Soy Blue

Roll Call's Stu Rothenberg picks his "10 most endangered Hous incumbents,"
nine of whom are GOPers:

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH),
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX),
Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN),
Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA),
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT),
Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM),
Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT),
Rep. Mike Sodrel (R-IN),
Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL), 
Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL).

Best of the blogs y Feliz Dia de San Valentin

There's a bunch of really great stuff out in the blogs today and since I'm swamped i thought you should check some out.

Primeramente con La Queen Sucia and her Heather sighting at a local Starbucks where Heather was interviewing prospective job applicants.  From her blog...

Woman is saying, "I'm really proud of my ability to talk to any realm of people, from the very illiterate to the other end of the spectrum."

Very illiterate? Can you be just a little illiterate?

Quidate mujer, I think that might be considered domestic spying.

And finally you have to check out one of my favorite Tejano Blogs. Rio Grande Valley Politics,  and their version of Janie's got a gun.

Cheney's Got a Gun

Dum, dum, dum, Dick what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound of my gun
Dum, dum, dum, Dick what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound, it's the sound...

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
Thought he was in Vietnam
Now everybody is on the run
But he got 5 deferments from war
others died in his place, what a whore

Go and read the rest here LINK

By the way, RGVP has the best tag line of any blog that I've ever seen:

If a politico tells you a lie, it's only because he thinks he's telling the truth.

So how was your weekend?

 

http://www.cafepress.com/lousycheney

UPDATE:

God there is no law republicans are willing to break.

      

        Cheney Was Hunting Illegally When Accident Occurred             

            

Thanks to a law introduced by State Rep. Charlie Geren (R) and passed last year, hunters in Texas are required to have an Upland Game Bird Stamp before hunting quail. According to the official accident report released this afternoon, Cheney didn’t have it:

In addition to the document’s release, wildlife officials reported today that while Cheney had purchased a valid non-resident hunting license, he did not obtain a required “upland game bird stamp.”

In other words, Cheney was hunting illegally. Here’s Sec. 43.652 of the law:

(a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not hunt a migratory or upland game bird in this state unless the person possesses the appropriate migratory or upland game bird stamp, as applicable, issued to the person by the department

Breaking the law constitutes a Class C violation of Texas Parks and Wildlife Code, meaning Cheney could:

* be fined $25-$500
* face automatic suspension or revocation of licenses for up to 5 years;
* forfeit hunting gear, including firearms, used to commit a violation.

But Cheney is getting off easy. Texas officials have issued him a warning citation, which carries no fine or penalty.

                         

This is jut wrong

Study links tortillas, birth defects
     February 12,2006
              Melissa McEver
                  The Monitor                 

  

Corn-based bread may have had hand in local ’90s epidemic

 

Corn tortillas, that mainstay of many a Rio Grande Valley resident’s diet, may have contributed to an epidemic of severe birth defects in the area about 15 years ago, a recent report suggests.

 

States name's that begin with "New" lead the Nation in reform

First it was New Mexico that lead the nation in proposing universal paper ballots in all of New Mexico counties to help restore the integrity of elections in New Mexico and now it looks like New Jersey is on the same course.

And in case you didn't read Duke City Fix's "There's Something About Mary" post please do so but only after you read Juan Meli's post below.

                           

Via Blue Jersey
An appeals court in NJ has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the accuracy of electronic voting machines in the state. It's the first successful lawsuit in the nation against electronic voting machines. If the trial court agrees, the state will have to scrap all of them.

NJ Appeals Court Rules Against Electronic Voting Machines

A suit filed in 2004 on behalf of Assemblyman Reed Gusciora by the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers School of Law-Newark challenging the accuracy of New Jersey's electronic voting machines was initially dismissed by the trial court. Today, the Appellate Division agreed with the plaintiffs, and has reinstated the case.

    The lawsuit is the first in the nation to successfully challenge electronic voting machines..."Despite clear evidence that New Jersey’s voting machines are insecure, the other branches of government failed to take appropriate action. That is why the Court stepped in,” [lead counsel Penny] Venetis added.

    The same voting machines used by almost all of New Jersey’s five million registered voters have been found too insecure to use and have been de-commissioned by California, Ohio, Nevada, and New York City. New Jersey does not check the software of electronic voting machines to determine whether they have been tampered with or whether they are faulty.

Nearly every voting machine in the state is electronic, but none of them provide a voter-verifiable paper trail. If the courts agree that rights are being violated and that the integrity of the election cannot be guaranteed by these machines, then by law, the machines must be scrapped.

Although a bill was passed last year calling for a voter-verified paper trail on electronic machines, the leadership in the legislature demanded that the bill be modified to go into effect in 2008, because the state didn't have the money to fix or retrofit them. Not only that, but they also snuck in a loophole to completely get around the 2008 deadline. The Appeals Court's decision seemed to be influenced by these provisions in the bill:

    The Court was concerned with protecting the hundreds of millions of votes that would be cast on voting machines between now and 2008. The Court also expressed its concern that the Attorney General’s office would use a loophole in the statute and issue waivers to the 2008 voter verified paper ballot requirement – further jeopardizing the franchise.

Juan Meli writes:

It seems like the state (New Jersey) has been strong-arming the counties into buying electronic machines only from Sequoia Voting Systems (someone up high must be good friends with the Sequoia folk).

This despite the fact that the company has repeatedly failed to live up to its promises of providing a paper trail retrofit option for the machines, while other companies already provide such an option.

