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Molly Ivins: One Year Gone
It is difficult to believe that
Molly Ivins
has been dead a full year today. It seems like yesterday that she was wielding the world's sharpest pen against
the world's dullest president and his administration. Here is her last column, published on January 11, 2007,
"Stand up against the surge."
In her last year, to her last eloquent, strong and unapologetic work, Molly fought the good fight as few us have
been able to fight it: with knowledge, intellect, a clarity and simplicity of prose style that most of us can
only dream of, and above all, a sense of humor and an undeniable joy in telling the real story, in doing the
right thing.
Last night, by merest chance (some of you may not believe in chance, but I think it drives most things), I
found a copy of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? in one of the last-ditch outdoor remainder bins at
Half Price Books in the (Rice University area) Village. It is now mine. I paid two bucks for it. But it is
priceless... as Molly's wisdom is priceless. Specific political knowledge is transient, but her understanding
of the importance, the deep validity, of the struggle itself... the importance of deriving satisfaction from the
process, of meeting people and making fast friends along the way, of cracking jokes and appreciating others'
humor, of living every day and making the most of it... transcends her own admirable life and inspires us all.
Whatever liberal good deed you do today... whatever funny story you tell today... do it for Molly.
Steve
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Democrats And Democracy
The ramble that follows is inspired by several things, not least by a
post by Bryan
and a column he quotes that was written in 2006 by the late, great
Molly Ivins.
I'll give Bryan the first word, because he addresses something I've been chewing on for a long while:
John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have dropped out of the race and I am dropping out of the Democratic Party as
they don’t have any real Democrats left in the process.
Molly Ivins wrote a column back in January of 2006,
I will not support Hillary Clinton for president,
pretty much explaining why Clinton is a bad idea. The last time people didn’t listen to Molly, we ended up with
the Shrubbery. She was a great loss to the country, as she told the truth.
...
I’ll be writing in a Democrat’s name on my ballot in November, because I won’t vote for a Republican - no matter
what line their name occupies.
(Please read Bryan's entire post; the details are important. As Molly used to say, God is in the details.)
My situation is a bit different from Bryan's. I am a priori committed to vote for the Democratic
nominee in November, and I take such commitments very seriously. Moreover, I see it as essential that neither
John McCain nor Mitt Romney becomes president: I am more than persuaded that our nation will not survive
another presidential term with a radical rightist (corporatist, fascist, whatever; use your favorite term) at
the helm... and McCain, once legitimately identifiable as a moderate, has become ideologically indistinguishable
from Bush and the neocons in the past few years. (Don't get me started about Romney.) So I will not only vote
for, but also campaign for, the Democratic nominee, however many specific reservations I may have about him or
her. Not for the first time, we face a presidential election in which the future of the nation is at stake: if
you wish to live in an Orwellian surveillance state for the rest of your days, just decline to vote for the
Democratic nominee this year. It's that serious. We need a Democratic president to reverse the cowardice, the
go-along-to-get-along attitude, shown by the leadership of the Democratic Congress. We are already so far down
the road to fascism that it will take only one more fascist GOP president to reach the end of that road.
Molly gave us a quote from one of these "new Democrats":
Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, "There is an invisible civil war in the
Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of
the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."
OK, Mr. Casselman, presuming you are still among us... let's get one thing straight, motherfucker: I am not a
defeatist. I am not a pacifist. I am "left" only because you and other bastards of your ilk have pushed the
DP so far to the right, so near to the Republican monolith, that I appear "left" by comparison. I have been a
Democrat for well over three decades, and politically active in the Democratic Party for at least 20 years. My
positions for most of those years were in the very center of Democratic thinking: you are the anomaly. I
will not take that kind of talk from anyone. You got that straight? Good. Don't repeat your error.
Let's get something else straight, something Molly addresses in her column. The American people, a clear
majority of them, are with me, not the Republicans, not the DLC Dems, in their sociopolitical thinking,
as shown in poll after poll. I wouldn't say that Americans consider themselves liberal; most self-identify as
"moderate" or "conservative." But when polled on issues, despite having been subjected to eight years of pure,
unadulterated fearmongering by the Bushists, a majority of Americans take positions on issues that can only
rightly be described as "liberal." Our Founders were, in many ways, proactively liberal in their outlook, and so
are we, as a body politic. Deal with it, motherfuckers.
Back to the coming election. Bryan, as he so often does, separates the grain from the chaff: the Democratic
Party seems to have difficulty running Democrats for office. Perhaps it is a consequence of devoting so much
energy to becoming fundraisers as effective as Republicans, but I don't believe it is that simple. The GOP
has grown so extreme in its approach... hell, their current president declares himself above the law virtually
every day... that many former Republicans, individuals still conservative in their personal political outlook,
have switched parties. (It happens; I know a couple of 'em.) At some point, I have to ask: what's left for us
liberals, progressives, etc.? Is anyone representing us, or does the DP merely need our votes, our money, our
block-walking, our phone-banking, etc.?
There is no tradition in the Democratic Party of "STFU, get in line and support the approved candidate." That's
not the position of a Democrat, or of a democrat. I am not interested in the illusion of representative
democracy; I'm interested in the real thing. Molly points to Rahm Emanuel and his ilk, who in her estimation
convey the attitude, "First, you have to win elections." I have no problem with winning elections, but the "new
Dems" have not exactly done a good job of it in the past decade or two. Maybe, just maybe, we should look at
what the polls are telling us about public opinion on issues. Not to my surprise, those polls say a majority of
the public agrees with the position of what the late great Paul Wellstone called "the Democratic wing of the
Democratic Party."
Count me in with that "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." I have no interest in being "Republican lite."
Here ends the rant for today. But don't expect me to shut up tomorrow.
Steve
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Just Shoot Me Now
AP:
...
Nader eyes 2008 presidential bid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ralph Nader is considering seeking the presidency — again.
The consumer activist and political gadfly kicked off an exploratory presidential campaign Wednesday with the
launch of a new Web site that promises he'll fight "corporate greed, corporate power, corporate control" and
asks people to donate $300 each.
Nader sought the White House in each of the last three presidential elections: He ran on the Green Party ticket
in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent in 2004.
