Tea Partiers and Republicans have made a run on liquor stores to stock up on gin for the afternoon. News is turning against them.
First, they argued that the Obama administration was crazy to try to save GM. Couldn’t be done, won’t work. Cutting 3 million workers loose in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Texas would help depress the market for migrant fruit pickers in those states, the Republicans argued implicitly — and that would help reduce immigration troubles, which bug Republicans chiefly because it’s a sign of good economic times for working people.
Second, they argued that Obama had effectively nationalized GM and Chrysler. Nationalized companies rarely turn profits (except for tin-pot dictators). The simple reporting of a profit by the company reiterates the point that the GM rescue was not “socialism,” and was no nationalizing of the company. Obama starts to look like a hero, Tea Party dreams start to look like wet tea leaves.
Third, it means Tea Party self-enrollees may actually have to buy American. They had hoped to kill off the U.S. auto industry, so no one would complain when they drove Mercedes, Lexus, and the Kia they bought for their nephew. Now, with Cadillacs, Chryslers and Lincolns still being made, they have no excuse.
Fourth, it means there are three million voters in the American midwest who owe their jobs to Obama. While at least of million of those people may be convinced to buy the Tea Party Home Lobotomy Kit and vote against Democrats in the fall, the odds of even half of that group being suckered in are slight.
Fifth, and most important, GM’s showing a profit pulls the cloak from the platform of the Tea Partiers, and all that’s left is a naked guy with skinny legs and a sore need for a tanning bed and exercise. The Tea Party works on being against stuff. If they had to actually come up with a workable program for anything, they’d quickly be exposed.
So, that gut at the end of the bar finishing the fifth of gin and mumbling a lot? He’s a Tea Partier, praying for Chrysler to crash. Tell the bartender he is picking up your tab.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Jim Stanley.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Linda Chavez-Thompson, the firebrand candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor who has incumbent David Dewhurst so rattled he can’t debate her, was scheduled to introduce President Obama at an appearance in Austin today.
Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Gov. Linda Chavez-Thompson, on the view screen, addressing the Texas Democratic Convention in June - photo by Ed Darrell
Chavez-Thompson might be expected to shake his hand first, but she said no. Let her explain it:
Friends,
As you may already know, President Obama came to Texas today. And no, I didn’t shake his hand.
I walked up straight to him, stared him in the eye, and greeted him with a warm abrazo (hug). Because that’s the way you greet a fellow laborer.
And yes, I consider Barack Obama a laborer. As I told the crowd while introducing the President at the DNC event:
“He’s taken on the economy. He’s taken on health care. He’s taken on Wall Street. And he doesn’t back down.
What he does do, and Texans respect this, is extend his hand across the aisle in a spirit of bi-partisanship. After all, the challenges Americans and Texas families face don ‘t come with a Party label on them.
But when his offer is not reciprocated, he does what any Texan would do. He does the work himself, because at the end of the day the work still has to get done.
There’s nothing brave about ignoring problems. We had eight years of that. Bravery is going out in the hot sun and doing the hard work it takes to make things grow.
And that’s coming from the daughter of a cotton sharecropper, so I know what I’m talking about.”
For too long Rick Perry and David Dewhurst have been ignoring the problems in Texas. Today Texas has the highest share of minimum wage jobs in the country, and even the Texas Association Business has warned that we will not be able to compete for the higher paying jobs because too many students are walking out of high school without a diploma.
I’m traveling across Texas to hold Rick Perry and David Dewhurst accountable. And believe me, this isn’t about politics — it’s a responsibility we all owe to our children and grandchildren.
As I told the President when I welcomed him to Texas, I wasn’t just speaking for myself, but “for the millions of Texans who voices are too seldom heard.”
For Inglis, this is the crux of the dilemma: Republican members of Congress know “deep down” that they need to deliver conservative solutions like his tax swap. Yet, he adds, “We’re being driven as herd by these hot microphones—which are like flame throwers—that are causing people to run with fear and panic, and Republican members of Congress are afraid of being run over by that stampeding crowd.” Inglis says that it’s hard for Republicans in Congress to “summon the courage” to say no to Beck, Limbaugh, and the tea party wing. [emphasis added] “When we start just delivering rhetoric and more misinformation . . . we’re failing the conservative movement,” he says. “We’re failing the country.” Yet, he notes, Boehner and House minority whip Eric Cantor have one primary strategic calculation: Play to the tea party crowd. “It’s a dangerous strategy,” he contends, “to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible.”
Tip of the old scrub brush to Sara Ann Maxwell.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
It’s maybe an apocryphal story. Republicans in Texas hope so.
