Soy Blue

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Is this too much to ask for Santa?

I'm out of here until Jan. 2 so try spending time with your family and friends and catch up with them, find out what's been going on with them, and for God's sake don't talk politics. 

I'll try to blog but Internet is hard to come by when you're in a deer blind in the brush country of South Texas and speaking of deer blind this cartoon is my Holiday Greeting to you, my three readers.

If you know me it explains a lot, no?

Have a Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Happy Holiday Season!

Hat tip to the Taos Blog for the Time pic.

Definition of Irony...

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know."

-- Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), on the House floor, November 16, 1995.

With news of DeLay's (R-TX) luxurious lifestyle making the rounds, this ten year old quote takes on new importance.

Governor Richardson at 64%

I'd just like to point out that according SUSA Governor Richardson earned a 64% approval from New Mexico voters.  In a poll sponsored by KOB-TV December 13, 2005.  Here's the breakdown by some of the categories go check out the rest on your own.

Approval By category:

Pro Lifers 55% Approval
Attend Church Regularly 59%

By Ideology:
Conservative 51%
Moderate 69%
Liberal 77%

Finally go check out this great commentary by Kristen Davenport, she happens to think that Governor Richardson is good for the state.

Commentary: So Richardson likes to hobnob - that's good for the state

By Kristen Davenport
Tribune Commentary
December 21, 2005

Just when you think they're going to let the airplane thing go, the media come out with another headline. "Governor takes a liking to State Police copter," the Associated Press reported last week, in a supposedly investigative report accusing Gov. Bill Richardson of taking the state cops' copter to various events.

So the airplane problem got boring, and reporters decided to look at the helicopter records, too?

Just as with the dozen stories detailing Richardson's trips in the state airplane, I say, "So what?" This is another non-scandal pumped up by front-page placement into a legitimate issue. You'd think the political reporters were in the pocket of the feisty New Mexico Republican Party.

It's been nearly a year now since the Republicans consciously decided to attempt to tarnish Richardson's reputation by portraying him as a party-hopping, cigar-smoking, airplane-riding entertainer with his own makeup artist.

Most of the advertisements, however, focused on the only facts the Republicans could get their hands on: Richardson uses his airplane way more than other governors. Somehow we're supposed to discern for ourselves, from the airplane statistics, that the guy is a scandalous drain on the taxpayer dollar - which is baloney.

The truth of the matter is that Richardson does, indeed, use the state airplane quite a bit. And, it appears, Richardson uses the State Police helicopter quite often - although it might help to define "often." It appears Richardson was in the helicopter on 40 of the copter's 291 trips during a two-year period.

Richardson shrugs it off, saying he uses the plane to "maximize (his) use of time." Guess what? This is an entirely legitimate response. Not only that, but it's true.

Lucky for Richardson, if polls are any real indication, the public hasn't been much influenced by all the "airplane scandal" stories. If New Mexicans had wanted a governor who stayed put in the Governor's Mansion and spent his days reading up on policy issues in a quiet library somewhere - like, say, Ralph Nader - they surely wouldn't have elected Richardson.

It was well known from the beginning that Richardson was a politician who liked to jet around the world. As former U.N. ambassador and secretary of energy, he regularly traveled overseas and hobnobbed with VIPs. Richardson takes on big tasks - chairman of this, president of that, keynote speaker here, professor emeritus there - and such work does require him to actually leave the Governor's Mansion.

Before you deride Richardson for being an "entertainer" and ridicule him for his fancy suits, let's note that all politicians are increasingly like entertainers these days. In some sense, Richardson's flair for entertainment is good for New Mexico, because it gets New Mexico out there in the public eye. It brings in business and industry.

Yes, of course, it puts Richardson in the public eye, too - which is what Richardson wants, for purposes of his own career and presidential aspirations.

But having a president from New Mexico wouldn't be a bad thing for the people of New Mexico, folks. What would we rather have - a president from Texas? Yuck!

Davenport is a syndicated columnist. She lives in Truchas. Copyright 2005, New Mexico News Services.