...
And I thought this day couldn't get any worse.
Steve
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Bush: I'm Above The Law
... again. Boston Globe:
WASHINGTON - President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a
prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed
as part of a new defense bill.
Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense
Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill
unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.
...
Once again, Bush stands the plain language of Article I of the Constitution on its head. He signs a bill into
law, then notes objections and states his intention to violate that law based on his objections. That's not how
Art. I, Sec. 7 says it shall be done. Mr. Bush has "amended" the Constitution with no respect for
the specified procedure for doing so... and not for the first time.
H/T TPMMuckraker, which summarizes
Bush's violations:
In a signing statement appended to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, President Bush asserted that
he is not obliged to obey four key sections of the bill because they trample on his executive authority. One
provision that Bush's statement targets precludes the the use of taxpayer money "to establish any military
installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in
Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq." (Boston Globe)
When will we see actual challenges to these clear constitutional violations? (Nancy, you put that thing back on
the table!)
Steve
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Edwards Ends His Run
At 1:00pm EST.
No, I am not ready to endorse one of the two remaining candidates. Watch this space.
Steve
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Margaret Truman Daniel 1924-2008
Margaret Truman,
daughter of President and Mrs. Harry Truman, singer, radio/TV host, writer of biographies, and perhaps best
known as the author of her "Capitol Crimes" murder mystery series, died today.
Here is her
New York Times obituary.
Here is the
official memorial page
on the Truman Library web site. Mrs. Daniel was 83.
There is real irony in this post. Sitting beside me on the computer desk is the novel I happened to be reading
today... Ms. Truman's Murder in the Supreme Court (Fawcett, 1982). I suppose there is no greater tribute
to her skills as a mystery writer than that as a fan, having already avidly consumed her last dozen or so most
recent novels, I've sought out and begun reading her earlier works. The wiki linked above has a list.
R.I.P., Ms. Truman. Over the half century of your writing career, you gave a lot of readers a great deal of
pleasure. We will miss you.
Steve
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SOTU Responses
... from
Edwards,
Obama (video)
and
Hillary.
Impressive and on target... all of 'em.
Steve
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Eclipsed!
As of this moment, I have no real opinion on the various Kennedy clan members' endorsements of
Obama
and
Clinton
respectively. But I am unabashedly delighted to see news of the SOTU eclipsed by news of the endorsements.
Steve
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Firedoglake Is Liveblogging
... the Senate FISA bill "debate." Start
here
and work your way to newer posts. It looks to me as if a lot of Republicans' eyes are brown.
Steve
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Show Us The Money -- DOGGEREL!
Thoughts on the relative values of great U.S. presidents and today's presidential candidates...
No Quarter
George Washington is on the One;
Tom Jefferson, the Two;
The Five is Honest Abe's great run.
I think that's great... don't you?
The Ten is graced by Hamilton;
The Twenty, Andrew Jackson;
Ulysses Grant's the Fifty? Fun!
See how I get my facts on?
A Hundred bears the face of Ben.
It's sad, and rather strange,
Though this is now, and that was then,
Today we vote for... change.
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Steve Bates
Steve
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Warrantless Wiretapping Of... You?
UPDATE Monday 9:00am:
Glenn Greenwald
explains Bush's political manipulations of the FISA issue. Dems want to pass a 30-day extension to the PAA, to
provide time for an orderly consideration of issues of concern (see below). But noooo... Bush says he will
veto such an extension, despite his claim that having a law in place immediately is an urgent security matter.
In other words, Bush would veto extending for 30 days an existing law he supports, just to give himself a stick
with which to beat the Dems in tonight's SOTU address. Politics over national interest: that's Dubya, every
single time.
Greenwald's concluding paragraphs:
...
At most, a sustained filibuster today would simply mean that they are demanding the right to vote (probably with
futility) on their own amendments before passing Bush's new law and demonstrating that there is at least some
very weak limit on the administration's ability to bully and humiliate them with the most transparently
manipulative tactics imaginable. If they filibuster, Bush will undoubtedly attack them as Soft on Terrorism in
tonight's State of the Union speech, but nobody outside of David Broder, Joe Klein and the Super Tough Blue Dogs
listens any more or cares about George Bush's attacks.
Any rational person has long ago given up the hope that Congressional Democrats will stand for any actual
political convictions, but the most basic sense of personal pride and human dignity -- which one thought was an
intrinsic part of human nature -- would preclude their capitulation today. If they don't stand up to the White
House and Senate Republicans under these circumstances, one might as well accept that they never will do
so.
No kidding. Capitulating on this would be (will be, I predict) pretty disgustingly spineless.
(My original post follows.)
Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake
explores a story about the tapping of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, and points us to a
Congressional Quarterly article,
Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry.
Short version: yes, your phones, emails etc. are effectively wiretapped, especially international
communications. No, the major news outlets do not report about it even once the facts of a tap become public.
Yes, they send FBI agents to visit some people, based on the contents of the taps. No, these people are not
terrorists or associated with such. The shade of J. Edgar Hoover is surely smiling.
Please read Ms. Hardin Smith's comment thread. Several people have anecdotes of their own.
The title of
S.2248
by itself speaks volumes: "An original bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to
modernize and streamline the provisions of that Act, and for other purposes." Emphasis mine. I'm
worried about those "other purposes."
Here is a CRS summary
of the effect of the bill. There is too much bad stuff in it to list all the problems here, but consider that
it loosens the requirement under which surveillance is permitted (all that is needed is that "a significant
purpose of the acquisition is to obtain foreign intelligence information") and it lengthens the time by which
the AG must apply to the FISA court for an authorization from 48 hours (2 days) to 168 hours (a full week).
I've only glanced at the changes; more details are sure to emerge.
Here's the main thing: S.2248 is likely to be voted on tomorrow, Monday. Contact your senators. Ask them
to support the Fourth Amendment by voting no on S.2248.
Steve
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Saturday Signs
Welcome to the Bellaire, TX West University Place, TX Recycling Center. Please separate your
glass, bimetal cans, aluminum cans, paper and cardboard. Don't mess with Texas. Please arrive with $2000 or a
toothbrush in anticipation of a fine for littering or a trip to jail. Have a nice day!