After all these years of stalling, looking the other way and insisting on these flawed machines, the state may soon be faced with the horror of scrapping all of them. It's hard to feel sorry for that kind of incompetence.

I wonder if a certain free market,  conservative,  New Mexican blogger will dare to rebut on this essay via Political Wire?

Guest contributor Robert Reich says President Bush's latest budget isn't going to help improve American competitiveness.

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned capitalism? Take a look at the President's proposed budget unveiled this week and you find more government planning of the private sector than anyone has seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

For example, buried in the hefty boost for the Energy Department's office of science is an increase in government-supported research on nuclear power, totaling $250 million. Why does the nuclear power industry need $250 million next year? I thought capitalism was about companies investing money on their own if they think something is likely to be profitable.

Nuclear power doesn't suffer from a lack of research. The industry's problem is it's not profitable. Why not? Blame Homer Simpson. Homer, in case you didn't know, has a job at a nuclear power plant. He and his colleagues are not exactly careful with the plutonium they use. The reason Americans find Homer Simpson funny is because Americans don't trust the nuclear power industry. $250 million of tax-supported research isn't going to change that any time soon.

Meanwhile, the President wants to cut research on alternative energies like geothermal and hydro-power. But he also wants to put $150 million into making ethanol from switch grass and wood chips. Whats the logic here? The federal government has no more expertise picking industrial winners and losers than I do. I don't have much, but I wouldn't bet $150 million on switch grass and wood chips.

The proposed budget also includes a record $6 billion for basic research in the physical sciences. The President says we need this in order to "keep America competitive." But why are the physical sciences more important to the nation's competitiveness than, say, the biological sciences? The biological sciences won't get a penny more in the President's budget. Yet last time I looked, bio-technology seemed quite promising.

Besides, if the physical sciences are so crucial to our competitiveness, why can't we rely on American companies to make these investments?

Government has an important role subsidizing research that no individual company will do because the fruits of it are so basic it's instantly available to every company. But that kind of research won't help "American competitiveness" because in this age of instant communications, the whole world has access to it.

Most big American companies these days are global anyway. They're developing products all over the planet. Microsoft and dozens of other American high-tech firms have research facilities in places like Bangalore, India. Meanwhile, foreign-based firms have research labs in places like Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Palo Alto, California. It's simply wrong to claim that by subsidizing basic research in America we're somehow improving "American competitiveness."

The competitiveness of this nation depends on the education and skills of our people. In this global economy, the only asset that's unique to America is whats in the heads of Americans. Yet the President's budget contains the largest cuts in federal spending on education in more than a decade. If this is national planning, it's the dumbest plan I've ever come across.

-- Robert B. Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration, is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

Too Little... Too Late

Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), who chairs the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, broke ranks with the President and said that she has “serious concerns” about Bush’s domestic spying program, according to the New York Times.

“By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why…Wilson called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program.”

So this raises at least 3 questions in my mind:

1.  Where was she on the Patriot Act after she assured Americans that they need not fear the law, since it is only directed against foreigners and because law enforcement needs "a court order in order to get any business records or library records or anything else."

2.  When did Heather Wilson first have information that the bush White House was spying on Americans and why is she only now breaking with her president and party?

3.  When did she know that John Blolton was spying on Governor Richardson and former Secretary of State Colin Powell?

 

Freedom is not free for the taking and Heather know's that this happened under watch as she serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Chairs its Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence. 

Wilson's Subcommittee has responsibility for all technical intelligence disciplines, including signals intelligence, imaging intelligence, technical support to operations, and research and development.

 

Por Mis Banderas

       Mr. Garza first switched the flags placing the Mexican flag on top in        late 2004 to protest the war in Iraq.    

    

"I was upset at the lies," he said. "We've got all these young kids over there dying and for what ... nothing."

Speaking truth to power, and without fear

Before the Swift Boating of  the Rev. Lowery and Coretta Scott Kings' legacy began I'd already predicted it (between friends) shortly thereafter Rev. Lowery's eulogy.   

I wasn't surprised at all when it actually began but it's sadly ironic it's white men and women of the republican party lecturing black leaders to mind their place.    First came the Drudge Report and then this trackback on Soy Blue.

I knew it.  I knew that it was just a matter of time before the Republican Noise Machine attempted to smear and distort Coretta Scott King's legacy to America and  the Civil Rights Movement much in the same way that Sen. Paul Wellstone's memorial service and legacy were smeared by the RNM but then I read something that Dr. Martin Luther King said that put the eulogy of Mrs. King into perspective for me:

...And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.

And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history.

Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

Amen and how very, very true in today's times.    

The fact is is that when people -not just black people- voice an opinion that is contrarian to the status quo (republican controlled goverment and media) they get marginalized with republican  manufactured outrage. 

I guess it's tough when bush doesn't have his hand picked crowds but I digress...yet no one is challenging the Rev. Lowery.

I was really struggling to think of a way to close but then I received an email from my friend,  Glenn Smith in Texas and he artiuclated how I felt.  I'll share it with you here.

Lowery is right. So is Carter. So was was MLK when he angered many in  the movement and almost everyone outside the movement -- especially 
Democratic strategists -- by opposing Vietnam. Lowery picked a perfect moment. The perp was in the pew. You might say.

If the Right wants to argue funereal etiquette versus the systematic  social and economic racism and economic injustice the GOP has used to dominate the South and with it the national political agenda, bring it F 'in on.

 

AMEN!!

Speaking before four presidents, including President George W. Bush, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery received a standing ovation today at the Coretta Scott King funeral. Watch it:

We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.