While there is no "i" in "team," there is both a "me" and an "i" in "media."

Check out Pink's live version of Dear Mr. President.

Shorty

I just got off the phone with a delightful employee of the Texas Observer. I'm assuming it was Julia, the woman in charge of tomorrow night's panel with David Sirota, Molly Ivins, Robert Bryce and Congressman Lloyd Doggett. She couldn't have been more gracious and helpful had I told her I had Delay indictments that would stick. In the meantime, join me at The Old School on 1604 E. 11th Street in Austin tomorrow night at 6:30 for an incredible discussion. It's cutting into my Young Dems of TX convention kick-off party at Threadgills, but it's Molly Ivins!

HR Wha?

The soldiers of the Fightin' Pink Dome brigade came across THIS resolution that Republicans are trying to sneak past lazy legislators that wont take the time to read through all that bullshit paperwork.

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas Legislature, 3rd Called Session, hereby honor Karl Rove on his roast at the 50th anniversary gala of the Headliners Club and recognize him for the pivotal role he has played in shaping U.S. politics and policies at the opening of the 21st century; and, be it further RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for Mr. Rove as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives.

Texas is so much better than that.

Once an ape, always an ape

From Michael Smerconish’s Duke Rape Case: Revenge of the Nerds on HuffPo today:

I say, it's the revenge of the nerds. Most journalists would never be chosen for a pickup game of hoops, let alone a varsity sport. As a group, they take perverse pleasure in bringing down the BMOC, however undeserved. What went on in Kobe Bryant's case and at LaSalle last year and now at Duke? Those who were never selected for sports are getting their chance to vent at those who did. And they crucify these young men with gleeful speed. While the "victims" are allowed to remain anonymous and are not prosecuted for their tales, the athletes they accuse are not afforded the same treatment. These young men are the real victims, no quotation marks necessary.

Did he really use the Big Man On Campus acronym? Oy. Anyhow, one musn’t forget that Smerconish is a Bill O’Reilly radio and Scarborough Country fill-in host. On the subject of women and higher education, he said "they're not going to be around to instill [moral] lessons in their kids." He also suggested “gathering up” all illegal immigrants at the recent large-scale demonstrations around the country, and he thinks the “war on terror” has been compromised by the “sissification” of America. (All references can be found HERE) I understand Arianna wants the blog portion of HuffPo to be adequately represented by people on all sides of the political spectrum, but Michael Smerconish?! Seriously? In addition to their high-priced lawyers, the Duke lacrosse team now has a grade A wingnut defending their honor. He’s one of many privledged white guys that has written a book on how “political correctness” is destroying America just because he can’t openly be a bigot anymore. His self-serving book will just be another forgettable invective that will end up on the bargain carts of bookstores everywhere. As opposed to celebrating the advances in science/education/literature, a lot of people celebrate athleticism and raise sports heroes up on a false pedestal of adulation, adoration and admiration. Who cares? As a society, we’ve evolved into critically-thinking creatures whose amazing feats of the mind are mentioned in teeny-tiny “factoid” boxes printed on the bottom corners of the local paper. There’s an entire section in virtually all newspapers devoted to play-by-play accounts of local, high school football, basketball and baseball games. It’s time we started demanding there be special sections of our local papers dedicated to all of the nerds actually making a difference in the world, not the untouchable jocks that move balls around a field. And in the NO SHIT department, an editorial in Field & Stream magazine blasts Bush for failing to protect outdoor sports on the nation's public lands.

Electricity

I’ve been to a lot of protests, most of them against the illegal occupation of Iraq. I wont discount the sense of a common bond, but I never felt like part of the majority. A myriad of non-related issues ended up sneaking into the demonstrations: pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-native American, free Mumia, save the West Memphis 3... the list goes on.