Steve
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Feeling Stimulated Yet?
Krugman
isn't. And I'm inclined to agree with him.
Excerpting a quintile breakdown of the share of rebates from the nonpartisan
Tax Policy Center,
| Quintile | | Share |
| Lowest | | 6.5 |
| Second | | 14.3 |
| Third | | 21.0 |
| Fourth | | 31.0 |
| Highest | | 27.1 |
Krugman notes that 58.1 percent of the rebate total goes to people wealthy or well-off enough that they may
not spend it. I might add that for the lowest quintile, not only are they screwed out of their share of the
rebate, but what they get, they may well have to use to pay off debt, thanks to recent bankruptcy "reform."
Wow, that's really some stimulus.
Krugman says some "people on the Hill" (?) say "that it’s only thanks to the Democrats that people likely to
spend their rebate are getting anything at all. And they have a point: this plan will produce some stimulus,
while the Bush plan would have done virtually nothing." Well, let's dance and cheer that Democrats at least
earn their keep in preventing the worst of the worst of the meanness of which the Bushists are capable. But like
most lower-income people (don't ask about my 2007 year), I'm having trouble dancing in these worn-out shoes...
(H/T Fallenmonk.)
Steve
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John Edwards For President
This is probably the latest I can endorse someone for whom I can vote with some actual enthusiasm.
John Edwards
says all the right things an unabashed populist should say: he's for universal healthcare (or something very
close to it); he's pro-union; he's as much against continuing the Iraq war as anyone left in the race; and he
"gets it" (or appears to) regarding what will one day be seen as the signature issue of our time: global climate
change.
Moreover, John Edwards speaks with focus and passion to his audiences (an important characteristic for a
candidate), and as an attorney, he understands the law and the Constitution (an important body of knowledge for
a president). If by some miracle he were to receive the Democratic nomination, I have no doubt he could be a
very competitive candidate in the general election. And if he were to win in November, he has the capacity to be
a very good president.
There's now an Edwards 2008 button in the right-hand column of the blog. Click it for more info, or to make a
campaign contribution. And if you're a Democrat whose state's primary is coming up soon, I urge you to vote
for John Edwards for president. Thank you.
Steve
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Friday Holier-Than-Dub Blogging
Samantha, ever the snarky one, gives us her own un-Orthodox icon, as a send-up of the infamous picture of
Dubya:
I do believe Samantha looks more prayerful, more pious, more a saint than Dubya, don't you?
Steve
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Al Gore Advocates Gay Marriage Rights
See the video
here
on Current. The advocacy is straightforward and forthright, no hedging, no compromised positions. I wonder if he
would be able to say this if he were running for president. On the other hand, if he were running, and he
did say this, perhaps it would give more Democrats the courage to be "out" about it... not their
sexuality, but their support for LGBT rights to the normal, human things everyone should be able to take for
granted. Whatever you think of him politically... kudos to Mr. Gore for his statement.
(H/T Avedon, who, day after day, year
after year, continues to have one of the most consistently informative blogs on the net.)
Steve
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Kucinich Drops Out
Details here.
Steve
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Photographers' Rights Spelled Out
Friend and pro photographer
Catherine
did some research in response to our encounter last weekend with the guard at the Houston Galleria™
regarding whether we could take pictures within the mall. What she found is quite useful: attorney
Bert P. Krages II (bio)
has published a one-page .pdf document,
The Photographer's Right
(the link is to a wrapper HTML page),
summarizing the legal status of photographers in public in America. From his web site, we learn that Mr. Krages
is an intellectual property attorney who has published a book,
Legal Handbook for Photographers,
so notwithstanding his reasonable disclaimer that the document contents
are not legal advice, I think they are likely factually correct. The document is intended to be printed and
carried with you whenever you are likely to be taking photos in public.
The Galleria™'s owner, Simon Property Group Inc. (Google it),
would probably point out that the Galleria™ is a private property on which the owner may restrict or
prohibit photography. I would point out in turn that the Galleria™
hosts over 24 million visitors a year.
That's well over 65,000 people a day. I suspect it would be a bit difficult to make the argument that it is not
a public place from a legal standpoint.
(Ironically, I've encountered the Krages document before. On our Galleria™ adventure, I even had a copy
with me... in my camera case, in the trunk of the car, in the parking garage. Note to self: stick the damned
thing in a pocket next time.)
Steve
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Space... The Final Front Ear
...and other miscellany: two on space, two on copyright, one on the nature of our major political parties, and
one on the Bushists' inability to open their mouths without lying:
- Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft
Burt Rutan is at it again... SpaceShipTwo with its carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo.
- 2nd Survey Finds Astronauts Haven’t Drunk Before Flights
Well, that's good. Now all we have to worry about are airline pilots...
- Studios admit error in piracy study
Care to guess, before I tell you, which direction the error was in?
...
A 2005 study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America "incorrectly concluded that 44
percent of the motion picture industry's domestic losses were attributable to piracy by college students,"
MPAA spokesman Seth Oster said Wednesday.
It turns out that only 15 percent of the industry's domestic losses were caused by college students, he
said.
LEK, the firm that the MPAA had hired to do the survey, discovered the error when it was computing losses
for the MPAA's 2007 study.
...
What was it that Paul Simon sang in "The Boxer"? "... a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards
the rest"? Ya think that might apply to the MPAA in this instance? Ya think my quote from "The Boxer" might
be regarded as a copyright violation?
- Global music sales fell around 10 pct in 2007
Uh-huh. The industry trade association (IFPI) says it's all due to piracy, and that ISPs must crack down
on downloaders.
(Some ISPs,
including mine, are already on board.) I'd like to offer another reason: some of us are fucking fed up with
an industry that treats its customers as presumptive criminals, and we have stopped purchasing the products.
- Health changes matter more to US Democrats - study
Putting on my best Gomer Pyle voice for the second time in a week or so, surprise, surprise:
...
The telephone survey of 508 likely Republican voters and 674 likely Democratic voters in states holding
presidential primaries or caucuses in January and February was conducted by Harvard and the Kaiser Family
Foundation.
