BP “Hasn’t Thought About” What Comes Next

Does lying come so easily to oil company executives that they don’t even blink when they are constructing one whopper after another? Watch the video and see if I’m right.

One thing you can be good and well sure of is that BP has given some thought to what they will do with the oil and gas accumulation that, they say, is worth $4 billion to them. What is surprising to me is the question from the second guy. A question that assumes that BP, or any oil company for that matter, would simply turn their back on proven reserves because they had an accident there that killed people and negatively impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands. Walk away from $4 billion because they as a corporation are sensitive to public opinion that would go negative once they announce their plan of development for the field.

Clearly BP is thinking several moves ahead, including the denial that there is any planning going on for that field specifically because of the above-stated public outrage.

When the A-21 well blew out in 1969, Union Oil Company, which operated the Santa Barbara Channel oilfield at the time, took a lot of negative press, including reporting a quote from the company’s president deriding the public’s concern about “a few birds.” After killing the well, Union Oil Company went on to set 2 additional platforms on that field, platforms fully visible from the beach.

So to me, there has never been a consideration that the field would simply never be developed, and it surprised me as incredibly naïve that someone would think that.

But that doesn’t mean that BP should operate the field. BP has a track record of being grossly negligent, and how negligent they were in drilling the Macondo well awaits the results of all the investigations that are ongoing. And to be fair, we should wait and find out who was responsible for this disaster, but one thing that should be on the table as time passes is that BP either farm out the project to a safer operator, or operatorship should shift to another one of it’s partners in the field.

I really don’t think anyone wants to hear about BP being the company that develops this oil field.

I think they know that.

I just wonder how far it will go. Will BP be allowed to operate any drilling rigs in the Gulf anymore?

Proposition 8 Blowback

I and others are still waiting for the thunder and lightning to start in California. And not the thunder and lightning from an infuriated deity raining death and destruction on a state that says it’s OK for gays and lesbians to get married.

The thunder and lightning from the righteous evangelical rightwing.

I expected something slightly less than a shooting war to break out over this. Instead, this is what you get:

Crickets.

Could it be that the logic and reasoning found in Judge Walker’s 138-page decision, including 80 findings of fact, was just too much for them? I doubt it. When was the last time that a conservative evangelical shied away from an argument simply because they didn’t have any facts on their side?

Crickets.

OK, I lied. I did come across two issues that have been brought up. Issues that are so ridiculous on their face that they’ll soon go away.

Issue Number 1: The judge struck down Proposition 8 because he, himself, is gay. “Gay and out” is the proper term, meaning that he doesn’t hide the fact that he is gay. They say that because he is gay that he failed to be impartial in the case.

So does this mean, by that line of logic, that black judges can’t preside over the trial of an African-American accused of a crime? Because they might be impartial? What about a female judge not being able to rule in a sexual harassment case because one of the litigants is a female?

Right, that piece of logic is absurd on its face. It even lends support to Judge Walker’s conclusion that denial of the right to marry presumes that gays are inferior. The presumption is that gays can’t rule in a gay rights trial but a Catholic judge is perfectly able to rule in an abortion trial.

Issue Number 2: Marriage functions in our society based on (as we see in this Christian Science Monitor piece)  this argument:

“Heterosexual relationships need marriage because of inferiority: the physical inferiority of sexual defenders to sexual attackers and the moral inferiority of male sexual attackers. Marriage is not about couples or lovers – it’s about the physical and moral integrity of women.”

Get it? Without marriage, weak but virtuous women would be subjugated by brutish men with no moral compass. That, and not procreation, is the sole purpose of marriage.

Fine.

If that’s the case then I guess we should outlaw the marriages of the elderly.

Or really, outlaw the marriages of any couple who can demonstrate that the male has trouble decking his bride-to-be, or for that matter, the female can demonstrate her ability to successfully clock her groom.

If marriage is all about who is the victor of a inter-spousal knock-down drag-out, then yeah, you win.

It’s All Those Democrats at the Pentagon

You really have to hand it to Congressman Mike McCaul (R –TX-10). When one of the largest manufacturing plants in his district loses its $3 billion army contract to build trucks for Iraq and Afghanistan, to a plant in Wisconsin (a Blue state), he knows what to do right away.

Blame Obama.

Because that’s exactly what he did.

Never mind that McCaul was asleep in his leather-covered chair in Congress while the Army perfectly appropriately put out for bid a recontinuation contract for FMTV manufacture, FMTVs are trucks built to be used in combat zones. Never mind that when Oshkosh Corp significantly underbid the Sealy, Texas company that had been producing the trucks for 18 years, McCaul wasn’t aware of it.

