairman of the State Board of Education would eventually receive the necessary two-thirds vote to confirm Perry’s re-nomination to that state leadership position.

And now it looks like he won’t.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“‘The confirmation of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy is dead in the water’, Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said Thursday.”

“Jackson, chairman of the Senate Nominations Committee, said McLeroy will be left pending in committee because there is enough opposition on the floor of the Senate to block his confirmation, which requires approval of two-thirds of the senators.”

“‘There are too many other important issues to take up on the floor to waste time on a doomed confirmation,’ Jackson said.”

This comes on the heels of Governor Perry’s own thrust of the knife in the back of the former chairman when he hung the poor man out to dry when he refused to come to McLeroy’s defense, saying essentially, that the fate of his nominee was in the hands of the Senate.

From The Chron:

“You know I have 1500 appointees a year. So uh, we appoint them and they go through the process. That’s the way it’s always worked.”

So with the nomination dead in the water since the Senate will refuse to act, come the end of the legislative session it will be up to Rick Perry to come up with another chairman who must come from the pool of 15 state board members (and now, 14). The question is not which Republican member Perry will nominate, the question is whether he will nominate one of the remaining 6 Republican creationists currently on the board.

My guess is that he will because he needs to cater to his base in his upcoming re-election in 2010.

There are no minuses here because the Senate will not be able to confirm his nomination until 2011, well after the dust has settled.

But really, you know, the science issue is settled for another 10 years so maybe he should search around for someone who would appeal to his base in the area and issues of social studies, whose curriculum is next on the agenda for the Board to review and revise.

Like someone who has a different viewpoint on the War of Northern Aggression, and is of the opinion that Texas can secede from the Union any time it darn well feels like it.

Texas Cancels High School Sports

It was here in Texas that the term “Friday Night Lights” was coined. The lights that go on at high school football fields every Friday night in the late summer and fall.

Texas, as it turns out, is fanatical about sports in general, and football in particular.

So it came as a surprise to me today when I read the notice that the director of the University Interscholastic League, or UIL announced that he was canceling all UIL events in Texas until May 11.

Every sports event in Texas between now and then is cancelled.

From The Chron:

“‘The health and safety of our student activity participants is of the utmost importance,’ UIL Executive Director Dr. Charles Breithaupt said in a press release. ‘Taking every possible precaution to prevent the further spreading of this disease is an important contribution to the welfare of our great state, and altering the schedule of our events is a way to keep our participants safe.’”

I have a couple of comments on this.

First, it’s not football season anymore. That makes this move possible.

Second, I have to wonder about the likelihood of someone coming in contact with a carrier of Swine Flu on the baseball diamond.

Or at a track meet.

Out there in the open air.

Contrast that to the fact that it’s TAKS week. TAKS, you may or may not know, is a 4-hour test. Even if you finish it in 45 minutes, test takers must stay put in tiny cramped rooms for 4 tedious hours. And believe me, the air gets a little stale after awhile.

So I have to ask this: why is it not safe for high school athletes to travel to some place and compete in the open air, and absolutely safe to sit in a small cramped classroom for 4 hours? OK, I get it about limiting travel among the population, but it stands to reason that if there is a concern for spreading the flu virus in one case there should be concern in another.

Or am I missing something?

Time to Primary John Cornyn

Although the junior Senator from Texas, John Cornyn, has just been re-elected to his Senate seat in the last election, it’s not too early to plan John Cornyn’s early retirement package. Because it is time to primary John Cornyn.

Today, John Cornyn became an apologist for liberal Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter.

From CQ Politics:

“While we were disappointed by Senator Specter’s decision to switch parties, he was very candid to acknowledge that this was simply nothing more, nothing less than political self-preservation.

As Leader McConnell indicated, his own pollster told him he could not win the Republican primary in Pennsylvania. So his only options were to leave the Senate or to switch parties, since he was determined or he was convinced he could not win as an independent.”

Hah! He left the Republican Party because he couldn’t be re-elected? John Cornyn lies! John Cornyn, himself a liberal, avoids the issue. Arlen Specter didn’t leave the Republican Party because he simply wanted to stay in office. He left The Party because he has become a communist.

A fascist communist.

And so is John Cornyn.

John Cornyn, who endorsed Arlen Specter over a true conservative, a True Republican. The Club for Growth’s own Pat Toomey.

That’s why we need to get rid of this senator. He no longer serves in the interests of the right-thinking People of Texas. John the Fascist.

And with righteous groups like The Club for Growth raising True Republican consciousness (and raising campaign cash to boot) we can recruit and run a True Republican against Communist Cornyn.

Who do we look to, to get this done? A few names come to mind. Congressman Tom DeLay comes to mind. He has been in Virginia for far too long and needs to come home to Texas. Another who comes to mind is Speaker Tom Craddick. With the Texas legislature being influenced by liberal communists, Tom Craddick would be better used by True Republicans in the US Senate.

Whoever we run, it’s time now to put the wheels in motion.

[Note to Googlers: this is supposed to be a parody. I’m not serious.]