It was at a very large, mostly African-American church in Dallas. The social action committee, or whatever it’s name is, was meeting. The only white guy in the room was there to try to get them interested in the elections for the members of the Texas State Board of Education. Normally these races are sleepers, down ballot, and off the radars of almost all interest groups. The social action committee was just as tough an audience as any other group with limited resources and limited time to try to get good political action.
Besides, a good chunk of Dallas is represented by Mavis Knight, an African American who is a pillar of common sense on the Texas education board, and Ms. Knight’s seat isn’t being contested in 2010. Why should Dallas voters be interested in any of these races?
“Before we start talking,” the lone white guy said, “I’d like to show you some of what has been going on in the Texas State Board of Education over the last year, in their work to change social studies standards.”
And he showed the video below. The entire committee grew quiet, silent; and then they started to shout at the television image. “What’s that?” “Is he crazy?” “He said white men gave us civil rights?” “HE SAID WHAT?”
A 58-second video clip that could greatly animate electoral politics in Texas. The comments came fast and loud.
“That was part of the debate? What, are they crazy down there? Don’t they know history? Don’t they know the truth? They aren’t going to tell our children that Martin Luther King didn’t work to get civil rights, are they? They aren’t going to say Martin Luther King died, but some white man gave rights to African Americans — are they?”
It’s a video clip that every Republican candidate in Texas hopes will be hidden away. The Democratic tide that has swept Dallas County in two consecutive elections threatens to stop the Republican stranglehold on statewide offices in November, if those who voted in such great numbers in 2008 turn out again.
There are other stakes, too — the Republican stranglehold allowed the state education board to gut science standards, to eliminate Hispanic literature from language arts standards, and to try to change history, to blot out Thurgood Marshall and as much of the civil rights movement as they could hide. So Texas children get a second-rate, incorrect set of standards in social studies, in English, and in science.
Republicans have declared war on good education, war on the children who benefit most from good education.
So, according to Don McLeroy, who lost the primary election to keep his seat, this little piece of history, below, is inaccurate. Tough for McLeroy — the Schoolhouse Rock video sits in too many Texas school libraries. Sometimes, the facts sneak through, defying the best efforts of the Texas State Soviet of Education to snuff out the truth.
But don’t you wonder what every woman, African American, and Hispanic in Texas will think about the importance of the 2010 elections, when they see what Gov. Rick Perry’s appointee to chair the SBOE, thinks about how civil rights were achieved in the U.S.?
Over at Republican headquarters, they hope that story is apocryphal.
Bill White, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Barbara Ann Radnofsky and others are clearly superior candidates running on a real, pro-Texas, pro-business, pro-family platform. Help Texas, help America, help yourself: Support them and give them your votes in November.
Texas Democratic Party platform word cloud
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. I get e-mail from Democrats who think incest and rape victims should be protected:
Angle’s Lemons
Nevada Republican Sharron Angle might want to steer clear of radio talk shows.
Angle – who wants abortion banned under all circumstances – suggested that a 13-year-old girl who was raped by her father should just turn “a lemon situation into lemonade.” This is the same woman who suggested that getting pregnant after a rape just might be “God’s plan.”
This kind of utter disdain for the impact of rape on women’s lives simply can’t be tolerated – especially in the United States Senate.
Texas Democrats convention in Corpus Christi, June 26, 2010 - photo by Ed Darrell - Click picture for a larger view
Even with all the other wonderful distractions at political conventions — speeches, caucuses, t-shirts, posters and bumpersticker sales, great parties, and old friends — people watching is a key activity. Democratic conventions are a lot more fun than Republican conventions, in my opinion, solely for the diversity of people who show up as delegates.
This is a panoramic shot from my seat in the 23rd Senatorial District Delegation, during a break to count delegate votes on some issue in the morning. In the afternoon, Jack’s Lounge (the bright blue room opening in the upper left) filled up with delegates cheering the U.S. against Ghana in the World Cup, and TCU against UCLA in the College World Series. Click the picture for a larger view.
Are you in this picture somewhere?
Texas Democratic Convention, Saturday, July 26, 2010, a shot from the floor - photo by Ed Darrell
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
You have the tools to compare the party platforms and determine for yourself which part supports education in Texas — I mean, really supports education, as opposed to using Doublespeak to profess support while angling to get a shiv in the back of education.
This post is tenth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Democrats recognize and support the essential role of Texas community colleges, where almost 60% of Texas post-secondary students are enrolled. By combining affordability, high quality and responsiveness to community needs, these institutions provide an education to those who would be otherwise excluded.