Never mind that BAE, the company that lost the bid to Oshkosh Corp. is a British-owned conglomerate – like BP. Oshkosh is a US-owned company.

Never mind that when McCaul was finally shaken awake about the fact that one of the largest plants in his district had lost a huge federal government contract, he and others went to the Government Accounting Office and whined, and the GAO actually told the Army to rebid the contract.

Never mind that the brass at the Pentagon sniffed at the GAO’s request, and then went with the low bid – Oshkosh’s – anyway (memories of $100 hammers having something to do with it I’ll bet).

Never mind all of that.

It’s Obama’s fault that BAE Systems lost the bid. It’s Obama’s fault that BAE, a heartless British multinational conglomerate has to lay off up to 1,300 employees at their Sealy plant.

Because Oshkosh, a company that resides in the Blue state of Wisconsin just took advantage of the fact that all politics is local. I kid you not. Here is what McCaul said as quoted in Fort Bend Now:

“When you see jobs being taken out of a red state to a blue state, that’s a concern,” McCaul said. “Policies of (the Obama) administration are impacting Texas in a negative way.”

It’s kind of odd, in a way, seeing Mike McCaul, who was always so full of what can only be called Texas bluster, taking on this new role of victim. Odd, because when you have a huge plant in your district whose sole purpose is to make trucks for use in combat zones, and have no Plan B in case peace breaks out, other than laying off your American workforce that is, it really doesn’t look like he is very believable.

I don’t think he can pull off this new victim role.

The President’s B-Day

Yesterday, August 4th 2010 was the President’s birthday. So I decided to find out what was happening at the new Democratic Party HQ to celebrate Barack Obama’s 49th birthday. And in classic fashion, it was pretty much business as usual.

They were conducting a phone bank.

But they had cake.

And then today I got a “thank you” note from our president. Awhile back I signed an electronic version of his birthday card. I hear it was me and about 1.2 million Americans.

If you didn’t sign the card, you didn’t get the note.

Here is what it said:

Hal --

I want to thank you for signing my birthday card.

Michelle told me that she was planning something a little different this year, and I was overwhelmed by the kind words I received from so many supporters like you.

This job has a way of offering humbling moments. And the support you have shown me, time and time again, has sustained me through any number of difficult days. It is more than any president deserves, and I could not be more grateful.

On my birthday, I spent some time considering what the year ahead will bring -- a new set of challenges and opportunities, some that we can foresee and some that we cannot.

If we continue to stand together, I know we will continue to move America forward and win these fights for change.

Thank you again for taking a moment to sign my card. As far as birthdays go, it is hard to imagine topping this one. But then again, Michelle always has a way of surprising me.

Sincerely,

Barack

Senate Passes Aid to States (Even to Texas)

Today the Senate passed HR 1586, a no-brainer bill to improve and upgrade aviation safety, but containing within it two unrelated but key hot button issues that appropriated $26 billion in federal aid to the states. These two issues that were introduced into the bill in Amendment 4575 by Patty Murray (D - WA)

The real test came yesterday when the bill came up for a motion to end debate, cloture in other words, and it passed by 61 to 49, with the two Republican votes from Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voting with the majority.

Why this is important should be obvious: the states are really hurting right about now.

The Recession of 2008-09 is now taking its toll on the states which are facing budgetary shortfalls, like the one here in Texas. States will have to make draconian cuts in their expenditures; cuts are most likely in the two areas that states are usually responsible for: health care and education.

$16 billion of the $26 billion will be distributed to the states so they can make their Medicaid payments, that is, upping the federal government’s percent coverage of state Medicaid programs.

The remaining $10 billion will be distributed to the states to prevent an estimated layoff of 300,000 state workers, mostly teachers, but also police and firemen.

The most populous states, obviously, will receive the larger proportions of these funds. Texas, it is projected by the US Department of Education could avoid laying off 10,000 teachers. That is, of course if Texas' governor, Rick Perry, doesn't try to play 'find the pea' as he did earlier when the feds gave him $3 billion to do pretty much the same thing.

And for the most part, these layoffs have already taken place. We are just a few weeks away from the start of the school year, some areas are closer than others, and hirings and firings have already taken place. These funds will allow districts either to recall teachers that have been laid off, or in other cases, to restore days to the school calendar that have been chopped off as a result of budgetary cutbacks.