THE SYSTEM STILL WORKS

ABC News is reporting:

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES "INTELLIGENT DESIGN" CANNOT BE TAUGHT IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL BIOLOGY CLASS

HARRISBURG, Pa. Dec 20, 2005 — A federal judge has ruled "intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.

The Dover Area School Board violated the Constitution when it ordered that its biology curriculum must include "intelligent design," the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled Tuesday.

Wow, this is huge and it didn't even come from the 9th Circuit Court in   Judge Jones ruled in his opinion:

"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy," Jones wrote. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

Religious people lie?  I'm shocked!  Shocked I tell you!  You might remember a little something about the City of Dover during this most recent election cycle.

All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated after trying to introduce "intelligent design."  Pat Robertson had this to say

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,"

Yep, I'm sure that's exactly what Jesus what have said.  I will smite down your city for exercising your right to vote.  Sounds alot like something the Ayatollah Khomeini would have said or done.

Remember the Ayatollah Khomeini?  He rose to prominence in 1962 when  the monarch of Iran, the Shah, passed a bill that allowed municipal officials in the country to take their oaths of office on whatever holy scripture they preferred.

Pretty radical que no?  The move offended Khomeini and other Islamic fundamentalists, who considered the Koran to be the only appropriate swearing mechanism.

It was akin to how American fundamentalists (PAT ROBERTSON) react at the prospect of taking the words "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, only with more rage and less televangelizing.

Ultimately, The order was rescinded, and Khomeini was a force to be reckoned with. The fallout from the swearing issue led to widespread unrest, as the secular monarchy struggled to contain the strong fundamentalist population.

You see intelligent design is not a science, it's creationism, and that amounts to an establishment of religion.  The courts have already ruled that creationism cannot be taught in schools so this was  a backdoor  attempt  to introduce it in  schools.

Rio Rancho you better be paying attention.

It has nothing to do with teaching the word of God or how Jesus lived his life, nor should it be done in public schools, but it had everything to do with polarizing and indoctrinating unsuspecting students from one another.

Look at the made up "War on Christmas."  No one declared war on Christmas except for the Republican Noise Machine.  There are kids  w/o enough to eat, parent struggling to pay the heating bills or buy Christmas gifts, and homeless people all over Albuquerque trying to stay warm and get something to eat, and the RNM  thinks that their made up  "War on Christmas" is what deserves attention

The Republican Noise Machine is the ultimate Harvester of Sorrow and only wants to sow the seeds of hate, distrust, and division on this the most joyous of holiday seasons.  Don't buy the hype people. 

Have a Merry Christmas!

Jib Jab's Year End Roundup

The folks at Jib Jab have released their year-in-review cartoon: LINK

The Iraqi Elections

Designing an exit poll questionnaire when there are 7,000 candidates on the ballot isn't effortless. And let's just say that in Iraq, the issues matrix is sort of complex too.

The days best stories on what Iraq means for President Bush and American politics as per the Note

1. In his must-read analysis, David Sanger of the New York Times concludes thusly: ". . . over the next year the American ability to shape the Iraqi battleground will gradually decline." LINK

"If it declines because a new Iraqi government - even a factious, argumentative one - takes shape, the president will be able to declare before the midterm elections that the great gamble of his presidency has paid off, and troops may begin to come home."

"If it declines because the country spins out of control, because terror groups and insurgents still roam, because holding elections turned out to be easier than forging compromises, then Mr. Bush could be back doing next year what he has done over the past two weeks: explaining what went wrong, and why invading the country turned out to be a lot easier than remaking it."

2. A front-page Wall Street Journal story brilliantly decodes the White House's good cop/bad cop Iraq political strategy. (Sorry, no link available.)