It showed Republicans were more interested in reducing the costs of health care and health insurance and
with improving the quality of care than they were about expanding insurance coverage to the uninsured, which
was ranked the most important health care issue by Democrats.
...
Um, reporters, get a clue: this is not news. The fundamental difference between Democrats
(rank-and-file Democrats, I mean) and Republicans is that the latter don't give a good damn about anyone
less well off than themselves. That's why, despite all my frustrations with the current leadership of the
DP, I remain a Democrat: if the Dem rank-and-file departs the party, the GOP will only grow more powerful.
And last but not least today...
- Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war
CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security
risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by
two nonprofit journalism groups.
"In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it
methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," reads an
overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund
for Independence in Journalism.
According to the study, Bush and seven top officials -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, former
Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice -- made 935 false
statements about Iraq during those two years.
The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government
transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources -- mainly quotes from major media organizations.
...
What could I possibly add to that. Some may say that the Bushists are pathological liars, but that can only
be the case if greed and indifference to the human condition can be called a pathology. Make no mistake: we
have been, and are being, played for fools.
I am considering renaming my blog "Waiting for www.haloscan.com..." in deference to the phrase we all spend the
most time reading when we visit. I welcome your thoughts on the matter.
Steve
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Whither Kucinich?
I just received an email on the Kucinich list, containing a fundraising pitch... for his congressional
campaign. Both his
dennis4president.com
site and his
Re-Elect Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
site are still up. Did I miss something?
Instant Update:
even more mysterious...
it looks as if he's running for both at the same time!
Steve
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Family Values, GOP Style
"Legendary" GOP dirty-trickster Roger Stone (apparently, "legendary" is his Homeric epithet; everyone calls him
that) has embarked on a truly juvenile campaign against Hillary Clinton.
TPMmuckraker:
A couple of days ago, a group called Citizens United Not Timid filed papers with the IRS as a "527"
organization. Then we saw that Roger Stone had signed on as the group's "assistant treasurer." Uh oh.
Stone, regular TPM readers know, is a Republican operative who prides himself as something of an elder statesman
of GOP dirty tricks. He went to work for Richard Nixon at age nineteen, making him the "youngest Watergate dirty
trickster." ...
... [Read more about Stone at the link. - SB]
It's this simple: it's all about the group's acronym, which, used in conjunction with Hillary Clinton, is
supposed to be irresistibly humorous. That is the beginning and the end of it. The group will not be running ads
in any form and will not be making any robocalls. They'll be making T-shirts. That's it. You can buy them for
$25 on their website: ...
... [Sorry, no link and no quote of Stone's explanation on the YDD; you can
find those and the T-shirt graphic at TPMmuckraker. - SB]
Here's the text on the T-shirt: "Citizens United Not Timid / a 527 Organization / To Educate The American /
Public About / What Hillary Clinton Really Is".
To this has the "party of Lincoln" descended.
Has it not occurred to Stone that not only Democratic women but also independent women and even Republican women
might find the term "cunt" offensive, even when applied to a woman they do not like? Or is it possible that the
GOP would prefer to run against Clinton, and knows this stunt will gain her sympathy?
In any case, we now know how committed GOPers are to
promoting family values
protecting the womenfolk
shielding children's eyes
fighting obscene language...
well, to something; I'm not quite sure what.
Let's hang this one about the future GOP candidate's neck like an albatross.
Steve
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Roe v. Wade At 35
Avedon
has many good links.
WaPo
has an article on the increased use of RU-486. In particular,
Bean
of
Lawyers, Guns and Money
expresses the center of my viewpoint:
...
Roe
was a huge step. It said that the right to abortion was constitutionally-grounded and was too important --
[too] fundamental -- to be left to the whims of the state governments or to come and go at the will of the
majority. Though the language of the decision had more to say about doctors than about women, the message of
Blackmun's decision was loud and clear: women have a fundamental constitutional right to control their
reproductive lives, not to let their reproductive lives control them.
...
Exactly so. One has a right to control one's own body. Deprive all women of reproductive age of that right, and
you render them second-class citizens.
I am unwilling to compromise about this. And I am proud of my very first contract programming job two decades
ago, providing a political database mailing list application to the local Planned Parenthood.
Roe has been, is and will be under attack for the foreseeable future. The complexity of the decision in
Planned Parenthood v. Casey,
which upheld Roe by a plurality and involved such things as partial concurrences, does not bode well for
Roe under the new Bush-appointed Court. If you ever assumed that fundamental matters such as one's
rights under the Constitution could be assured by a Court decision, you may find to your shock that you are
wrong. The presumption supporting your thought, which was my own for decades, is that all branches and all
actors in the federal government are determined to abide by the Constitution. That is clearly no longer the
case: many theocrats walk the halls of government these days.
Still, Roe stands today, and protects the rights of women to decide their own reproductive futures. As
medication such as RU-486 enters widespread use, the decision not to have a child may once again become a
private one. The one additional thing one could hope for is better contraception. I realize there are nuts out
there who disapprove of contraception as well, not just for themselves but for you and your family. They have
an undeniable free-speech right to express their crack-brained opinions, but no right to impose them on the
rest of us.
The amazing thing to me is that, after 35 years, there is nothing new to say. As far as I can tell, the
anti-choice movement is entirely religion-based, and in America, we do not use the law to impose our religious
practices on other Americans. End of story. The Rev. Huckabee has another opinion, so we'd better keep our
eyes open. Remember who will appoint new Supreme Court Justices after 1/20/2009, and vote accordingly.
An aside: this is no theoretical or academic matter. Several decades ago, a friend of mine was pregnant (no,
not by me; this happened long before I met her) in the era in which abortion was illegal. (ADDED for
utter clarity: not Stella, not Catherine, not anyone whose name has ever appeared on this blog.) She sought a
so-called back-alley abortion. Sepsis ensued, and she very nearly died of it. Again later, despite her best
efforts, her contraception failed, and she sought another abortion from a different back-alley abortionist.
Again she was badly infected; again she nearly died. Those who call themselves "pro-life" ought to have a really
hard time reconciling what nearly happened to my friend... unless, of course, they are not truly "pro-life" but
are merely using the issue of abortion to subjugate women to some imagined biblical dictate.