The Senate heavily amended the house bill, so it will need to be re-voted on in the House before President Obama can sign it. With the House currently in recess until September it would normally look like this is a case of closing the barn door after the horses have bolted.

Normally, except it looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will call the House back into session to get this matter taken care of before the opening of schools.

Oh well, guess they’ll have to put off for another day those August Town Hall meetings that we have all come to hate.

California’s Proposition 8 Struck Down

In what is sure to be a blow to the many homophobic religious zealots that populate our country, California’s Proposition 8, the referendum on gay marriage that appeared on the November 2008 ballot, was struck down today by 9th Circuit Court Judge Vaughn Walker.

Walker could find no reason, logical or illogical, to forbid gays and lesbians to have the same rights to form a family as straights.

“Proposition 8 places the force of law behind stigmas against gays and lesbians, including: gays and lesbians do not have intimate relationships similar to heterosexual couples; gays and lesbians are not as good as heterosexuals; and gay and lesbian relationships do not deserve the full recognition of society.”

That is, just because a marriage between same-sex couples, or even intimate relations between them is harshly criticized in a book that was written thousands of years before America was even suspected to exist does not mean that America, or its states have the right or duty to enforce those ancient ideas.

Because to suggest that they do have that right or duty is to suggest that it is perfectly OK to enforce Islamic Sharia Law in America as well.

Rick Perry Visits His California ATM

As a native Californian it comes as no surprise to me that Texas’ governor, Rick Perry this week decided to escape the August heat that Texas is so famous for and spend some quality time in a quality state. Word is he is cooling his jets at The Peninsula, a 5-Star plush hotel nestled in the Hills of Beverly.

Governor, I recommend the Stag’s Leap Estate Bottled 1998 Chardonnay.

The word is that the governor is in California, a state that he derides on his own campaign website, to relieve it of some of the money that he claims Californians don’t have.

Because apparently California is being poorly governed by a fellow-Republican who nonetheless believes in all that claptrap called “Global Warming.” California has record unemployment because of how it has been governed, and people are leaving California in droves.

But apparently, Rick Perry thinks he knows where there is still money in California, so despite the fact that California has a 17% unemployment rate, and despite the fact that it suffered a net loss of 700,000 people between 2005 and 2007, and despite the fact that California is taking on $25 million in debt – per day, despite all of that, California is where you go to get some campaign cash.

So I hope the governor has a great time in his stay in my state. I hope Anita spends some time and money on Rodeo Drive, just short blocks away from The Peninsula, I hear. Spend lots of money in my California. And stay off the Santa Monica Freeway at rush hour.

Now there are other bloggers out there who are bashing the governor for being AWOL in paradise while his own state bakes in 110 degree weather, for being AWOL from his desk while a budget shortfall of between $18 and $21 billion looms on the horizon.

I won’t go there because as I have offered in the past, having Rick Perry NOT do things to Texas is actually a better deal for us. And besides that, I think I have come up with the real reason Rick Perry is in California this week, because obviously going there to get some money can’t be the real reason.

I think that because Rick Perry comes from the Party of No New Ideas, I think that he is in California to get some idea of how to tackle a giant budget shortfall because California already has some experience in that. I think that he is panicked over not having the slightest clue how to solve the problem. So Perry is there to cover his bases. If for some remote reason Texans go completely over the edge and re-elect Perry at least he will have something to say about how to tackle the budget. If on the other hand, Texas actually rids itself of the worst governor since Reconstruction, Perry will have some good contacts and will land himself some nice lakeside property that he can buy for under market value.

I recommend Lake Lucerne. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Book Burning: Alive and Well in Florida

And not just any book, mind you. There is a group of Christian Floridians who are going to commemorate the 9/11 attacks in 2001, going to honor the memories of 2,976 victims of these attacks, by burning a book considered sacred by 1.5 billion people: al Qu’ran.

I have just one question: why is it always Florida?

What is it about Florida that gives the rest of us huge headaches from time to time?

It was Florida, remember, that gave us a George W. Bush presidency in November-December 2000.

It was Florida, remember that caused a huge blow-up in the Democratic Party in 2008 because they changed the day that they were supposed to hold their primary election.

And now it’s Florida, home to the Dove World Outreach Center, that is playing host to a little Islamophobia in its own backyard. They are going to hold a book burning, just like the Nazis did in the 1930’s, only this is even more insidious because they will be burning many copies of just one book.

And in doing this, in rather spectacular public fashion, it will confirm in the minds of millions of Muslims worldwide something that they have been suspecting for awhile now: that Americans not only hate Muslims, but they hate them in the name of Jesus.

