The video below caused a little controversy. Does it really imply that since I posted it I hope that the Dems get in power and tax the shit out of the top 10% income earners? No, it doesn't.
Yes, for the administration to say out loud that we are in a recession is a self-fulfilling prophecy. No, taxing the rich isn't the way to build a strong economy. Yes, the country is in varying stages of denial about the state of the economy. No, I do not think McCain or the GOP are the right people to get us back on track.
OMG! The Republicans won't be good at stimulating the economy?! How could you say that? That's what they do! That's who they are!
Nope. The GOP's domestic policy and attempts to control spending during this administration is an embarrassment. The GOP has become the spend party. The GOP won't raise your taxes, but they'll spend every goddamn dime you've given 'em.
War, war, war. Quite frankly, If I were about to lose my house to foreclosure and lose my job I wouldn't be caring about terrorists or Iraq or genocide in Darfur. I'd be wondering how I was going to get a new job if the economy continues to free fall.
It's the economy, stupid.
McCain's latest speech on the economy was to ask the financial institutions in trouble to help their customers. Gee! Thanks! What a great idea? We're laying off people and our customers can't pay their bills on time, but we'll just let it slide.
I do not believe the government should put in some big bailout plan...for either the financial institutions or for the homeowners. Both were culpable in predatory lending and in stupidity. But, 900,000 foreclosures on the books this year is not good for the whole. That means, the government really does have to do something. What? I don't know. I don't get paid enough to figure that out. Hell, if it were me I'd come up with some Draconian program to require homeowners in foreclosure to pay the government back with their first born child if I were to bail them out. But, I'm a jerk.
Maybe we'll have Hooverville chic before too long.
I don't advocate more taxes, but I will pay my fair share. It's my duty to the country to keep it solvent. I do insist they spend my money wisely, though.
Republicans used to be the party of limited government, rugged individualism and were famous for the saying, "The government is not your daddy. That's the difference between Republicans and Democrats." But, the GOPs fascination with our bedrooms, our homes, and our private lives is now like that annoying OCD friend that you used to could handle but now they get on your nerves.
Rick Perry's latest idea? Fighting obesity! With government money! He wants to put aside $250k to do just that. I'm opposed to obesity, but I'm more opposed to government money going to give money to a magic injection that will reduce fat.
If we are truly going to fight obesity in this country we have to fight root causes...poverty, education, and food alternatives in our school lunch programs. Not lining people up for an injection.
Bad idea, bad politics. It's the same kind of dumb ideas coming from a state government that refuses to get their head out of the sand and deal with the real problems facing Texans every day.Texans deserve better...I'm being generous here...but forcing us to live with the leadership we deserve in this state is getting more and more painful.
That's what one guy said he makes a week in Camden, Alabama. The story on CNN says the people of Camden spend a higher percentage of their income on gas than anywhere else in the country. Apparently, there are few jobs in Camden so people commute 70 or 80 miles to Selma or Montgomery for $7 an hour jobs.
When I read this all I could think of was OMG...are people really that poor? I spend more than $240 a week on champagne.
If my income were that low I think I would seriously consider how much public assistance was because why work if food stamps and welfare could get you to say...$200 a week. You'd almost save money by not working at all. Or, cleaning people's houses or something...
Talk about some abject poverty.
So, after a half-hearted run for president you just go back to acting? Wow...so dedicated to public service it amazes me. Pure selflessness is beautiful, ain't it?
Holy week is a special time. As Lent draws to a close with the celebration of Easter, Christians are ending a time of reflection and entering into a time of celebration. On the third day He rose...
Throughout all the arguing over involving religion together with politics and no matter how angry I get over some of the actions of some Christians, it is my own Faith and my own relationship with my beliefs that make this a special time.
I think if there weren't the perversion of religion in this country by zealots, fanatics, greed-mongers and manipulators of the Holy Text we would be a better people for it.
But not in a good way.
Something is. Police Chief Art Acevedo is having to make statements a lot lately. He's firing folks and disciplining people and coming up with new ways that the citizenry can complain about how they were treated by an officer. Which is great, if that's what we need to do to clean some stuff up, but I think they should let us know what all they think is wrong over there.
In the past few months we've had a police officer in trouble for picking up a hooker, one fired for shooting a suspect. In the back. Twice. Today I read some officer is fired for some sort of vague lesbian comment.
I want to see crime statistics for the past six months. Up or down? The incidence of the S.W.A.T. being deployed in this town is certainly up over last year.
I'm beginning to wonder if the job is too much for Acevedo or is the Austin Police Department just in that big a mess that we are only just now finding out about it?
This clip from SNL is a great example of why fake news works. With something as obvious as the story about Elliot Spitzer, the news should have just done the story this way in the first place.
