Former Rep. Wayne Christian has joined the Railroad commissioner race.
Christian lost his seat to the Joe Straus-backed Chris Paddie in the Republican primary after losing 80% of his district in redistricting. Christian is already generating some grassroots enthusiasm in a crowded Railroad Commissioner field that already includes Malachi Boyuls, who has drawn some heavyweight support himself, and state Rep. Stefani Carter.
Obama’s call for attacking Syria is meeting such heavy opposition that he already has a domestic quagmire on his hands getting it approved. Here’s a mini-roundup of Syria news:
It’s taking a while to get back up to speed after Worldcon, but here’s a little content to prove I’m not dead (just dead tired). And it’s proven a moving target that took longer to put together than I expected
The Hill has an an ongoing whip count on those who oppose or support a strike against Syria. Huffington Post has another count. This is shaping up to be a case of actual Americans on both the left and right opposing Obama’s Big Adventure, while the Permanent Party of Washington Insiders is supporting it.
(if no link from their name, they’re on the Hill or Huff Puff lists)
Republicans
Democrats
Republicans
None.
Democrats
Here’s a list of Texas Republican Congressmen who were listed as undecided in the Huff Puff piece, along with contact info:
Contact information for Texas congressional critters from Dwight’s blog.
So, for those of you playing along on the home game: Both Ted Cruz and Lloyd Doggett oppose attacking Syria. That’s a pretty broad coalition.
Benedikt could lecture you until the cows came home about your moral obligation to public schooling, but you still wouldn’t leave your kids in a school where the teachers were being set on fire.
I’ll be wearing my science fiction hat a lot this week, so expect light posting through Labor Day (and maybe a little beyond).
So instead of Actual Content, I’m going to highlight some new additions to the Blogroll.
First up: Legal Insurrection (or Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, to use the full, “Hell no I’m not going to type that every time” name), which I’ve linked the occasional tidbit from forever, but only just added to the blogroll. Run by Cornell Law Professor William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection covers a wide variety of political topics, legal and otherwise. And he was kind enough to add a link to my post on the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen tag to his own post.
He posts frequently on interesting topics, so go over and take a look when you get a chance.
Here’s Fear previewing Obama’s Big Adventure:
At least that’s what the tea leaves say.
So we’re going to fight a proxy war against a Russian client in Asia. What could possibly go wrong?
Are we now the World’s Policeman again? When did that happen? Was there a memo?
Ted Cruz notes that it’s not in our national interest.
Reason gives us 8 reasons not to bomb Syria.
Even ultra-lefty ex-congressman Dennis Kucinich says that bombing Syria is a bad idea.
And if Syria counterattacks against Israel, well, Isreal is not going to take it lying down.
And Joe Biden calls for impeachement of the President if he attacks without congressional approval.
Stay tuned…
“Ayo Kimathi is an employee at the Department of Homeland Security. His job description? Purchasing ammunition and weapons. He’s also the owner of waronthehorizon.com, a website dedicated to advocating the murder of white people.”
The cherry on top? “He’s also a homophobe.”
This was on a lot of blogs last week, but I’m linking to it now so I can embed this classic SNL video of Garrett Morris singing “I’m Gonna Get Me A Shotgun And Kill All the Whiteys That I See!”, which I think embodies the spirit of Kimathi’s website.
Update: That video appears to be dead, so here’s one of Garrett Morris talking about it that includes just a snippet of it.
Catchy little ditty, isn’t it?
(Hat top: Ace.)
It seems that David Dewhurst’s relative Ellen Bevers was arrested for (allegedly) shoplifting in a Kroger in Allen (a Metroplex suburb between Plano and McKinney). That’s not really news. It’s, at most, 3-line wire service filler everyone forgets about the next day.
It’s what happened next that was news.
Lt. Governor Dewhurst called the Allen police to lean on them to let her out of jail.
And, of course, the call was tape-recorded, and released:
Dew, Dew, Dew: A desire to help a relative out is a laudable impulse, but 800-pound gorillas personally throwing their weight around to intimidate police officers (even in the polite manner Dewhurst did) is an abuse of office and incredibly stupid to boot. This is not the way things are done, and I’m surprised the Lt. Governor of Texas hasn’t managed to figure that out after 68 years.
No, what you do is you make a phone call to the sharpest, best connected lawyer in that neck of the woods, one who probably owes you a favor or two anyway (since you’re the Lt. Freaking Governor), you ask him to take care of it, he calls the appropriate judge (the one he probably plays poker or golf with on alternate weekends), the judge calls the police chief (you know, the one whose wife is on the same charity board as the judge’s wife), the Kroger manager receives a call from his regional supervisor (who really doesn’t want a few store opening schedules to be hit with unforeseen permitting snags), and before you know it, it’s all a big misunderstanding, charges are dropped, and Ms. Beavers walks away with a story tell at her next PTA meeting about that silly mistake where she ended up spending a night in jail.
All clean, all quiet, no headlines, no fingerprints, no one gets their dander up, and a nice little state grant for extra training for the Allen police department shows up in the 2014-2015 budget.
This charging in like a bull elephant to throw his weight around is just pure mule-headed stupidity. (It also displays amazing naivete about how technology works in the 21st century. If you’re Joe Cop and the Lt. Governor calls you, of course you’re going to record the call, if only for your own protection. Hell, it may even be department policy to record all calls.)
Dewhurst should have known better.
Another Friday LinkSwarm on Friday, to make your Friday seem more like Friday:
To improve the socio-economic development of Africa, the continent desperately needs private innovations, empowered by rule of law and an ambience of free enterprise, free of restrictive government regulations.Economic growth and development is indeed a vital ingredient towards achieving prosperity and a free society. However, it takes a spontaneous market driven approach without state interventionist barriers to achieve the noble aim, not foreign aid.