John 11:35

Republicans: Repeal the 14th Amendment?

Just when you think that Washington, DC cannot make itself more dysfunctional someone there goes and proves that being dysfunctional seems to have no ceiling, and certainly no floor.

Now that the Senate has fully engaged itself in a discussion of whether the children of illegal aliens, born in the US, have a right to citizenship, and then someone conducts a civics lesson for them demonstrating that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution says it must be so, it has come full circle. Now we have Republicans openly questioning whether the 14th Amendment, a matter of settled law for 140 years, should be repealed.

I can’t believe these words even as I type them.

But that is what it has come to. Here we have Mitch McConnell, who would be the Senate Majority Leader had Republicans been a little luckier two years ago, broaching that very subject. From the Washington Post:

“We ought to take a look at it -- hold hearings, listen to the experts on it. I haven't made a final decision about it, but that's something that we clearly need to look at. Regardless of how you feel about the various aspects of immigration reform, I don't think anybody thinks that's something they're comfortable with.”

And here we had Rand Paul just a few short weeks ago running for cover over his suggestion that the Civil Rights Act may have gone a tad too far in guaranteeing equal rights to all comers. Who would have ever thought at that point that a sitting senator would go even farther and suggest that we reconsider a Constitution Amendment that their own party pushed through after the Civil War?

Ah, they forgot about that little thorny detail, I’ll bet. They like to call themselves the party of Lincoln but their values certainly don’t mesh with Lincoln’s do they. I think they should rename their annual fundraising dinner, currently the Lincoln/Reagan Dinner to the Reagan/Bush Dinner, don’t you?

Anyway, as suggested at the bottom of the Post article, and I heartily agree, this is much ado about nothing. No one, not a soul, is going to go anywhere with this. But it makes for perfect rhetoric in a mid-term election that is shaping up to be one of the craziest on record.

Anti-Immigrant Fever: WWJD

WWJD: What would Jesus do?

Yesterday we saw at Juanita Jean’s a bible quote that pretty much spells out what Jesus must be thinking about all of the anti-immigrant fever currently raking our country into shreds. I remarked at the time that the only reason this is an issue now is that Republicans need to turn public commentary away from their gross misdeeds in congress recently: voting against 911 first responders, voting against the unemployed, voting against Wall Street reform (and for the very people who delivered the 2008-09 recession to us).

But I kept going back to her citation of Leviticus 19:33-34:

“And if a stranger dwells temporarily with you in your land, you shall not suppress and mistreat him. But the stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you; and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Appropriate, no? That, by the way was God Himself talking to Moses.

Christians have told me that Old Testament quotations don’t count because they all came before Jesus. That’s what they say, anyway and as a noncombatant, I’ll just take their word for it.

So, OK here is the updated version, from the New Testament:

“Do not forget or neglect or refuse to extend hospitality to strangers – being friendly, cordial and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously – for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

- Hebrews 13:2

But the one quotation I really like is one that is not often used in finding biblical guidance on what to do when you have immigrants in your country. Remarkably, the passage comes right after the most quoted passage in Matthew 25:31-36 which speaks to what Jesus will do on Judgment Day with the righteous people who treat immigrants and strangers with compassion. This part deals with what Jesus will do with those who lack any compassion towards immigrants and strangers, Matthew 25:41-46:

“Then He will say to those at His left hand, Be gone from Me, you cursed, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me and entertain Me; I was naked and you did not clothe Me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me with help and ministering care. Then they also will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You? And He will reply to them, Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least of these you failed to do it for Me. Then they will go away into eternal punishment, but those who are just and upright in standing with God into eternal life.”

What would Jesus do? I’ll leave that to you to decide. As I said before, I am a noncombatant. But from what I read, if and when Jesus makes good on His promise to come back someday, my guess is that He is going to be One Pissed Off Deity.

Another Big News Weekend

I don’t know where to begin.

So much happened this weekend that the mind just reels.

Bill and Hillary Clinton married off their Chelsea in spectacular fashion in a very posh but private ceremony on an estate in New York’s Hudson Valley. The bride, they say was beautiful, and the wedding cake is estimated to have cost somewhere between $4,000 and $25,000 depending, they say, on the price of one piece.

Lindsay Lohan was released from jail in Los Angeles in the wee hours of Monday morning after spending either 13 or 14 days in the slammer (depending on whether you count Monday as one day). She was immediately whisked away to a court-ordered 90-day stint in rehab at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. No one really knows, though, what the former child star is rehabbing from.