3. Susan Page of USA Today takes a look at the public's attitude about the war following other significant events in Iraq and concluded that the President has a lot riding on today's elections. LINK

4. The Washington Post's Peter Baker on what President Bush hasn't answered: "Will U.S. soldiers withdraw from Iraq only after the insurgency has been vanquished? Or will they withdraw when Iraqi security forces become adequately trained to take over the battle themselves? Or somewhere in between?" LINK

Be sure to also check out the following stories:

The New Republic's end-of-the-year issue offers a biting look at GOP DC. LINK

The New York Times' Philip Shenon reports of an email sent by Jack Abramoff to the Tigua Indian tribe of El Paso urging them to send a contribution of $25,000 for the 2002 President's Dinner. In the email Abramoff indicated his urging was due to a phone call his office received from Rep. Tom DeLay inquiring about the money. DeLay's lawyer denies such a phone call was made. And be sure to Note the separate email from inside Abramoff's office — indicating Abramoff had significantly altered the original email his assistant sent to him on the matter before forwarding it on to the Tigua tribe. LINK

John DiStaso writes in his Granite Status column in the Union Leader that the Democratic National Committee commission's recommendation to insert caucuses between Iowa's first and New Hampshire's first primary goes now to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee. LINK

George F. Will columnizes that for some opponents of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, environmentalism is really "just collectivism in drag." LINK

An Interview with Michael Schiavo

Be sure to check out Matt Stoller's interview with the husband of Terri Schiavo and TerriPAC founder Michael Schavio.

Michael Schiavo just started a PAC called TerriPAC  to hold politicians accountable for putting "their own political agenda ahead of our basic rights."  Michael is a former lifelong Republican.

Matt Stoller: Michael, a lot of us were horrified watching the intrusion of the government into the private life of your family.  At what point in your 15 year journey did politicians begin to see political advantage in intervening in your family's private and painful lives?

Michael Schiavo: The political circus officially began in 2003 when Governor Bush got together with some legislators and decided their political needs should overrule my private family decisions and the decisions of Florida courts.

The politics became national when their efforts in Florida didn't work.

New Hampshire's Infuence may be reduced

"A Democratic commission took the first step toward dramatically revising their nomination calender today, voting to recommend that the party add caucuses before New Hampshire's primary and suggesting that more be scheduled the week after," Hotline On Call reports.

"Iowa's first in the nation caucus status survived, and its committee representatives declared victory. But New Hampshire's worst fears were realized. The state still gets to hold the nation's first primary, but if the new calendar survives a vote of the rules and bylaws committee and the full DNC, its influence will almost certainly decline."

Earlier, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) talked about why his state was successful in keeping its influence: "There are two ways to operate this process. You can be public about it and you can be very private about it."

Pero $100 billion para el Guerra no es nada

That's the War in Iraq (El Guerra)  not me.  This from Think Progress:

On September 15, President Bush stood in Jackson Square in New Orleans and made a promise:

And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Here’s Washington Post reporter Mike Allen today on Meet the Press:

I’m going to tell you something to amaze you; it amazed me yesterday. The last time the president was in the hurricane region was October 11, two months ago. The president stood in New Orleans and said it was going to be one of the largest reconstruction efforts in the history of the world. You go to the White house home page, there’s Barney camp, there’s Social Security, there’s Renewing Iraq. Where’s renewing New Orleans? A presidential advisor told me that issue has fallen so far off the radar screen, you can’t find it.

The New York Times says the neglect is threatening the future of the city:

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.

Why does this president seem more interested in rebuilding Iraq than rebuilding America?

Update

There will be a rally of New Orleanians & friends in
D.C. on December 14 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in
Lafayette Park, across from the White House.  The goal
is to call attention to the inadequacy of federal
commitments to rebuild.

• Supported       by the office of Senator Mary Landrieu
        A       Blue Print to Rebuilding
• Supported by       Congressman Charlie Melancon       
• Louisiana's       Congressional Delegation

      

 

The Snitch who Stole Christmas

A snitchfest appears to be on the brink of breaking out in the Abramoff melee.  The DCCC has the scoop...

Abramoff will have to implicate a high-ranking political figure to win any significant reduction in a potential prison sentence, former prosecutors said.

and  in Texas Judge Priest has told Rep. DeLay that his legal case won't be heard until after Christmas at the earliest. LINK

I hope Santa's checking his list to see who's been naught and nice.