A number of women over the years have told me that they perceive the "pro-life" position as being primarily
a vehicle for controlling women. After thinking about it seriously, I believe they are right.
Steve
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Padilla Gets 17+ Years
U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was sentenced to 17 years, 4 months, for a crime with which he was not charged until
the end of the three years he was held as an "enemy combatant." From the
Guardian:
'Enemy combatant' receives 17-year US jail term
Haroon Siddique and agencies
Tuesday January 22, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
A US citizen held for more than three years without charge as an "enemy combatant" was today sentenced to 17
years and four months in prison for conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim overseas, including in Afghanistan,
Chechnya and Bosnia.
Jose Padilla, a 37-year-old Muslim convert, was originally arrested in 2002 and accused of planning to detonate
a radioactive "dirty" bomb and blow up buildings in Washington, but he was never charged in relation to those
alleged offences.
In 2005, he was added to the case of two other men accused of supporting terrorism just as the US supreme court
was considering his challenge to George Bush's decision to hold him in custody indefinitely without charge.
District judge Marcia Cooke today said she was giving Padilla some credit - over the objections of federal
prosecutors - for his lengthy military detention at a navy jail in South Carolina.
She agreed with defence lawyers that he was subjected to "harsh conditions" and "extreme environmental stresses"
while there.
"I do find that the conditions were so harsh for Mr Padilla they warrant consideration in the sentencing in this
case," the judge said.
...
Again, Padilla is an American citizen. What became of his right to a "speedy and public trial" for the alleged
offense for which he was originally apprehended?
I don't like this guy, I don't like what he did, and I cannot say his sentence was necessarily unjust for the
crime with which he was eventually charged. But the path of his case to this point is just plain
unconstitutional.
Mark the date and mourn the Sixth Amendment. Indeed, mourn the whole Bill of Rights (1791-2008).
Steve
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Martin Luther King
Composer
Luciano Berio
(1925-2003) wrote a work called O King, scored for either voice, chamber ensemble and piano, or
for eight voices and orchestra, in memory of Dr. King, written shortly after his assassination. I heard
a performance of the work back in my days in music school. The voices first work their way through Dr. King's
name, starting with the vowels, then the consonants. There are many other aspects of this work, and it is a
fitting memorial to a now iconic figure of the civil rights movement. But the thing that sticks with me all
these decades later is the sounding of those vowels... long, sustained, open-throated.
So it is with Dr. King's life. It is punctuated with so many events, many of which he initiated, or drove, or
inspired, that it is easy to focus on the details... the bus boycott, SCLC, the March on Washington, Selma,
Chicago, and of course his tragic assassination in 1968, in the middle of a time in which so many of our
greatest Americans were taken from us by violence. But I'll let
Wikipedia
do that. They are better at "consonants" than I am.
But it is the vowels, the sustained themes of Dr. King's life, that I take with me: uncompromising commitment to
the rights of all humans, opposition to war (if you've never read or heard his speech
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,
be sure to do so), determination to break the obscene grip of poverty on the least fortunate Americans, courage
in the face of vehement and irrational opposition and physical threats and violence, and above all, repeated
expressions of hope and confidence that change is possible, and that we can be its agents. If you are too young
to have experienced Dr. King while he was alive, please at least remember the vowels.
Steve
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Too Old, Too Old
... "He's too old to cut the mustard anymore."
Thus sang Marlene Dietrich and Rosemary Clooney in 1952. And
thus spake Chuck Norris,
a strong Mike Huckabee supporter, about John McCain.
Now let's see here.
John McCain
was born August 29, 1936.
Mike Huckabee
was born August 24, 1955...
And Chuck Norris
was born March 10, 1940... only 31/2 years after McCain.
Pot and kettle, wouldn't you say?
Strike up the band, ladies, and sing it for Chuck: "Too old, too old / He's too old to cut the mustard anymore /
He's gettin' too old, too old / He's too old to cut the mustard anymore." Norris, nearly 68 by my reckoning,
long ago passed the best age for martial arts. Partial farts, maybe...
I mistrust John McCain; he ceased being a straight talker years ago. (In fairness, I do trust Mike Huckabee...
to tell me things that chill my soul.) But it has nothing to do with McCain's age. Oh, and someone please tell
Chuck... note how well the "too old" campaign strategy worked against Saint Reagan.
I love the smell of GOPers clashing in the morning...
Steve
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Oh Great - Dairy Products, Too
Boston Globe:
A germ that killed three people and sickened two others originated on the production line of a mom-and-pop dairy
in Shrewsbury, state disease investigators reported yesterday as they provided the clearest evidence yet of how
milk became contaminated with the lethal bacteria.
Tests performed on the Whittier Farms plant found a strain of listeria on the floor that was identical to the
type found in people who became ill last year after drinking the dairy's milk. Investigators discovered the germ
near a key piece of equipment used after milk is pasteurized.
"Finding it in the environment there closes the final loop," said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of
communicable disease control. "This was a totally unique strain."
...
One of the main reasons, in my opinion, for being vegetarian is that one is subjected to fewer toxic bacteria
and viruses. But nothing these days is so utterly safe that one can ignore the news. Watch out, my
sprout-eating and carnivorous friends. Know your sources. (Whittier Farms is not one of mine.)
Steve
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A Visit To The Galleria™
Yesterday I went with Stella and Catherine to the
Houston Galleria™,
a huge, multi-mega shopping complex built sometime in the Sixties and opening in late 1970 by Gerald D.
Hines™. The Houston Galleria™ comprises an indoor shopping mall with an atrium (some say the mall is
the largest in Texas), two hotels, an office building and other miscellany.
Pronunciation guide: "Galleria™" rhymes with "diarrhea," and it is every bit as much fun.
This is one entrance to the Houston Galleria™, into the high-end department store Needless Markup™
(Neiman Marcus™),
up from the Parking Garage from Hell. You see this after spending a half hour driving from the boundary of the
Houston Galleria™ to the underground parking garage, and another half hour finding a place to park.
You can buy anything at the Houston Galleria™: plastic ballerinas (OK, actually, tickets to arts events),
...