And talk about a turnstile, as Lindsay Lohan leaves jail Charlie Sheen enters the courtroom today to to face felony and assault charges stemming from a much-publicized incident between Sheen, son of Martin Sheen, and his wife, Brooke.

And not to be outdone by the only child of President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton, Alicia Keys and her newest heartthrob Swizz Beatz tied the knot in a wedding by the Mediterranean Sea. And it seems that Ms. Keys and Chelsea Clinton share a common taste in wedding attire, since both chose a gown designed by Vera Wang.

Making me wonder about what it is about the GOP. Are they completely clueless about what is truly newsworthy in this country? They even made a short video about Obama on "The View" mentioning Snooki, and the ladies on the view chanting “GTL, GTL.” GTL is a "Jersey Shore" theme that translates "Gym, Tanning, Laundry." In their opinion, Obama should be discussing the GDP and not GTL.

Another clear indicator that the Republican Party is completely clueless about what Americans are concerned about.

Sarah Palin and Gonads

So Half-a-Term Former Governor Sarah Palin has pronounced from her new Fox News pulpit (a better-paying gig than being a governor of the 49th state, I’ll bet) that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s male gonads are larger than those of President Obama.

No really, that’s what she said.

Only she didn’t say “male gonads”. Nor did she say “testicles.” Or “balls” for that matter. No, Sarah Palin used the vulgar Spanish, or really, Mexican Spanish slang term for male gonads: “cojones.”

This statement is just wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to start.

Well, OK, how about here.

First, it takes the rather ugly, racist, drivel that has been spewed by newly emboldened Teabaggers to a new level, a new low level, by very rudely speculating on the size of the male anatomy of the President of the United States.

Second, it speculates on the actual existence of male anatomy on the sitting governor of the state of Arizona. Jan Brewer – a female. I don’t know about the school systems in Alaska but I’m pretty sure that by the time they reach 10th grade, school children here in Texas are all pretty much aware that males have testicles and females have ovaries. Hopefully Palin was awake in biology class when that lesson was taught and not asleep as she was during the three weeks that ecology and evolution were covered.

Third, it makes use of a non-English idiom. There are lots of them to choose from in conversational American English, mainly because of our rich history and diversity. Just as we have accepted people from all countries and cultures into our society, we have also assimilated their colorful slang words into our own language. Palin’s choice of an idiom, though, from Mexican Spanish, seems almost completely inappropriate considering who it is that Governor Brewer is purported to have the large cojones to oppress.

Mexicans.

But finally, and this is not just my idea, others have said this, Palin’s “cojones comment” makes absolutely no logical sense in the non-literal meaning of the word. Obviously, Jan Brewer has no testicles. Saying that she has cojones though, doesn’t imply that she has them, but instead speaks to the personality attribute that someone with “a pair of big ones” has, and that is courage. What Sarah Palin is saying is that Jan Brewer has more courage than Barack Obama because she signed into law a bill whose sole purpose is to round up Mexicans and other tanned people.

What takes more courage, though? Signing into law a bill that has been voted on by a majority of state legislators, a bill that is supported by a large majority of Arizonans? Or is it more courageous to oppose the law, see that it gets gutted in federal court, all of this despite the fact that polls show that a majority of Americans also support this law? Who has taken on more political risk, Brewer or Obama?

So again, what appears to be the case, proven over and over, is that we Americans dodged a bullet in spectacular fashion back in 2008 when we turned the McCain/Palin ticket away. This is just not a very smart woman we have here in Sarah Palin.

A real putz, if you will.

It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word “Is” Is

Remember that one? That was The Big Dog’s response to a fairly direct question in his Q&A over the Monica Lewinsky affair, an obfuscation that worked for awhile, until that is, someone produced the blue dress (aka the smoking gun).

I was reminded of that today when I read the end of this Jason Embry article in yesterday’s Austin American-Statesman.

You see, Bill White’s campaign is circling what is looking more and more to be a Rick Perry smoking gun. They have made their case that in two land deals on the same Horseshoe Bay property, deals which had Perry’s BFF involved both times, Rick Perry personally profited to the tune of a half a million dollars.

The plot thickens when we learn that Perry’s BFF is a founding investor in Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp., and that in 2006 the company applied for a $2.5 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a cash cow that Rick Perry personally controls that is used to attract business to Texas. They wanted to expand by building a plant in the San Antonio area.

Only they fell on hard times and had to lay off workers, so the deal fell through and no grant was given to Perry’s friend’s company.