So that guy said this:
The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating us citizens as less than human.
And everyone on cable is upset, saying it's so mean and untrue and insane.
Um, but the treatment of black people is one of the country’s most shameful legacies, and it continues today. Knowing that is a part of what makes us liberal. We know, or have at least heard, that the CIA assisted in the production and distribution of crack in poor LA neighborhoods to fund the Nicaraguan rebels so they could try and overthrow the Sandinista government. We also know, because it’s in all the papers and by using our eyes, that black men go to prison way more than any other kind of American, and often for nonviolent drug offenses, like the having or using of said crack. We also know that three strikes laws put more people—again, usually the black, male kind -- in prison for those nonviolent crimes. So yeah, God damn any place that treats its citizens like that, like stray dogs if not worse. A lot of people are pissed off about a legacy of shitty treatment. Nothing to denounce here.
What is up with the government spying on Americans? 60% of the illegally obtained phone records and emails by the FBI were of U.S. citizens? Really? It's o.k. to do this whole unreasonable search and seizure? Nobody's going to march in the streets? No furious commentary on the news? No one yelling, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" out of their windows?
My right to privacy is paramount and with all the new technology and me being recorded by cameras even when I'm driving down the road is getting out of hand. When you can't pick your nose at a stoplight without fearing it will one day be on YouTube, we need to rethink some things.
Just so I won't get all pissed off about this, I will wrap this up with a song. Rockwell was a prophet!
We got a press announcement from Rep. Michael McCaul and this was the logo on his letterhead...seriously? A needlework version of the House Of Representatives logo?
Tacky.
I hate when I see a blog trying to decide which is worse: racism or sexism. They are both equally awful; debating the reasons they both suck gets us nowhere. In this vein, Keith Olbermann last night took on Clinton's campaign for not distancing themselves from Ferraro's comments that Obama is lucky to be who he is: a black man in this election season. See what you think:
I had to go to a meeting in Houston the other day and as I was driving down with some people I work with, we got to talking about growing up in the South. We talked about shellin' peas, catfish fishin', going to the swimmin' hole and running around barefoot all summer long. Those really were the good ol' days. Things are different now. I think for the first time I kind of understood why people try to harken back to a simpler time when it was family and Faith. A lot of us do have good memories of those times in our lives.
The trouble is that, in reality, things were tough back then. People were oppressed and poor and inflation was high and things were just as wrong then as they are now. The difference is, we didn't know any better. If we did, we didn't care so much because we had a big loving family and miles of country roads full of blackberries growing along the side and neighbors that would come out and bar-b-que while the kids chased lightning bugs.
Nostalgia isn't a good thing. You can die from it. My memories of any idyllic childhood shaped who I am, but the world has changed...and I've changed along with it. When politicians try to force that nostalgia on me I laugh because I know that things will never be that way again and we have to keep moving forward.
The life we have today is just as good as those summers spent running around grandma's backyard...they're just different. Embracing the change and adapting to it is what makes us a strong country. Not looking back at the past and wistfully remembering things in hopes they could be that simple again.
Once again, Texas is left out of a good sex scandal. The tri-state area governors are monopolizing the good sex stories.The governor of NY was spending thousands of dollars on hookers. Thousands? Really? They must have been lined with gold.
I don't know what it says about your chances to get laid if even the governor of NY has to pay for it. Your tired little job in a junior legislators office surely isn't going to drop any panties.
Yes, it's me, Bluebonnet, back again. - BB
Todd Gallaher, a former staffer for Republican State Sen. Bob Deuell's office, has been accused of impersonating a Democratic lawmaker and a Dallas Morning News reporter. He reportedly sent a mass email from repjuangarcia@hotmail.com (not Juan Garcia's real email address, obvs) with a decade's old photo of a candidate for Aransas County Sheriff showing some, erm, skin before the primary, and then went on to impersonate a reporter for a phone discussion with a California ethics group.
After these accusations came to light, Gallaher resigned. His former boss Deuell says, "Todd made an error in judgment, and I hate it because Todd's judgment is usually very good." That is one ginormous error in judgment.
[DMN]
Ok, you've seen my obsession with hulu.com. They've sent me 10 invites. If you watch TV online and want to experience the greatness of this amazing user experience, high quality video player and long list of shows in their directory, email me and I'll send you an invite to the beta site.
My email is up there in the top right, I think. Pinkdomenews
A friend emailed me and said they were astonished that in a session about the influence of blogs, the speaker mentioned a "political blog in town that used to be known for really bad photoshop'ing of elected officials."
Aww, we remember those halcyon days, too. I had so much more free time to be a raging bitch. Now, I'm just so dang busy.