... truly ugly clocks, candy, ...
... and even ...
(After taking this shot, I was in trouble with a security guard.)
There are stairs, escalators and clear-walled elevators...
... an indoor ice rink, ...
... a lovely sun roof over the atrium, ...
... and a reeeeeaaaally expensive food court, of which I'll spare you pictures. At least the table areas were
open to the mall and the rink, so that the chaos and noise levels were maximized.
I wasn't kidding about the security guard. A very young man, he stopped me... politely... and told me I was not
permitted to take pictures of the storefronts in the mall (or perhaps storefronts and the mall; I could
not tell). I told him that although the law said otherwise, I would cooperate; he thanked me and wandered away.
I just didn't tell him what I'd cooperate with: the Lids shot was indeed the last storefront photo I took (I
already had a dozen), though I took perhaps another dozen atrium shots.
Catherine said that she is harassed more and more often by police and by people on the streets where she takes
photos. Case law on the subject is generally pretty consistent that a person or an object in plain public view
has no right not to be photographed, even if they are on private property. I'd be happier with people's
testiness about being photographed if there were also a society-wide effort to preserve people's genuine privacy
in those spaces (such as their homes, their beds and their phone calls) in which they do have a right to
expect to be left alone. Instead, over time, people seem to have come to accept massive, widespread government
surveillance but still to reject ordinary photography by individual picture-takers even in the most public of
places.
I doubt any of the three of us will return to the Houston Galleria™, absent urgent necessity.
Steve
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Nevada For Clinton, Romney; SC For McCain
TPM
has the details; start at the link and work backward.
In my opinion, this is mixed news. Republican mixed news first: on the one hand, it is gratifying that even in
South Carolina, with its large evangelical population, either Huckabee is too crazy even for them, or McCain
is equally evangelical in their opinion. On the other hand, with no intent to cast aspersions on his parentage,
McCain is the second most moralizing bastard in the Republican Party, only slightly behind GeeDubya... McCain
may not be off the wall and un-American like Huckabee, but the frequency with which he shakes his head and
points his finger at Americans out of a misplaced sense of moral superiority is disturbing to me. I'd hate to
see McCain become president because of voters' mistaken impression that he is a conservative. Apparently his
encounter with the Bush juggernaut a few years ago convinced him that the way to win is to be as much like Bush
as possible. Call his campaign the straight talk repressed.
There's hardly any news on the Democratic side. Notwithstanding some media spin, as
Josh Marshall
points out, Clinton was ahead in all the polls. It will be a hard sell to convince me that either Clinton or
Obama has it sewn up at this point. It doesn't look very good for Edwards at the moment. The other Democratic
news is actually Republican news: in my opinion, Huckabee would be an easier candidate to run against. There
is, though, that footage of McCain saying it was fine with him if U.S. troops were in Iraq for a hundred
years...
Steve
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Saturday Signs - Ballpark Improvement Edition
Some dog lover "improved" the first instance of this sign at one entrance to the baseball diamond at a local
park. I am happy to play with friendly dogs in parks, but I can see where there might be problems with dogs on
the diamond. Sliding into home might take on a whole new meaning...
I am happy to report that Houston has several
bark parks
built specifically to accommodate dogs and their owners. Unfortunately, some of the parks, for safety reasons,
ban children under 12, and all of the parks ban food, human or canine... no doggie treats and no people treats.
Stella and Catherine and I are going on another photo excursion today (Saturday). Don't expect any major
blogging from me before evening.
Steve
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Supreme Court Rules Against Kucinich In Texas
Found on
Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report
(links to specific posts available only to paid subscribers), Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a unanimous
Supreme Court, ruled that the Texas Democratic Party was permitted to require of Dennis Kucinich an oath to
support the eventual Democratic nominee as a precondition for allowing Kucinich on the Democratic primary
ballot. (H/T CEWDEM's list for the tip; this hasn't even hit Google News at the moment.)
Well, OK, I suppose it's legal to toss Dennis. I suspected as much when the Texas Democratic Party chair
decided to do so. There are seldom surprises in such matters.
But remember... every time a party or a government entity uses procedural maneuvers to
prevent ordinary citizens from voting for the candidate of their choice, God kills a kitten. I.e., democracy
dies, one small infringement at a time. Texas as a state and America as a nation are less democratic than they
were before this decision, even if it was legally the correct decision.
Steve
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Surprise, Surprise!
... spoken in my best Gomer Pyle voice.
AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House chart indicates no e-mail was archived on 473 days for various units of the
Executive Office of the President, a House committee chairman says.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., says a White House spokesman's comments suggesting no e-mail had disappeared
conflicted with what congressional staffers were told in September.
On Thursday night, Waxman said he was scheduling a hearing for Feb. 15 and challenged the White House to explain
spokesman Tony Fratto's remark that "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
Fratto based his comment on the contents of a White House declaration filed in federal court casting doubt on
the accuracy of a chart created by a former White House employee that points to a large volume of e-mail gone
from White House servers.
The brief description of the chart in the sworn declaration appears to match Waxman's description of what White
House officials showed his staff at a Sept. 19 briefing.
...
Read the entire article for a sample list of some dates for which emails are known to be absent. Remember as
you read that the government is legally required to archive all its emails. There's a system in place to do so.
There is simply no way this quantity of emails can have gone missing accidentally.
Why is there any American anywhere who does not see that the current White House is one massive criminal
enterprise?
Steve
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AT&T's Filter Fixation
AT&T is considering
filtering
all internet traffic on its network for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws.
Here we go again: they already filter everything on behalf of the three-letter agencies, supposedly as an
antiterrorism effort (even though examples have already been found in which the information obtained from
warrantless searches has been employed in ordinary criminal investigations). Now AT&T wants to paw through
everything we write... web content, email, whatever... on behalf of large corporate copyright holders whose
material may appear in someone else's traffic. Never mind how this will affect performance on AT&T's
network. Never mind the Fourth Amendment implications, the reasonable or unreasonable nature of the search of
your transmissions (and believe me, we are talking about a warrantless search of literally everybody). Never
mind whether the appearance of copyrighted material in a stream of data is in fact "fair use" under the law.