The result: a muddled message carried out by thousands of (mainly) white people and off-topic speeches by the very people who bring down the movement with their so-called radicalism. We tend to lose our focus on the left because we care too much. It’s our badge of honor, but also our downfall when it comes to speaking with one, collective voice. Who knew the time would come for a Hispanic civil rights movement? The half-dozen counter-protesters in D.C. didn’t put any kind of dent in the spirit of the demonstration. Watching yesterday’s gatherings in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. I was overcome with emotion seeing the hundreds of thousands of faces that looked like mine, like my family, like the people I grew up with. The overhead shots displayed a sea of mostly Latinos, most wearing white, the dust hovering above them as a result of the bustle from the march. Instead of the “repellant spectacle” described by Brit Hume of FOX News, I saw a gritty, passionate mass of people speaking as one. I really want to know more about the high school kid that sounded like a young Barack Obama. Seriously…who was that guy? Is it too early for me to propose? Today we vote, tomorrow we march is right. Politicians on all sides of the aisle have to realize that Latinos are a voting bloc to be reckoned with on Election Day. On a completely unrelated note, Edinburg's very own self-proclaimed "force to be reckoned with" anonymous blogger chose to publish the names, home addresses, dates of birth and driver's license numbers of 8 people in the comment portion of his/her blog. I'm assuming s/he was trying to make a political point, but, as I replied:

...there's a case to be made of open government versus the privacy of personal information. Access to government records promotes enhanced accountability, but it should be balanced against the government's duty to prevent unprovoked invasions of privacy where such personal information is involved.

I guess stirring up minor controversy in order to promote more traffic to your blog trumps common sense. On another thread, s/he told me to "blog [her] into [my] leftist rhetoric" if I found fault with her posts.

Um...ok.

Auf Weidersehen

*Yawn* In the world of politics, either you're in, or you're out. Tom Delay decided to leave Congress and not seek reelection. As expected, Delay tried to come out of the whole ordeal the better man: the poor, persecuted soul that fell victim to a liberal Democrat ploy to unseat a God-fearing Texas Christian.

"I guarantee you if other offices were under the scrutiny I've been under in the last 10 years, with the Democrat Party announcing that they're going to destroy me, destroy my reputation, and that's how they're going to get rid of me, I guarantee you you're going to find, out of hundreds of people, somebody that's probably done something wrong." "You can't prove to me one thing that I have done for my own personal gain..."

In a move (literally) typical of sleazeball politicians, Tom Delay has found a loophole in Texas election law that would trigger a special election that will most likely replace his seat with yet another rubber-stamp Republican: he's relocating to Virginia. In Texas, a candidate has to lie or move out of state (post-primary) in order to be removed from the ballot. The GOP can offer up another candidate during a special election and more than likely, they'll regain Tom's seat. *Thanks to the bloggers at Burnt Orange Report for their wicked-fast reportage. More Idiocies of the Right Quote of the week:

He's trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team [...] uh, supposedly, you know, raped, some, uh, hos. --Rush Limbaugh March 31, 2006

Oy. Moving on... Stephanie Miller braved the ideological-zombie attacks of Sean Hannity this past Friday. Check it out in its entirety on YouTube. Though her youthful demeanor and voice didn't match her dowdy outfit, she absolutely killed as far as shooting down Hannity's talking-points. There was some other GOP-clone on the show, but I can't remember his name. The highlight of the show came at the end when Stephanie told Sean: You're a big satanic hunk of stud meat. Sadly, I have to agree. I wont try to understand the men I find attractive: Sean Hannity, Chuck Hagel, Young Rummy, Rick Santorum... Unfortunately, none of the sacks of meat on Hannidate don't quite meet my standards...plus they're like totally into death, destruction, line-dancing, and they probably think Ann Coulter is hot. Meanwhile in McCainville John McCain totally switched his position on radical cleric Jerry Falwell. Back in 2000, he said: "Gov. Bush swung far to the right and sought out the base support of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Those aren't the ideas that I think are good for the Republican Party." Yesterday, on Meet the Press, he came to his radical, right-wing senses and stated that he didn't believe Falwell was still an agent of intolerance. People change, see. Here's a smattering of Falwell's oratorical gems courtesy of Positive Atheism:

• The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.-- Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976

• I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!-- Rev. Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved, 1979 pp. 52-53, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

• I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."-- Rev. Jerry Falwell, blaming civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, quoted from John F. Harris, "God Gave U.S. 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says," The Washington Post (September 14, 2001)

• The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior.-- Jerry Falwell, Listen, America!

For now, I'll sit patiently and wait for the great reptilian menace to fall from the sky, signaling the beginning of the end.