Bill White’s campaign charged that Perry tried to use the TEF to help his friend, and Perry’s said no, it doesn’t count if the deal falls through.

So if, say, I give a gun to a guy who tells me he wants to use it to shoot his wife, but then he changes his mind and doesn’t shoot her, that makes my gift perfectly OK. No crime, no foul, right?

Wrong. Foul, but no crime.

But wait, it gets better and this is where The Big Dog’s remark comes into play.

Bill White’s campaign has “papered” Rick Perry’s office with public information requests seeking paperwork on the TEF’s vetting of companies who apply for a TEF grant. They are saying that Sino Swearingen wasn’t properly vetted. But while Bill White’s campaign did receive lots and lots of data about companies that received TEF grants, they did not receive information on Sino Swearingen.

Why?

Well, according to a Perry spokesperson, the White request was for information on companies that “received” TEF grants. They didn’t ask, she said, for information on companies that did not receive a TEF grant.

In other words, information on the one company whose investor’s dealings with Perry have come up in the press, that one company, did not get included.

To resume my unlikely analogy, that’s like asking me for the names of all the people whom I have given guns to, and I comply in all but one case, the case of the guy who changed his mind, because he didn’t actually use the gun.

Leo Berman: Evangelicals “Don’t Understand” the Politics of Immigration

A very real schism is forming among conservatives. It is a schism that is most certainly a deal breaker in Republican politics, as evidenced by an observation of immigration hardliner State Rep. Leo Berman (R - Intolerance). One that I am very taken with.

Let me set this up. If you are conservative you look at the issue of immigration in one of three ways: 1) the visions of Evangelicals, 2) the views of conservative businessmen, and 3) the vomit of hardliners.

Evangelicals are family oriented and see the need for having “a solid balance between justice and compassion.” Compassion, say, for the compassion they have to the millions of illegal aliens who would be separated from their American citizen relatives, splitting fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. Evangelicals don’t want to discuss immigration unless it has in it provisions for a “path to citizenship.”

Conservative businessmen are looking at immigration in terms of a need to cheaply fill the jobs in agriculture, hospitality, and construction that no American will do – at least not for the kind of pay that illegal aliens accept.

Hardliners want all illegal aliens to leave, no questions, ifs, ands or buts. They are by definition criminals when they broke the immigration laws.

It creates an alliance between Evangelicals and conservative businessmen against the third, more odious branch of conservatism – the hardliners.

And why are hardliners so . . . well . . . hard line about illegal aliens? Enter Leo Berman.

“Berman said he believes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is a path to creating Democratic voters.” 

“‘There's 25 million in the United States - you can't listen to the 8 million to 12 million numbers that come out of Washington every day - you're going to create an instant 25 million Democrats,’ Berman said.”

“‘I don't think these evangelical leaders understand that.’”

Twenty-five million Democratic votes. That’s what’s behind the hardliner objection to illegal aliens getting legal residency. Becoming naturalized Americans.

Because as Richard Land, an evangelical who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission very correctly observes:

“If the conservative coalition is going to be a governing coalition, it's going to have to include an awful lot of Hispanics, and you're not going to bring an awful lot of Hispanics into your coalition with anti-Hispanic immigration rhetoric.”

So are the hardliners who oppose a path to citizenship the racists we have all been led to believe they are? Maybe, maybe not. The only thing that is certain is that the hardliner position may be racially inspired, but it is most definitely a position that speaks directly to their hopes to retain or regain political power in America.

It’s nice though, to have your prejudices complement your desire for political power from time to time.

Ask Pol Pot whose Khmer Rouge once famously wrote this: “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss.”

How White People are Going to Take Back “Their” Country

I love it when Teabaggers others of their ilk, like this old Southern white man, open their mouths to say what is on their fevered minds, don’t you?

Hilarity Notice: Some portions of this video may cause you to burst out in fits of uncontrollable laughter.



Now I didn’t pull a “Breitbart” or is it a “Sherrod” and selectively edit this video clip. I lopped off the portion at the end that advertises their website, but that is all. What you see is what I got via email yesterday.

It is my fervent hope that we get more of this kind of footage as the next two years go by. We need a guy likie this to talk down to those of us (so we can understand him) liberals and progressives to realize what is really at stake here. White people like this want to take America back – for them - and are delusional enough to think they can do this by trash-talking everyone else.

Thank you, Huckleberry, for making that video. For doing something that can only be described as the ultra-right wing’s best argument against itself.