Through a series of unfortunate events in which I had no part and no choice in the results, I am an AT&T
customer for my DSL and internet service. No other part of my internet presence... not my web host, not my
email host, not anything else... is through AT&T, so my actual internet service provider function is
separable from my web sites and my email (business and personal). If AT&T goes forward with its plan to
monitor everything I post and everything visited by my readers, I will try very hard to find service elsewhere.
The very notion of a common carrier entails an independence of content; otherwise, the carrier that transmits
content selectively becomes a potential target for lawsuits by those whose internet content is not transmitted.
For people in any information technology business, the blocking of content is a very serious matter indeed.
For bloggers, it is at least annoying, and may constitute a First Amendment violation... but it is largely
irrelevant, because no blog has the resources to sue their internet provider, and we all know what would happen
if they attempted to do so.
I have used AT&T and its predecessors... first Southwestern Bell, then SBC... as my internet service
provider for the entire time I have had DSL. On the whole, I've had little cause for complaint: compared to
other aspects of my internet services, the DSL and ISP have been mostly quite reliable. But I will not tolerate
warrantless searches of my internet traffic for potentially criminal content. If AT&T is so foolish as to
proceed with these searches, I will... not may, but will... find another provider. I will not be treated as a
potential criminal on an ongoing basis by a corporation I pay for service.
Steve
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Friday Eternal Vigilance Blogging
Eternal vigilance...
... is the price of...
... litter cleaned. Just humor "Mom's" picture-taking inclinations, and she'll scoop out the box regularly!
Steve
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Glaive The Whales
Bush might not literally use a blade on a pole against the whales, but he has
issued an order
that in essence allows the Navy to resume its apparent torture of whales when it uses high-powered sonar:
LOS ANGELES—Conservationists on Wednesday blasted President Bush's decision to exempt the Navy from an
environmental law so it can continue using high-power sonar in its training off Southern California -- a
practice they say harms whales and other marine mammals.
The president's action by itself won't allow the anti-submarine warfare training to go forward because an
injunction is in place, but the Navy believes it will significantly strengthen its argument in court. A
three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had been expected to make a
determination on the future of the Navy exercises on Friday.
However, late Wednesday, the appeals court sent the issue back to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to
consider first.
The White House announced Bush signed the exemption Tuesday while traveling in the Middle East. In his
memorandum, Bush said the Navy training exercises "are in the paramount interest of the United States" and its
national security.
Peter Douglas, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission, which joined in the lawsuit to
provide the mammals greater protections from sonar, called the exemption unprecedented in California.
"I'm not surprised at all," he said. "It's typical for this Republican administration to ignore environmental
protections under the banner of fear."
...
I regret that Mr. Douglas sees this as a partisan issue. I don't. The allegation is that Mr. Bush's order
overrides the rule of law, behavior presumably unacceptable in any presidential administration:
...
"The president's action is an attack on the rule of law," said Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal
Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica. "By exempting the Navy from basic
safeguards under both federal and state law, the president is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the
California Coastal Commission and a ruling by the federal court."
A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction this month requiring the Navy to create a
12-nautical-mile, no-sonar zone along the Southern California coast and to post trained lookouts to watch for
marine mammals before and during exercises. Sonar would have to be shut down when mammals were spotted within
2,200 yards, under the order.
The court found that using mid-frequency active sonar violated the Coastal Zone Management Act and Bush exempted
the Navy from a section of that act. Complying with the environmental law would "undermine the Navy's ability to
conduct realistic training exercises that are necessary to ensure the combat effectiveness of carrier and
expeditionary strike groups," Bush said.
...
("Also, by ordering this, I can bug the fucking hell outta the goddam enviro's," Mr. Bush did not say.)
The article gives a good account of what is known about the harm done to some species of whales by sonar. The
matter is not cut-and-dried (forgive the metaphor), and it is possible
(Wikipedia)
that sonar causes whales to become disoriented and beach themselves, causing decompression sickness in the
process. Whale strandings are a phenomenon at least 1000 years old, a fact which suggests various sorts of
disorientation as a cause. Before sonar, whale populations were estimated by the number and size of beachings.
Again from the wiki:
...
Despite the concerns raised about sonar which may invalidate this assumption, this population estimate technique
is still popular today. Researchers in the area (Talpalar & Grossman, 2005) support the view that it is the
combination of the high pressure environment of deep-diving with the disturbing effect of the sonar which causes
decompression sickness and stranding of whales. Thus, an exaggerated startle response occurring during deep
diving may alter orientation cues and produce rapid ascent.
...
(Remember that whales are mammals and air-breathers: they must surface periodically. Even brief periods of
disorientation can be fatal.)
I have three fundamental problems with Bush's order.
One is that it may harm whales needlessly: The resumption of Navy sonar use in areas of heavy concentration of
whale populations could probably be avoided or minimized through some sort of negotiations among interested
(human) parties regarding the frequency and intensity of use of the sonar by the Navy, but Bush's order cuts off
even the opportunity for such negotiations or further research.
Another is the question of whether the Navy or anyone else has a right to induce additional involuntary
suicides in several families within a whole order of large creatures. This is of course a moral question; your
mileage may vary.
And finally, the question most appropriately addressed in the political and legal arena is whether Bush has
the authority as "the Commander guy" to override unilaterally the Coastal Zone Management Act in a matter that
has already been adjudicated. However great his latitude as C-in-C, surely it cannot extend to overruling
statutes for which case law already exists.
There are names for the sorts of government in which the chief executive may do such things. America consciously
rejected such models at its very founding. Count me with the Founders: no absolute monarchs, and no dictators.
We are better than that. Well, I don't know about Mr. Bush...
Steve
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TAKS Rescheduled Around Primary
Via CEWDEM's list, via Kyle Johnston of
Johnston Campaigns,
comes a
document (.pdf) from the
Texas Education Agency News, announcing that the first three days of TAKS tests will be delayed by one day, from
March 4-6 to March 5-7, and the test originally scheduled for Friday March 7 will be held on Monday
March 3. This avoids all conflict with the Texas primary elections on March 4, and thus allows schools to be
used as polling places. At last, someone showed good sense!