Republicans have drastically reduced funding for community colleges and that burden has been shifted onto students, their families and property taxpayers. A significant funding increase would be needed just to restore Republican cuts to the 2002-3 state funding level, without adjusting for inflation. Not only do the Governor and Republican politicians again want to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs for employees’ group insurance onto students and local property taxpayers, they have already cut funding by 5% this year. And they are asking for an additional 10% in cuts to Republican budgets that currently allow only 4% of students eligible for Texas Equal Opportunity Grants to receive grants designated for community college students. To maintain community colleges’ role in providing lifelong education, we endorse:
full formula funding of the cost of instruction and of the growth in student enrollments;
fully state-funded full time employee group health insurance and proportional health benefits for adjunct instructors;
funding for new campuses and program expansions, especially in critical need programs, sufficient to meet Closing the Gaps goals;
rolling back tuition and fees that have increased over 50% under Republican control;
sufficient financial aid to cover 260,000 community college students who are eligible for grant assistance but receive none because state funding is inadequate; and
elimination of financial aid rules that penalize students who transfer to universities from community colleges.
To prevent further erosion of community colleges’ ability to serve their communities, Texas Democrats oppose:
proposals for “proportionality” that would shift group insurance costs onto students and property taxpayers;
shifting the basis of formula funding away from actual costs; and
“incentive programs that would discriminate against colleges and programs serving disadvantaged and non-traditional students or against non-degree skill-building and retraining programs.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is second in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
EDUCATION
Texas Democrats strongly support our Constitution’s recognition that a free, quality public education is “essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people.” Texas Democrats believe a world class education system is a moral imperative and an economic necessity that requires parents, educators and community leaders to work together to provide our children the skills needed to compete and succeed in a global economy.
Texas Democrats believe all children should be able to attend a safe, secure school and have access to an exemplary educational program that values and encourages critical thinking and creativity, not the “drill and kill” teach-to-the-test policy Republicans have forced on students and teachers. To fulfill this commitment, Texas Democrats continue leading the fight to improve student achievement, lower dropout rates, and attract and retain well-qualified teachers.
Democrats also believe it is essential that all Texans have access to affordable, quality higher education and career education programs, with a renewed emphasis on the importance of a full four year college education, and particular attention to science, technology and engineering.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Nice drive to Corpus Christi for the Texas Democratic Convention. Long drive. Very long drive. One yearns for the days when flying inside Texas was much more affordable.
Interstate 35 traffic frustrates several million people a day. One cannot drive through Austin without a slowdown at any hour of most business days. Once-clear country roads are congested. Clearly that problem needs some attention.
It’s a stirring and interesting sight that greets you coming into Corpus Christi on I-37. From a distance you’ll see the massive wind farm, huge windmills cranking out electricity, almost a vision of a cleaner future through the haze. Closer into town the windmills can be seen through the industrial maze of oil refineries. It probably can’t be photographed well except from the air, but it’s an interesting juxtaposition of the changes Texas lives through, and the challenges ahead. I was reminded of the “successful labor-management negotiation” workshops:
Hope for the future, a picture of reality . . . now, what are the plans to proceed?
Bill White’s speech pleased the crowd. Not fire and brimstone; enough humor that most delegates smiled all the way through, but full of substantive contrasts between Rick Perry’s policies and those White wishes to pursue instead. Parts of the speech carry the mark of brilliant speech writing, especially in the breezy, pleasant way White paints the policy differences. Here’s the end of the speech:
Rick Perry will claim he represents Texas values. But Perry’s Texas is different than our Texas.
In Rick Perry’s Texas insurance and utility rates rise faster than in other states. In our Texas wages will go up faster because we invest in people.
In Rick Perry’s Texas we import nurses and welders and other skilled workers from abroad. In our Texas we will train more Texans to do those jobs.
In Rick Perry’s Texas the State Board of Education injects political ideology into classrooms. In our Texas we’ll put more computers in our classrooms.
In Rick Perry’s Texas state boards and agencies are pressured from the top to serve those who help the Governor’s re-election. In our Texas government will be the servant, not the master, and our customers will be ordinary Texans.
In Rick Perry’s Texas the governor threatens to leave the world’s greatest country. He is content [to] allow our state to compete with Mississippi for lack of social progress. In our Texas other states will follow Texas because we will be the leader.
In Rick Perry’s Texas citizens are stuck in traffic in big cities because the Texas Department of Transportation was doing the bidding of a foreign company promoting the land grab known as the Trans-Texas Corridor. In our Texas we will work across party lines for a new mobility plan, assisting commuters to get from home to work and all communities to get their goods to market.
In Rick Perry’s Texas the best days may be behind us. In our Texas our best days are ahead of us.