UPDATE: Were you as dumbfounded at the last sentence as I was? If you were I have an answer for you. That is a quote from the recent western movie “Tombstone.” One that I haven’t ever seen. It refers to the character Doc Holliday, played in the movie by Val Kilmer, who volunteers to kill a guy named “Ringo.”

So yeah, like Sharron Angle’s proposal of a “2nd Amendment solution” for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, this was a veiled threat of assassination of the President of the United States.

2010 Texas School Accountability Ratings Are Out

As promised, the Texas Education Agency has put up its finalized listing of campuses and districts, ratings that are in large part boiled down from millions of test scores. You can find them here. They call these tests “high stakes” not only because they determine whether a student will advance to the next grade at key critical stages, whether a student will or will not graduate, but also whether a campus receives one of four ratings.

In descending order, campuses can be rated as Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable or Academically Unacceptable.

And for the second year, the Texas Projection Measure, an algorithm concocted at Pearson Education, is being used to predict whether a student will eventually achieve mastery level in a TAKS test. In doing that, if the TPM projects eventual TAKS mastery, the student’s result is moved to the mastery column and this a win for the campus and district toward its rating.

This algorithm has been the subject of much discussion this year, and for good reason. For example, a 10th grade student taking a science TAKS test is not affected by their scores. The TPM looks at the four different TAKS test that the 10th grader takes and from the performance of their peers, uses their performance on the 10th grade test to project whether the student will eventually pass the 11th grade exit level TAKS test.

The TPM, you could say, has served to increase the overall ratings of campuses. For example, just looking at high schools, which are the schools that are typically less likely to obtain an Exemplary rating, in 2010 there are 201 Exemplary schools. Five or so years ago, if memory serves, there were 13.

But this isn’t really the main problem with TPM campus rating inflation, is it? The main problem is at the other end. How many, I wonder, Academically Acceptable high school campuses are there that have been given that rating based on the TPM? In all, there are 347 high school campuses in Texas rated as Academically Acceptable (there are 37 high school campuses rated at Academically Unacceptable). But this is not a thing easily answered because the TEA will not produce a sorted table that includes whether the TPM impacted the rating.

You have to work for it.

So I looked at a 10% sampling and found out of 37 AA schools, only two of them were assigned that rating because of the TPM.

So that’s assuring.

Obama On “The View”

I don’t watch “The View.” Indeed, I don’t watch any daytime interview shows that come on after 7 AM. It seems like there is an hour, maybe 8 AM, maybe 9 AM, when the assumed audience of commercial TV stations becomes female.

And this, occurring in the last year of the first decade of the 21st century, floors me. That the assumption is that the television viewers at home are women because their menfolk are all off at work seems so backward to me.

So I don’t watch “The View” because it does have that feminine slant that I, as a male, just don’t “get.”

But I knew that President Barack Obama was going to be on “The View” today because it made all the news programs that I saw last night. I guess that is news because no sitting president has ever come on a daytime interview television show before (and again, this floors me – why has it taken this long?). So when I was again reminded this morning about the program, one that I vowed to view, as it were, I had to Google “The View” to see when it came on.

Much to my chagrin, I discovered that it had been airing since 10 AM CDT, and it was at that moment 10:23. So I did catch a piece of it, but will have to log on to ABC tomorrow to see the part that I missed on their streaming video.

This is the part that has been shown on the news programs, a part that I missed, naturally. It is a pretty good piece, and yes, I heartily agree with the President that when your kids are older, but not yet teenagers, that is a really good time to be a parent.

Blogger Breitbart To Be Sued

Shirley Sherrod, who lost her job at the USDA over a heavily edited video clip of her speech at an NAACP event from 24 years ago is getting ready to sue Andrew Breitbart, the dim bulb that posted the devilishly hacked up video on his website.

My feeling is that Breitbart, in his zeal to shoot one back at the NAACP for its manifesto issued to the TEA Party to remove racists and racism from their numbers and from their rhetoric, over objectivized Ms. Sherrod. He didn’t see Shirley Sherrod as a person, and whether that is a racist tendency I will leave to you, he merely saw an opportunity to paint the NAACP in ways that whites fear the most: that blacks are out to get them.

That the message that Ms. Sherrod actually delivered, one that had quite the opposite meaning than Breitbart was willing to give her credit for, actually makes his heinous act worse.

But to get back to my main point, perhaps this is valuable a lesson for Andrew Breitbart and others of his ilk. That when you seek to bend and twist the words of another, it’s one thing to make your political point, which is what I think was Breitbart’s full intention. But when the result causes a person to lose their livelihood and to be, for a brief time, vilified not only in the press but also by the very group she supported for all those many years, that takes the whole thing to a new level.