Steve
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Crossing That Bridge... If You're Lucky
Following up on the collapse of a bridge on I-35W last summer in Minneapolis, the Federal Highway
Administration
advised the states
to investigate whether existing bridges have the same design flaw:
...
A weakness built into that bridge went undetected for 40 years because it involved a part so basic that highway
departments and bridge contractors seldom considered it even when they reanalyzed a bridge’s capacity, experts
said Tuesday.
As the National Transportation Safety Board announced its findings in the bridge collapse, the highway agency
recommended an analysis of the flawed parts, known as gusset plates, every time major work was done on a bridge.
There are about 12,600 bridges nationwide that could be vulnerable to the kind of design error found in
Minneapolis, although the problem may not exist anywhere else.
...
Um... WTF?
The basics of modern bridge design and construction have been known for a century and a half. Even
I studied them in college, though my field of engineering had nothing to do with bridges. (I was amused by an
analytical approach for trusses called the method of "bars and joints." Even the professor, an elderly German
fellow with a sense of humor as keen as his excellent engineering skills, admitted he found it funny that
engineers were preoccupied with bars and joints.) My point is that while there may be new materials, new
construction techniques and new refinements in designs since my college days, there is practically nothing
fundamental about highway bridge design that has not been known for your entire lifetime, however old you may
be.
The short version of this failure is that the gusset plates (see diagram in the NYT article) were a half inch
thick when they needed to be an inch thick. That sounds not so much like a design flaw as an attempt to build
things on the cheap... hardly a new practice among highway contractors. Or perhaps a bit more inspection on an
ongoing basis would have caught the flaws. If a bridge stands and functions for 40 years and then fails, it
makes no sense to attribute the failure to a design flaw.
Steve
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Sunset From Tranquility Park
Tranquility Park (named of course after the Moon base) is across the street from Houston City Hall (right, with
flag):
The old Julia Ideson Building of the Houston Public Library's main branch is behind some of those trees, one
block past City Hall; I spent many pleasant hours as a kid in that building. The skyscraper in the center
background is the Heritage Plaza (or Texaco Heritage Plaza or Chevron Texaco Heritage Plaza, depending on which
source you read). On the extreme right is a water column in Tranquility Park, one of several that feed a
pair of reflecting pools. Extreme left, about midway down, is a formerly rotating restaurant, Spindletop, atop
the Hyatt Regency Hotel; it's the thing that looks like an old-fashioned hatbox. Decades ago, when it was new,
you could buy a very expensive drink and watch the city go around you slowly (even if the drink was weak).
Today, there is presumably not much view, thanks to the tall buildings now surrounding the hotel.
This was taken last week on a City Hall photo adventure with Stella. It is one of many shots that turned out
decently well. If I have the time and energy later, I'll put up a slideshow.
(Yes, I do have a preoccupation with taking pictures of large buildings. My high school English teacher told the
class that I had an "edifice complex." I had another explanation, but I did not offer it to her.)
Steve
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Selected Links To Recent Posts
Click any permalink below to go to the original article on a previous page.
Click a comment link below to add a comment to the original article.
Your comment will be noticed, by the YDD at least:
HaloScan has a page allowing me to view recent comments, no matter which post they refer to.
Some very recent posts may be included in their entirety.
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Huckabee: Put 'God's Standards' In Constitution
Via
Michael Moore,
we find a
Raw Story
explaining how Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to insert God and religion... Huckabee's, of
course:
The United States Constitution never uses the word "God" or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole
authority from "We the People." However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it's time to put
an end to that.
"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on
Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the
living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than
try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."
...
That's Huckabee, in a nutshell, so to speak. What more could I possibly add to that.
Steve
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Some Primary Polling Locations To Move
If you live in Texas, and if your regular Election Day polling location is a school, it may well be moved.
Tuesday, March 4 is not only the date of the primary; it's also the date of the TAKS test, Texas's entry in the
high-stakes academic testing arena. As no one not directly involved in TAKS is allowed on campus during the
tests, at least some polling locations will be moved. If you live in Harris County as I do, it is just about
certain that many polls will have to be relocated.
My usual sources of such information, the
Harris Votes!
site and
State Rep. Scott Hochberg's
nonofficial site, do not have the information posted yet.
In Harris County, while Election Day locations are frequently moved for one reason or another, early voting
locations are typically stable, though fewer in number and not as close to home. I strongly recommend you
vote early
if you are able: the lines are shorter and the poll workers are just as helpful. Some of you may be
eligible to
vote by mail
in the primary. If so, be sure to apply for a mail ballot by February 26. (Again, thanks to Rep. Hochberg for
the information. Oh, how I wish I still lived in his district!)
I'll post additional info as I find it.
One blogger in Richmond, TX,
Hal of Half Empty,
sees a possible conspiracy to reduce the vote. That may be... or it may be a legitimate screw-up by the
schedulers. I retort, you deride. Here's Hal's take:
...
... Can it really be that this was all a machination to suppress the vote?
By advancing the school calendar statewide, everything gets moved 2 weeks ahead. TAKS testing, normally taking
place in mid-February is moved to March. There was a concerted effort on the part of the Democratic Party to
move Texas’ primary day from March to February last year, but this was met with stiff resistance by Republicans
backed by Lt. Gov. Dewhurst. At the time, the idea among Democrats was to make Texas’ primary more important in
the national context before the presidential nomination had been all but locked up.
...
Voter suppression has become somewhat of an art form among the Republicans. Can it be that one of them saw this
change in the school calendar, and how it would affect the location of polling places? Is this why the
Republicans were so steadfast in their refusal to alter the primary calendar? They knew it would conflict with
the testing calendar if unchanged?
I know this sounds paranoid, but as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said, “Even paranoids have
enemies.”
Hal may be right. I have wondered why the R's exhibited such resistance to moving our primaries to Feb. 5.
Steve
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US In Iraq - Forever?
Steve
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Have A Heart
Steve
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Saturday Signs - Colorful Chilly Child Edition
Steve
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Borris Miles In Trouble?
Steve
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Saturday Signs - Sound Advice Edition
Steve
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Stella's Friday Cat Blogging
Steve
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Close Gitmo Now
Steve
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