I'm getting a lot of emails from Dawnna Dukes. It's like she finally realized she better let people know she's around and doing something. Good. I'd hate to only be known as the legislator that supports Tom Craddick and goes to Paris when there's a big vote going on, too.
She has sent scathing letters to the Austin City Council members that have screwed the Villa Muse development. They were pretty well written, if a little long-winded.
This whole Villa Muse things sounds tops, doesn't it? But, I just have a super hard time believing there will really be a $2 billion development out there. I'd have to see some bank statements that showed you had the money in the bank before I voted on anything. Anybody been on Enfield Road lately and seen the abandoned eyesore that was supposed to be the Pleiades condos?
I'm all for development, $2 billion dollar investments and smart growth. What I'm not for is a bunch of half-built buildings all over the DMA because of ambition without funds.
Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern is mindboggling to listen to this ignorance and hate. Nice Christian...stupid as a box of rocks, though.
Seriously? This ignorant, hate-filled language is appalling. I don't even know how to react except to say I condemn her.
The mayor is in the news again. This time for an incident back in 2006. He allegedly shoved some dude or slapped him or something because they guy was making fun of him at a private party. It brings back the recent memory where he blessed out a construction crew for blocking a main artery through downtown and made the construction dude cry like a little baby.
I think that's great. This city has such a wimpy reputation with all the tree huggers and such that we need an asshole around every once in a while. (It's exhausting being the only one!)
I say we have more of these mayoral attacks. I think we should have a city ordinance where he drives around the city and jumps out and starts screaming at people that piss us collectively off. We could invite the entire city to send in emails to a "Get the mayor pissed off" email box and every week he could choose one or two and personally show up and threaten someone or some company or some road crew!
Love it. Make it work.
Ok yeah big primary woo woo.
Word on conservative (and other) news sites is that retiring Senator Chuck Hagel is a possible Secretary of Defense in some future Obamic administration. Sen. Hagel hates three things: the war in Iraq, gay rights and abortions, which makes Secretary of Defense is the perfect job for him. He can push the aspect of his ideology that I like.
He's also a potential running mate for McCain. Hmm.
Picture ripped off of msnbc -- gracias!
Over at ITPT it's been the Clinton blog all the time lately. I wonder if this is what Eileen's got on her iPod all day today.
Senator Clinton put an end to her losing streak last night in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. I'm exhausted. I spent the evening sitting on a sofa with Carole Keeton Strayhorn talking about the contested races and in the difference in the early vote and the votes today.
She said to tell y'all hey.
NBC Reporting Obama and McCain take Vermont. McCain projected in Ohio. Dems too close to call. More later.
Tonight will be super busy for a lot of folks. Not me, though. I'll be in bed by 9. :)
You can get real-time election return results here.
KXAN Austin News will be liveblogging the returns with Carole Keeton Strayhorn. Plus, they have a whole section for updated news, results and races as they are called.
We'll also be popping here with some commentary, cause you know we'll have something to say.
Today is the day! Today is the day! Today is the day!
Like Christmas morn, I sprang out of bed to pick out my voting day outfit. What does one wear to go vote? Not a sweater because my "I voted" sticker won't stay on it for long. Maybe a suit!
All the way down the ballot, today's election is exciting. We'll be up late watching returns and being very critical of what the people have Texas do today.
Some ultra right-wing group is attackig Planned Parenthood with calls asking if they can donate money to abort black babies. (Here's the video). Ok, here's the problem. Planned Parenthood does allow you to earmark your donation to a specific minority group, but the calls are clearly racist because the callers want to make sure there are less black babies. That's where things turn ugly. Some dumbass in Idaho laughed and said, "understandable" and then shit hit the fan.
I have no problem taking money from your racist self. My righteous indignation and your ignorance and racism will be put on a shelf until I get your check. This kind of swallowing of pride and taking the crap you have to take is part of every day life for everybody that has to earn a dollar.
If I let my outrage get in the way of taking a dollar, I'd never have anything!
Ok, can I just say that I'm glad Texas doesn't decide the nominee every four years? I'm so over all of the political ads, the direct mail pieces clogging my mailbox, the bombardment of emails and robo calls are getting on my nerves.
Clinton and Obama are back in town, so be prepared for closed streets and crowds.
SNL is back after the writer's strike, just in time to do what they arguably do best and that's spoofing politics.
Speaker Craddick just bought an office chair for $2,698. That's one expensive office chair? Does it tickle your ass with a feather? I can't tell you the things a chair would have to do in order to justify that kind of price tag.
Maybe it magically makes you feel like less of an asshole than you really are or something. In that case, I should buy two.
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