People commit fraud in the name of making a political point all the time. It is a huge game. Where it stops being a game is when it starts affecting the good name and the livelihood of another living breathing person.

Congressman Green Saving NASA Jobs; Olson Says He’ll Help

I was delighted to hear that Congressman Al Green of TX-9 filed a bill on Monday, HR 5855 to be specific, that allocates $80 million in federal funds to pay to retrain or otherwise help NASA employees, and others, whose jobs will be negatively impacted by the cancellation of the Ares/Constellation manned spaceflight program.

TX-9 is a congressional district that lies just east of the Johnson Space Center plant, but commuting being what it is, as well as downstream effects of job losses in the region, this bill will inevitably work to directly benefit some of Green’s constituents.

Pete Olson, whose TX-22 district does include the JSC plant also signed on to this bill as a co-sponsor, the only one listed at this writing, although the article at Fort Bend Now indicates that Congressman Gene Green and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee have since included their names on the co-sponsor list.

Now I think it’s great that Olson has signed on in support of a bill, authored by a Democrat, that directly benefits thousands of his own constituents. It makes me wonder, though, why such a bill didn’t originate from his office, and that led me to conclude that when push comes to shove, Olson will eventually vote No on passage of this bill, and in doing so will join the steadily growing crowd of Republican legislators who co-sponsor a bill that they eventually vote against.

Now why do I say this? Well for one thing, being the congressman whose district includes NASA, Olson couldn’t very well avoid putting a stamp of approval on a bill that is expressly written to benefit his own constituents. But if you read the bill you have to ask from where do they get these funds to pay for the job retraining program? The answer is not apparent. Olson doesn’t vote for things that are unfunded, even if they serve to benefit his own constituents, like the unfunded unemployment extension bill that he voted against. But because this bill directly targets his constituents, Olson couldn’t very well refuse Green’s appeal to support his bill by co-sponsoring it.

After all, it makes good press.

And when Olson votes against the bill, if it ever comes up for a vote, you’ll not see that reported in the press.

But you will see it here.

Texas Governor’s Race Moved to “Toss-Up”

After living a few years here in Texas, you finally get used to how they do things. Like for instance during the summer. In the summertime in California you open all the windows in your house and you spend as much time outside as you possibly can. In Texas, during the summertime, you close all your house’s windows tightly and stay inside, looking out your windows from time to time to see whether it has stopped raining yet.

So it came as no surprise to me when, in 2008, while most of the rest of the country elected America’s first black president, Texas went the other way and voted for a guy that cheated on his wife while she was in the process of dying from cancer and the most unqualified running mate since Dan Quayle.

It didn’t surprise me at all. You come to expect these things after awhile.

So when I read today in the Washington Post, specifically in the column authored by Chris Cillizza called “The Fix” that he and a “senior political reporter” had moved the Texas gubernatorial race from “leans Republican” to “toss-up” I was similarly not surprised. Here’s a map that shows all of the toss-up states.

California and Texas are the same color.

I was not surprised because this mid-term election, after all, is supposed to be favoring the party that is not in power, we are told, and that is why the Republicans are all jumping around rubbing their hands in anticipation.

So while the national trend is to the right, or more likely, to the center, Texas shifted toward the left just inside of the 100 day mark until the General Election.

Here is what Cillizza says about the Texas governor’s race:

“Texas (Move from Lean Republican to Toss Up): Former Houston Mayor Bill White (D) has more money in the bank than Gov. Rick Perry (R) and polling shows the contest close. It's still Texas in a good Republican year, which should help Perry, but White is running an effective campaign to capitalize on discontent directed at the incumbent.”

Boy, I’ll say. Rick Perry presents a target-rich environment for Texans to focus their collective angst upon. Lately, the Bill White campaign has focused some attention on the media reports of Rick Perry’s Horseshoe Bay land deal, something I mentioned here. What is new in this is how the dots have all been connected now, and we see how making Rick Perry rich, despite a paltry salary that doesn’t even come close to a Texas football coach’s pay (or a Bell, California City Manager’s salary for that matter), is all related to getting appointments to the University of Texas Board of Regents.

It gives you a special insight in the current governor’s dedication to Texas’ system of higher education, knowing that he makes sure to stack the governing board of the UT system, with friends, lackeys and rich people who are not averse to parting with some long green to buy a state governor’s appointment.

It sort of redefines the term “public service,” doesn’t it?