Let us go from this convention, staffing phone banks, knocking on doors, and sending emails. Lift up all who share our values, from the courthouse to the statehouse to the double-wide trailer Andrea and I will live in while the Mansion is rebuilt. Describe to friends and neighbors, from both parties, the simple choice we face in the governor’s race.
Rick Perry is in it for Rick Perry. By the grace of God and with your help, I’m in it for Texas, for you.
Bill White, after his speech at the Texas Democratic Convention - R. G. Ratcliff photo, Houston Chronicle blogs
It was one of the most positive speeches I’ve heard at conventions in a long time — takes me back to Mo Udall at the 1976 National Democratic Convention, or Ted Kennedy’s at the 1980 convention. White came down in favor of education, roads and lower taxes, and good government in general. Cleverly, astoundingly, each of his jabs at Rick Perry was on a substantive, policy issue, and not just a one-liner. No lipstick on pigs, not even a silver foot-in-the-mouth (apologies to Ann Richards, but not to Sarah Palin).
“In delivering one of the most negative speeches by a nominee for Texas governor in modern history, Bill White continues to run a campaign of no substance,” said Perry campaign spokesperson Mark Miner. “Governor Perry’s proven leadership, Texas values, and priorities of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and job creation have made our state the envy of the nation.”
The race is on, and the choices are already very, very clear.
Update:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Utah’s political year can be odd. Among other things, there is an unusual feature to get the nomination of a party. A candidate can win the nomination outright, and avoid the party primary, by taking 72% of the delegates at the state convention. Delegates vote in rounds, eliminated those with the least support, until some magic number of total delegates is divided among the leaders. If the leading candidate gets anything less than 72% in the final round, there is a run-off at the primary election. This way, only two candidates show up on the primary election ballot in September.
The winner of the primary then appears on the ballot in November.
Saturday in Salt Lake City Utah Republicans scanned a list of eight people contesting incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett for his seat. Bob Bennett represented Utah in the U.S. Senate for three terms.
Bennett’s father, Wallace F. Bennett, represented Utah for four terms. Bob Bennett is married to a granddaughter of LDS Church President David O. McKay (LDS call the president of their church “prophet, seer and revelator”). He was president of the University of Utah studentbody in college, and he headed several corporations, including his father’s Bennett Paints, and the probably better known nationally, FranklinQuest manufacturer of organizers and appointment books. Bennett got the 2010 endorsements of the National Rifle Association and popular Mormon politician Mitt Romney.
Mr. Republican, in other words.
Utah Republicans put Bennett third in the final round, Saturday (Salt Lake Tribune story). Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater face off in the primary election. Bennett is out. Bennett was “too liberal.” Bennett was “too Washington.” Bennett was viewed as not tough enough on government spending.
U.S. Sen. Robert F. Bennett and Utah constituent - campaign photo
What can one say about such an event?
Utah Republicans have a long history of nominating cranks and crackpots, and sometimes they get elected. Rarely does the story turn out happily for the state, or the party, though.
Douglas Stringfellow turned out to have made up the stories about his World War II bravery behind enemy lines, and lost his bid for re-election. Enid Greene’s husband was the one with the imaginary biography, but the damage from the revelations ended her career in Congress. Utah Republicans narrowly renominated Sen. Arthur V. Watkins, many Republicans refused to support him and bolted the party for that race, because they disapproved of Watkins’ having chaired the committee that recommended the censure of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. [It appears McCarthy’s history rewriting team got to Sen. Watkins’ biography at Wikipedia. Troubling.] Because of the split, Democrat Frank E. Moss won the seat and held it for three terms.
Lee clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, but based his Utah campaign on a claim the U.S. government is acting unconstitutionally. Bridgewater lifted himself out of his trailer park beginnings to be a consultant on “emerging markets,” and a sometimes education-advisor to Utah Gov. John Huntsman (now U.S. ambassador to China).
What’s that ticking I hear? Do you smell something burning, like a fuse?
Is there a warning siren going off somewhere? 2010 is already a bizarre election year.
_____________
Update, May 9: A source informs me that Mike Lee is Rex Lee’s son — Rex Lee was the founding Dean of the Law School at Brigham Young University, past Solicitor General, and Assistant Attorney General, in charge of the Civil Division. He served nine years as president of Brigham Young University. Rex Lee graduated first in his class at Chicago, and clerked for Justice Byron White. Justice Alito was an assistant to Rex Lee in the Solicitor General’s office, 1981-85.
Setting up the law school at Brigham Young, Rex Lee personally recruited many of the top Mormon graduates from universities around the country, intending to make the first graduating class (1976) at BYU’s law school notable, to build the school’s reputation from the start. Political organizing may run in the family.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
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